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May 27

domain name hijacked

Today I started receiving numerous e-mail bouncebacks from e-mails sent using my personal domain name, let's call it halcatalyst.com (non-existent). Evidently some spammer got access to it. I've notified the service through which I acquired the domain. Is there anything else I can do to stop it or at least protect the reputation of the domain name? Thanks, --Halcatalyst 00:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

You might want to get actually start using the domain.:D.Anyways, try and find the spammer/hacker's IP and use a block system (probably ineffective). Another way you might go is to overlay some server security sofware. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 01:13, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

There's no hacker. It is just a spammer. Spemmers don't use their own domain names when sending spam (obviously). So, the just pick a few thousand at random and cycle through those. What can you do? You can look at the bounced emails, find the site that they are trying to sell stuff through, buy something so they have to charge your credit card, refute the charge so your bank tells you who charged you, get the company information from there (most likely a foreign company), try to find out who owns that company, hire an inspector to find the home (or family) of that person, then fly there and kill them. Sure, you'll go to prison for life (which may be very short after getting murder charges in many countries), but we'll have one less spammer to worry about. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:17, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Sounds fair to me. Except for the prison part, of course. I've always wondered if spammers could be charged with under harrassment laws. If I sent the URLs of porn websites to a hundred thousand people per day after being told to stop, I'd expect to be locked away. Howard Train 05:15, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I'm pretty sure those bounce-backs use the "From" field, which is easily forged. The spammer might not have access to it at all. --AySz88^-^ 15:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

That's what happened. The spammer used my domain name with random fake names in front of the @. The domain is set up so that anything @domainname comes to me. So I get the bouncebacks instead of the spammer.

Next question: who gets the bad rap? My domain name or the server the spam is sent from? --Halcatalyst 21:40, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

What sort of bad rap do you mean? If someone sends e-mail pretending to be someone else it can of course harm the reputation of the person being impersonated; the same can extend to entire domains. While savvy users understand about faking, enough will be taken in. The worst case is where a spammer sends millions of e-mails using your address as the sender. There will be hundreds of thousands of replies, enough to snarl up your e-mail system for a long time to come. Notinasnaid 09:16, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

• One of the failed delivery notifications included this information about the message sent: Received: from unknown [71.225.167.171] (HELO mydomainname.com). Is this the spammer's server? Is there a way I can look up the owner of the server? --Halcatalyst 18:09, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Not really, and it's not worth pursuing. As someone probably already told you, many spambots forge email headers, often trying to make the "From" line appear to come from the same domain as the "To" line. You should look into spam blocking and consider this kind of thing to be spam. ---CH 05:52, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Sibelius scorewriter software problems

Midi playback won't work on Sibelius (it used to). Everything else seems fine. I haven't made any modifications to the midi driver or anything like so. Suggestions? (help system, tech support used) --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 01:13, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Big face, I forgot what it is called. When you first started Sibelius, you got a screen that asked you what MIDI thing you wanted to use. Change it if the sample doesn't play. For me only the Windows one worked. Kontact player is better though I think. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 02:46, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I use the Windows one, and it used to work. More Suggestions? (BTW, Thank You :))--hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 02:51, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

What speakers does the playback play to? I've worked with Sibelius on three windows computers, and have had a perhaps related problem before, and I seem to only be able to use the computer-integrated speaker in the back of the box, instead of the connected MIDI keyboard's speakers on all three. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 06:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

You need to do some diagnostics. Are you able to play midi files using other software, such as the windows media player? If yes, the problem is related to settings within Sibelius, if no, there is either something wrong with the windows settings (midi volume turned up?), a driver problem, or a hardware problem. --vibo56 10:54, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Name of area between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario?

What is the political, geological and any other name for the land area that separates Lake Erie from Lake Ontario? ...IMHO (Talk) 02:56, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

The Niagara River connects the two lakes, not a land area. However, there are two rather prominent islands in the river, Grand and Goat. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Great Lakes: System Profile

File:Great Dam.PNG

The Great Dam

The land area between the two lakes is nothing less than a Great Dam which Canada has failed to develop to its full electric power generating potential and thereby eliminate the long term energy crisis for the greater public good. The United States should therefore apply its world wide view of Immanent Domain to this region, invade Canada, confiscate the land and end the long term energy crisis! ...IMHO (Talk) 04:36, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh dear, This guy better not be remotley serious in any way whatsoever regarding the motives or the action or the sincerity of what he just said. Either he's making a very subtle yet synical dig at americas foreign policy in proposing they invade canada, destroy the niagra falls for financial gain, and playing on americas percieved 'blame canada' atitude. Or if not.... just oh dear.... --Philc _T^E_C^I 14:45, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Now don't get your bloomers all up in an uproar. This "guy" happens to know that Americans have no interest in the area West of an imaginary straight line drawn between Hamilton and Port Dover. ...IMHO (Talk) 03:25, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I believe the potential energy is used rather effectively, given the constraints of not wanting to drain Lake Erie (which would cause massive transportation and water supply problems) and not wanting to completely shut off Niagara Falls (which would cause loss of tourism dollars). We have the ability to completely divert the entire flow over the Falls to hydroeletric generators, but rarely use this ability, as it makes the Falls rather ugly. StuRat 15:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Drain Lake Erie??? And exactly what rate of flow do you compute that would make this happen? ...IMHO (Talk) 03:25, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

They wouldn't have to drain it much to cause water supply and transportation problems, and over the course of years it wouldn't take that much of a flow rate (when compared to the flow rate needed to supply all of the power needs of the Eastern US and Canada) to reach that level. StuRat 14:34, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Hey, I'm in that business. There is a very nice treaty that regulates how much water can be used by both countries. If they turned on all the available taps, there would be no water over Niagara Falls, very bad for the honeymoon business. As it is, they wait until all the newlyweds attack each other in their beds, and then turn on the taps. This fills up a giant reservoir at night. There is actually some water that is not being used, because many old plants have fallen into the river, or have been squeezed out by the rock. That is why they are now making a second tunnel on the Canadian side, to suck out more water. --Zeizmic 00:09, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm having trouble keeping up with who's actually being serious and who's just being an ass with a lame sense of humour. In any case, for any of you worried about the Americans "invading" Canada, just think of the consequences. The American administration can't even invade a country run by a brutal dictator who massacres his own people and those of his neighbours in completely unprovoked acts of aggression (estimates range between 500,000 and 2 milion dead during the "Saddam Years"), without being criticized as being "warmongers" waging an "illegal" war (whatever the hell that means). In any case, my point is that, hypothetically, if the American's decided to invade a placid, docile (overly docile in my opinion), peace loving nation like Canada, the political furor in the US would be unprecedented, leading to political upheaval the likes of which the US has never seen, and, dare I say, the likes of which would cause a near revolution among the American populace. Just think of the massive protests resulting from America's decision to attempt to stave off the spread of communism half a world away in Vietnam. Invade Canada? The resultant political upheaval could and likely would spell the end of the United States as we know it (and I'm not exaggerating here).Loomis51 01:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It's just a joke. StuRat 21:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

On another topic brought up: Since Lake Erie is located upstream from Lake Ontario (via the Niagara River), wouldn't the damming of that river, to the extent that it would hypothetically drain one of the two lakes, drain Lake Ontario and not Lake Erie? If anything, wouldn't the dam actually cause the water level of Lake Erie (as well as possibly the other three Great Lakes, all even further upstream) to rise rather than fall? Loomis51 11:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It's true that a hydroelectric generator usually requires a difference in water table heights, and where none is present initially (or a very slight difference), damming a river is one way the achieve this difference. However, as a rather substantial difference in water levels already exists between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, it's not necessary to dam the Niagara river, unless the dam is just used to redirect the water from the Falls to the generators. In this case, the typical goal would be to keep the total average flow rate about the same as it is naturally, in order to prevent drastic changes in water level in either lake, which, as discussed previously, would be disastrous. StuRat 21:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

But Stu, I am right, am I not, that if any lake were to be "drained", even ever so slightly, it would be Lake Ontario, not Lake Erie? And how do you know the above nonsense was a joke? I know it sounds like a joke, but I've heard more absurd comments. Did you make that post? Loomis51 23:59, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

A dam alone would only reduce the flow rate, and so cause Lake Erie to enlarge and Lake Ontario to shrink, yes. However, putting in a dam alone would be rather foolish, and they would likely also cut a deeper and/or wider channel than the Niagara River, and put generators on the channel (I believe much of this has already been done). This would increase the flow rate from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and would (if the increased flow rate was sufficient) drain Lake Erie over time. The increased water in Lake Ontario might increase it's level slightly, but most of the excess flow would likely just flow out to the Atlantic at an increased rate. StuRat 12:34, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

How do I know it's a joke, because of it's level of absurdity, like all satire. I hope you don't take Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal as a genuine endorsement of murder and cannibalism of the Irish ! StuRat 12:34, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Please forgive me for not clearing up this question sooner. The idea here is not to dam the Niagara river but rather to label (or name) the total land mass which stands between the two lakes as the "Great Dam." (Understand now? Great Lakes ----> Great Dam.) As for humor the Canadians would probably be all to happy to see the American's build more reservoirs on the previously Canadian side not to mention finally getting rid of Hamilton once and for all. ...IMHO (Talk) 10:21, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

What the heck was this creature?

The other day I was walking over to the grocery store and saw a strange animal. It was climbing, rather clumsily, down a tree headfirst. Its head looked very much like a squirrel though a little larger, but its hindquarters looked very much like a rabbit. When it moved forward, both back legs moved forward at the same time, much as a rabbit does. It had no tail at all as far as I could tell, and it was black (fur was a little mangy).

It seemed wary of me, but not afraid. This was in a well-trafficked area, so I'm not surprised at that. What I am surprised at is that no one else was freaked out by this to not kill the thing before I ever saw it. This was in the Vancouver, BC area if that helps at all. --Kickstart70-T-C 04:23, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

The only animal I can think of is a black Manx. –Mysid^(t) 09:07, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Maybe a Marten of some sort? Like a Fisher? Maybe a Pika? --ByeByeBaby 09:24, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps it's a large black squirrel which lost it's tail in an accident (run over by a car ?). The lack of a counterbalancing tail would make it's motion rather clumsy. Are there other black squirrels in the area ? StuRat 15:09, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Hi all, unfortunately none of the above look like this creature...the head really looked pretty much exactly like a squirrel (though larger), and the whole creature was at least twice as large (maybe three times) as a regular black squirrel. Maybe it was a tailless black squirrel with gigantism? I'll try to get a pic and ask again. --Kickstart70-T-C 16:55, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Could have been a squirrel with Down Syndrome? 12.183.203.184 17:19, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

E-mail IDs

Can any1 plzz give me the email IDs(real) of stars like John Abrahim—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.162.193.165 (talk • contribs) 05:23, 27 May 2006.

Probably not. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Wikipedia is not somewhere you're likely to find such information. If you need to get in touch with somebody famous, I recommend contacting their agent (www.imdb.com is a good source for info on film and TV personalities), their publisher if they are an author, their university if they are an academic, or their club or team if they are a sporting personality. Hope this helps. Howard Train 05:33, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

• The fact they have fans means celebreties are swamped with emails on a daily basis, and there's a good chance they don't read enough of it to keep up. On top of that, those email adresses are often outdated. Try sending their agent a letter. It has a lot better chance to get through. - Mgm|^(talk) 13:58, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

next generation of geothermal energy plants…

Mention geothermal energy [plants] and the reaction you will get is that they are far too expensive to build and only after a relative short period of operation extract all of the sufficient energy necessary to generate power for many, many years. The solution? There is a new type of geothermal power plant being proposed that would overcome this obstacle while substantially lowering the cost of building such plants. What is this new technology? You may already be familiar with it if you have every assembled your own personal computer in the last few years. The idea is to drill wells deep enough to tap such power but instead of injecting or extracting super heated water a sealed pipe is lowered into the well and filled to the upper limit of the geothermal area liquid carbon dioxide. The super heated gas that then rises to the top as with any gravity based heat pipe is used to power turbines directly or indirectly using the heat at the top of the pipe to make steam. ...IMHO (Talk) 05:37, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Do you have a question?

If your point is that we don't have information about this new technology in Wikipedia, well go ahead and add some. We already have an article on Hot-dry-rock; this sounds like a different method to tap the same resource, so maybe that article is an appropriate place to do so. Remember to cite your sources.--Robert Merkel 07:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Probably as useless as hot, dry rock heat extraction. The problem with rock is that it is a poor conductor of heat. Only well-opened, soggy, steamy places are good. --Zeizmic 00:12, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Omega iris - biologists etc please check?

Hello, I've just created a page 'omega iris' (and associated redirect page 'omega eye'). This was in response to a red link on the plecostomus page.

I previously asked for more information Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Biologists/Catfish/Plecs/Omega eye - that request still stands.

Also if anyone wants to check this page for obvious or other errors please do. In addition I'd like to put a request in for 'better' picture links - ideally a series of photos showing the eye in light/dark conditions for the same animal/species. Thanks.HappyVR 12:30, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I was thinking about this, and a very perfunctory search turned up no articles about different eye and iris shapes and structures among different species. I think Interspecific eye anatomy or something like it might be a good article, and "omega eye" could be incorporated into it eventually. What do you think? --Ginkgo100 17:46, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the article eye is good but lacks (specific) info. on the eye structure in different animals, there is an article on compound eyes but for non compound eyes not much - however outside the sheep and goats example (see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Biologists/Catfish/Plecs/Omega eye) I don't know of many examples of obvious differences - clearly the accuity, rod/cone ratio, colour sensitivity, field of view varies between species and to some extent is dependent on the adaption of the animal eg hunter/hunted, nocturnal/diurnal etc. The suggested article definately sounds like a good addition.HappyVR 18:26, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

However in terms of an interspecies eye comparison article I wouldn't be suprised if the 'omega eye' is just a footnote or curiosity and would still require a separate page - that really depends on how such a page turns out.HappyVR 18:31, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Ovulation

Oocyte

The page on oocytes says that a sperm has to penetrate the oocyte to make it divide by mieosis. The picture depicts a secondary oocyte becoming a mature ovum after meiosis. If the ovum is the gamete, and it is the gamete that interacts with sperm, why does the oocyte (a stage before the ovum) involve sperm? The ovulation page complicates everything further by saying that an ovum is an oocyte is a gamete. What on Earth is going on? --Username132 (talk) 12:52, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly, the two taken together are confusing as hell. Take the ovulation one as the one easier to understand. Both articles needs clarification. Check in a few hours' time. --Seejyb 17:26, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Won't someone please think of the children. --Username132 (talk) 11:14, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

It weems, after extensive reading, old and new sources, that no such "thing" as an ovum exists, there are but different stages of oogenesis from in female fetus to fertilised oocyte undergoing it's final meiosis. What I thought was clear fact is confused and darkling plain. I will discuss this with our local prof of infertility at the university, he is an acknowledged expert, at least. And yes U123, I will remember children. --Seejyb 04:39, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Difference b/w "Specific" Latenet Heat and Latent Heat

Help needed.

Latent heat = Specific latent heat (times) mass. Period. --Lemontea 14:42, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

---

LOL @ Latenet in title, sounds like my perpetually slow Internet. StuRat 14:58, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

question regarding a laptop

Upto how many degrees (angles) can I turn open a laptop? For example, screens in a desktop are kept at 110 -120 degrees to the table in front. In a laptop, can I turn the laptop so that the screen would be some 150 degrees to the keyboard in th elaptop? Or is the screen only turnable to a point much smaller than 150 degrees?

I want a laptop in which I would be able to rotate the screen sothat screen is 150 degrees to keyboard.

Do you know any laptops like that? please specify company , model name.

Thanks

Have you seen tablet PCs? Their screens rotate every which way. Isopropyl 14:35, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Just about any laptop allows turning to 180°. - Dammit 16:45, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Question regarding figuring out the yield of vinegar

If one has a bottle of vinegar that contains 5% of the active ingredient, how would on figure out how many grams of said vinegar one needs for every gram of baking soda that contains 100% of the active ingredient.

Thanks

The active ingredient of vinegar is acetic acid. The active ingredient of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. The sodium bicarbonate article has a reaction equation that shows they react in molecular ratio 1:1. It also says the molecular mass is (about) 84 g/mol. So one gram of baking soda will contain (1/84) mol, which will react with (1/84) mol of vinegar, and the acetic acid article shows the molar mass is 60 g/mol, so this would be (60/84) g of pure acetic acid, about 0.71g. The bit I'm not sure is exactly what's meant by the vinegar containing 5% of the active ingredient. Is that by weight? If so, then you'd need about 20 times that, i.e. about 14 grams. Arbitrary username 22:23, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

monitor viewing distance

Its a well known fact that we must view the monitor by keeping the monitor approximately in an arm's distance. That translated to some 27 to 30 inches. What i want to know is that should the same distance be maintained while using a 12" laptop? For example, take the case of Acer travelmate C200. It has a 12" screen and the screen stands at approximately 45 degrees to the horizontal table while using it like a laptop. I just want to know what distance must be maintained between our eyes and the screen in such 12" devices.

Should it be the same 27 inches or less than that. If its less than that, whats the ideal distance?

I don't think it matters how far your eyes are away. Whatever's good for you. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 00:08, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of the supposed "well known fact" that we must view a monitor at an arm's length. I suspect that that's just a rule of thumb representing a compromise between conflicting goals. On one hand, you want to be farther away from the monitor so as not to force your eyes to focus on close objects for long period of time. On the other hand, you want to be able to read smaller fonts and graphics with ease. (The two goals can be achieved at the same time, but if one's limited to an ordinary monitor, there seems to be only a few things one can do to balance the two, and other, considerations).--68.238.243.228 04:33, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

If the whole problem with putting your face too close to screens is that the muscles in your eye grow stiff and you become nearsighted, then why not alternate distances, essentially working out your eyes? I'm doing it right now, alternating every 5 seconds between distances ranging from 20cm to about 200cm and my eyes feel better already.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  00:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Earthquakes in the middle of plates

How are they possible? I was under the impression that collision, transformation, diversion and conversion were the only things that could cause quakes. How can you then have earthquakes in regions near the middle of a tectonic plate?

See Intraplate earthquake. --Heron 22:30, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Gray Matter

Other than medicine, what kind of food can increase the amount of gray matter in our brains? Is there any exercise can increase the amount of gray matter?

Its matters more not how many neurons, it is how well they are connected. And how well you can use them. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 00:11, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Gray matter contains mostly cell bodies of neurons and glia; of the two, only glia are generally capable of dividing in the adult nervous system. I suspect you're more interested in the growth of new neurons, but currently this isn't possible outside of certain regions of the brain (ie, the olfactory bulb and hippocampus)—and even then the physiological significance of such growth is poorly understood. Why do you ask? --David Iberri (talk) 00:19, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

My question is what food, like lithium, can possibly increase the amount of grey matter, if we eat them? What I am looking for is somethings specific, like what kind of fruits or what king of exercises?

The brain is composed mostly of fat not gray matter. Let the first reply be your guide. Laziness can not be compensated for by increasing physical gray matter. What you need to do is to increase logical gray matter. There is a picture of a kid somewhere who got shot in the head and lost over half of his brain and yet he only had minor physical and mental incapability as a result! One of the TV documentary programs showed him being fitted with a prosthesis that was bigger than a grapefruit! The brain is like a wild cat - it may be born with physical agility and prowess and a bunch of other amazing attributes but if nothing is going on and it is sleeping all the time then those attributes only represent potential that is subject to atrophy. Put that same cat on a hot tin roof and all of those attributes will come alive and be put to good use dealing with a problem. Each time the cat is stimulated in such a way it is challenged to learn a better and faster way to deal better with a similar problem. What you need to do is look for challenges that will force upon you to the need to increase your logical gray matter. ...IMHO (Talk) 04:58, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I very much doubt that any serious research has been done relating the amount of gray matter to nutrition. The only way to get this information would be do mri scans of a large number of people, calculate the gray matter volume (which I suspect in itself would be a difficult task), and do in-depth interviews of each person about their lifetime dietary habits. What has been done, however, is to study the correlation between nutrition and cognitive functions. There is no doubt that childhood malnutrition is related to lower scores in measurements of cognitive function. Omega-3 Essential fatty acids such as EPA and DHA are probably important. I suggest you follow this link to do a medline search. A search for "(epa or dha) and (cognitive functions)" gets some interesting hits. You might also want to try simply "nutrition and (cognitive functions)". As for exercising the gray matter, isn't that the same thing as using it? --vibo56 10:47, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Another new page - aeration - a mostly science and technology term?

In response to a 'red link' I have created a page entitled aeration. A number of questions arise:
Is it ok?
Could it be improved (yes)
Have I missed any notable examples of aeration?

In addition a similar but subtly different usage of the term aeration exists in terms of gardening/soil science - the aeration of a soil - have I dealt with this disambiguation properly?

Please change my mistakes etc etc. Thank you.HappyVR 19:36, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Lotsa Stem Cells

"We identified a rare cell within human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell cultures that can be expanded for more than 80 population doublings" - does this mean that after 80 doublings, there is something wrong with the cells to make them stop? If it's their telomeres shortening, then they're no use for therapy. If it's mutations occuring, then they're no use for therapy. What is causing divisions to stop - the research paper doesn't say? --Username132 (talk) 20:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Shortening of telomeres in the nucleus causes the cell to no longer be able to replicate properly. So the cell can't reproduce anymore, even if it's healthy. This is fixed in sexual reproduction using telomerase. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 23:05, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

life cycle of plastics

what is a plastic?

Try typing "plastic" into the search box. —Keenan Pepper 21:15, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

AIDS dementia complex – an autoimmune disorder?

I was reading about AIDS dementia complex, which is a disease of the CNS that is apparently induced by the HIV virus causing monocytes and macrophages to attack neural tissue. Would this mean that ADC is a form of autoimmune disease? Peter G Werner 21:14, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I guess so. Fits the definition. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 23:03, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

plastics

how does polyethylene change its life cycle from raw material to finished product to recycled product????

Ethene is an unsaturated (the third point on unsaturated is the relavent one) hydrocarbon that can be mined, using polymerization you can changed this into polyethene (aka polyethylene), as it is not a thermosetting plastic you can re-use it, because there is not bonding between the chains. Philc _T^E_C^I 22:57, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

That means that PETE can be melted down and poured into a new mold to get a new object. Neat, huh? --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 23:02, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I thought PETE stood for polyethylene terephthalate. —Keenan Pepper 23:13, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

That's usually just "PET" though. Polyethelene is just "PE" or optionally "HDPE" or "LDPE" depending if it's high-density or low-density. (And a bunch of others listed in the article) Just to add a fact, industrially LDPE is produced using the UNIPOL process developed by Union Carbide, IIRC. We seem to be missing an article on that, though. --BluePlatypus 23:43, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, I forgot to mention, the ethene may be acquired by catalytic cracking a much larger relaitvely useless hydrocarbon. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:22, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

What circumstances does Dioxygenyl arise under?

I understand what dioxygenyl is (O₂⁺). But where and why does it occur? What is it's lewis structure?

It occurs when you ionize oxygen (photochemically for instance) and let it react with something forming a (meta)stable compound. It takes a bit of energy, the ionization energy of oxygen is pretty high (1164 kJ/mol). It's a radical ion and has one unpaired electron. You should watch out with Lewis structures for ordinary oxygen - While it is correct that it's double-bonded, oxygen is paramagnetic. Two of the electrons are unpaired. As for synthesis: cursory search turns up J. Shamir, J. Binenboym, "Photochemical synthesis of dioxygenyl salts", Inorg. Chim, Acta. 37, 1968. --BluePlatypus 00:05, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Budgerigars and mirrors

Why do budgerigars love staring at their own reflection in a mirror so much? Some of the birds I've had can sit for hours, just admiring themselves, singing and tapping the glass. Do they think that it's another budgie, or are they just really vain? --84.71.42.75 23:54, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Very, very few animals can recognize that a creature in the mirror is them. It's probably not black and white, though. Somehow my cat seems to know that her in the mirror isn't anything to worry about =( --mboverload@ 06:04, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Since the mirror doesn't smell like a cat, your cat knows that it isn't a cat. AFAIK birds tend to see rather than smell. Henry^Flower 14:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

As an interesting example of this, my cat mostly ignores his reflection, but he did once try to jump through a mirror that was positioned so that he didn't see his own reflection in it (until it was too late). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:00, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

The usual answer is that budgerigars are social, and enjoy "interacting" to their mirror friend. I don't think any animal has a self-concept that makes it possible for them to realize their reflection is actually an image of themself. My son doesn't even have that self-concept yet. --Ginkgo100 16:34, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

The first time I showed our cat her image in the mirror she got quite excited. After trying to touch it in vain, though, she learned it was nothing to get upset about, and afterwards she ignored it. --82.207.206.54 23:41, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Ours is the same; initially tried to see what it was (as a baby will do), then seemed to mostly ignore it unless she's in the same mood as when she chews her own tail, or has something on her head. Skittle 01:49, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I know (from TV) that some primates in fact can recognize themselves in the mirror, and use it to pick up lice from their back and stuff like that. VdSV9•♫ 17:27, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

May 28

Comic book characters

Why do male comic book characters seem so impossibly muscular? --HappyCamper 00:10, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

See Muscular comic book characters. Anyway, well, they have to! What if superman was just another computer nerd?? They couldn't do all those heroic things without excessive amounts of muscle mass. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 00:14, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't get it. --David Iberri (talk) 05:47, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Odd link there, Mac. You might as well ask why the villians are generally "ugly" or disfigured in some way. Or why the females are back breakingly busty. Or why the bad cowboys in the old westerns always wore black hats while the good guys wore white. They're stereotypes. Dismas|^(talk) 05:50, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Turbine

Could someone please refer me to a site or maybe somewhere on this site that can tell me how to builed a turbine that generates electricity. Thank You

What kind of turbine? A steam turbine? A gas turbine? A water turbine? A wind turbine? --Robert Merkel 01:08, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Wind probably, there's a site on NASA bout it. Check wind turbine. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 03:47, 28 May 2006

(UTC)

Wind Turbine, but is there a site that has building plans?

Try these: [1][2]. Weregerbil 07:50, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With many more exclamations.

How many cows in a bottle?

I live in a city of about 4 million people. I go down to my local suburban supermarket and buy a 2 litre container of milk. Roughly, how many cows contributed to the contents? JackofOz 01:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

4 million. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 03:47, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Just click the "history" tab on the label and ... never mind. —Zero Gravitas 04:00, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

It could be literally thousands. Having never been to a dairy farm in Australia, I can't swear to the way things work there. But I have been to several dairy farms in the U.S. and know many dairy farmers here as well. I don't imagine it works too different there than it does here though. The way milk is produced here is that the milk comes out of the cow, goes into a pipeline, and gets dumped into a bulk tank at the farm. Every day/every other day the milk truck comes and pumps that milk out of the bulk tank. That is then taken to the milk company where it is then dumped in with milk from other farms and the whole thing is then pasteurized and bottled. One company will have dozens of farms from which they pick up milk and each farm has anywhere from 20-2000 cows. Of course, this depends on the area, California has much larger farms because they simply have more available land whereas Vermont has smaller farms. The largest farm that I know of in Vermont is about 650 cows. So there are literally thousands of cows in that bottle, brick of cheese, stick of butter, etc. Dismas|^(talk) 05:44, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Everything is mixed together to get a consistent taste for every day. Many food production processes do it. --mboverload@ 06:02, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I suspected that was the case. I thought it was possible the maximum number of cows per bottle might be limited by the size of the largest vat used in the pasteurisation plant. But if the milk is already pre-mixed from various places before it ever gets there, then I see how the number is much larger. Thanks. JackofOz 09:40, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

In addition, spreading the milk for each cow out among a large volume of other cow's milk ensures that no one bad/infected cow will end up hurting the consumer. Contrast this with the old days where it was more likely that you would be drinking the milk from a single cow who could be infected. Bad news for you! Nailed 20:36, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Isn't that the role of pasteurisation? The mingling seems to actually increase the chances of infecting humans, not decrease it. If a large volume of unpasteurised milk contained milk from an infected cow, then my intuition says that everybody who drank any of the mixed milk would be exposed to the infection. But since it's all pasteurised, the infection is killed off before it gets to the consumer. JackofOz 00:29, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

P=NP

Why does it matter whether or not P=NP? What does it mean for computers? I know the answer probably is in the P=NP article but I have no idea what that article is talking about since I don't have a doctorate in computer science. It really needs to be simplified a bit. A Clown in the Dark 01:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

To give you just one example, the password-checking system on most computers uses a cryptographic hash function to transform the password into a number, and matches that number with a stored one. Even if you know that number, it's practically impossible to get a password that hashes to it, because the hash function is designed that way. If P=NP, however, then it's always possible to compute a password with a given hash in a "reasonable" amount of time, and thereby break into the computer system. ("Reasonable" is in quotes because it's a precise mathematical condition that doesn't always correspond to the common-sense meaning of "reasonable".) —Keenan Pepper 02:48, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

From the formal problem statement by Stephen Cook for the Millennium Prize Problems:

Although a practical algorithm for solving an NP-complete problem (showingP = NP) would have devastating consequences for cryptography, it would also have stunning practical consequences of a more positive nature, and not just because of the efficient solutions to the many NP-hard problems important to industry. For example, it would transform mathematics by allowing a computer to find a formal proof of any theorem which has a proof of reasonable length, since formal proofs can easily be recognized in polynomial time. Example theorems may well include all of the CMI prize problems. Although the formal proofs may not be initially intelligible to humans, the problem of finding intelligible proofs would be reduced to that of finding a recognition algorithm for intelligible proofs. Similar remarks apply to diverse creative human endeavors, such as designing airplane wings, creating physical theories, or even composing music. The question in each case is to what extent an efficient algorithm for recognizing a good result can be found. This is a fundamental problem in artificial intelligence, and one whose solution itself would be aided by the NP-solver by allowing easy testing of recognition theories.

