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April 7

"Nothing is impossible"

Is the phrase "nothing is impossible" true? Flea110 00:13, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Not on its own, but "Nothing (barring the mathematically impossible) is impossible, only improbable" is suitably qualified for use as a General Use Proverb, as certified by the Proverb Approval And Accuracy Comittee. Bear in mind, however, that this is the same comittee that required Helen of Troy to produce the maritime records to prove that her face really launched 1,000 ships. --Sam Pointon United FC 00:17, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

The mathematically impossible is something, isn't it? Doesn't that make the statement false? Flea110 04:19, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

If quantum foam exists, it would literally make nothing impossible. Particles would keep appearing spontaneously and spoiling your nothing. --GraemeL ^(talk) 00:25, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, a student teacher said it to me, and we had a friendly discussion about it. I maintained that certainly some things are impossible. For example, it's impossible for me to make the keyboard I'm typing on now non-exist in reality right now. She agreed with me on that, but said something along the lines of "nothing is impossible" and "something is impossible" can co-exist depending on whether or not you interpret "nothing is impossible" as literal or figurative. I'm thinking that so long as it can be interpreted in a way that contradicts the original statement, the original statement is false. Am I right? Flea110 04:19, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Logically, it's a self-contradiction. If nothing is impossible, then it must be possible that that statement is false and thus that something actually is impossible. --BluePlatypus 07:10, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Gōdel also proved that some things are impossible. See Gödel's incompleteness theorems --GraemeL ^(talk) 10:42, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

It depends what you mean by nothing... there are a lot of things which are possible..and lot more things which are impossible right now... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:09, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to state that I loathe this phrase with every particle of my beign being... Lots of things are impossible, deal with it. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 23:21, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know what a beign is, but it sounds angry! Slumgum | yap | stalk | 23:34, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Ugh, fine. Fixed. :( ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 07:14, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe a cross between Menachem Begin, Ronald Reagan, Alexander Haig-en and Carl Sagan - all latter-day pagans. (Lol etc) JackofOz 00:03, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

There are at least 2 types of impossibility. There's mathematical/physical impossibility (eg. drawing a square circle, or breeding a species of piano-playing octahedral psychic platypuses). Then there are things that are theoretically imaginable but practically impossible (eg. predicting local weather to 100% accuracy, years beforehand). Most imagineable concepts are impossible, but humans have hardly even scratched the surface of the possible. :--) JackofOz 00:03, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Not that I don't enjoy this discussion, but can you guys just give me a clear "yes, it's true", or "no, it's not true" answer as well? Flea110 02:52, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

That appears to be impossible. hydnjo talk 02:59, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. Okay, it appears that, try though they might, the best scientists using the very best equipment have not yet been able to find "nothing." Even the most extreme vacuums seem to have weird sub-particles popping into existence out of "nowhere." Another way to look at it is that, in this universe, there is always something because, even in a vacuum there is "space" and space is "something." Perhaps you must look beyond the universe or perhaps you could rephrase this as "Is anything possible?" To which I would answer "Yes, anything is possible but nothing will work." Ande B 09:45, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I think you're taking you teachers comment out of context. While you're right, technically, I suspect what she meant was that it was possible to achieve surprisingly great things. For great justice. 15:14, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Much of this statement is a creation of personal perceptions. Usually, on approaching something like this, I would bar the mathematically impossible, since even though 1+1 can equal three apples if you like in philosophy or politics, if you use any value other than two for that question to build your rocket you will end with a complete disaster. No- one is sure what the true relationship between mathematics and nature is, but the thing is that, under all the circumstances which I know to have been verified, mathematics works. Therefore, at least it is a successful tool in modelling the branches of nature, and may even bear more esoteric or subtle relationships with nature than we yet realize. Thus, at least concerning the universe I know since the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics specifically forbids me to have any distinct and indesputable knowledge of any other universes should they exist, I would conclude that the mathematically impossible is probably the only true impossibilities of our human conceptions.

But barring all that, if we do not admit ourselves Laplacian Devils, how could we know all the endless marvels of Mother Nature? Charles Kingsley did well when he says that :"The wiser a man is, the less he will say of cannot.", because the wise man, like described by Socrates, 'knows that he knows nothing'. We before nature stands like children upon an endless sea of wonder, whose marvels we only dimly suspects. Far better it is to accept the infinite number of the creations of nature, that even within a small flower there may contain enough knowledge and mysteries to last every man a life time. Recalling now William Blake- "What is now proven was once only imagin'd."

Though one may certainly be sceptical of something, yet the word cannot, just as the word hate, carries serious responsibilites for which he shall have to consider very gravely before he would dare to pronounce them, the former denying a, for all we know, seemingly omnipotent nature and the latter the lovely mercies of man. I myself would not say, save for the mathematically impossible, of anything as yet unproven to be impossible to be indeed so. I am, for instance, sceptical about the workings of astrology, but I do admit it has as much chance of being true as the existence of mermaids. Luthinya 19:06, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I think that the original question, "Is the phrase nothing is impossible true?", is either true or false, or neither, or both but, not usually all at the same time or at once in particular. hydnjo talk 19:38, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

How about a qualified no or a qualified yes? In other words, a quantum superposition? Most of the processes in our universe are more usually superpositioned between two extremes than actually one of them. Luthinya 20:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

What knavery is this?

Question in title.  -- Run!  10:39, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

• [1]. Grutness...wha? 11:07, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

No. Question NOT in title. Loomis51 02:08, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

OK, may be I'm just stupid, but personally I don't know what anyone's on about her except wasting space. Luthinya 19:11, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

It's me again

oh yeh 1 more thinge what is a dick and pussy. Kids at school no and keep it a secret from me

Just in case you're not a troll but actually are a picked-on primary schooler, they're slang terms for the male and female genitalia. Your parents may not like it if you click on those links, though. --Bth 16:39, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Most likely a troll from Columbia High School (Maplewood, New Jersey). --GraemeL ^(talk) 16:46, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

A dick is a detective, and a pussy is a cat. Now stay in milk, drink your drugs, and don't do school. Brian G. Crawford 23:10, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

If this is just an unfortunate kid on the slightly innocent side, I don't think he/she would much apprciate those comments. And if it's a troll, you'll do better to deprive him/her of the oxygen of publicity. Luthinya 19:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Copyright question:

Is Bittorrenting Red Hat Enterprise Linux considered piracy?Hkl8324 18:49, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

No, Linux distributions can be freely distributed any way you want to. When you buy a Linux distro in a shop, you're essentially paying for the physical CDs and the manual -- Ferkelparade π 18:57, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Whoops, I missed the "Enterprise" in your question on the first go...but that does not change the situation by much: when you buy Red Hat Enterprise, you're not paying for the software but for the support contract. Since the support contract cannot be shared via Bittorrent and the distribution itself is not fundamentally different from a standard distro, there should be no problem with torrenting it -- Ferkelparade π 19:06, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

It's not a copyright problem (all the software is under the GPL), but it is a trademark problem. See White Box Enterprise Linux. —Keenan Pepper 21:46, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but I have read somewhere on the Redhat website that they provide a 30-days trial version of their RHEL.If it is OK to download RHEL without paying money (and thus without their technical support), why there is such a thing as trial version? Trial for what?(Redhat hat has stated that they will not provide technical support for trial version produces...) Hkl8324 22:03, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

