The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
This would probably be best answered by your Mathematics and Applications 1 (H) professor. Falconusptc 04:21, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Too bad I don't do Mathematics and Applications 1 (H) yet :P ––Wikinv (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You can still ask the relevant lecturer. Or you can try and find some past papers and read the instructions on the front (some unis publish past papers, some don't). --Tango (talk) 16:38, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Exams finished at the ANU last week. Why would you still want to know this? My exams are long marked and final marks entered. Steewi (talk) 23:33, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Edit - Just read the other responses. The ANU examinations timetable shows that the permitted materials did not include a calculator. Steewi (talk) 23:37, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Catmose College (CC)
Can someone help me add references for the article? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rmp99 (talk • contribs) 05:19, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If the OP wants help finding the references, then we are the right place. --Tango (talk) 16:39, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, I though they wanted help actually adding the references to the article that they've already got. Sorry. Chevymontecarlo - alt 12:13, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Any country in the world who has more than one name?
Is there any country in the world who has more than one name. For example India has got three names
1. BHARAT
2. HINDUSTAN
3. INDIA
I think you'll find that the name (in English) of Ireland, the sovereign state, is simply "Ireland". "Republic of Ireland" is a widely/often/sometimes used description, but not a name. As you might imagine, this leads to a considerable amount of discussion on various talk pages, like Talk:Ireland, and Talk:British Isles. Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:39, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Wait, are you saying that Ireland is the so-called "long name" of the country? The way Republic of France is the long name of France and Kingdom of Sweden is of Sweden? That would strike me as odd, given that Ireland is also the name of the island. Or is this a deliberate political choice, asserting sovereignty over the entire island? --Trovatore (talk) 10:01, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, the actual long name of France, translated into English, is actually French Republic. --Anonymous, 03:40 UTC, July 1, 2010.
List of alternative country names gives you a complete list - but includes antiquated and unofficial names, as well as those used for official purposes. Countries whose official names in English differ wholly from the official name used by the state's government (that is, with a wholly different derivation) include Albania (Shqipëria), Germany (Deutschland), Greece (Hellas), Hungary (Magyarország), and Montenegro (Crna Gora). And (depending on your definition of "country"), Wales (Cymru). Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:53, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply] Also Egypt (Miṣr). Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:06, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That list shows Switzerland, which has five official names (in French, German, Italian, Latin and Romansh), all of which differ from the name in English. Warofdreamstalk 09:11, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Obviously, many many countries have native names which differ from their names in English, simply because they use different languages - but Schweiz / Suisse etc. have the same derivation as the word "Switzerland" (as do (for example) Sweden / Sverige, Croatia / Hrvatska, etc. etc.) so I didn't include it in my list. Switzerland is also interesting because, in some official uses such as postage stamps, it uses the Latin name Helvetia. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:51, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
United States of America, US, the States, America, the US, the United States, USA.
China, PRC, People’s Republic of China, Zhonghua Renmin Gonghe Guo.
I think there's a difference between a country that has different names in different languages(every country will have that) and one that has different official names. Let's not forget Burma which according to its government is called Myanmar-and here the choice of name does have some political slant-because the government officially has named it Myanmar,using that name shows some support of them.The UK still uses Burma,implying a tacit non-recognition of the government. Lemon martini (talk) 21:10, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
North Koreans call Korea "Choson" and South Koreans call it "Hanguk." These aren't names for "North Korea" or "South Korea" -- they are different names for the entire peninsula. The Czech Republic has been trying to get other countries to call it "Czechia," with varying levels of success. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:22, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ah that goes some way to explaining the North Korean manager's rather odd comments at the World Cup-when asked if he'd seen the South Korean team's game the previous day,he replied 'The only official name of our team is the Korean Democratic People's Republic-please do not use any other name when referring to it' and the poor interviewer trying to convey that he was not referring to his team,but another country's altogether. Lemon martini (talk) 10:20, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I prefer "Czechia" to "Czech Republic" despite 837,000 versus 299,000,000 Google results.—Wavelength (talk) 23:29, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The "satellite" view of Google Maps has very good resolution in Sydney, and the "Street View" function (drag the yellow peg man onto the map) will let you see how many lanes any street has. Any particular street you were thinking about?--Shantavira|feed me 09:06, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Google maps also has a nice measuring tool, though I don't know quite how good the resolution is, I have never tried measuring something that small. I will try it with my car later today. Googlemeister (talk) 13:26, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You're going to measure your car with Google Maps? Were you lucky enough to find your car pictured on GM? Dismas|(talk) 22:46, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes I can see my car in Google Earth (Why did I say Google Maps???). It is not difficult, because I park in the same location at work every day, and my car is the only one of that color at my workplace. So, it wasn't that tough to guess where my car probably was. Googlemeister (talk) 14:11, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No, I think he's going to measure some street widths with his car. Me, I'd use a tape measure. :)
One thing to bear in mind is that, from my knowledge of Sydney, street widths vary quite considerably. It's been growing steadily since 1788, when ideas about street widths would have been somewhat different to ours of today. The Sydney conurbation (which is a moving feast in itself) has for a very long time been split between a large number of different councils, who would undoubtedly have different rules about such matters. The state government would also have a stake in determining the characteristics of major thoroughfares that pass through Sydney. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 03:44, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Google earth was able to measure my car to within 1/8 feet (around 0.5%), so it would work well to measure a street width if you don't mind if you are off a couple of cm. Googlemeister (talk) 15:05, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
WHAT IS CONFLICT?WHAT ARE THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES OF CONFLICT IN INDUSTRY?SUGGEST MEASURES TO REDUCE CONFLICT IN AN ORGANIZATION. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.232.17 (talk) 14:52, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 15:05, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Also, please do not type in ALL CAPITALS - it is considered "shouting" and therefore rude. You might also consider saying "please" when asking for help. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 15:07, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Are there any websites (or other sources of information) that give estimates of the "going rate" for renting or leasing commercial property? In other words, if I were to rent out (or to rent) commercial property, I would not know if the rate were too high or too low or just about right. And I assume there must be some type of "industry standard" for this type of matter. Example: As a general rule, commercial property located in Hartford, CT, should expect to be leased at about $10 per square foot. Or whatever. Something along those lines. There must be some industry standard expectation rates, I would imagine. Does anyone know anything about this ... or can direct me to any good websites or other sources of information? Thanks. (64.252.65.146 (talk) 16:22, 30 June 2010 (UTC))[reply]
There is indeed a going rate, in any particular area, but it's all really local and dependent on the property itself and its amenities: is this a AAA full-service office space on the 20th floor of a downtown office tower, or is it a NNN lease in a run-down business park on the bad side of town? If you really want to search online you could google commercial real estate, but if you are the renter, you are going to want to talk to a commercial real estate broker. It costs you nothing; the landlord ends up paying the broker if you lease his property. The broker will chat with you over the phone about your budget and the square footage you need and other amenities you want, and he'll possibly prepare an "information packet" for you containing a dozen "sell sheets" of properties that seem close to what you're seeking; and he'll meet you at the properties of your choice so you can browse. Any decent broker will give you way more information than you can glean from browsing lease websites, IMO. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:28, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I am the landlord, in this case, not the tenant. The long and short of the matter is ... I'd rather not "hire" and pay an agent for some basic general info that I can probably find out for myself and on my own. I already have a tenant in a lease, and we (the tenant and I) are simply renewing the lease. Any suggestions? Thanks. (64.252.65.146 (talk) 18:22, 30 June 2010 (UTC))[reply]
Well couldn't you tell the agent that you are looking to rent a space with specifications very similar to what you have and find out what similar landlords are charging? Googlemeister (talk) 20:15, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
He could, but that's rather abusive of the broker, who is acting in good faith. It would of course be fine if you honestly told the broker you're a landlord and not looking to engage his services but are interested in the comps. Sorry, original poster, my experience is on the other side of the table from yours, so I don't know of a great resource for landlords to compare prices. The commercial landlords I know do seem to know the names and locations and conditions of the other office properties in the neighborhood, and how they compare to the landlord's own property; so maybe they all do the underhanded thing that Googlemeister suggested (although I assume the brokers would then get to know their faces really fast) — or maybe there's a Secret Landlord's Club. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:29, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It really wouldn't be all that different from going to a couple of different car dealerships and asking them to show you the model and tell you about the features and the price. Googlemeister (talk) 18:44, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Related question
Perhaps a better way to phrase the above question might be this. Where can I find the going commercial "reasonable rates" (i.e., in percentage terms) of an increase in rent from year to year? In other words ... regardless of the initial base rental price ... rents are generally expected to increase by XX percent per year. Is this type of information readily available on the interent or at any particular websites? Thank you! (64.252.65.146 (talk) 18:32, 30 June 2010 (UTC))[reply]
Thanks to all for the input. Much appreciated! Thank you. (64.252.65.146 (talk) 18:57, 3 July 2010 (UTC))[reply]
Cheating in South Asia
Only around 2% of Wikipedia traffic comes from India & Pakistan, but I've noticed that many/most of the "do my homework for me" posts come from those nations. I speculate that there's a different cultural view on behavior that a Westerner like me considers "cheating", perhaps based on the greater stakes of living in a country with a lesser social safety net, but does anyone happen to have any solid data on this phenomenon? Thanks. --Sean 19:27, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
First, I do not think that most of our homework questions come from South Asia. Second, if those questions come disproportionately from that region, it may reflect something like desperation. I have in my head an image of a university student with a full-time, low-wage job, desperate to escape from his dead-end existence, but without sufficient time to devote to his studies. Marco polo (talk) 20:18, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
When I've taught at various universities, I have definitely heard people say that Chinese immigrants in particular have a very different conception of what counts as "cheating" than Western students, and that one often had to re-stress to them exactly what counts as "copying" or "plagiarism" and so on. I don't know if that is backed up by empirical facts or not, and my own experience is not broad enough to draw any conclusions. Similarly I doubt the sample size of Ref Desk questions is probably not large enough to use to draw any conclusions either. It seems plausible to me that different cultures would have different standards for this sort of thing. Professors I've had in the past recounted that growing up in the USSR in the 1960s and 1970s, that cheating was considered fairly obvious and not shameful, and part of the pedagogical culture of Soviet classrooms from very early on. Again, just anecdotes, no data. But the American "standard" for what constitutes creativity, proper citation, and so on, is certainly not transcendental (or even transhistorical), and is itself fairly slippery on a number of points (e.g. the entire culture of "gaming" standardized tests, which almost all recognize as undermining the entire point of testing, but is near-universally regarded as "necessary" if one wants to get ahead in life). --Mr.98 (talk) 21:23, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yet to reach this stage of life and etc. I'm just a student of life.