The consequences of the discovery of an efficient method to solve NP-complete problems (either through the discovery of a practical algorithm to solve them on conventional computers or the development of a quantum computer even more advanced than the ones presently under consideration), would be, in my opinion, more profound than Einstein's discovery of relativity. --Robert Merkel 00:48, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Intelligence

Is there any statistical database about IQ score or EQ score of countries? What I can find is the estimated score for one year only, but I need at least 5 years.

There is IQ and the Wealth of Nations. However, that particular book is, um, "contraversial". In my opinion, the book's data is so clearly onsensical as to make it useful only as toilet paper and fire accelerant. The question of race and IQ is heavily politicised, with some unable to accept that there is any genetic component to intelligence at all, and a lot of racist bullrinky from people claiming that intelligence is almost exclusively genetically predetermined, that there are clearly identifiable categories of "race" in which there are wide statistical difference in intelligence as measured by IQ, and that this explains racial minority and third-world disadvantage in large part. The only place where there is much good data is within racial groups in the United States, and even that is heavily disputed. I don't know why you want this data, but if this is for some kind of undergraduate or high school essay I'd strongly suggest you rethink your approach after reading some of the articles I've linked to. --Robert Merkel 12:14, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

The "IQ and the Wealth of Nations" is what I was talking about. It is the only source I can find with estimated IQ score, but I only can find one year of it. Moreover, I had read those articles. IQ and EQ are the best I can think of to go with, because others seem so difficult to find date to prove whether people are getting smarter or dumber. Any suggestions of what direction I can go with and the source of data? Thanks.

Ah, right. Are people today more educated than in the past? Yes, just about everywhere in the world. Smarter or dumber is a harder question, but see Flynn effect. --Robert Merkel 22:46, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

How To Sort Through all that Computer-Buying Jargon

I realize this to be a really open-ended conversation, but surfing the web has left me paranoid that if I could understand any of the writing about computers I read, I'd simply be soaking in propaganda artfully disseminated among various customer-review sites by Dell. Wikipedia searches are generally too history and science related to answer any of the questions I'm interested in. And since I know the guys who hang out at the wiki help desk are here to answer questions anyways, I wanted to ask a two-part one. First of all, can somebody explain all that technical computer lexicon: gHz, ram, the difference between intel and AMD, what one needs for a high-quality computer that's capable of dealing with a lot of information (mostly music - but lots of it, and a bunch of programs too.) What is an excessive gHz number if I'm not really a major gamer or anything but my current computer (which is not great but not crappy) is dying under the weight of all the crap it has to deal with. Same with ram. And, second part of the question, what is the intelligent way to go about getting a moderately light laptop capable of dealing well and quickly with abou 100 gigs of music and then some other stuff? Everyone seems to be talking about Apple. Is it really any better? The way it's organized (really, prohibitively, user-friendly) irritates me. Is Alienware overkill (I'm not a gamer)? So, from a non-Dell-bought perspective, could anybody recommend a good computer that isn't inordinately expensive, but weighs below 8 pounds, costs under 3000, and can deal with 120 gigs or so of info quickly and withoutwithout freaking out on me? Am I just dreaming? Oh, and also, will the new Windows program make everything more guarded and difficult? Should I just avoid it altogether and go for Apple or Linux, or does Microsoft own enough material that it's stupid to buy anything else right now? Thanks so much, Sasha

Processors are basically the brain of a PC. The speed of a processor is measured in hertz. 1024 hertz=1 kilohertz. 1024 kilohertz=1 gigahertz. Processor speed is usually around 2.5-3.5 gigahertz. Clock speed really isn't all that important these days, it's mainly the processor itself that matters. Celerons and Durons are the really bad processors for businesses and budget computers. As long as you don't get one of those you should be fine. RAM is where the computer keeps its short term memory such as what is on the screen right now, numbers that are being used etc. 512 MB to 1024 MB should suffice very well. Intel and AMD aren't really all THAT different. Intel processors tend to run really high in hertz but in my personal opinion I'd say AMD is better anyway. Mac laptops are pretty good due to the fact that their processors are nice and they can run both Windows and OS X. Alienware is VERY overkill if you don't game. You probably don't want Vista in my opinion, it really seems like a rip-off and it can't do anything that XP can't already do. I'd say go with a Macbook from Apple, more specifically one of these [3]. A Clown in the Dark 04:55, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

If your present computer is no longer coping with what you want it to do, there are three likely reasons:

1. insufficient RAM. You can probably increase your RAM quite cheaply. If you have less than 512 MB, then this is worth looking at. The simplest way to upgrade would be to take your computer (just the main box, not the monitor, keyboard and mouse) into some small computer shop and ask them if you can double your current RAM.
2. insufficient disk space. You can probably fit a second hard drive, which will appear to Windows as "D:". Again, just take your computer to a small computer shop and explain what you want. You say you have about 120 gigs of music, so buy at least a 200 Gb drive (unless you have a very old BIOS or operating system, which may not be able to recognise such a large drive).
3. spyware slowing down your computer. Run a program such as Lavasoft Ad-Aware on your computer. It's free to download. Check the Wikipedia article before downloading any program which claims to remove spyware as some programs claiming to remove spyware are themselves spyware. Some spyware is very difficult to remove, so you might need to try several anti spyware programs, or even reinstall the operating system. If it's that bad, buying a new computer makes sense, but you need a strategy to make sure the new computer doesn't also get infected.

If you do buy a new computer, my rule of thumb is to make sure the speed in GHz is twice as high as the old one, the RAM is twice as large, and so is the hard disk space.

All this advice assumes you have a machine which is a couple of years old, but not more than about five years old. If you're already running a recently-made machine, you don't need to buy a newer one, and if your machine is ancient, then upgrading it probably isn't sensible. If you tell us more about your current machine we may be able to give better advice.-gadfium 05:22, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

you guys are awesome. thanks so much for the help

so i think i'll buy a new computer. i've got a dell dimension 8400 which isn't all that old or anything (i don't quite remember, but i think maybe 3-6 years) but it's started going crazy on me. I have an internal extra 40 gigs, and one day it suddenly crashed, so i had some computer wiz recover the files and i got another internal and installed it, and now it will from day to day decide whether or not to function. so sometimes my internal drive just wont open at all, and if i restart it'll function just fine. but the computer's also making disconcerting noises since my internal drive crashed, like every now and then a fan (though nothing's obstructing the fans) is being blocked by a piece of rubber that flaps out of the way noisely perhaps three times a second for a couple seconds, which doesn't sound very good. I'm going off to college soon anyway, so i think I'll just buy a new one. apple? do i need higher gigahertz for more memory? is there any way other than defragmenting to get everything better organized, because the more information i have the slower it takes since the computer's searching through everything every time i try to open a file. opening a music player can take a minute and causes the player to crash about 50% of the time. it's infuriating

oh yeah. and why did the person who suggested AMD over intel suggest that if intel has more gHz?

and how does one check how much ram is on a computer? you guys have been tremendously helpful. thanks

If you know the model of your computer and haven't changed the RAM, the easiest way is probably to go to the vendor's site and look up the technical specifications. Isopropyl 06:10, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Heehee--I'd try to give you advice, but instead I'd start acting like an Apple salesman. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 06:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Defragmenting does help a lot. It's possible that you don't have enough free RAM to run, say, a music player. In this situation, adding more RAM helps greatly. On Windows XP, it's relatively simple to check the amount of RAM. Just do a right-click on "My Computer", and select "Properties". The total amount of RAM you have available should appear there. Regarding your question "do i need higher gigahertz for more memory?", the answer is that you don't need a higher GHz processor to add more RAM. Also, about the AMD and Intel processor difference, the reason a lot of people prefer AMD processors is because they have a different architecture to Intel ones; in other words, they are built differently. AMD supporters, of course, say it is built better, even if it has less GHz in general, and a lot of people would probably agree. -- Daverocks (talk) 06:20, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

last question. i promise. so i have fine ram (512), good gHz (2.99), and my computer's only 4 or so years old, but it's just dying. i don't have much spyware, bc i've checked pretty recently, but the computer's just so slow. i tried opening the start menu, and when my mouse hovered over "programs," it loaded up a blank gray panel (as if in any second this list of programs would fill in) but nothing happened. for about a minute my mouse stayed there, but the damn thing wouldn't load, so i clicked out, and a half a minute later, the start menu closed. I just have, including additional external and internal harddrives, about 120 gigs of stuff on my computer. is that why it's running so slowly? any other ideas for why? any way to fix all this temporarily? i've defragmented recently as well. it's bizarre, and frankly this has all be pretty recent. it was working a lot better two months ago (i've gotten a lot more music since then too, but not THAT much)

oh. and when a computer specification page lets you choose between the same size hardrives with different rpms, does that just mean that the one with more rpms is faster?

For hard drive speed: Yes, but for playing music it shouldn't really matter to you.

You say you don't have much spyware, but it's starting to sound like a spyware problem to me. Try a different spyware checking program, no single program can find or remove everything. The other possibility is that you are running too many background programs, even though each program by itself is harmless. I've seen people who run three different antivirus programs all at once because they feel safer that way. One other thing that occurs to me is that your system is running in a partial "safe mode" due to some device conflict. Right click "My computer", select properties, then choose the hardware tab, and press the "Device Manager" button. Are any of the devices showing a question mark or a red cross?-gadfium 06:45, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

About why I suggested AMD over Intel, clock speed really isn't all THAT important. There's a lot of factors that go into a processor's speed and quality such as its amount of cache, transistor count, temperature, power consumption, etc. A Clown in the Dark 07:05, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Always check your FSB (front side bus) because even if everything is a fast as it can be, if this is slow everything is slowed. It will most likely be a decent fsb, as they are relatively cheap, but its worth the check, as it also a general indication to how good the motherboard is. There is a table on the FSB page that tells you how much frequency you need for a given processor, my recomendation would be an athlon 64 processor with atleast 800MHZ fsb, 512mb ram, what ever hard drive you want, but make it a decent speed if you want to find all that music quickly (i.e., no loading time) and that should be it for the minimum spec for what you described, unles i forgot something... Philc _T^E_C^I 10:21, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I have no idea what you guys with computer trouble are talking about. I have an apple. :P Its birthday was April 9, 2002 2:22 AM, and it has NEVER given me any trouble at all. Its only 770 MHz, with 512 Mb RAM, and 40 Gb hard disk space. I'm going to need a new one in a year or so though, because of hte new Intel-ness. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:48, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

would replacing the CPU be a major operation? would there be easier ways of upping the Ghz of my pc? would it be particluary nesscary to incease speed and ability cuss i'm slowly upgrading my pc currently have 1.8 ghz athlon--Colsmeghead 13:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

• I was going to answer your question, but i'm actually an undercover agent working for dell--152.163.100.74 23:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Ahem... to answer Colsmeghead's question in a non-trolling way ( :P ), it depends what you consider a "major" operation. Replacing the CPU typically involves opening up the computer case, removing the current heatsink and CPU from the motherboard, and replacing it with a new CPU (preferably higher GHz) and heatsink. This is the traditional way to "up the GHz", but if it's too much for you, a technique called overclocking exists. Essentially, overclocking involves forcing the CPU to run at a higher frequency (higher GHz) than the manufacturer specifies. If you don't know what you're doing, you can stuff up, and even if you do it correctly, overclocking tends to reduce the overall life of your CPU, so I don't recommend it. Then again, it's also possible to stuff up replacing a CPU. But there are probably other ways to dramatically increase your system's performance without having to upgrade the processor, such as adding more RAM. -- Daverocks (talk) 12:44, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Something that has not been mentioned, related to strange performance, and to the funny fan noise you hear: Apart from software, check that your CPU is not overheating. You may be able to monitor it inside your operating system, or may have to use the initial setup (CMOS - the thing you get when you press "Del" key as the machine boots). A new or clean cooling fan, heat sink and enough thermal grease sometimes solves all these things that seem to bother you. Check the integrity of the memory. You can either plug your memory into some other machine, or ask a shop to test your machine with known good memory. As above, adding more RAM can improve things remarkably.

Replacing a CPU is simple, but follow the instruction (re touching, static eletricity, gentle positioning) accurately. First get the specs for your main board (you can find them on the net, if necessary), then see what kind of CPU it can accept, before buying anything. A number of failed DIY upgrades that I've needed to fix had to do with inadequate thermal coupling between the CPU and it's heat sink, or not putting in a new fan. --Seejyb 20:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm troubled by the apparent underlying conviction that you're being railroaded/hoodwinked by the assorted NewSpeak proponents at (Dell, or Gateway, or whatever). There certainly is a good bit of madison Avenue content free manipulation going on, but not at the level of CPU speed (it really does make a difference), RAM sizes (more certainly is better), ... That's just engineering, and if you're willing to learn, there are numerous sources of information. On the Web (though the good ones are perhaps harder to distinguish among), in books, and in user groups (though again the uninformed are too loudly prominent). If you feel lost on these matters, you can simply educate yourself. The Thompsons (eg, PC Hardware in a Nutshell, O'Reilly Assoc, and their Web site as well) have written on these matters (not exhaustively, it's true, but perhaps more than you want to know), but your distaste for that sort of thing leaves you at the mercy of others and their biases. Anonymous comments here are much better, in my opinion, than the average 'computer whiz' from down the street or the 'smart kid' at school, but that's only my opinion, and I might be completely bonkers. How would you distinguish between my bonkers opinion, and my possibly hugely informed and neutral opinion? In this, as other consumer decisions, it's your responsibility to make the best choice you can and bet your funds on it being more correct than not. Consumer Reorts is awfully generic in its recommendations (has to fit in a small article, no?), but you'll hardly be completely fleeced if you follow their suggestions. Won't get a machine well suited to your particular needs either, but...

The hoodwinking about which your subconscious suspicions are warning is not really about the hardware engineering, though if I were designing those standards there would be fewer odd corners, but in software. This is not constrained by very many real world limits, nor by a necessity for elegant sensible and as stable as possible design. There are significant disadvantages to the software standards in use (in many respects), and yet the weight of the market presence of some of these is such that alternatives are nearly invisible. This is the side of things you should be worried about being misled on.

One of the reasons the minor manufacturer that is Apple is a significant alternative is that the software they use is entirely out of the mainstream. Not without its problems, even so, but at least more than a little different. In fact, Mac hardware is largely inflexible, choices having been made for you by the folks at Apple. They have, for instance, abandoned floppy drives as a standard device many years ago. And for several years, they didn't include USB ports in their machines, using instead the much less important Firewire interface. The reason Apple is significant presence is that they are now using a very different design of operating system than does the majority of other suppliers. It is, underneath the Apple specific trappings, Unix. And Unix, from its very beginnings, was designed for multiple users and to keep those users out of each others stuff (files, hardware, ...) even when running on the same machine. This remains true for many of the current *nixen, including mac OS X, the various distributions of Linux (I favor SuSE), the BSDs (OS X is one, but I prefer FreeBSD or NetBSD), or more commercially, Linspire (an entry level sort of Linux) or Syllable (another entry level *nixen). Knoppix provides a way to check it all out, running entirely from a CD without disturging anything at all on your current PC; doesn't even touch the hard drive unless you explicitly tell it to. Those responsible for machines running such operating systems must understand enough about the OS to manage it effectively. That means that such folks must learn something, and a great many people don't want to do so. I'm not sure that it's possible to manage this without good luck in choosing the people whose ideas and advice you will (blindly) follow.

We humans don't know how to design complex systems (eg, software) which do what you need, even if you don't quite know what you want, and furthermore do it safely and securely too. What we can do, at least in this instance, is to help you with learning what you need to learn. Linux is the most comprehensively documented operating system that has ever existed. There are books and magazines (I think Linux Journal and Linux Pro Magazine are pretty much the best of the lot), and there is the Linux Documentation Project, all of whose docuemnts are online and freely downloadable, rather like almost all the Linux distributions themselves. In particular, they have produced two particularly excellent full books which are worth the download: The System Administrator's Guide, and The Network Administrators Guide. There are also lots and lots of smaller documents (HowTos and such which cover single topics -- mostly well, but sometimes less than clearly or completely). And Paul Sheer's Rute Guide to Linux is a fully professional, soup to nuts, introduction to Linux and freely downloadable as well. The Linux Cookbook by Stutz isn't free, but is very easily approachable, being short recipes which can be tried in a few minutes. Good practice and easy incremental learning. And there is lots of introductory mateial on the Web (eg, linux.org (follow the pointers), and even linuxchix (again, follow the pointers). Learning, it's a good thing. Perhaps especially in one who is going off to school. ww 18:46, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Female N-Type connector gender question

Hi,

Why does the N-Type Female connector has a pin been a female?

Thanks,

Does Gender of connectors and fasteners help?-gadfium 05:49, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Or maybe N connector.-gadfium 05:52, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Although it looks like a shemale, it is actually a long thin socket. Compare the male of the species, which has an even thinner pin that will fit snugly inside the female.--Shantavira 07:56, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

DVD Movie Creation

Which program would I use to burn a WMV movie file to a DVD in perfect quality so that it would work on a DVD player (as good as the movie at least)? I know Nero works but i'm pretty sure the quality isn't maxed out with it. Respond ASAP please--154.20.89.16 04:44, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Completely impossible. Transcoding is a lossy process. Sorry! =) --mboverload@ 06:01, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

The Windows Media Video format is itself a lossy format, so any WMV file has probably already lost some of its original quality. The format is surprisingly good, however, and you shouldn't notice the difference. Concerning recording the movie to DVD, Nero should do the job fine. But if you're still interested in other software, this is a short list of some other DVD authoring suites. -- Daverocks (talk) 06:01, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot.--154.20.89.16 19:11, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Lawn grass length

What's the optimal length of lawn grass for water conservation, assuming one wants a lawn that is at least somewhat green (not allowed to dry out completely/seed)? I guess some of the considerations are: a) quantity of plant matter that requires water to survive; b) length of roots that can draw up water from deeper in the soil; c) quantity of ground cover minimising evaporation; d) quantity of roots minimising runoff.--Anchoress 05:55, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm no pro, but it really depends what kind of grass you have. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 06:10, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Could you be more specific?--Anchoress 06:42, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think a, b, or d will have any effect on the equation. c is all important, as is the "leakage" of moisture from a cut stem. For "optimal" moisture retention don't cut the grass at all. --Shantavira 08:02, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Conservation for whom? The water is not being lost, it is just moving from one place to another. You seem to want all your water in your grass? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:43, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Water hog. Quit hogging all the water. --Username132 (talk) 17:58, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for all the replies so far. Shantavira, I agree with you that uncut grass is best, but as I'd stated this is assuming that the grass is cut, just trying to figure out how long. Mac Davis, sorry for not being more clear. In some parts of the world water shortages necessitate watering restrictions, so the conservation would be added water. --Anchoress 10:59, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I was assuming conservation of mains water supply, as there is currently a much-publicized drought in the south of England.--Shantavira 10:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

As long as possible for maximum water conservation, as you'll find with really long grass, even in the height of summer, the ground will still be moist. Philc _T^E_C^I 15:10, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

For bluegrass lawns, three inches is considered a good length for water conservation. That's around 7.5 cm. Also keep the following tips in mind: Don't cut more than a third of the blades' height at a time, or the plants will suffer from the sudden loss; be sure your mower blade is very sharp; and water deeply but infrequently to develop deep roots. --Ginkgo100 19:38, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Yippee!! Thanks Ginkgo100, that's *exactly* the kind of answer I was hoping for! Thanks very very much for taking the time to reply, and thanks again to everyone else who took the time to post something on my question.--Anchoress 22:52, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Wow, do you grow your lawns to 8cm? Down here in Africa we call that lush pasture, for fattening sheep for Christmas dinner :).--Seejyb 18:48, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I do. I live in Colorado, U.S.A., which is hot and quite dry in the summer. I'm so accustomed to long grass that I consider it more aesthetic than the short grass one might find in lawns elsewhere. --Ginkgo100 21:59, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

First electronic theory of valency

Is this parapgraph correct? Is it true?

By 1904, the first electronic theory of valency was developed by Thomson. A revision of Berzelius ’s electrochemical scheme and Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, he came up with chemical bonding being nothing more or less them a simple electrostatic attraction. Thomson concluded that a bond was formed when one or more electron was exchanged or transferred between two atoms. The “donor” atom then becomes positively charged and the atoms that receives that electron then becomes negatively charged.

Thank you

Sounds like a somewhat oversimplified explaination of Thomson's theory. Second, "true" is a relative term. But chemical bonding cannot be explained solely in electrostatic terms. It cannot be described in any classical terms, because strictly quantum effects like the Pauli exclusion principle (electrons being fermions) are critical to correctly describing chemical bonds. However, as a model, it does give at least a little bit of insight, in particular to ionic bonds. --BluePlatypus 14:28, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't understand? is it correct or not?

If you don't understand that "true" is a relative term, then I can't help. Otherwise, you'll have to be more specific about what you don't understand about it. --BluePlatypus 23:03, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I understand what "true" means offcourse. when i said i don't understand i meant that i don't understand your reply in saying whether my paragraph is correct or not!

California as ancient impact (comet) creator?

I know there have been many studies of soil samples an other impact creator indicators of California but I can't help but look at all of the rock and other geological formations coming into LA from Bakersfield in addition to those in Chatsworth and just about everywhere to the point almost that you begin to be unable to see the trees for the forest. Furthermore if you travel through areas as far North as Montana and through Arizona, New Mexico and even as far away a Texas you can spot mountain size piles of what looks like it could be the debris that returned to Earth after such an impact - one big enough to carve out the great California basin. Maybe I'm crazy but I don't believe for a minute that it is the result of Tectonic plate Subduction but rather that only the original creator has been distorted by motion of the Pacific and North American plates. Again call me crazy but I can't seem to explain all of the geological features to my own satisfaction in any other way. Call me crazy. ...IMHO (Talk) 09:38, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

So... where'd all those mountains in south america come from? must be one really huge impact..oh and, you're crazy IMHO (Talk)--152.163.100.74 23:22, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Hello crazy! --DLL 18:38, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm positive that if this were true the literal HOARDES of geologists in California would have noticed =) --mboverload@ 20:45, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Impact creators are extremely dangerous. Do not go near one! Some say California is full of impact creators. Do not go near it! --Zeizmic 22:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

"The car wheel rim analysis"

how to do the car wheel rim analysis by using the ansys tool? wher i can get the informations on wheel rim<web>?

         --Shridhar vd 11:12, 28 May 2006 (UTC)shridhar

ventilation

When something says to use adequate ventilation, how much ventilation would be considered adequate? KeeganB

I'm not an expert, and I hope you will get advice from some, but when I'm doing anything that requires 'adequate ventilation', like using spray paint, bug spray, or corrosive cleaners, I use the following rule of thumb: I want as much ventilation as would be necessary to prevent a kitchen smoke detector from going off if I really badly burnt a couple of pieces of toast. I think the idea is sound: you're as sensitive to contaminants as a smoke detector, therefore contaminated air exposed long enough and in enough concentration to irritate a smoke detector would also irritate you. :-) What it means to me is either several windows that open all the way (on at least two different walls for a cross-breeze), or a strong suction fan (like a bathroom fan, not just a ceiling fan) plus an open window, or an open window and door. Other ideas include: call the manufacturer (they usually have 1-800 numbers) or call a poison control centre.--Anchoress 12:22, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

If in doubt, use a fume mask - even if only one of the cheap plastic/papier mache type. And work outside if at all possible. Grutness...wha? 12:41, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Good advice Grutness, but the problem is it's not only the safety of the person using the chemical; flammable products can build up enough gas to ignite if sparked, that's one of the other reasons adequate ventilation is so important.--Anchoress 13:00, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Mmm. good point. I'd forgotten to consider that. Grutness...wha? 01:52, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Is a Home Team Win a "Proven" Boon for Souvenir Shacks?

This is pro-ball season. The souvenir kiosks at the ball park seem to be busier just after a home team win than after a loss. Has there been a formal study that shows a positive correlation between home team wins and souvenir sales?--JLdesAlpins 12:39, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes of fucking course

L-number, fishkeeping, copying, and editing info

I recently added a page L-number which may need tidying.. This is not my main point - I have found a list of L numbers with associated info. eg scientific classification - it is an external link on the page - what I can't seem to find out is whether it's ok to copy and edit this info into an article (it would provide a usefull cross reference in future) or whether it's some sort of copyright violation etc. I would add wiki markups to the data but otherwise it would be pretty much a straight copy - can anyone advise whether this is a right or a wrong thing to do?HappyVR 12:49, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Wow, great! I noticed you're contributing a lot to pages about armored catfish, and wondered if you would do L-numbers, which confused me a great deal when I first ran across them. However, I would recommend asking this question on the Help Desk, as it's more a question about copyright than a technical question. In general, though, you should contact the original publisher and ask them to license the text under the GFDL before using it on Wikipedia. I have done this with images but not with text. --Ginkgo100 19:45, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks I'll try that.

If you're interested in L numbers the best place to try would probably be http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Nummer the german wiki page for the same thing - just needs translating. (or use a translation tool such as 'babel-fish' here - http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=de_en&url=http%3A%2F%2Fde.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FL-Nummer) which sort of works...HappyVR 20:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

nuclear energy

status of nuclear energy in india and the world--Mudasir dar122

Status: up and running. Do you need to know something specific the article on nuclear power does not address? (And there is an article on nucular. Amazing.) Weregerbil 15:42, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

but there is on nucular weapon. I'll add the other. You never know when George W. Bush might be searching Wikipedia. DJ Clayworth 17:23, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Why are all these computing related questions still here?

I thought we reassigned those to the math reference desk?--Frenchman113 on wheels! 14:15, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Possibly because Computer Science doesn't want to be shoved over with the math geeks. In my opinion, if it is computer science, it belongs in science. If it is math, it belongs in math. When it comes down to it, we speak English in the science RD and they speek math geek in the math RD. Just try to decipher one of their answers (or any math article on Wikipedia) without at least a BS in math (and the term "BS" really fits in this case). --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:44, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Believe me, Computer Science isn't about computers. It's about math =( Most of the computer questions are not computer science related, though --mboverload@ 20:51, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, almost all the questions we get are how to use software or what RAM to get. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 23:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

In Science Bowl, before the Big Recategorization, all comp-sci questions were...er...science. After that they became "general science". Math is a category too.

As Edsger Dijkstra once said, "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." --KJ 12:21, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Kainaw; I liked the Science reference desk much better when computer science was officially included in it. Now I have to check the Math reference desk too to be sure I'm not missing out. I mean, Slashdot includes Science-related articles in their repertoire, and yet not Math-related ones. Surely we can do the same? :) -- Daverocks (talk) 12:51, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Malpractice In The Scientific Community

How frequently do people fabricate their results and what motivations do they have for doing so? Are they scared of loss of funding if they don't show results - is it therefore the funders who are to blame for applying too much pressure? Did that Korean guy just do it to embezzle money? What other forms of malpractice occur? --Username132 (talk) 14:20, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Big Science has lots of pressures, mainly 'publish or perish', and funding. I don't have any links on the general philosphy, or ethical issues, but I'm sure there will always be a few who fall by the wayside. --Zeizmic 00:40, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Fall by the wayside? You mean scientists? That's probably what'll happen to me :'( --Username132 (talk) 02:40, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Scientific misconduct --GangofOne 05:18, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Google earth and browser feature

I viewed Google earth sometime back and found interactive navigation features that I thought were impossible in a web browser. What feature of the browser is it using? How can I turn the feature off (in Mozilla Firefox)? —Masatran 14:21, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Do you mean Google earth which is a separately installed executable program and doesn't run in a browser, or http://maps.google.com/ which does run in a browser? The latter uses something called Ajax (brace yourself for a flood of TLAs and ETLAs if you click the Ajax link). Weregerbil 15:36, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Mosquitoes vs. Ticks

I have read many times that when a tick is sucking your blood you must remove it with care to avoid its head or mouth getting stuck in your skin. This piece of information leads me to my question: when a mosquito is sucking your blood, and if you smack it, will the proboscis get lodged into your skin? If so, does this increase the risk of getting a disease? Thanks--71.98.16.114 14:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Mosquitos only stick their syringey thing into your skin. Ticks tend to lodge themselves into you so they're hard to remove. Mosquitos have no such problems. - Mgm|^(talk) 17:00, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Ewww. Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 18:24, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, there was mention if this regarding the West Nile virus by the Canadian health authories. They tried to get people to not smack-and-kill mosquitoes because of a concern of leaving virus-laden mouth parts in the flesh. I think this might have been a little fear-mongering without known concern however....though I have no medical proof either. To say nothing, of course, of people like my brother who like to pinch the skin around the bite while the mosquito is there, to trap it and force it to suck blood until it explodes on it's own greed. --Kickstart70-T-C 21:44, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Innate Cancer Treatment

I learned that the property of aging is there so that a cancer dies after its tolomeres get too short. How likely is it that a cancer will meet its demise because its cells have devided too many times? --Username132 (talk) 17:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Consideirng the number of 30+ pound external tumors I've seen (I think one was ~200 pounds) I don't think that's a factor. Interesting idea though. --mboverload@ 20:53, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I think I've read somewhere that cancer cells have fixed the telomere problem and are effectively immortal. My notion, which I don't have any real confirmation for, is that it takes at least two mutations to make a cell cancerous—one to remove the controls on division, and another to turn off the telomere clock. If a cell suffers the first but not the second, its line simply dies out as the telomeres expire. If that's right, then the purpose of the telomeres may very well be to prevent cancer; it could be that the first sort of mutation happens reasonably frequently, but usually harmlessly.