The trial version is free of charge but limited to 30 days. I suppose the OS implodes afterwards. Under the terms of the GPL, the source code has to be available, but they probably charge for it. They don't want you compiling an unlimited trial free of charge. :) You should read up on the GNU General Public License; it's quite interesting. You could try to sell Red Hat Enterprise for more than you bought it for if you wanted to. But few people would probably buy. --Optichan 19:23, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Cricket

What is the highest score scored by a batsman in Test Cricket, ODI without scoring a boundary or a sixer?

sumal 08:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Height of the Eiffel Tower

In searching numerous site looking for the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, I have found no less than 4 answers. (The'official site' quotes a height of 324 meters.) They range from 932 ft. to 1,080 ft. sans antennae and extraneous appendages. Do you know the accurate height of the Tower. Thanks in advance. FSM

Do you want to know the height before or after the disaffected Muslim youth blow it up ? StuRat 04:00, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Eiffel Tower article states that "The tower stands 300 m (986 ft) high, which is about 75 stories. Including the 24 m (72 ft) antenna, the structure is 324 m (1058 ft) high." hydnjo talk 03:22, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

More Station Stat requests

Hey all, thanks for your help in my last query, do you know any general station stats sites, with info such as History, no. of platforms (number in use), thanks in advance Djm1279 19:41, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Music Artist, Public Affection

I would like to puchase the tape released in the 1989 by a group called Public Affection. The name of the tape is Death of a Dictionary. Would anyone know were I can purchase this? I have looked in many places with no sucess. 65.198.21.8 20:10, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Looks like they were a previous incarnation of Live. artistdirect.com says that The Death of a Dictionary is for Live completists only. [Originally released on cassette; available on bootleg.] User:Zoe|^(talk) 21:58, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Bloodclan from the original warriors series by Erin Hunter

I need information about Bloodclan from the sixth book of the original Warriors series written by Erin Hunter.

• I assume you've already looked here? Warriors (book series) --Maelwys 20:27, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

whales?

if only fish have gills than how do whales breath underwater?

They don't, whales are mammals and breath air with their lungs. They can stay underwater for hours but eventually they need to get back to the surface. Thuresson 21:32, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

If humans go underwater for hours, they die. What makes whales able to stay under for so long? Flea110 21:55, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Check out Whale#Behaviour. User:Zoe|^(talk) 22:00, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Why don't you ask him how he does it? :) Oh, whales? Um, they need to go to the surface for air. Probably the same thing for Mr. Wales. --Optichan 19:37, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Levitation

Could you please get some info on the gamolo or icarus levitation? thanks!

-luke thinnes

[email in title removed to prevent spam]

• Most magic effects are not freely available. Unless you can find it explained somewhere online (like the Balducci levitation) it's unlikely someone can help you. The magicians who know how it works are sworn to secrecy by the magician's oath. Your best bet at finding out anything about a magic effect if it isn't googleble is simply buying it. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:27, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

April 8

richard farley

could you provide a link to a website where i can an information about the trial of richard farley specifilly the opening closes statements of the defense the effects it has all had on laura black.

I don't know of any website that could provide all that you ask but the Richard Farley article is an interesting read. hydnjo talk 03:12, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

need contact no of any professional hypnosist

can plz help me by giving out the contact nos of hypnotist in your knowledge

i 'm in deep troubles ur help can be a boon in my life

plz its no joke

i'm serois in every word i mean

peri

contct at [email removed to prevent spam]

Could you sort of narrow down the part of the world you live in. I could give you one in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories but if you are in Australia it really wouldn't help. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 07:49, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

If you are having mental distress (causing you not to spell out things), then don't just latch on to a particular specialist. Although it sounds rather lame, it is really best to go through a family doctor, and then to a specialist. People who are in major depression, need to go through a dose of sedatives first, before they are in a state to be fixed up. I have lots of experience with my own depressions, but 90% of the time I am completely cured, thanks to pills. --Zeizmic 14:13, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Oh dear, no patronisation but this seems way too serious to be merely asked for upon a reference desk in Wikipedia, in any case I don't think any of us would think this is the safe place to resolve these queries, let alone answer them- this is a public site and there may be unfriendly eyes peering about. All of this matter seems to be extremely confidential and, no offence, slightly reckless for an open- source software. I don't think hypnotism would be a best option but you must be desperate to even think of trying. If you are a teenager- like me- you should probably try childline or your parents rather than trust your fates to a slightly too open internet software. If you don't know childline's number you can ask your teacher or nurse- they are bound to be competent enough to know. But if doing these things make you afraid, even talking to your parents, then something is seriously wrong here and you will need to consult higher authorities. Again, no need to patronise, but try to keep calm. Sometimes a little thing you'll laugh at later on may produce such effectson your psyche right now that you would wish to try hypnotis. Luthinya 19:19, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Cricket

What is the highest score scored by a batsman in Test Cricket, ODI without scoring a boundary or a sixer?

sumal 08:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

• According to this article, the Test record is 77 by [[Geoff Boycott]. The one day record is 96 by Adam Parore Scorecard Tintin (talk) 09:49, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

• • FWIW, the first batsman to complete a boudaryless innings of over 100 in first-class cricket was Alan hill in 1976-77 (see here). Grutness...wha? 11:07, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

• • • There is another problem here. According to the Frindall Column No.2 Link here and IIRC, Wisden book of cricket records (which is also compiled by Frindall), Bill Lawry's 84 at Brisbane 1970-71 did not contain any fours. According to the Cricketarchive scorecard he hit 9. I know somebody who can give a definitive answer. I'll get this clarified in a day or so. Tintin (talk) 12:40, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

• • • • Got this reply which I think can be considered authentic. He is a major statistician but am leaving out the name as I am not sure whether he would want it : Lawry hit nine boundaries, confirmed by the scorebook. The newspaper reports of the next day also say nine, but Australian Cricket magazine gave it as 0, probably a typing mistake. Whitington, in his tour book, repeats this error, and makes a big deal out of it, which suggests that he wasn't actually there at the time, and wasn't using many sources for his commentary. The error made it into the Wisden Book of Cricket Records and other record books. Ask Steven on CricInfo recently repeated the error. He has since changed it (without mentioning that he has done so) So Boycott does hold the record. Tintin (talk) 15:47, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

What is pitch made of?

What is pitch made of, and is there a variant of it that uses either sulphuric acid, or sulphuric hydroxide (?!?). I can't imagine there would be, but a colleague of mine, who is an interpreter for the police is on a case at the moment, and we can't get the right words in English (or Portuguese), and we don't even understand what the suspect is supposed to have done.

I'd appreciate your help CCLemon 09:06, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

See Pitch (resin). CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 09:35, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Surprisingly, none of our articles on pitch, tar and bitumen mentions what the stuff actually consists of. I think it's safe to say that it's a hydrocarbon with a very high molecular weight. --Heron 12:01, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I think pitch is mostly aromatic hydrocarbons. Chapuisat (not signed in) 12.106.14.201 14:02, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Design

I have a rather unusual request, I would like to enter a design competition with the theme "the seasons". What would people think is the best (or least worst) out of the following versions:

Full text - Season names plus some descriptive text	With doubled season name - Season name with the blurred background name
Season name - Just with season name	Just pic
Something like this?