2nd guessing myself now if I should have looked into other media along those lines. To see if there was something more/much more cheaper then resubscribing to here (MTM). At the same time already tried most of the all other media before landing here. Found the other media are good in areas, but lacking in areas. Which I found that MT and MTC are good in areas and not lacking in areas. Still think I should have looked into another media besides here before deciding to resubscribing to MTM. Also, have resubscribed to 2 other meida that I used to get as well. Don't worry they aren't in this subject/s, but other subjects.
The--Jessica A Bruno 22:04, 1 July 2010 (UTC) Wikipedia article Home birth may be of interest. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:16, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for trying, but it wasn't what I was looking for.--Jessica A Bruno 22:02, 1 July 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mybodymyself (talk • contribs)
Cell Phone Explosion?
Is it true that cell phones can explode if left on the charger too long, or is this an urban myth like allegators in the sewer system (at least outside of Florida? If so, do I have time to overcharge it before the Forth of July? Rebele | Talk The only way to win the game is to not play the game. 20:05, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would hope that if this scenario were possible with the standard cell phone charger that there would have been a recall, or at least a nice big warning label. That said, I suppose if the charger was faulty and the phone was in a hazardous location, it might start melting and cause an explosion. Googlemeister (talk) 20:13, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see anything in the Snopes page about phones expolding simply because they were left charging too long. Rmhermen (talk) 21:18, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Lithium batteries are dangerous because they can easily heat up and catch fire; however the chargers and batteries include circuitry to prevent this by limiting currents, preventing over-charging, and cooling the battery. Lithium-ion_battery#Safety_requirements describes. So they won't usually catch fire if left on a charger because the charger or battery will cut the current; however if there is a fault (or if vents are covered) they can get very hot, and lithium is very flammable. More information at [1][2][3][4][5][6]. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.41.14.1 (talk) 22:41, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Congratulations Senor Castro, you've just won a brand new special edition iPhone! Clarityfiend (talk) 03:36, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I just googled "exploding iphone" without the quotes. News reports of injuries and photos of very sad phones. --Psud (talk) 09:42, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Seems to me there used to be warnings about not overcharging. Haven't seen any lately, so it's probably as stated above, that recent devices have circuitry to prevent it. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 12:44, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"batteries include circuitry to prevent this by limiting currents". I have to add that original batteries from serious companies which care about their reputation include this circuity. There is no guarantee that any manufactured will include it.--Mr.K.(talk) 11:49, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
gmt
I'm scheduled for an online interview. I live in Kenya and the interview is slated for July 1, 2010 8:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. So in Kenya what time is it. Please just tell me the answer, I've heard enough people tell me to Google it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.212.91.149 (talk) 21:14, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Plenty of time zone converter services are easily found on the internet; here's one. 2030 EST would be 0430 the following day in Nairobi. Note, however, that the US (if that's the target destination) is presently on daylight savings time, and EST is not commonly in use at present. I recommend double-checking the relevant time. — Lomn 21:20, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) Yup, 04:30:00 a.m. Friday July 2. --Tagishsimon(talk) 21:23, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Warning: In my experience, many people in America thoughtlessly use the terms "EST" and "PST" for "Eastern time" and "Pacific time", respectively, whether the country is currently on Standard Time or Daylight Time. "EDT" and "PDT" are really never seen ... again, in my WP:OR personal experience. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:16, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, if the place is in the US or Canada, and someone is saying EST for that date then it is almost certainly an error for EDT. Which means the time you want is one hour earlier -- 03:30 Friday morning in Kenya. Good luck with the interview. --Anonymous, 03:46 UTC, July 1, 2010.
It's not necessarily an error. Standard time, q.v., refers to time made standard (synchronized) across a time zone, not necessarily to non-daylight-savings time. I'm not sure whether Eastern Standard Time can proper refer to this also, but I'd guess so. (Another thing. I wonder whether any parts of Indiana are still keeping winter time in the summer. Then EST can actually mean what it normally does here. :-) )—msh210℠ 06:41, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No. Eastern Standard Time is never correctly used to mean Eastern Daylight Time, even if we're currently in daylight saving time. Eastern Standard Time (the US version, not Australian) means GMT-5, period. Using it to mean GMT-4 is absolutely an error. A sufficiently common one that you do have to be careful about it. --Trovatore (talk) 09:25, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If this were WP:RDL, I'd mention that sufficiently common errors, if they remain so for long enough, are actually correct. But it's not, so I won't. :-) —msh210℠ 16:00, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
True. But it does (and should) take quite a long time. As Bertrand Russell said, we can't prevent linguistic change, but we can drag our feet.
In this case it's a particularly insidious change that needs to be guarded against. As you noted, until recently parts of Indiana were on Eastern Standard Time even in the summer, and still most of Arizona is on Mountain Standard Time year-round. If the proper distinction here were elided, there would be no clear way to express that. --Trovatore (talk) 16:28, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Eastern Standard Time may also refer to Australian Eastern Standard Time, which is GMT+10. Steewi (talk) 23:41, 30 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think you need to contact your interviewer and ask whether they really meant Eastern Standard Time (EST) in the U.S., which is not being observed in the Eastern Time Zone (US) at this time of year, or whether they instead meant Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (US), which is being observed at this time of year. If they really meant EDT, then the interview is at 3:30 am on July 2 in Kenya. If they really meant EST, then the interview is at 4:30 am on July 2 in Kenya. If they really meant Australian Eastern Standard Time, then the interview is at 1:30 pm today (July 1) in Kenya. Marco polo (talk) 13:46, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I'm not sure it's a great idea to call attention to an employer's usage error before even getting the job. What I would do is be ready to go at 3:30, which as Tuttle and Lomn say is quite likely the intended time. Then if it turns out no one's yet in the office, you've got an extra hour to relax a little bit. But that probably won't happen — I can't think of a reason a (say) New York office would quote a time in (genuine) Eastern Standard Time in July; that would just be weird. --Trovatore (talk) 18:37, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
July 1
Star Spangled Banner -- Music question
With a range of one and a half octaves, it is known for being difficult to sing.
I don't understand any musical jargon but am interested in knowing what this means in reference to the Star Spangled Banner (copied from the second paragraph). Reading the octave article doesn't help me, because in addition to now not understanding what octave means, I have the added difficulty of interval, pitch and frequency. I understand that frequency is the number of sine waves within a given length of rope, but I don't know how that physics-lab sort of definition necessarily plays into music. If someone could please explain in complete and utter non-musical-jargon (or at least define jargon words exceedingly well when used) what it means that the Star Spangled Banner ranges in one and a half octaves and explain which words are the ones that go to the varying ranges (I do know the tune). Thanx. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs) 03:00, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One and a half octaves is about the limit an untrained voice can sing. Unfortunately, unless the pitch range of the song as sung on any given occasion exactly matches the pitch range of your voice, it will be tough to sing.
The lowest note in SSB is the third note, on "say"; the highest, an octave and a half up, is on "red glare". Antandrus (talk) 03:07, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
To be honest, defining words such as "interval" and "pitch" are difficult to describe non-musically. (I'll tell you straight-out that few musicians use the word "frequency" when describing a song - that's really more a scientific thing." But I can describe it in terms of the song. In "The Star-Spangled Banner," an octave is the distance note-wise between the words "say" and "see" in the first line. The distance between the very first word of the song, "Oh," and "red glare" is also an octave. (Timing doesn't matter here - I'm talking just about the sound of the notes.) As Antandrus mentioned above the average untrained voice can only sing a maximum range of one and a half octaves - about the distance between the words "say" and "red glare" in that song. Which means that for an untrained singer this song may start on notes which are about in the middle of their able singing range and end up—when we get to the "rocket's red glare" bit—higher than the person can sing. Hope this explanation helps. Ryankiefer (talk) 03:27, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Layout of a musical keyboard (three octaves shown)The Green square is the Middle C (C4) and the Blue square is the High C (C6), which is the typical 2-octave vocal range for a soprano. The Red squares show Maria Callas's vocal range in performance, going from F-sharp (F#3) below Middle C to E-natural (E6) above High C. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 20:04, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply] Frequency is indeed the number of sine waves within a given length of rope if you are wiggling the end of a rope. Think of sound as sending wiggles through the air. The frequency is the number of wiggles that go into your ear every second. Actually the "wiggles" are pressure variations. The whole range of sound frequencies is 20 to 15 000 cycles (wiggles) per second. Only a few ears can hear the lowest and highest ends of that range. No singer can make their vocal chords vibrate at all these frequencies. Most people can manage an octave range which is best understood if a piano is available, see image. Play the lowest (leftmost) note C, then play the next C, then the next C. Each repetition of C is an octave apart. In terms of frequency an octave increase means doubling the frequency. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 09:59, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
For context about how difficult it is to sing more than an octave and a half, while of course you'd expect many professional singers to be able to exceed the norm, the singer Cyndi Lauper is renowned for being able to sing four octaves. This factoid, referenced, is mentioned in our article about her. It's truly astonishing. I've not heard of anyone who has been cited as being able to sing more than four, but I await the next post in this thread... --Dweller (talk) 10:13, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Four octaves [citation needed]is reasonably common among professional opera singers, I think. I suspect this is partly training but mostly selection. --Trovatore (talk) 16:33, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry to disappoint, but I'm here to witter a bit about the nature of conceptual confusion. I find your (the OP's) situation fascinating, because I frequently encounter similar situations when reading about unfamiliar subjects - it frequently happens that the next article in my quest to understand things just introduces more jargon and makes things worse. This usually happens to me in mathematics, though, not music, and not only does the concept of "a range of one and a half octaves" present zero difficulty to me, I also find it hard to see why it troubled the you. (I mention this purely out of interest, and am not trying to call you an idiot or anything.) It's as if you don't understand what it means for a note to be higher or lower than another note. Is that really the case? If you do in fact have that much background knowledge, then I can tell you the highness or lowness of a note is what pitch is, and the "range" referred to is between the highest and lowest notes in the song. Not meaning to be rude or nosy, but I wonder where the gap in the chain of connected concepts was, for you? Perhaps you hadn't connected "octave" to "musical note"? In such situations I usually find the answer is a frustratingly simple conceptual connection which it just hadn't occurred to any editor to put into any of the articles. Yet I suppose there are unmanageably many such connections, and we can't put them all in ... 213.122.39.120 (talk) 10:22, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure anyone's really answered your question, so I'll have a go. Musical notes are given a letter of the alphabet as a name, and there are seven identified whole notes (see later for this) - a b c d e f and g. b is higher than a, c is higher than b and so forth. If you sing or play your way up from a to g and then sing one note higher, you get back to an a - but one that's obviously higher. Musically, it's said to be an octave higher than the original a. I believe it's named like this since there are 8 notes between the lower a and the upper a, and octave comes from the Latin for 8. Scientifically, the upper a is twice the frequency of the lower a - that is to say, whatever causes the note (e.g. your vocal chords) is oscillating twice a fast for the higher note. Notes an octave higher are always twice the frequency of the lower note.