But then again it's not clear that the numbers really work out. I think you start with a count of about 50; 2⁵⁰ cancer cells is clearly more than enough to kill you. So maybe the situation is more complicated. If anyone knows more, I'd be interested to hear it. --Trovatore 21:02, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

If you plot the incidence of cancer against the age it occurs (in a double-logarithmic plot) you will find out that on average six mutations are needed for cancer to occur. Dr Zak 03:39, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

There are actually several things that have to happen to a cell (or a line of cells) for it to become malignant; see carcinogenesis. The problem of telomere shortening is addressed in the majority of cancers by the reactivation of telomerase, an enzyme which lengthens the telomeres. There's also an alternative pathway that's activiated in a minority of cases; both pathways allow cancerous cells to maintain their telomeres and evade the Hayflick limit. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Why aren't people with AIDS treated like

people with Severe combined immunodeficiency? They seem to be really similair, it should be pretty effective for them to just get in a bubble. A Clown in the Dark 20:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Because AIDS isn't that acute; SCI usually kills within a year, while those affected by AIDS can live decades. Also, while SCI only affects 1 in 100,000, AIDS affects 1 in 150, most living in countries which couldn't afford to provide sterile bubbles and associated treatment. And a lot of the infections that can affect those with AIDS were already present in the body, but lying dormant or latent, such as Toxoplasmosis. Incidently, the bubble treatment is now largely depreciated; bone marrow transplants can allow the body to start producing the white blood cells again (this won't work for AIDS however). smurrayinchester^(Talk) 21:32, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Why wont it work for HIV? If the virus is in the T4 cells, total body irradiation will kill all of those. Then you just hit them with enough antibodies to sequester the loose virus particles and give the patient more bone marrow. In fact, if you just use the haematopoetic stem cells, you could give someone an autologous transplant of the stem cells they need to get back on track.

Even if you failed to sequester all the virus, it would still revert the patient to an earlier stage of infection, right? --Username132 (talk) 22:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Aid's doesn't kill people, that lack of an immune system does, so total body irradiation would surely accalerate this process, making it worse. Also, there will be alot of the virus in the blood stream anyway the will just repopulate as more cells come back into the stream. Philc _T^E_C^I 19:35, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure you read everything I said. Firstly, sequester the virus using antiviral antibodies (viral titres are usually low until late on anway) and secondly I didn't say "leave them without an immune system". I said to give them an autogenic haematopoetic stem cell transplant to replace their immune system. --Username132 (talk) 22:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Ok, im my web-crawls trying to understand what you said, bacause in all fariness, I did misread your earlier comment, so my inital response was unfounded, I don't really understand the science of it, i keep getting long words mixed up but I did find this [4], which doesnt say much on the subject but it does say this, "One case has been reported of a patient with AIDS who contracted lymphoma and underwent syngeneic bone marrow transplantation while being treated with zidovudine. Although the patient died from recurrent lymphoma, autopsy revealed no evidence of persistent infection from HIV; however, the absence of subsequent reports on the use of HSCT in treating AIDS suggests that this approach has not been able to permanently eliminate the virus.", which implies people are aware of what you are trying to say, but they either don't believe it works, or haven't found a way to make it work. But it does raise another interesting point, if you are going to save people with AIDS, you need to do it quick, because they can contract anything at any point. Philc _T^E_C^I 00:09, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Ahh, but they didn't use Sean's patented formula. zidovudine just stops the virus trying to insert it DNA into T4 cells. If you mop up the loose virus first with antibody AND use zidovudine, then it will maybe be like they just got infected. I'm gonna email my immunology lecturer and see if he laughs at me... --Username132 (talk) 01:14, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thats pretty bitchy, patenting something that could save the lives of millions, and most of africa, who wouldn't be able to afford it if some dude wants a cut off everytime someone buys it. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:58, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Mahwell, thats capitalism for ya. Philc _T^E_C^I 11:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Well a) I'm left wing and I'm in this for the people, b) it's probably a bad idea anyway (I don't think you could sequester the virus easily due to all the variations) and c) you can't patent (I don't think) and idea that's already been disclosed to the public. --Username132 (talk) 16:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeh, sorry, I misread your post, and as a result you misunderstood mine, Zidovudine is patented and as a result, despite the fact a single dose costs in the region of 30p to make since the patent holder monopolizes the market, they refuse to sell it for less than £5 per dose. Philc _T^E_C^I 17:52, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Two new pages at least for biologists

Hi. I've two new pages for biologists and similar organisms to check. L-number and Pterygoplichthys. Please be gentle.HappyVR 21:28, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I Wikified and copyedited your Pterygoplichthys article and wrote it out in prose. You should avoid making articles of lists as they are difficult to read and notoriously inaccessible to the new user. Biology is my weakest science so I might have misunderstood a couple of your statements; please check my copyedit and make sure it's scientifically correct! Also, check some well made articles on similar topics (another genus article would be best) and it might help if you follow the same style, also including similar information. Other than that, thanks for being bold and keep creating useful articles!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:19, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that - I actually used otocinclus and ancistrus as a template for this genus - it used a list. It's very difficult to judge the readability of something oneself has written so thanks for looking at it. As far as I can tell your conversion is good - might have to make a subtle change regarding feeding but the original article was ambiguous in that respect.- I'm tempted to space it out a bit - Wikipedia: ‎Wikipedia:WikiProject Fishes suggests separate paragraphs for each subtopic. I just wanted to get the data in including the references.

Thanks to everyone for working on it - especially whoever added the greek characters.HappyVR 10:02, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Human powered hydraulic system

I might be cutting my own throat but I need some answers to continue my project. I am attempting to buid a hydraulic bike.I have the plans,the witness of the plan. What I need is where to find the equipment.I need...

• 1 small hydraulic pump (motor)peddel crank powered
• 1 accumulator
• and verious actuators and check valves. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.162.62.9 (talk • contribs) 22:40 UTC, 28 May 2006.

First of all, put the knife down. Second of all, I think the question you wanted to ask was, "How could I go about obtaining such parts?"  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  00:20, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

How would you do gears, without using gears, and then defeating the point of the project?.... Philc _T^E_C^I 19:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I suppose a hydraulic intensifier, something like this: http://www.hydraulicspneumatics.com/200/FPE/Pumps/Article/True/6404/Pumps would do the trick. I'm pretty intrigued by the design problem, now! One could use several intensifiers and a valve system to select which intensifier (gear) is powering the rear wheel. The drawback will be weight... hydraulic systems are heavy, finding miniature hydraulic components will not be easy. 71.112.123.204 18:59, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Cooking With The Door Open

If the grill is built into and enclosed in your cooker/stove, why grill with the door open? A lot of people do and it says to on the front of the cooker but I never do. Surely it is better to use a lower setting and cook with the door closed for energy efficiency? --Username132 (talk) 21:58, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

The old top-grills on ovens didn't have a temperature control. Thus, you would control the heat by the amount you left the door open. For modern counter-top ovens, etc, you leave the door closed. --Zeizmic 22:16, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Sometimes in baking with new counter-top ovens you are to leave the door ajar so the temperature does not vary. When the oven gets to a certain heat it turns off, then turns on again. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 23:55, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't really care if the temperature varies. I can't taste it when I bite into my fishfingers... --Username132 (talk) 02:38, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

If you're cooking something fatty - like sausages - with the door closed you can create a serious fire hazard, since the very hot fat will catch alight when it's suddenly exposed to air.--Peta 04:45, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Who you callin' fatty? --Username132 (talk) 10:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

And leaving the door open exposes it to less air!? Philc _T^E_C^I 19:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

It's less sudden. If you leave the door open, you get a steady stream of fresh air moving into the oven, and a steady stream of smoke from burnt fat moving out. If you leave the door closed, the little bit of oxygen in the oven combusts with a little bit of fat, and by the time the sausages are done, you've got a nice cloud of superheated, aerosolized fat just waiting for oxygen to react with, and opening the door could give you a fuel-air explosion. --Serie 21:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Fishfingers?? Are you from the UK? In the US we call them fish sticks, because they're little sticks of fish. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:48, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeh and we call petrol petrol, because it is petroleum, and a liquid, not a gas. Philc _T^E_C^I 19:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Ah, but we also eat chicken fingers, not chicken sticks, here in the States. --Ginkgo100 22:07, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Tomato / tomato (that doesn't quite work as well when not vocalised, but you get the point) Rockpocket 20:18, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I thought the question was about grilling. Taking a steak as an example: By "grilling", I assume you mean you want to use infrared electromagnetic radiation to sear one side of your steak to a controllable depth, then turn it around and do the same on the other side. This would be analogous to grilling over coals. Heat is applied only on one side of the food. That way you can have grilled/black outside and rare/red inside. If you close the door, you change the mode of cooking. The whole oven heats up, and you are cooking by convection plus radiation, so that your steak may be cooked through before you've even turned it around (plus you'd have extra loss of juices). So the idea of leaving the door open is that you cook by radiant heat only, not by convection. As a test, put an oven thermometer inside your "grilling" oven with the door closed, placed below your food to be shielded from the EM radiation. You'll see you can bake a cake at the air temperature found underneath your steak. So by closing the door, you are using the oven as a mixed grill plus bake/convect device. Nothing wrong with that, but don't expect gourmet blue steaks. --Seejyb 18:59, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't like steaks. --Username132 (talk) 22:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

May 29

spyware

people talk about needing more than one spyware program to remove everything. if i have the free version of ad-aware, does anybody have a suggestion for a good (FREE) other program i could use in conjunction with ad-aware to take more of those buggers out?

Spybot - Search & Destroy. TheMadBaron 23:27, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? —Keenan Pepper 23:30, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Hahahahh!!! What Operating System is he using?? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 23:56, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's a good one! --Zeizmic 00:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Would you mind explaining the joke? Is it funny because non-Windows operating systems rarely get spyware, or because ad-aware is a Windows program? --Bowlhover 01:23, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

i don't get the joke either, but i'm using windows xp

lol, Windows is the only OS that gets spyware. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:40, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

The joke is, the operating system is obviously Windows something because no other operating systems are known to get spyware. So Keenan's question was kind of weird. Also, Ad-Aware is Windows-only (TMK). --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 04:52, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it was weird. If only Windows systems ever got spyware, the answer to all spyware problems would be obvious. —Keenan Pepper 05:49, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Its obvious— get an Mac. :) — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:41, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Obviously. Everybody should get a Mac, like every self-satisfied Mac-head is forever suggesting. Then, when the majority of computer users are all hooked on Mac, you might actually be able to get software for it.... and all the virus writers, spyware pushers, spammers, crackers and script kiddies can go bother you guys, and leave those of us with real computers alone. ;) TheMadBaron 14:06, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

There are a number of reviews of these programs. My suggestions are in Boldface. My opinion: Microsoft's own anti-spyware (now called "Windows Defender", specific for XP) is free, seems as good as any, and better than most, in that I have not seen a review where other programs outperform it (even the ones you have to buy). It updates itself regularly. You may wish to install something like "Prevx" (home version) to try to prevent some of the rootkit problems - it detects attempted changes to registry settings and other basic OS files (get the "old" one, the new one is grossly intrusive, IMHO). Combine with an anti-virus such as "Avast!" (the home version is free), and you're about as secure as you can be. The distinction between anti-spyware, anti-virus/trojan, and rootkit detecting programs seems to be becoming less clear. A single intruder often get detected by all three the "different" programs that I use. Keenan is perfectly right about asking what system the questioner was enquiring about. We are never impregnable - Linux, Mac or not. Anyone who thinks otherwise is living in a fool's paradise. You can check the web for "virus Linux" and "virus Macintosh OS X" to see how virus-writers are taking up the Mac challenge - they have already succeeded (contrary to info given above; references are available) and will do so more in the future, especially as the users are deluded that they can be spyware or virusfree just because of an OS - which is why Apple downplays the security issue, so that virus-writers do not see it as so much a challenge. --Seejyb 18:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I must say that I have never had a good experience with a Mac. I My school has an Mac in the art class (becuase, apparenty, Macs are the best at architecture/drawing things et al) and I had finished my drawing and I wanted to print. I did so, and the printer wouldn't work (the almighty "chooser" function is horrible). After finally getting the paper into the printer, it got stuck half way through and then the computer crashed. I done this twice more to no avail. I finally got the solution to the problem by not moving the mouse, which is totally useless and barbaric. Nice little anecdota. I have never used the Mac since. Phew! Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 14:34, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Was it running OS X? OS X is fundamentally different from all previous versions. —Keenan Pepper 16:43, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Living for 1000 years??

I heard something on the radio last week about a medical procedure that will enable a person to live for "500-1000 years". Apparently it will be available in roughly 75 years and will be a result of the completion of the human genome project.

I can't remember all the details but it was something to do with cells in the human body that stop being produced around the age of 25, thus starting the slippery slope towards old age. This procedure will supposedly keep these youth cells firing for several centuries more than normal.

Firstly, I'm not insane (as far as I know) and secondly this comes from quite a reliable source on the BBC in England. Is this even possible and has anyone else heard of a such a thing? --Ukdan999 02:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure it's nothing to do with telomeres? --Username132 (talk) 02:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

A lot of bible figures in Genesis and Gilgamesh epics lived up to 900 years but these are religious stories and legends. Hmmm.--Jondel 02:44, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Somatic cells continue to be produced throughout your lifetime. It is absurd to think that they simply stop propagating at 25, otherwise your parents would no longer to be able to heal papercuts and things of that nature. Isopropyl 03:49, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

If it is at all true (I believe your sources are a little bit mixed up) I find it funny that they use the figure "in 75" years, which is basically like saying "right after all of you die".  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:59, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I expect you are referring to the beliefs of Aubrey de Grey, which were reported on the BBC recently because he is involved in some contest called the M-Prize: a $3.4 million award available to any scientist who can slow or reverse the effects of aging in mice. For the record, it is currently only in the realm of speculation. Rockpocket 04:14, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeh! what a way to keep the world population under control, increase everyones life span ten fold. Philc _T^E_C^I 19:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Preferably we wouldn't do it for everyone, Phil. Just for me. -lethe ^{talk +} 02:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Soundwaves

if a sound is loud enough, could it shift the planets? I know that sound cannot travel through space, because space has no particles in it. But planets are just a big cluster of condensed particles and, perhaps, if the planets acted as a single massive particles it would be possible?

As I understand it, sound requires the reverbration of molecules within the matter of the surroundings. If you are modeling the planets are single massive particles, your model would need to have collisions between the particles in order to propagate a wave. Isopropyl 03:47, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

well why couldnt there be collisions between the planets?

I dunno. The point is, sound waves can't travel through space, so they can't vibrate planets. Ask a planetary physicist, perhaps. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 ^{(T | C | @)} 04:50, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Outer space is a vacuum, so there can't be any oscillation of molecules, as sound waves require. Planets have collided before, though: see Giant impact theory and Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 04:52, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I know about space being a vacuum and i acknowledged it it my question, but waht about if the wavelength of the sound was similar to the distance between the planets, or if the sound was even bigger could it shift galaxies? Thank you all for the quick responses and just one more question, where does the average planetary physicist 'hang'?

Sound is particles vibrating. In order for a wave of sound to travel through a material, the particles have to interact by some force. For everyday situations, this is the electromagnetic force (e.g. when air molecules collide it's the repulsion of their electrons that stops them from going right through each other). The electromagnetic force between stars and planets is very small, because they are so far apart and have so little electric charge for their size. On the other hand, vibrations could travel between astronomical bodies by the force of gravity. Does anyone know of research into this area? —Keenan Pepper 05:41, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

seems my question wasnt quite as stupid as first perceived.

Keenan: gravity waves? Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 07:57, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Gravity waves: We're working on it. LIGO, LISA and Einstein@Home are some attempts at current to detect. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:32, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

No, gravity waves are waves in the field of gravity (spacetime) itself, right? Gravity waves can propagate in the absence of matter, so they're not analogous to sound. I'm talking about one star shaking and causing another star to shake because of the gravitational interaction between them, and so on. —Keenan Pepper 00:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Seems to me that in order for a gravitational phonon to propagate, it should have a very low frequency. I don't see why they shouldn't exist, gravitational waves from the Big Bang have cooled just as much as EM waves have, so the cosmic background gravitational radiation may have some slow oscillations. But I guess the problem is that the amplitude of oscillation would be so small as to be drowned out by random oscillations, collisions by specks of dust, that sort of thing. Gravity is really weak, after all. NB: I'm speculating here, I haven't done any back-of-the-envelope calculations to even guess at orders of magnitude.

Yeah, Keenan, that is right. For the guy right above me: Gravitational phonon? According to the article, a phonon is quantization of vibration occurring in a rigid crystal lattice. If you are pretty knowledgeable of the subject, can spacetime be treated as a rigid crystal lattice in this context? I don't see why not, its just that I've never heard that before. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:57, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Just some thoughts here: We're talking sound here, not EM radiation. You postulate that the wavelenght of the sound would be similar to the distance between the planets. OK. So a physical thing - a molecule, stone, rock, planet - physically moves "forward" from Earth (say) up to Mars (say), bumps it, and then returns to Earth (ignoring any oscillation or overshoot). Meanwhile the bumped molecule (Mars?) would travel "forward" on in space for the same mars-earth distance, sort of hoping it meets something solid to hit - to be able to propagate before it has to come back to Mars (i.e. at the far end of it's oscillation). Convenient if there were objects of similar mass at the right distance. Would that fit in with being a sound wave? I cannot see that that could be called sound by any stretch of the imagination, nor could it be detected by any sound-detecting device. What manner of thing would it be? Note the loudness of a sound is not caused by it's wavelength, but I think that your question may have implied that. The question would make more sense to me if the sound word were not there. --Seejyb 19:14, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Not all space is empty, of course, there exist dust clouds in which small sounds could propagate a short distance. Black Carrot 20:39, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

The interstellar medium is composed mostly (by volume) of hydrogen atoms, at a pretty density. (~2 atoms/m²?). By mass it is mostly composed of dust. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 21:12, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Looking for a particular perennial plant

I'm trying to help a friend find a plant. She thinks it's called something like "homburger". It's a perennial, and it has little green leaves. Unfortunately, that's about all she could tell me about it, so that didn't leave me much to search on. Can anybody suggest further avenues of research?

Thanks muchly.--SarekOfVulcan 04:39, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

With just that to go on, see if she recognises: Lobelia erinus. Cultivar: Hamburgia. Family: Campanulaceae. Size: Height: 0.33 ft. to 0.75 ft. Width: 0.33 ft. to 0.5 ft. Plant Category: annuals and biennials, perennials. Plant Characteristics: low maintenance. Foliage Characteristics: small leaves. Foliage Color: dark green. Flower Characteristics: showy, unusual. Flower Color: blues, pinks, purples, whites. --Seejyb 20:02, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll pass that on and let you know. Thanks!--SarekOfVulcan 15:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

HI, I'm the person Garrett was asking for. THank you very much!!!!

quantum physics

why, when electrons are fired one by one at a sheet with two slits, do the electrons hit the screen at the back in a wavelike scattered pattern. Why isnt there just two slit patterns left on the screen?

See Double-slit experiment, Wave-particle duality, and philosophy of quantum mechanics -- SCZenz 07:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

i dont understand them, can you put it in a more simple way?

Because electrons act like waves, rather than like particles, whenever you're not looking at them. In fact, everything does that, although the lighter a particle it is the more pronounced its wave-like properties are. Weird, isn't it? -- SCZenz 07:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

why though, how can an electron interfere with itself? sounds so sexual.

We don't really know. Yes, it is sexy. So sexy!! Excuse me, I need to interfere with myself. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:28, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Because it is a wave and not a solid particle. --Swift 03:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Its just diffraction isn't it? Philc _T^E_C^I 00:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

If I may, I'd like to add a rider to this question. In The Dilbert Future, he mentioned an alleged experiment (which he pointed out he didn't remember well and was probably misquoting) in which, when the light passing between two slits was measured, it came out one way, and when it wasn't, it came out another. To find out whether it was the act of measurement causing this or the existence of information itself, the alleged scientists involved decided to program their computer to erase any data coming in and tried again. It was, apparently, as though it wasn't being measured at all. Anyone familiar with this? Black Carrot 20:36, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

lol, that part is just a joke, but yes, there is some animosity in the physics community to whether observation of an action actually makes it happen. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 21:10, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Schrödinger's cat and Wigner's friend deal with this. Conscious 08:17, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Outlook Express print size

Does anyone know how to change the font size that prints from Outlook Express (plain text emails)? It went small a few weeks ago and I can't get it back to how it was. I can change the font size on screen just fine but this makes no difference to the printout. Thanks. --Shantavira 07:49, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about Outlook Express, but in Outlook it's File, Print, Page Setup.--Anchoress 11:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Anchoress, but that doesn't seem to be an option in Outlook Express.--Shantavira 14:09, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

That's too bad. Sorry I don't have OE installed, I'd check around for you. Another thing to check is if you've got a setting for something like 'scale to fit page'. Also, note that in Outlook you can get radically different menus when you have an email open versus being in the inbox; you might try checking the print menu (thru the drop menus, not the print icon) in both views. Or just check around the print dialog (if you haven't already).--Anchoress 14:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Aufwuchs and Periphyton

What are the differences between aufwuchs and periphyton if any. Are aufwuchs just epilithic periphyton? or does 'aufwuchs' include periphyton as well as larger animals (ie aufwuchs live in periphyton?). Should there be a link between these two and are there any related terms? HappyVR 09:49, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

High-elevation aircraft

Is there a specific name for airplanes designed for extremely high elevations (the kind where the pilot has to wear breathing apparatus)? High-elevation aircraft doesn't seem to be it. Angr (talk) 11:39, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

In aviation-talk, it's altitude, not elevation (that's for land-lubbers). --Zeizmic 11:42, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Okay okay, but High-altitude aircraft doesn't seem to be it either. Angr (talk) 12:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

That's when Googifying comes in handy! You will find that this does not merit an article, since all jet aircraft can top Mt. Everest where breathing equipment is necessary. If you go through the trouble of pressurizing the cabin, then you don't need anything, but fighter jets worry about bullet holes. The first really high high jet was the Lockheed U-2.--Zeizmic 12:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, the first jet for sustained flight at those altitudes. Interceptors like the F-104 Starfighter got that high first, though. Rmhermen 21:04, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm a little surprised we don't have an article on HALE aircraft, that is, aircraft designed for High Altitude and Long Endurance. moink 02:35, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

First Amendment Ruling

Just an interesting fact: I got from a blog that footnote 16 of the recent Apple Ruling cited Wikipedia (specifically Bulletin board system). I searched the rest of the ruling, and it turns out a couple more articles, including Firewire, Breakout box, Garage band, Asteroids (game), and Breakout were all cited in footnotes. Doesn't Wikipedia have a list of media references to itself? Another interesting note: the judgement mentions a "memetic marketplace" of ideas.JianLi 14:42, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Press coverage does. You could also check out the signpost. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 19:35, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Government signature for public key?

Is any government or other trust-worthy entity signing public keys of individuals? —Masatran 15:26, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Disabled Physicst

I want to know the name of the famous British Physicst, who is disable. What kind of Diability has he?

Stephen Hawking —Masatran 15:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

And as the article details, he has motor neurone disease (specifically, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 18:16, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Known in the US as Lou Gehrig's disease. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 19:23, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Known in wikipedia as a redirect to Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis --205.188.116.74 21:21, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Sturcture of compound

Hi,

Does anybody know what the structure of the active ingredient (i.e. P57) in hoodia is?. I will like to know. If you do kindly contact me on <email removed to prevent spam> Thanks

Dr Kay Akinnusi —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 137.122.187.99 (talk • contribs) 16:55 UTC, 29 May 2006.

The hoodia article is probably a good place to start. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 18:55, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Except that the article doesnt answer the question. Meaning that this was the right place to ask. A quick google search doesn't reveal anything though, and PubChem isn't going to be much use with such a proprietary and experimental compound. I'll keep looking for a bit. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 19:12, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

It looks like this PDF is an FDA application for a supplement in which Hoodia Gordonii extract is the active compound. My Adobe Acrobat is out of date though, so I can't see the text. Your answer is likely buried in there somewhere. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 19:21, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

It's supposed to be a plant steroidal glycoside (digitalis is another), see [5] and [6]. As with other drugs of this type, it is likely to be lethal if used incorrectly. There is a clump of Hoodia Gordonii growing in a reserve 1km from my house, and the South African Defence Force taught of it's use in survival courses 30 years ago, so it's not that new. I wouldn't touch the stuff with a barge pole, until at least the FDA has looked long and hard at what messing with inter alia your CNS eating control neurones does to a human in the medium to long term. The South American people chew coca leaves, but cocaine ain't a "natural remedy". --Seejyb 23:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Suckermouth fishes

As there was a 'red link' I have created this new page - not sure if it will need to be changed to "Suckermouth (fish)" in the future. Also not sure of the absolute necessity of this page. It does make a useful 'node' though. If I have missed any obvious species with 'suckermouths' please alter it or tell me, also the page might be a bit 'wordy' at present - needs a quick look - any volunteers?HappyVR 17:33, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

We can just move it if a disambig or a more popularly known species is found to be needed there. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 20:45, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

identifying a web server

I have the numeric address [71.225.167.171] of a web server I believe to have been used when my domain name was forged as the FROM: address on spam. How can I find out ownership, location, etc. for this server? --Halcatalyst 17:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Doing a whois 71.225.167.171 from here, I got:

Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. JUMPSTART-5 (NET-71-224-0-0-1)
                                  71.224.0.0 - 71.239.255.255
Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. PA-30 (NET-71-224-0-0-2)
                                  71.224.0.0 - 71.225.255.255

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-05-28 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

I don't know if this helps, maybe it's more of a lead than you had. Good luck. --The Gold Miner 18:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Comcast are a broadband ISP, and a Reverse DNS lookup makes it look as if this IP is in Denver. Wikipedia hasn't been edited from that IP (unless the user logged in). --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 18:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

What is the reason to assume that the IP address in question belongs to a web server. The common way to send spam is to infect millions of computers with a IRC bot and then command the bot to send your spam. The easiest computers to infect are ones that are connected to the Internet all day every day. So, a home PC connected to always-on broadband most likely has a bot on it that sends spam (or does DOS attacks or cracks passwords or tries to infect other computers...) --Kainaw ^(talk) 22:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for the reference to DNSStuff.com, which I followed up. According to this search, Comcast is a domain name server. It reports that there is no pointer (PTR) from the numeric address to a host name for [71.225.167.171]. Since "all Internet accessible hosts are expected to have a reverse DNS entry," and that such addresses are blocked by many mailservers, this must be a spam server hiding its identity. --Halcatalyst 00:19, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The search also shows that it's not located in Denver, but Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. It is most probably a desktop PC hijacked by a spam virus. Comcast is not a DNS server but an Internet service provider (ISP). The DNSStuff lookup just asked some DNS servers about the name of this IP, but couldn't find any. The DNS server belongs to Comcast, because this IP belongs to someone using a Comcast DSL connection. –Mysid^(t) 09:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Photoelectric effect and current

In the photoelectric effect, the higher the frequency, the higher the max speed of the electron.

So, does this mean that the higher the frequency of light, the higher the current produced by the effect? -- infinity0 20:47, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

See photoelectric effect--Light current 21:17, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah I see, thanks :) It was just hidden away in a passage about the history :S -- infinity0 21:31, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

High voltage power supplies

Why is it (in UK at least) that all high voltages seem to be based on multiples of 11. For example: 6.6kV?, 11kV, 33kV, 66kV, 132kv, 275kV ? 8-? --Light current 22:02, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

I am not an electrician, but it makes sense to me that all the "standard" voltages would have a common factor, since that means the winding ratios on transformers between those voltages are simple (for example, an 11kV to 6.6kV step down has a winding ratio of 5:3.) As for the specific values, not a clue - multiples of 11 would make sense with a 110V or 220V domestic supply voltage, but in the UK we have a (nominal) 230V supply that is in practice usually closer to 240V (or so I'm told, I don't go around sticking voltmeter probes into power sockets.) -- AJR | Talk 22:54, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Just a guess, but perhaps it all goes back to the 110 V chosen by Edison, according to Mains electricity#History of voltage and frequency, in 1882. The final message in this thread on physicsforums.com says that Edison chose 110 V for compatibility with his light bulbs. The fact that Edison used DC doesn't affect the choice of voltage, for reasons that are obvious to electrical engineers. --Heron 20:40, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Classical mechanics doubt

Say we have a physical system like this one: wall(fix point)|------ m1 ------ m2 ------|wall With m1 = m2 = m being massic objects and the "------" being springs. I'd like to know Newton's Second Law applied to both masses... I've figured something but still I'm not sure if my reasoning is correct... I get somewhat lost when such combinations are made. There's no friction, the springs in the sides are attached to the wall and the spring in the middle can move freely in the x axis. Thank you very much.