Thank you very much for any comments! --Fir0002 www 11:04, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't think this is the place to put up such a request. Or, this is an unusual request to put up on the Refdesk. Why not try asking your friends or relatives for an opinion? I usually do that. Personally, 3rd or 4th. --Ouro 11:37, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Strange request, but personally the 4th image without any of the (pointless) text seems more poinient with me

I'd agree with that. The image speaks for itself. --BluePlatypus 15:07, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Tough choice... i'd say....all are pretty good... but i think it'd be better if you had the pic... and reduced the size of the WINTER SPRING text....its very distracting.... and i also personally dont like empty pics....especially good pics like these... or you could change the text....put something else... winter spring is just a little too obvious... if you want, i'll give you some suggestions in a day or 2... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:10, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Thank you all for your suggestiongs --Fir0002 www 23:59, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Dude - no text - just the pic and then call it "Seasons" or something. If people don't get it they should be hospitalized. Gardar Rurak 01:56, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Good point, Gardar, but there is an international aspect to this. People in tropical countries don't know what Spring is... unless they read Wikipedia, of course. --Heron 11:57, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Ha ha,, :)..... i think a good caption would be The hues of life or the wonder of nature or something more poetic... try to search for a short line from a poem or something... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 17:26, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

WHat can you be alergic too?

Now i wasn't sure of what subject to put this under?

My sister and i were discussing how we can be alergic to different foods, animals and plants but is it possible for one to be alergic to objects like different glass? different metals? different rubbers? or different plastics etc etc. can some one be alergic to these type of manmades items (not stuff like medicine)?

This question is purely out of my own interest as i thourghly enjoy coming with interesting theories.

Thank you for your time.

At the Wikipedia article Allergy it states that the allergic reaction is a hypersensitivity to proteins, thus suggesting that it is natural proteins that the body is allergic to. However if these proteins were present in a man made object then yes it is possible for you to become allergic to them. -- Francs2000 12:34, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Latex allergy is an allergy to a natural rubber but see also multiple chemical sensitivity. Rmhermen 13:17, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

You can also be allergic to a substance, such as a hapten, if it reacts with your body's protein. A common example of a hapten is urushiol, which is the toxin found in poison ivy. Also, some chemicals such as medications will only cause allergic reactions when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation-- this phenomenon is called a photo allergy. --Uthbrian (talk) 08:11, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Meaning of life

What are we here for? What is the meaning of life? Why were our parents on this Earth, and why will our Childeren be here? I'm just getting to the point in my life (late Teens, early 20's) where this question is really starting to play havok wth my mind. Please explain this important, but taxing question in 200 words or less!

As a teenager myself, I believe the meaning of life is for one to do his own homework. - Ridge Racer 13:02, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't think you're going to find the answer to this question on this page, it's out of the scope of what us mere mortals are able to provide. -- Francs2000 13:12, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Just write "42" and hand it in. Though Meaning of life would be a good place to start more detailed research for your paper. --GraemeL ^(talk) 13:15, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, you're here because your parents were here and reproduced, and they're here because their parents ... all the way back to the first living thing on Earth. (Waving our hands past the fact that the idea of "parentage" makes less sense in the case of single-celled organisms which can easily exchange genetic information.) Your hypothetical children will be here because you reproduced. How the first living thing arose is something of an open question, but the universe is sufficiently large that even if it's staggeringly unlikely it would have happened somewhere eventually (by the law of large numbers). We are vessels, carrying our genes down the river of time.

These simple facts do not tell us how we ought to live. There is no externally-provided meaning of life, we can choose whatever meaning we like (or then again maybe free will is an illusion). You may like to read some of Wikipedia's many articles on philosophy to see what conclusions others have reached in the past.

But maybe this is a simulated reality, in which case you may want to avoid summary deletion -- here's one group's advice on how.

(Word count: two hundred including this line, but not the sig.) --Bth 13:44, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Why are we here, what's life all about? / is God really real, or is there some doubt? / Well tonight, we're going to sort it all out / For tonight it's the Meaning of Life. (Watch the movie, no answers but a lot of fun) SanderJK 15:06, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Really good question... i guess we are here to make sure that the human race continues to survive... and for the human race to survive we need development... which means we destroy our planet, boss over every living thing on earth, and try to create more humans along the way... oh...and it also means that we do our homework, which is really essential for progress of mankind... ha ha... hope that answered some part of your question... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:23, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

That is the one question that everyone argues about; there are tons of different religions and theories and philosophies. (See the religion portal for ideas.) You have to decide for yourself what to go with. Jonathan W 18:30, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

You tell us. What have you done lately to make your life meaningful? Peter Grey 05:39, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

If there is no God there is no "meaning" in the sense that you mean it, and the tone of your question assumes that there is a meaning - that is higher purpose, so you are assume that there is a God. It is very likely that is higher propose is the same for your parents and will be the same for you children. Now if there is a God and there is a higher propose and there is something that he wants you do, He either did or did not tell mankind about this. If He didn't you will have to develop a moral system based on you best judgment which is probably what God would want in that case. Now, if He did tell mankind what to do you have to find out what he said and to whom. This should be easy since there have been many prophets in history. Unfortunately, there have been many false prophets as well since many of them contradict each other and call the other false prophets. Hell, I could claim to be a prophet and I could probably get a decent following. So how do we know who are the real prophet and who are the false ones. You can take a leap of faith and choose one that you like (start at Category:Prophets), try to become a prophet yourself and hope that God tells you what He wants you do, or examine each claim and see if any one of the prophets makes more sense the rest. Personally I choose Judaism because Moses’ claim of being a prophet was substainsiated by a mass revelation at Mount Sinai, and then I base who is and not a prophet on (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:18-22). Jon513 14:38, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

BRILLIANT QUESTION! I've had a similar period when I was nearly 12- now 13- during which time I was also constipated with an extreme fear of death. However, both problems have now been resolved continuously. In my opinion, life does not have a meaning. When the sun swells eventually into a red giant the earth shall certainly be destroyed, along with all her inhabitants. Our petty doings in all fields, including what I'm typing now into my computer, will be of little significance in this vast universe while our atoms drift far into space, unremembered and certainly not pampered the way we are here. However, I decided that life DOES have a value, even if there is no god in the fashion of a Laplacian Devil. This value comes from doing something worthwhile within our little sphere of true effectuality, to one life, a nation, the whole of humanity or even mother earth herself. The value may also be negative, such as comitting genocide, but in this you allow future generations to learn of mercy and also what must never happen again. You may, perhaps, make life seem good and worthwhile to a person by showing love or affection for him/her; you may free the chains of slavery from the sires of your race and be deemed a savior. Or you may campaign against pollution and protect the trees. Ultimately in Death there is nothing you can take with you- the things that matter are what you left behind- silent reflections, a newly- found element, or the freedom of a nation. The lovely thing about this worth- the- while requirement is that it does not have to be a hugely significant event that will change the whole universe to vast degrees immediately (though from the Bell's Theorem it might), it only has to be worth the while for our feeble human race and the little earth we dwell on. So long as we fulfil this, the gift of life and sensibilities given to us that shall forever remain a mystery shall be fulfilled, and in death we shall be happy, having done all that we could to make the ride worthwhile for everyone. The worth which you have brought into our little world, small and insignificant it may seem to the vast universe, is important enough, for we ourselves are small and insignificant. And this worth, which happily does not perish with its maker, is what shall attach value to your life and make future generations bear rememberance upon you through it. It may take many forms as such is appropriate of your actions. Since the world has given us life, we must give it life's worth to make the ride worthwhile. In that also we shall cease to fear death, for no loss is ever taken in such a process- it is only a natural chemical degradation. Thus the value of our lives ar attested, bearing worth for as long as this race still dwells. Meaningless though was this pursuit, yet that does not ever bear away its beauty or value, for which only can be said of life.