Most trained male singers will have a vocal range of 2 octaves or so - females can generally do more, but untrained singers often quite a lot less. So we see that trained singers could cope with the 1 1/2 octave range of the US anthem, providing it starts and finishes in the right place, but untrained singers would struggle.
I mentioned whole notes above. I was slightly inaccurate in what I said. When we write music we use the letters a to g to name the notes, but confusingly there's not the same distance between them. From a to b is a whole note (it would normally be called a tone), but from b to c is half as big a jump (called a semitone). So from a to b the jump of a tone could also be viewed as a jump of 2 semitones. Because the scale from lower a to upper a has a variety of jumps, some whole tones and some semitones, in fact the most accurate description of an octave is as 12 semitones. So it really should be called a duodecave if we count the semitones, or perhaps a sextave if we count the tones. But we don't we count the notes and there are 8 and so it's an octave. HTH. --Phil Holmes (talk) 12:33, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps it would help to point out a commonly heard interval? The first two tones in "Somewhere over the Rainbow" ("Some-where") are one octave apart. APL (talk) 15:33, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(ec)Not an explanation, but a note of sympathy. I am hopelessly blank on most musical concepts and jargon. I think Phil did a great job until perhaps the last couple of sentences where I could get the gist of things in the same manner in which I can sometimes understand a foreign language by spotting a couple of words that look familiar :-). The OP may be interested in our article on amusia (a term to describe an inability to "get" music, encompassing tone deafness and other concepts), which mentions that around 4% of people may have the same inability. I don't know whether I meet the technical definition, but it was food for thought for me and may be for you as well. Matt Deres (talk) 17:07, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Let me try. OP, do you know the song Do-Re-Mi? Can you sing " Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do"? This, from the first do to the last do, is an octave. Now I add 4 higher notes to it. Sing "Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, re, mi, fa, so." This is a range of one and a half octaves. OK? Then try to sing "do, re". I think it is easy because "re" is the next note to "do". To sing "do, so" might be a little bit difficult because "so" is not so close to "do". Sing "do (low) to do (high)" is more difficult because it's less closer. Star Spangled Banner uses lot of notes, meaning a wide range and the notes jump a lot, especially at "...(stream)-ing? And (the)." That is why it's a difficult song to sing. Mary Had a Little Lamb uses only five notes, "do, re, me, fa, and so". The range is about half an octave and narrow. The notes do not jump. That is why the song is easy to sing. Sing and compare these two and which do you think is difficult to sing? Hope my explanation would help. Oda Mari (talk) 07:37, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
An excellent approach. Start at "do" with as low as you can go, then start singing up the scale. I start in the baritone area and after 1 1/2 octaves I was getting into falsetto! ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 08:06, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In the page from my first and second external links above, Mary Had a Little Lamb uses only four notes in a range of five notes, and in the page from the third external link, the version uses only three notes. With the page from the fourth external link, you can play it with only three notes (F, G, and A): AGFGAAA GGG AAA AGFGAAA AGGAGF. (The other version can be played as follows: AGFGAAA GGG ACC AGFGAAA AGGAGF).—Wavelength (talk) 14:37, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry. I might be wrong, but the melody I thought was AGFGAAA GGG ACC AGFGAAA GBflatAGF (EDCDEEE DDD EGG EDCDEEE DFEDC in C). Oda Mari (talk) 15:39, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There can be different melodies with different transpositions (in different keys). Sometimes, a pair of quarter notes can be replaced by a three-eighths note and an eighth note, or vice versa.
[I am revising my message of 17:07, 2 July 2010 (UTC).—Wavelength (talk) 17:20, 2 July 2010 (UTC)][reply]
What does it mean when a song is in a certain key?
See the article Key (music). The octave is divided up to give 12 notes but a song usually uses only 8 of them. They are 8 notes to which one can sing "do-re-mi..." (called Solfège). It's possible to start singing "do" on any one of the 12 notes and the rest of the 8 will follow in the standard pattern. The song is said to be in the key of the note that is "do". The key of C is easy to play on a piano because it uses only the white notes. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 19:44, 6 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
1/2 ounce gold coins
I have noticed a large difference in the price of gold coins. Is it because of the % of 24 karat gold the u.s. mint used in producing them and how can I find out how pure a coin is? I have seen 1986 coins for sale at $250 and 1998 ones listed at $1400.184.0.110.238 (talk) 04:58, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
American Gold Eagle coins are 22 karat (91.67% pure) Are you sure you are comparing like with like on those prices? Gold eagles come in various sizes from 1/10 toz to 1 toz. Googlemeister (talk) 14:02, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Could you point us to an online source that has this kind of price discrepancy so we can take a look at what exactly is being compared? These are gold bullion coins which are priced based solely on their precious metal content and not on rarity or popularity of design, as are "normal" rare coins. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:14, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps one advert was for gold proof coins, minted to a higher standard with a mirror finish and sold at a considerable premium compared to normally-minted bullion coins. Dbfirs 21:19, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Payments on airplanes
Why do most airlines (in the US at least) now exclusively accept credit cards to pay for things in the air? It seems like it would take a lot more resources to process credit card information while flying than to accept cash. 70.162.12.102 (talk) 07:25, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Are you talking about duty free goods or things like food and drink? In any event, the answer is that airlines don't want the hassle of carrying cash around with them on the plane. It's liable to be pilfered and it's a pain to account for and to bank. --Viennese Waltztalk 07:34, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Credit cards take care of exchange rates. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 09:30, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Credit cards are more difficult for staff to defraud. --Dweller (talk) 10:08, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
True, but there are ways to control that. The story I've heard is that it's so the stews won't have to keep everyone waiting while they try to find change for larger bills. It's probably a bit of both. It could be a problem for someone with no credit cards, though. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 12:42, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Bugs. Are there folk who fly in planes yet don't have a credit card? Seems it would only affect very few. -- SGBailey (talk) 13:43, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The obvious workaround would be to have another passenger charge it and then pay them the 5 bucks. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 08:03, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If you consider international flights, it's probably not an inconsiderable number. In any case, if one only has cash, one just doesn't buy the overpriced sandwich (that we used to get for free)... --Mr.98 (talk) 15:18, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps because items are priced so outrageously on planes, you'd need a wheelbarrow of currency to pay for them. --Dweller (talk) 09:10, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
But the price they would charge you to take that wheelbarrow as a carryon would mean your wheelbarrow would be empty Googlemeister (talk) 15:02, 2 July 2010 (UTC) [reply]
Outdoor water heater/showers
Hi. I'm looking for information on the water-heater/showers people use when camping and outdoors etc. The way it works is that you heat a small tank of water with fire and the hot water flows up a pipe and through a small shower head. What are these things called? Thanks --Mudupie (talk) 10:15, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Camp shower seems the obvious term, but Google searches for that mostly turn up solar-heated camp showers (and illustrate quite conclusively that camp showers are used almost exclusively by young women in bikinis). Googling for fire heated camp shower brings up a number of hits, such as this one and this one. No idea how well they work, though; it seems like the kind of thing you'd have to be careful with in regards to the heat of the water. Matt Deres (talk) 13:24, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you Matt. I wanted to know what they are called so I could search for it. But your link above was exactly what I needed. --Mudupie (talk) 13:53, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Email from Wikipedia
I have created a new header for this question, which had none. Matt Deres (talk) 13:11, 1 July 2010 (UTC) [reply]
Hi,
I received the email below and did not create an account with you. Is someone using your name?
Thank you,
Jim
EMAIL:
From: wiki@wikimedia.org [7]
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 8:21 AM
To: <address removed>
Subject: Wikipedia e-mail address confirmation
Someone from the IP address 93.189.84.22 has registered the account "technical" with this e-mail address on the English Wikipedia.
To confirm that this user account really does belong to you and to activate e-mail features on Wikipedia, please open this URL in your browser:
<link removed>
If you did not recently register for Wikipedia (or if you registered with a different e-mail address),
click the following link to cancel the confirmation:
<link removed>
This confirmation e-mail will automatically expire at Thu, 1 Jul 2010 16:21:26 +0300
I'm not familiar with any email confirmations like that (and the help desk would be a better place to ask), but I note that your IP address geolocates to Cherry Valley, Illinois, while the IP address in the email geolocates to someplace in the Russian Federation. In any case, if you've never provided Wikipedia with your email address then obviously someone is spamming you for whatever reason. We don't send out unsolicited emails to random folks. Matt Deres (talk) 13:16, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Click "cancel" and move on. I removed your e-mail and the confirm/cancel links (which undermine the entire point of an e-mail confirmation). --Mr.98 (talk) 13:18, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Just delete the email and move on. It's phishing - the links don't lead to a Wikipedia address, they're harvesting live email addresses. I got one this morning too. Acroterion(talk) 13:24, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The links he posted were valid Wikipedia links, though of course there are all sorts of ways for those to be spoofed in the e-mail itself. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:09, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The links he posted were copied from the email: the embedded links in the actual email (which would not carry over from a copy/paste) would not appear here. If you hover the mouse over the links in the email, you will see where the actual links lead, which isn't to anything Wikimedia-related. Acroterion(talk) 15:20, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I started receiving these this morning, too. It's phishing. Perma-delete and move on. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:11, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
SAT Review?
What's your personal preference: Kaplan or Princeton Review?
