Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

October 2

Business community involvement

I am loking for businesses in cumberland county that are activly involved and also donate into the community. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.2.87.69 (talk) 00:03, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

You'll need to tell us which Cumberland County you are asking about. -LarryMac | Talk 00:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, there's a gap in the info provided. StuRat 00:52, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The questioner's IP address indicates a location in North Carolina, so presumably he/she is asking about Cumberland County, North Carolina. Even so, the question is too vague to answer. It isn't clear what the businesses are supposed to be actively involved in. While it would be possible, maybe, to go through the annual reports of all corporations in the county to see what charitable contributions they've made, that would be a massive research project beyond the scope of a Reference Desk editor. A more efficient way to get this information would be to approach the fundraising staff of organizations with which the questioner thinks businesses should be actively involved and to ask them which businesses actually do contribute. Marco polo 02:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Or he/she could just contact the Cumberland County Business Council located here which appears to be that county's Chamber of commerce. If Marco polo has the correct locality, this should be enough. If not, search for ("chamber of commerce" and "cumberland county" and "__name__") (where __name__ is the state, province, arrondissement or whatever-else-it-is you happen to be asking about). dr.ef.tymac 22:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Strongest Glue

What is the strongest glue/adhesive in the world? Strong in respect to all the tests mentioned in Glue. Thanks,. Acceptable 00:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

For what sort of materials? --Carnildo 00:40, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Paper, metal, glass and plastic. Acceptable 01:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Across that range of materials, I doubt there's a single "strongest" glue unless you mean "the best compromise product that could glue any of those materials". Cyanoacrylate ("Superglue") glues are pretty strong on non-porous materials, though, with epoxy glues being good on a wide range of materials including porous materials.

Atlant 12:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Some very dedicated glue fans have compiled just such a list at thistothat.com. Want to know how to glue fabric to wood, or styrofoam to glass? They've apparently tried it out. jeffjon 13:30, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Exercise machines and calories

So I was at the gym today and I was on the exercise bike. The bike keeps a counter of calories. What I want to know is what that number means. Say it displays 100 calories, is it saying that I've burned 100 calories, or is it saying that it would take 100 calories of energy to turn the wheel as fast as I have for as long as I have. If it is the latter, than I assume that I've burnt more than 100 calories, since no doubt my body is not that efficient.

It would be great if anyone could answer definitely. Thanks in advance.

129.100.207.128 03:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I can't say for sure, but I think it's saying you've burned 100 calories. Note that there's a built-in incentive for the manufacturer to overestimate this value a little bit. There is really no practical way to figure out your calorie balance except by tracking your weight over time, and adjusting your exercise and eating habits accordingly -- in theory you should be able to add up the calories you eat and subtract the ones you burn, but in practice there's so much error in both figures that except in extreme cases you won't even know if the difference is positive or negative.

On the plus side, though, exercise raises your resting metabolism rate. Especially if the exercise is a little on the intense side. So the contribution of the workout may be greater than just the calories you burn while you're physically on the bike. No one here, of course, can advise you on how intense exercise can be and still be safe for you personally. --Trovatore 05:46, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

What did the trainer/supervisor tell you when you asked him? Richard Avery 07:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Washtub bass

Which is it, strings on a washtub or a single string attached to a pole? The article is very unclear --froth^t 03:27, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The washtub bass, as played by legendary early twentieth century jug bands and kitchen bands to the present, has a piece of wood (like a broom handle) resting abgainst the bottom of a waashtub (like hinged), which can be pivoted to alter the tension in a string also attached to the bottom of the tub, altering the pitch by a few notes to allow harmony. Edison 04:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY/ SAMPLING

WHY MIGHT A RESEARCHER USE QUOTA SAMPLING INSTEAD OF STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.32.219.26 (talk) 05:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Do your own homework. The reference desk will not give you answers for your homework, although we will try to help you out if there is a specific part of your homework you do not understand. Make an effort to show that you have tried solving it first. Also, Caps Lock is not cruise control for cool. In fact, it is considered quite rude. Lanfear's Bane 11:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

But a good place to start your research might be to read Quota sampling and Stratified sampling. SaundersW 11:22, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

LOL the cruise control part was cool. (note that my lol is in caps lock) --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 19:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

WWII Bombing of Nazi prisons and camps

Apart from Operation Jericho, the attack on Amiens Prison are there any other instances of the allies attacking a prison or camp ?

I ask as although it might not destroy materiel it could save lives and cause immense trouble for an occupying force.

Thanks

Paul —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.86.166.234 (talk) 06:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There was a single small attack on Auschwitz-Birkenau that had little impact. I don't remember if it was planned or not, but Primo Levi writes memorably about enjoying it as it happened, in Moments of Reprieve. --Dweller 11:55, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

(EC) Bombing is not exactly known for it's accuracy and would be more likely to have a detrimental effect on the population of the camp than the security or the infrastructure; in other words the captives would be much more likely to suffer than the captors. Plus they would probably be put to work to repair any damage done and would suffer doubly. Camps are also often in remote, difficult to access or 'hidden' locations. Lanfear's Bane 12:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

That's true of carpet bombing, but dive-bombers can be accurate enough to hit the perimeter defenses. Unfortunately, even if the prisoners escape from the camp, there is little hope they would escape the country to freedom. Thus, such a tactic would not help the prisoners much, but could harm the enemy, as they would need to pull troops from the front to hunt down the escaped prisoners. StuRat 18:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

See Task Force Baum for details on another prison camp attack, this one by land instead of air. StuRat 18:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Gestapo headquarters both in Denmark and Norway were bombed by the RAF. These facilities housed prisoners as well. However, the rationale for these bombings was not just to ease prisoner escape, though that may have been one of the reasons. The Danish bombing was a success, while the later attack on Oslo was a failure.Asav 15:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Recycling bags

The two large chain grocery stores near me will both take plastic grocery bags to be recycled. They have a drum to put them in near their doors. The smaller mom & pop grocery store that I normally go to does not take these bags back for recycling. What I don't understand though is why neither of the local town recycling centers will take these bags. What is it about the bags that the recycling centers don't like but the stores do? I hate those bags, so I always request paper instead but the question still bothers me. My locale is the U.S. state of Vermont. Dismas|^(talk) 12:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Plastic recycling does cover some of the difficulties of recycling plastic. You also have to take into account the location for recycling this material - large supermarkets can ship material around more easily than mom and pop who might have to travel a distance to recycle when the supermarkets lorries will be gathering centrally. Mom and pop might pollute more driving to the recycling centre than they save the environment by recycling. Also the larger supermarkets will have a much better volume of material to work with, it might take mom and pop years to gather a sensible amount to recycle. The supermarket may also recieve tax breaks by encouraging recycling and it is also good for their public image. Many offer you a penny back for every bag you re-use - this will also possibly save them money. In the Republic of Ireland you have to pay for your plastic bags to discourage people from taking more than they need. Many supermarkets also sell sturdy 'bags for life' than can be used over and over for a small price. Do keep in mind that they do all this for one reason - profit. Lanfear's Bane 12:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

My issue isn't with the mom and pop places not taking them. I can understand the back end of things may be overly expensive, complicated, etc. for them to do the recycling. What I'm curious about is the recycling centers turning them away since that's what they do... they recycle. I'll take a look at the article. Dismas|^(talk) 14:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

In my local area (southwest England) the equivalent to "mom and pop" will take the plastic bags from big supermarkets and use reuse them by giving shopping in them to people who don't bring their own shopping bags. Charity shops (goodwill stores) are also happy to take and reuse supermarket bags. Reuse is even better than recycling! SaundersW 12:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know, but it might be that recycling plastic bags loses money. As such, it would be an expense that recycling centers and mom-and-pop stores can't afford, but that big chains can take as a deduction from their corporate taxes. Also, the cost would be lower for a big chain due to economies of scale. Marco polo 15:16, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

We're still not answering Dismas' main questions, which is, why do town recycling centres not take plastic bags? (I have not a clue; I'm going to guess that there is not a market for them, as there is for much of the other things that do get recycled. I am, too, suspicious of supermarkets that take back their bags. I hazard a guess that many will "recycle" them into the general waste stream, making their customers feel good, but not actually achieving any recycling.) --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:19, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There is no cabal! I don't however doubt that this is a possibility. There are literally thousands of stories along those lines and as SaundersW points out reusing is much better than recycling anyway and you eliminate the possibility of all your hard work going to waste only for some evil corporation (pretend there are good ones just for the sake of comparison) just to dump the recycling material anyway. Reduce, reuse and recycle in that order. Lanfear's Bane 15:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The problem with recycling anything is getting enough volume of the recycleables to make it worth building a factory to do the work. It's likely that there aren't enough bags returned in one city to make it worthwhile - and it's very likely that whichever kind of plastic the bags are made from is incompatible with other plastics that there are facilities for. However, the supermarkets have trucks going back from the supermarket to their local distribution center and from there back to headquarters - they are large and empty (on the return journey) - so it's easy for them to have someone dump the collected bags onto a truck once every few weeks and have all of the bags from all of the supermarkets in the entire country arrive back at one central point. Once you have an entire country's worth of plastic bags as feed-stock, it's well worth building a factory to recycle them. The Mom & Pop stores don't have access to that kind of infrastructure - so they can't do it either. SteveBaker 16:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Well here's a link to a site that looks at product-lifecycles as a whole to compare the green-issues of them (http://www.ilea.org/lcas/franklin1990.html). Which bag-type to choose depends on recycling rates of it V its compartive. Strangely plastic comes out above paper unless paper is receiving pretty good recycle %. Certainly the reason may be that recycle-centres may focus on certain things. There has always been a big split between garden-waste and household-waste at the skips i've been to and nowadays it's getting more focussed on recycling other goods too - perhaps it is just waiting for them to be able to manage this (or it may seem of low importance if the superstores are doing it for them?) ny156uk 16:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if this is true, but I have heard that it is difficult to handle plastic bags in the sorting facilties. They dump everything onto a conveyor belt and workers pick out particular kinds of recyclables. The plastic bags don't stay on the belt they just blow around. Why paper doesn't have the same problem, I don't know. -- Diletante 16:34, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[1] suggests it isn't usually profitable (although it's obviously a POV site). [2] mentions one iniative including some details of how they are recyled and another iniative [3] although I didn't see any details on how they are recycled. Remember that ultimately recycling centres should only take things they have a market for. (Rather then taking and dumping which I've heard happens in the US although I don't think it happens much here in NZ) One of the things I guess is that with plastic bags it's not so much the mass or amount of space they are taking up in landfills which are a concern but their specific environmental effects so reducing their usage may seem more appealing then recycling Nil Einne 19:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes, municipalities will only accept category "1" (polyethylene terephthalate) and "2" (high-density polyethylene) plastic for recycling. Presumably, these types are easier or cheaper to recycle than categories 3-7. It's possible that it's cost-effective for a big grocery-store chain to recycle millions of the bags but not for your local town government to recycle hundreds. -- Mwalcoff 01:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Bypass

Why do we want a bypass?

faster travel, getting cars away from the centre of town. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

"It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses." --LarryMac | Talk 13:36, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Brilliant catch o_o --froth^t 18:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Why do we not want a bypass? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.52.98.68 (talk) 12:59, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't want to see those fields & trees disappear under tarmac, don't really support the aspirations of car drivers to get home five minutes early. Those are the normal pro and anti views. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

To reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease. Fair enough IMO. All these people that protest about bypasses should buck up their ideas and leave the poor surgeons alone. Lanfear's Bane 13:40, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

See also Swampy. --Dweller 13:49, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Some suggest it is bad for businesses in the town that the road 'bypasses' - meaning there is a lot less throughput of people, making it less likely people will stop. Others might argue that it makes the town more desirable and pedestrian friendly thus making it a better (i.e. more enticing) area for business. It can also be argued that there is an impact on house-prices as quieter main-roads through towns often make people value the homes more (lots of people want the 'quiet life of a town' but with the bypass-connectivity to big-cities). There are many more pros/cons besides this (build cost, land disruption, loss of green-land, movement of traffic burden to next un-bypassed town etc etc) ny156uk 16:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you talking about any bypass in particular? Nil Einne 19:46, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps to improve cardiac perfusion. Edison 05:30, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

We need bypass surgeries so that your brain gets blood supply when the doctors are operating on your heart replacing your old valves. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 19:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Sprites

How do i make a sprite comic/get sprites? (Iwas looking for ones from video games etc) - 81.158.75.136 13:56, 2 October 2007 (UTC) (Q moved by Dweller 14:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC))

You mean the little 2D animated images that are used in old-fashioned 2D video games? Well, of course many of these are going to be copyrighted - so mostly you can't get them legally. However, there are a heck of a lot of OpenSourced games out there - and for them, you can grab the sprite images fairly easily by getting the source code from the game. A good place to look for such things is Happy Penguin. However, (just like Wikipedia), there are a few rules about what you can do with the artwork from the games - but usually they are not to onerous. Just be sure to read the licensing conditions for whatever you need. SteveBaker 15:58, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh - and if you want to make your own - just use a regular paint program with the image resolution set WAY down low. I've used 'The GIMP' to do that (it's free and supports animations as well as still images) - but probably you could use Photoshop or something like it. SteveBaker 16:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

On windows - using 'paint' with zoom set to 800% works well.87.102.43.162 18:37, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - for a one-off stationary sprite, that's fine - but if you want to animate them then you need a paint program with 'layers' and some way to switch the layers flip-book-style and to replay the layers as if they were frames of a movie. I know GIMP can do that - I strongly suspect Photoshop can too - but GIMP is free and Photoshop is $$$. SteveBaker 19:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

If you want to go truly "old-skool", try Deluxe Paint. It was very popular for these purposes back in the '90s. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Jeez - only if you are VERY VERY DESPERATE! I didn't think that thing ran on anything modern! But why use a 22 year old tool? GIMP is free, it's modern, it runs on everything and it's a superb tool for the job. But if for some reason GIMP is no use, check out: List of raster graphics editors, Comparison of raster graphics editorsand Category:Raster graphics editors. SteveBaker 22:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Try looking for "sprite sheets" that may help. Well known characters frequently have them. Sifaka ^talk 01:27, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't dream of using DPaint for photography editing work, but for editing pixel-by-pixel, indexed colour graphics, precisely such as sprites, it is close to the perfect tool. In DPaint, you can get that exact pixel to have that exact colour much, much faster than in the GIMP. It also has many useful features, such as fully customisable monochrome or multicolour brushes, pattern and gradient fills, snap-to-grid painting and a perspective feature. The GIMP has many features that are more complex but they are often also more abstract. In DPaint, you can get down to the pixels. JIP | Talk 17:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

http://bobandgeorge.com/Other/FAQ.html Kuronue | Talk 15:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there other kinds of leave besides FMLA and disability?

I am diagnosed depressed and know that I can get FMLA. But I have not been at my job a year and have been advised by my doctor to have some kind of back up plan for the days that are horrible and unworkable. Are there other kinds of legal leave out there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.220.2.13 (talk) 18:15, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Suck it up and do your job or quit, I'm depressed too but I don't expect someone to pay me not to work. Man It's So Loud In Here 21:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

For someone who is clinically depressed "suck it up" is not helpful - anyone who has been through it would never have said that.

FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993) is unpaid leave for people who are seriously ill - and it allows you to take up to 12 weeks leave over one year - but only if you are physically unable to do your work (the word "physically" is a concern here) - and crucially, only after you've worked there for a year. If your doctor says that you qualify then you don't get paid for the time you take off - but the company shouldn't be able to fire you when you don't come to work.

So you need to somehow hang on until your first year is up. That means using your normal paid sick days and your vacation days judiciously - don't take a sick day unless you absolutely, utterly have to. I suppose you might be able to claim that your depression is a work-related injury and try for Workers' compensation - but that sounds like a hard thing to prove. What remains is to discuss it with your management and hope that they value your skills sufficiently to tolerate you taking unpaid leave. Depending on the nature of your job, they might be better off if you don't come to work on 'bad days' rather than paying you to do substandard work. But you've got to understand that if you are in any way replaceable - they may not be ready to negotiate - especially if they know that you'll potentially disappear for 12 weeks as soon as your first year is up.