And indeed life is beautiful, as long as the mind has not been filled with the words of a sceptic. Grief, instead of pining away, once we accept them as necessary helps our psyche to grow. Since all existences to me are meaningless, I may only say that most lives had its value, although some may seem greater than others. A truly valueless life for me is one in which it existed only as if never to exist. Do not despise the humble values either- as the Torah spoke: whoever saves one life, saves the world entire. (Sorry for length can't help it love philosophy so much thanks). Luthinya 19:41, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually having a little discussion is good for the mind, but ultimately you'll have to make up your own mind from ten zillion answers. Luthinya 19:45, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

geography

what is the role and the effect of climate on the ocean?

• You could start by figuring out why the level of the water in the oceans is rising. Here's a tip. Polar ice caps have something to do with it. I'm sure there's more ways in which the climate can affect the ocean. Oceans also have cold and warm streams. - Mgm|^(talk) 19:33, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Cicely Mary Barker

I just read the book Fairyopolis, I know it was organsied by other people as Cicely had died long before it was published, but I was wondering if it was true how she stayed in that place and stuff. thanks :D

You don't think she would have written it if it weren't true, do you? alteripse 15:02, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Yeah I know, but I meant it was organised by others not Cicely, she didn't actually write it..

Btitish forces Troopships, particularly HMT Empire Trooper.

Until the mid 1950s most British forces were moved around the world by ships which were hired from existing shipping lines, hence the title Hired Military Transport,not you will note, Her Majesty's troopship. Having returned to this country on this ship on what was her last voyage can anyone provide her history? she started life with the Hamburg America line ,was captured and turned into a trooper.Please can anyone provide any details. She was owned by B&I (British and India) and scrapped in 1955.

You might want to look at these results. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:35, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

navy first person

who is was the first person to join the navy?

Well seeing as there have been navies for hundreds of years (Greece and Rome) it's not likly that sign up papers still remain or were you talking about a specific country? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:42, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

i mean the united states navy i need the answer

The president is the head of all the armed forces right?? so i'd guess he was the fist one to join the navy or any other force... so...now the question is: who was the president during the time when the Navy was founded? well...its just a thought.... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:17, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

See my answer below. The US Navy was created before there was a President of the United States. There was no chief executive at the time, when the Navy was formed by the Continental Congress. User:Zoe|^(talk) 21:51, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

FAMOUS INTERNATIONAL STREETS?

HI HOW ARE U?

PLZ TELL ME WHICH STREETS ARE INTERNATIONAL STREETS i WILL WAIT FOR YOUR ANSWER THANKYOU

Have a look through Category:International road networks to start. Most countries that border another will have roads that go from one to the other but may have different names. Could you please turn your caps lock off. Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:46, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

the united states thanx bud

who was the first person in the navy

who was the first person in the U.S Navy? When was the United States navy founded?

Start with United States Navy and it says 13th October 1775. But not the name of the first person. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:04, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

It could be argued that it was John Barry (1745-1803), who was master of the USS Alfred (1774). User:Zoe|^(talk) 21:50, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

i need help

i need help

Hmmmm...could you be more specific about the subject in which you want help...? we are humans here and we haven't mastered the art of telepathy yet.... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 17:52, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Try speaking with a psychiatrist. 64.198.112.210 18:48, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Wha's goin' on, yeh know wha' I'm sayin'! Yo man what's up? Why are we wastin' space? Yay!!! --CrazyGuy

the founder

who was the founder of the U.S Navy on October 13,1775

Asking the same question over and over makes us less likely to answer it. You can click the "edit" link at the top of a section to edit it. —Keenan Pepper 17:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I wanna ask a question related to this.... Why do most of the people never read the instructions!?? dont they realize that things would be much easier if they just read them... or are people becoming too over confident.. ha ha...this questions been bugging me for a while.... any help appreciated... ;-).. Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:13, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Jayant, probably because they don't know what's important and what's not, the instructions are blatantly obvious to you because you've seen them in action and used them many times, but to a complete newcomer, all these strange terms (section edit, for instance... what is that?) seems strange and alien, so when starting out, they just do as they feel most comfortable. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 12:15, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

CTBT

CTBL what's this? plz tell me about that

Do you mean CTBT ?

HP

i dont get the plot of the movies of harry potter but the books are so good? Why do the keep take out some of the captions of the books from the movie

Thats because they make the movie out of the screenplay... and if tried to replicate the entire book....the movie'd become too long.... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 17:56, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I read in a British newspaper when the first Harry Potter film came out that had they made the film out of the entire book, the film would have been nine hours long - totally unmarketable and probably tiresome. -- Francs2000 20:06, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

When you take a look at most "movies from books" you will notice a pretty big change, often in plot. Basically every book inspired movie I have seen is fairly different from the book itself, I think time and possibly budget constraints stop it. As for a 9 hour long Harry Potter film, it would have been kind of neat but it would be a "watch in multiple sessions" movie and not really possible to distribute it in theaters :) -- Tawker 20:11, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

With the extreme examples being James Bond films such as Moonraker or Octopussy. Save for one character's name, the books and the films are completely different. JIP | Talk 08:56, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Just to balance out the ledger, everyone interested in this should read To Kill a Mockingbird, then go buy a DVD of the 1962 movie. According to our article, Harper Lee favorably reviewed the Academy Award-winning screenplay adaptation by Horton Foote, saying that, "If the integrity of a film adaptation can be measured by the degree to which the novelist's intent is preserved, Mr. Foote's screenplay should be studied as a classic." JackofOz 09:41, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Also don't forget that books and movies are completely different mediums, they tell stories in different ways and are intended for different kinds of consumption (a book is rarely designed to be read in one sitting, for instance). A straight book-to-film conversion would be incredibly long and very full of detail, while reading a word-by-word screenplay is also somewhat dull as you're missing out on all the visuals, expressions, tone and so forth. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 12:12, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Unix Word Frequency

Hello,

I want to know if there is a unix command I can use to output the sorted word frequency of a .tex file to another file.