The reference desk doesn't have personal preferences. We do facts, not opinions. Sorry. --Tango (talk) 16:23, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
... and I was confused about whether you were testing a tiger or a turbine? Dbfirs 06:55, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Cleaning Smelly shoes with Alcohol
I have smelly feet and wear boat shoes in the summer sockless. Needless to say, this creates some very nasty odours in these leather boat shoes. Am I correct in assuming that these odours are microbial in nature? If so, will I be able to eliminate the odours in the shoes by spraying the inside with a 70% alcohol spray? Will this damage the leather? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 18:05, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The odours are usually advertised as microbial. An alcohol spray may help, but I don't know if it will damage the leather. Most shoe-shops (and probably supermarkets) sell a shoe deodoriser. If you don't want to buy one of those specifically, it might help to know if they are alcohol based. Steewi (talk) 02:48, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Clean your feet first. Use deodorant. This one seems to be popular. Or use Sodium bicarbonate or Alum solution as your foot lotion. An alcohol spray for your shoes may help, but it won't last. Do not wear the same shoes every day. Give them at least one day to dry. Oda Mari (talk) 17:27, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Colour of house
Moses McKay House
What colour is the Moses McKay House, pictured here? I can't decide between white, a pale yellow, or a pale green, and my red/green colourblindness may be complicating matters here. Nyttend (talk) 20:01, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The brightly lit gable end looks, as near as one can tell without a colour-calibration of the camera, white. The shaded front has patches of light red and light green, both surely arising from the diffuse reflection of the trees and the porch roof. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:06, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Comparing the shadowed areas to the white on the recycling bin in the foreground, I'd describe it as cream-colored. Acroterion(talk) 20:15, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Acroterion, though I arrived at that by assuming the sill on the upstairs window was white; the siding is pretty clearly not as white as the sill is. Matt Deres (talk) 22:00, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Cream-colored, not pure white which would gleam in the sun. It could be worth a call to the house's caretaker to find out for sure. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 14:40, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Mysterious gentleman at Wimbledon Championships
For the past number of years I have watched, on television, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. I have come to notice each year the same gentleman 'minding' the players' family area. He is of senior years, has a smart Van Dyke beard, wears a blazer and a smart ?club tie, but most noticeably he wears a wide brimmed leather hat[8]. He sits at the entrance and always politely gets up if someone enters or leaves the pen. Who is this fine fellow? Does anyone have a link to him? Caesar's Daddy (talk) 21:35, 1 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Coincidence? Hmmm... I think not. hydnjo (talk) 02:26, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Wikipedia article gives a compelling explanation of the Pokemon name. The chemical distributor is probably named after someone specific. I would probably put that under "coincidence." I see no connection. The chemical company is not well-known enough to be a worthwhile reference. (If the Pokemon was named DuPonty, it would be a different story.) --Mr.98 (talk) 13:08, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I can find no obvious evidence of a connection. The Knizia-Strelow website simply says the company was founded by Mr Knizia and Mr Strelow in 1974 with no further biographical details. Various online interviews and biographies of Reiner Knizia don't mention a brother or father (or uncle) involved in an engineering company. A Google search revealed just 2 hits, both search/listing type of sites providing links to other sites. You might have better luck contacting them directly. It is worth pointing out that while Knizia is not that common as a name, these are not the only two people with that name. Astronaut (talk) 02:45, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Science? Humanities? Misc.
What is the evelutionary explanation for human hair? why does it continue to grow? How do beards fit into this? Thax —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.145.145 (talk) 00:11, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The explanation is that all mammals have hair, including humans. Why humans have thicker hair on top of their heads is still something of a debate, but it probably has something to do with minimizing both heat loss and overheating of the brain. Facial hair in men is most likely a secondary sex characteristic (i.e. something to advertise one's masculinity). Matt Deres (talk) 00:47, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The thickness of hair on the top of the head isn't particular unusual. What is unusual, as the OP mentions, is its length. Almost all other mammals (absolutely all?) have hair which is limited in its length, like that on parts of the human body other than the head, but hair on human heads can grow to an unlimited length. Our article suggests this is probably due to sexual selection as well. --Tango (talk) 03:23, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What's also pretty unusual is the difference in length between the hair on the top of our heads and the hair elsewhere on our bodies. Different mammals have different lengths of hair (including some nearly hairless ones), but it is generally a more-or-less uniform covering; there aren't any other mammals that I can think of that have very sparse hair over most of their body, but a big floppy mop on the top. Incidentally, human hair does not truly grow to an indefinite length, it will tend to fall out (and thus maintain its average length) at around waist length. Here's the Straight Dope on the matter: [9]. As for why humans are this way, I don't know, although Mr. Dere's explanation is at least plausible (that it minimizes heat loss where it's really important). Buddy431 (talk) 04:35, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A lion's mane is a different length to the rest of their hair. --Tango (talk) 14:15, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As is a horse's mane. --Tango (talk) 14:16, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There is an interesting theory of human evolution called the Aquatic ape hypothesis, which supposes that we spent part of our development up to our necks in water. This explains some radical differences between us and other apes, including our strange hair distribution. Apparently the direction of our body hair follows the flow line of water when we are swimming. Not everyone agrees with it[10] however. Alansplodge (talk) 17:11, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One explanation I've heard for male facial hair is that it masks facial expressions so as to conceal lying and other emotional leaks, although that theory has some inherent tension with the fact that facial expressions evolved at all. Shadowjams (talk) 06:53, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Wild West Saloon doors.
OK - so we've all seen the movies of cowboys and the saloons they visit. The entrance to the saloon always (at least in the movies) have those ornate little swing doors (our Western saloon article calls them "Bat wing doors") - they are about a foot off the ground and a few feet tall - so you can't lock them to keep people out (it would be easy to wiggle underneath them or climb over the top, they certainly don't shut out noise, dust, heat, rain, etc.
Did bat wing doors really exist - or are they just another odd Hollywood invention? If they really existed - then what was their purpose?
They most certainly do. And they were a standard fixture in office buildings, especially police stations in India during the Raj Jon Ascton (talk) 07:59, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Just some interesting reading here until someone can cite. hydnjo (talk) 02:22, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
no citations, sorry, but I will point out that a lot of 'Old West' conventions derive from French sources (France was considered a kind on cultural Mecca in the 19th century). Saloon is a corruption of salon, in the sense of a gathering place, and many of the accouterments of a saloon (pianos and musical entertainments, feather boas and can-can girls, and - so I suspect - those half-height swinging doors) were likely copied straight from cafes and salons on the streets of Paris (or reports thereof).
also - obviously - they would have had a solid door that swung shut over the decorative swinging doors when the saloon closed. That would have been tied open during business hours. --Ludwigs2 03:49, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My researches to date suggest that they mostly didn't close...but I agree that they probably had a way to have a solid door they could shut and lock as needed. SteveBaker (talk) 04:02, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, why would Parisian cafes and salons be likely to have that sort of door? And did they? --Anonymous, 04:20 UTC, July 2, 2010.
The logic behind double-hinged swinging doors is their lack of a catch, latch or doorknob, i.e. they can be pushed open without the use of hands, and they close themselves when not in use. --Aryaman(talk) 07:24, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
...so enabling people to carry drinks, trays, etc. through them using both hands, presumably. Ghmyrtle (talk) 13:17, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
They also have a certain social utility to them, allowing people outside to get a sense for what's going on inside while still affording the people inside a perception of privacy. --Ludwigs2 15:27, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I remember reading an answer to this question in an Imponderables book, apparently "When Do Fish Sleep?", but I have no recollection what it was, except that I think there was something about having an ordinary, lockable door in addition to the swinging doors. Paul (Stansifer) 18:29, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is only a forum post, but note the old photos at the bottom of the page. They clearly show that those style of saloon doors did exist in the Old West. The second photo could be modern staged shot, but I assume the one above is a photo from the period. Matt Deres (talk) 01:39, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Midgets (again)
When I asked this question previously, it was deleted as a troll question (see the Talk page discussion). I realize that it was initially asked by a banned user, and so deleted, in line with policy. However, I find the question interesting, and would like an answer to it, if anyone knows anything. As a user in good standing (I think), I asked, and am again asking, this question in good faith, and believe that it is appropriate. If you do decide to delete it again, please drop a note on my talk page explaining yourself, rather than just yanking it without explanation. Without further ado then...
Midget's (short people, i.e. people with Dwarfism) are sometimes seen as "freaks" and are pre-judged because of their height. The Dwarfism#Society and culture section is woefully short on how different societies have viewed dwarfs, both in the past, and in the present day. Have their ever been any laws discriminating against people with dwarfism? I assume that in the West such laws would have been repealed by now, but I could see some African countries that might attach a pretty big legal or cultural stigma on being of a grossly different height. Is there any place where I could get away with killing a dwarf because they're "unnatural" or something like that (either legally, or else just culturally acceptable). Buddy431 (talk) 04:25, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sparta#Birth_and_death leads me to believe that were you a Spartan, you would be allowed to "legally" dispose of a dwarf or otherwise abnormally short individual. The question, to which I do not know the answer, is how obviously these sorts of anomalies present on a newborn. Would an infant judged to be "fit" and later revealed to be a dwarf be executed as a small child? I can't recall ever seeing mention of this issue. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 04:33, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Our article doesn't specify it specifically, but I'm fairly sure that dwarfism was one of the criteria for euthanasia as part of the Nazi T-4 Euthanasia Program. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:04, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)Dwarfism is more than simply short height. There are a variety of physical deformaties that most people with the condition described as "dwarfism" share, and shortness is only one of them. Danny DeVito is very short (under 5 feet tall) but would never be described as having Dwarfism. Peter Dinklage is not markedly shorter than Danny DeVito (maybe a few inches), but is described has having a form of dwarfism. Not to take the discussion off topic, but its important to get the terms correct. --Jayron32 04:40, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No. He and the purported troll asked similar questions at the same time. So, he may be trolling, but not sockpuppeting. :-) I'm jesting, of course, Buddy431 is a regular in good standing. Matt Deres (talk) 15:08, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Specifically, I found the banned user's question interesting, and would like an answer to it. I realize that it's common practice to delete questions by banned user's regardless of merit. I felt that this question had merit, so I asked it again (as a not-banned user), so that I can get serious responses. Buddy431 (talk) 16:42, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The problem with this question is that it singles out dwarfism as special. there have been cultures in the world that disposed of children for having any deformity. Sparta was unique in having an cultural standard about it - in most cultures it was/is something handled surreptitiously at a community level. there are cultures in the world that will dispose of children for having the wrong gender for heaven's sake, and that's not normally considered a deformity. remember, crappy questions get crappy answers. --Ludwigs2 15:34, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Contribute Article
Hello Expert,
I am Maninder Singh Arora, a Computer Engineering graduate, workinf as Software Engg. for 3 years as of now, hail from Delhi India. I have been places to Mumbai, Delhi, chandigarh, Pune, Hyderabad, Mysore, Banglore, Agra, Tehri Garwal, Dehradun, Merrut, Amritsar and many more. I love to travel, photography and have love for encylopaedias ( Knowledge about each and everything), The reason I spend almost half of my day exploring world on wiki daily.
I am an new to (but fill with enthusiasm) to contribute to Wiki. I want to add article related to famous institutions, significant people and events happening around me. Please help me with the information regarding:
1. Approvals
2. Verification
3. Editions
4. Source of evidence to be provided with the article to get it published on Wiki for world wide access.
Hope to hear from you soon and wish to have a long lasting journey on my beloved Wiki.
Well, Maninder Singh Arora. First rule of Wikipedia is : never give your full name. Never. Especially when you have travelled to so many places and are full of enthusiasm ! World is full of dangers ! Secondly we have a parallel universe called Uncyclopedia that you may find more appropriate. Jon Ascton (talk) 07:53, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hey Maninder, we look forward to your contributions. Just some tips before getting started.
This encyclopedia is called Wikipedia. The term is usually never abbreviated wiki, because "wiki" refers to the type of software used to manage Wikipedia. There are lots of other applications of the wiki software, so it is incorrect to call Wikipedia "wiki". Cumbersome, but we just call it by its full name of "Wikipedia".