Other possibilities include using 'flex-time' - build up hours of work on your good days (eg work a 10 hour day when you can) - head home early or come in late on bad ones - some companies don't mind that. Another thing that can help is if you can telecommute. Often you'll find yourself able to work at home when you can't stand going into the office. But again, it depends on the flexibility of the company. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs) 22:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

It can take a long time to find the right medication - but when you find it, it'll turn your life around. Good luck - I feel for you. SteveBaker 22:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you considered Vitamin P? I find it a little variable fom day to day but on the whole I am happier and it can also help regulate mood. (This is not medical advice.) Lanfear's Bane 08:21, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Writing 'This is not medical advice' in a teeny-tiny font doesn't prevent it from being medical advice (and bad medical advice at that). People's tolerance for and benefit from various antidepressants varies wildly - and there seems to be no good way to predict which one will work the best at the outset. I know someone who had to try a dozen different treatments over about a year before finding one that worked for her. The trouble is that it can take more than a week for the drug to build up enough in your body to kick in - then you need a couple of weeks of taking the stuff to evaluate how well it works and what side-effects you're going to get - and if it's no good, you have to wait a couple of weeks for it all to flush out of your system before you can try a different one. So you can really only try one drug per month - and if it's really the 10th one that works - you'll spend a year trying to figure it out. Prozac is not a magic bullet for everyone - just take a look at side-effects list in our article. SteveBaker 16:03, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

For those that dont know clinically depressed can have severe physical reactions such as loss or difficulty of speech, limited movement, headaches, lethargy and aches...so yes there a few times that I am unable to PHYSICALLY work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.220.2.13 (talk) 15:12, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Yep - you, I and your doctor know that - which is why he says that FMLA applies. However, your management may not understand. SteveBaker 15:54, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Steve, have you considered that "It can take a long time to find the right medication - but when you find it, it'll turn your life around", and your later post, which is focussed solely on medication, could also be construed as medical advice, and not necessarily good advice. There's a lot of debate about the best way to approach depression, but my own experience showed me that drugs alone are not the answer. They may relieve some of the symptoms, but they can never treat the underlying cause. I had one doctor say to me that (words to the effect of) "far too many doctors immediately prescribe medication for depression, but it should rarely be the first step and never the only step". -- JackofOz 05:06, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

High Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts

I would appreciate if someone could direct me to a source that could confirm that if funds are withdrawn from a health savings account to pay for eligible medical expenses, the amount withdrawn is credited against the deductible of the High Deductible Health Plan, and therefore reduces the deductible (or could possibly eliminate the deductible) for remainder of the plan year. Thank you Allouez 18:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it works that way. Any expenses you have subject to a deductible should be submitted to your insurance company (preferably by the provider of service). They will then have a record of what you are going to have to pay "out-of-pocket." They don't really care where you paid it from, although using an HSA is probably the best idea. e.g. I had lots of lab tests done early this year, which the lab first said were worth $410. The negotiated charges with my insurance company brought that down to $49.13. I had to pay $13.46 for one test that wasn't covered, so my "in-network annual deductible" of $2500 was reduced to $2486.54. The balance ($35.67) was covered because I get $500/year worth of preventive maintenance (of which I now only have $464.33 left). I actually paid the $13.46 from my own checking account, because I am stupid and didn't use the debit card they gave me for the HSA. I'll figure that out at tax time. --LarryMac | Talk 19:06, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks LarryMac. Excellent example and it cleas up a lot for me. Allouez —Preceding unsigned comment added by Allouez (talk • contribs) 21:18, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

north america

about north america. What is the mane of this culture area? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.69.4.81 (talk) 20:26, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

They vary, but the mullet is traditional. --Sean 20:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

From north to south, the major regions of North America are Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Central American countries. There are significant cultural differences between these regions, and substantial variation even within them. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:03, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The United States and Canada (or Canada except for Quebec depending on your definition) are part of a culture area sometimes called Anglo-America. This region occupies most of North America, but part of North America lies within Latin America. Marco polo 00:56, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Women

there are only three types of women in this world, what are the types. it does not have to do with race, color or personality. can someone please help me. i cannot find the answer if my life depended on it etro---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.196.108.226 (talk) 20:37, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

This is rather an odd question, as women like to think that they are all unique human beings, rather like men do. However maybe you are looking for something like Triple Goddess. SaundersW 20:43, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There are various sorts of classification schemes by which one can divide people (or just women): social, scientific, religious, ethnic, economic.... There are also hundreds of jokes that start off with the line "There are only three (or two, or four) types of people (women) in this world...". You're going to have to be a bit more specific for us to take a shot at your question. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:58, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes: There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. SteveBaker 21:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

What about the other 1000 ... ? (Joseph A. Spadaro 03:51, 3 October 2007 (UTC))

This is unanswerable - there must be an infinite number of ways to map an arbitary grouping of unique objects according to an open set of criteria. Women who drive big cars, women who drive small cars and women who don't drive cars. I think we need a LOT more to go on here! Was this division made by a particular kind of pundit? In what context is the question asked? SteveBaker 21:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Or you can just go to your favorite Google-search-syntax-compatible-but-not-necessarily-google-because-they-aren't-the-only-game-in-town search engine and submit the following search verbatim:

   "there are only * types of * in the world those"

Using this approach, you might actually find the joke for which this line is the set-up, which may well be what you're after. If not, at least you'll have plenty of stuff to trawl through. dr.ef.tymac 21:56, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Update: (see Milkbreath's post below instead, it has a better search query). dr.ef.tymac 22:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Interesting question, and an excellent straight line. Hippocrates mentions three kinds of women and says they are bred by the three possible combinations of "male" and "female" seed from the mother and father. There is an Irish proverb, "stubborn as a mule, unruly as a hen, gentle as a lamb". I found these by googling on "'three kinds of women' joke". I only looked at the first few hits. --Milkbreath 22:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Those who can count and those who can't? FiggyBee 01:15, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I believe that three Archetypes of women universally found are the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Many productions of Macbeth draw on this-- as does Neil Gaiman inhis Sandman comics. Rhinoracer —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 10:14, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Aren't they also represented in Norse mythology by the Norns? Certainly in works based on Norse legend, they tend to work that way. Of course, these archetypes probably tell you more about what roles women were generally expected to fill than about women themselves. (I know we all know this, but it probably needed saying anyway, particularly given some of the 'hilarious' comments posted...) Skittle 23:53, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

only 2, those who will sleep with you and those that wont

...and those who fall asleep on you. Clarityfiend 18:04, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

No, 3: those that will sleep with me, those that won't and those I haven't met yet. DirkvdM 08:12, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The third set intersects with both your first and second sets, if I read you right. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what the 3 types of women are, but I know what the 3 types of men who fail to understand women are - young men, old men and middle-aged men. -- JackofOz 10:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

HAHA. Good one JackofOz. --Taraborn 09:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

October 3

Rangers Champions League Jerseys

Why was the Carling logo on the jersies of Rangers FC blacked out in their game against Lyon in the Champions League? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.36.181.218 (talk • contribs)

It was because of French regulations on alcohol advertising, apparently. FiggyBee 01:23, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

This was the same reason that when the Welsh rugby team was sponsored by Brains brewery, when they played in France their shirts said "BRAWN" instead of "BRAINS". -- Arwel (talk) 18:33, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Seminal Fluid

Does the amount and colour of seminal fluid produced by a male human remain the same throughout life or does it reduce with age and eventually run outWilliamlumsdon22 09:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

See the article on semen, first of all. From what I know, no, the amount that a male is able to produce does not remain the same throughout life and could probably even vary on a day-to-day basis, depending on the physical health of a peron. As for the colour, no idea. --Ouro (blah blah) 12:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

It should be clear to white (or maybe slightly yellow at the start if there's a bit of urine mixed in). Other colors could indicate medical problems and you should see a doctor, particularly pink or red, which could indicate the presence of blood. StuRat 13:18, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

But of course nothing you read here can be taken as medical advice, because we are not permitted to offer that. Edison 13:44, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

At age 74 I assure you the quantity and quality decline sharply. Also the desire!!! Make the most of youth.86.200.131.52 16:37, 3 October 2007 (UTC)oldman

Speak for yourself !! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.120.104 (talk) 16:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

maybe u should give your arm and your penis a break for a while —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.210.12.37 (talk) 22:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

you can say that again. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Category:Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)

Pleased that iv found some information but it only lists the people from letter B-W HOW DO I GET PAGE A and the other listings PLEASE —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.122.47.130 (talk) 10:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

The list you see is all there is in this category. No Wikipedia articles in this category are indexed under A or under X, Y or Z. Gandalf61 10:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Mapping Johnny Appleseed

My in-laws have shared that their northern Michigan stand of Wolf River apples were planted by Johnny Appleseed. They live near Curran, Michigan, which seems a little far north to me for his travels. Is there a map, or other account of all the places he visited?

Signed, Netwaggie —Preceding unsigned comment added by Netwaggie (talk • contribs) 13:51, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Our article doesn't mention him going to Michigan. Rmhermen 17:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

You could try the sources and external links included in our article Johnny Appleseed, but I agree that his activity seems to have been focused on the Ohio River basin. Marco polo 17:49, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

This Harpers article says he traveled on an "old Indian trail that led from Fort Duquesne to Detroit", so it is possible. Clarityfiend 17:55, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Not likely, if this is the Curran, Michigan in Alcona County some 200 miles north of Detroit (with no road connections) This area was settled after Appleseed died. Rmhermen 01:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

sewing machines

i am trying to locate a technical manual for a consew sewing machine model number cm3-602. can you help?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.54.92.149 (talk) 14:42, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

1. [4] seems to be a good place to start your search.
2. I get a bazillion Google hits for 'consew cm3 601' - but none at all for 'consew cm3 602'. Are you SURE it's a 602? At the very least, I'd take a look at the 601 information - when two machines of any kind only differ in the last digit of a big complicated serial number - you can usually bet they are almost identical.
3. Don't put your email address here - we don't reply by email.

SteveBaker 15:03, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Hang on, won't people just not see that then wonder why they got no responses to their question? Vitriol 19:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Possibly. Or they'll call back. We don't reply by email. Their providing us with an email address should not force our hand in this. See the third point on "how to ask a question" at the top of the page. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

The OP didn't specifically ask for a reply via email - (s)he just dumped the email address into the question for no obvious reason. SteveBaker 19:58, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

yes the correct model is cm3-602 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.54.92.149 (talk) 20:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, as I said - I could find not even one mention of the 602 - and a ton of mentions for the 601. In all likelyhood there is only some minor difference between them. If I were you, I'd definitely look at the 601 manual and see if the thing sounds like your machine. It may even end up describing the 602 in the 601's manual (maybe it's "The 600 series sewing machine" or something). But really, that's the best I could come up with. Good luck! SteveBaker 19:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Finding @ on a Spanish Keyboard????????

Last time when in Spain, I couldn't work out the keystroke(s) for @, when sending e-mails. But I eventually managed to deduce it lives alongside 2 other characters (unlike my UK Keyboard where it only has a ' for a neighbour). But I am returning next week for a holiday and can't remember what the Spanish keyboard looks like, and how to select the @ from it. Thanks in anticipation. 81.145.242.105 15:23, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - '@' is next to '2' on a Spanish keyboard (not above it as on a US keyboard) - I forget how you get to it though.

If all else fails, you can always hit NumLock then hold down the Alt key and type the decimal ASCII code on the number pad and then release Alt. The ASCII code for '@' is 64. This method allows you to type absolutely any character on absolutely any keyboard. If you forget the ASCII code for '@' (and you can't get to ASCII to find out) - then find another '@' on the screen and do a copy/paste! SteveBaker 15:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure you hold 'alt' and strike '2', or it may be 'alt gr' and strike 2.Richard Avery 18:19, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

If we don't get a better answer here - you might try the Computer ref desk - or possibly even the Language ref desk. SteveBaker —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 19:54, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Richard Avery is correct - you should press AltGr and 2 to get @. Steewi 02:03, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

is Cirrus a credit card company?

Perhaps our Cirrus (interbank network) article will answer your question?

Atlant 16:49, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Major League Soccer

The Major League Soccer page says that the league is organized by the USSF and the CSA, but does the CSA have any say over how MLS is run? 71.36.181.218 19:10, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there a report on the news like this?

Is there a report on the news where there was a neighbor's dog that literally swallowed a cat whole? Can I read about it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 19:18, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

No, there is not and no, you cannot. But here's[5] a story that mentions a dog swallowing a bra. --The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 23:36, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Would have to be a big dog and a very small cat... Think outside the box 12:14, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• Had the cat swallowed a bird to catch the spider which wriggled and jiggled inside her?hotclaws 08:56, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• • Perhaps she'll die. Corvus cornix 20:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• But I don't know why. StuRat 21:23, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Girl

There's this girl at my school that I like. I heard she likes me. We're acquaniances and I don't know if she likes me. She's always with her friends and if she rejects me I don't want to be embarrassed in front of a group. How do I ask her out?--71.30.198.180 21:29, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

The reference desk is for factual questions. You may find a chat room or forum more suited to this question. Friday (talk) 21:31, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

God invented girls to embarrass boys and thus help to toughen them up into MEN. Enjoy the experience and learn from it - don't think you are alone !!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.145.242.105 (talk) 22:14, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

you really shouldn't be asking people at wikipedia, because they will tell you that this is a place for factual questions, when in fact, they just don't have any experience. but wat the guy above me just said is true, but i can't say that for Friday. I say that you should go for it, an indirect approach will be just as bad, so just go up to her and ask her out, if she says no, then oh well and then you move on. But if she says yes, act cool and don't scream yes or she'll change her mind. i would like to help you with the rest but i'm not hitch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.210.12.37 (talk) 22:32, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Just go up to her and make casual conversation and ask her out. It's not that hard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.98.23 (talk) 22:40, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Wait, you just heard that she likes you? Make sure she does, first? You don't have to ask her directly, just have a normal conversation (don't jump in asking her out) and see if she does. In Wikipeida, you might get away with that and say it's a primary source, but don't gamble on it in real life. --142.132.6.236 23:00, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Leave her a note that says DO YOU LIKE ME PLZ CHECK ONE [ ] YES [ ] NO. I hear that's all how the hip kids do it. ;-) Anyway in my experience the best approach is to just think about it constantly and do nothing until you get to college and you'll find that the social situations are generally much more relaxed and you can all talk about how much you hated high school and how crappy people are at that age. --24.147.86.187 23:46, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Um, don't listen to this guy. He forgot [ ] MAYBE --froth^t 18:19, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Also you misspelled PLZ (pls) and LIKE (leik) --froth^t 18:21, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't wait for her to ask you out she's probably waiting for you! If you don't want to ask her out in front of her friends just go up to her at her locker, make casual chitchat, then just ask her out. If you're not brave enough to ask her out in person you could just slip a cute note inside her locker (although there's a chance she could show it to all her friends). But whatever you do DO NOT get one of your friends to ask her out for you. Girls (I) hate that. --Candy-Panda 10:50, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

If your a girl make sure she also like girls, otherwise it could cause a scene. Check out who she looks at in class, if she stares at other girls in the class etc. If shes obviously into guys, and like queen of the school and enjoys all the guy attention then you may wana re-think. But if shes shy, maybe then you gotta chance. Good luck!!! Hyper Girl 12:41, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

As I think it was George Costanza once said (i paraphrase as forget the wording) after asking a girl out on the phone...She said yes? What did you do, I got off the phone as fast I could...(Jerry) exactly, it's like robbing a bank. You got get in and get out quick. What do I mean by this? Well the point is, if you go up and ask - no mater what the outcome, get outta there asap once you've done. ny156uk 16:26, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

My advise would be see what you have to lose and what you have to win and try to see whether it is a good gamble. Sometimes, you cannot jump on every chance you get. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

October 4

Stacy Arthur

I'm not really sure where to ask this as it pertains to an article but I'm also looking for references for said article so I thought the ref desk would be better... So, I'm just gonna ask... I'm trying to find a source for a bit of info that was in the article for Stacy Arthur. I removed it as it didn't have a source but I'd like to find a source. The info was that Arthur's husband was killed by a deranged fan shortly after she appeared in Playboy. So I went looking on the net and found a discussion between some fans that mentions a Entertainment Tonight report. The link to the online synopsis is dead. So after searching a bit more I found several references to a newspaper called The Cleveland Plain Dealer. But all I have is these links from the Cleveland Public Library: [6] [7] [8]. So can I use those as a source? I mean, I can piece together that her husband was killed by a fan named James Lindberg. And judging by those links, it happened in Oct/Nov 1991. So would this be a suitable source? And if not, or even if they can be, can anyone find a better source? Thanks for reading all that... Dismas|^(talk) 01:27, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The Plain Dealer is the major newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio, and some would say the entire state. Anyone with access to a library in the state should probably be able to get back copies, or worst-case, microfiche. I would feel better if someone were able to look any of these articles up in the paper, rather than using these links. --After Midnight ⁰⁰⁰¹ 00:15, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's a link for an October 1991 article. I think it should work without a login, but let me know if you have difficulty accessing it. - EurekaLott 21:14, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't really have anything more to add than what's been already said. Basically, we need someone with the ability to look up the articles in back issues of the newspaper in question to corroborate the claim, since that would be the most reliable source out there. Perhaps we can find a Wikipedian in that area who would like to take a trip down to their local library in Cleveland for some research? -- Joe Beaudoin Jr. ^{Think out loud} 00:07, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

Blackwater employee salaries

With all the attention Blackwater USA has been getting recently with their mercenary soldiers, I've been wondering, approximately how much does a medium-level Blackwater operative make in Iraq per year? EDIT: as well, what was Erik Prince's rank when he dropped out of the Navy? Thanks. Acceptable 01:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

this page tells a story of one recieveing $365,000 (about a thousand per day). It also says that provided you stay in the country for at least a year, the money is tax-free.this blog Notes the pay varies from 500 to 1000 USD per day, so somewhere wround $182,000. If you're looking for a "medium-level," let's use an arbitraty number of $750 per day, leading to a slarly of a little under $275,000. this page notes that the US government pays Blackwater security agents $1,222 per day when it needs them. For comparison purpose of all this, those sites are quoting $36,000 to $96,000 for an officer, or "$51,100 to $69,350 a year in salary, housing and other benefits" for a "top Army sergeant". --Ybbor^Talk 02:14, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Flywheel