Thanks,

-Grey

Try here. (First result on Google for "word frequency counting unix". --Bth 18:45, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I would try

cat texfile.tex | tr ' ' '\n'  | sort | uniq -ic > listfile.txt

dab (ᛏ) 19:38, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

how to get rid of poison ivy

can you tell me how to get rid of poison ivy and i used all this kind of ointment and it still wont go away please tell me how

this is why I love RD/M :)

did you try reading Urushiol-induced contact dermatitis? dab (ᛏ) 19:31, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Very interesting article. It mentions that if things persist, then you should contact a doctor. If you don't want to follow this good advice, then the quack in me wants to come out: I have found that a skin irritation can create a home for little bugs of some sort (fungus or bacteria). This usually comes out as an irritation at the same spot year after year. It can also slowly expand. My wife always has this, and sometimes it tries to hit me. I found that when this happens, a constant application of tea tree oil, will quickly kill it. It really works and I've gotten rid of many 'permanent' dry spots on myself and my daughter. My wife, who never listens to me as a matter of principle, is another matter... --Zeizmic 13:49, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

You could try cutting it down & burning it. AllanHainey 12:15, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

OMG, DO NOT BURN IT!. If you think having contact dermatitis on your skin is bad, imagine the effects of urushiol to your nasal passages and lungs. --LarryMac 14:50, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

PBS Timer

I was watching some PBS documentaries and I noticed that they all had a timer in the corner of the screen that showed how long I'd been watching. Specifically, they were documentaires about American history. Why do they put these timers here?

Since it was PBS, I would guess that the timer had nothing to do with you, it was probably how much time they had left in their current fund raising drive or something relating specifically to that. For instance, the time that was left for you to pledge money before they stopped giving away a special gift with each pledge or some such thing. Dismas|^(talk) 19:45, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, unless the timer was put in by a set top box, chances are it isn't unique to you. PBS doesn't do unique streams to subscribers, the only way it is done IFIAK is in video on demand systems. Cheers -- Tawker 20:09, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Some PBS stations feed instructional programs to schools for in-classroom use. The timer is there to inform the person at the school district who is recording the program how much time has elapsed, so they'll know how long until the program ends. -- Gridlock Joe 21:14, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

80's song

there's this 80's song that I like but I don't know the name and I can't find it's lyrics on google. the lyrics go something like this:

she wants to keep another secret, it's only rock and roll, you know my baby's just too cool, my little lady hated high school ... it's all I could pick up from the song. it's sung by a guy...and the style is kind of like the clash or maybe david bowie a little... but it's none of them.--Cosmic girl 20:28, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Nevermind, I got it...I think it's 'baby talks dirty' by the knack, but correct me if I'm wrong.--Cosmic girl 20:51, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Portal

I am a rank novice having discovered WIKIPEDIA only a few days ago. But while browsing the various portals yesterday I discovered one that had a huge list of pictures/photos covering an enormous amount of subjects. I started to scroll down but discovered that I'd need hours to view even a portion of what was shown. I tried to find that portal(?) again today but couldn't locate it. Can someone tell me where it is, please. Thank you. --20:40, 8 April 2006 (UTC) (email excluded)

Sorry dude, but we need some more information to go off of. A "huge list of pictures/photos" is pretty general. If you can give us some more clues we'll be happy to help. Isopropyl 20:42, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it was Commons? A lot of pictures there. -83.129.14.135

Maybe it wasn't a portal but an image category? If all you saw were photos, start at Category:Wikipedia images by type and browse away. Thuresson 21:47, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

if it was a portal you could try looking at Wikipedia:Portal/Directory, which lists all the portals. Grutness...wha? 08:06, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

If it was a few days ago it's probably still in your browser's history. Take a look at the pages you visited on that day. You might find it. Optichan 19:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Commander in Chief

George Washington was the first president who crossed the Delaware in a dingy boat when the British were coming. Does that mean he was the first naval officer. The president of the united states is called the commander in chief of all armed forces.

Dinghy, not dingy. No, as I explained above, it does not mean he was the first naval officer. He was the commander in chief of the colonial army, however. But when he crossed the Delaware, he was not the President. User:Zoe|^(talk) 23:27, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there have been naval officers for centuries before George Washington was born. JIP | Talk 07:40, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I think he means "first naval officer of the United States". Since the U.S. technically didn't exist as a political entity of that time, I would say that the answer is "no". I don't think just going on a boat makes you a naval officer. If it does, though, then I'd like to be addressed as an admiral! --Fastfission 16:20, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

wondering

i was wondering why people pay so much on on some kind of meats when they dont even taste good
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.125.151.219 (talk • contribs)

There's no accounting for taste.
Slumgum | yap | stalk | 22:25, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps they're an acquired taste. I think this is just a euphemism for deceiving oneself into liking something disgusting in order to seem sophisticated, but perhaps I'm being too cynical. --Heron 11:49, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

You should see cheese fly. Isopropyl 15:32, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Unpopular product can often cost more if there is Economies of scale in their production and the Marginal cost can be greater. Jon513 14:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I have never seen cheese fly before. I suppose this must be a relatively new phonomenon. --Optichan 19:53, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

file formats

We have an embroidery sewing machine that has floppy disks to access various > designs. > The formats are: CND - DST - EXP - HUS - PCS - PES - & SEW. > I would like to transfer JPEG & GIF formats to the above formats. > Do I need special software to be able to do this? if so; could you tell me > some names of the software.

What is the brand of the machine, you will need specalized software to do it (if its possible to do), the titles of which would probally depend on the maker of the machine -- Tawker 23:44, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Never heard of any of those formats before, so I doubt it T-rex 03:12, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

There is a wikipedia article on machine embroidery, which links to [this sourceforge page], at the bottom of which there are links to various conversion and design software. My first impression is that converting a photograph to an embroidery design is difficult to do well automatically, and there's space in the market for people doing photograph-based designs manually (google for "embroidery photograph"). Some commercial software offerings can do the conversion automatically, but you have to judge the results by yourself (see the photo-stitch example at [[2]]). But this is just my ignorant speculation, maybe there is someone more knowledgeable on wikipedia? If not, you can find hobbyist forums by googling for "embroidery forum". 84.239.128.9 09:45, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

George Michaels

who is George Michaels everybody always talked about him but i still dont know i would really appreciate it if you told me

You probably mean George Michael. --GraemeL ^(talk) 23:07, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

difference

whats the difference between the navy and the coast guard

I'll assume you're talking about the US Military, it varies from country to country. In essence the Coast Guard normally handles events within the countries territorial waters only whereas the Navy can operate overseas. Normally Coast Guard vessels are more designed for search and rescue and Navy vessels more for combat. Both do share some roles, but that is the main difference. If you were looking for information about another country please let me know -- Tawker 23:39, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

A lot like the difference between the army and the police in terms of function. alteripse 23:41, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

April 9

UK TV Programme using "Och Zoe" between characters

I am trying to identify the name of a UK TV sit-com thought to be from the mid-1980's that featured an older gentleman (possibly Jim Broadbent?) with a young girlfriend. The girl was always doing stupid things and the older man would say "Och Zoe". I think the girl was a PE instructor or was into keep fit in the programme.

Thank you.

Is it May to December as it's the only British comedy I recall with a Zoe in it. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 05:25, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

I would concur, especially as I can see how one might confuse Anton Rodgers and Jim Broadbent. --Bth 09:08, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Can we write an article on a specific book?