One core principle is Be bold in editing. One feature of wiki software is that you can read and recall any past version of any document. There is no action you can take here that cannot be undone very easily, so if you make a mistake, it is easy to fix. Any good-faith additions to Wikipedia are welcomed, and as long as you are willing to learn from your mistakes and get better over time, most experienced editors are willing to work with you to help you learn the ropes.
Wikipedia has guide to writing your first article and even has a helpful wizard utility that will help you do it. HOWEVER, may I suggest that you don't create a new article right now. Despite the invitation above to Be Bold!, Wikipedia does have many policies and guidelines which confound new users, and creating new articles from scratch can be tricky for those new users who have not learned these rules. May I suggest that you start small, by finding already existing articles that interest you, and start by making small changes to them, such as fixing grammar and making them more readible. Once you get a sense of what a decent article should look like, and what sorts of subjects make for good articles, then you can set about creating some new articles. But creating a new article from scratch on your first day is akin to placing a toddler in a marathon; one must learn to crawl before they can compete in a 26-mile race, you know? Take some time to learn how the place works, THEN create an article.
As Jayron says, it's certainly OK to dive in and start editing - then learn by your mistakes. But some people prefer to be guided towards becoming a good editor or writing a great article - and for that, I recommend the Wikipedia:Adopt-a-User system. You add your name to that page and an expert user will volunteer to "adopt" you for a while and help you with your editing until your confident enough to go it alone. Either way is fine though - we try hard to be as welcoming as possible to new contributors. SteveBaker (talk) 11:20, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Burn from a cold metal rod
Hi, I'm not sure which category this belongs to so I'll just post it here; hope that's okay... Anyway. You might have heard of this experiment where they would first lead the subject to believe that they'll touch her back with a hot metal rod, and then do just that except the rod is cold (i.e. it is normal temperature) but the unusual thing is that the burn still appears on the subject's back (or so it went). Is this phenomenon real? What's it called and/or where can I read about this? Thanks. - 95.139.105.161 (talk) 08:14, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The sensation of heat is an example of a tactile illusion prompted by confirmation bias: the brain perceives heat because that's what it's expecting. The production of physical symptoms (such as burns) from such a suggestion would take it one stage further. I can't find a description of success in such an experiment, although there are descriptions of attempts to produce such symptoms using hypnotic suggestion: here, for example. The phenomenon seems to be based on more than just suggestion, though. The physical processes by which we perceive heat and cold are different but connected, and things like the thermal grill illusion illustrate the link and its effects, and go some way towards explaining them. Interestingly, one effect of ciguatera poisoning can be the reversal of the sufferer's perception of heat and cold. I haven't read it myself, but there is a free ebook download here which is mentioned on a couple of specialist forums and which seems to include material on hot/cold perception illusions, so you may find it useful. Karenjc 10:33, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think the rod is at room temperature, I think it is chilled. Human skin is good at detecting extreme temperatures, but isn't very good at determining which extreme it is. I don't believe that it would leave a burn, though - it could be an cold burn, I suppose, but that wouldn't be very interesting. --Tango (talk) 15:19, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
P.G in Journalism after completing B.E
I'm a final year student pursuing my bachelor's in Electronics and Communication Engineering(B.E-E&C).However i realize that this is not the line i wish to pursue. Is there any possibility that I could change my course of career??I'm very much interested in journalism. Will I be able to go for a Post-graduate degree in Journalism directly on completion of my B.E?I'd also like to know the choice of courses offered and the top universities/institutions offering them.
Thank you,Any information I receive will be valuable.
This will be very difficult to answer without knowing in which country you are currently studying, and in which countries you would consider taking a postgraduate qualification. In general, some universities will insist on a relevant degree, or at least relevant experience, in order to take a postgraduate course, while others will accept any undergraduate degree, provided you have performed sufficiently well in it. Warofdreamstalk 13:10, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You can definitely change your career plans. The question is more one of how easy it will be to do so. As Warofdreams says, we'll need to know what country you are studying in and planning to work in to be able to give a more detailed answer. --Tango (talk) 15:22, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hi.. Thanks a lot for reminding about that.. I'd completely forgotten to mention my current location details.. I'm from India.. I'm willing to go abroad(preferbly-U.S, U.K, Germany).And so far, I've been able to maintain a good record in my academics.I'm eager to know if there are any good universities which offer P.G without a prior relevant experience in the field.
--Padma1012 (talk) 05:02, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah...on the top you did'nt tell where you from, but believe me I did guess right even before I read the next para you wrote - that you are from India ! only Indians can ask such laidback and lopsided questions. And your user page does'nt tell anything but if I am not very much wrong you are female !
Hey, why use italics ? You see, writing using BOLD or capitals is considered SHOUTING. Then what should italics imply ? whispering ? Jon Ascton (talk) 07:20, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
okay. I do agree that may be my question was as laidback & lopsided as you thought. And I really appreciate the fact that you guessed my native and gender by instinct. But the focus of my question is not that. Its totally course-oriented. I really need to know that and thought this is a good desk to ask.If you can help me, I'm really thankful. I'm completely new here, and just getting acquainted with the protocols.. However, I think the prejudice you seem to have regarding the judgement of people on the basis of their nativity doesn't really sound good, atleast personally for me. I come here to know things, not rather be judged. Sorry & thanks for the feedback.--Padma1012 (talk) 05:17, 7 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If a policeman fires his taser at me and I stick my hand out and catch both barbs in it, will I be disabled as effectively as if the barbs hit my torso? What if I catch a barb in each hand? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 15:22, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
On all the models I have worked with, the two barbs are attached to a small plastic piece that keeps them together, which would make it hard to catch one with each hand. Even if you did, your hand is still conductive, and you may still get stuck with one of the barbs, so you really don't have a recourse there. Even if your try to wear rubber gloves, you still have a good chance of the barbs (actually more like needles) going right through the glove and still hitting you. The best way to defend yourself from an officer is to comply fully with them and make your case in court. Or, simply avoid situations that would make an officer want to tase you. Avicennasis @ 16:26, 20 Tamuz 5770 / 2 July 2010 (UTC)
OK, so if both barbs hit me in the same hand, will I lose muscle control throughout my body, or just in the hand (which is what I really want to know) ? Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 16:52, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You will lose control of your whole body. That's the way a Taser is designed to work: to incapacitate the target effectively If it only worked on certain spots of your body, that would be pointless. Brambleclawx 00:21, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I suggest you practice by shooting yourself with a taser until you build up an immunity.
(pssst... that won't actually work and might kill you, so don't do it, but I'm curious to know if you were tempted) --Ludwigs2 00:48, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Getting Tasered is unlikely to kill you, especially if you are a healthy adult (especially without certain heart issues) not on stimulants. See Taser safety issues. That's not to say that it's a safe thing to do by any stretch of the imagination, and some deaths have occured. Additionally, I see no way that you could "build up an immunity", but you may be able to better recognize and respond to the effects of getting tasered. It is common for police to be tasered as part of their training. Finally, I highly doubt that anyone could have a serious chance of intercepting Taser barbs with their hands; the barbs are shot out with compressed nitrogen (akin to a Paintball gun) and move quite fast. Buddy431 (talk) 03:24, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
When the taser stops working they might reach for their guns... and your hand won't block a 9mm (much). Are you planning on getting tazed? Perhaps you should rethink the underlying motivation... just a crazy idea. Shadowjams (talk) 06:50, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You could wear layers of cooking foil underneath your clothes and gloves - it should short out the electricity without much flowing through you. 92.24.179.245 (talk) 17:48, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ooh, sorry I forgot that unlicensed joking is illegal in the US of A. 92.15.12.165 (talk) 21:59, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Believe it or not, I was just curious. When I was a kid I shocked myself on a 110V electric circuit, but I felt the shock only in my hand; I was wondering if being Tasered is a similar experience. Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 18:23, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've raised my concerns about these kinds of questions at WP:ANI. The ref desks are not allowed to give out legal and medical advice, and this question broaches both of those topics. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 18:31, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As I mentioned on ANI, this discussion is inappropriate. Toddst1 (talk) 18:45, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Eh. I saw the questions as basically "Is there a known defense for tasers?" or perhaps "Is it equally effective regardless of where on the body one is stuck?" Officers are the most well known users of tasers, which may explain why OP mentioned them, but this info in itself is not negative, IMO. (AGF, anyone?) If the OP had asked "Suppose a burglar snuck into my house and was armed with a taser - is there any easy defense for myself?" would concern still be raised? The question doesn't discuss the legal ramifications of resisting arrest or the medical concerns on getting tased, although they did come in the replies. Regardless, as the question has been answered, this discussion can be closed. The "question of the question" as it were is best left to ANI. I would close the question myself, although since it might appear to some that I did so to stop replies to my opinion, I will not. :) Avicennasis @ 19:26, 21 Tamuz 5770 / 3 July 2010 (UTC)
Perhasp those editors who believe that people have no right to defend themselves when attacked by police would be more comfortable editing Conservapedia instead... 98.226.122.10 (talk) 04:11, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Next time you feel threatened in some way, try contacting a burglar instead of a policeman, and let us know how well that works out. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 13:08, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Lawmakers and law enforcers (policemen) also read Wikipedia and it is important that they are fully informed about the effects and limitations of their equipment. If it is acceptable to give answers on the Ref. Desk on the subject of maximising the kill strength of nuclear bombs, with "kill" to include the deaths of helpless babies and innocent puppies with waggy tails and big trusting eyes, then we should have no concern about replying to a question about tasers. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 15:25, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
For someone who often espouses a libertarian view, you seem to have an amazingly strong belief in the absolute good of all government officials, combined with a curious concern that nobody discuss anything that could be used illegally. Where is the Bugs who made such a big fuss about 'freedom' not so long ago? 86.164.57.20 (talk) 18:42, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Troubleshooting old video games
Unsure if this should go in "entertainment", but my problems are technical and nothing to do with gameplay. Are there any websites out there that will help me with troubleshooting problems for older games? I've got any number of games a decade or more old that I can play to some degree on my computer, but if one of them decides to play silly buggers, they don't have forums I can turn to to ask the community...that I know of, anyway. These errors seem to be the kind that a community would be familiar with and be able to point me to the answer, but without a forum or something...Was just wondering if anyone knew someplace I could go. Perhaps a repository of ancient troubleshooting tips. Vimescarrot (talk) 18:29, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
On the offchance that anyone has any ideas, my options in Worms World Party won't save, and it won't let me go above 800x600 resolution. Vimescarrot (talk) 18:36, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Communities involved with abandonware and dosbox come to mind. Sorry to be vague. If you can find the actual game listed on a site like abandonia.com, there will be a discussion there about getting it to run nicely. Possibly such a site will have a forum where you can post questions about any old game. (Actually it won't be on abandonia, which is exclusively DOS games, but both the underdogs sites - hotud.org and homeoftheunderdogs.net - have forums.) 81.131.42.1 (talk) 20:09, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Here's the GameFAQs page for Worms World Party (PC version): [12] it makes the slightly obscure statement "If you want your weapon and game settings to be registered, save it. They will be saved into .WSC files, and they can be found in user/schemes/." I'm not sure what "registered" means (does it mean "permanent"?), and I'm not sure what "it" is referred to (a game in progress?), and I'm not sure what you're supposed to do with the WSC files (browse for them within the game somehow and open them?) ... but maybe this is some help. I noticed in passing that on the GBA version you can't save anything. I also found a single reply to the question on a forum: "LOL. YOU DOESNT SAVE THE GAME. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA". Exactly what this means, I couldn't say (you have to make a save in order to retain the options? You can't save games at all?) but I submit it for your attention. 213.122.46.162 (talk) 13:29, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Wiki Pages
Is it possible to set some kind of vigil on a particular Wiki page to see how many people have seen it, and also from what part of world they were ? Jon Ascton (talk) 19:49, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes (for the first question). Choose your article, click on the History tab at the top, go to External tools: Page View Statistics, then choose the month you're interested in, and voila! Here's June 2010's graph for this page, for example. I must say I disbelieve there were zero views on the 26th or the 28th - or any other day you care to name - but that's what we're being told. As for where the viewers are from, no, there's no possible way of judging that afaik. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:46, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Zeros on those graphs are almost always due to technical glitches. Even the most obscure pages tend to get a few views every day. --Tango (talk) 00:24, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It may be worth going to Wikipedia:Statistics Department and asking on the talk-page/somewhere in the more 'inner workings' pages. I'm not sure if it is possible for Wikipedia but my Flickr pro account lets me see 'where' incoming viewers of my photos are coming from (both within Flickr and outside - so for instance today i've have visits from people searching on google images for 'cute dog'). Maybe Wikipedia has some similar capability? ny156uk (talk) 23:02, 2 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
July 3
Article help
Anyone have library or other access to the Chicago Tribune? I'd appreciate it if I could get this article emailed to me for article writing purposes.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 02:29, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Well, you can buy access to the article (in PDF) from the web site for $3.95, with other price options if you want to access more than one article. Won't that do? --Anonymous, 03:05 UTC, July 3, 2010.