You have two coupled oscillatory systems. See damping.--Light current 22:07, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Apples

Do apples help keep you awake? --Username132 (talk) 23:23, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

They can do, especially if you try sleeping on top of them! 8-)--Light current 23:31, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

There's nothing about apples being stimulants in Apple, nor in this link. Why do you ask? --Ginkgo100 01:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, if the porno you're downloading onto them is interesting enough.--Anchoress 03:29, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Or if apples are used interestingly enough in the porno you are downloading. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 05:52, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

On a more serious note, they do provide water and sugar, and tend to be quite cool when you're eating them. Sugar can provide you with energy and cool water can wake you up a little bit, temporarily. So they could help you wake up a little, if you were trying to be more alert, but would be unlikely to affect your ability to sleep if you ate them just before bed. Skittle 11:00, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Terraforming and Space travel???

I have recently been researching both of these on this site and many other sites and I still can't fully understand how terraforming can be done. Can Mars be, in anyway, terraformed (even in future technology)? My other question is if space travel in the future can really be faster and how long would it take to get to another "Earth-like" planet outside our solar system? I'm writing a story about a terraformed planet (in the future, specifically 2163 for terraforming to begin and 2306 to finish). Also, I would like this planet to be Mars but I feel as if it won’t work because Mars, even with terraforming, would still be unsafe, or would it?... Oh, I’m sooo confused! Lol And then I thought I would make it a more distant planet with the same mass and distance from the sun but the problem with that is the time it takes to get there (I need it to be at least under a year). Even if we invent a ‘fast’ spacecraft, then you would be traveling so fast it would affect the people inside the gravitational craft (if that’s even possible) or you would hit something, damaging the ship! So, if you could please offer anything you know in the simplest of words for me on any of this or even links to sites would be great! Maybe a site offering just how this could be possible because I can’t find anything or I can’t understand it.

Please understand that I'm only 17 and don't understand science talk (Not that I'm saying I don't like science, because I love it!) ~Cathy~

It is highly unlikely it is possible for mars to be terraformed, as the earth has a molten core, the spinning generates a magnetic field giving the earth a Magnetosphere, which then deflects powerful solar winds thrown off the sun, these are potentially extremely harmful, and without the

Also terraforming, if possible, is expected to take in the region of 10 to a 100 million years, so don't be expecting anything by 2306. Philc _T^E_C^I 00:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Other people who have studied the problem are considerably more optimistic than PhilC. For instance, the loss of atmosphere would probably be very slow. In the long term, it may well be feasible to retrieve enormous ice-covered asteroids from the outer solar system and take them to Mars to replenish the atmosphere (as a baseline technology for doing this, you could consider nuclear pulse propulsion. But like gadfium says, read our articles. Some other books of interest might be Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars and Entering Space. Zubrin is an advocate rather than a dispassionate scientist, however, so don't take everything he says as the last word on the matter. --Robert Merkel 01:23, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit conflict] Well, if you want to terraform Mars, you have two major challenges: increase the thickness of the atmosphere, and raise the temperature. Luckily, Mars's existing atmosphere is carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas, so you can do both jobs at once. The problem is, where do you find enough carbon dioxide to do the job? Does Mars have massive amounts of CO₂ trapped under the ground? How would you get it out? How long would it take? How much would you need?

Then, once Mars does warm up enough, you'd need to get all that CO₂ out, because humans prefer not to breathe it. How would you get it out? How would you get the nitrogen and oxygen you'd need? And how would you shield from radiation?

The answers to all these questions are, like most of the good questions, unknown, but hopefully this will give you an idea of where to start. You might want to try some of the links in terraforming, or this article, or this article, or this one. I'd also suggest Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. -- Filliam H Muffman 00:59, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I didn't even think about Venus! I guess it’s because Venus is so hot and Mars is getting all the attention because we can go there NOW and not have to worry about that.

So what would happen if, theoretically, Mars is terraformed after a few (years, decades, centuries???)? Would it start to corrupt and go back the way it was after that time… or I’m I getting all this wrong? When, for example, you send those algae to Mars and it ‘terraforms,’ would it stick? And if it goes back to the way it was or whatever it does, how would it do that? Would the volcanoes erupt, for example? (I’m laughing at myself because I totally have no idea what I’m talking about AND I even researched a lot of this!)

OK, I just thoroughly confused myself, but at least I’m learning something… I hope. lol

~Cathy~

Oh... and thanks for all the links and book suggestions! I'm reading all the articles right now.

~Cathy~

I echo the Mars trilogy - granted, it's science fiction, but most of it is relatively realistic (if a touch optimistic! Liquid water and a breathable atmosphere in 200-odd years...). It even talks about colonisation (and terraforming) of Venus, with some very nifty ideas. You should be able to draw some inspiration from it.

Whether Mars would 'revert' depends on many, many factors - if there are no further active systems (eg plants) then, yes, eventually it will revert to its previous state. I stress eventually - this process could take many, many years. If there are "active" systems going on Mars (eg plants, factories spewing out oxygen and greenhouse gases...), then it should be possible to maintain Mars in its new, terraformed state. But the bottom line is, it depends.

I also noticed no-one took you up on your space travel question - as far as we currently understand physics, we can keep on building faster and faster ships, until we hit speeds approaching the speed of light. Faster than that is not possible (no, no warp drive :)). Stress currently because it's possible that, down the road, we may discover ways of getting around the speed-of-light limit (by curving space, using wormholes or whatnot). However, even staying below the speed of light, we can do some pretty serious exploring - the nearest star is about 4 light-years away, so ~10 years (at a reasonable speed) to get there. That's only about twice as long as the first long-distance ocean voyages in the 15th and 16th century, so it's reasonable. As to the nearest habitable planet, we don't know, we haven't found one yet, but a rough guess would put it at around twice that distance - so we're still in the realms of reasonable travel times.

If you need to get there in under a year, note that as you approach the speed of light, time slows for the travellers (relative to the outside) - so at high relativistic speeds (around 0.9 times the speed of light or so), the astronauts would only experience a year of passing time, while in the outside world, several years will have passed. Might that help you get around the problem of long journeys? Alternatively, generation ships (where the children of the astronauts who leave Earth arrive at the destination) or sleeper ships (where the astronauts spend the voyage in hibernation) are possible solutions.

Welcome to the wonderful world of sci-fi! :) — QuantumEleven 08:18, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Some amateur advice & a pep talk: Unless you want to do very much more research, use Mars. Much has been written about that already, so you can embroider and assume that many of the present difficulties are amazingly solved. Have you looked at the page How Stuff Works - Terraforming? At the end of the article you will find some useful links about your travel/spacecraft questions. Then come back and reread the Wikipedia articles on Terraforming and Martian Terraforming, it should be easier to follow then. Your 150 years is time for not much more than living inside a self sustaining protective dome environment of some sort - planetwide ecologies are staggeringly complex and slow. But for your tale, the big smash, million year, do the whole planet approach has obviously been replaced by the one small step at a time approach. The difficulty, danger and slow rate of achieving anything may be the very essence of your tale. You worry about ships smashing up; well accidents happen during travels; what about 2 of your 5 ships being enough to establish a "colony"? Earth is unsafe, how could a terraformed place not be unsafe, and the story of humanity is a tale of continuing in spite of dangers, failure and death. There is no reason why your people should be different. Write your about people, and assume solutions where you know of none. Write, instead of about large-scale terraformig, about the first real mars water collecting in a well, the first sheaves of corns growing and spreading in an acre where previously there was dust. The way they stop the oxygen leaching irretrievably into the hungry martian soil. The drops of progress that will one day, far away, coalesce into a river of change bringing life to a place which was once barren and uninhabitable. Write about humans and their strivings, fears, failures, successes, love, determination, evil, all we are, set in the struggle of transforming a world to a paradise they are destined never to see. Write about challenges faced and solved, even if you do not at first know how they could do it. Make a nitrogen machine, a magnetic shield generator, carbon dioxide fixing bug plants. If you identify a problem that needs solving invent a solving machine - like a 20km long particle accelerator that strips oxygen from rocks and CO2. Invent a breed of super-MacGyvers, using tools hitherto unknown. Write, just do it. 25 mins a day. And just carry on writing, don't try to perfect and justify or scientificize yesterday's writing. You will develop a flow. Later, or as you go on, you can ask opinions on the "details" and "impossibilties" from people who have such knowledge, but possibly no writing ability - they'd probably love to help, it's a fair swop of energy! And then you can start again, nothing is perfect first time. Go where your heart takes you, you may never be able to do it again. Stick to your guns. What could force you to stop, what feelings are your enemies? W S Churchill: Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. --Seejyb 04:22, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Hear, hear!! JackofOz 13:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

OK, I think I’ll go ahead and increase the amount of time for terraforming to complete. I’ll probable be changing the way I’ve gotten it written down about the way they live on this planet (With more of a dependence on technology).

So, roughly how long would it take to revert back to it previous state or could it be any amount of time depending on certain factors put on the planet? Does around 290 years sound good?

OK, let me just tell you what I have planned... Terraforming begins in 2123 and ends in 2317 giving it 194 years to do so. And by that time I need it too be habitable enough for the people on Earth to know it’s secure enough to live on so they can leave (because they definitely do not want to stay!).

So if I put ‘active systems’ on (I’m going with Mars since I discovered Venus has really long days and traveling space outside our solar system will take way too long) Mars and they keep everything going, how long would it take for the population to realize that something is wrong if they break down (Just to give you a hint… they have no idea about any of this. No idea about Earth, technology (to an extent), terraforming, etc. So they would have to know from the way they are feeling physically). I’m not completely dumb to put inexperienced people on a different planet. There’s a whole lot more to it, but I’d rather not tell… But there are a group of people who do know about all of this.

OK, now I’m thinking of just having a section of Mars terraformed…

Just to tell you, I’ve been writing this story for over a year now, so it’s getting kinda hard for me to change things around because if I change one thing, everything changes and it’s a big mess! lol (but it’s not completely restricting. I still change a great deal, but for some things, I just can’t…)

Thanks for the bit of inspiration! It helps, especially after a year of writing!

I’m totally going out and buying those books now! Lol

~Cathy~

Just so you know, its generally accepted that it will take atleast 10 million years to terraform mars, though many believe it to be more like well over 100 million years. Philc _T^E_C^I 22:21, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I know... but it's a fictional world where anything is possible. Plus that does apply to real life too, though. :) Who knows? In a 100 years, maybe it will be possible. I mean, look at airplanes... we can now fly from New York to Switzerland in around an hour! That's amazing and something that people once thought impossible. So, time will tell. Advancements in technology happen every day. Just look at where we were 100 years aago.

~Cathy~

Yeh, but 50 years ago they said we'd be catching space busses to the moon for laughs by now. Philc _T^E_C^I 00:46, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, that is why the future is so great... it is unpredictable. We can try our best at guessing, but it's never 100% accurate, now is it? Kinda like statistics... we can make an approximation of how many people do this or that or get this or that, but the truth lies in the factors that affect that. For example (and this is just some random example)… in Sex Ed. our teacher told us that 1 in 3 teen girls are pregnant before they get out of high school. Well, you can’t just pick 3 random girls and expect just one to get pregnant. What if all three are girls with a motivation to have some great career or their sister had gotten pregnant and they know what it’s like (and I’m talking from experience here for that one)? Well, you just found out more factors that make the chances of pregnancy decrease… And it’s still not 100%.

Plus, I like a great sci-fi show where it doesn’t take itself completely serious, otherwise where’s the science fiction if you don’t add fiction to it? That’s just my opinion…

~Cathy~

Quite the contrary. Assuming that statistic is correct, you can pick three random girls and expect one to get pregnant. It doesn't mean that one will, just that the chances are good that one will. (I'll leave it to you to work out what those chances are.) That's how statistics works. -- Filliam H Muffman 02:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

• Sorry, read your post badly. -- Filliam H Muffman 02:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I never said that statistics could not get 1 in 3 sometimes, but that doesn't mean it's going to work every time for every three. Let's say every teen girl had a 33% chance of getting pregnant before getting out of high school. Well that, for me anyways, would be lower since I've experienced what a teenage pregnancy does to change your life with my sister. So my chances would be different. Don't get me wrong, I do like statistics... all I'm saying is that you have to consider your factors of 'chance' and they'll be even more accurate because you incorporated those factors. Statistics take the whole population (or what ever you're trying to figure out) and averages.

Besides, I was just trying to make a comparison with the future... the more factors you know about the world right now helps you to predict what might happen.

~Cathy~

If you want recommendations for science fiction books about terraforming, I rather liked Building Harlequin's Moon, even though I've not much liked anything else recent by Larry Niven.-gadfium 09:27, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Z Finger proteins

I have been hearing about a recent medical treatment referred to as Z Finger Technology. I would like to know the name of the company in California, U.S.A., currently holding majority of patents. Z Finger, so named as having finger like proteins. Is to have multiple treatment uses in the repair or alteration of genes. 1st technique invented by Dr. Aaron Klug, 1986. Treatments targeted are; Cancer, Diabetes, HIV - AIDs, Alzheimers, Cardiovascular & much more. Thanks, Joe, <-- email removed -->

Zinc Finger (Warning: Very POV): Read [7], and you'll find the company name. It's essentially a way of altering cell protein production, by changing what DNA encodes - switching things on and off at different places. At present something of a monopoly. Presently nothing to deliver (so expect hype and false science), and if anything does pan out, what moral justification for making such treatment - as the company claims it could develop - available only to the rich (which would be a likely end result). The "Treatments Targeted" (I assume you mean diseases targeted for treatment) could as well be a list drawn up by a school kid answering the question: "For what diseases would you like to see cures being developed?" And so much of it based on other peoples' work, a wonderful global co-operation to find out what is inside our genes. I may be cynical, but to me it's money, hype, money, hype, money, money, money. Until proven otherwise. --Seejyb 01:01, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

You would be talking about Sangamo BioSciences. But this link would suggest not to believe everything you read. Rockpocket 00:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Zinc finger proteins? --Username132 (talk) 00:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

May 30

thought speed

At what speed do thoughts travel? What about emotions: how fast do these travel?

Nervous impulses, which I suppose is what you are reffering to travel at anywhere from 1 to 120 metres per second. Depending on how you define emotions, you may be refering to nervous impulse, or hormones, which take from minutes to weeks to affect. Philc _T^E_C^I 00:39, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Some hormones, e.g. epinephrine which plays a central role in the short-term stress reaction, take only seconds to affect. –Mysid^(t) 09:15, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Some believe the brain is a quantum machine, in which case thoughts can be two places at once and even go backwards in time. Weird, huh? —Keenan Pepper 16:29, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

mmm, if it was wouldn't we have unlimited ability to process information and never have to forget anything. As isn't a quantam computer like the holy grail of electronic science or something... Philc _T^E_C^I 00:51, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

No. Quantum computers are weird, but they're still limited. —Keenan Pepper 20:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Losing your erection after jerking off?

Is this normal? I've read lots of sex stories and read kiss-n-tells in the newspapers where it's said that guy cums and just starts going again straight after with a full-on boner. When I cum, I lose my boner afterwards and can't get it back for a couple of hours.

I'm quite worried about what will happen when I have sex with a woman, that she'll think I'm not up to the job if this happens. Can you help?

Yes, this is entirely normal, and it's called the refractory period. — TheKMan^talk 01:46, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Which is the reason why most kiss 'n tells are fabricated and stories are just that. The body needs to to 'reset' itself and generate more sperm. Some people believe so called "tantric sex" techniques can assist in enhancing sexual performance. Both in terms of duration and frequency. Sting swears by it. However don't worry about it too much, its highly likely you will be fine with the time, er, comes. ;) Rockpocket 02:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I could be wrong, but I don't think the refractory period is due to the need to produce more sperm. In my short time that I had to search for it, I couldn't find much on sperm production rates or anything like that, but I doubt all the stored sperm is used in one ejaculation. Can anyone expand on this? EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 05:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Which newspapers?--Anchoress 05:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you are partly right. I was speaking in simplified generalities (which isn't very helpful when some one asked a specific question, i admit). Sperm is produced continuously and therefore the refactory period is not required to specifically generate more sperm from scratch. However, the number of sperm per ejaculate is significantly decreased when one ejaculation closely follows another, so the time is required for the sperm on the "production line" to mature to optimal levels. The refactory period is also required to generate more semen to carry the sperm. Ejaculate volume is corrolated with the time since last ejaculate. These are all "reasons", but the mechanism is due to a sympathetic override of the parasympathetic nervous system (which is also why, when your mother walks in mid-masturbation, you tend to lose the erection pronto). Hope that is more clear. Rockpocket 06:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll note that the refractory period is usually quite a bit shorter than the time it takes to (re)generate significant amounts of mature sperm. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 12:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

A girl can keep you going. Or hrm... After reading the refractory period article, maybe I'm just one of the few who can keep it up after cumming. - R_Lee_E (talk, contribs) 07:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, the other major factor is youth. I see you are a student. Men aged, say 14-21, will often be able to reachieve, or even maintain, erections soon after orgasm. Sadly, its downhill from there on in, so enjoy it while you can. Rockpocket 07:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

What's to enjoy after the fun's been had? --Username132 (talk) 11:55, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I could tell you but that would spoil the surprise. Just wait and see and you never know what might happen.  :--) JackofOz 13:35, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Read Only Folders

My entire hard drive seems to have spontaneously been marked as "Read Only", which is a problem. I've tried to uncheck it (and it even asks if I want to do all the subfolders and such) and it looks like it's working, but at the end of the process nothing has changed. Does anybody have any idea how I could correct this problem? I've tried restarting, but nothing seems to work! --ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 02:23, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Should we assume you're using some Windows variant? Dismas|^(talk) 05:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

You give us very few info. The most common cause for this is having a read-only Desktop.ini file in the root folder (C:\, or generally <drive-letter>:\). Try removing the read-only attribute from that file. If it doesn't appear in the Windows Explorer try this at the command prompt:

attrib -r <drive-letter>:\Desktop.ini

Please, let us know if this solved the problem. —Gennaro Prota^•Talk 12:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I am in fact using Windows XP on a relatively new Dell Inspiron laptop. I tried the fix Gennaro Prota suggested, but even in the command prompt I was told the file was not found. I also checked the desktop.ini files found in the C:\Windows folder and the C:\Windows\system32, and found that they were not checked as read-only. I guess certain files and folders are open to writing, but it looks like every folder I would be using is not. I'm very confused by this. --66.214.253.134 12:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Don't panic, it's Windows :) One thing: when you clear the read-only check box and then choose "apply to all subfolders and files as well" do the contained file attributes change? If so, then you might just use attrib on the folder, for instance:

attrib -r C:\My Folder

Notice, however, that if you remove both the system and the read-only attribute from a customized folder you will lose your customizations; if the problem is that some programs don't allow to save files in such a folder you might want to remove the read-only but leave, or add, the system attribute, as follows:

attrib -r +s My Documents

Don't hesitate to ask again if this doesn't work for you (or if the answer to my initial question is "no"). —Gennaro Prota^•Talk 18:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

North Star

Can you tell me the simplest way to identify the North Star. I do not know what to look for in order to find. Please spell it out so clear that i can follow step by step instructions on this article in order to find it. Thank you.

The way I normally find it is to locate the Big Dipper and then follow the line that is created by the two stars that make up the edge of the bowl of the dipper on the side opposite from the handle of the dipper. By following this line in the direction of the "opening" of the bowl of the dipper, they point to the North Star which is also the last star in the handle of the Little Dipper. The rest of the Little Dipper is generally harder for me to see since the stars aren't as bright in that constellation. Dismas|^(talk) 05:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

P.S. After checking the links I supplied, I see that this is spelled out with diagrams on the page for the Big Dipper. Dismas|^(talk)

But don't use the official flag of Alaska, that is shown on the big dipper page as a map! The north star is nowhere nearly as bright as the flag suggests. Use this link instead, and you will find a better map. --vibo56 19:13, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

intrauterine photos that appeared in Life magazine in the ? 70s

I am trying to find the name of the person who did photos of living fetuses. It was the cover photo of Life magazine in , i believe the 70s. I thought his name was Nilson. Cant find this in the LIfe.com site nor by searching google . ANyone have any ideas? thank you!

How about your local - but if possible well-stocked, meaning the larger the better - library? Wouldn't they have an archive of back issues? --Ouro 05:49, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

This one's real famous. The photographer was Lennart Nilsson. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 06:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

And the issue is April 1965. I'm surprised there aren't any good scans of it on Google Images. --Fastfission 03:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Running a fullscreen program in a window

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this kind of question, but does anyone know of a way to run a program which usually runs in fullscreen mode in a window? I'm using windows xp, and the program in question is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. There is no option within the program to run in a window. Is there anything I can do to get it to run in a window? Thanks. NoIdeaNick 05:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know how to do it unless it asks you. Did you check the options, preferences, or controls? In Age of Empires games and Halo you can run it in a window — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 06:07, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

According to the readme, all the options like that are changed using the INI file, but there doesn't appear to be anything useful in it. Some games will load in a window if "-w" (without quotation marks) is added to the end of a shortcut target, but this doesn't seem to work either. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 06:20, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I assume you've tried the obvious Alt-Enter. --Heron 20:22, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I've tried all that, but none of it works. I was wondering if there was a more general solution. I came to the point of downloading Microsoft Virtual PC and running it inside that, but that seemed pretty extreme. NoIdeaNick 23:52, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Chromatophores

Hello Scientists. I know this isn't really the place, however, i wonder if i could get a few opinions on the chromatophore article? I requested a peer review, but have had no takers. I'm trying to get it to good or featured article status and would like the opinion of intelligent non-experts, on whether it is too technical, not technical enough or whether anything is missing. Would appreciate it any comments. Thanks. Rockpocket 06:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Looks very nice! Don't see anything wrong with it. Good references, and external links. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:51, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the article is well-written, interesting, and visually pleasing. The article contains many technical terms, and it could be made more accessible to non-expert readers by making sure that the meanings of these are explained when introduced, or that there are links to pages defining them. An example: the sentence beginning with "Biochromes, such as pteridines and carotinoids...". In context, I suppose it is clear that biochromes are a subset of chromatophores, but I had to stop and think, and read the sentence a couple of times. There is a page (stub) called pteridines, a link would have been helpful if the link points to the correct molecule. Even a term such as de novo could have confused a non-expert reader, especially because the disambiguation page for de novo had a definition of de novo in the biological sense that was, in my opinion wrong ("newly synthesised", instead of "synthesised from simple building blocks". I have fixed that now.) But all in all, a very interesting and thorough article. --vibo56 19:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. Actually, a 'biochrome' is defined as a 'pigment produced by an organism' (as opposed to a schemochrome, which is a colorless organic substance that reflects or refracts light). These aren't types of chromatophore per se, just different ways of generating colour. Its clear that that particular sentence can be improved, i'll work on that. Thanks again. Rockpocket 03:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

My pleasure. I have added some additional comments on the Chromatophore talk page. --vibo56 18:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

how do prawns sleep?

After going prawn fishing at a prawn farm my daughter has asked me a question I can't find the answer too:

How do prawns sleep? --S.ferguson 07:39, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Since prawns are fish, these links will help: [8], [9] and this link (which I think will be the best becuase it is frmo the Discovery Channel, [10]. Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 14:42, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually, prawns are Crustaceans. Mammals, birds, and fish sleep, but I believe prawns do not "sleep". I do believe they undergo some sort of period of inactivity, like most other creatures. — TheKMan^talk 14:47, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Even if they do sleep, how would one answer the question? How does anything sleep? I guess they just drift off. Perhaps in a crevice with their feet up? In a skampie nightie?--Shantavira 18:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps they dream of crustacean sheep?

• Groan. -- Filliam H Muffman 02:30, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your help -- S.ferguson 08:15, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Snails

i heard or read somewhere the snails 'fire darts' at each other in order to have sex, is there any truth in this?

Garden snails do this, although it apparently doesn't matter too much if the darts miss.[11] They just increase the number of sperm surviving in the snail hit by the dart. However snails that miss transfer more sperm, perhaps to make up the difference. [12] -- Avenue 08:46, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Isn't that also in the snail article? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 10:36, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Not that I could see; nor in the Garden snails article. It probably should be. -- Avenue 10:52, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Well some more trivia then. The organ that the dart comes from is called the dart sac. It deserves an article too.—Pengo 13:30, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Screaky sounds

Why do screaky sounds (like hitting a plate with a fork) cause chills? –Mysid^(t) 09:44, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

It is similar to fingernails on a chalkbord. I think it is because our subconcious mind can associate it with a fear but also it is just a plain weird sound that makes me think of an icecold wasteland.

I would be very interested in knowing where these reactions come from, especially because i suffer heavily from the chalk on chalkboard thing. It really gets to me somehow SanderJK 12:13, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

For me, the sound tenses the nerves that run through my jaws - the same nerves that tense when my teeth grind together by accident (or if I bite down on a fork or bone or something similar). There maybe some relation there. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:58, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

There are some interesting theories on Bill Beaty's Science Hobbyist website here. There is no definite conclusion, but Bill's tooth-scratching theory is the best one I've heard. --Heron 20:19, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Interpretations of Quantum mechanics

how does many-worlds interpretation and transactional interpretation describes the quantum version of the double-slit experiment?

Click on the links. Just type it in the box next time. --Mac Davis 20:56, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Measuring percentage in gas

Air is normally 79% Nitrogen. Is this litres, weight or quanta (mol?)? Henning 11:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Volume (litres). See Air#Composition. –Mysid^(t) 11:43, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

My current level of high school chemistry also suggests that proportion by volume and the number of moles are roughly equivalent for gases for a given temperature and pressure, so 79% by volume would imply 79% by moles. This might be an over-simplification though given that it is high school. 81.157.113.170 11:57, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Avogadro's law says that an ideal gas has the molar volume of 22.4 l/mol, and that real gases "may deviate" from this value. However, mole (unit) states that all gases have the molar volume of 22.4 mol/l, so I guess the deviation is pretty small. –Mysid^(t) 12:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The figure from NASA is 78.084, not 79. It's the percentage of the total number of molecules in a volume of dry air at STP, or parts (molecules) per million divided by 10,000. If you add 5% water vapour, it becomes 78.084% of the part of the air that is not occupied by water vapour, i.e. 78.084% of 95%. --Seejyb 22:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Hilariously, I saw a pamphlet for an Oxygen bar the other day that claimed the air contained half as much oxygen today as it did 100 years ago. In that case, I wondered why everyone wasn't investing in trees and hoarding oxygen tanks. Oh, and I don't recommend inhaling (supposedly) 95% oxygen if you don't need it; it just made me feel ill until I lowered my blood oxygen again. Skittle 01:16, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

An oxygen bar claimed that air used to be over 40% oxygen?! You're right, that is hilarious. There'd be forest fires every five minutes. -- Filliam H Muffman 02:33, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

The composition of air given in the article yields about 75.6% nitrogen by mass. Conscious 07:51, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

THEME PARK PROJECT

Could anybody help me with a project I have? I need to take 5 rides you could find at a theme park and show how the ride works in a powere point using both pictures and text. The preselected rides for me were: 1)Free Fall Tower 2)Swings Ride (specifficaly the Star Flyer)** 3)Bumper Cars 4)Log Flume 5)and the Swinging ship ride that flips all the way over.

PS: I also need to find the saftey systems such as harnasses and emergency braking systems,power outages etc.

• • - Star Flyer

THANX A BUNCH

--Devol4 11:58, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Have you checked our article on amusement rides? There's a pretty comprehensive list of different rides (at least log flume and bumper cars are there). By the way, people at the Reference Desk are usually reluctant to do other people's homework. :-) –Mysid^(t) 12:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Here are some thoughts on the physics involved in each ride:

1)Free Fall Tower: Free fall under standard Earth gravity (g = 9.81 m/s^2).

2)Swings Ride (specifically the Star Flyer)**: Centripetal force in equilibrium with g (use a force diagram to find the resultant force and direction).

3)Bumper Cars: Perfectly elastic collisions.

4)Log Flume: Buoyancy.

5)and the Swinging ship ride that flips all the way over: Centripetal force which exceeds g.