Hi, i would like to have a brief, very simple description of a FLYWHEEL. This is for a High School Reasearch Assignment, and I will be very greatful for contributions. The Wikipedia and Simple English Wikipedias are too confusing. Pls help, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Erzhaosong2000 (talk • contribs) 03:43, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Please see question asked of you at Simple:Talk:Flywheel — User:ACupOfCoffee@ 06:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It takes energy to get a wheel (any wheel) to rotate. If there is little friction (good bearings) then it will keep rotating a long time. When energy is needed, it can be taken from the wheel again. So it is a simple mechanical means of storing energy. The amount of energy stored is a function of the weight and the speed of rotation - making a heavier wheel rotate faster takes more energy. Another factor is the radius (size) because the further from the axis a part of the wheel is, the more energy it takes to make is rotate (can't think of a better way to say this). In the formula in the simple Wikipedia article, these are represented by M (mass), $\omega$ (angular velocity) and R (radius). Combining the two equations there gives $\omega$²MR²/4 (those equations could do with some more explanation if this is supposed to be 'simple'). A fly-wheel is not just any wheel, but specifically designed to store energy. So it should be heavy and/or rotate fast. For example, some buses have a fly-wheel that is used for stopping and starting. When the bus stops (eg for a traffic light), the fly-wheel is connected to the wheels, so the rotational energy is transferred to it, so the bus will slow down while the fly-wheel speeds up. Then, when the bus has to start driving again, it is connected again and the energy is transferred back. Of course, you wouldn't want to lug a heavy wheel around on a bus, so it is made of a lighter material that can withstand extremely fast rotation. Did that help? If so, I (or you) could add it to the article. DirkvdM 08:50, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Brief and simple description? A flywheel is a heavy wheel that stores energy by spinning. You store the energy by spinning the wheel, and extract the energy by having the wheel spin something else. (As Dirk says, it could spin very fast instead of being heavy, but you wanted simple) Kinder Surprise used to have a range of tiny flywheel-driven cars, which were useful for understanding this. If only I still had one... 79.65.119.193 10:19, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes, those were cool. Funny, by the way. The name is a combination of German and English, but it was an Italian product. (Called Ferrero - I wonder if they also had Ferraris :) ). DirkvdM 18:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Erzhoasong, once again, could you please tell if my explanation (or the anon's) helped you? I'm especially interested in this case, not just because I want to improve the article, but also because I like to reduce things to their simplest form and wonder if I succeeded. DirkvdM 06:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Never mind, I added it to the article anyway. My first simple English! :) DirkvdM 06:17, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

the colors and thier meanings of Italy's flag

For a school project I need to know the meanings of the colors of the Italian flag(ie) red is for , white is for, and greens is for??????????? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.217.55.183 (talk) 04:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See Flag of Italy. 75.121.168.218 04:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The short version of which is "<shrug> nobody knows". SteveBaker 20:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Tomatoes, cheese and spinach? DuncanHill 21:13, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

We don't need such flippant answers. The green is obviously pesto. —Nricardo 23:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

For pizza Margherita it's Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil, but that's from the flag to the pizza, instead of the other way around. -- 72.33.121.200 19:18, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

electric locomotives,traction,signalling-the working principles

header 1	header 2	header 3
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2	row 1, cell 3
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2	row 2, cell 3

Is this the most enigmatic "question" ever? -- JackofOz 04:50, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

And did you deliberately add to the confusion by not indenting your post? It now looks like you asked the 'question'. Are you aiming for an aura of enigmaticism? DirkvdM 08:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

No. Yes, I guess it does (now fixed). No, my existing aura is more than adequate for that purpose. -- JackofOz 10:08, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Somebody fill out the table, for crying out loud. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps electric locomotive, traction, and railway signal will be of aid. — Lomn 12:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Possibly the answers were supposed to go it the table provided?87.102.94.194 15:21, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh! It's a table! I thought it was a map of a really small prison. SteveBaker 18:59, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

With, nevertheless, three prison guards? DirkvdM 06:29, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

co-operation agreement

Does Jahangir Nagar university have co-operation areement with the university of oslo in Norway? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.189.224.2 (talk) 05:56, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Dunno, I couldn't find anything like that - but they have a seriously awful website. Their webmaster clearly doesn't know the difference between local filepaths and URL's - so the page probably looks great from his computer - but nobody else on the planet can see it! [9] ! SteveBaker 19:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia equivalent of "set"

Out of pure, banal interest, I was wondering what the Wikipedia equivalent of "set" is. In other words, in the OED, the word "set" has the most different definitions of any word. What Wikipedia disambiguation has the most pages pointing away from it? Batmanand | Talk 09:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Single letter disambiguation pages, such as A (disambiguation), are very long; Do the links have to point the a page with the same name as the disambiguation page, or just any link in general? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:40, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I was thinking, as with dictionaries, that they have to be pointing to the same word or phrase. Batmanand | Talk 13:14, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Then I give you ... John Smith. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:26, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

• The answer is "Greatest Hits", with 299 articles. The first legit one (different meanings, rather than just being a glorified category) is "Big Brother", with 89. For the hell of it, I downloaded all the titles from Special:Allpages and counted which titles were most commonly disambiguated with parentheses. Here are the ones with 30 or more: User:TotoBaggins/Articles with 30 or more disambiguators. --Sean 17:25, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

  Most of the "Big Brother" entries are just versions of the reality TV series in different countries, though. I'd say the highest legit one in your list is probably "Angel", although the count for that does include several songs, films and fictional characters. And just what the heck is it with Romanian rivers named "Valea Mare", anyway? (Answer to self: apparently Râul Valea Mare means "Big Valley River" in Romanian, and also apparently Romanians aren't the most creative of people when it comes to naming rivers. Also, it seems a user has been going around creating stubs on every river in Romania here.) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that would be the List of albums titled Greatest Hits page. -- JackofOz 23:59, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Cycle ball in America

I search clubs for Cycle ball in America. I play this sport in Germany, but there must exist some clubs in America. In this List I found two player from USA (Berry Charles / Yarbrough Kavin) but I don´t know where the are come from. Many thanks for every information. -- sk 12:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that this sport is virtually unknown in the United States. After some web searching, I could find only a few mentions of the sport as something strange that is played outside of the United States. In fact, I don't think that the sport has an established name in the English language. In the web, I saw it called "cycle ball", but also "bike ball" and "bicycle soccer". If it ever became popular in the United States, it would probably be known at first as "bicycle soccer". If there are American players, my guess is that they learned the sport in Europe and played on European teams. Marco polo 17:03, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Not quite the same, but since Marco responded, it's now completely on topic: Bicycle Polo. jeffjon 18:41, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Now that you mention it, I'd completely forgotten about that sport where you knock Marco around a field with a bent stick. :-) SteveBaker 18:52, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, they haven't forgotten that sport at my workplace. :-) Marco polo 16:07, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Cycle polo and Cycle ball are different sports! I only search clubs for Cycle ball. -- sk 08:27, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Gold tooth

What is the procedure for putting in a gold tooth? And how does it hold in there? I couldn't find an article on it. Keria 15:27, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Are we talking crowns or 'grills' here? You could have a peek at the article on both, they both cover methods of installation. Lanfear's Bane 15:32, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

See also Dental implant Rmhermen 15:46, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

B.Sc.

For the first time in my life, I have an academic degree. I am a Bachelor of Sciences. What can I actually do with this degree? I have absolutely no interest in pursuing an academic career, I want to work in software development in privately- or state-owned companies. JIP | Talk 17:17, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Basically you can get a job that requires a B.S., that's pretty much the point of it --froth^t 18:20, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Yep - there are lots of non-academic jobs that require a BSc before they'll even glance at your resume...especially in the field of software development where it's very tough indeed to get a job without having a degree. Is there any specific field within Software dev that takes your fancy? (I used to develop software for flight simulation - and nowadays I work in computer games - perhaps I can offer you some needed advice or answer questions about the practicalities of these kinds of careers.) SteveBaker 18:48, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I have got three jobs in software development without any academic degree. The first two by posting a Usenet message asking for a job. For the first, I got one reply, for the second, I got two. The third was by actually asking the company, which I got to know through a former co-worker who also works there. From what I've learned, in software development (particularly in the down-to-the-dirt coding I'm interested in) experience is much more valuable than official degrees or qualifications. At least in the private sector, I have never worked in the public sector. JIP | Talk 19:09, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, so that's what the last bit of your question was about. I was already wondering what third option there might be. Btw, I'll refrain from making jokes about the abbreviation, because I'm sure they've all been done already. :) DirkvdM 06:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

To a point, you're right. In terms of what is actually valuable to a company, experience is critical - being a good programmer is all about having a million little snippets of code in your head that you can drop down onto the page without thinking about it. You can't teach more than a few hundred of those snippets - the rest is all down to experience. However - in terms of getting a job - you've got to get your resume seen and get yourself at an actual interview before your experience can really show through - and when 50 people apply for a job and the human resources people have to cull it down to 5 to come for an interview, they cull pretty brutally - and people with no degree get culled out soonest. You can sometimes get a job by happening to know someone or by being in the right place at the right time - but that's not a reliable way to find work. I honestly don't think that jobs where you program on the bare metal are any different. The work is certainly a heck of a lot easier than fighting with a gigantic pile of middleware and operating system (trust me, I've done both) - but even so, I think most employers work the same. It's not about the engineering - it's about the human resources people. Personally - as a programmer who has been a team leader - I'd settle for experience over a degree anytime (assuming programming is the only skill required - of course that's not often the case). SteveBaker 12:00, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

For the fear of being misunderstood, when I say "down-to-the-dirt" I don't mean "close to the metal", i.e. writing device drivers or something. I mean, when you have a great idea for a program, just go ahead and implement it, and don't speculate on how it might interest the scientific community. Specific CPU register operations are too low-level for me, and research on life's great mathematical problems is too high-level. What I want to worry myself about is what data structures and inheritance hierarchies I should use in which code. JIP | Talk 20:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm thinking steve was using "close to the metal" to mean the opposite of fighting with a pile of middleware and APIs, not necessarily computer engineering type work --froth^t 19:25, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah "close to the metal" means talking directly to hardware - the sort of thing you do when working on little microcontrollers without an operating system. I kinda assumed that's what was being talked about because those little one-off, small projects are very do-able by one self-taugh programmer.

Well, as to "when you have a great idea for a program, just go ahead and implement it" - er - YIKES!. That can be a very dangerous way to work. For anything beyond the very simplest programs, most companies are not going to be happy with you just jumping in and writing code without some kind of justification for the time and money spent on the work. Probable gains versus probable investment. Also, you're much more likely to be working in a team on some larger project and the various pieces have to dovetail together. Just diving in and implementing is rarely appreciated! In my last job, we had half a dozen programmers cooperating on a single program of about half a million lines of code - gradually assembled over several years. It's well beyond the ability of any single programmer to do that - and to do any part of it without extensive discussion and planning would certainly be the mark of an amateur! In my present job (I'm a video game programmer), we have around 2.4 million lines of software (about 2 million lines of C++ and 400,000 lines in various scripting languages) - we use the same basic code for a wide variety of games with half a dozen teams with a dozen programmers on each - and we have to be quite careful to keep things planned and under control or you'd get a very ugly mess in short order! There aren't many jobs out there where just getting an idea and throwing together a short solution is going to be required. That kind of thing happens (I do this for putting together a quick one-off tool) - but it's not likely to be a major part of a decently paying job. SteveBaker 04:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I didn't mean to just go straight to implementation without planning. What I meant was to skip all that research on whether this would be truly something worthy of note by the scientific community, and noting what bits relate to which scientific work where. Many of my ideas for an academic thesis have been returned by saying "good project, but the scientific community wouldn't be interested". The planning-implementation-testing cycle in production software development is what I like better. JIP | Talk 05:09, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Machine guns

How do belt fed machine guns get rounds into the chamber? After the first round is fired after you place the round on the belt has always confused ForeverDEAD 17:37, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Belt (firearm) has some info and an illustration. Not sure whether you're asking about the belt specifically, or autoloading guns in general. See also Semi-automatic firearm. Friday (talk) 17:40, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Belt-fed machine guns include a mechanism to move the belt along, bringing the next round in the belt into place to be loaded in the chamber. They use the energy of the recoil from the first round to open the chamber, eject the round, and feed the next one in. - Eron ^Talk 17:49, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you, I knew how normal box fed worked just belt confused me ForeverDEAD 18:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Did Sir Roger Casement have a sister who became (or already was) a Catholic Nun?

I was brought up and educated in the North East of Yorkshire in England some 60 years ago, and have always believed, though I know not from what source, that one of my teachers in my Primary School (York Street Infants' School) who was a Nun who lived in a local Convent belonging to The Sisters of Mercy there, was the sister (sibling) of the renowned and executed-for-treason Irish Freedom Fighter (during the Irish Easter Uprising), Sir Roger Casement (the Knighthood being subsequently withdrawn by the then British Government). I have researched many online web pages about Sir Roger, but can find no mention of the Sister. Any info. would be most gratefully received. Thanks for any help forthcoming. 81.145.241.198 19:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Correction - I have just been informed it was not Sir Roger Casement - it was instead James Connolly,another Irish Easter Uprising martyr, whose sister Elizabeth subsequently went on to become a teaching Nun in my Primary School. Thanks anyway. 81.145.240.116 23:14, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Jolly Ranchers and Windows

Ok.. so me and a few friends went rolling and one of my friends decided to stick the jolly ranchers onto a few windows by licking them and placing them onto the windows.

We were told by someone else that all it would do was cement itself to the window but after awhile it would just slowly fade away with a lot of water.

So I was wondering if jolly ranchers really do any harm to windows. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.245.76.224 (talk) 20:53, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

From what I know, no. It's just sugar (etc.) and the window is made of glass, so no harm done, other than annoying the person who owns the window :) --PolarWolf ( grrr... ) 21:28, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

It sounds weirdly pretty, if one was deliberate about color choice. --Masamage ♫ 21:32, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Well... The girl who's window we put jolly ranchers on was really mad about it. Like really. (she didn't know it was us who did it.. long story. lol) and a few of her friends and her were saying that the saliva was acidic and could break the windows (haha) and one even said that putting saliva onto open wounds could cause you to get infected or die (which he said he saw on some educational show). yeah.. I have REALLY smart classmates let me tell you. lol.

But the girl's mom is upset about it and I think it might be because it left behind some of the coloring on the windows because i know they got the jolly ranchers off. But I don't know.

It might be a nice idea to offer to clean their windows as a way of apologising. DuncanHill 22:47, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, saliva is not really acidic to any degree that can affect glass (I don't know its ph off hand but it can't be very high or you'd know it if it, say, got on your hands, etc.). Perhaps her friends were mistaking the fact that saliva contains enzymes which can break down food with the fact that it is acidic. In any case, it's probably a mess to clean up, but I don't think it can permanently damage the glass. Some soap and hot water should take it off with a bit of friction. --24.147.86.187 23:06, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The average pH of human saliva is around 6.5. That's considerably less acidic than rainwater. FiggyBee 01:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thought experiment: What to they make laboratory flasks and test tubes out of? Glass maybe? So how resistant to acid do you think glass is? No, there is no conceivable ingredient in candy that's going to eat away at a window. It's going to go away as soon as there is enough water around because most of whats in the candy dissolves in water. The only possible way it could harm the window would be some kind of bizarre thermal thing where maybe the glass wants to expand or contract and the candy doesn't or something - which could just maybe crack the glass - but I really seriously doubt that. SteveBaker 12:06, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That actually sounds like a very legitimate concern, but I'm sure modern glass is well-treated to avoid thermal expansion --froth^t 19:29, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Creating pages in a different way

Is it possible to create the same page but in a different light?

Remember, what looks good to me, is also looking good to you. Ericthebrainiac 22:04, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean (or why you are linking so many words), but if you are asking, can there be two versions of a page on the same subject in Wikipedia, portraying it in different ways?, the answer is "no, that isn't supposed to be allowed," but as Wikipedia is large and decentralized you can sometimes get things of that nature, and there is always going to be case that articles will have different slants depending on the specificity of the subject matter (an article on IQ differences among races is going to spend a lot more time presuming IQ differences of some sort than an article about the social construction of race would; in theory these are not at all incompatible but in practice the articles get edited by different editors, people with different agendas come along, and even a well-disciplined, good-faith effort towards NPOV will lead to two apparently contradictory articles). But in general Wikipedia's organizational policies subscribe to something of a nested-but-atomic theory of knowledge, whereby any given thing should be represented once specifically but be part of a series of nested articles of greater and lesser specificity and/or greater and lesser divergence from topic. If that makes any sense. Very short answer: don't make duplicate articles with difference slants. --24.147.86.187 23:03, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The one case I am aware of that takes different approaches to the same topic is General relativity vs. Introduction to general relativity. Unless you're dealing with something as complex as space-time however, this probably isn't necessary. --Ybbor^Talk 01:41, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

About that second line, browsers are not wysiwyg, so no. DirkvdM 06:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You make be interested in WP:POVFORK --froth^t 19:07, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Hydromorphone abuse?