I strangely had a similar issue recently with the Tribune. Most libraries carry their recent archives, at least the past few decades. Shadowjams (talk) 06:47, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Send me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:32, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks all. Posted at Mr. 98's talk. I will definitely check out the exchange Deor, especially since I have many resources of my own to share.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 16:20, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Telephone interview times
An earlier question, and the conclusion that the OP should be ready for his job interview at 3.30 am, got me thinking. Do people who arrange phone interviews for international job applicants generally take into account the time zone differences so that the interview is at a convenient time for both parties? Astronaut (talk) 03:06, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Possibly, but given the assymetric relationship between the interviewer and interviewee, that's unlikely to happen. There are almost always more applicants than availible positions, oftentimes grossly more applicants than open positions, meaning that the hiring company has no incentive to make anything at all convenient for the applicant. Rather, the since the applicant is often mostly indistinguisable from the multitude of other applicants, such requests can be a negative for the interviewee; if there are applicants willing to be interviewed at any time without raising any objection, then there's no need to reschedule any interviews for people who do ask for it. --Jayron32 03:26, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, I'm not asking about rescheduling or even the applicant requesting a particular time; after all, flexibility in such things might be an asset to the employer. I'm just wondering whether a hiring company would commonly and deliberately arrange the interview to be at an inconvenient time for the interviewee, or whether people just don't think about things like time zone differences at all? Astronaut (talk) 04:36, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's not that HR is working to deliberately make it hard, its just that they don't have to give a shit. It is quite likely that HR doesn't even consider these things, because of the reason I explained above, it doesn't have to. From the HR's perspective, there's likely not "one" perfect candidate for a job, there are merely hundreds or thousands of roughly equivalent applicants. In a situation like that, HR is generally looking for applicants to "self-select" themselves out of the pool to make their job easier. It doesn't fear losing the "perfect" candidate because there isn't one. There's just a lot of work sorting out some random person who will be competant enough at the job not to make HR look bad in hiring them. By making yourself a pain in the ass, even a minor one, you make HR's job easier. Not every company works this way, but enough do. I have worked for some organizations with some pretty callous HR staff. --Jayron32 04:45, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's a wild (and utterly unreasonable) generalization. The HR people where I work take recruiting very seriously and if we think someone's resume indicates that a phone interview is a good first step, we work quite hard to arrange a mutually suitable time. It's not just a matter of time-zones either - the person we're interviewing may have a job already and would find it difficult (to say the least!) if we called them while they were at work. So even when the time-zones match, it's still sometimes necessary to interview at a time that's rather inconvenient to us. We do actually want to recruit people (assuming they are any good, that is!) - and pissing them off at the outset isn't a good way to get the best people. Recruitment isn't always about having an embarrasingly large number of candidates, almost any of whom could do the job. Sometimes (as with us, right now) it can be quite hard to find enough really good people to do the work. SteveBaker (talk) 05:23, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I agree. I've had several telephone interviews in the last year and every time I was either called to ask when would be convenient or asked to book a time online. Perhaps there is a difference depending on the job you are applying for. I was applying for new graduate jobs with a salary above the average for new graduates. Companies are very keen to get the right people for such jobs and will try to help applicants give an accurate impression; they would never reject you application just because you say you're unavailable at the time they want to give you a telephone interview. If you are applying for a minimum wage job then, as Jayron says, there will probably be hundreds or thousands of suitable applicants and it doesn't really matter which of them ends up getting the job, so they'll reject applications for all kinds of bad reasons just to narrow the field to something they can work with. --Tango (talk) 15:12, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
standard height of the roof
The average height of a story seems to be 10-12 feet for modern constructions in my part of the world. What are the factors that determine the height of the story? Isn't it quite a waste of material to construct a story that high since 7-8 feet would be enough for human beings to move about and live in comfortably? --117.204.93.114 (talk) 09:44, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My ego needs at least 14 feet. I'm sure others feel similarly. Shadowjams (talk) 10:07, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The OP is located in Kerala, India. A room with low ceiling height is difficult to illuminate evenly and an electric lamp will give unpleasant glare at eye level. It is difficult to ventilate sources of smoke or steam such as coal fires, cooking or candles. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 11:30, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, how the hell you know where OP is located ? You psychic or something...or just kidding ? Jon Ascton (talk) 07:12, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ceiling heights below 7 feet seem oppressively close to the head, particularly for many adult men. Add to that the thickness required to raise the floor to allow power, phone and data to run whereever they are needed (1 foot); and the thickness required to insert air conditioning ducts in the ceiling (2 feet); and the thickness of the building's floor structure (2 feet). It is easy to see how the height of a storey in an office building can be 12 feet or more. Astronaut (talk) 12:26, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Historically A higher ceiling is a display of wealth - among other things it shows you can afford to build taller, it shows you can afford to 'waste' heat and it also works to give the impression of space (the same size room with lower ceilings will appear smaller than with a higher ceiling). Most modern homes will be build to consumer preference so whilst it might be less economically cost-wise if you can't ultimately sell the homes then the saving is worthless and it seems around 9 feet is probably as low as your average consumer likes (save for the quaintness of cottages and those that like them), with higher probably less common in average modern homes but more common in 'luxury' homes. As someone who has lived in a small apartment with 'standard' height ceilings (i think 9 feet) and now live in a victorian period house with (I think) 12 feet ceilings with similar size rooms I can definitely say that it gives a huge amount of feeling of 'space' and 'air-y-ness' - much nicer. ny156uk (talk) 15:19, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
sorry just measured my ceilings - seems my sense of height is rubbish! My victorian period house has 9 feet ceilings, and so I can only assume my apartment with 'standard' height was around 7 foot like most people below have noted. Next time i'll check before I rely on my eyes for measuring things! ny156uk (talk) 18:45, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ceiling heights are typically lower in coald climates to keep the warm air close to the occupants. In hot climates, a high ceiling is a low-technology way to keep heat away. Otherwise, prosperity tends to increase ceiling height, as does room size - a small room with a high ceiling feels like a chimney, while a large room with a low ceiling feels confining. I will point out that ceiling height and story height are not directly correlated. One needs space for structure, which will get deeper as the structural span increases, and in commercial space, room for utilities, which can take up a meter or so of space between the ceiling and the structure, so a story can be 50% higher than the ceiling height in many commercial applications. Acroterion(talk) 16:18, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Until recently, standard ceiling heights in North American houses were around 8 feet, with 9 feet becoming popular in recent years. 9 feet is a fairly standard ceiling height for office space, with 10 feet in very large or higher-end office space. Acroterion(talk) 16:22, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
As somebody guessed here, I am from Kerala in India. We have hot sun for nine months of the year. Humidity is high for almost 11 months of the year. Flat concrete roof is the pre-dominant roofing here. Until a few decades back it was tiling or thatching. Flat concrete roof with no effective ventillation traps the hot air above anyway. The window height would be six or seven feet. If the window height is raised to the lowered ceiling height of say 8 or 9 feet, I think there is a better chance for hot air passing out. It is to be considered that there is no raised floor structure or false ceiling for air conditioning ducts. Only rich people can have air conditioning and when there is it is invariably wall-mounted with no need of ducts passing along the ceiling. Ceiling fans are ubiquitous and they will have to be converted in the prospect of a low-ceiling. But that is easy as wall-mounted fans will be more effective with a lowered ceiling. As such the current height of ceiling leaves much unused and unwanted space for dusty walls, cobweb, wastage of lighting, proneness to echo etc. In several respects it is a huge waste. For example, the walls would need a fresh coat of paint each year or in two years. Three feet less is considerable reduction in cost. I would like to know what other dissuasive factors could be there against a lowered height in ceiling.--117.204.80.10 (talk) 00:57, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sorry for assuming you were talking about tall multi-storey commercial buildings. Here in the UK, such high ceilings are very rare in modern residential property. When our labour costs, property costs (according to this page from the BBC the average house price in my town is nearly £250,000 - about 10 times the average yearly salary) and heating costs are very high, modern residental property tends to have quite low ceilings, and if a construction company can save money by using less construction materials, they can make more profit and claim the place is cheaper to heat in the winter. Of course, if you are rich and can afford to get a house built to your own specifications, you can have any ceiling height your want. In my case, the disadvantage of a low ceiling is it traps the heat; for example during the recent spell of hot weather, my apartment (with its ceiling height of just 2.25 metres (7.4 ft)) has been too hot from midday 'til midnight. IMHO, you are fortunate to have an archtectural style with high ceilings and I hope Keralan construction companies don't start thinking like ours and sell small pokey houses at high prices. Astronaut (talk) 10:47, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Standard floor to ceiling heights are 2.4 metres in the UK and 2.5 metres in France. Plasterboard sizes vary accordingly. 2.4 metres can feel quite low. The height of the whole storey is greater than 2.4 or 2.5 metres of course. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:12, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
numbers
can someone pick a random number for me, between 1 and 35? 80.47.187.29 (talk) 14:57, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
no, the 'correct' answer is 14. --Ludwigs2 15:29, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note that without knowing how these numbers were generated, it's impossible to say whether they were random or not, and likely they are not. (Humans are very bad at making up "random numbers" in their head. They never pick "1", for instance.) If you want a random number, I suggest using a good random number generator. Random.org looks pretty good in terms of methodological rigor. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:36, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
strange, I wrote them all out in a rectangle and stabbed at it with a pen with my eyes closed a few times, they were all on or around 23. 80.47.187.29 (talk) 16:32, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's because stabbing with a pen isn't a very random act. --Tango (talk) 17:23, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My brother, when asked to "Pick a number between one and ten", or something to that effect, always picks pi. The moral is to be clear what you're looking for. (e.g. do you want any number, or just integers?). By the way, Googling "online random number generator" gives a number of options. -- 174.24.195.56 (talk) 17:45, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