StuRat 22:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

• I'm surprised you didn't include a rollercoaster, but I'd sure give you points for originality. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:24, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

vaccination

dear sir / madam
>
> how many vaccination a year in uk?
> how many people die as a result of not being vaccinated a year in uk?
> what is advantages and disadvantages of vaccination?
> what is the costs a year, if we vaccinated or if we don't?
> should communities get educated on vaccination,"eg schools"?
> what is the future of vaccines for certain disease "eg
> aids,malaria,smallpox"?
> what is the statistic of vaccination to the world?
>
> thanks
>
>
> andy royle
[email removed]

(I have removed your email address to hide it from spambots. –Mysid^(t) 12:30, 30 May 2006 (UTC))

Well, the "homework vaccine" is a common vaccine used to innoculate people against having to do homework. Unlike many conventional vaccines delivered via syringe, the "homework vaccine" is delivered via Internet. Once vaccinated, recipients merely redirect all of their questions to resources like this one and count on volunteers to do their homework for them. The homework vaccine is truly a miracle of modern science! --MattShepherd 13:09, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

This one is worst than most. A mere book is requested. An accurate answer to each of those questions would be the equivalent of a term paper project or a long review article in a medical journal or a textbook chapter. Andy, there are already books on immunizations that have the answers to most of those questions. The answers here are off the tops of our heads in most cases. Here are the equivalent answers to your 8 questions in order: 1. lots; 2. zero or very few; 3. reduced chances of getting a disease versus a jab in the arm; 4. lots of money versus even more; 5. of course; 6. some will be discontinued, some improved, some new ones will appear; 7. the "statistic of vaccination to the world" is 42. alteripse 16:48, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure I agree with your answer to number 2. If someone dies, it's nearly impossible to determine whether it's from not being vaccinated, but enough people don't want to be vaccinated because of religious concerns. To properly answer that question, you'd need to know how many people aren't vaccinated to begin with. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:22, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

PS: Vaccination. --ByeByeBaby 17:27, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

User:Alteripse forgot to provide the link to the statistic you requested in question 7. Here it is. You might also want to browse the WHO web site, this subpage might be a start. --vibo56 21:17, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

You can't handle the tooth

Why don't we have one tooth that goes all the way around on both the top and bottom instead of all those different teeth? What is the evolutionary advantage here? Is it just so we can have cool-sounding names like molars, incissors, and bicuspids?

Fault tolerance, maybe? Damage to, or a cavity in, one tooth won't necessarily spread to other teeth. Allowing the teeth to move – just a little bit – relative to one another probably helps to spread out loads on the teeth. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 12:47, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

I can only speculate here. It could be that teeth evolved from scales, so they started as individual units and haven't changed from that. Some teeth seem to have fused together from multiple primative teeth (molars) but i'm not sure if that's really the case—They might just be big teeth. Birds have beaks, which is another way of doing it, and so have lost their teeth. —Pengo 13:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Primitive tetrapods had multiple teeth which were replaced when they fell out. Mammals are unique among tetrapods in that our teeth have since become extremely specialized -- so much so that paleontologists routinely study and classify fossil mammals based only on their fossilized teeth. Each tooth is shaped to fit just so with the faces of the teeth in the opposing jaw. This is because the small, warm-blooded early mammals needed the added efficiency of such excellent teeth in order to get maximum energy with minimum expenditure from their food. Mammal teeth are worthless without the perfectly fitting opposing teeth, so mammal teeth have a limited number of replacements -- if they dropped out willy-nilly like the teeth of reptiles and sharks, the mammal would be unable to eat until the new tooth grew in. In many modern mammals such as humans, having perfect teeth (functionally, not aesthetically) is less critical to survival, although still very important. --Ginkgo100 15:10, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thowing in some engineering here: Our individual teeth have considerable latitude to move, and mesh with the opposing tooth (on a slow basis). It's an equilibrium system, like Silly Putty. --Zeizmic 17:00, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Multiple teeth has the advantage that they can adjust well as your jaw grows in childhood. – b_jonas 20:07, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

And losing your baby teeth would be a lot more traumatic if there was just one big one on top and one on the bottom. (... the tooth fairy would need to leave the poor kid a credit card, LOL.) StuRat 21:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

"The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth." StuRat 21:54, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Converting .rm to other formats

How do one convert realplayer formats to other formats such as .m4a or .wav, .mp3? I tried some softwares but they need RealPlayer to be installed. Are there anyways to convert them without necessary installing RealPlayer? Thanks!

I think you simply click on the file, press F2 to change the file name, remove the file extension you don't want, and then change it to whatever. Just so you know, if you change it to wav or wma, you can't change it out again! Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 14:45, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Huh? --Ouro 15:04, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, that does a good job of changing the file name, but the data will still remain in RealPlayer format. — TheKMan^talk 15:11, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Ignore that last answer. Changing the name of a file doesn't change its contents. To convert a RealAudio file to another format you need something that can play RealAudio files (like RealPlayer) and you need some way of making it output to a file instead of your soundcard. There are programs that can capture the data sent to your sound card and save it as uncompressed audio (for example a wav file). To convert to a compressed format like m4a or mp3, you need another piece of software to encode it. Keep in mind that converting from one lossy data compression format to another is never a good idea, because the quality suffers even if the file doesn't get any smaller. —Keenan Pepper 16:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

A tutorial is here. –Mysid^(t) 17:02, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

mplayer will do this nicely. Use the -ao pcm option to get raw WAV output, and then reencode that. Dysprosia 22:41, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

MediaWiki codebase

Just what is its size? A souce would be appreciated. Thanks, Ingoolemo ^talk 15:25, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

The source is available at mediawiki.org. There you can check the size of the compressed tarball, and alternatively unpack and count the total code size yourself. User:Sverdrup 15:37, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

My copy of 1.6.2 seems to be 8.3 MB, with 4.3 MB devoted to support for other languages. Dragons flight 15:40, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Hmm... How hard would it be to delete language support if it is an English-only Wiki you want? I think the big problem is that when you upgrade you have to remove the languages again. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:06, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

fingerprints

could someone please advise who first started the fingerprint system? and what year. thanks.

Have you read our article on fingerprints yet? — Lomn Talk 18:33, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

no, did not know there was ne. last time i was on wiki was over 3 months ago. sorry.

Interesting as the history seems to suggest that article has been around since 13 September 2002 :P -Benbread 12:13, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

nice, but i did not know about wikipedia until 6 months ago and not having a computer at home makes if difficult for me to access. but thanks for the sarcasm.

Honey, We're Killing the Kids

The BBC broadcast this show over here, and apparently there's a US version too, in which parents are advised on how to give their kids a healthier lifestyle. One of the more revolting parts of the show is the bit where the parents are presented with CGI images of what their children "would look like" if they carried on living unhealthily. The section starts with a wee montage showing skilled technicians (white coats, spectacles etc) beavering away on Apple Macs.

So, my question is - does this "aging" software exist? Or are they just messing around with Photoshop until they find an image revolting enough? Thanks --The Gold Miner 18:50, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Sure. It's used by police to guess what people who have been missing for several years may look like if still alive. For a shock-value show like that, though, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a significant Photoshop factor too. —Zero Gravitas 19:24, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks - so is it, or anything similar, available commercially? --The Gold Miner 21:34, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Update: for anyone interested - I had a bit of a Google. I didn't find the swanky white coats and spectacles software, but www.infoscotland/experience and www.perceptionlab.com claim to be able to do similar things. The latter also apparently let's you see other changes such as if you were a different race. You upload a photo etc etc. I haven't tried it yet. --The Gold Miner 00:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Also, if I may add, that part of the show is more to scare you and the victims on the show out of leading excessively unhealthy lifestyles, than to be accurate. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:52, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Hardness of Coal

Hi,

Could you please tell me the hardness of coal?

Thank You! CAra787

It varies. Hard coal is also called anthracite coal, soft coal bituminous coal. None of those articles gives a specific degree of hardness, however. --Ginkgo100 21:24, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

One of them is pretty hard—like a rock, and the other is pretty dusty and crumbly and soft. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:38, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for clearing that up. =) --Ginkgo100 19:13, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Our mineral article gives a list that form the Mohs scale. Mnemonic for the list : "The Girls Can Flirt And Other Queer Things Can Do". Pick one of each minearl item and rub you coal against to measure the hardness, it should be between 3 and 4. But why that question ? --DLL 17:59, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Conversion of Units

How do you convert a number in the units mg/kg to the unit mg/kg-1 (that reads mg/kg[to the power of]-1, read negative one, not minus one)? Thanks.

sorry, I don't --Seejyb 23:07, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, mg/kg=1^–6 (unitless), and mg/kg^–1=mg*kg=1 gram². I suppose you need some sort of constant to convert from one to the other. — TheKMan^talk 23:08, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

mg/kg⁻¹ sounds like an odd unit to use. Are you sure you don't mean mg kg⁻¹? Because that's just another way to write mg/kg. They are the same "unit", though not really a unit but a dimensionless number. –Mysid^(t) 08:06, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Quantum Chemsitry

Hi, i was wondering what goes in and out of a blast furnace, also what is what benefits does it have in explaining the thesis of quantum chemistry (reference page 89 quantum chemistry, Chemistry is for life, Dr. John Parker).

Thanks for your help. I look forward to your wholesome replies

-Prof. Alex Rawsthorn

Are you testing us? You shouldn't use your real name, people will just think you're making it up anyway. Googlifying on this rather obscure question leads one to the Earth's inner core, made up of solid iron, and it is a single crystal because of quantum effects. [13] --Zeizmic 00:03, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

All of chemistry is a quantum effect. --BluePlatypus 07:39, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I must admit I am not familiar with the thesis of quantum chemistry. Can you tell it? For what goes in and out of a blast furnace, see blast furnace. Here is one animated interactive diagram of one kind of blast furnace [14]. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Curiously Dr. John Parker (if that is his name) has made some posts here aswell. Both are unconvincing at best regarding wether they are doctors or not. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

May 31

Laptop screen size

Looking into laptops for older users, and wondering what would be best between a 14.x" (1024x768?) and 15.1" (1280x800?) for someone with subpar eyesight. 17" would be best, but lets assume that isn't an option. Much thanks. - RoyBoy ⁸⁰⁰ 00:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

• IMHO, the text size in your settings is going to be more important than the size of the display. -- Filliam H Muffman 02:36, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

• • Well, on the 15.1" screen, for a vertical or horizontal length of one inch you will have 105.8 pixels. On the 14" screen, you will have 91.4 pixels per one inch length. The 14" screen will show details in a slightly larger size relative to the 15.1" screen. — TheKMan^talk 04:30, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

You mean for what laptop, or what size and resolution? If its an old person that is not very tech-geeky, than you should probably get something like the MacBook—you never have to mess with spyware, viruses, internet & wi-fi problems, and it is totally compatible (except with some of the newer hot games) with all PC stuff. My grandmother uses an Apple. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 07:49, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

So it's a Granny Apple? Weregerbil 10:15, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Hoo hooo! It'd be funnier if her name were Smith.. --Zeizmic 12:04, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Sharp-ribbed newt

The Iberian Ribbed Newt was on board Bion 7 and 10 and there are papers about them that back it up, but I can't find strong evidence either way if they were actually on board Bion 9 and Bion 11, or if the space newts were a different species. I'd like the article on the Iberian Ribbed Newt to be more definite and referenced about it. Were iberian ribbed newts (Pleurodeles waltl) on board Bions 9 and 11? Thanks —Pengo 00:58, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Branched alkane?

What is the name of the alkane with this diagram? (Treat all the numbers as subscripts.)

       CH3-CH2  CH2-CH3
            |   |
        CH2-CH-CH-CH3
         |
CH3-CH2-CH-CH2-CH-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3
     |      |
    CH2    CH3
     |
    CH-CH3
     |
    CH3

I think this is just polymeth-2-3-ane aka petroflurochloride

Dr John Parker

To start with, I know you would probably have 3,7-dimethyl-4-ethyl-6-somethingduodecane, with the main line being the one in bold, but what would the something be? I don't see a procedure to handle the multiple branching this would involve. Seahen 02:50, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I can't remember how to prioritise the different chains, in order to find the main chain. I know you are meant to minimise multi-substituted chains to a certain degree. If the bold chain really is the main chain, then the substituted group is (1,3-dimethylbutane), i.e. the whole thing would be 6-(1,3-dimethylbutane)-4-ethyl-3,7-dimethylduodecane. Note the alphabetical order: normally the numerical prefix ("di" in 3,7-dimethyli-) doesn't count for alphabetisation, but with the multi-substituted group it does. -postglock 05:08, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Bah. It's way easier to just call it isodoicosane. :D TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:52, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't have a name as it is not possible to make (well, you could, but it would decompose instanaeusly) there are several Carbons in there with 5 bonds. I count at least three. And one with only three bounds, so it would also be an Ion. Philc _T^E_C^I

CH3-CH2-CH--CH-CH2-CH-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH3
         |   |      |
        CH3 CH2    CH-CH3
             |      |
            CH3    CH2
                    |
                   CH-CH3
                    |
                   CH3

I've also removed all of the kinks as the do not mean anything, in order to make it less confusingPhilc _T^E_C^I 20:36, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I think you also removed the methyl group at position 7.

You are right, but it is probably a typo. Carbon 7 and 8 are transposed.

The longest chain is the main chain, this is already in boldface, so that is easy. I think you take the chain closest to the end first. So that would be 3-methyl 5-ethyl 6(1,3 methyl) butyl 7-methyl duodecane, or maybe 3,7-methyl 5-ethyl 6(1,3 methyl)-butyl duodecane, but my memory is kind of fuzzy.

Pennies

What is a penny composed of? And what is the melting temperature of the combined metals? I want to melt a bunch of pennies and have a giant one, is that possible with limited resources? Would the super-penny be worth how many pennies it is made of?

The article on the United States penny tells what it's made of, if you were thinking of a U.S. penny... though I don't know of any others off the top of my head. Dismas|^(talk) 03:07, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, the US penny is almost entirely zinc, with just a coating of copper. The melting point would likely be close to that of zinc. — TheKMan^talk 04:17, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Pennies also exist in other places that uses dollars as their currency. Make sure you specify the country. Melting pennies together would almost certainly make them lose their value as a bank would no longer take them. You wouldn't get a single penny back unless you found a collector crazy enough to buy it. Melting money may also be illegal. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:14, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Not only dollars are divided into pennies. So is the pound Sterling. Also, I know that in Canada melting down money is illegal, but you can ship it to another country and melt it there. (This used to happen with silver dimes when the silver became worth more than ten cents.) Seahen 12:57, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Railgun

If I where to build a railgun capable of withstanding the amount of energy flowing through the rods, How much energy would it take to get an objet wieghing 500 tons up to 7.2(or so) miles per second?

500 tons is 453 592.37Kg. To get this mass at 11 587.2768 meters per second use 1/2mv^2. Assuming resisitve forces are negligble which, in the real world they obviously arent, you would need 3.045078607*10^13 Joules of Kinetic Energy. I hope this has helped.

Dr J Parker

Lots. You can get a lower bound using the formula for kinetic energy to figure out how much energy a 500-ton object travelling at 7.2 miles per second has; see joule to see how to adjust for the appropriate units. Any real rail gun will be less than 100% efficient, so it will take more energy than the kinetic energy of the final object. No, I'm not going to do the calculation for you. --Robert Merkel 05:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

For interest, I did the calculation; it's smaller than the amount of energy released by Little Boy, but not that much smaller. If you need more precision than that you'll have to crunch the numbers yourself. --Robert Merkel 06:07, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

500 t = 453 592.37 kg; 7.2 mi/s = 11 587.2768 m/s; E_k = 1⁄2mv² = 1⁄2 (453 592.37 kg) (11 587.2768 m/s)² = 3.04507861×10¹³ J. Of course, you probably have fewer significant digits, but we don't know how many.

For the railgun, B = 2x(u0/2pi)x(I/r), a=ILB/m, and F=ma. B is the magnetic field strength. u (actually mu) is the magnetic constant of free space, I is current, L is length of the rails, m is mass of the projectile, a is acceleration, F is force. Put it whatever values you desire. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 06:44, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Thank You... Everyone

Forecasting weather with emotions

Could you please tell me what is the name of the term for describing the phenomenom of a person's emotions forecasting the weather?

I think the term is bullshit. This clearly doesnt work, get a life

Dr J Parker

P.S The guy below me, do you not think he has already tried this you idiot.

In this web page a related phenomenon is called "Bio-meteorology". Try a google search for (emotion OR emotions OR mood) AND "forecasting the weather. --vibo56 17:00, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Osmotic pressure symbol

Hi, is the symbol for osmotic pressure an uppercase or lowercase pi? The article itself says lowercase, but Pi (letter) says uppercase. Googling also brought varying results. Thanks! -postglock 04:59, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

colours to make white light

on this site it says you need red, blue and green to make white light but if you look at prisms more colours than that come through. what are the actual colours needed to make white light? thanks --81.151.8.56 09:06, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

In fact, the light mixed from red, blue, and green is physically different from light mixed from all the spectral lines, but both are percieved as white. See white, color vision and trichromatic color vision. Conscious 09:17, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

So basically red blue and green is a minimum recquired to make white, whereas you can use more? Philc _T^E_C^I 20:20, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you could make white-looking light from three monochromatic light sources, but it wouldn't act anything like the broad-spectrum white light from an incandescent light bulb or the Sun. Any object that doesn't reflect those specific colors (say, a true purple object) will look black, and objects that reflect one of the colors weakly, while reflecting a similar color strongly, will look strange. A similar effect could be seen with early fluorescent lights (and to a smaller extent even with modern ones), where an object appears to "change colors" when moving from sunlight to fluorescent and back. --Serie 21:32, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

The reason those three colors combined look white to human eyes has to do with the way humans perceive color. We perceive three basic colors, red, blue, and green, and see all colors as a combination of those three. This condition is called trichromacy. Other species see other numbers of colors; for example, most mammals are dichromats, seeing only two colors (blue and green), and some species are tetrachromats, seeing red, blue, green, and ultraviolet. Presumably, to a tetrachromat, a three-color light that looks white to us would look, well, whatever color is opposite to ultraviolet in their vision. And a blue-green, or cyan, light (to humans) would look white to a dichromat. All these organisms would see full-spectrum light as white, however. --Ginkgo100 19:09, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

See this nice introductory article on Colors and colorimetry. – b_jonas 10:10, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

To make light that just looks white red green and blue will do, to make true white light (as from the sun) you need all the colours - ie a rainbow - red orange green blue indigo violet. White might give the answer, don't forget to look at spectrum as well.HappyVR 17:43, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I believe, by opposite, you meant complement. Black Carrot 22:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Air intakes for jet engines

How do jet engines (used on aircraft) work even when its raining, snowing, in dust storms etc., and still not damage the internals of the engine? Basically, I want to know how jet engines filter their intake air.

Thanx.

Once again we have an article on anything. See Bird strike. Anything smaller isn't noticed. I like how they once had a cat sucked in at 10,000 ft! --Zeizmic 12:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Basic answer: they don't filter, they just hope that anything they suck in will go through the engine without causing any critical damage. Also, they build the engine fan blades with sufficient strength to widthstand moderate impacts. For rain and snow, it just turns to water and is lost in the large mass of air that flows through the engine. Dust and sand are a problem, as they can clog the engine and cause it to fail (as happened when British Airways Flight 9 flew through a cloud of volcanic dust) - again, the engine is designed so that it can cope with moderate amounts of the stuff, but anything above that is a problem. Large, solid object are a major problem for jet engines, since they act as giant vacuum cleaners and suck up everything in front of them. Birds are a problem (see the article Zeizmic linked), jet engines have to undergo 'bird strike' tests to prove that, if hit by a moderate-sized bird, even though they will fail, they won't damage the rest of the plane. If anything larger hits, you're in trouble - see foreign object damage. — QuantumEleven 11:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

natural resources

ok i am writing a project on natural resources and my topics are :

                                        1)general information
                                        2)conservation of natural resources-practices
                                        3)causes of depletion
                                        4)impact of resource depletion

can somebody please help me out you can mail me at: (email address removed; don't post it or spammers will get it!) thanks

What help do you need? Read the article, read relevant items under the "see also" section and click any of the blue words in the article that look interesting. Any specific questions that remain unanswered? Also remember to google first. Weregerbil 11:38, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

acanthicus - new fish page please check (biology)

I've added a new genus article - acanthicus - maybe someone could check it for errors etc - also further questions at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fishes#Questions about format - new genus article - if there are any comments - maybe you could reply there as this page is big.HappyVR 10:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

HappyVR, your contributions are excellent, but this is not really an appropriate use of the reference desk. Does anybody know the right place for this kind of announcement? I'd say don't even bother, because yours are so much better than the vast majority of new articles. =P —Keenan Pepper 20:47, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

You can tell me about it... if its not about fish. :P — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:44, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

blue sky

my question is why the sky looks blue???

Because you probably don't live in the British Isles. Arbitrary username 16:11, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Try Why is the sky blue?. Weregerbil 11:34, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

"Because it isn't green". --Serie 21:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering (or the Tyndall Effect). Interestingly enough, this process is the mechanism through which almost all blue colours are generated in nature. Rockpocket 05:45, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Speed of gravity

Suppose the sun, which is about 8 light minutes away, was to suddenly disappear, the Earth would leave it's orbit and travel into space. But would this effect be instant, or does gravity have a maximum speed, like light does, so there would be a time when the Earth continued to orbit a non-existant star, just as light from the sun would continue to reach us for 8 minutes? I can't find an answer to this at gravity. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 11:13, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Try speed of gravity. Weregerbil 11:33, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Gravity indeed was missing a "see also" link to speed of gravity, fixed. Weregerbil 11:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

The speed of gravity is dependant of the mass of which it is centered around. For example, a much larger mass such as Jupiter has a larger gravitational force than the Earth. Gravity cannot exist without a central mass. The instant the sun 'disappeared' the earth would stop orbiting the Sun. The flux density (S.I unit Tesla) would instantaneously stop. The earth would then continue in the direction of the tangent to its orbit at the specific point it was at when the sun disappeared. The earth would not accelerate into space as there is no resultant force acting upon it but would continue in a specific direction until another force would act upon it. The reason light would continue to reach us eight minutes after us is because the light takes a finite time to reach us. After 8 minutes the light would stop and we would all die!!

I hope this is of some help

Dr J Parker

What are you a doctor of, exactly? --Heron 20:08, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Yes, either the "sum" was meant to be a pun, or I have sincere doubts about his authenticity. Philc _T^E_C^I 20:18, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Note to confused, curious parties: 'Dr' J Parker's explanation above is just silliness. Teslas are involved in electromagnetism, not gravity. Skittle 20:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

...and that's just scratching the surface. --Ashenai 20:22, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Ignore "Parker's" comment, it is flat out wrong. Is the speed of light different depending on how bright it is?— The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 21:00, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to all of you. I agree that Doc's response seems confused. It seems to says the speed of gravity is both variable and infinite... smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 21:20, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Recently I've been re-reading the book "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkings, it says that gravity should propagate at the speed of light. VdSV9•♫ 17:49, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I've heard that. And Speed of gravity confirms it, though if even the people writing the article aren't confident, I'm not sure how reliable it is as a source. Black Carrot 22:11, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

If your desire is to stay within the realm of reality in such a scenerio the entire mass of the Sun must be converted to Gamma radiation. Once you step outside of the realm of reality any answer likewise falls outside the realm of reality. Star Trek anyone? ...IMHO (Talk) 11:21, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Wow, there's a lot of garbage here. Gravity is an effect from the curvature of spacetime, Newton's laws are approximations. The curvature propogates at the speed of light, so it would take 8 minutes for there to be any effect on the Earth. See general relativity (Cj67 22:40, 2 June 2006 (UTC))

According to general relativity, gravitational waves propagate through a vacuum at the speed of light. Tom Van Flandern is a well known crank. ---CH 05:34, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

The problem in the article is not that WikiProject GTR lacks expertise or confidence :-/ The problem is that Tomvf (talk · contribs) is Tom Van Flandern in real life. See also Some Scientifically Inaccurate Claims Concerning Cosmology and Relativity for some more pointers. ---CH 05:38, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

First electronic theory of valency

Is this parapgraph true?

By 1904, the first electronic theory of valency was developed by Thomson. A revision of Berzelius ’s electrochemical scheme and Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory, he came up with chemical bonding being nothing more or less them a simple electrostatic attraction. Thomson concluded that a bond was formed when one or more electron was exchanged or transferred between two atoms. The “donor” atom then becomes positively charged and the atoms that receives that electron then becomes negatively charged.

Thank you

No saddly it is false. Do your own homework

River and Stream Widths

Is there a specific definition in the difference between a river and a stream as it pertains to the width of the body of water? I thought I had read somewhere that a stream is defined as being less than four feet across, hence a river being larger than four feet. If not, then at what point does a stream become a river? Curious second graders want to know...befuddled teacher unsuccessful in locating answer...Help!

Thanks, Bridget

You could check our articles at stream and river (also creek, brook, branch, and various others I can't recall offhand) but ultimately, in practical use, there is no hard fast definition. Stream is perhaps most helpful, as it notes that "stream" is the scientific "umbrella" term encompassing such bodies of water (note also the size of the "river" pictured in the article). — Lomn Talk 14:58, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

In order of increasing size, in general usage, creek < stream < river. Nevertheless, there do exist in some places (for reasons of historical accident or tradition) named rivers that act as tributaries to named creeks. Historically, bodies of water have been named by whomever settled in the area.

Legal definitions (based on width, flow rate, navigable depth, etc.) exist in some jurisdictions. If you can tell us what country or state you live in, we might be able to locate more formal definitions. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:01, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Also note that the width of many change over the year, from the dry season to the rainy season and/or snow melt season. Changing the name as the width changes would be a real pain. StuRat 16:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

My personal definition is that it's a stream if I'm willing to wade across, but a river if I want a boat or a bridge. --Serie 21:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I follow Lomn: On the one hand, there's the Gulf Stream, but on the other hand, while all streams stream, rivers can't river, creeks don't creek , and I brook serious questions. --Seejyb 03:08, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I think we need to branch out to a more serious discussion.

dBmW

The following statement taken from the article dBm seems incorect, Since it is referenced to the watt, it is an absolute unit, used when measuring absolute power. It should not be confused with dB, a dimensionless unit, which is used when measuring the ratio between two values, such as SNR. Are not all decibel scales unit-less (and NOT absolute)? And the statement seems to be a contradiction, seeing that the decibel milli Watt is the logarithmic ratio of the Power being measured over 1 mW?? And would it be better if the page was renamed to deciBell milli Watt? Sorry if i am completely wrong! --LeakeyJee 15:12, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

This is a common logarithmic scale with an equivalence given to W(atts), which is dimensional. The dB paradigm is strong but here we have no dB at all, just a representation for W.

Do not rename the page, create a redirect page if you wish. --DLL 17:45, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

First, when SI units are spelled out, they are lowercase; the only exception I can think of is degree Celsius. Thus the spellings would be "decibel" and "milliwatt". This avoids confusion between the unit and the scientist. It is only when the unit is shortened to a symbol that units named after scientists are capitalized (dB, mW).[15]

Second, you are generally right. Every decibel measurement is compared to some reference power, which may be unique for a certain experiment, or may be a widely used power level such as a milliwatt. So dBm is just shorthand for decibels above 1 millwatt. Gerry Ashton 18:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

amino acids

hello,

why are L-AMINO acids and not D-amino acids used in proteins?

I have searched through google and got only this fact but not the reason......can any one help me out...plz?

This is a fact of evolution. It is an interesting exercise to try and imagine alternative biologies, which with information-carrying molecules different from DNA and RNA, and structural molecules composed of something else than the amino acids we know. And even within the constraints of DNA and RNA, with 64 codons, there could have been 63 different structural building blocks (leaving one for a stop codon). Yet there are only 20.

Amino acids turned out to be good building blocks because of the peptide bond, which links the amino acids together in proteins. Polypeptide chains fold into complex structures. In parts of the chain typical folding patterns like alpha helices and beta-pleated sheets form stable substructures ("secondary structure") within the three dimensional structure of a protein. For such substructures to be stable, all the amino acids have to be of the same type, i.e. either L or D. Therfore, in the primordial soup, nature had to make a choice. And the choice fell upon L-amino acids, possibly for no particular reason. But it had to be one or the other. --vibo56 16:38, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Are there cases where D-Amino acids are used rarely like reverse transcriptase in certian viruses? Or am I on the wrong track?

I'm not sure about reverse transcriptase, but a medline search for "(D-amino acid)" reveals that D-amino acids are indeed used to some extent for specialized purposes. "(D-amino acid) AND (reverse transcriptase)" gave no relevant hits as far as I could see. This article suggests that D-serine may be a regulator of glia cells, and thus indirectly control the exitability of neurons --vibo56 18:56, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

My read on this enzyme in Wiki suggests it is made from normal L-AMINO acids, but has a reverse function of making DNA out of RNA instead of the normal way of making RNA out of DNA. This is necessary for viruses to hijack the cells functionality.

Since viral proteins are made by the protein synthesising machinery of the host, they would be expected to consist entirely of L-amino acids, and your interpretation of the reverse part of the enzyme's name is correct. What I thought the questioner had in mind was whether there was something funny going on with this particular enzyme, such as a posttranslational modification, but as stated, no hits in medline. --vibo56 21:42, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Chirality is often overlooked; see thalidomide. Isopropyl 20:32, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

The link should be Chirality (chemistry). --vibo56 21:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I asked this on the Chirality page, but I am sure a lot more people read this one so I will ask it here. Is it possible to have an optical isomer using isotopes? Suppose the Alanine molecule has the Methyl group replaced with Deuterium instead of Hydrogen? Would that create an optical isomer?