I hope this isn't a medical question. After surgery of a broken foot, doctors prescribed me some pills Hydromorphone painkillers. Seeing as the name contains part of the word "morphine", I became curious. What is the difference between hydromorphone and morphine that inclines doctors to prescribe to me hydromorphone instead of morphine? Per mass, how does hydromorphone compare with pure morphine in terms of potency? Thanks. Acceptable 22:54, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Of course it's a medical question. You mean you hope it won't get deleted. DirkvdM 06:41, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

It's a medical question, but it's not a medical advice question - it's not describing symptoms or asking for a diagnosis or course of action. It's just asking for information that could be found in a pharmacy reference book. Anyway, our article on hydromorphone seems to contain most of the answers. Gandalf61 09:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I know, I was just teasing. DirkvdM 06:30, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Polystyrene foam

My laying hens love eating styrene foam.Is it harmful to them and can it be harmful to humans by eating the eggs or flesh of the poultry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.61.206.171 (talk) 23:07, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

You may want to read the relevant section of our Polystyrene article (but note that it's uncited, so take it with a grain of salt). That said, since it is commonly used to package food, I doubt it'll release anything acutely poisonous. As for what it does to the chickens, I'd recommend asking a veterinarian. I wouldn't really expect it to be good for their health, though. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 00:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Original research warning!! I have had chickens for a couple years now. In the last house I lived in they pecked away at the foam insulation that skirted the house. They didn't seem to be affected by it and neither were the eggs. They stopped doing it when we moved. We also had to replace those panels before we got hosed on our security deposit... but it was cheaper to replace the panels. Dismas|^(talk) 03:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Some foam peanuts are actually cornstarch even though they look like polystyrene, so they are edible (but rather bland).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Polystyrene is not in any way biodegradable - which means that the chickens can't digest it. This is both good news and bad news. It means that you aren't going to suffer from eating eggs or flesh from these chickens. However it's also not good news for the chicken because it can't digest the plastic. There was a piece on NPR the other day about some kind of seabirds off on some remote island whom researchers were concerned about (I don't recall the details - sorry) - they discovered that the young birds had their stomachs partially filled with plastic which just sat there because they couldn't digest it and it didn't pass out of their gut naturally. This reduced the volume of the bird's stomach and prevented them from getting adequate nutrition. So I think you should keep the plastic away from the chickens if you want them to remain fat and juicy and to lay decent eggs - but I don't think you have to worry for your own safety. SteveBaker 12:16, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• They were talking about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. As for the chickens, maybe you should give them a supply of small stones, which I believe they like to eat as a kind of digestif. Presumably the instinct to do so is what's got them eating your styrofoam. --Sean 13:03, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Chickens will naturally seek out those "stones" from the ground if they aren't kept in cages and have access to dirt. For those kept in cages, they need some form of poultry grit (we probably don't have a link to that since it would be a dict def at most) in order to help digest grain. Grain and grit are mixed together in the chicken's gizzard. The grit helps break down the grain into more digestible pieces since chickens don't have teeth to chew their food. Dismas|^(talk) 13:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

value of a book

what is the value of the book called the rosary by Florence L. Barclay first edittion purple hard cover. excellent condition 1911 printed by G.P.Putnam's sons New York and London the nickerbocker press and it has been signed on the inside cover using old ink well ink and feather in fancy style writting and it reads as to Mrs Margaret Higgins from George april 22/11 thank you hurmit2003 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.69.233.123 (talk) 23:44, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Is this it?

I don't think there is any way for anyone here to find a good answer for this question. I would take the book to a specialist at book valuation. The book isn't signed by the author - so I doubt it has any special value in that regard. Some people collect first editions though - so that might add to its value. But since the book was published in 1909 - and yours is dated 1911 - it's hard to see how it could be a first edition?!? We have an article about Florence L. Barclay and about the book The Rosary - which was a best seller in 1910. This page has much more information about printing runs and publishers. You need an expert to value it though - perhaps it's worth emailing the address at the bottom of that website? SteveBaker 12:26, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

everything that describes this book in the 20th century american best sellers research matches the book I have. it has a linnen cloth sticthed over the book to protect the purple book. yes the picture you asked if it was the book I have. it is the same book but my book is in better condition it is not all warn out.and the dates on it is the same it was published in 1909 but the writting sighned in the front cover to mrs margaret higgins from george has 1911. you have to see it to belive it. thank you hurmit2003 the only difference I see is my Book has embroided floral design made like a frame around the tital and author on the front cover.

Yeah - so the copy you have was published in 1909 - but signed two years later. That makes sense. Well, maybe it's worth something - it's hard to know. You need a book expert. SteveBaker 03:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

October 5

Laying an egg

Does it hurt when laying an egg? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.121.209 (talk) 01:22, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I doubt anyone here has any experience... FiggyBee 01:29, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Aw c'mon, dont be a chicken! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.121.209 (talk) 01:53, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That's interesting. It's probably something that can be studied; whether the pain receptors are active during egg-laying, or whether the critter gives signs of being distressed. I don't know the relative size of egg to cloaca, but since it hurts a lot when humans give birth, it probably hurts at least a little for egg-laying creatures. (Except, you know. Fish.) --Masamage ♫ 06:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I thought about that too at first, but I believe that humans are somewhat of an exception here because of our big heads, combined with the way we walk; a larger opening would require a layout of the pelvis that would make walking upright more difficult. Not sure about the second bit, but the big head is certainly a factor. However, chickens are also exceptional in that they are bred (ie not 'natural'). In casu to produce very big eggs, which is rather similar to the big head thing. Might an indicator be how many chickens die during 'childbirth'? DirkvdM 06:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Said opening gets much, much larger during childbirth, of course. Most of the worst pain is from the contractions, not the actual birth. --Masamage ♫ 17:20, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Corollary: Perhaps it could be compared to childbirth? The opinions are divided as to the objective level of pain that is inflicted upon the mother, maybe it's similar? (oh, just read Masamage's answer above to the end) --Ouro (blah blah) 08:31, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know the answer but maybe this anecdote can help somebody determine whether it is painful or not. I saw once on TV a huge chicken egg, it appeared to double in width an average one. It looked really massive. After showing the egg, the farmer showed the ass of the prodigious chicken. The animal had the anal sphincters completely destroyed. --Taraborn 09:19, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• That chicken's doing it wrong. --Sean 13:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That's not something you want to read whilst having your breakfast :( Lemon martini 11:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the whole chicken vs. human debate, humans can only have one child every nine or so months. That's assuming they become pregnant immediately following the birth of the previous child of course. But chickens lay an egg a day (roughly, I know they take a day or two break between laying clutches). Their bodies are used to poppin' one of those out more often than a human is a child. The first couple may be hard for the chicken but beyond that I would think it becomes old hat. Although, when a chicken first starts to lay eggs, the eggs aren't as large as they will eventually become. When a chicken first starts laying eggs, those eggs are only half the size of eggs that they will lay once they mature fully. I've even checked our nest boxes here at home to find eggs no larger than a robin's egg (maybe an inch long). Dismas|^(talk) 13:44, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• I agree. Also, eggs are much more "vagidynamic" than small humans. I recently watched an egg emerge from a chicken (into my hand!), and there was no visible difficulty or straining, and the chicken didn't make any noise. I don't believe it was painful. --Sean 13:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

They will occaisionally cluck when it's done but that's about it. Dismas|^(talk) 14:20, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Army field surgeon vs hospital surgeon

How does a US army field medic (corpsman?) compare with a general/trauma surgeon found in US hospital in respect to years of experience and general quality? Thanks. Acceptable 01:29, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

A corpsman is a Navy medic. But a field medic or a corpsman is like an EMT. A surgeon is a doctor with several additional years of training. Rmhermen 02:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

On a battlefield, would an Army field medic be certified to perform surgery on injured soldiers? Acceptable 15:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

As for years of experience, a trauma surgeon is going to have much more overall experience than your average army medic. As for what a medic is trained to do... U.S. combat medics are trained and expected to perform a wide range of procedures, including cricothyroidotomy, needle-chest thorentesis (we don't have an article on that?), intubation, insertion of a chest tube, administration of cardiac drugs, and, in only the most drastic of circumstances, a field amputation. They are expected to be able to identify when each of these procedures is called for, to perform the procedures without assistance or supervision of any sort, and without having to request authorization to do so. In the civilian world these procedures are restricted to certain highly trained/certified specialties. A combat medic might be the only friendly medical assistance for many hundreds of miles, and as such they need to be trained to do practically everything. I am now a civilian and work in a hospital. At my hospital only physicians may insert chest tubes and even they do not intubate. There are respiratory specialists who handle intubation. The role of a combat medic is not to do everything for the patient, but to stabilize the patient for transport to a field hospital where they can recieve proper treatment by trauma specialists. Due to the very lethal nature of battlefield hazards, however, that means that a medic is expected to perform procedures that, in the civilian world, are restricted to physicians and other specialties. 152.16.59.190 01:18, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Women heads of government in Islamic nations

A woman holding the premiership of an Islamic country seems like a contradiction. Yet, it's happened in places like Pakistan and Indonesia. Given the suppression of women in public life in these countries, how is it acceptable to men that they lead the country? 75.36.37.72 01:53, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

See Women and Islam#Women and politics and also Female political leaders in Islam and in Muslim-majority countries. It is interesting that there is also a historical precedent of Islamic women involved in politics, for instance Aisha, Ume Warqa, Samra Binte Wahaib, Razia Sultana, Delhi Sultanate, and Shajar al-Durr. Never the less there is a disputed Sunni hadith, , which condemns a woman’s involvement in politics. --S.dedalus 02:10, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Where did you get that quote? The article says the hadith says "people with a female ruler will never be successful". Which is not quite the same. And if you want worse stuff said about women, you might as well look at the bible - stoning and such. The decisive thing here is that these scriptures are very old, written in a period with completely different beliefs. DirkvdM 07:25, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Defensive much? :) Given the quote you provided I'd say S.dedalus' paraphrase was fairly accurate, or at least a logical extrapolation; saying it's not quite the same sounds like hair-splitting. Given the initial question, your comparison to the bible is a bit of a non sequitur and sounds like trying to change the subject; though if you're arguing that both religions contain elements of sexism and misogyny, I wont disagree. Finally, considering that many adherents of these religions believe in their scripture's inerrancy (or some variation thereof) I'd hardly say that being able to view them in their historical and cultural contexts is "the decisive thing". According to many, many people we are talking about the "Living Word of God" not some cultural relics whose outdated notions of sexual equality are easily cast aside in favor of a more enlightened view. 38.112.225.84 13:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Suppression of women in public life in 'these' countries? Which countries? Indonesia? Where did you get that idea? Have you been there? You must have some very strong indications for this (which I haven't seen when I was there) because the one indication you present goes against it. Or are you just falling for the hype? I know it takes a strong mind to resist that, but think about it. Apart from what you've been seeing on tv, what do you really know? You know that these countries have had a female leader, something that hasn't happened yet in many of the 'advanced' female-friendly countries in the West. Instead you might wonder why that is. Take the biggest example, the US. There has not been a single female (or black, or gay, or ... ?) president yet and the congress only has 16% women. Don't believe the hype. Women are second rate citizens the world over. And in as far as religion is a decisive factor, it's not quite unique to to islam. If fanatic christians were scrutinised as much as fanatic muslims, that would also open up a pile of filth. Recently, concerning islam, the handful of bad muslims get all the attention, while the handful of bad christians get more and more votes. DirkvdM 07:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Indeed I agree with you DirkvdM that Christianity is also very hard on women and that most western nations include plenty of sexism. However, you cannot deny that Islamic country often include a huge amount of mistreatment of woman (and again I understand that is not necessarily related to Islam, but is in some cases cultural or political). I do not say this though any personal bias towards Islam; I simply want to point out that the OP’s question is entirely valid. For instance Female genital cutting, Child marriage, Sex segregation, and Honor killing are relatively common in many predominantly Islamic countries. Then there are the passages in the Qur’an: An-Nisa, 34, Surah an-Nur ayah 31, ^{[Quran 33:58]}, , , and . In Iran thousands of woman have been arrested or warned for dressing inappropriately (i.e. not wearing a hijab or not wearing one “properly”) [10]. Indeed the Bible contains many equally sexist passages and western society includes some shocking examples of violence towards women, but this question is not about the Bible. --S.dedalus 23:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Again...I agree the original questioner seems to be falling prey to the seemingly common inability of many Westerners (read: Americans) to distinguish between various Muslim countries, groups and ideologies. Careful reading up on the subject would indeed help allay some of these misconceptions. A country with a predominately Muslim population does not necessarily mean the government is a fundamentalist theocracy or follows, for example, Wahabism.

In this context, saying that, "women are second rate citizens the world over", is rather disingenuous. While in a general sense one could argue the truth of this statement, it does not follow that therefore all countries' treatment of women is equally bad. Women here in America, for example, have much greater freedom, equality and opportunity than their counterparts in, say, Saudi Arabia. So, soapboxing aside, I'd agree with you that the questioner has much room to expand his knowledge of Islam and its various incarnations both political and religious. 38.112.225.84 14:13, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• FYI Dirk: in English there is a distinction between "second rate citizen" and "second class citizen". The former means that the women are citizens of poorer quality, while the latter means that their citizenship (rights, etc.) is of poorer quality. --Sean 14:54, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Really, Sean? I know quite a few women who'd probably dispute that. -- JackofOz 00:45, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• I think it's unfair to jump on the questioner just for adding Indonesia to the mix, when it really is a curiosity that a place like Pakistan, where the situation for women is indeed horrible, can elect a female leader, while places like the US and France, where the situation for women is incomparably better, have not yet managed to do so. --Sean 15:09, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

If the question is about Indonesia and Pakistan, then why do you think it is 'really' about Pakistan? I just react to the country mentioned that I know about (and a fair bit at that). I haven't been to Pakistan yet. DirkvdM 07:02, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Concerning the little misquote - I assume there were no bad intentions on the part of dedalus, but there is a danger. Such little misquotes are the basis of gossip, and worse in this case, given the present tense relationships between western and middle eastern countries, which are often linked to islam (more than to christianity). Someone makes something sound ever so slightly worse, which gives room for the next person to make it slightly worse still. Let this pass on about ten times and the last story might be that women with political aspirations should be punished. Especially with sensitive subjects that can easily in a certain environment spin off in one specific direction, one should be careful not to misquote.

Concerning the comparison with christianity. That is totally valid. If things were the same 'here' (assuming for the moment all western participants in this discussion) then they wouldn't have asked the question (in that way). But my major point was that there was a strong suggestion that islam is specifically bad to women and that should show in public life. However, I saw no such indications when I was in Indonesia, the biggest muslim country in the world. So it constituted a useful answer. So far for the defensive bit. :)

Dedalus, as you pointed out, culture has a lot to do with this. I take that further and say it's the decisive factor. Take the different versions and interpretations of christianity (again that, because it's closer to home for most here). It's the same religion, yet it is interpreted in wildly varying ways. Most distinctively, in cities it is much more liberally interpreted than in rural areas. The bigger (or closer by) the city or the more rural the area, the less respectively more strictly religion is interpreted. Same with islam in Turkey and Morocco, or example. This is not a coincidence. Culture determines how the holy book is interpreted. Religion is used as an excuse, as as a tool to cast cultural preconceptions in concrete. For example, Indonesians are very gentle and forgiving people. So their interpretation of islam is also very mellow. Of course there are occasional 'burps', even riots, which might have a religious link, but it's a very big country, so that makes sense. (It may also have to do with amok, letting all that restraint loose occasionally, but that's going a bit too far off-topic.) DirkvdM 07:02, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, there are now, perhaps, a couple hundred English translations of the Qur’an so I think anyone who wants to find a negative connotation of Islam will find it regardless. However we can only hope that people will click on the link and read the passages in question for themselves. After all, even within Islam there is a wide variation in how the scripture is interpreted. --S.dedalus 14:38, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I'll grant you your point, DirkvdM (you're welcome), about the danger of paraphrasing a source quote in a particular way and having that become the basis of spiraling misconceptions about a religion and how it's actually interpreted and practiced by its adherents. Again though, I'd be careful about your assumption of culture as the decisive/defining factor in religious interpretation. I think culture and religion interact with each other in complex ways and it's not always accurate to view one acting on the other in a straightforward and linear way; rather they often inform and act on each other in rather complex ways. Also, I don't think you can get away from the fact that an arguement can be made that a certain degree of patriarchal male-oriented thinking is built into both Christianity and Islam and that this influence will manifest itself, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, even in relatively "liberal" cultures such as Indonesian and American. Are the religious texts of Christianity and Islam inherently incompatible with truly egalitarian ideals? I don't know, but I think it would require some pretty creative re-imaginings/interpretations of the source texts, which would considerably alter the religions from how they were orginally conceived (being of course human products of particular historical periods, incorporating all the prejudices and mores of the people/period in which they were created). Of course we can see that such alterations have happened and continue to, albeit seemingly at an excruciatingly slow pace (due probably to the inherently revelatory nature of these religions), in large part informed by various culture preferences and differences. 38.112.225.84 19:43, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree that culture and religion influence each other, both ways, but I think the influence of culture on religion is much larger, with religion being just an excuse for all sorts of things that are really cultural. But the slow change of societies is indeed probably for a large part caused by religious conservatism. A good example of that is the sudden jerk forward in the West when the influence of the church started fading. So for progress (or lack thereof) the influence of religion is probably indeed the greatest. DirkvdM 18:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree that the original question, in relation to Pakistan especially, is an interesting one. I personally am not knowledgable enough about the specifics of that country to satisfactorily answer it, but I'd be interested to hear any informed theory or opinion on the subject. I too find it to be a bit perplexing of a phenomenon and somewhat contradictory in light of certain Pakistani practices concerning the treatment of women (the lead of the article Sean linked to refers to the, "systemic subordination" of women to men). Or, maybe, as an American I'm just slightly embarassed by their having elected a female president before we have (wait!, is that why the did it) :). 38.112.225.84 19:56, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The sailing schedule in 1967-1968 for the Italian Line passenger ship Cristoforo Colombo

My family (Margaret MacNeil, Mary MacNeil, Dennis MacNeil, Susan MacNeil, Katherine MacNeil and an employee Mafalda Bergamo, sailed on this ship to return to the US after several years in Italy. They would have arrived in New York City in June, 1967 or 1968. I'm wondering if any of the passenger manifests from the Cristoforo Colombo are available for reseach. I realize that it is too much to expect that they might be online, but if there is an archive available I'd appreciate any contact info available. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.204.241.238 (talk) 02:17, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• The sailing schedule is easy to find, or at least the arrival and departure dates from any ship are; the New York Times online archives include logs for all ships. I searched for "Cristoforo Colombo" in 1967-1968 and found, for example, that it arrived in NY on June 14, 1967, and departed for Gibraltar the following day. Passenger manifests, I have no idea. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

how'd this guy get off so light?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Sweeney

would court records tell why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.195.89 (talk) 04:20, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

He was convicted of Voluntary manslaughter not murder. In the US that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. This leniency is presumably because voluntary manslaughter is carried out under “circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed.” --S.dedalus 05:49, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That is a federal sentencing guideline for trials in federal courts. Sweeney was convicted in California court where the maximum may be different. (This link says 11 years max.[11], this one says 16 years[12]) Rmhermen 06:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I found: "193. (a) Voluntary manslaughter is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for 3, 6, or 11 years." from CALIFORNIA CODES PENAL CODE SECTION 187-199 [13] The short sentence is for mitigating circumstances, the midle for ordinary, the longest for aggraved circumstances (like previous violent convictions). Rmhermen 07:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Planning for a bleak future

Assuming a worst case scenario in the future where:

1. Global warming has reached or exceeded predicted levels.
2. The rising sea level has reached or exceeded predicted levels
3. War, rioting, and economic chaos are universal (perhaps caused by dwindling oil supplies).
4. Worldwide communication and transport are restricted or nonexistent.
5. Epidemics of diseases like Bird flu, Smallpox and Ebola are common.