Can we write an article on a specific book, even if it has no cultural significance? To make my question more specific, would it be appropriate to write articles on Star Trek books (of which there are hundreds)? If it is appropriate, I would definately be interested in writing some. Chuck 02:37, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

You do have to take into account notability issues. — TheKMan^talk 03:03, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Star Trek (and pop culture in general) seems somewhat exempt from those requirements, seeing as how every single episode of every single Star Trek series has its own page. (Personally, I wouldn't mind all that stuff being split off into a fictionopedia or something) --BluePlatypus 03:35, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks folks. I guess that leaves it up to me, and then we'll see what people think about it afterwards. Thanks again. Chuck 03:43, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, there are plenty of pages on the various Star Wars and Doctor Who spin off novels. --Bth 09:06, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

You may also be interested in Wikia:Memory Alpha. — MSchmahl… 15:57, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

ESPN

How much was ESPN bought for by Walt Disney?

It's not that easy. The majority of ESPN was acquired by ABC years earlier in 1984. According to this this, Disney payed $19 billion for Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. It's hard to say what ESPN's value was in that deal, but it was certainly a small fraction of the total. ×Meegs 09:53, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

historical costume

Hi - can anyone tell me what a Parisian tailor might have typically worn in the 17th century? Adambrowne666 07:14, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

no - and we couldn't tell you over at the Humanities desk either (I take it you read the rule on double-posting at the top of the page?) Grutness...wha? 08:08, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Oops - apologies - didn't read the rules properly. Adambrowne666 23:58, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Java Access connection

I really would like to know how to set up a connection to a Microsoft Access file, from a Java application. This is really bugging me; everything I try to find online doesn't seem to work. Many thanks for any help - Dan

• I don't know Java at all, but I'm betting you will probably want to do it through an ODBC bridge of some sort. A google search for "Java ODBC" turned up this page which seems to go over it in some detail, though again, not programming in Java it is hard for me to tell. --Fastfission 16:19, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Anarchist Activity in India

Is there any record of an anarchist party activity in India? Does India have any adherents to anarchist political philosophy? sumal 08:43, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Guideline on capitalisation of first words of certain newspapers' articles?

Greetings,

I would like to know whether or not a guideline exists on the capitalisation of the first words of certain newspapers' articles. Take the following excerpt from yeserday's Times's article And the best solution for protecting pedestrians? Remove safety barriers:

THEY clutter the streets, get in the way when you want to cross the road and, according to a study, increase your chances of being run over.

In today's Sunday Times's article Town hall vote disaster looms for Blair:

TONY BLAIR risks a humiliating third place in next month’s local elections, which could put further pressure on him to stand down following the revival of tension with Gordon Brown.

I am pretty sure that the first words of articles are also capitalised in other newspapers.

Many thanks to those who will produce answers,

Grumpy Troll ^(talk) 09:11, 9 April 2006 (UTC).

I'm pretty sure there is no rule 'set in stone' for this, but rather the capitlisation of a starter word is done for emphasis. Dan

This isn't usually done in North American newspapers, although you sometimes see it in magazines. -- Mwalcoff 13:48, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

So-called "traditional" joke

I read the following under anti-humor:

Q. What's the difference between a chicken and the Kyoto Protocol?

A: One is a domestic fowl; the other is an international convention on climate change. (usually a Spoonerism is expected)

This is supposed to be an unfunny, or comically literal, answer to the riddle. However, in the context of the article, this is supposed to be a "traditional" joke, like "What is this fly doing in my soup?" But I cannot figure out what the original punchline is supposed to be. Please help! — MSchmahl… 12:51, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

• I believe that for that particular example there is no such spoonerism. What they're trying to say is that usually when you hear a "What's the difference..." joke you expect the answer to be a spoonerism, and as a listener might try to figure it out yourself before the comedian can say the punchline, but in this case you'll be completely confounded... because there is no such spoonerism response. So once you're confused at not being able to provide your own answer, the comedian provides it for you... and of course it's something completely different from what you were looking for, in that it's not a spoonerism at all. --Maelwys 13:32, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

• • You may be right. No amount of Google-searching was able to help me. But I was able to come up with one semi-satisfactory traditional-style answer: "One is a meaty fowl, the other is a foul treaty." Blech. — MSchmahl… 15:24, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

inhabited islands

What is the total number of inhabited islands in the world? I 'd just like to know. I can't find an answer anywhere.

There isn't any simple answer. An approximate answer would likely be in the tens of thousands. But what do consider inhabited - a village, a person, a seasonal home, a transient campsite? What do you consider an island - something surrounded by water but how much - a foot wide, a boat canal, are bridges allowed? Rmhermen 19:17, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

ESPN

Take a guess of how much ESPN was bought for by Disney.

I am quite amazed at how many times this question can appear, and how many IP addresses you have Mr. Wolf. --Zeizmic 15:21, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

sixpence CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:20, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

a paperclip.  -- Run!  16:33, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

three peanut M&M's (yellow ones). Slumgum | yap | stalk | 18:09, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

60 guilders of glass beads and mirrors. СПУТНИК^{ССС Р} 01:56, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

74 giraffes, 17 copies of Catcher in the Rye, a large vat of luke-warm custard, three CDs by Blink 182, a colander, and a small tin of ordinary household disinfectant. Grutness...wha? 08:12, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

asked before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#ESPN User:Kahang 02:18, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Music God?

I enjoy mithology a lot, specially Greek and Roman, but i do not recall if there was ever a Music God? If there is a Music God...what is his/her name?

Raul Dominican Republic

Several are associated with music: Apollo, Pan, the muse Euterpe Rmhermen 19:06, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Dionysus was also associated with the music, as well as wine. Jude (talk,contribs,email) 07:16, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Horse longevity

What is the average longevity of the domesticated horse? The horse article doesn't seem to say. Bhumiya (said/done) 18:27, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

from Talk:Horse:

I came to this wikipedia page looking for what I thought would be basic information, and with such length I thought i'd find it but however the answer to the question I have is absent from the article. What is the average lifetime of a horse? Could this be added to the article? It seems rather basic, but is missing. Dwayne Kirkwood 01:31, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

• Good point. The average is between 20 and 30 years, for well-cared for horses. In the wild, 6 to 10 years. The claimed record is 62, but that's from 1760 and may not be solid. --John Nagle 21:57, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

The entire horse article needs a thorough going over and rewrite. half of it is "how to raise horses," the other half is a history in relation to humans, and there's no good section on their biology. Night Gyr 02:22, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I would suspect that the age would also have a lot to do with what the horse was being made to do. I could see that racehorses would possibly have a shorter lifespan. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 02:29, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Not necessarily, the actual racing of a horse is only a small segment of its life, and then it's retired. Many races are only for horses of a specific age. Night Gyr 04:09, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Ricardo Montaner

Where does Ricardo Montaner live?

According to Allmusic he was born in "Argentina but raised in Venezuela" but not where he lives now. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 18:32, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Willy on Wheels

How much is known about Willy on Wheels? Is he one person? Does anyone know what area of the world he lives in? How long has he been vandalizing Wikipedia?

Lol! There's an interesting little chapter on my talkpage. -LambaJan 02:08, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

The majority of what we know about him is here. Jude (talk,contribs,email) 12:02, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Two songs

Does anyone know of these two songs?

1. "Sweet Charlotte" "Sweet Charlotte lived on the mountain side..."
2. "A Fair Haired Boy" "A fair haired boy in a prison camp at sun rise was to die..."