Yup (also answered on the Talk:Chirality (chemistry) page wher eyou asked it). The carbon atom would be tetrahedral as usual and would have four different substituents on it, thus it is an asymmetric center. One might expect the optical rotation to be small--I can't find the exact number at the moment. DMacks 21:18, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

The optical rotation is expected to be small because the chemical difference between the two is small, right?

Yeah...from a non-scientific viewpoint, one might say "well, they're both hydrogen, so why is it considered a stereocenter at all (see the initial question), and even if it is in a technical or pedantic sense, would there be any rotation at all?" Until I found the actual ref (see my response below), I only remembered that indeed it was "a small number". DMacks 16:01, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Tetrahedron 1959 6 338-344 reports measurements of optical rotation of several isotopically-chiral molecules such as RCHDOH, finding [α]_D up to ~1°. DMacks 23:08, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Wiki hosting site

I need a free wiki hosting site that uses inline tex. Does anyone know a good one? ThanksBorisblue 16:10, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Wikia? Conscious 05:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Enzyme Kinetics

Hi, I have an exam on firiday and I am really struggling to understand 1st and 2nd order reation rates. The amounts of equations and explanations can get a bit tricky. Any simple explanation which includes the orders of reaction rates would help so much. Also if anyone can just breifly explain allosteric regulation to me...that would also be a help...Thanks a bunch. 196.23.228.155 16:18, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Mmmmh. I do not work with chemistry, but reaction rates and allosteric regulation might have the answers you are looking for. Cthulhu.mythos 16:47, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Order of reaction may be what you need. Rmhermen 19:02, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I actually just passed my college enzymatics course, which is cool. The key thing to remember when writing the mass-action kinetics equations is to look at the big picture first: how things are formed and lost. Isopropyl 20:29, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Reaction orders are pretty simple. If dA/dt (product A formed per unit of time) is proportional to the concentration of one reactant, then it's first order. If it's proportional to the product of the concentrations of two reactants, then it's second-order. However, enzyme reactions are usually described as neither, but as Michaelis-Menten kinetics. However, real-life enzyme kinetics are actually much much more complicated and not actually well-understood. --BluePlatypus 07:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Hurray...Google desktop is a spyware! Or is it?

Today, when I monitored my network using network monitoring software, I found that google desktop was constantly sending out data to its servers. I was not warned when I installed google desktop.Or did Google warn me? Your comments.

Did you read http://desktop.google.com/eulauk.html, specifically under "Automatic Updates" and "Information Practices"? Notinasnaid 17:28, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

After reading the google Desktop EULA, I changed to Copernic Desktop search, and have used it for 3 months now with no complaints --Seejyb 02:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

A lot of the plugins to the Google Desktop download data (I believe). For example, the web clips, news, Gmail inbox, Google Talk, weather and maps sections all upload and download data without you specifically requesting it. This automation is one of the aspects of Google Desktop that I like. I guess it really depends on your view on allowing the tools into your system. I trust Google not to screw my system, so I don't consider it malware/spyware. --DanielBC 03:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Moon 8 Orbit

Would it be possible for a satellite to exist in a figure 8 type orbit between the earth and the moon? Thanks. 199.201.168.100 18:56, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I think so, in the short term, although the loop around the Earth would be larger than the one around the Moon. However, I don't think such a complex orbit would be very stable. Changes in the distance between the Moon and Earth would destabilize the orbit, as would debris which can accumulate in the barycenter/Lagrange point between the Moon and Earth (I think that would be where the figure 8 crosses itself). StuRat 19:24, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. The magnetic flux density of the earth is much greater than that of the moon, the satellite would just continue to orbit the earth instead.

"magnetic flux density"? Shimgray | talk | 19:31, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Are you proposing the pre-Newtonian idea (rejected before him) that objects in the solar system are held in orbit by magnetism? Or are you just playing around with jargon? Skittle 19:39, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh, for those who are wondering if it exists: Magnetic flux density. Skittle 19:40, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I think our magnetic friend is a hoaxer. See similar comments at 'speed of gravity' above. --Heron 20:11, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

high blood pressure medicine

Is there a medicine called prinivil used to treat high blood pressure or hypertension?

Please consult your doctor if you require medical advice. Prinivil is a drug used to treat high blood pressure, it is a trade name for Lisinopril. Oldelpaso 21:05, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Ant identification

Every year about this time I get a few termites flying around. Some of them are attracted by the monitor and the desk lamp and loose their wings and crawl around looking for a new home but since everything I have is mostly metal or plastic they soon die and require removal. However, for the past couple of years it seems that I also get removal help at the same time every year by a crew of very odd type ants so I was wondering it anyone could identify them and tell me if they also stick around during the winter months and go looking for termites inside of wood. They sure are great little removers of expired termite carcasses. Under a magnifier I can see they have much longer feelers than a normal ant and they have much longer legs and hairs coming out of the back of their Metasoma. Their behavior is what is so different and unique. I call them "Darters" because they dart for distances of between half and six inches as if they were trying to catch a fast moving train. I'm hoping to breed them and market them as termite carcass clean up crews as a hobby project. So if you can help me identify them it will help out allot. ...IMHO (Talk) 21:26, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Have any photos? Also, what is your general location? — TheKMan^talk 14:33, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I was thinking about doing a photo but thought the description might be good enough. Lets see where is that camera...? Central Florida is the general area. ...IMHO (Talk) 20:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Whatever they are, I'd hate to see them "marketed" into an area where they are not native and become a harmful invasive species. --Ginkgo100 19:15, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh heck I only see these guys once a year just after the termintes start swarming. I'm sure they must specialize in termite carcass removal. They don't gang up they just each handle a carcass alone. I can't immagine them becoming outrageous and obnoxious pests unless of course you have pet termites and then well I'll put a warning on the label. ...IMHO (Talk) 20:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

And I can't imagine cute little Quaker parrots being obnoxious pests, but they are, in places where they've been introduced. --Ginkgo100 03:21, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

One problem with any living creature (especially insects) that many people do not realize is their excrement. Even if you have beneficial instects doing a go job for you unless their fertilizer is also of benefit areas that become highly populated (as with cockroaches and Palmetto bugs) can become quite obnoxious. ...IMHO (Talk) 08:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I think you might have Argentine ants. Apparently they make a habit of attacking termite colonies.[16] — TheKMan^talk 06:15, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Haven't seen any queens though yet. The article contains a recipe for a homemade insecticide I've been looking for. Thanks. ...IMHO (Talk) 08:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Expanding Universe...

This has been bothering me a while now, "If the Universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into?" Thanks WizardFusion 21:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Why must it be expanding into something? — Knowledge Seeker দ 22:08, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually you are probably refering to the known or observable or visible universe that is inside the unknown or unobservable or invisible universe. ...IMHO (Talk) 22:53, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Probably the universe is infinite. So when it expands, it's just that all the distances get larger; there aren't any edges moving "into" anything anyway. -- SCZenz 22:16, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Actually in Star Trek episode 79 (TNG) the universe is contracting around Beverly where people begin to disappear. I know a girl like that once where the whole universe was only an area with a radius of about five feet from her head until she got some help from a doctor and now her universe has stopped contracting and may have actually expanded a few more feet. (On second though make that only a couple of inches.) ...IMHO (Talk) 22:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Be careful of the popular misconceptions. SCZenz has got it right. It is the spacetime that is expanding, not objects contained. The distances grow larger, but nothing actually moves because of the expansion. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:32, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you all, I think its a change of thinking that is required on my part. WizardFusion 15:34, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Remember that if you travel far enough in one direction as straight as you can, you'll eventually come back to where you started... FreeMorpheme 12:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

OP: see Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology HTH ---CH 05:43, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

discrimination of sound

Which part of the brain is responsible for the discrimination of sound?

See Primary auditory cortex --vibo56 23:49, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Explosions in space?

As a matter of interest, how would a large explosion in the vacuum of space (e.g. a spacecraft detonating due to a fuel explosion/drive overload/etc.) actually appear to an observer? I'm pretty sure that the way it's usually portayed in the movies is wrong - forgetting about the whole 'sound in space' issue, how could an expanding fireball exist in the complete absence of oxygen and an atmosphere to carry the blast wave?

Also, would it be possible to detonate an atomic/hydrogen bomb in space? If so, what would the explosion from that look like?

Thanks. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:20, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

You'll still get a fireball, from the material that was consumed and heated by the explosion, but it won't be anywhere near as big or as long-lasting as an atomspheric fireball.

For a nuclear explosion, what it'll look like depends greatly on where the explosion takes place. For an explosion within a strong magnetic field, like what you get around a planet, see the photos at Starfish Prime (a high-altitude atom bomb test). For one in empty space, you'll get a roughly spherical fireball. --Serie 23:40, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

We have an article on high altitude nuclear explosions with some pretty pictures. --Fastfission 02:49, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

There's a picture of a large explosion in space happening right here. --Shantavira 07:54, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

So, what exactly is the 'fire' in those things comprised of? I didn't think that fire could exist without oxygen. Sorry if that's a dumb question... --Kurt Shaped Box 11:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

A conventional (non-nuclear) explosive either provides its own oxidizer (combustion explosives such as gunpowder) or involves a chemical breaking down into gas (decomposition explosives such as nitroglycerine). This produces a lot of heat, which causes the gas produced by the explosion, and any debris that is caught up in it, to glow white-hot, producing the "fire" you see. A nuclear explosion also produces a hot-gas fireball, but there's so much energy involved that it can cause light in other ways, such as fluorescence in the upper atmosphere of a planet. --Serie 19:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

One more space question - birds in space...

I remember reading somewhere a very long time ago that astronauts had observed that birds are unable to survive in the zero-g environment of a spacecraft without specialized hand-feeding. I think it was something to do with them being unable to swallow water due to the 'design' of their throats (many birds take water into their mouths and then tip their heads back, allowing it to run down their throats with gravity) - and possibly being unable to swallow solid food either. Does anyone have any more info on this subject? I'd like to read up about it again but I have no idea where to even start looking... --Kurt Shaped Box 23:26, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

That should be predictable, but one would not normally think of that aspect. Afaik the only group of birds that can actually actively swallow water (i.e. drink it while their head is below their stomach, like humans can) is the dove / pigeon group --Seejyb 02:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

How much would it suck to be an astronaut from an advanced avian civilization (i.e. the one that will arise when humans end up destorying each other and the parrots evolve and take over)? :) You'd literally have to spend your entire time in space with a tube jammed down your throat (gotta get annoying on those trips to the moon). Still, I'd *love* to see what a spacecraft designed by sentient birds would look like. Hell, their cities (completely unconstrained by the limits of ground-based thought) would be a sight to behold too... --Kurt Shaped Box 11:56, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Animals in space doesn't include any mention of birds (except quail eggs). If you can find info, please update that article. Rmhermen 02:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

They probablly find the vaccum of space to be disorenting since they are used to a certain air pressure when flying. 12.183.203.184 04:08, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of birds in space at all, except possibly some kind of eggs. (They get hungry you know) — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:33, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember seeing footage on TV of a medium-sized brown bird onboard a spacecraft of some kind. It didn't look very happy in zero-g and it was flying around in circles (it was upside down in relation to the astronauts) and occasionally fluttering off into the walls with its head held at a strange angle. I remember thinking 'how cruel' at the time... --Kurt Shaped Box 11:42, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, there are Pigs in Space, and we all know that pigs can fly, so I guess that means ...... trails off incoherently JackofOz 09:43, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps they were birds riding on the Vomit Comet? Rmhermen 14:46, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

June 1

f-ing ipods

sorry to ask this here. i remember seeing some discussion about how these questions should be asked in the math section, but in that discussion, somebody said that the people in the math section don't write in normal english, so i'll stick to you guys. and yes, i did try all sorts of apple discussions, but nobody's answered the damned question, so: i bought a white 60 gig picture ipod a ways back, and it's worked beautifully for me for a year or two. my dad just got two black video 30 gig ipods as freebies, and he wanted me to put some music on them for him. but for some reason, itunes (and another program - yamipod - that i've got) wont recognize the new ipod. when i first plugged it in, apple downloaded some new software and asked me to restart. i did, and though neither program recognizes the ipod (in any usb port i've tried,) the computer recognizes it as a removable disk, and the ipod screen shows that flashy do-not-disconnect thing. so the computer and ipod seem to be speaking, but itunes just isn't recognizing it. what the hell is going on? i've rebooted several times, and renamed the removable disk drive. help? sorry if this is clearly the wrong place to post this question, but everyone else is completely useless

Have you tried deleting all your iPod software except for iTunes. Science is the computer help forum now. Those math guys don't know anything about it. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:46, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried resetting the iPod? You can hold down both the top and the bottom of the click wheel for a few seconds which should reset the iPod. (this works with mine which does not do video and I'm guessing that the video ones work the same) Also, when I originally got my iPod, for some reason it wouldn't work with the USB cable but the firewire cable worked fine. Maybe try switching ports/cables. Hope this helps... Oh yeah! Also, this month's issue of MacAddict has a cover story on the iPod. If my copy weren't at home right now (I'm at work) I'd look in there for you. Dismas|^(talk) 05:13, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

yeah. none of that's worked, and the reset thingy isn't working, even if i hold up and down for a minute. is it possible that the problem has something to do with the fact that the freebie didn't come with a cd for itunes and whatnot. might there be specific updates and all that i'd need for this particular ipod?

This sounds like what was mentioned in an article I read today: Dodgy download riles iPod users. Basically, the latest version of the iPod Software which you just downloaded is buggy and causes iTunes not to recognise the iPod Nano. I know this is the iPod with Video but this sounds like the same problem. --Canley 08:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Not sure whether this article might be relevant? Interesting anyway. --Shantavira 08:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I have a 30gb picture iPod and I have run into a few problems along the way. I usually try (in this order) reset iPod (should return to Apple Logo to boot up), restart iTunes, restart computer, then if all else fails, use the iPod software to reformat the iPod. You may already be aware that the iPod probably shouldn't be renamed using the OS. It should only be renamed using iTunes. iPods can get very whingy if you don't do everything using Apple Software. Also, I am guessing that it doesn't like multiple different iPods in the same computer at the same time, ensure you plug them in at different times (and I would restart iTunes in between plugging them in, to refresh it). Just suggestions, don't know if it's been said/tried or works. --DanielBC 03:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

.tga

What's a program to open a .tga? Preferably something open source. A Clown in the Dark 05:43, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I typed TGA in the search box, hit enter, and got this: Truevision TGA. You should be able to open TGA files with any decent image editing software - free ones? Try The GIMP.--George 06:27, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

IrfanView can view pretty much any image file once you've installed the plugins pack. It can't do much in the way of editing though. It's free as in beer, but not open source. the wub "?!" 08:52, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

ImageMagick supports conversion to and from Truevision Targa, and is free as in beer and free as in speech, + open source. –Mysid^(t) 10:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Isn't tga a common texture file for video games? Akin to bmp? — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:16, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

TGA is a common format in games because it's very easy to write a reader for it: the format is simpler than any of the more common formats such as PNG or JPEG. --Serie 19:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Well I just need it to open up my screenshots from WoW. For some reason they're not BMPs, they're TGA.

Pretty sure you can get a plugin for it for Photoshop

Prompt supercritical masses don't "explode" - why

In discussions on the A-bomb, there is generally an argument being made that one has to use high explosives to get the prompt supercritical mass for explosion, otherwise the excursion will be terminated before a huge amount of energy is released. Indeed, when one looks at cases like the SL-1 reactor, which became prompt supercritical, there wasn't an atomic explosion (though there was a steam explosion, which had the good effects of removing the moderator).

The time constants for neutron propagation and fission look very small compared to the time constants for, say, vaporizing the moderator water. So what exactly are the mechanism that prevent a "simple" prompt supercritical mass from exploding?

(We have exchanged ideas but none seem very convincing.) David.Monniaux 21:06, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

What I heard was that the energy released effectively blows the supercritical mass apart enough that it is no longer supercritical. So, you have a bomb. You have 3 subcritical masses and bang them together. They release enough energy to move apart again. You have to blow them together with other explosives to get them to stick. This may be far too simple. Skittle 09:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

One of the best-known sources on nuclear weapons in the open literature is Carey Sublette's nuclear weapons FAQ. You can read his explanation here. His explanation is similar; basically, until the weapon is assembled into its final configuration, if fission starts the "neutron growth rate" (as I understand it, a proxy for the rate at which the nuclear reaction accelerates) will be lower than is optimal. Therefore, as Skittle says, the weapon blows itself apart before enough material has a chance to fission to get the full yield. IANAPhysicist. --Robert Merkel 10:56, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

That's pretty much it. In effect, a supercritical mass doesn't stay supercritical very long; the more supercritical it is, the faster it blows itself apart. The trick is in pushing it far enough above criticality and making it stay that way long enough that, when it does blow up, it does so in a sufficiently dramatic fashion. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 11:15, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, this goes back to the original question: the time constant for the exponential blowup in neutron flux is very little. This means that in a tiny fraction of a second, tremendous amounts of energy are released.

In comparison, the time for physical reactions such as turning moderator water into steam, or physically blowing up the supercritical mass, seem higher. It seems not so obvious that, physically, the reaction may actually have time to heat up the moderator or break up the fissile material before it really has released a lot of energy.

http://www.milnet.com/nukeweap/Nfaq4-1.html#Nfaq4.1.5.3 seems a good pointer indeed. David.Monniaux 22:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

underwater

can we blow a balloon underwater?

If you mean using your mouth and lungs, it is possible, but more difficult than normal because the water pressure pushing in on the balloon is much higher than air pressure. If you used an electric pump you could definitely do it. --Canley 08:03, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it's called a lifting bag, but it is filled with air using a pump. --Shantavira 08:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Erm, really? I've always seen them filled (having never personally used one) by air from a scuba tank. Since they're open at the bottom, all you need to do is orient them vertically and blow off some air beneath them. The air bubbles will rise through the water, and enter the bag where they will displace the water inside, giving the bag positive buoyancy. — QuantumEleven 10:45, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Let's forget about the possibility of drowning. Blowing a balloon under water using your mouth and lungs can be as easy as doing the same thing on land.

Imagine you're 10 m under water (1 extra ATM) and you have an air tank. The air tank is pressurized. The air from tank is depressurized before entering your mouth. So you inhale mildly pressurized air from the mouth piece. The air in your lungs is supposed to be 1 ATM higher in pressure when you're under water. You than remove the mouth piece and blow the air into the baloon. If you can do this under water, I think the balloon would still inflate normally. Maybe you need another diver to hold the mouth piece for you. -- Toytoy 12:17, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I can tell you that it can be done, but it is harder than on land, if this is because of the extra preassure or that you are in water I do not know, and yes I have done it. Stefan 14:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

On land, your balloon does not float. Under water, your balloon floats. Other than conquering back pressure and the rubber balloon's surface tension, you need to displace water. This is difficult. -- Toytoy 16:26, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

No one needs to hold the mouthpiece for you, and the pressure pushing in the ballon is the same as the pressure pushing in your lungs, so the air you inhale will be in that pressure as well. The only problem to me seems to be to hold the balloon. Notice that if you fill the balloon with air at say 10m underwater, tie it, and release, it will blow up before reaching the surface because the pressure outside will decrease causing the air inside to expand. This is basic physics... and they teach it when you take scuba diving lessons. VdSV9•♫ 18:09, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

is this true?

i heard that the moon is moving away from the earth every year by 1.5inches and also that the rotation of the earth is slowing down so much that in the future a day will last 960hours. please tell me if this is true?

thanks

Yes, the first statement is true. Have a look at our article on moon. The distance increases 38 mm per year which is 1.5 inches. The Earth day lengthens about 15 µs every year, so that yes, when 225 billion years have passed, it will last 960 hours (assuming the speed of slowing stays constant). But on the other hand, the Sun is estimated to live for some 5 billion years only. –Mysid^(t) 10:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

That 15 µs he said, that means microseconds, a thousandth of a second. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:15, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

225 billion years!? only about 220 billion years after the earth has frozen as the sun died, been cooked as it turns to a red giant and destroyed as it all collapses. So basically, no, unless we find a way to engineer stars, the earths day will never reach 960 hours. Philc _T^E_C^I 12:00, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Correction, a microsecond is a millionth of a second.--Shantavira 11:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

science

why the burners of the gas are circular in shape??

Because it's easiest to get a uniform gas flow out of a circular nozzle. And a uniform gas flow makes for a nicely shaped, regular flame, which is a good thing. — QuantumEleven 10:42, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

That's why you want your flame blue or clear, instead of the cooler orange and yellow. The more stable and clean the flame, the better. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:18, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Would you buy a square pan ? (tssss) --DLL 20:51, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Square pans do exist in Japan, for cooking eggs. --KJ 03:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

You beat me to that comment! --Ginkgo100 03:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Do square eggs exist there as well? Conscious 05:42, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

If they're anything like square watermelons, they come from chickens in little glass boxes. — TheKMan^talk 05:53, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, the square pans are meant for "tamagoyaki." Tamagoyaki is made by cooking and rolling together thin layers of egg. (I've never made it myself, so I can't describe it properly.) Anyway, it's easier with a square pan that has perpendicular edges, and such pans are in use in Japan. Some Japanese tamagoyaki pans have a sloping far-edge instead. --KJ 10:16, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

And here's where I learned about square pans: Makiyakinabe. At Wikipedia, no less. :) --KJ 10:20, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

world wide web.

Where is all the information that we can access on on the web, stored?

On a wide range of servers. For example, Wikipedia is stored on the Wikipedia servers. If something happens to these servers, this can mean you can't access this information. At the same time, you can still access other information on other servers. The web isn't really a single thing, it is just a collection of connected servers. If you want to put something up on the internet, you either need a server that you keep connected or you need to find someone else who is happy to host your information on their server. The information doesn't just float in the ether, sadly. Skittle 09:53, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Geographically, as its name states, the WWW is stored around the world. It is my understanding that a majority of servers is located in the United States or Europe, though. –Mysid^(t) 10:22, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Google also has a large chunk of the internet stored on RAM. [17] — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Not to mention, there is the Internet archive. Skittle 12:31, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Cyberspace, of course. --Shantavira 17:06, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Google must have a hell of a lot of RAM. Wish I had that much to play with! --DanielBC 03:44, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Might want to check out data center too (to see where most of those servers are kept) —Pengo 10:38, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

GIF Compression

I've read in several places that GIFs are compressed better if there are areas of continuous colour. However, I also read that they use the LZW algorithm. This works on repeated strings, which don't necessarily need to be the same colour repeated but could be a repeated pattern of colours. A large block of colour would be compressed more thoroughly by an algorithm like the RLE.

Is this a mistake in my understanding of how GIFs work, in the authors of the web pages I'm reading, both or neither? can someone please explain to me why, when using an LZW algorithm, a block of identical colours is compressed best (if that is the case).

Thanks, JeffUK 10:53, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

When people talk about "continuous color" in connection with compression they are often contrasting it with continually varying color, as is found in photographs. Algorithms like LZW are fairly poor for photographs because there are few repeated patterns. It is more complex with GIF because it is limited to 256 colors anyway, and dithering effects can introduce repetition not found in the original, but still it's poor for photos, better for continuous color. Notinasnaid 11:27, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

So, their definition of "continous color" may well include RGBRGRGRGRGRG as well as RRRRRRRRGGGGGG, I suppose the chances of finding a _perfectly_ repeating pattern or a perfect block of one colour in photographs are equally slim. If I've understood this properly, thanks, if not, please correct me! JeffUK 11:33, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

From a quick pen-and-paper simulation of the LZW algorithm, I'd say that the number of codes in the output for a file of one solid colour looks like roughly the square root of the number of bytes. This is probably the best that LZW can do, given that you can't get any more redundant than a solid colour, so JeffUK's understanding is correct. GIF is optimised for speed and simplicity, so it always uses LZW, even though RLE would be more efficient in some cases. For GIF to choose between the two methods it would need to do an analysis pass first, which would slow it down. --Heron 20:09, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Blend ratios in fabrics

what are the tests to determine blend ratio in blended fabrics? Like poly cotton for example how do we test how much cotton and poly is present in the fabric?

I think the company tells you. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 11:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that person wants to know how to test the fabrics for quality control. -- Toytoy 11:42, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Or he wants to know just any post-processing way of determining the content of a blended fabric of unknown origin. Philc _T^E_C^I 12:13, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Or he wants to know whether someone is violating Leviticus 19:19. alteripse 15:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Or he has deliberately made the wording of the question ambiguous in a calculated attempt to fool us all.... Philc _T^E_C^I 17:38, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

If it's polycotton - you could try dissolving the cellulose and weighing what's left (the polyester) - (I think cotton is cellulose) as for other blends - don't know - some sort of 'chemical analysis'?HappyVR 17:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Second

How do we know how long a second is exactly? especially if our fram of reference --the rotation of the earth is slowing? Are seconds getting longer? How did we origionally determine how to measure time objectively? And why is it called a "2nd"? 12.183.203.184 11:51, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

everything you asked in answered on Second, please search before asking. Philc _T^E_C^I 12:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

A second has something to do with a hydrogen or carbon atom...I think. But it is set. It wasn't made up randomly.

You know, there's a reason we have articles about these things. It's not hydrogen or carbon, it's cesium. —Keenan Pepper 21:14, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

The Last Person on Earth who Used a Slide Rule to Design a Digital Computer

I want to know who was the last analog nerd on this beautiful planet. -- Toytoy 12:04, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Brains are analog computers. so every nerd is analog :-þ Philc _T^E_C^I 12:11, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

According to the article, there are those who still prefer the slide rule to a pocket calculator. Black Carrot 01:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

A slide rule can be far, far quicker for rough approximations if you know how to handle one. I still use one occasionally. Grutness...wha? 01:36, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Mother seagulls and their babies

Is it true that a mother seagull will fight to the death to defend her chicks from predators? --84.68.193.224 12:19, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Just blunder into a seagull nest and see what happens... --Zeizmic 15:07, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

What does the mother gull do? Attack? --84.68.193.224 15:45, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

In general, success in breeding means that birds who choose fairly open nests must be ferocious in defending them. They will not go to the point of death, since that is not a formula for success. If you canoe up to a seagull nest, you will be bombed and pecked, and shouting 'owies' in no time. If you go up to a Canada Goose nest, you are risking broken limbs. When I was young, I once tried to return a baby bluejay to its nest. Owies! On the other hand, a sandpiper uses a highly concealed nest, and tries to passively lure the blunderer away. --Zeizmic 16:25, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Where do seagulls sleep?

There are loads of seagulls in my town, yet I never see any sleeping around here at night. When it starts getting dark, I see them all taking to the air and leaving the town to go somewhere else. What sort of place do they usually go to roost/sleep? --84.68.193.224 12:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Usually right Here [[18]]

Many animals sleep in such a way that they don't look like they are sleeping. The obvious examples are cows sleeping while standing up and sharks sleeping while swiming. Well, sleep says that many birds sleep while perched -- while others rest their brain one hemisphere at a time. -Quasipalm 13:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

It's pretty obvious when a gull is sleeping. It either stands up and naps with its head lolling or sits down with its head turned backwards. They all like to doze in the sun a lot during the day (read somewhere that they sleep on average 18 hours a day). What I meant was where do they all go at night? The seagulls spend all day hanging around in the city but as soon as the sun begins to set, they all take off en-masse in V formation and leave the city completely. There must be a place where the whole flock sleeps at night, far away from humans. --84.68.193.224 13:41, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

or sits down with its head turned backwards - see image:Aix galericulata2.jpg for an example of this. Raul654 13:43, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Spectacular, I'd say. These aren't colourful. Sigh. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 13:48, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I think some bird species sleep while in flight, as they often fly hundreds to thousands of miles at once. Andrew 18:05, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Orbit Question

Would it be possible to connect an orbiting satellite to the earth with a cable or hollow cyllinder? It seems that if a cable/cylinder were connected, the points on the cable close to the earth would have to be moving very very fast for that point to stay in orbit, if it were not moving that fast, gravity would pull it towards the earth. So it seems to me like if someone connected the moon to the earth with a thin cable, the earth's gravitational field would pull it towards the earth. Is this correct? My reasoning here is that something close to the earth has to have a higher radial velocity than something further away. If they were forced to be the same via a cable... would the earth pull on the cable, and thus pull on the moon? 199.201.168.100 12:30, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

How about if the satellite were geostationary? Then it would be kind of a space elevator. Notinasnaid 12:40, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe that pulling would compensate for the slow increasing of the distance between Moon and Earth ;) (see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#is this true? above]]). –Mysid^(t) 13:01, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I have read something about Carbon Nanotubes under discussion to do this. I think a situation like this would result in a geostationary orbit as the cable would tend to pull the satellite into it unless some means is available for the cable to move its contact point in the earth around.