What would be the best and safest geographic location to be at? Sources would be appreciated, but are not required. Thanks --S.dedalus 06:34, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Global warfare and disease epidemics? The moon would be my favourite. FiggyBee 07:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Haha! I promise I won’t sue Wikipedia in a hundred years if I die from a combination of mob violence, drowning, Ebola, and heatstroke as a result of bad advice. :) --S.dedalus 07:05, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

War, rioting and economic chaos have always been a part of human societies. We actually see less of the first two in the West since WWII (demonstrations are nothing compared to riots in the times of kings and all-out capitalism). So the West is a good place to be now. Worldwide communication and transport have never been as big as they are now. People complain too much. We've never had it so good (materially speaking, at least). Concerning diseases, I don't know if they're more common these days (and am curious). On the one hand we have better medical care, but on the other hand overpopulation and increased intercontinental transportation and in the case of lifestock inbreeding and huge monocultures are good breeding grounds for epidemics. I don't know which of these is a stronger factor. Which leaves global warming. And there again, it's best to be in a rich country, which has the means to fight the effects of it. DirkvdM 07:47, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Antarctica? --Masamage ♫ 07:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

As long as you can find bare rock to build on- I wouldn't want to build on the snow pack in a global warming scenario.. --froth^t 19:04, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Damn, I now see I've misread the question. You're asking 'what if'. But the answer remains the same, I suppose. Be where the money is. Or maybe not? You are in part talking about the breakdown of what those rich societies are built on. So maybe somewhere where people aren't dependent on it and can still 'live off the land' would be better then. Yesterday I watched a documentary (tribe) about the Penan, some of whom still live as hunters/gatherers. They're also very friendly and welcoming people. Their habitat is largely destroyed, though. Transportation breaking down would be a real saviour for the little remaining primary lowland rainforest. But the disaster would then have to strike very soon, before that is also gone. And of course we couldn't all go there, but I doubt if many would want to (thinking they're dangerous savages, the opposite of which is true). Of course there is one problem with your question. If worldwide transportation has broken down, how would you get there? DirkvdM 07:57, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Hopefully we’d all have so warning before thing got that bad. Probably several years. --S.dedalus 01:05, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

We'd all have The same Warning. If you aren't ready by then you're in the same position as everybody else.--APL 20:07, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Anywhere as long as you are Emperor of the World. 81.241.103.75 08:12, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Let's see. You'd want a large, easily defended, self-sufficient, impregnable structure, well above sea-level, with its own water supply, and protection against biological and chemical contamination. Sounds like Cheyenne Mountain to me. Gandalf61 09:35, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

1. Global warming has reached or exceeded predicted levels. - So not close to the equator.
2. The rising sea level has reached or exceeded predicted levels - Inland and 30' above sea level (at least)
3. War, rioting, and economic chaos are universal (perhaps caused by dwindling oil supplies). - So you need to be away from where other people are likely to be - and yet be self-sufficient so you can survive economic chaos.
4. Worldwide communication and transport are restricted or nonexistent. - Since you need to be away from the rioting, this may actually help you stay away from those people.
5. Epidemics of diseases like Bird flu, Smallpox and Ebola are common. - If civilisation has collapsed, forget about modern medicine - so, again, you need to be far away (and out of reach) of other people.

So an otherwise more or less uninhabited island - at a reasonable distance from the equator - high enough to stay out of the way of rising sea levels - but with enough arable land and a sensible enough climate to make subsistance farming possible. Tricky. Islands that are high enough above the ocean to avoid the rising sea levels tend to be pretty rocky - which is not good for farming. This is really a problem in general because most fertile land came to be that way because of being in the flood plain of a large, sluggish river...sadly, those are the places that will be under the ocean if there is a large sea level rise. Another problem is that an awful lot of other people are going to be having the same idea - so the really good places may turn out to be battlegrounds anyway. For that reason, it might be worth looking for someplace livable - but sub-optimal. SteveBaker 12:42, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for this exceptional analysis. It helps to know generally what to look for. Perhaps the New Zealand suggestion bellow would be such a place? --S.dedalus 01:03, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Also, a lot of answers will presuppose some kind of survivalist skillset, so if you're lacking in this area you might want to brush up. If you are truly worried about such scenarios I'd also stress the importance of preparation; it's never too early to start caching :). Personally, I'm looking at the Desolation Sound as my post-apocalyptic destination of choice. All the fish and game you could want for, with extremely remote locations, many accesible only by boat. 38.112.225.84 14:21, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That could be a good choice. I've often considered the interior part of New Zealand's South Island - perhaps the area around Wanaka as a possibility. - Eron ^Talk 14:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I've been thinking along similar lines for a few years now. I disagree that survivalism is a realistic option and would counsel against a very remote location. No individual or family can really be sulf-sufficient in maintaining tools, equipment, and anything metal, and it would be extremely difficult for a single family to be really self-sufficient in food and clothing. For this reason, I think it would be wise to seek not just a relatively safe location but also a community that is likely to 1) welcome strangers and 2) stand together in providing community security and mutual aid. Of course, if you have a couple hundred friends with a diverse skill set, you could found such a community, but this is not an option for most. Given these criteria, I think that the best choice would be a small town in a somewhat isolated location, but not a small town that is too insular or tight-knit for an outsider to become a part of the community. In terms of avoiding nuclear fallout, a location in the South Pacific, such as New Zealand, is probably ideal, and it has a tradition of immigration that probably works in an immigrant's favor, particularly if the immigrant can manage to look and more or less act like a native New Zealander. Because New Zealand is VERY far from everyone I know and love and because it would take some effort for me to immigrate to New Zealand legally, I personally am considering a locale in Canada that I prefer not to name. Marco polo 16:24, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Tell us!!!! (P.S. I was just kidding about Desolation Sound area, it would be terrible place to retreat to, I meant the Yukon) I agree that a hard-core hermit style survivalism scenario is not optimal for the reasons you list and a few others to boot. Nevertheless, certain skills, many of which roughly fall within the rubric of "survivalism", would be indespensible to a required self-sufficiency (individual or small-community wise) in the proposed scenarios. Skills which are notably absent for many of us used to modern convenience. Also, an extremely important factor which you should not neglect to consider in lurid detail is: Choosing the right mate(s) to repopulate the planet with. Think, birthing hips, etc... 38.112.225.84 17:41, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

With the Adam and Eve scenario we’d all die from inbreeding anyway. :) What kind of survivalist skills were you thinking of? Agriculture? Medicine? --S.dedalus 01:12, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I'd go with the Canadian Prairies. It's one of the areas where civilization is likely to thrive: warmer temperatures will make them fertile farmland; there's access to the Athabasca tar sands, the iron and copper mines of the Michigan Upper Peninsula, the heavy industry of Ontario, the hydroelectricity of Quebec, and many other benefits. --Carnildo 19:46, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

That’s a good point. The only disadvantage is that it’s right in the “no man’s land” between Russia and America if there were another cold war. --S.dedalus 01:14, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I've never really understood survivalists. In times and places of unrest, breakdown of society, or warfare, big cities have always been the place to be. Sitting on a cache of supplies in the middle of nowhere sounds like a recipe for getting slaughtered. FiggyBee 04:44, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Survival is about staying alive without a cache of supplies. Such as there are in cities. Some Yanks have 'stolen' the word to mean something else. I ended up with a small group of those in California. Very friendly people, until I mentioned just what you said. If you build up stocks, then how are you going to defend yourself against the lazy sort of people who prefer to take in stead of make. That suggestion pretty much pissed off the 'leader'. probably because he was afraid to lose his flock. DirkvdM 08:08, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Assuming global warming, tropical areas would generally be a bad choice (although there will be exceptions). But if you have little means to warm yourself in winter then you shouldn't go for cold areas either (I believe quite a lot of wild west trappers froze to death in their cabins). So a moderate climate seems like the best choice. Of course, there, the climate is also likely to change, so one can not count on plentiful fish or game or fruit or whatever still being there. Unless the ecology in the area is very varied, so that something will survive, possibly by moving to a different area. So definitely not a 'monoculture' like a prairie. The greatest biodiversity is in lowland tropical rainforests. They're in the tropics (naturally), but they also 'make their own weather' it is said, so maybe they won't be too hard hit by climate change (if any is left after all the logging, that is).

So apart from lowland rainforests, the tropics are out. And most of North America, South Africa, Australia and East Asia seem bad choices for having too little variation. Which leaves the southern half of South America, Europe (not the south, which will dry out, nor the north, which is too cold), possibly Madagascar and (yes, again) New Zealand. Something that really struck me in New Zealand was the enormous natural variation. On the Heaphy Track, I walked through four very distinct ecologies in one single day! (See the last section of the article.) After which I ended up in the friendly town of Karamea (no, not the bloody song), which is at the end of a road, so nicely isolated. No large supplies for looters, nor any easy means to get there, so not worth their while. Still, there already is a small town for a 'base', the means to live off the natural surroundings and the locals (not too many) who will know what to find where (Kiwis really dig their natural surroundings). Don't all come there. (Well, ok, you guys are welcome :) ). DirkvdM 08:08, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

world

What is the length of the English Channel in kilometers?

• What is the world's oldest known city?

• Who was the first Republican President of America?

• Which country is known as Sugar Bowl of the world?

• Name the founder of Red Cross Society? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.124.160.211 (talk) 09:44, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Question 2: Damascus. Question 3: Abraham Lincoln. Rhinoracer 10:30, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Question 1 The boundries are too blurred to define the length.--88.111.120.104 12:39, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You really should do your own basic searches before coming here. All but one of these answers can be found with the simplest of Wikipedia searches.

• Henry Dunant founded the Red Cross (it's right there in Red Cross.
• The greatest quantity of sugar comes from Latin America, the United States, the Caribbean nations, and the Far East (that's in Sugar). I couldn't find any references to "The Sugar Bowl of the World" that seem pertinant - but if I had to guess, I'd say Barbados.
• The English channel is 560 km (350 miles) long (that's from English Channel) - I agree with 88.111.120.104 that the limits of the channel are ill-defined, but that's a reasonable figure.

SteveBaker 12:55, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

The answer to question three could have easily been found in the introduction to Republican Party (United States). Dismas|^(talk) 13:05, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I'd be careful about Damascus. It's generally regarded as the oldest continuously inhabited city, but I'd bet there are ruined cities that are older and that are known to us. -- JackofOz 14:56, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Isn't the oldest city Jericho? Rmhermen 15:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Ur of the Chaldees anyone? DuncanHill 15:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't forget about Çatalhöyük. -- 72.33.121.200 19:09, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Hey, questioner, are you going to make a donation to WP if you win the quiz? 86.17.50.12 17:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Well done 72.33.121.200 how could I have forgotten Çatalhöyük! DuncanHill 19:14, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Our articles on Jerico, Ur/Caldees and Catalhoyuk place all three more recently than Damascus. SteveBaker 22:25, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I think that the articles List of oldest continuously inhabited cities is a good place to start. Jon513 15:39, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Note that the questioner does not specify that the city need be continuously inhabited, nor, indeed, inhabited today. --Dweller 08:47, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Damascus article says the city was founded, 8000-1000 BC. Babylon cites "The earliest source to mention Babylon may be a dated tablet of the reign of Sargon of Akkad (ca. 24th century BC short chr.)." Nineveh is also pretty ancient.

I think you'll find this question difficult to answer. Perhaps your best answer is actually "Enoch" (See Genesis 4:17) --Dweller 08:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

What does a trader do, really?

What is it really a trader (a stock trader, say) does to earn their living? It's obviously not simply pushing the buttons and clicking the mouse, so I conclude that they are actually taking decisions of what to buy and sell. But how can educated decisions be made in a few seconds (cause that's often the case, right?)? One might then imagine that they set up rules for themselves in advance to make the decision easy, like "When the price exceeds this value, I sell." or "When this quantity that I calculate goes below this other value, I sell.". If that is the answer, all those trades could (and should) be handled by a computer instead. So, what do they do, really? 130.237.48.27 10:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

What you're sort of describing is day trading and not everyone engages in that type of trading. People like stock brokers do make trades but they do it after quite a bit of research and requests from their clients. Perhaps those links will help you. Dismas|^(talk) 13:02, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

They have to read company prospectuses, research the past record of the company, looks at annual investor reports, look at market trends in their business sector, investigate their competitors, what technology is doing to their market, the track record of their managers, the state of pay in that sector of the market, the probable cost of raw materials in the future, etc. They aren't making decisions in a few seconds - they've already figured out which stocks to watch for and what they are worth. The 'snap decisions' are likely to be based on research they did in advance 'just in case'. Setting up those rules can often now be automated - you can certainly set up automatic buy and sell orders that are triggered on a specific set of conditions. However, "When the price exceeds the value" entails you knowing what the "value" is. Also, it's not the value NOW (because that's just the price) - it's the value at some time in the future that matters - and worse still, it's not just a matter of whether it'll be worth more - it's a matter of whether the time it takes to grow by a certain amount will exceed the probably return from other ways to invest the money. I think you are dramatically underestimating the work that is involved in doing this well. SteveBaker 13:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

(After edit conflict) Yes, a stock trader definitely does a lot more than just pushing buttons. A professional stock trader spends a lot of time watching the markets and talking to their counterparts in other firms, to work out who is likely to want to buy stock X and who is likely to want to sell stock Y. Trades themselves involve a degree of negotiation, so developing working relationships with other traders is important. Although a trader may work within a set of objective rules most of the time (although they may not be able to articulate them), a good trader will also recognise exceptional circumstances in which they should ignore the rules. A trader may occassionally be taking rapid, almost instinctive, decisions, but their instincts are based on years of experience - like a racing driver, airline pilot or surgeon. And even in more automated, humdrum and run-of-the-mill markets, it is often cheaper for a firm to hire a bunch of junior traders than to develop and maintain complex computer programs. Gandalf61 13:18, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Not really deja vu

Have you ever come across something that you hadn't heard of before twice in a really short time? It seems like this happens to me a lot, but I've never heard anyone mention it. Like I had never heard the phrase general practicioner to refer to a doctor before one day and I read it in some news story the next. Is there a word for this? Recury 14:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I would have to go with coincidence, though you might be interested in the article synchronicity. 38.112.225.84 14:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I absolutely recognise what you are saying. It has happened to me many times – too many times for me to think they are coincidences. I guess our minds are more likely to take notice of "general practicioner" after we have been introduced to the concept than before. I too would like to know what it is called. —Bromskloss 15:10, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• I agree. This happens to me all the time after learning new words. I think the brain must just fill in an unknown word from context, much the way we fill in our blind spots from context. Another example is when I've bought a new car, I start to see that same model everywhere I look, whereas I had previously not noticed them at all. --Sean 15:20, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I love coincidences and I hope there is a name for the effect Sean describes, I am very familiar with it. I love 47's and my house number is 23. Favourite one recently was lamenting in work how I had never been paintballing - fifteen minutes later my wife phones up and asks would I like to come paintballing with a group from her work. Also last night discussing the most inappropriate song for the DJ to accidently switch to during the bride and grooms first dance - later back at someones house, the third song of a random selection of a large .mp3 collection, the upon decided song. Lanfear's Bane 15:52, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

• From cognitive psychology, there is the recency effect, or it could be a form of "priming". Perhaps you see the word "osteopath,"(a type of healthcare practitioner), in a news story, and later in the day you see the term "general practitioner" (a basic family doctor). Each term is stored in memory, "primed" by the recent exposure, and at a higher level of activation than 20,000 other words or terms in your entire passive vocabulary, of all the words you may have seen at some previous time. Many of these words are not ones you would use, and you may not be sure of their meaning, like "defalcate" or "hemiola" (of course for some Wikipedians these may appear in every other sentence). The next day, you see "general practitioner" again in a news story (for instance discussing the profession of the mother of disappeared 4 year old Madeleine McCann). It is already simmering at a high level of activation, and the additional exposure makes it "pop" in some phenomenological way which feels a bit like deja vu. You don't see a recurrence of "osteopath" and its activation level remains below the "deja vu" level of activation, and gradually fades back into oblivion. Your brain pays attention to words which recur, does not pay attention to the ones which do not recur soon after the initial priming, and it seems like an amazing coincidence that the word, person, song, whatever recurred. The non-recurrence of all those other terms is ignored. Edison 16:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Getting to know strange women in public situations

I have quite often been in the situation - for example in a train or even in the street - where I (a single man) can tell a woman is attracted to me, and I've been attracted to them too. But although I normally have self-confidence, in that situation I feel nervous. The more the mutual attraction, the more the nerves. (Its not just me - Sappho reports in one of her poems the same symptoms when she sees someone she feels attracted to - mouth dries up, heartbeat up, lost for words, and so on). I feel if I forced myself to speak, it would come out as a nervous squeek anyway. That's part of the problem - the other part is just what should I say/do to start chatting to a complete stranger of the opposite gender? Especially, for example, when they are a few feet away in the street and we are not in a crowd? I feel sad after such events, as I think how the opportunity of a relationship has been lost. Thanks. 80.0.110.253 21:15, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