Right now all I have is the title and the snippet of the first line. I think they are from the US and the first appears to be a variation on "Barbara Allen" Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 18:00, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

Using google, I found The Pardon Came Too Late, (in PDF format), which isn't exactly the same lyrics as your second song, but is quite similar. Jude (talk,contribs,email) 07:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. That may be it in a different version. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 08:59, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

April 10

Fat

Why some boys who are not fat like 200-209lbs girls while some girls whoe arenot fat also like 200-209lbs boys? They do it for sex things?

Weight alone doesn't define fat. I'm a boy in that range and I'm downright bony. however, you can read more than you'd ever want to know about Fat fetishism right here on wikipedia. Night Gyr 18:18, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

1990

How many actors and actresses were born in 1990?

• http://imdb.com/BornInYear?year=1990 Night Gyr 02:25, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
• You'd have to be more specific. Do you mean in a specific country, or worldwide and what do you consider to be actor/actress? Do they need to have at least one role, do extras count? Do you include stage theather actors? - Mgm|^(talk) 08:07, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
• Try 1990#Births Jonathan W 16:30, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Bookstore

What you call a person who sells books, dvd, and cds? Rich?(82.138.214.1)

A bookseller? Isopropyl 02:43, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

A sales[wo]man? Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 10:03, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Rocks in the alley

File:Rocksinalley.jpg

Rocks in the alley Jonathan W 16:26, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

In the alley behind my house there are all these rocks. You also find them on the side of roads. Where did they all come from?? Jonathan W 03:04, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

They were probably there since time immemorial, and nobody bothered to clean them up when they built the alley or the road. JackofOz 05:21, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

In a number of places, roads (or in this case, alleys) are surfaced with gravel. Unpaved roads of gravel are cheaper to build than paved roads, and still have a somewhat durable surface, resistant to erosion and tire wear. So if your alley is all rocks, they were put there by the builders of your neighbourhood to function as a cheap, low-use road. On the other hand, you may be thinking of deicing rock chips. If you live somewhere that gets ice in the winter, a common strategy is for the local road maintenance authority (the city council or such) to send out trucks that spread gravel and sand on the ice. This helps cars with their traction. Generally, they pile up in the gutter all winter, and are cleaned up in the spring. These will usually be much smaller -- more like sand than like rocks. Or, you could just be referring to the rocks that are normally under the soil, and are exposed by construction of any kind, in which case JackofOz is correct. --ByeByeBaby 05:53, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Well here's what they look like. They all seem to be about the same size. Were they custom-made for the city or something? (Thanks for all the great answers!) Jonathan W 16:26, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

A gravel crusher will tend to make them all the same size. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:31, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't appear to be uniform size to me. It looks like a river rock gravel. Rmhermen 16:41, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Ya, I think they look like they came from a river too. But how did they get into our alley then? Jonathan W 17:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

This is just good old pea gravel. Where I am in Toronto, they ship it in giant ships from the north. They use it generally for aggregate. Many quarries produce it naturally. Pea gravel is neat because if you have a thick layer of it, it is nearly impossible to walk on. --Zeizmic 20:55, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Mayo

What happens to mayo if you freeze it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.114.224.62 (talk • contribs) .

Why don't you try it and see for yourself? —Keenan Pepper 04:48, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I just put some in my freezer because I was curious, so you'll soon find out even if you don't have mayonnaise or a freezer handy. —Keenan Pepper 04:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

So far it's just grown cold and hard, but still fairly flexible. It's basically gross ice cream. I suspect nothing more exciting will happen, but I'll let you know. —Keenan Pepper 05:17, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

With bated breath we sit and wait,

The mayo and it's awful fate,

Will it freeze or will it not?

Does anybody care a lot?

"Gross ice cream" says Keenan Pepper,

"Your POV" says CBWeather

Get some ham, a loaf of bread

and see which one is easier spread".

CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 06:21, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

oh, very good! Grutness...wha? 08:18, 10 April 2006 (UTC) (while we're waiting for it to freeze, here's some we prepared earlier)

You people are sad, sad, sad. Cheer up with a movie all about mayo on hamburgers (The whole 9 yards). For the answer, go to the food giant itself: [3] It basically says that mayo will separate into yuck when it is thawed again. --Zeizmic 11:43, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

That don't count as it's only for mayo that is in something else. We are talking about plain mayo. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:07, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Nope, they talk about mayo sandwiches and how it separates into oil and eggie bits. Of course, you could just keep it frozen and eat mayo-cicles. --Zeizmic 12:22, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Lost question - how to search archives?

I think this might technically be a Help Desk question, but I guess the people manning the Reference Desk might also know the answer...

I found this fragment on a Google search of Wikipedia: "Mandaeans acknowledge John the Baptist, but not Jesus or Moses. ... Maybe Tolomei is the correct rendering/borrowing of Ptolemaios into Italian?"

The link was to "Reference Desk/All", but searching the page found nothing. I suspect the question has been archived, but can't find any clue as to the date to begin searching the archives. Can anyone find this question for me?

Should I presume, because it still appears on the Google index, that it was a recent question? And in future, what is the best way to search the Reference Dsk archives? Can Google be directed to search a particular subset of Wikipedia pages? Carcharoth 07:06, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Having a look at the google cache, it appears to have been a question raised on the 27th of March, on Rerefence Desk/Humanities, by User:Ohanian. The full thread can be found here, in the Reference Desk/Humanities archive of March 27. :-) Jude (talk,contribs,email) 07:23, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

There are two separate questions: the second is from the Language desk on March 28. (Like Bookofjude, I found them by checking Google's cached versions of the pages in question and then going to the relevant part of the Archives.) More generally, what you want is Google's "site:" search parameter. "site:en.wikipedia.org" would search only wikipedia (it essentially gets silently added on when you search Wikipedia using Google), "site:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/" searches only the Reference Desks (I wasn't sure being that specific would work but I just tried it and it did), etc. --Bth 07:37, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you! Rather embarassingly, the bit I wanted to find was something I wrote and forgot that I had written... <cringe> Carcharoth 07:38, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I made the quip about Mandeans, but not about Ptolemy. Both are on the March Humanities archive, right here. --BluePlatypus 11:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Chinese family names (PRC)

Hi,

I've got a question about Chinese names. In China, it's important to have a Chinese surname, as this is used on all sorts of official documents. Because western surnames don't have hanzi associated with them, most foreigners adopt characters that they chose themselves, which might not have anything to do with their "real" surname.

My question refers to the case when a western man marries a Chinese woman and has a child in China. If the parents are both Chinese, it's normal for the child to take the father's surname. But from what I can tell, a Chinese citizen's Western name only exists as a romanisation of their Chinese name. So what happens for a child brought up in China with a western father? Does he/she take both the father's western name and his chosen Chinese character, take only his character along with the romanisation of that character, or take something completely different such as the mother's name?

I'm talking about mainland China here, which might be different from Hong Kong or Taiwan. But if anyone knows about the situation in HK/TW, that would be good to hear as well.