Exactly, so does that mean a space elevator or cable attachment to satellite would be impossible? 199.201.168.100 16:01, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I did not bother thinking about the ideal situation where we would be able to make infinitely robust ropes, but in a concrete experiment we would have tidal force to mess things up (and notably breaking the rope). Cthulhu.mythos 16:39, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

But couldn't there be an engineering solution to compensate for the tidal effects, such as slackening or tightening the cable in response? ike9898 17:44, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Steel cables certainly cant perform this, as when they are to long they break under their own weight, I don't know about carbon nanotubes strength to weight ratio, but I would have my doubts about them aswell, though I may well be wrong. Philc _T^E_C^I 17:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Remember end of the cable near the satelite has very little weight. ike9898 17:46, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

The carbon nanotubes are supposed to be strong enough to do this, but I do not have in depth knowlege of this.

I just thought of something else. The angular velocity of a satellite varys inversely with the distance from the mass it orbits, right? This means a cable fixed to a certain spot on the earth will tend to drag closely orbiting objects to a slower velocity, which will cause them to drop to a lower orbit, the reverse would be true for distantly orbiting objects, it would try to whip them into a higher orbit. I think this would cause strain on the cable.

Ph of Orange Juice before and after pasteurization?

Does the Ph of Orange juice change due to high temperatuture pasteurization?

In order to change the Ph level, the amount of acid (citric acid in the case of orange juice) would need to change and/or the volume of liquid would have to change. Proper pasteurization should not increase/decrease the acid contents and should not increase/decrease the liquid volume. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:35, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

In theory the temperature might cause some chemical reactions to occur which will alter the acid/alkaline nature of the orange juice which will have an effect on the orange juice. I will bet there is a change, but I also bet the change is very slight.

That makes me wonder: How do they make "low acid" orange juice? It seems to have a similar flavor to regular OJ. --Ginkgo100 19:18, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Many OJ companies add extra citric acid to give it a bite. Low acid ones may be using normal OJ without the additives. Also, some oranges have more acid than others - so it is probably easy to have a grove of low-acid oranges. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:49, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Or they just add something like calcium hydroxide. —Keenan Pepper 21:06, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

They add a calcium base and advertise it as having calcium, like Keenan suggests. Isopropyl 04:16, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Night vision?

This site (an external link from night vision goggles) suggests that a piece of exposed camera film acts as a filter to enable a camera to see in the infra-red. Can this be true? If so, how does it work? --Shantavira 14:50, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

In my experience, almost all CCD cameras can see infrared light – just point a TV remote control to a video camera, press any button and see for yourself. I think the point in your link is to filter the visible light out, so that only the IR part is seen by the camera. Try the same in a dark room, with the IR lamp but without the filter (none will be needed as there is no light to begin with) and it will see in the dark, too. –Mysid^(t) 14:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Point your remote control to a digital camera. Press any button, you will see the IR LED's flash. Exposed film only acts as a visible light filter. I think they also covered the CCD or CMOS chip with a UV or IR filter material. If you know how to remove it and place it with a visible light + UV filter, you may have a nice near IR camera.

However, you may need to adjust your lens because these optical parts are engineered to focus visible light and minimize chromatic aberration. -- Toytoy 00:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

signals

why does the tv screen flashes when a nearby kept mobile rings.i know that the signals interfere bt how exactly does it hapen,thats not clear

Wave Interference is a good place to start. Just remember that in ringing, the mobile phone also needs to transmit back to the tower to indicate reciept of the call. Scienda 15:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I would imagine it's the same reason why you get interference on loudspeakers when you make or receive a call on a mobile nearby. Andrew 17:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

From Time division multiple access: "A disadvantage of TDMA systems is that they create interference at a frequency which is directly connected to the timeslot length. This is the irritating buzz which can sometimes be heard if a GSM phone is left next to a radio or speakers." No, I don't understand that article either. Sum0 12:20, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

sds

just wondering the molar mass of sodium dodecyl sulphate (sds)?

288.38 g/mol according to sodium dodecyl sulfate. --Ed (Edgar181) 15:27, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

protease size

Any idea on the molecular weight of the smallest proteases? Working with a crude bacterial cell lysate, I am wondering if there is a molecular weight below which there are probably no proteases. ike9898 17:40, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

As of 1997, the smallest reported protease was 132 amino acid residues in length[19]; that's a molecular weight of about 14 kDa. It was found in the yeast Streptomyces caespitosus. I don't know what the smallest bacterial protease is, or if something smaller has been discovered. I'd be fairly comfortable assuming that there aren't any below 10 kDa.

Thank you! ike9898 20:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm assuming that you're working on something where you can't just add one of the off-the-shelf protease inhibitor cocktails...? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:11, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Yep. ike9898 20:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Water loss in relation to leaf's surface area

A colleague of mine, a teacher, was wondering if it would be possible to calculate the amount of moisture lost by a plant through one of its leaves on an hourly basis, given the leaf's surface area, the local humidity, temperature, et cetera. She has taught her students frequently about how in the desert, plants have adapted to the harsh, dry environment by having leaves with minimal surface area; she has also heard and repeated some factoid about how the Hoover Dam loses some millions of gallons of water per hour due to evaporation. Since the children are in fifth grade, any sort of crude approximation, or hint about how to generate such an approximation, would be enlightening for them.

The teacher also has a two-foot long leaf from some healthy tree living near a creek in the Boston area; any information about what families of broad-leaved trees inhabit that region would be deeply appreciated.

Many thanks from your most humble and obedient servant,

--Doce

Transpiration, not just evaporation, is taking place. It is an active process, not a passive one like evaporation. The article will answer many of your questions, though. --Ginkgo100 19:20, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Here is an idea. Take some cuttings with leaves from a plant, submerge them in a thin graduated vessel of water (like a graduated cylinder if that is available to you) and add a layer of light oil over the top. Measure the volume of the water and let the cutting sit for a while. Most of the water will be lost through the leaves of the cutting rather than the stem, and the oil will prevent water from evaporating from the surface of the water. Then at the end take a rough estimate of the leaves' surface area by cutting them up or placing them on a grid, tracing them, and making a crude guess. This won't work with thick succulent leaves. We did something like this in high school and it worked pretty well especially when the plants are under a hot lamp. Pick leaves that are relatively flat and large. Any kind of plant that lives in arid conditions (not riparian) would be a good choice for approximating a desert plant. Plants lose a good deal of water through stomata and many desert plants are CAM plants rather than C3 or C4 which means they only open their stomata at night, rather than during the day to decrease water loss. For best comparison results choose a CAM desert plant. C3 plants lose the most water I think on average. Sunflowers are C3 and other crops are as well. Sifaka ^talk 21:07, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

The moon and cheese

Is the moon really made out of cheese?

Only for people who ask 'cheezy' questions...

Check Google. --Serie 19:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Define Cheese Sifaka ^talk 20:50, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Well by "cheese," I think he/she means "uranium, thorium, potassium, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, titanium, calcium, aluminium and hydrogen." schyler 22:50, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps it's Chernobyl Cheddar. That would explain why it's always said to be green cheese... ;) —Zero Gravitas 02:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

File:A Grand Day Out.png

Of course it is; see documentary evidence to the right. Melchoir 20:48, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

abdominal/tummy fat reduction techniques

What are some of the methods that have been developed other than liposuction to help in the reduction of fat from the body particularly in the abdominal/tummy area?

You could always use a big knife.

Diet and exercise techniques. Although it reduces the fat, it does not reduce the number of fat cells, just shrinks them.

There's no such thing as "spot reduction," meaning that weight loss techniques (diet & exercise) may reduce fat, but not necessarily in the particular area you want them to. Abdominal excercises will tone the muscles in that area, though. --Ginkgo100 19:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't long-term use of a tight corset reduce fat in the abdominal area? Also, there is always chemotherapy. The patients on it in our cancer center tend to lose a lot of weight. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

They can just cut a load of flesh off. Not a joke, surgeons do it to some obese people, and specially to those that have lost alot of weight and have loose skin. Philc _T^E_C^I 20:39, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

GREENHOUSE GAS

If carbon dioxide is more dense than air how can it rise through the atmosphere and form a 300metre thick "blanket" that raises the earth's temperature? If it does- what height above the earth's service is this "blanket"

I think the blanket sits right on top of the ground, because everything that produces CO₂ is on the ground, and as you say, it's more dense than N₂ and O₂. —Keenan Pepper 21:11, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Diffusion alone is sufficient to ensure that a totally static column of air would be reasonably homogeneous. But the mixing effect of wind (esp. convective currents) means that air is pretty much homogeneous all the way up. -- EdC 01:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Are you certain of that? Black Carrot 01:10, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, up to 100km (the turbopause), anyway. After that, in theory proportions should fall off as e^-Mkh, where M is the molar mass of the gas. CO₂, at less than 1.5 times the molar mass of O₂, falls off that much faster. But it's not like you'd notice; there's nothing up there anyway.

Without mixing, supposing that air is mostly N₂, with roughly half the molar weight of CO₂, seeing as air pressure is ½atm at 5km, the partial pressure of CO₂ would be ½ its sea level value at 2.5km, so 0.707 its sea level concentration. Not much of a "blanket".EdC

cancer treatment and research 1450-1750

I am looking for information related to the prevalence, attitude, understanding, and treatment of cancer during the time period 1450-1750. I think this is known as the early modern period. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Is this homework? I sense a lack of focus. You are asking several quite disparate questions about a broad range of diseases. An in-depth treatment sounds like a major piece of work. If that is what you are doing, and the problem is that you lack experience in browsing the internet, I suggest you start right here.

Google is an excellent tool for finding starting information. Hint: use Cancer as a search word, together with a term that you would be likely to find in the article you are looking for, and unlikely to find elsewhere, such as "century". If you add "-20th -20st", you will narrow it further down. The minus signs excude articles that contain 20th and 21st. Adding "History of medicine" (including the quotes) will narrow it further down.

A quick search yielded the following:

• medicineworld.org
• training.seer.cancer.gov
• www.chemheritage.org

I cannot vouch for the quality of the sources.

If this is homework, feel free to cut-and-paste, but remember:

• your teacher may be better at googling than you are.
• your teacher has the advantage of being able to search for uncommon words or phrases that you have used.

Cheers, --vibo56 23:37, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

how to run a Monte Carlo simulation on a DEM using ArcGIS

Please, I would like to know how the Monte Carlo simulation techniques are used to evaluate the impact of DEM error on viewshed analyses.

CaPItAlizAtIoN eXISTs FOR a ReASoN. Black Carrot 01:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Seriously, this question is probably too specific for the RD. Have you tried reading the fine manual? You might have more luck asking somewhere like the Arcgis desktop discussion conference. That said, if this is a homework question I doubt they'll do it for you either. --Robert Merkel 05:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

dental implant

Is a dental implant/crown always necessary? If a crown has been lost and is not replaced, would that have any long term effects or potentially bad outcomes for the jawbone, i.e., missing a tooth changes the structure of the tooth? Any advice or thought is appreciated.

Thanks.

The answer to your question very much depends on individual circumstance, and how you define "necessary". In the broadest definition of the term, replacing teeth that have been removed is not necessary-- life does carry on, albeit more unpleasantly, even when teeth are lost. However, there are consequences. Apart from the obvious functional and cosmetic virtues of the individual teeth, they provide more subtle benefits. A jaw full of contiguous teeth functions much like the stones in an arch-- teeth establish and maintain the position of their neighbors. Take one tooth out, and there is a gradual collapse in tooth position. The teeth forward of the lost tooth tip backward, the teeth posterior to the lost tooth tip forward, and the teeth opposing the lost tooth extrude into the newly available space. This tipping impacts negatively on dental health, since teeth are best suited to sustaining chewing forces directed parallel to their long axes. Tipped teeth incur damage to the tissues that surround and support their roots. Additionally, the progressive tipping of the teeth prevents them from properly buttressing the facial height, and the upper and lower jaws eventually assume positions that are closer to each other. This adversely affects facial appearance, as well as the ergonomic functioning of the jaw muscles, which must work at positions at which they lose efficiency. So-- is tooth replacement necessary? No, but it can often avert much more significant problems down the road, which are more difficult and expensive to manage.--Mark Bornfeld DDS 00:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

From personal experience, the horrors one might possibly encounter when teeth do not aline properly include extensive periodontal work, seemingly-endless TMJ-splint therapy followed by orthodontia. Two missing teeth I did not replace, or crown, caused more pain and cost more money than if I had known that teeth need each other to make alot of other facial parts work properly. Good Luck...--HafBrit 06:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

From Windows to Mac

By the end of the year I am planning on getting a new computer. I have always been fascinated by the beauty of Macs as opposed to PCs. The problem though is that in the past my dad has always bought new computers every 4-5 years for his office and puts in an order for me because it costs a lot less due to the bulk order. Now that I am going to buy a computer for/by myself, I definitely want a Mac because Windows computers crash (a lot) and all the other problems that windows encounters that Macs just don't. To get to my question, is there any new lingo I would need to learn, anything considerably different that would freak me out. I know when I switched from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox it had a whole little help page for those in my situation. Like instead of refresh it's reload, etc. Maybe there's an article/web-page on the subject. Thanks. schyler 22:39, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Apples website explains a lot. You could try starting at http://www.apple.com/getamac/ --JeremyA 22:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Or google for "Mac switcher". The think most likely to freak you out: the thing may come with a one-button mouse (or with Mighty-mouse, which is only sort of a two-button mouse: the solution is to buy a mouse you're comfortable with. It'll take a while to get used to the way things look, but otherwise you should have no problems. - Nunh-huh 02:43, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

With your new mac, you won't have to do any hardware upgrades for a while (~5 yrs). What kind are you getting? For a right click, you hold down the control button and click, although you don't usually need to do a right click. Keyboard shortcuts are all instead of command, it is the apple key. On the Mac, Safari is much better to use than any other browser. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:56, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I got a Mac about a year or so ago, and if you're a halfway competent Windows user then Mac OS is no problem - you should be able to pick up the majority of functions in a week or less. Learn to use Exposé (Mac OS X) (the F9, F10 and F11 keys) and know that Command+Option+Esc is the Mac's Ctrl+Alt+Del. Sum0 12:13, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

"Acess is denied"

Well I got a new computer recently, and I moved the old hard drive into an hd enclosure and hooked it up to my new computer. I wanted to transfer some of the files to my new computer, but since I forgot to uncheck the "make this folder private" option, it won't let me acess it. Is there anyway around this?

And btw, how can I change the save names on Battlefront 2 (for PC) without screwing up the game, since they all have names like "felucia0dbcf38a.rote" and "utapau0dc50e5b.rote" Wizrdwarts 22:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

If you are capable of doing this, you can connect your old hd into the place of your new one; if you have your old OS installed on that same disk, you then start your computer and access your old disk as before. Then you can change your file options. Otherwise, you can download some live Linux distro like knoppix and you should be able to access your data directly, as it should overgo Windows file properties. But in this case I think you'll have to manually remount your new hd partitions to read-write. Then you can copy your data to the new hd. Then you format your old hd and move them back. Hope this helps. Cthulhu.mythos 10:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Unless the files are encrypted, there should be no reason you cant get at them within your current windows environment. Often this error comes from a lack of read/write permissions on a given folder. As the administrator user, simply open the properties of the folder in question and add privileges so you can access it. I have done this many times for users who want to recover 'inaccessible' files from old windows installations.

USB

When I'm charging/updating my iPod on my PC (Windows XP), and someone turns it on standby, a little notification comes up and tells me that I am not using a hi-speed USB port when I come back from standby. It says that data transfer could be much quicker, and it gives a list of open hi-speed USB ports. I have repeatedly tried to connect it to one of these hi-speed ports, but I just can't seem to find them. Can anyone help me? Is there a difference between the symbol of a full-speed and a hi-speed USB port? Thanks--71.98.0.166 23:08, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Microsoft Windows is a nagging OS. You can just forget about it and live your life happily. Nothing is going to burn your iPod or your computer. -- Toytoy 23:36, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, It gives you the (useless) notification even when there are no Hi-Speed ports on your computer at all.—Pengo 10:30, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Shut up Microsoft Windows

I am using Windows XP. But I think these problems are in many other versions.

• If I rename a file's extension (e.g. .htm → .html or .jpeg → .jpg), the system always alerts me, "DO YOU WANT TO DO IT, YOU MAY LOSE YOUR LOUSY JOB." Can I switch it off?
• I turned off CD autoplay for all my drives. But from time to time, my system runs a CD-ROM's setup program without my consent. How do I fix it?
• Sometimes when I finished updating my LEGAL COPY of Windows, a dialog box pops up and ask me to restart the computer. If I deny it, that nagging window pops up again again and again. How do I kill that process? Or should I use a pirated copy instead?

I hate billg@microsoft.com. -- Toytoy 23:46, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you considered Linux? Black Carrot 01:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, today is your lucky day because Ubuntu Dapper Drake was just released: http://www.ubuntu.com/download —Keenan Pepper 01:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This is another time when I can endorse mac products!! http://apple.com/getamac/ — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 04:59, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

On a less exciting note, your third complaint has nothing to do with the legality of your copy. The update probably contained an upgrade to the kernel or some essential system service so you should restart as soon as possible. That happens with Mac and Linux too. When you get a new kernel, it doesn't actually run until you boot it up. —Keenan Pepper 05:13, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Though there seldom is need for a kernel update on Linux, and after any other updates a reboot will not be needed. –Mysid^(t) 08:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Although if you've updated X, you'll need to restart it, which can be almost as disruptive as a full reboot. --Serie 18:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Windows is particularly bad in that after you've chosen "no" you dont want to restart, it will ask again every 5 minutes until you've kicked the screen off the table and driven a knife through the computer case. I think you can drag the dialog into the corner of the screen, but I dont know a better way to stop it nagging for reset. I'd recommend Linux but I don't find it to be hassle free either.—Pengo 10:28, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

June 2

Levitation

Consider the following system:

      _
     | :    X
     | |
     | |
     | |
____ o o ____

The ":" is an electromagnet (solenoid), and the "o o" is a DC power source, which is at or near ground level. The vertical lines are wires. X is a charged object with non-negligible mass which is travelling either into or out of the screen (it doesn't matter which). My theory is that X will travel in a helical path. Is this correct? If I am right, how can the system be altered so that the path is elliptic (or circular) and stable?

I welcome any suggestions. --72.140.146.246 01:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

You can't make it stable. See Earnshaw's theorem. —Keenan Pepper 02:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, actually Earnshaw's theorem only applies to stationary configurations. If you applied an electric field as well you could make something like a Penning trap.

Can you elaborate on "applied an electric field"? Like, where do you apply it and what generates it? And I could settle with almost stable, provided that it seems stable over long time periods. But stable would be preferable. --72.140.146.246 17:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

A pair of charged plates (basically, an open-air capacitor) should work. --Serie 18:53, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Which would be placed where in my diagram? --72.140.146.246 23:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

By the way, I checked out the Penning trap. It does sound like what I want, but I'm not sure I understood the diagram. Can you help me, please? --72.140.146.246 17:28, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Some complex ions questions

I'm trying to make some Cu(H₂O)₆^{2+, how can I make it with some common copper salts or copper metal?}

Incidentally, does anyone know the colours of the Al(OH)₂⁺ and Al(OH)₄^- ions? And I believe I can make some Al(OH)₃ by 3NH₄OH + Al -> Al(OH)₃ + 3NH₄⁺, am I correct?

-- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 01:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

To make Cu(H₂O)₆^{2+, just get a copper(II) salt whose anion is a weak Lewis base, like copper(II) sulfate, and dissolve it in water. The bright blue color is from Cu(H₂O)₆2+. Other copper(II) solutions have different colors, for example copper(II) chloride is green because the blue Cu(H₂O)₆2+ is mixed with the yellow Cu(Cl)₄2−.}

I don't think you can make aluminum hydroxide with aluminum metal and ammonia. You need to start with a salt of aluminum. If you want to start from aluminum metal, first oxidize it with a strong acid. —Keenan Pepper 03:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, thanks, that's the reason I'm making these... to show colors using the crystal field theory etc. ;) And yeah it should have been Al³⁺, not a metal... -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 03:48, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I think most aluminum complexes are colorless because aluminum isn't a transition metal, but I'm not sure. Make some and see! —Keenan Pepper 05:09, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Most aluminium complexes are colorless, correct. That doesn't necessarily follow from Al not being a transition metal though. --BluePlatypus 18:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Aluminium metal is resistant to attack by most strong acids except HCl. It will, however, disslove very nicely in sodium hydroxide solution, giving the colourless aluminate ion directly. To make the aluminate ion from an aluminium salt in solution, add sodium hydroxide solution until it is present in excess. All aluminium compounds are white (solid) and colourless (solution) because there are no energy levels close enough to absorb photons of visible light. Copper metal will dissolve in a couple of acids - concentrated sulphuric acid and nitric acid - but in all cases the gases given off are not ones you would want to breathe!--88.106.173.138 08:36, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Computer repair questions

I have 4 questions for my Computer Repair class which I need help with. The teacher instructed the class to use the internet in any way possible to get answers to these questions, so any help you can give is much appreciated.

1. What program can you use to secure Windows 98 to a forced logon?

2. What operating system should I load first if I want to dual boot between 98, XP, ME and DOS?

3. In XP, for security, besides a password, what is one thing you can do so a user cannot see your file?

4. What are commands to make .pfx and .cer files?

Thanks.

Pckeffer

Using the Internet, scroll up to the very top of this page and read where it says "Do your own homework." --Ginkgo100 03:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

In order: (1) Microsoft TweakUI (I think), (2) DOS is not really an installable operating system. Beyond that, I suggest you install them in the order they came out in - 98, ME, and XP. (3) I believe XP supports primitive access permissions that allow one user to prevent others from seeing his files, and (4) No idea. Raul654 03:42, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Just to prevent misinformation, Dos is most certainly an installable operating system (it wouldn't be called an operating system if it weren't). Aside from that, DYOH and search search search.

To multi-boot between that set? I'd install each on its own partition, then use Linux to install LILO as a boot manager. --Serie 19:08, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Long-distance Music Sharing

Let's just say the person I want to share music with is family, because that way it sounds legal. I wanted to send a fairly large amoung (up to maybe 15 gigs) of music to someone in Phili. What's the best and cheapest way to do this. There is no way i'm uploading all of this to an ftp or anything, bc that takes forever. DVDs? How much could a dvd store if I zipped the stuff i wanted to send? What zipping program reduces size the most? Does zipping really reduce size all that much at all? I'm almost debating sending an ipod and hoping it doesn't get lost along the way and back, but that'd be a bit too risky. Any ideas? Thanks

A standard DVD-R holds about 4.7 gigabytes, and a dual-layer DVD-r holds about 8.5. Two dual-layer DVD's will comfortably fit your data.

If the music is already stored as MP3, WMA, AAC, or another lossy audio compression format, you can't further compress it, it's already compressed. If you're storing your audio uncompressed, you can either convert to a lossy format (with some small loss in audio quality), which will without doubt get your music onto a single DVD, or use a lossless audio compression tool like FLAC to squish your music down by about 30-50%.

But frankly, two to four DVD's doesn't sound too bad to me. --Robert Merkel 04:46, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Kidney

I think my kidney hurts. Every once in a while I feel a dull pulsing sensation in my lower back region. Its not a back pain, cause I can feel it within my body. So thats what lead me to believe its a kidney. I know this sounds vague. Could it be because I dont drink enough water? Is it a symptom of an STD? Help, I'm uninsured!!!

I'm sorry, but there's no way we can diagnose your symptoms on the basis of a brief description on the internet. According to our article on water, what matters is your total water intake from all sources (including food and other drinks), not where it comes from, and the belief that you "need to drink eight glasses of water" to remain healthy is a myth.

Beyond that, if this pain persists and bothers you, there really is no alternative to seeing a doctor to get a proper diagnosis. --Robert Merkel 04:59, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Talk to a doctor Man! We can't really help you here. He will probably ask for urine analysis so prepare one before hand. Or at least go to a urinologist with your sample. Kidney sicknesses will be revealed in the urine. --Jondel 07:29, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

• If you don't have a high enough water intake (through whatever means available) it could very well have an effect on your health. Drink more (or eat more juicy fruit) and go see a doctor. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:10, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Not drinking enough water does not cause pain in the kidneys. Occasional lower back or flank pain not associated with urination does not usually signal kidney disease in a young person. IAAD but there are way too many possible causes to try to diagnose you here. If you are in a city go to a local charity clinic and get a better answer. alteripse 11:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

• Regarding drinking water -- yes, "drink X amount of water a day" is something of a myth, but if you're prone to kidney stones (which have as a symptom a dull back ache), you really want to be getting a lot of water into yourself; I've read somewhere that drinking enough water so that you pee a half gallon a day reduces the chances of kidney stones by 90%. That's a lot of pee; my mantra (after an unpleasant series of stones) is "If my pee is yellow, I'm not drinking enough water; if I don't have to pee, I'm not drinking enough water." Certainly, go to a doctor if you have unexplainable back pain -- but if it's kidney stones, it will be excruciating (I've heard it described as the closest a man will ever know what it's like to give birth.) --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 23:53, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

What state are you from? Can you afford a trip to Canada? If so, get over here quickly, request "landed immigrant" status, get a government medical insurance card and go to any hospital. The treatment would be absolutely free. If the problem is urgent, the triage nurse will get you treatment IMMEDIATELY, with ZERO waiting time. However, just to warn you, after you've taken care of your urgent medical needs, should you desire some cosmetic surgery or lyposuction, you may have to wait a few months, I know...it sucks to wait for such things, but that's what you have to live with in a country with an "inferior" medical system. Loomis51 06:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

moon

from the days childhood,we know that moon does nt hv its own light.my question is hw does moon takes up the light from sun.i ws wondering first abt kirchoff's law,that first it absorbs light n then emits it,bt actually absorption happens at lower temprature n emission happens at higher..so got nowhere..so plz guide me..

Um, the light from the moon is reflected. --Robert Merkel 05:02, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

The visibility of the Moon has nothing to do with Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation. The moon simply scatters the Sun's light like any other opaque object. —Keenan Pepper 05:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Scattering, diffuse reflection, same thing. —Keenan Pepper 05:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

T lt fr t sn is rflctd. T mn has a lw lbdo bt nuf 4 rflxn 2 gv a strong lt on rf. Grutness...wha? 11:40, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

The moon has a small libido? ;-) Arbitrary username 14:01, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, have you ever seen the moon showing any interest in sex? The man in the moon seems to smile a lot, maybe he just "likes to watch", like Chauncey Gardiner. JackofOz 00:18, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

My question is: Why is it that so many questioners (who are obviously native English speakers) don't seem to have the patience or the ability, or most likely, the common courtesy to take a couple of minutes out of their oh-so-busy schedule to form complete sentences? (Yes, I'm afraid that includes the vowels too.) Would it kill you to type "not have" rather than "nt hv"? I've really had it with this sort of thing. I strongly urge my fellow RD regulars to refuse to answer questions when they are asked in such a careless, rude, ungrateful and discourteous manner. Loomis51 05:50, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

libido = albedo --Abdull 09:53, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Epinephrine/Adrenaline

Hello, I browsed my way into this wonderful site! Thank you! I am quite confused by all the talk re: epinephrine/adrenaline and what to call it in which country, etc...Can someone please respond, (if possible, Keep It Simple Sweetie), as to whether what I learned as fact is perhaps false? Number One: I thought adrenaline was a naturally-occurring hormone released by the adrenal gland, giving one the "fight/flight" feeling, or perhaps anxiety/panic attacks, etc. Number Two: I thought epinephrine was a man/lab produced sort of "synthetic" chemical-ized version of what occurs via the adrenal gland; hence all the medical products that utilize epinephrine for assorted desired results. Also, if you have patience, the reason I am asking those two questions: I would like to teach myself how to perform research using Wiki (I aspire to write great things!). I am "investigating" (1) whether the human body is able to produce the naturally-occurring adrenal-gland-fueled "adrenaline" for a prolonged, continual period (not in a situational need for the hormone, but rather a steady "drip," if you will; (2) what is a prolonged, continual period; (3) what physiological effects of adrenaline coursing through the body over a long-term might a body experience; (4) whether such long-term or excessive adrenaline production could lead to symptoms of or actual illnesses or disorders; and, finally! (5) what might those symptoms, illnesses or disorders be? You were so kind to read this; go ahead, then, answer, or poke fun, or ask why I want to know such inane things; I'm new and trying to see how this works so I hope I have not irritated anyone by my verbosity and lack of chemistry terms....thanks.