"Hi there," often works. In my experience, it's not what you say - it's just saying it. If, as you believe, the other person is interested in you, then any opening at all will be welcome. Don't try to be clever, don't force it, Just say hi. If she responds, talk about the weather. If you're waiting for a train or bus, comment on how they are always late. Think of something innocuous that fits in with where you are at the time - if it's a grocery store, ask her which tomatoes are better for a salad or something. It's really not about the words, it's about making contact. - Eron ^Talk 21:49, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Ditto to the above. If there is a mutual attraction, then they will respond in kind. They know that they're in the same situation and will talk if spoken to. You don't have to get into anything heavy like your stance on whether 1984 was better than Brave New World or peace in the Middle East. It wouldn't be expected at first. Not until you really have time to get to know one another. Dismas|^(talk) 22:37, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

(But just remember: 1984 was much better than Brave New World.) - Eron ^Talk 02:30, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

"Pardon me miss, I seem to have lost my phone number, could I borrow yours?" :) no, don't --S.dedalus 06:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Advice noted. But what do I say after that? And how do I get from that to phone numbers? What should I say when we are just two people on an otherwise empty street for example? Thanks 80.0.98.153 10:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

If it's an otherwise empty street, I'm assuming that you're walking somewhere, so ask if it would be alright if you walked with her and chatted. Maybe tell a little white lie about having to turn at the next corner so that she doesn't think that you're trying to follow her home. So what if you have to go a block out of your way to keep up the pretense? At least you'll be chatting. And when you part ways, say something akin to "I've enjoyed our chat. Would you like to get together for some coffee some time?" Or lunch or whatever. And if she says that you could have a bunch of caramels instead of coffee, then you know she's seen Good Will Hunting more than once... ;-) kidding on that last bit. Dismas|^(talk) 13:26, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• I'd say don't worry about asking for her phone number. Just enjoy the chat. You'll probably see her again some day, and then you'll be old friends and she'll probably invite you up to see her record collection. --Sean 14:30, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the effort, but I think the last two replies are more appropriate to American culture. If you asked a stranger if you could walk with them in the UK they'd think you were crazy. And I'm sorry to say in the UK, where almost everybody lives in what Americans would call cities, then you rarely see people again. Actually the event that prompted this question was a woman walking past me in a large empty street, so I'd have to do a 180 degree turn, and I was not in my home city. 80.2.201.6 16:32, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

It's vitally important to find SOMETHING non-dorky to say - even if it's something that's not clever - and it has to be something that demands an answer. If you are on a train, you can start with something really basic like "Is it my imagination or is this train running late today?" - something that demands an answer - but which stays clear of any comment about the other person. Beyond keeping it simple and impersonal, it pretty much doesn't matter what you say because if the other person was in the exact same quandry of trying to find a way to open a conversation, you just did what they were absolutely praying you would do - and if they didn't want to talk to you then a brief, impersonal "No" can end the conversation for them. No risk of embarrasment on either side. Once you have exchanged a few words on the banal subject of how terrible the trains are recently (or not), the way is now open for either side to say something deeper without it seeming weird. Exchanging phone numbers is painful. When you are just about to part at the next station (or whatever) you don't have the time to do anything clever - and you only have seconds to act. One way to get past this is to have some business cards printed and in your pocket. "Hey, here's my card!" is all it takes. Nobody ever refuses them. Lots of people hand those out - it's not weird and you aren't asking the other person to give away personal information to a perfect stranger - you can give it to them without them having to instantly commit by writing something down. However, now they have your number and can phone you if they want to - you've inherently given them permission to do so - told them your name - what you do for a living - and provided several ways for them to get back to talk to you (especially if it has your cellphone and email on it). SteveBaker 22:17, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I've found that getting the phone number is the easiest part of a first meeting. I've found a counter-intuitive method that has an enormous success rate. I've used it many times and only once has someone replied "I'll give you my e-mail address." Every other time they have given me their phone number (and name, if I haven't gotten that, yet). After you've broken the ice and had a nice, normal chat - you don't have to sweep her off her feet, just show her that you're easy to talk to - then you inevitably reach the point where the conversation seems to be winding down. That is the time to get the number. If you let the conversation dwindle and the silent stretches become awkward, getting the number might prove difficult. When you first detect the conversation is slowing, but before it is undeniably in a closing phase, simply hand her a pen and a piece of paper, without saying a word. If she asks "What is this for?" then, in a matter-of-fact voice, speak these two magic words: "Your number." That's it. That's all you have to do. Most of the time they don't even ask what the pen and paper are for; they simply write their number on the paper. I have no clue why that works so well, but it does. It may have something to do with the perceived confidence level that convinces them to give the number, but if so then it is truly ironic how I came upon this method. I discovered it by accident one time when I didn't trust my voice to ask for the number, and I've used it ever since. 152.16.188.107 05:59, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Copyright question

Hello,

I would like to write a short play based on the short story The Ingenious Patriot by Ambrose Bierce. Given that he died around 1914 and much of his work can be found for free on the web (including the story I want to adapt), would this be within United States copyright law as long as I gave him credit? I know some Wikipedians are very knowledgeable concerning this sort of thing, so I figured this might be good place to ask! Thanks so much for your time!

129.170.118.220 22:56, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm gonna get the smack down for offering what could be considered legal advice but I'm throwing caution to the wind and informing you also that I am not a lawyer and thus could be blatantly wrong. That being said... Our article on copyright states that "So when can one conclude that a book is in the public domain? In the United States, all books and other works published before 1923 have expired copyrights and are in the public domain." There isn't a source for this particular sentence but since Bierce died in 1914, it could conceivably help you out. You may also want to read over United States copyright law. Dismas|^(talk) 23:05, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and on a more personal note, if it were me, I'd give him credit. It might not make you look like a great playwright for not having thought up the whole story on your own but as an audience member, it may get me interested in Bierce and make me want to read more about him or read his works. Therefore you may be educating the public and that's always a good thing. Dismas|^(talk) 23:08, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Again, this is not legal advice, but I'm reasonably sure I'm correct: whether you give credit has nothing to do with whether it's legal for you to copy something without getting permission first. In cases where there is a copyright and you do ask for permission, the copyright holder may choose to require you to give suitable credit. However, what does require you to give credit in any case is the principle of being honest. Shakespeare's works are in the public domain, but if you copy something from Shakespeare and pretend you write it, it's still plagiarism, and you really don't want to do that.--Anon, 23:20 UTC, October 5, 2007.

As far as I can tell the story was published at least as early as 1898 so it is unequivocally in the public domain in the United States and you can do what you want with it. And yes you should give credit, but that has nothing to do with the legal argument—you don't want to be accused of plagiarism or unoriginality, do you? If you give credit you will be seen (at best) as someone who did a clever and original adaptation; if you don't give credit you will be considered a fraud and a cheat (at worst). --24.147.86.187 04:24, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• Another reason to give credit is that Ambrose Bierce is famous, while you presumably are not. Ads for your play should feature his name prominently if you want to get Bierce lovers who don't normally go to plays into the theatre. --Sean 14:36, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I would note that the story is available as part of a collection by that author on http://www.gutenberg.org. Since Project Gutenberg are very careful only to keep books that are firmly out of US copyright in their collection, you can definitely use it as the basis for your play. You should give credit to the original author as a matter of honesty - but I don't think you are legally required to do so - although you would find that most publishers would be greatly upset if you didn't give that credit. SteveBaker 21:50, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• Steve is wrong as to Project Gutenberg policy; see Project Gutenberg#Copyright issues. --Anonymous, 12:30 UTC, October 7, 2007.

"if you copy something from Shakespeare and pretend you write it, it's still plagiarism" Not on WP, where verbatim copying of DANFS seems to bother nobody.... Trekphiler 04:03, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia cares about legal issues (copyright), not intellectual issues (plagiarism). Wikipedia is not (in fact, Wikipedia is really not) supposed to be original, whereas a play or academic essay is. DANFS is public domain, so verbatim copying is perfectly legal. FiggyBee 04:38, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Song on The Independent's advert

What is the keyboard solo on The Independent's adverts. This is the advert. Thank you ^^ 81.158.176.129 23:40, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Masturbation

Hi, I have a friend aged 13 who masturbates and has ejaculation and all's OK. A few days ago he told me that he reached the orgasm but had no ejaculation and that this happend twice. Is this normal? Can you run out of sperm? How long does it take for more to be created? Thanks, js —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.199.200.76 (talk) 23:48, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

See retrograde ejaculation for one possible answer. Friday (talk) 23:50, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

You can't "run out" of sperm. According to this reliable page from the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the male body produces 12 billion sperm per month, and each ejaculation releases 300 million. That would seem to be enough for 40 ejaculations per month, though I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the body produces more the more one ejaculates. --zenohockey 02:20, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

See Masturbation#Masturbation frequency, age and sex. According to that, "nearly all males masturbate daily well into their 20s", and "adolescent youths report being able to masturbate to ejaculation around six times per day". a.z. 05:38, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

At age 13 your body (or "your friend's") is still figuring out exactly how that hardware works. That doesn't sound exceptionally abnormal (I can recall a few similar things when I was going through puberty, oh joy of joys that was), though if it continued for a few days you'd probably want to get it checked out. --24.147.86.187 04:15, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

There's some potentially interesting information here on orgasm without ejaculation. - Eron ^Talk 04:45, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

In my experience if you masturbate frequently, you can indeed run out of semen, albeit temporarily. This depends on the person, and after a night's sleep your body is usually ready again. However if the person has been ejacultaing normally and consistently and this carries on for more than 3 days or so, it may pay to get it checked by your medical practitioner Pumpmeup 05:42, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

October 6

A Surgeon's Hands

Do surgeons perform exercises to increase steadiness and reduce shakiness in their hands? If so, what are some of such exercises? Or must their steady hands be a natural genetic trait? Thanks. Acceptable 01:25, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

One's options are more varied than "exercise" vs "natural genetics". Practice and repetition can help a surgeon in the same way that they help, say, a guitarist. When one starts play guitar you can barely keep them steady much less the sort of rapid-fire precision needed to play carefully. But with lots of training and practice and reptition you gain the sort of muscle-memory needed to reproduce precision work without even thinking about it. I doubt surgeons are too different in that respect. --24.147.86.187 04:18, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

• Playing video games might help: "Three hours a week decreased mistakes by 37 percent, study finds". --Sean 14:44, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Hah, playing super monkey ball on medical equipment ^^. Also I find it amusing that the doctor likes that game because it has no blood and guts- he'd probably get better practice playing the medic in TF2 or battlefield :) --froth^t 19:02, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you can use a few hours in Trauma Center: Under the Knife practising incisions on virtual people of which you have no consequence (other than losing the game) if you "slipped" :p. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:41, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Maybe the thought of litigation keeps their hands steady....or do they have to control an anxiety tremor caused by the thought? hmm Richard Avery 21:42, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

engine

I asked this here before but I still don't believe the answer. I've only driven an automatic so this question pertains to that I guess. When I press on the accelerator, the rpm guage immediately shoots up. As long as I don't cause it to shift gears, the harder I push, the higher the rpm and it stays constant while I hold the pedal at that position. But my speed isn't directly related to the rpm- my acceleration is. When I hold down the accelerator, the rpm shoots up and stays still, but my speed takes several seconds to get up to the maximum it'll reach at that RPM/gear. So what is the mechanical mechanism that allows a rapidly spinning rpm on the engine to gradually bleed rotational energy to the drive shaft? This can not be caused by simple gears, if that was so, the speed would always perfectly reflect the rpm, and only their "constant of proportionality" would vary. But this isn't the case- they're not proportional at all. So what mechanical mechanism allows this to occur? Friction as a clamp slips around the drive shaft? --froth^t 02:08, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

That'd be your torque converter. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 02:24, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Which is indeed automatic transmission-related. My major gripe with that. DirkvdM 08:14, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

What is your gripe? Froth was specifically talking about automatics. With a manual transmission, there is a direct relationship between the engine RPM and the speed of the car, unless you're slipping the clutch. FiggyBee 13:30, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I think Dirk's gripe is with automatic transmission, not with TenOfAllTrades' answer. DuncanHill 13:41, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Yup, having power and not being able to use it fully. DirkvdM 17:36, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

THANK you finally! Every time I got in a car I've been grumbling "grr they have no idea what they're talking about" heh.. last time I asked a dozen people swore up and down that I was crazy and that such a thing was mechanically impossible :) --froth^t 18:56, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

FYI, torque converters were mentioned the last time you asked, see Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Science/2007_June_12#car_engine_question. Friday (talk) 21:46, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

oh :o I asked even before that though. this is my third try. I think the first was in 2006 or so --froth^t 21:53, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

This is a tricky thing. When the gearbox isn't shifting and the clutch/torque-convertor isn't slipping and the tyres aren't skidding, your speed is precusely the RPM multiplied by the overall gear ratio multiplied by the circumpherence of your tyres. Accelleration is proportional to torque - not RPM. However, in a conventional automatic, there is a viscous coupling (the torque convertor) that allows the transmission to slip - so when the RPM changes suddenly, it allows the wheels to catch up to that speed more gradually. In that case, the rate of accelleration is going to be dependent on the RPM in come complicated manner. Of course there are some cars with CVT (Continuously variable transmissions) in which the RPM hardly ever changes - and some sorts of full-on hybrids only use the engine to generate electricity - so again, the RPM and speed are pretty much unrelated. On my 1963 Mini, (stick shift) the speedometer is broken - I fitted a tachometer instead and so long as I remember the gear ratios and can do some quick mental arithmetic, I know my speed by knowing what gear I'm in and the tachometer reading. SteveBaker 21:33, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

......honestly officer!! DuncanHill 21:38, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

This still sounds weird to me. I don't think it's normal that the torque converter would slip that noticeably for several seconds. Anyone have opinions on that? Friday (talk) 21:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

"...the torque converter would slip noticeably for several seconds." If this is true, then is this the reason that automatics are generally smoother when driving? Acceptable 22:37, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Unless you've got a locking torque converter, it's always slipping. And yes, it does make for a smoother ride. --Carnildo 06:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Which everyone does (have a locking torque converter, that is). FiggyBee 06:42, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Should one want to simulate the smooth ride-ness of an automatic, would one need to slip the clutch for a longer period of time, therefore causing more wear? Acceptable 15:08, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

You can be smoother by slipping the clutch more, and yes, this will wear it out faster. But you can be smooth without slipping the clutch excessively too. It generally going to be easier to be smooth when accelerating gently than when trying to do it quickly. Friday (talk) 15:50, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Lava Pumice-Powered Soap Bar And Its Uses

Can you use Lava Soap for your face? I mean it seems most facial cleansers have pumice, so why can't I use my Lava to exfoliate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.153.81.7 (talk) 02:57, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

3D weave

Has anyone ever weaved cloth in three dimentions? I recently worked out a way to do it, and I wonder if anyone has done it before. Using google, I managed to find ScotWeave which appears to have layered cloth, but I'm trying to find something where the thickness of the cloth is about the same as the length, resulting in a woven 3D object. — Daniel 19:21, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Aside from double weave (two interconnected layers of cloth) and tubular weave (two layers of cloth connected only at the edges, making a seamless tube), I can't think of any examples. Possibly someone has done one as an art project, but it doesn't seem it would be a useful technique. Rmhermen 21:52, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I suggest you have a look at velvet or corduroy (corde du roi - so called because of its expense to manufacture - thus called Cloth of Kings). These two fabrics are both double decker weaves that are subsequently split through their conjoined thickness to produce 2 sheets of the resultant piled fabrics. 81.145.241.210 23:21, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

what would be the midway point be

is there a site on the web that if you put a distance in from where you live it would show the place that distance from where you are

a friend that lives in los angeles would meet me half way for vacation i live in wilmington nc...ive tried different sources including mapquest and aaa cant seem to find the answer

alicia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.12.19.230 (talk) 19:45, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Looks like Oklahoma City is the place for you, as the crow flies, if a crow flies a great circle route. I used the ruler in Google Earth. It's a free download, no bundled malware. --Milkbreath 20:04, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I just found a website (through Digg) for doing exactly this: http://www.happymedian.com/ — Kieff | Talk 17:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Printing a Trade Paperback sized book

I am writing a book for my gf as an anniversary present and I want to print it out in trade paperback format. Is such a service usually available at printing studios, or is a special location necessary? Are there any in the Detroit MI - Windsor ON area? Thank you. Crisco 1492 20:06, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

There are hundreds of these so-called "Vanity Press" places on the Internet. As the somewhat derogatory name suggests, some are more reputable than others. The honest ones just print the books for some rate - others claim to be publishing and advertising the things but you pay an enormous up-front fee and wind up being stuck with a big pile of books that you don't need. For a one-off, you can do it at (for example) http://www.cafepress.com - mostly they do T-shirts and such - but if you dig around on their site a bit, you'll see that they'll print books for you too. SteveBaker 21:09, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's the direct link to the cafepress page. Seems very cool- you send them the content and set how much profit you want to make on each sale, and cafepress will handle production and payment, and charge customers the actual cost of production plus your set profit amount, then mail you the check at the end of the month. This is really slick, it doesn't look like there are any up-front fees or anything :O --froth^t 22:09, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Ooh, they even let you print very small numbers (like 1) of copies for personal use. I'm going to get my video games walkthroughs published :D This is awesome, thanks a lot for the pointer steve --froth^t 22:11, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

So its all online now, eh? :P I definitely was hoping for a something a little closer to home. However, I will take a look at those sites and see how much to print just one book. Thanks a lot. Crisco 1492 03:23, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I should stress that CafePress is just one of these services - there are very large numbers of them out there - some cheaper, some more expensive - depending on the quantity (most will print just one copy up to thousands - but some have minimum quantities of 50 or so). There are also wide varieties of bindings, paper quality and standards for how you send them data (mostly it's PDF files - but there are others). SteveBaker 04:23, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

porn question (an appropriate one)

If one wanted to get porn off the internet w/o paying any money, confirming through a credit card or checking account, or anything like that (it would still be okay if they asked for an email address for confirmation) how would one do this? does this sort of thing even exist? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.23.84.129 (talk) 21:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

KKch.. kkchhh. kchchhhh BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA --froth^t 21:52, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Gesundheit. DirkvdM 18:32, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

So essentially you're asking how to commit credit card fraud? Considering free porn is everywhere on the Internet, committing felonies to try to get it is probably not a good idea. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 23:17, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

eh? he's specifically asking for porn that DOES NOT need a credit-card - so an entirely unjustified accusation of criminal intent. DuncanHill 23:21, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree w/ DuncaHill. That wasn't a very nice thing to say to our anon friend.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back 00:12, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

OP:Just google a bit more and you'll get all the pornography you need. --Taraborn 00:02, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

www.youporn.com. Aaadddaaammm 03:17, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

richardsrealm.com, atkingdom.com, thumbzilla.com, longestlist.com etc. etc. Need we say more? Dismas|^(talk) 13:29, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

See the Wikipedia article PornoTube. Edison 01:09, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Sheeesh, it's hard NOT to find porn on the internet. Someone I know used Google images to look for Bob the Builder's sidekick Wendy. Sadly, she just searched for "Wendy" and her 5 year old was amused to see "boobies" on the results screen. --Dweller 09:34, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I agree. There is so much free porn on the Internet that I have started to wonder why people would bother paying for porn. JIP | Talk 11:45, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Freight for fashion companies

I have a questions about freight and freight costs for fashion companies. What companies do the big companies use and more specifically who do they use to transport into and from australia? Are there designated fashion freight/transport companies? Who are the biggest ones and who do the luxury brand companies use?

jeanne —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.122.119.123 (talk) 22:54, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Try Tibbett and Britten. 81.145.241.210 23:22, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Cost of scalpels

How much do the various types of surgical-grade scalpels cost? Thanks. Acceptable 23:35, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

About £10 per handle, and about £30 per 100 blades, per [14] DuncanHill 23:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC).