And you should specific the probability distribution too - "random" doesn't automatically mean "uniformly distributed". When I first saw this question I was tempted to suggest the OP toss and coin and choose 1 for heads and 2 for tails. That would be a random number between 1 and 35. --Tango (talk) 18:46, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No. The OP asks for a single random number that cannot in isolation represent any specific distribution. Your temptation to suggest a DIY binary sequence of coin tosses should be resisted because it would give a uniform random distribution of the range 0 to 31 or 0 to 63, neither of which fits the requested range. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 11:20, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ugh - I generated a random number programmatically in applescript (which uses a more-or-less uniform pseudorandom generator) and it came out to be 14. but in fact, since the OP only asked for a single number, any number will suffice (since randomness is an aggregate phenomenon, and aggregate phenomena have no bearing on singular events). I am (statistically speaking) correct on this. --Ludwigs2 05:33, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Well, "random" means "cannot be precisely predicted", so it applies to single numbers as much as to sequences of numbers. --Tango (talk) 06:27, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In the UK in the 1960s, there was a huge computer called ERNIE (Electronic Random Number Indicating Equipment), that used generate random numbers to find Premium Bond winners. Perhaps we could find it and plug it back in for you? Alansplodge (talk) 07:25, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah - but it's not (nor ever was) a computer. It's an electronic random number generator that relies on physical random noise rather than software algorithms (which can never be truly unpredictable). These days it probably uses a computer to collect the results - but the actual "ERNIE" part is specialized electronics. SteveBaker (talk) 11:08, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I finally read my own link - the original ERNIE is now in the Science Museum (London). Please accept my apologies - it's obviously not a computer - would "gizmo" be a better description? Alansplodge (talk)
Put 5 apples in a line on a table and ask someone 'how many apples are between the one on the left and the one on the right?' They will tell you there are three. This is why no-one picks 1 or 10 when you ask them to give you a number between 1 and 10. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 23:09, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Surface finish
4140 L80 - what should be the acceptable surface finish after turning inside and outside diameter? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alfredparakkalcochin (talk • contribs) 15:57, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Can you expand on your question, as I have absolutely no idea what you are asking about? For example, what does "4140 L80" refer to? By "turning" do you mean some mechanical process to remove a material from a rough shape, using a lathe or milling machine for example? What would be your measure for acceptability of surface finish? Astronaut (talk) 17:16, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"AISI 4140" and "L80" appear to be standards for the composition of hardened steel. However, I don't see how we can discover what kind of surface finish is acceptable without understanding the application. We need more information from the questioner. SteveBaker (talk) 20:30, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Rain forests
What are the 3 main tropical rainforests ??? if anyone knows , please tell me !!! it is urgent !!! i think one is the Amazon rainforest... please tell me if i am wrong !!! thnx !!! lol (-; 81.147.6.161 (talk) 19:51, 3 July 2010 (UTC) (reposted here from Wikipedia_talk:Requests_for_comment#Delisted_content_RfC by –– Jezhotwells (talk) 20:12, 3 July 2010 (UTC))[reply]
Our article on Rainforests lists Tropical rainforests in: Southeast Asia (Myanmar to Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and northeastern Australia), Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa from Cameroon to the Congo (Congo Rainforest), South America (e.g. the Amazon Rainforest), Central America (e.g. Bosawás, southern Yucatán Peninsula-El Peten-Belize-Calakmul), and on many of the Pacific Islands (such as Hawaiʻi). Looking at the map from that article, I suppose the Amazon, the band of rainforest in Sub-Saharan Africa and the band that straddles Southeast Asia would be the three "main" rainforests. SteveBaker (talk) 20:22, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
July 4
What bridge is this?
It may be in Canada, I am not completely sure. [13] Thanks! Timeform (talk) 04:13, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm thinking Burrard Bridge, at least vaguely. It is a steel trestle bridge, cherry blossoms are a common sight in Vancouver, the backdrop could be the north shore mountains. However it would be a very unusual camera angle, taken somewhere between Granville and Burrard Bridges; also the downward slope at the putative east side of the mountains doesn't look quite right. I'll be heading to the Granville Island market in the next few days so I can look for such a spot. I'm not sure there is such a place to get such a perspective. Franamax (talk) 04:44, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That picture could be of a huge number of bridges - it's a low resolution image of a conventional-design trestle bridge with a cherry tree in the foreground obscuring most of the detail. I could think of a dozen bridges from North Carolina to Delaware that would fit the bill, plus a half-dozen more bridges in California (assuming that there's a cherry tree planted somewhere nearby), and that's just from personal speculation. do you have a better image to go by? --Ludwigs2 05:22, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Or could you tell us where you got the image? Is there any context at all? Dismas|(talk) 05:27, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A googleimages search on 'bridge cherry blossom', it was on page 7. Mikenorton (talk) 14:55, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Daddy your expletive is short for "May God blind me (if I tell a lie)". If you use a PC running Windows then one way you can snip a piece of an image is as follows. 1) Have the image on your screen. 2) Press Alt-PrtSc. That puts the image on your invisible clipboard. 2) Start PAINT. 3) Press ctrl-V. That pastes the clipboard on to PAINT. 4) Drag the Select tool over the snippet of the image that you want. 5) Click on Edit - Copy to... and name your file something like MySnippet.jpg. Please be careful to tell the truth for a while. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 15:08, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Cuddlyable, unless you are joking, I think you have misunderstood. I took Daddy's question to be "How did you identify that", which Mike then answered. And I don't know why you are offering us one possible etymology of a word that Daddy used. --ColinFine (talk) 15:36, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
@ColinFine I think your understanding of Daddy's question is correct. I don't know why Daddy prefaced his response with a Minced oath and I hope that does not become a habit. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 19:17, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's a fairly common expression of amazement. Most people who use it are not aware of its origin, and do not intend it to be taken that way. Besides, oaths of the minced or unminced kind aren't exactly unknown around here ("Deus vult!" comes to mind ...). -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:10, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think it is interesting to note that the first two people responding mistakenly identified it as a trestle bridge. I read those two responses and I was in complete agreement that it was a trestle bridge. Bus stop (talk) 20:22, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
@ Cuddlyable, in my part of the world, UK, "blimey" is a soft, everyday expletive used politely in any company for a surprising situation. I was surprised that Mike identified the cropped picture so (apparently) easily. Like so often in life the answer is right there - seeing it is the tricky bit. I certainly will be using "blimey" in the future, but only when I am amazed ;-)) Caesar's Daddy (talk) 07:22, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Vulgarisms highlight the pretentious, showing people that lay unwarranted claim to social graces and education and attempt to inflate their status through the use of language they either cannot control or do not understand. Innocent examples of the former are some affected by Tourette syndrome and Hanlon's razor may be invoked for the latter. @Jack, Deus vult is Latin for God wills it and is a pious expression still current in the catholic church after nearly a millenium. It corresponds to Masha'Allah and אלוהים מבקש את זה in other major religions. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:52, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
'swounds, I'm stunned that you are appropiating the use of a miced oath to pretentiousness, lack or social graces, education or just stupidity or neurological disorder. I doubt Shakespeare intended any of these characteristics when he had John of Gaunt make a minced oath. Oops wrong character. 87.102.23.18 (talk) 14:17, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, well, There's no pleasing everyone. If "BLIMEY" is offensive to your ears (or eyes in this case) then I present my apologies. But if you are indirectly implying that using "blimey" is a conceit you are wider of the mark than you could ever imagine. You seem to have an appropriate antonymic name. May your god bless you. Caesar's Daddy (talk) 13:43, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I was thinking of replying to Cuddlyable3, 'struth mate, keep your bleedin' 'air on', but thought that it would be unhelpful, but after the further discussion.... Mikenorton (talk) 19:25, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Dictionary Online
Where can I find a good dictionary online? Wikipedia is a great encyclopedia but sometimes I just need a dictionary. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.186.101 (talk) 08:13, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm assuming you're new to the internet - if not I'm sorry for appearing snide. Google excels at answering questions about where to find things on the internet. See below. --mboverload@ 08:16, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
An even better answer! Sometimes I underestimate how helpful Wikipedia is. --mboverload@ 08:26, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Google will act as a dictionary if you type in "define: " before the word you're thinking of. Dismas|(talk) 08:27, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
And of course Wikimedia has a dictionary, Wikipedia's sister project Wiktionary.—msh210℠ 08:45, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
My favorite is www.onelook.com. It gives a quick definition, checks loads of different dictionaries (including Wiktionary) and gives a link to the etymology of the word. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 11:04, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you all. I found Wiktionary is good but from the list of online dictionaries I found the Meriam Webster Online Dictionary even better. Thank you all again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.9.92.164 (talk) 22:11, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The best, methinks, is Wordweb.com. Once downloaded (it's free) you can install it and use it even when you are offline Jon Ascton (talk) 06:51, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The note on your user talk page concerned deletion of a picture of you, not of the article about you. This has already been effected. It was (apparently) because there was not enough information attached to the picture about who owned the copyright on it, so no one knew whether Wikipedia had a right to keep it. If you uploaded it the first time and still have it, you can upload it again if you follow the instructions at special:upload.—msh210℠ 16:18, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The entire text of the description page was "Photo of author Michael segedy", so it was deleted both because it had no license and because it had no source. The article is now at AFD; you can find the discussion here. Nyttend (talk) 03:22, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What you call "footnoted properly with secondary sources" points to http://apartmentlimaperu.com/about_owner.shtml which seems to be some sort of commercial establishment run by your wife. The page has picture of the both of you, and a cat... Jon Ascton (talk) 08:38, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note that the article in question has now been nominated for deletion here. If it is to remain, it urgently needs quality independent reliable sources that support the claim that you are notable, as roughly defined by WP:BIO, WP:AUTHOR or WP:GNG. Nothing in the article comes close to demonstrating that. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 09:55, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Nice cat. The kinds of sources you'll need would be newspaper articles about you, books that have been written about you... that sort of thing. Ideally, though, you shouldn't write about yourself at all- if you are notable, others will inevitably write about you. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 19:42, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
More about walking in Stockholm
My question about how to walk all the way from the Viking Line terminal to the railway station in Stockholm, Sweden, without once walking along a motor vehicle or bicycle route (crossing them is allowed) was answered with directions about how to get from Gamla Stan to the railway station. How do I get from the Viking Line terminal to Gamla Stan then? It seems I have to cross Skeppsbron at this point. How can I do it without walking along (only across) bicycle routes? JIP | Talk 17:42, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I assume you have you studied the area around Skeppsbron in Google Maps, using street view and the photo viewer? As I said before, I suggest you stick close to the dockside at first. When you get close to Skeppsbron, it looks like you might be able to cross under the road in relative peace and cross a plaza with a statue of a general on a horse - see this picture (you can see part of the statue is on the extreme right of the photo); but I am not really sure if this is possible.