Hey, welcome to Wikipedia. If you haven't already done so, check out the article on Epinephrine. — TheKMan^talk 06:00, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Epinephrine and adrenaline are different names for the same chemical (see Merriam-Webster]), for instance. My personal observation is that epinephrine tends to be used in medical settings in the US, whereas adrenaline is used in lay settings; as I understand it adrenaline is the preferred medical term in the UK. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I think adrenaline is used globally outside the US (at least in english speaking countries) Rockpocket 08:01, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

In US medical contexts the two terms are used completely interchangeably. I cannot recall ever hearing anyone advocate any distinction in usage. For language wonks, the roots of the two words are identical: ad+renal=on the kidney in latin; epi+nephr=on the kidney in greek. alteripse 11:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Pheochromocytoma is a tumor which produces excess catecholamines. --193.172.33.211 12:38, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

OK, so this is a help desk, but you have maybe unwittingly undertaken a major task - the discoveries that started with looking into adrenaline's action changed the face of all of physiology as we know it. I'll give basic answers, some of which repeat what has been said above, so you can go search for reasons, and come back when stuck, or when you find that you do not agree with our simplifications. As above: adrenaline = epinephrine; you can also search for the term "catecholamine", a name for a more general class of similar substances. Countries where the word epinephrine is (medical literature-wise) preferred are the USA and Japan. In all other English speaking countries adrenaline is the medically used term - specifically and very importantly for labelling the substance for injection. As to man-made-ness the substance was synthesised in 1904, the name has nothing to do with whether it is made in the body or in a lab. The difference is only in the name for the chemical substance itself - note alteripse's etymology. In contrast, it's effects are always described as "adren"-ergic, not "epinephrin"-ergic. The layman's term all over the world is adrenaline. Your research questions 1.) yes 2.) lifetime 3.) look for "adrenaline physiology", look for "alpha effects" "and "beta effects" 4.) longterm keeps you normal, excessive is bad 5.) refer to 3. - see what it does to the heart and circulation, digestive system, breathing, nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, metabolism of fats, sugars, proteins - then exaggerate these and see if you come up with accurate guesses. If you look up the suggested reference to pheochromocytoma, you will see dramatic examples of some of these harmful effects. Note: A critical piece of info which you may initially miss and may cause initial confusion: The only source of adrenaline is the adrenal gland. There is an almost identical substance called nor-adrenaline (or nor-epinephrine. It does not have a methyl group attached to the nitrogen atom)) which is produced by the nervous system, and it is this second one which does most of the "sudden rush" work which you mention - for this you can also look at what it's "alpha" and "beta" effects are, and where and when it is produced. Lastly, do not think of your question as inane, they are indications of an active interest and questioning nature; add to that the willingness to look for answers and you have science as we know it (otherwise we'd be answering questions at the witchcraft help desk). --Seejyb 23:29, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Simulation of Outer Space

1) Has Zero pressure- Vacuum been simulated and experimented with human biology? (uhh is this cruelty? I hope not) and
2) Are there any documented deaths, injuries related to vacuum/zero space(on earth or outer space)? This question is in relation to possible outer space occurence/injury. Does like your eyes or veins popout? --Jondel 07:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

There is information (and a link) at the Human adaptation to space article on an accidental human exposure to a vacuum: ""The subject later reported that ... his last conscious memory was of the water on his tongue beginning to boil."! Rockpocket 08:00, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Very interesting! Thanks. --Jondel 08:14, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Also some info on Vacuum#Effects on humans and animals. Not sure why that and the Human Adaptation article aren't cross-linked to each other... DMacks 16:22, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

There are certainly minor injuries which are known due to application of a partial vacuum to small regions of skin. Chuck 21:22, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Rockets

1) What are the handy fuels that can be used in a home made rockets. 2) How to identify fuels.

Not sure about (1), but as far as (2) is concerned, I dont think you'd use a How to identify them. Mind you, Jack Hargreaves and co were all clever people, so maybe they could have helped you. I don't think they had any rules about doing your own homework like we do here... Grutness...wha? 11:45, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

For one, it can be a lot of things. Google it. MIxes with black powder particularly. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 12:50, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

1) Air and water work pretty well, are freely available, and a good deal safer than most combustible fuels. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 17:56, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

In fairness, neither the air not the water are a fuel in a water rocket. The energy comes from whatever compressed the air in the rocket. Chuck 21:24, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Nazi experimentation

Did any hard scientific results come of the Nazi medical experiments conducted in the 40s? Is any modern knowledge, medicine or technique predicated on the 'research' they carried out? FreeMorpheme 10:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This is quite a common question, and it should be in the article really (Nazi human experimentation). Have a look at Talk:Nazi human experimentation#Results and Talk:Nazi human experimentation#Results, again. In general, it seems the answer is "not really". Sum0 12:06, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I checked the article, but not the talk page. It should go in the article to stop people incessantly asking! FreeMorpheme 12:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Go for it :-) Arbitrary username 13:51, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Apart from human research we have Nazi Moon base here ; Ersatz ; Hitlers Bombe ... (try searching Nazi research or Nazi science here). --DLL 18:58, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Materal safety data sheet

How to use MSDS fo designing

single phase pole mounted transformer

Is single phase pole mounted transformer is an auto transformer? And how is it connected? (the primary and secondary). im confused because only one high tension wire goes to the bushing. thanks

I really liked the article on transformer. It's a bit too detailed for me, but perhaps you're smart enough to understand it. --Zeizmic 12:43, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

men nipples

my question is , female needs nipples to feed there babies, but why men have nipples, any scintific reason?

The nipples are formed in utero before the sex of the child is determined. There should be more info in the Archives. Anand 13:57, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

See also: Male lactation. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 17:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This has been asked before. Nipples on males are for sexual purposes. There's a direct link between stimulation of the nipples and arousal of the penis. The effect is more pronounced on some males than others, but it's there. JackofOz 00:12, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Insect identification

What kind of flying insect is this? (Scale is mm.)The teeny tiny bubbles are a reaction with "Awesome" (a household cleaning product like Fantastic). ...IMHO (Talk) 14:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

A wasp? alteripse 14:45, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Possibly but I don't see the stinger. ...IMHO (Talk) 15:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Only the female wasps have a stinger (according to our article), but it's not a variety of wasp that I recognize. --Shantavira 15:25, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Oops! Didn't read far enought. Do you have a table of characteristics in the form of an Excel spread sheet where the top row contains the list of the characteristics of wasps and the left most column contains a list of their names with the body of the table containing the states which relate the wasps to each characteristic? ...IMHO (Talk) 15:44, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

It looks very much like a red ant to me. Compare with this and this. It must be flying ant day. TheMadBaron 16:45, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks very similar except for exact shape of head. ...IMHO (Talk) 16:58, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to guess that it's a fire ant queen. Compare with Image:Fire ant queens 3589.JPG. — TheKMan^talk 17:19, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like that might be it to me - no stinger identical parts, shapes, lengths. Only thing that bothers me is that this one was crawling between me and the keyboard when I spotted it. ...IMHO (Talk) 17:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Why does that bother you? TheMadBaron 17:53, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

My keyboard and I are inside with all the windows closed and the AC running. Queens are ready to start building their nest right after swarming and mating right. I lived in an old frame house on pillars and one day I woke up with more fire ants than I could count under the covers. The nest was just under the house directly below the bedroom. I still have scars from the tissue damage. ...IMHO (Talk) 18:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Diesel exhaust

Can the exhaust from a diesel engine kill one if exposed in a confined space for a few hours? Are there any reports of accidental deaths from this? DonSiano 14:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Much quicker than "a few hours". Exhaust gases contain carbon monoxide, a very effective poison. For a horrible application of this, see Gas van. For accidents how about the six deaths from one generator here.

Just some info in case it's of any relevance: in the gas vans the Nazis deliberately reduced the air intake into the truck's engine to give less complete combustion, so producing vastly more CO than would normally be the case for a diesel engine. Arbitrary username 19:55, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

No, that is a gasoline engine--the exhaust is quite different; accidental deaths are common from gasoline engines. I have yet to see any contemporary account in the media of an accidental death from a diesel engine.DonSiano 14:54, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Diesel exhaust contains plenty of carbon monoxide, even if less than with gasoline. (OTOH they have 100x larger particle levels which can give severe lung damage and cancer) But plenty of people have been killed by them. This page lists some accidental deaths attributed to diesel. There's also the 900,000 intentional deaths by diesel engines at Treblinka. --BluePlatypus 19:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Carbon monoxide is _much_ less in diesel exhaust. I went through all of the accounts, but none of them specifically mentioned a diesel engine. They were from open flames and gas engines. One of the incidents mentions the possibility of diesels being responsible for illness at a school, but nobody died, and its source was not definitively traced to diesel. Still not one verified case!DonSiano 21:05, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you want a debate or are you asking a question? The page does in fact list a group of fishermen taken to hospital and treated for CO poisoning from their fishing-boat diesel. And the answer to the original question: Can diesel exhaust kill you in a confined space, is a definite yes. If not by CO poisioning, then by asphyxiation. Diesel doesn't produce any less CO2 than gasoline. --BluePlatypus 06:05, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

It seems that it is almost impossible to die from CO from diesels, because the exhaust is so horrible that you run screaming. Here's a random thing from one CO death investigation: "To minimize generation of CO, trucks should be converted to electric or diesel power. While generating less CO, the stronger odor of diesel exhaust also provides better warning properties than does the odor of gasoline exhaust." --Zeizmic 15:16, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Universe expansion

If the universe is expanding and therefore presumably the distances between objects then how about the distances between atoms and molecules of which the objects are made? ...IMHO (Talk) 15:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Don't think so... no. VdSV9•♫ 17:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

No, interatomic distances are controlled by a minimum in the electrostatic potential. In order for the expansion to affect the distance between atoms, it would have to either A) affect the magnitude of the electromagnetic force, or B) make the affect of gravity/expansion so large that it was competitive with electromagnetic forces. Some people think the latter might happen in the Big Rip scenario. Dragons flight 17:30, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

So are you saying then that only F changes because r changes and not G the gravitaional constant or any of the other forces as the result of expansion? (F=G*((m1*m2)/r^2)) ...IMHO (Talk) 18:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, the point is, that nothing is changing except distances are being spread out by the expansion. So the way the forces work is all the same, so even if an electron is being pulled (very slightly) outward it gets pulled back immediately by the EM force. Interestingly, there are plenty of objects held together by gravity that are also not being pulled apart: even the Milky Way galaxy is in no danger of being pulled apart at the present rate of expansion/acceleration. -- SCZenz 19:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

To the extent that dark energy can be approximated as a classical force (which is not a very good approximation), it would be one such that F = D*m*r, where m is the mass of the object being pushed, r is the distance between the object and your point of reference, and D is a proportionality factor that may vary over time. So the amount of classical acceleration that would appear to be associated with expansion of the universe would be a = D*r, which is very small compared to everything except for distances which are a substantial fraction of the size of the universe. Again, not a great approximation, though. Dragons flight 20:04, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Really? I would've expected that to be a very good approximation for less-than-cosmic distances. Why isn't it? -- SCZenz 20:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well to the extent that it is approximately equal to zero at less than cosmic distances, it is a great approximation.  :-) But my recollection is that if you try to include dark energy as a term for inhomogenous bound systems (e.g. galaxies, solar systems, etc), that you end up with a system whose classical analog is different, in part because those systems aren't expanding in the cosmological sense. However my understanding in this area is somewhat limited. Dragons flight 20:18, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually, if I had to guess, it may be identically 0 for bound systems (assuming constant dark energy per volume), since as an effective pressure the work it can accomplish would depend on the change in volume. For a bound system of fixed size (size being determined primarily by equilibrium among other much larger forces), the absence of any expansion may eliminate the ability for dark energy to do any additional work. But this reasoning may be entirely too classical. Dragons flight 20:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

For starters, the model of the cosmos as a homogeneous fluid is badly inaccurate at anything less than cosmological scales. On a galactic scale, we have lots of inhomogeneity, stars and interstellar vacua and such. So there is no reason to expect cosmological effects to be good approximations at small scales. -lethe ^{talk +} 20:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This question and the previous one (look up on this page!) are both answered in Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology by Ned Wright (Astronomy, UCLA) ---CH 05:46, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Taxonomy tables

Is there a place to find Taxonomy tables (actually tables of characteristics) of insects or other creatures in the form a an Excel spread sheet where the top row contains the list of characteristics and the left most column contains a list of the insects or creatures and the body of the table contains the states which relate the characteristics to each? ...IMHO (Talk) 15:28, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

enriched uranium for peaceful purposes

The U.S. wants Iran to forego enriching uranium, to prevent military use. Iran insists it wants peaceful use only but resists a ban on enrichment. What are the advantages (for peaceful uses) of enrichment? --ROJ72.25.96.103 17:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

It's used in various types of nuclear reactor for power generation. See Enriched uranium for details. Of course, other countries are somewhat suspicious of Iran using this reason, since they're sitting on top of one of the world's largest oil reserves. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 17:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

I think by "power" what Iran really means (perhaps only subconciously) is political power. ...IMHO (Talk) 17:55, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Perfect vacumn

Since outer space is nearly a perfect vacumn has anyone ever conducted an experiment where a spark was maintained between two electrodes and if so what were the voltages and the distances of separation? ...IMHO (Talk) 19:15, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

In everyday practice, sparks are associated with the electrical breakdown of air, but cathode rays are associated with the free flow of electrons from one terminal to another in vacuum, and thus might be considered a kind of "spark" in vacuum. Dragons flight 20:07, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

So then you'll get cathode rays? At what voltages and distance between electrodes? ...IMHO (Talk) 20:36, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much any distance. As long as the cathode is hot enough to boil off electrons, they'll be attracted to the anode by the field between them. -- EdC 21:20, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

So like we could have a giant TV screen in space the whole would could view at the same time like a world wide drive in theater? Wow! ...IMHO (Talk) 23:25, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Just imagine royalties demanded for showing a movie on that screen! --Serie 23:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Radio Nerve Treatment

I have done some Googling, but not knowing the keywords to search for has been a disadvantage, and I have not found anything helpful. I have heard of a treatment for pain in which nerves are stimulated to radio waves, which has the effect of "putting them to sleep" for 6 months. I don't know more about it than that, I'm afraid. I would be very greatful if anyone here could point me in the right direction. Thank you! Daniel (‽) 19:26, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

lightning rod

My house has a lightning rod and a thick copper wire connecting the rod to the ground. If I tug at the wire where it enters the dirt, it seems pretty loose. So, I am wondering if there is a way I can test how well connected it is to earth ground. I have multimeter - is there some way I could use this to conduct the test? ike9898 20:00, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

This [20] has something on it. Basically, you want to see if you can pop a 5A auto fuse. --Zeizmic 20:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

But the requirements for a lightning rod ground are somewhat different than the ground for your home electrical system, aren't they? A lighting strike is a lot of load, for a short duration. The situation described in the article above is sort of the opposite. ike9898 20:41, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Think about it. If you can pop a 5 amp fuse (they are usually 125-250v) with 120 volts at 100-200 amps then you have sufficient ground to put 10,000 volts in the ground. What you have to worry about is if the 120 volt 100-200 amp house current won't pop a 5 amp auto fuse. Make sense now? ...IMHO (Talk) 21:03, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Pharmacist

When I take a prescription to the pharmacy (in the US), what specifically does pharmacist do? I have to say, as far as I can tell, they're not doing much beyond counting out the pills.(I have read the Pharmacist article and it didn't answer my question) ike9898 20:11, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Its not like it used to be. Mostly thats all they do now a days is put pills in bottles. ...IMHO (Talk)

But jeez, they have to get a pretty rough graduate degree. And then often it takes them quite a while to fill up that bottle! They must be doing something else... ike9898 20:55, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well they do have to be sure that the wrong pills don't go in the bottle, but that's about it. ...IMHO (Talk) 21:06, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Why do these guys make $100 K + per year? It seems rediculous; I'm hoping a real pharamcist will comment. ike9898 21:28, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Making sure that the 'wrong' pills don't go in the bottle is actually a much deeper process than it appears at first blush. The pharmacist is your last line of defence against all kinds of potential troubles. Ever notice how a lot of doctors have terrible handwriting? Pharmacists both decrypt that chickenscratch and check it for sanity—does the number, dose, frequency, etc. of prescribed medication make sense? An individual usually fills all of his prescriptions at one pharmacy; a pharmacist can be alert to interactions (sometimes very nasty ones) that can take place between drugs prescribed by different physicians. This comes up a lot with elderly individuals. In addition, a pharmacist will know – and warn – about interactions between your prescription drugs and any over-the-counter medications you might be likely to take. I know that pharmacists in Canada have to have a four-year degree that includes a whole lot of biochemistry and pharmacology. Most pharmacists probably know the drugs better than the doctors who prescribe them. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:58, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

See this and this. --hydnjo talk 21:10, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Somebody asked this question about two or three months ago. — The Mac Davis] ⌇☢ ญƛ. 22:47, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

However, there is a legitimate question as to whether a four-year degree is really necessary to be an effective pharmacist, or whether it's just a modern-day guild. Pharmacists often *do* know the drugs they are dispensing better than most doctors; but that knowledge is completely wasted when all they are doing is reading a doc's perscription, getting them off the rack, and giving them to the customer. --Robert Merkel 01:52, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I think in the US, to be a pharamacist requires a graduate degree. ike9898 04:26, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Your pharmacist not only makes sure that you get the right pills, but that the pills you are getting don't conflict with the pills you've already gotten. They also have to be up on all medications, as they will counsel you about their use and side effects that may result. They're also there to answer your questions about the medications. A pharmacy clerk does the actual counting and dispensing, but they don't have the knowledge of the drugs and their interrelationships. User:Zoe|^(talk) 02:19, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

So, if you are only taking one medication, what does he do beyond reading messy handwriting? You say the clerk fills the bottles. I take a prescription medication which the pharmacist gives me in a factory sealed bottle of 30 pills - he has no role in assuring what pills are in the bottle. I am beginning to side with the comment above about this being a modern day guild. ike9898 04:26, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Still that doesn't answer why there's an automatic 30-minute delay whenever I need to fill a prescription at my local pharmacy (which is located inside a grocery store). I went to the doctor (for example) because I had a chest cold that went on for days and days. Doc diagnosed it as pneumonia, and gave me a 'scrip for antibiotics, and a sedative to help me sleep. Okay, so far so good. I haven't been to the pharmacy in about a year, since I broke my ankle and got a 'scrip for hydrocodone for the pain. So I go get some food & beer at the grocery store, and toss my 'scrip at the "pharmacist" behind the counter. Seeing as it's been over a year since my last transaction, and that the doc is prescribing a mild antibiotic, and a mild pain reliever, why does it take thirty minutes to process? Grab the damn bottle off the shelf, count out so many pills, and give the damn thing to me. Don't even get me started on why the HEPA act prevents them from announcing over the PA system that my prescription is ready and so I have to stand around like a goober for half an hour while they do whatever the hell it is they do before they count out the damn antibiotics and pain pills into the little bottles for me, and I have to keep asking "Is my prescription ready yet?"

Sounds to me as if you have less of a pharmacology issue, and more of a customer service issue. Find a more customer-service oriented pharmacy. --Ginkgo100 05:20, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Seriously, I've seen the answers in the prior thread where the pharmacist types said things like "we have to make sure we're dispensing what the doc ordered". So what in hell does that REALLY mean? How can my doc's 'scrip for a pain reliever possibly be misconstrued? Why do I have to wait thirty minutes to get a simple antibiotic and some hydrocodone? Don't tell me you're calling my doc to confirm the 'scrip; she left at five o'clock, and I'm filling my scrip at six-thirty, so there's nobody home at the clinic to even answer the phones, and yet you somehow do manage to fill my 'scrip even though the doc is long gone for the evening.

Hey, stop giving Pharmacists grief. Their pay is determined by supply and demand. It is a boring job with long hours that requires smart committed people, so it has to pay well so there'll be enough good folks wanting to be pharmacists. For a contrast, look at teaching. Everybody wants to be a teacher, that’s why teachers don't get paid much. I love teachers... but why do they need a master’s degree to teach multiplication tables? Even with the educational barriers to entry, everybody still wants to be a teacher, so you don't have to pay much to get one. Or how about being a fire fighter... everybody wants to do that, so they manage supply and demand by making the entry requirements- strength, vision, health, background checks- really strict, that’s why they are all beautiful men with a chiseled muscular look... crap, I think I'm going off-topic...

Heres the deal from someone that actually works in a pharmacy. When you goto either a supermarket pharmacy or Save-on, Walgreens, or most other larger pharmacies, the pharmacist and the pharmacy technitions don't care about you. They want you to wait so they can have fun and mess around. I think thats also a policy at some places so you look around and buy stuff. I have Kaiser Permanente insurance, and when I goto their 24 hour pharmacy (they're huge and they have many 10 pharmacists), I see pharmacists with ipods on, and not just one earbud on, its on both ears. They dont really care at all.

Now when you go into a local mom and pop pharmacy, its a little different. They might care more and treat you better if the owner or manager is there. But you need to understand just because your the only customer in the store, your not the only customer whos prescriptions they are working on. I work at a smaller pharmacy and a lot of the times we are working on several things at once like counting pills, dealing with insurance companies, calling, faxing, or talking to doctors, and doing refills for customers that call in. Its not as easy as it looks, and it takes a few minutes to put in and decode a new prescription, especially if you are a new customer (putting insurance in correctly can be difficult sometimes), and if its a new doctor to the pharmacy you need to put in all the doctors info (name, address, DEA #, etc).

And for the person that said that they just hand you a bottle of 30 pills with no counting, heres the deal on that. Most medicines can be ordered in different quantities. Some such as Vicodin or others are usually ordered in big bottles because of high usage, and others such as singular and some others are ordered in bottles of 30 because thats the only way they come. So if it comes in 30, and you need 30, they usually just slap the label on. And about the checking drug interactions thing, it only takes a second, pharmacists know their stuff, or at least the good ones do. And whoever said that they know more than doctors was right, most doctors dont know sh*t, I have doctors calling everyday asking our pharmacist about medicines and dosages. Oh yeah, and about pharmacists pay, lol you should try taking some of the classes that you need to take BEFORE you get into pharmacy school, they're pretty damn hard!

Everything you said was fine, until you got to the pay part. People should be well-paid for doing highly skilled and technical work. People should not be well-paid because they had to take hard classes to get the job unless the classes are really neccesary to do the job. Creating unnecessarily strict educational standards in order to limit the number of pharmacists in the marketplace is a great way artificially inflate salaries. Now, I can't say for sure that the average pharmacist is over educated, but I think that I and many other people on this thread get the impression that the job being done by many of the people that are there to "have fun and mess around" (your words) could easily be managed by someone with a lot less education. Dragons flight 10:21, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

And what would you suggest as the alternative? I schedule my trip to the pharmacy so that I have plenty of other stuff I can get done in case they are backed up for three of four hours and maybe even the next day. Hey there service is caution and care and not to kill me accidentally with some drug. Give pharmacists a break! Beside if they used vending machines thank about all the teenagers that know how to break into them whether with a screwdriver or with a sequence of control commands. As far as expert knowledge you could probably even have gigantic drug classification table that would screen for every possible issue from the current weather to various aspects of your DNA but then we already have enough bus drivers and illegal immigrants don't know how to open child proof medicine bottles in order to do the job. So learn how to schedule your trips or graduate from pharmacy school and fill your own prescriptions for yourself. ...IMHO (Talk) 11:03, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Chickens Without Heads

I had always assumed that the old expression about "walking around like a chicken without a head" was not meant to be taken literally, but just sort of evolved somehow over time either by accident or as a misquote or for some other mysterious reason. Surely a chicken can't walk without a brain to guide it and an inner ear to maintain balance!

Yet once at a farm I had the rather unpleasant opportunity to witness a chicken being slaughtered. Its head was basically chopped off. Then, lo and behold, the headless chicken actually began to walk around in a rather aimless fashion. The expression was actually based on reality!

How in the world is this possible? It goes against everything I ever thought I knew about basic animal physiology. I could understand if the animal would twitch and jerk around erratically, as that can be explained as being caused by the autonomous nervous system (or something like that, science is certainly not my field, so please bear with my perhaps innacurate terminolgy).

But walking is a rather complex thing to do, relatively speaking, despite the fact that most of us simply take it for granted and rarely give it a second thought. It requires a significantly sophisticated brain to precisely guide the motion of the limbs, as well as that "inner ear" which enables the animal/person to sense when it is off balance, and send signals to the brain to help it to determine whatever minute changes are required to be sent to the limbs to regain balance.

Just think of technology. We've discovered ways of designing machines that can process and hold mind-boggling volumes of data and perform calculations at mind-boggling speeds, yet to date no one has really been able to design a robot that can simply walk decently. Yes some robots can walk in an extremely awkward and clumsy fashion, but throw them off balance by the slightest bit and it's simply beyond their capacity to compensate. Put a headless chicken beside the most sophisticated robot programmed with the most sophisticated possible walking programme and the headless chicken will still demonstrate a capability of walking that, by comparison, would put the super-robot to shame.

Can anyone explain to me how in the world it is possible for a headless chicken to walk? Loomis51 23:33, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

• Well, in the case of Mike the Headless Chicken, a bit of brain stem was left behind. Perhaps walking is reflex action in chickens? It's not like they have a lot of brain in the first place. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 23:45, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

We have an article on Mike the Headless Chicken. User:Zoe|^(talk) 02:20, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

June 3

Xbox 360 hard drive

On my Xbox 360 I am unable to save my music from my flash disk to the hard drive as the 360 doesn't let me save music that isn't on my hard drive. I also can't even access the videos on my flash disk via my 360. How can I get these on the hard drive? Thanks. schyler 00:37, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Souring of Milk

What substance causes milk to sour and eventually spoil? Is it yeast?Patchouli 01:15, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

No, it's lactic acid bacteria, turning the sugar in the milk into lactic acid. See milk#Curdling for more info. --Bowlhover 02:09, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Are there free hard drive recovery options?

A friend of mine just called and asked if I knew of any free/cheap hard drive recovery tools available. I can't think of any off hand -- I recommended one of the many services available. He doesn't really want to pay, of course. Is there software available that would assist him in recovering data from a "Dead" hard drive? Thanks! --65.4.235.198 03:33, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

This is a windows partition, by the way, and he is not comfortable at all with Linux. --65.4.235.198 03:37, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Toes

Is there a techical term for those black hairs that sprout on your toes? Vitriol 04:21, 3 June 2006 (UTC

Animal hair is subdivided into different types based upon size, shape, position and colouring (these are called awls, auchenes and zigzags), but terminal human hair is classified by body position. Thus hair on your head is defined by where it is on your skull (e.g. parietal hair), hair around the genitals is pubic hair, hair under your arms is axillary hair and the hair on your fingers and toes are called digital hairs [21]. See Hair#Types_of_hair for more info. Rockpocket 08:38, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Ability to Self-Update to New Versions in Linux Distributions

I run Ubuntu in a virtual machine, and was happy to note that the updater that Ubuntu uses to patch, update, etc. is capable of downloading and installing new versions of Ubuntu (right now upgrading from 5.10 to 6.06 LTS) into itself, essentially an in place upgrade. Are any other Linux distributions capable of this? I have previously used SuSE, but via YaST, I was only able to update or upgrade components, I could never upgrade the entire operating system. Thanks. MSTCrow 04:39, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

On Debian, one can type apt-get update; apt-get upgrade and it downloads and installs new versions of all components, including the kernel. (Which is not surprising, since Ubuntu is based on the Debian architecture.) –Mysid^(t) 05:34, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Are the upgrade mechanisms of Ubuntu and Debian identical, apt-get, synaptic etc.? --vibo56 09:28, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

wearing heel shoes

is it true that wearing high heels is actually fatal?how?

I'd certainly advise against it if you're planning on going tightrope walking. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 09:31, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

sleeping birds

why dont birds fall off the tree while sleeping?

A part of the brain remains active while sleeping, allowing some functions (like breathing) to remain active. Many animals retain brain function that allows them to keep their balance and enough muscle activity to remain standing. See the article on sleep, in particular the section on "animal sleep". Weregerbil 09:16, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

For birds that sleep gripping a branch: Bird claws are actually "designed" so that the pressure from the weight of their bodies actually pushes the claws closed, making it take little effort to keep holding on.—Pengo 10:14, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

life on mars?

i heard that mars has polar ice caps just like earth.so does this create a possibility of life on mars?

thank you

Water ice may help life survive. Nobody knows whether there is life on Mars. The article life on Mars and its references and external sources has a great wealth of information on the subject. Weregerbil 09:11, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Itching

Hi, I I've been having this itch for about a month that has been killing me. My anus itches, and its not all the time, just sometimes, and its driving me nuts. I thought it might be pinworm, so I got something called pin-x yesterday and took it. I'm not sure if thats the problem though. It still itches. I dont have any other problems, no blood or anything, any ideas? Thanks

I'd say you have an acute case of Pruritis Ani, and I'm sure most doctors would agree. But seriously, if you're worried, see a doctor. It's very unlikely to be anything, but it couldn't hurt. And never trust medical advice you were given by a random bunch of people on the internet. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 09:36, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Pinworm infection is one of the commonest causes of Pruritis Ani, and is something that you can treat yourself. I'm not familiar with the brand-name "pin-x", but the generic names of the substances used for treating pinworm infection are given in the article. If you chose to diagnose and treat it yourself, be sure to read the instructions that follow the medication. Two rounds of treatment are necessary because the medicine does not kill the eggs. Pinworm is sometimes difficult the get rid of, because of self-reinfection through eggs, both from clothing or bed-sheets, and via the fecal-oral route. Therefore, when taking the medication, you will do wisely in also changing underwear/pyjamas/bedsheets, and in observing meticulous hand-hygiene. --vibo56 (Random guy on the internet) 10:49, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

TV static

I'm wondering for years where TV static such as [22] comes from. I'm sure it is some form of noise (radio), but still this doesn't explain why an analogue TV ends up having hectic black and white dots jumping around the screen. What are the technical reasons for this effect? Thanks, --Abdull 10:26, 3 June 2006 (UTC)