Oh, so they're not really that expensive, eh? Do surgeons not re-use them for hygienic reasons or because they wear out easily? Acceptable 23:44, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

I think it's hygiene - specifically vCJD. DuncanHill 23:47, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

If they were really that worried about vCJD, they'd throw out everything every time, not just scalpel blades. I expect that really the reason is that at a few cents per blade, it's more cost-effective to replace than to sterilise and sharpen. FiggyBee 00:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

That sounds most likely to me, too. --Masamage ♫ 00:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

What? Why would they be worried about that?.. wouldn't viral infections be more worrisome than ultra-rare TSEs? --froth^t 05:52, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

According to the CJD article (and the TSE article you linked to), prions may not be made inactive by simple sterilisation methods. FiggyBee 06:46, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I can tell you that definitely scalpel blades used for surgery in the UK NHS are all disposable - blade and handle. It is done both for control of infection and on cost grounds, luckily the two coincide in the one aim. Richard Avery 21:39, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Fast Talking in Old Movies

Does anyone know why people in older (pre-1950?) movies often speak very rapidly? Think of classic gangster movies and also of the stereotypical fast-talking newspaper reporter. Or did people back then simply speak faster than after the 1950's? Any help would be appreciated. Haute Fuzze 23:39, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

The question calls to mind The Front Page (1931 film). If characters in a movie speak fast, it is presumably for comedic or dramatic effect. It should not have anything to do with the technology, if the sound movie was made in the 1920's or later. In some silent movies the characters move fast because of present day 24 frame per second projection of silent movies filmed at 16 frames per second or so. Edison 00:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I've often wondered that myself. Noel Coward was the worst I've come across in this respect - I saw In Which We Serve, in which he spoke so quickly and clippedly that I picked up only about a half of what he said. Sort of defeats the purpose, really. -- JackofOz 01:31, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I've wondered about that all my life watching old movies, and so have many of my friends and family. So is there any reason? My older relatives claim that people actually spoke faster back then. I don't believe that. Haute Fuzze 02:24, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

I've watched several Thirties movies lately without noticing such a phenomenon. —Tamfang 08:15, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Funny, I've been noticing it for decades. This is just a theory, but it might have something to do with the social stratum at which the movies were pitched. The middle-upper classes those days tended to be better educated, more widely read, and more practised at wit, repartee and general conversational skills than the "man in the street", and they had a wider range of knowledge from which to draw and thus had more to say and thus spoke a little more quickly in order to fit it in to the available time. The movie "speed thing" was reflected in other things, not just talking. Shots of audiences at theatres always had them clapping a lot faster than I've ever seen "real" people do. They also walked faster; and they made immediate analyses of situations and instant decisions often affecting the lives of thousands of people. And orchestras in movies always played pieces faster than they do now, often rushing towards the end of a piece at breakneck speed. I've also noticed this on old recordings, so it may just have been the fashion of the day. -- JackofOz 12:26, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Suggest it has more to do with the need to squeeze a story into a standard length (70 mins?) to accommodate the cinema programming: second feature, shorts, ads, main feature,86.200.4.62 14:05, 7 October 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

I think I can explain why the images look fast (eg the clapping), but I don't think it applies to how fast the sounds are. Anyway, it's because old cameras took less frames per second than modern cameras - which means that because there are less frames in old films the picture is perceived to be quite fast —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.208.110.207 (talk) 06:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

October 7

"Dark Ride"

where was the movie "Dark Ride" filmed? The amusement park looked too well done to just be a throw-up-and-tear-down-after set. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.195.89 (talk) 02:48, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

According to the Internet Movie Database, Dark Ride was filmed in Los Angeles and at the Santa Monica Pier. See [15]. I would assume they used Pacific Park. - Eron ^Talk 02:56, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Selfless good deed

Hi,

As with so many ref desk questions, this is inspired by Friends. In a recent episode (The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS), Joey thinks that a true selfless good deed is impossible as any good deed makes you feel good. Is he right? I'm sure philosophers have pondered this point. I've heard that sacrificing yourself for someone else can be perfectly good, but if I was the person that lived, I wouldn't be completely happy that this person had just died for me. What about if you were forced to (say) kill a baby to save mankind. You'd feel shit, but it would have been a good thing you'd done (in the grand scheme of things). Any thoughts? Aaadddaaammm 03:14, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

you're exactly right. Think about war in which you kill other people so you and your buddies don't get killed by them (you're forced, in other words). and look what happens to veterans: post-traumatic stress disorder and post-war depression. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.217.195.89 (talk) 03:48, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

The concept of win-win is important here. Sacrificing your own or another's life is an extreme case, and I'd prefer to talk about more mundane circumstances. If you do something for another person, unless you derive some positive return from doing it, even it's just the knowledge that you've made a teeny positive difference to their life, you've sacrificed a part of yourself for no good purpose, and you've lost. That's why doing good works purely out of a sense of duty, or some other reason that doesn't give something back to the doer, doesn't work and is not sustainable. There will always be at least a tinge of resentment involved on the part of the doer, and the gift will be compromised. The recipient may not be consciously aware of this, but at some level they will detect that the deed was not done with with the giver's full heart. Ultimately, win-lose and lose-win are both lose-lose. -- JackofOz 04:09, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

A direct contradiction of JackofOz's formulation: in the 12th century, Maimonides laid down eight levels of charity, from the least to the most honorable.

1. A person gives, but not happily.
2. A person gives cheerfully, but less then they should.
3. A person gives when asked by a needy person.
4. A person gives without being asked, but gives directly. The recipient knows who gave, and the giver knows who received.
5. A person gives a donation in a certain place, so that the giver does not know the receiver, but the receiver knows the giver.
6. A person makes a donation secretly. The giver knows who received, but the receiver doesn't know who gave.
7. A person contributes anonymously to a fund, which then dispenses the money. Neither party knows the other.
8. The highest level is to prevent someone from becoming needy in the first place, by (for example) teaching a trade, teaching someone how to fish, finding someone a job, etc.

--jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:30, 7 October 2007 (UTC) I can come up with way more levels than that. For example, if we believe the gradual increase in honor from (1) to (7) and accept that (8) is higher than those - then higher still than teaching face-to-face would be to teach anonymously so that the pupil never knows who it was who was teaching them. The ultimate would be: "Someone contributes knowledge (eg how to fish) anonymously to a foundation ("a fund of knowledge") that dispenses the knowledge to learners. Neither party knows the other. (Hmmm - does this sound at all familiar? I'm beginning to get this warm glow all over). But it doesn't end there. There are virtues between level (7) and (8) such as contributing money to pay teachers to prevent someone from becoming needy. Teaching other teachers. I think there are an infinite number of levels of honor in charity. SteveBaker 23:59, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Bill Clinton's new book Giving might be of interest. -- JackofOz 08:30, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

A BOOK about Meteorite$

This not only tells you about them, it also tells you, as of 2000, how much they are worth. One is worth $0.10 a gram since rust attacks it easily, another is approx. $300.00 a gram. Book is Falling Stars A Guide to Meteors & Meteorites, written by Mike D. Reynolds, ISBN:0-8117-2755-6 The $300 gram rock is from a meteorite allegedly from Mars. Can this be used in appropriate articles ? 65.163.112.225 06:03, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

One rock that is of high value is from a comet, and one hit Siberia in 1947. 65.163.112.225 06:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

This source also mentions Robert Haag as well, so this could mean that Wikipedia will have several edits deriving from this source as well. Happy source placement. 65.163.112.225 07:01, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Lovely though it is that you'd like to promote the heck out of this book, Wikipedia doesn't exist to do that. We write facts into our articles - then cite books as a way for people to verify those facts. SteveBaker 14:27, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Possible ICE (Law Enforcement) site

Is there a article concerning http://www.daylaborers.org ? I saw it, and it is a website that depicts illegal and legal aliens who have committed crimes, ranging from infractions to murder and child molestation and child rape. 65.163.112.225 09:39, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

To have an article about it in Wikipedia, a website must meet certain notability guidelines. I can see no reason to think that that website is notable (although you may know better than I do). FiggyBee 10:54, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

holy rock in california

I am trying to do a project on a holy rock in California. I believe that this rock people believe to be spiratual powers, was in a roadway they were trying to build in California and they wanted to move this rock, the people that believed it to be spiritual wanted the rock to remane. They had a vote and decided to move the rock to a park. I can not find anything on this rock or the park. can you give me a direction to look? Thank you Kelly Farewell —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.157.17.95 (talk) 15:29, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

• Try this Google search for "golden gate park" and "shiva linga". It's a quite amusing story. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:17, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Try this. I searched on "sacred rock relocated OR moved california park -acropolis -inca". I might be able to do better with a little more to go on. California is a big place that's been around a long time. --Milkbreath 16:37, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Sending a letter during the UK postal strike

I need to send an urgent letter this week during the Royal Mail postal strike. Which services would be best to use, bearing in mind I want to send a letter, not a parcel. I can have it collected from a commercial address, or I can drop it off at a depot. Any ideas?

--86.156.40.179 16:34, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

It depends how far away you have to send it but in principle almost all commercial delivery companies would be interested in your business. The way the Royal Mail monopoly used to work until the beginning of 2006 was that no other company was allowed to deliver mail for less than a set amount, but it has been lifted. If you're sending within London, courier companies may be the easiest way; otherwise try those well known companies with three initials in their name. Sam Blacketer 17:04, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

You could try TNT, they deliver letters as well as parcels, here is their web-site address http://www.tntpost.co.uk/Mail/ Richard Avery 21:34, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible to Fax it? SteveBaker 23:50, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Can you Identify a Sea creqature for me Please

I was in the Costa Brava on an almost static boat in the Med at Tossa De Mar, the engine was turning over. Caught in the wash of the boat was a beautiful sea creature. It was about 6 inches in diameter and had a flatter top piece which looked rubbery and appeared separate from the bottom. The bottom looked like a half dome and was made of separate stems, like mini tentacles lots of them mad up a half moon brush. There were colours of a mauve pink and white on the hundreds of small tentacles.. Under them were fewer dark ones. The top part seemed to be moving up and down and appeared as if it were syphoning water in and out. The top of it looked like a teat for a baby's bottle and was flat with a point on top. I thought it was a kind of jelly fish but not jelly like. I also thoughtg of a kind of sea urchin out of shell. I would like to know if you can identify it from the description Thaanks jeanette —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.246.215 (talk) 17:36, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

not sure but look at Echinoderm possibly Sand dollar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.102.115.31 (talk) 18:51, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

From your description, I'm sure it is some kind of "jellyfish", Class Scyphozoa. A sand dollar would not be free swimming. Not all jellyfish are obviously "jelly-like." There are many species of Scyphozoans and very little is known about them. I would suggest that you do an image search in google using the key work "Scyphozoa" and see if anything turns up that looks like your creature.--Eriastrum 19:29, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Portuguese Man o' War ? -Arch dude 20:40, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

POPULATION VOTE

I,M LOOKING FOR A BLOG ARE LIKE MINDED PEOPLE WHO THINK THE PRESIDENT SHOULD BE ELECTED BY POPULATION VOTE AND NOT THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.`````` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.5.130 (talk) 22:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

You may also be interested in the caps lock key. It's rude to shout. Aaadddaaammm 23:49, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

In which country? I presume you mean the USA, but that's probably because I'm ignorant and unaware of how other countries with Presidents elect them, but I'd be prepared to hazard a guess that at least one or two have a similar system to the USA. --Dweller 09:29, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

HOW DOES ONE THANK WIKIPEDIA ?

REALLY, HOW DOES ONE THANK WIKIPEDIA FOR A JOB WELL DONE ? Did'nt mean to SHOUT at you all. 65.163.112.225 08:05, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

OOPS! Did'nt see where I placed this ! @#$%! 65.163.112.225 08:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Easy. Send me a large amount of money. Send me an email and I'll send you my bank account number.  :) JackofOz 08:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Contribute to articles! After all, we're here to build an encyclopedia... and you'd be very welcome (you'll find it easier to get involved if you register for an account - they're free of charge and it only takes a few moments) --Dweller 09:28, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Seriously - send money (perhaps you could sell your caps-lock key on eBay) to the Wikimedia foundation. The foundation pays for the computers and bandwidth to run Wikipedia and as a charity, they always need money! Just click on the "Donate to Wikipedia" link on the menu on the left side of every page. You could also buy a CafePress Wikipedia T-shirt/Mug/Mousepad/ToteBag/Hat - 20% of the sale price goes to the Wikimedia foundation. Wearing your wikishirt with pride will also help to get more attention for the project. (When I wear mine, I get a LOT of people ask me about it - which starts many interesting conversations!)

Contributing your knowledge and expertise is definitely another way to help though...do both!

SteveBaker 14:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

1) send a donation to the Wikimedia Foundation; 2) contribute something to Wikipedia that would not likely be done without you -- either because few people do it, or because the interest/ perceived-peer-recognition/ novelty/ self-fulfillment/ or whatever-else-motivates-people payoffs are too low to prevent a high participant turnover rate. dr.ef.tymac 15:16, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

October 8

Should the Queen die...

Should Queen Elizabeth II die, will the coins of the Commonwealth countries, more specifically Canada, immediately be change so the back of the coins no longer feature the Queen's portrait, but instead King Charles? Acceptable 00:57, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

New issues would have the new King's portrait, but coins of the old Queen would continue in circulation. Until decimalization in Britain, one could see coins with a variety of monarchs on them. DuncanHill 01:00, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

By the way, the Queen's portrait is on the front (obverse) not the back (reverse) of coins. See Obverse and reverse. DuncanHill 01:01, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

• Obverse may mean "front", but it is more sensible to think of the obverse as the back when it's the same on all denominations of coin. It doesn't help people to tell them apart, and the other side does. --Anonymous, 05:38 UTC, October 8, 2007.

That's why we call the two sides of coins "Heads" and "Tails" - it's much easier! "Head" is the side with the head on it. SteveBaker 14:24, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

In relation to whether it happens "immediately", it would occur as soon as practicable, which would vary from country to country. The King would need to approve the design (or designs, if different countries adopt different designs), and that process could take some considerable time. -- JackofOz 01:08, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Incidentally, it's thought very unlikely that he'll be "King Charles". Smart money is on George VII. FiggyBee 02:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, you could see coins with a variety of monarchs on them well after decimalisation - until the reduction in size of the ten pence in 1992 led to the final withdrawal of the (equivalent value) two shilling and florin coins. Warofdreams talk 02:45, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

You are quite right about shillings and florins though they would only have had George VI and Elizabeth II, as previous silver coinage had been demonetized (I think in 1947) - and of course the sixpence (=2½ new pence) was legal tender until 1981, and very occasionally turned up in change. DuncanHill 10:27, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Sixpences were kept for longer than other pre-decimal coins because the London underground had an enormous investment in machines that accepted them. They actually stockpiled several million pounds worth of sixpences in order to give them out in change LONG after most banks stopped handing them out. SteveBaker 14:24, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the UK's silver and half-silver coins were never demonetized. It was simply a case of what English speakers call Gresham's Law at work - viz., "Bad money drives out good". Xn4 11:21, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Fascinating, I didn't know that! DuncanHill 11:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

As to "immediately", the answer is that Canadian practice has been to change the portrait when the date on the coins changes. All 1952 coins show King George VI, who died in February 1952; all 1953 coins show Queen Elizabeth II.