Thanks, I will have to try this. Although as far as I can remember, I have always needed to walk along a bicycle route at this point, but have always managed to do it without problems. Still, I'd like to know if there is a pedestrian-only route available. JIP | Talk 21:48, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Bicycle tunnel at Slussen.Gula gången, apparently.
Yes, from the images I can see that this is indeed the part where I have previously felt I had to walk along a bicycle route. As far as I can remember, the exact place is pictured in the first photograph on the right. There is apparently something called "Gula gången" ("the yellow passageway") that is for pedestrians, I suppose that can be used to cross Skeppsbron to go from the dockside to Gamla Stan. Where is this "Gula gången" precisely located? JIP | Talk 13:26, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why _ What, and Who
Who cares anyway, and why do we imagine anyone does anyway? 92.30.198.131 (talk) 21:54, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why do you care what the answer to your question is? -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 22:59, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Because being curious is fun. Chevymontecarlo - alt 11:33, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why do we care about fun? ...And so on. 81.131.65.36 (talk) 12:08, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ancient Roman Republic
How did a Roman become a candidate for a magisterial position? I understand that a magistrate was elected by one of the Assemblies and that a magistrate was a member of the Senate, but how did he become a candidate? Was this voted on by the Roman Senate? Was there some sort of Primary? A fee involved? 98.17.117.169 (talk) 22:46, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
First, I removed all your extraneous signatures; second, which magisterial position? And third, you might want to ask on the Humanities desk. There was an age requirement for each position, so that is one criterion. Have you looked at cursus honorum? Adam Bishop (talk) 23:18, 4 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
July 5
AMC Germany Porcelain company
What details are known about AMC Germany china/porcelain company that existed in the 1930's? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.172.114.107 (talk) 04:18, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
AMC seems to have been a tradename for certain products of Arzberg Pozellan in Bavaria / Upper Franconia. The company has a website (in English) here. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 08:29, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Philadelphia dogkillers
Anyone know what the hell Philadelphia dogkillers is/was ? Jon Ascton (talk) 06:00, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the try. But it was far off the mark. What I'm talking about seems to be some sort black gang from mid 19th century. See reproduction of newspaper of that time→
Ah! Well without any context, and Vick being in the news (semi-)recently, it made sense. Dismas|(talk) 09:45, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In Europe the forerunners of dogcatchers was dogkillers. Instead of catching the dogs and taking then to pens they actually killed the dogs right on the street, usually using clubs, later also firearms. Because of the unappealing nature of the job they were usually manned by social outcasts, assistants of the hangman, garbage-collecters etc. Even though this custom seems to have started changing in numerous countries in favour of dogcatchers in Europe from around 1750-1800, perhaps this is the same thing? --Saddhiyama (talk) 08:52, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's funny that that newspaper image also contains a notice about the much more famous Phineas Gage. Adam Bishop (talk) 18:24, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"The camera adds ten pounds"
Why do people sometimes look a bit fatter in photos? And what photographic techniques can be used to prevent this? 68.123.238.146 (talk) 16:14, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
On a traditional 35mm (film) format camera, for example, the "normal lens" considered to give a perspective closest to the eye has a focal length of about 50mm. Lenses with shorter focal lengths are termed "wide angle" and those with longer focal lengths "telephoto." (For non-35mm film cameras and digital cameras different numbers apply but the broad principle holds.)
Many general purpose camera lenses are to a degree 'wide angle' which gives good results when photographing landscapes, etc but, when used to photograph someone fairly close up, exaggerate the front-to-back perspective which amongst other things make people's noses (the closest point of the face to the lens) look bigger.
Another factor is that we have two eyes spaced quite widely in comparison to the diameter of a typical lens, so we normally see people from two slightly converging directions (which our brains integrate), whereas a single lens has a single viewpoint that slightly diverges, making people appear slightly 'spread out.'
For these reasons, knowlegeable photographers generally try to photograph people with lenses that are moderately telephoto; for 35mm format the classic indoor "portrait" lens is, if I recall correctly, 85mm in focal length. Using 'longer' lenses necessitates standing further away from the subject, which flattens the perspective and reduces the 'big nose' effect, and also reduces the slight divergence of the single viewpoint, while their magnifying effect restores the desired size of the subject in the picture.
In summary: stand further away and use more zoom. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 17:30, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Does anybody...
perhaps a drilling machine?
...know which construction machine this is (image on the right)? Thanks for helping. Feel free to use the Commons File talk page for discussion edit the image directly. --High Contrast (talk) 17:57, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting white-collar jobs for non-graduates
Are there any interesting, and hopefully well paid, white-collar jobs that a non-graduate can do? I'm an undergraduate distance learning student, so I need to work while I study, and I won't graduate until at least 2013. I've tried being a salesperson, which I am rubbish at, and I can't think of any other jobs open to me (yet) which are in any way interesting, exciting or prestigious, not to mention decently paid. I know there are lots of cool things I could do as a skilled tradesperson, but the process of becoming one (in all the disciplines I've looked at) would take longer than my degree course. Do I need to resign myself to being a minimum wage photocopier jockey, and focus on doing fun stuff outside work, or is there a better way to earn a living? Cod Lover Oil (talk) 18:09, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I know non-degreed people who are working as a bank teller and an insurance something-or-other-er, both of whom are reasonably content. I worked my way through college in data entry, which is easy, but doesn't pay that great, and also on a factory assembly line, which ended up being one of those life experiences you're ultimately glad you had. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 19:40, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I know what you mean about the factory job :-) and I've done data entry temp work too. But I literally could not face being a junior something-or-other at a bank or an insurance firm... just the thought gives me a headache. That's exactly the sort of horrible photocopier jockey job I'm trying to avoid, with a big dose of high-pressure sales work on top. Sorry if that sounds rude to your friends, and I know plenty of people must be okay with jobs like that, but I couldn't stick it. Wouldn't fancy applying to either firm even after graduation for a job with some prospects. Thanks though. Cod Lover Oil (talk) 21:46, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Probably I should give a bit more info about myself... I wrote the question in a bit of a rush after a frustrating read through some job boards. I'm a political science student aged 29, at the Open University, and I live in England. I've worked as a receptionist, a bartender, a shop cashier, a door-to-door salesman, a coffee barista, a labeller on an assembly line, and a couple of temp jobs. Because I left it quite late to start studying, my mates mostly have degree-level jobs so none of them really give me useful examples. Even if what they do is fun, a non-graduate in the same place would have a menial, depressing time. My favourite jobs out of those I've tried were the bar and coffeeshop ones, because I spent so much time talking to the customers. But those really don't pay enough to keep up with my graduate girlfriend... and more corporate types of job have a horrible overcontrolled culture and for a non-graduate, they still pay badly and have no excitement or challenges. Anyone know what my dream job should be, please? :-) Cod Lover Oil (talk) 22:00, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What are your skills? --mboverload@ 22:15, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've often sorted out damaged/neglected bikes, and set up computers for quite a few family & friends, but I'm very far from knowing everything about bicycles or computers. I really don't know if either skill is worth anything. The only skills I've ever been paid for are the ones I picked up while working, and I think I got those jobs by smiling confidently in interviews and showing a flexible attitude. Do you manage or hire staff - what skills would you look for that might make up for an incomplete education? Cod Lover Oil (talk) 22:40, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It is certainly possible to teach yourself something like computer programming. There are lots of books out there that will help you. Whether you can actually get the job, without the degree, is another question, but it's quite possible that you can make yourself capable of doing the job. Maybe by volunteering in an open-source coding effort, and getting your name on some significant project, you might be able to convince an employer of your skills.
I don't want to suggest that this path is easy or guaranteed, particularly given that there are plenty of applicants for the same jobs who do have degrees. --Trovatore (talk) 22:07, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would be starting from scratch - I know my way round Windows and can change computer parts, but I've never coded anything - but I will look into it. Hate to write things off without trying. Is there somewhere to give it a first try for free? Cod Lover Oil (talk) 22:46, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm -- lots of places, I imagine, but I'm not sure where to point you offhand. I'll get back to you if I come across something while this thread is still open. If you want to stick with Windows, I understand that you can download a version of Microsoft Visual C++ for free, though you probably can't sell a product off of that (e.g. because you might not have a license to redistribute certain DLL files and stuff like that). But just to build your skills, that should be fine.
The open-source path I suggested tends to be kind of Linux-oriented, rather than Windows, though there is certainly FLOSS for Windows. If you like setting stuff up, another possibility is to learn systems administration for both Linux and Windows; there are lots of businesses that for one reason or another need to run both, and if you can handle both of them it could make you valuable. I don't know what the competition is like for these jobs.
Then again, coding incorporates a lot of different disciplines; I don't know whether you want to go the route of languages like C++, which are for general-purpose computing. It's possible that you could focus on some more focused skill-set, such as MySQL for databases, or PHP or something for web coding. I don't know all that much about those.
I don't know how helpful these remarks really are, nor how realistic the prospects would be. But it's possible in principle. --Trovatore (talk) 23:09, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think you will struggle to get much above the UK minimum wage - the only way to improve on that is to work unsociable hours on a shift rota, where you will get extra for the shift work (maybe £2-3K a year on top of the standard pay). Also overtime can have it's uses, but it really cuts down the non work hours. If you have a driving license, you could consider taxi / private hire (not taxi in London - different rules to rest of UK) driver, again it tends to get into unsociable hours. Ronhjones (Talk) 22:25, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This was basically what I feared. Driving a cab would mean buying and insuring it first, which probably requires savings I don't have. I can drive, tho I'm a bit rusty, but running a car has proved too expensive so far. Cod Lover Oil (talk) 22:49, 5 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Please do your own homework.
--Ludwigs2 00:48, 3 July 2010 (UTC)
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