The previous transition is more interesting. In 1936, George V died in January and was succeeded by Edward VIII, who abdicated in December and was succeeded by George VI. All coins dated 1936 show George V; 1937 ones show George VI; and Edward VIII never made it onto the coinage. But it takes time to prepare dies, and if production of coins had been shut down from January 1937 until the George VI dies were reading, a coin shortage would have developed. Therefore the mint continued to produce "1936" coins well into 1937, but marked them with a dot under the date. (Apparently they made the dots too small and they wore off with time; in some denominations "1936-dot" coins are now very rare collectors' items. When the same trick was necessary again because of a change in King George VI's title, they used a maple leaf, so there are "1947-maple-leaf" coins that show him as still being emperor of India, produced in 1948 when he wasn't. Presumably the maple leaf would be used again if this device was deemed necessary in the future.)

See Coins of the Canadian dollar.

--Anonymous, 05:38 UTC, October 8, 2007.

That information was interesting, about King Edward VIII. a.z. 06:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Even more interesting is that fact that Edward VIII coins were minted in the UK but not in Canada. -- JackofOz 08:26, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Some Edward VIII coins dated 1936, without a portrait, went into circulation in British West Africa and British East Africa. Xn4 11:33, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Zippo Lighters

I own a zippo lighter, and for some reason i constantly have problems lighting it. Wthe flint is fine, and the whick is fine, and i refuel it constasntly.

Any advice?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.251.196.3 (talk) 04:14, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I took the liberty of removing your e-mail address to prevent spambots from finding it. If you can't find the answer you're looking for in the FAQs section of Zippo's website, then you could check this forum, where someone asked a very similar question. One of those suggestions may work for you. 152.16.59.190 06:01, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

most articles per population...

Which country has the most articles per population here on Wikipedia? 83.108.220.136 05:17, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It might be a bit hard to quantify what constitutes a particular country "having" a particular article. Can you clarify the question? If countries that no longer exist count, then I'd say they win by dint of having an infinite article-to-population ratio (>1 articles, 0 population). If you meant which language Wikipedia has the most articles per native speakers, I'll let you do the mathematics. FiggyBee 05:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

To do the maths, one also needs to know the number of native speakers per language, info that that link does not provide. But this one does: List of languages by number of native speakers. So now we can do the maths. I suppose it's a matter of comparing the top of the first list to the bottom of the second list. Here's a list of nominees, starting with the least spoken languages, in terms of people per article (which gives whole numbers, which is easier to read) (figures are rounded):

• Icelandic: 300,000 / 17,000 = 17
• Norwegian: 4,700,000 / 134,000 = 35
• Frisian: 600,000 / 5,600 = 107
• Welch: 750,000 / 12,000 = 62
• Irish: 1,700,000 / 5,400 = 315
• Slovenian: 2,000,000 / 53,000 = 38
• Latvian: 2,500,000 / 11,000 = 227
• Lithuanian: 4,000,000 / 55,000 = 73
• Galician: 4,000,000 / 28,000 = 143
• Finnish: 6,100,000 / 135,000 = 45
• Danish: 5,300,000 / 70,000 = 76
• Hebrew: 5,200,000 / 64,000 = 81
• Swedish: 9,000,000 / 254,000 = 35
• Dutch: 20,000,000 / 370,000 = 54
• Polish: 50,000,000 / 430,000 = 116
• French: 70,000,000 / 570,000 = 123
• German: 100,000,000 / 650,000 = 154
• Japanese: 125,000,000 / 420,000 = 300
• Russian: 150,000,000 / 200,000 = 750
• Portuguese: 175,000,000 / 290,000 = 600
• English: 310,000,000 / 2,000,000 = 155
• Spanish: 320,000,000 / 285,000 = 1100

And the winners are (top 10):

• Icelandic: 300,000 / 17,000 = 17
• Norwegian: 4,700,000 / 134,000 = 35
• Swedish: 9,000,000 / 254,000 = 35
• Slovenian: 2,000,000 / 53,000 = 38
• Finnish: 6,100,000 / 135,000 = 45
• Dutch: 20,000,000 / 370,000 = 54
• Welch: 750,000 / 12,000 = 62
• Lithuanian: 4,000,000 / 55,000 = 73
• Danish: 5,300,000 / 70,000 = 76
• Hebrew: 5,200,000 / 64,000 = 81

Note that the big languages don't do well at all. Especially English is rather a disappointment because there are bound to be relatively many more non-native-speaking contributors. And conversely, especially Dutch speakers will often put more time into the English than the Dutch Wikipedia, like I do, so that may keep the Dutch Wikipedia out of the top three, although Icelandic will be very hard to beat. Of course there could also be some tiny regional language that happens to have a fervent following and can thus easily get to the top of the list. I rather expected Frisian to be higher on the list. I didn't count constructed languages like Esperanto and Volapük (the latter of which, surprisingly, has more articles - I had never heard of it).

Of course, the number of articles is just a vague indicator. A specific Wikipedia could have loads of stubs, and I suppose that that will be more the case for the smaller languages. Alas the list does not give the size in bytes of the Wikipedias (just text, not images), which would be a better indicator (depending on what you're interested in, of course). DirkvdM 09:06, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It's a shame that the question excludes Latin (pace all those who think it's spoken in Latin America - is that a Jade Goody?) Are there any reliable stats on how many Latin "speakers" (!) there are in the world today? --Dweller 09:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

*cough* I actually hid a link to that article behind "the mathematics". :) FiggyBee 09:27, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

<confused> I don't see any reference to Latin in that article? --Dweller 10:03, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, that was meant in reply to DirkvdM ("one also needs to know the number of native speakers per language, info that that link does not provide. But this one does: List of languages by number of native speakers."). FiggyBee 14:35, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Some of the small languages will beat Icelandic. For example, Scottish Gaelic has 4,500 articles and only 60,000 native speakers - equalling 7.5 speakers per article. Warofdreams talk 10:27, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

*cough* *cough* Forgive me, FiggyBee, as a contributor to Vicipaedia I can't help wondering whether Latin would have been the winner if it hadn't been <<hidden behind the mathematics>>? It isn't excluded by the question, as the Vatican City (with an official population in 2000 of 783) has Latin as its official language. Xn4 11:13, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there some virus going around? DirkvdM 18:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

But far more people speak/read/write Latin than the population of Vatical City, so that would be a pretty misleading statistic, especially since the likelihood of those Wikipedia editors actually being residents of Vatican City is pretty low. More likely they are people who took Latin in school. --24.147.86.187 13:07, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The premise FiggyBee went with for all countries has similar flaws. There are plenty of people in every country who edit other language Wikipedias. It's a flawed premise, obviously. --Dweller 13:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The same goes for English, like I said. Probably about half the contributors to the English Wikipedia are not native speakers. DirkvdM 18:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I can't help wondering why, if we're discussing articles per (head of) population, all of the calculations are population to article? --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:12, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, 'articles per person' would be better English. Xn4 11:14, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Why would that be better English? There's nothing wrong with the grammar, is there? And anyway, it's really mathematics. We just have to make do with whatever bloody natural language we happen to be speaking. DirkvdM 18:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It's a shame we don't still have the Klingon wikipedia (now it's at klingon.wikia.com - since there are most definitely zero native speakers and there were quite a few articles, we could have enjoyed watching DirkvdM trying to divide by zero! Arguably, the Esperanto Wiki also has an infinite article-to-native-speaker ratio. :-( SteveBaker 14:10, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

∞. DirkvdM 18:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Like I said, 'capita per article' gives whole numbers, which are easier to read. It's the same thing, basically. You guys should really read what I write so we don't have to cover the same ground again. :) DirkvdM 18:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Car junkyards (or lack thereof)

In the US they have car junkyards, but I can't remember having seen one here in the Netherlands. Nor anywhere else, for that matter, and I've traveled around a bit. One would expect to find these along railroad tracks (where other junkyards are often found), and I travel a lot by train. Where are those car junkyards? Or alternatively, where do the dead cars go? Are they buried so they can go to heaven? :) Or are the cars dismantled and melted down straight away or something? DirkvdM 06:16, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I've seen car junkyards in various nations. Just look where land is cheap.

From Japan, ailing cars go to Russia, and I believe (without bothering to look it up) that elderly, high-polluting buses, with the wrong left-right alignment (as Japan drives on the left) are sent to Vietnam and such countries, and are touted by the Japanese government as "overseas development aid". I guess that a lot of cars and buses go from rich countries to poor ones. -- Hoary 09:24, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

So if there are no junk yards in the Netherlands, do you buy all your car parts new? Dismas|^(talk) 09:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

There are hundreds in the UK. Most towns of more than about ten or fifteen thousand people are likely to have at least one, but we call them scrapyards. There are also a few long-established ones in the countryside, but planning controls (what some countries call 'zoning') generally stop new ones from starting outside 'employment areas' for light industry. On your "where do the dead cars go?", I've heard that a lot of dead British cars go to China. Xn4 10:55, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Plenty in France, too.90.14.18.179 13:25, 8 October 2007 (UTC)petitmichel

In the Netherlands, they seem to be called autosloperijen or autodemontagebedrijven. In Rotterdam, for example, there are a couple of clusters of them on the northern edge of the city. One such cluster is in Hoofdweg, Nikkelstraat, and Chroomstraat in the 3067 postal code. Another smaller cluster is in Gilze-Rijenstraat and Volkelstraat in the 3045 postal code. Marco polo 13:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Whilst scrapheaps/junkyards are an eyesore - they do perform a valuable function in recycling. Perfectly good parts still exist in wrecked or worn-out cars. It's ridiculous to buy (for example) a new starter motor when you can get a virtually new one from a year old car that got smashed in an accident. For some parts like gearboxes - you can save a small fortune by checking out some junkyards before considering a new transmission. The trick is to call them "Automotive recycling specialists" - then it seems so much nicer! SteveBaker 14:02, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Dismas gave me a thought. I don't own a car, but afaik hardly anyone repairs their car themselves. They take it to the garage, and maybe they've got their own network or indeed they only use new parts, which may be cheaper in the end. Hobbyists don't count the hours they spend on something, but professionals have to. So either they put a lot of effort into it or they have to make the customer wait for days until the part arrives. So maybe only 'hobbyists' would be interested in old parts. And there's a whole lot more of those in the US. Dutch cars aren't 'pimped' or something. That's something that struck me in the US - no-one leaves a car the way they buy it, like the Dutch do. They always alter something about it. Are US junkyards maybe used mostly for that purpose? DirkvdM 18:27, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Functionality of wedge in NASCAR in detail

For building up the NASCAR section in de.wp, we created a list describing the most common terms and techniques in NASCAR, but now I got a bit confused how the wedge works in detail since the information that can be found on nascar.com is some kind of fuzzy and every other page describes it in some other way, even increasing confusion. Since on en.wp are presumably a lot of more experts in NASCAR, I try to get an answer here. :)

I know wedge describes the crossweight distribution of the car's weight in terms of how much weight is on the right front and left rear wheel. So when I increase the wedge, more weight is transferred to the mentioned wheels and the car is loosing up, because the right rear wheel gets less pressure because of less weight and therefor less grip, right? But now the thing I get confused of: I can make a change to the wedge by changing pressure on the spring on either side. When I put the ratchet in on the right and I want to add a turn of wedge (increasing weight on right front and left rear), do I put pressure on the spring or release pressure? As far as I know, I would release pressure so the car gets down there and the height on the left rear increases in relation to the right rear. And because it gets relatively higher on left rear, it has more weight to carry. To get the same effect when changing on the left side, I have to do it vice versa. Is this correct? --STBR – !? 09:58, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm not really an expert on this, but this part of an article seems to explain it pretty well:

"If the driver says that the car is loose in the gas exiting the corner, we’ll put the wedge wrench in a jack bolt in the left-rear window. When you screw down on that left-rear spring, it puts pressure on it and tightens up the car in the gas. If the car is too tight, we go to the right side of the car with the wedge wrench and make the adjustment there. The wedge adjustment changes the load that the springs carry," said McGee.

So when they put a round of wedge in (in the back), it puts more pressure on that spring. That makes sense, since if the car is loose, you want more pressure on the back tires so they grip better. They don't go into what effect ride height has on it, but I don't think that is as important as how the weight is distributed between the four tires. Recury 19:40, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I know that article - and it's one of them confusing me, because in this video NASCAR says when they want to tighten up the car, they take wedge out meaning the car gets more weight at the front left and right rear. According to the article, they put pressure on the left rear spring. Remembering my knowledge in physics, the car should raise a little bit in that corner in relation to the right rear. Because of that it should get more weight on the diagonal right front - left rear, and that is as the video says adding wedge and loosing up the car - the complete opposite. Because of that I ask here what to do with the right rear spring when adding wedge: Do I put pressure on it or do I release it? --STBR – !? 20:52, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

motorway measurements

Where can I find size specifications and averages for UK motorways (i.e. width of lanes, overall width, distance between lights, height of bridges and all these other things)? Keria 15:37, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

From pictures the lanes look like they are about 11 feet/3.6 meters wide. Keria 17:43, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Tough question. After a bit of googling, I found lots of stuff about Mancunian Way - there's lots of measurements, but not really the ones you are after, but this agrees with 11 feet. The google cache of a Highways Agency page mentions that 3.65m lanes are standard in the UK, but says that 3.5m is common in other countries and has been trialled in the UK with no loss of safety. For the height of bridges, this Mercedes-Benz page says that the standard height is 5m. Bistromathic 21:15, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

eclipse

Why eclipses are somtimes partial and sometimes total? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pjcnic (talk • contribs) 15:40, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The absolute shadow (the umbra) that the moon casts on the Earth is quite small; you're more likely to be on a part of the planet's surface that is only in the path of the partial shadow (the penumbra) or, even more likely, entirely outside of the path of the shadow. Our solar eclipse article may help you further but here's a link to the Exploratorium that shows the Path of Totality for one recent eclipse [16] and here's more explanation [17].

Atlant 15:46, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Think first of a solar eclipse (when the moon is between earth and sun): Make a fist (that's the moon) - hold it 6" over your desk (that's the earth) - notice how some parts of the shadow around the edge are fuzzy (that's the 'penumbra') and some are solidly shadowed (that's the 'umbra'). If you were a teeny tiny person standing inside that shadow, then within the umbra, the fist/moon would be completely blocking out the sun - so no sunlight falls there and you are completely in shadow. If you are in the fuzzy 'penumbra' region then you can see some of the sun's disk - but not all of it because the moon is in the way - this is a 'partial' eclipse of the sun - because only part of the sun is covered. As the moon moves around the earth, and the earth spins, that shadow moves over the surface of the earth - so some people happen to be inside the umbra for a while - whilst others only get caught by the penumbra - and yet others see no eclipse at all. Because the shadow of the moon on the earth is fairly small - and the coincidence of earth/moon/sun happening to line up, total solar eclipses are quite rare - and the odds of you seeing one in your lifetime are not very large. Partial eclipses are just as rare - but your chances of seeing one when it happens is greater because the penumbra is larger than the umbra.

Secondly, we have the other type of eclipse - a lunar eclipse (when the earth is between sun and moon): Now, we are looking at the shadow cast by the earth onto the moon. In this case, we talk about a total eclipse as being when the moon is completely swallowed inside the earth's shadow (inside the umbra of the earths shadow in fact) - and a partial eclipse is if only part of the moon is covered by the shadow (either umbra or penumbra). Because the earth is much bigger than the moon, lunar eclipses are fairly common - and they are much more often total eclipses than solar eclipses are.

SteveBaker 16:21, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

It's a somewhat amazing coincidence that the apparent angular sizes of the Sun and the Moon from Earth are so close that their ranges overlap: that is, the about 11% variation in the Moon's distance from Earth is actually enough to sometimes make the Moon appear smaller and sometimes larger than the Sun. In fact, I believe Earth is the only place in the solar system where both total and annular eclipses by the same body can be seen. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:38, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Music Program

I remember seeing a while ago a program that could compose music digitally - that is, it had a library of different instruments playing each note, and an editing system that allowed you to compose sheet music for it to render into a sound file. Any idea where I could find something like that? Black Carrot 15:55, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

You mean something like a music sequencer? —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:17, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Salt water gargle

Why does gargling salt water help soothe the pain of a sore throat? -- noosphere 16:53, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

This is addressed in the article Gargling. --LarryMac | Talk 19:43, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I believe it may; I gargle salt water and it helps though that may be phycological. The salt can kill bacteria which reduces the sore throat--Phoenix 15 19:46, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

I think it's more to do with the cooling action of the liquid. In my experience it makes no difference if you gargle with plain water or a saline solution. The article on gargling has some suspect science included in the text. There is a need to verify some of the claims made. The idea that an unspecified concentration of saline can remove liquid from the swollen tissues is frankly bad science. There is no evidence in my experience that a saline solution kills bacteria. Human blood is largely a saline solution and it gets infected. Richard Avery 19:55, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Genome

With the human genome being mapped out years ago, do they know which part of the strands make up the code for which part? For example do they know which part on strand x is for or to make the cells that makes up a person's heart or their hair or eyes and eye color. or is this still a mystery and if so when they use gene therapy to treat certain ailments how do they know which gene will make up insulin for example? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.120.230.80 (talk) 18:47, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

They know what bits of dna do what; see Gene and Introduction to genetics--Phoenix 15 19:42, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

• • We know what some bits of DNA do, but I don't think it's fair to say that the human genome is completely understood -- in fact, the purpose of over 80% of our DNA is still being battled over. --M@rēino 21:48, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

But, do they know or have identified some genes and what those genes do if they have practiced gene therapy or is that incorrect?

movies

Was Jester Hairston work in "Lilies of the field"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.40.140.38 (talk) 20:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Jewellery

I would like to know the correct name for a person who re-strings beads - I think it may be French and begin with a 'P'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.84.141 (talk) 21:17, 8 October 2007 (UTC)