61.49.159.163 12:56, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

It's their own choice. I don't know mainland China, but in Hong Kong, we use both Chinese and English name, very often in your case, English could be the main one, then Chinese surname would just transliterated it and use as reference.--Kahang 15:24, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is mainly the parents'/children's own choice. I have also known a rather impressive Chinese lady who managed to pursuade her Finnish husband to let the child have a Chinese surname after her, and adopts his surname as the child's middle name instead! Luthinya 20:00, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Yung Joc

Could you please make a article about Yung Joc?

Young Joc? David Sneek 13:31, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Cluster's of Disappearances

I'm having a lot of difficulty locating a certain, specific body of data. It must exist but I haven't been able to find it.

I'm looking for a catalogue, chronology, list, compilation, or whatever you would like to call it, of clusters of disappearances that would be consistent with serial killings. Of course, we might not know if a missing person was actually killed. That's why I'm refering to them as clusters of disappearances, rather than serial killings. Ideally, such a catalogue would allow me to locate such clusters by date and geographical region. Specifically, I want to know if there was a cluster of disappearances in northern California, specifically in Calaveras County and adjacent counties, during 1984 and 1985. However, it would be useful to me to find a catalogue of such data that included all such clusters but was searchable by date and region.

Please be aware that I'm not interested in information about serial killers but in clusters of disappearances that are consistent with a serial killer scenario.

I've located a body of data that might be used to extract the information that I seek but it goes back to only 1995. That data is published on a website by the California Office of the Attorney General. I've asked a friend in California to search his local library for me but I certainly would appreciate it if you could locate a source of the data that I need.

Thank you very much for making this encyclopedia, and this service, available. It is extremely useful.

Sam

If you care enough to spend some money you can try google answers. Jon513 15:00, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

In general, we won't spend more than a minute or two spouting out our brilliance, or doing a quick search. That's why we hate doing tedious homework, or writing out people's books for them. --Zeizmic 17:27, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Viruses From Limewire

Can you get viruses from downloading music from Limewire?

Only if you don't wipe your keyboard after someone else has used it. (No, but downloading music can be illegal depending on how you are obtaining it and the legal situation in your country) Proto||type 14:16, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Not unless the RIAA starts using biological weapons.

But seriously, a computer virus can't to anything if you don't execute it. —Keenan Pepper 14:17, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually, there was a Windows Media Player vunlnerability a while back that would cause WMP to execute metadata from a malformed MP3 file (IIRC, the MP3 did not even have to be opened in WMP because the preview mode in Windows Explorer would also load the metadata and suffer the same buffer overrun). That vulnerability was patched about two years ago, so if your system is up to date, there's no real reason to worry about viruses -- Ferkelparade π 14:23, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

If, however, you download an executable then that certainly could contain a virus, trojan, spyware, or other malware. And sometimes files have very misleading names, like "Naked_Britney_Spears.avi.exe" or have a very long title, with an interesting opening but an exe at the end (e.g "James_Blunt____Back_To_Bedlam_______Youre_Beautiful______mp3_240KHz_______________________________________________________________________________________.mp3.exe"), and they're hoping your Limewire window isn't wide enough to see the .exe at the end (or .com, .scr, .pif, which are also common executable formats on windows machines), and they hope you don't bother scrolling right to see if it really is an mp3. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:26, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

While it is correct that by far the greatest threat is executables (including .doc), files such as .mp3 can also cause a buffer overflow. However that is only a problem if there is a vunlnerability in the media player you are using. I would recommend and open source player such as VLC media player or mplayer. Jon513 15:10, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Drawing by Feynman

In one of Richard Feynman's books he mentions a drawing he made called "The Magnetic Field of the Sun". Does anyone know where I can see an image of this drawing or buy a copy of it? It sounds really interesting but I've never seen it. —Keenan Pepper 14:35, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

it might be in The Art of Richard P. Feynman: Images by a Curious Character ISBN: 2884490477.

deterring ducks from swimming pools

how do you deter ducks from a swimming pool

you can put a crocodile in the pool. Jon513 15:26, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

If you can't find a crazy, bird-chasing dog like mine, then I would go for one of those 'pool alarms' that sense the water surface being broken. Except I would attach one huge mother horn! --Zeizmic 15:30, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you could sit outside with a .22 rifle and pick them off, or use a crossbow if the neighbors don't like gunfire. Some people use poisoned grain, but that may attract and kill animals you don't want to kill, so you have to clean it up when you're done. I wouldn't want to leave out poisoned grain and wake up to find a dead family of possums in my yard. Most places allow homeowners to kill varmints on their property, but you should check with your local government or animal control officer to make sure. Brian G. Crawford 17:12, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Remove the water. Ducks don't like dry pools.  -- Run!  20:37, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Richest Rapper

Who is the richest rapper ever?

Steve Ballmer [4]. It's at least as musical as "My Humps". Night Gyr 16:40, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Eminem would be a reasonable guess through sheer weight of albums, though his producer Dr Dre might well be even richer. It depends on who you count as a rapper? Does Billy Joel count for We Didn't Start The Fire? --Robert Merkel 15:32, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Three Mile Island's length

How long is it? A foreign newspaper editor contacted us to ask, and I can't find it anywhere in the article. -- Zanimum 15:46, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

I'd guess three miles, but if you want to check for yourself, there are map links at the end of the article. Using the Gmaps pedometer, I measured 2.2 miles as the crow flies, but there are several separate islands that are very close together, and the island itself is bent, so you can make your own measurement along whatever dimension you prefer. Night Gyr 16:34, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually, places named for a distance are notoriously innacurate. For great justice. 08:34, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Printer Problem

Hello, I have a hp LaserJet 5100dtn and I just installed a new toner cartage. However, the printer still says "Low Toner". I was wondering if someone could help me fix the problem.

Thanks Zach 16:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, forgot to pull out the strip. There were two instead of one. Go figure... Zach 16:49, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

For future reference, hp.com has an excellent support section. Night Gyr 16:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually I was on the phone with them and they couldnt help me... I had to figure it out my self after an hour and a half of searching. It was annoying. But at least it is fixed. Zach 10:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I.T.

What is ERP architecture, and solution architecture? What is the difference between them?

Is someone moving the goalposts?

I am a relatively new user of Wikipedia and before asking my question, would just say how impressed I am at this seemingly limitless resource of information, apparently provided free of charge to others like myself by a dedicated and committed group of volunteer contributors of varying degrees of expertise, but all of them well intentioned nonetheless. So please accept my compliments and thanks for questions already asked and answered, and many more yet to come. My question is, why does the layout of the Main Page change every time I log on? Am I doing something to make that happen; is it a dynamic feature of Wikipedia, or is it an annoying optical illusion?

The main page is constantly changing as the news area, On This Day, Today's Featured Article and Picture, Did You Know are updated. Also, the Main Page recently had a makeover; but you'd only notice that once. --Optichan 20:10, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Banishing

How ong have people been doing this? What traditions are especially known for their banishings? What should you not attemp to banish?

I assume you're talking about banishing criminals or diseased people. I would think that's been going on since people collected in groups. Really, the idea of locking people in a prison building instead of sending them away is a relatively new idea. Socrates was given the choice of being exiled from Athens or drinking poison, and he chose suicide over exile. Ovid was exiled to an area on the coast of the Black Sea and complained bitterly about it in writing. Today, the U.S. State of Virginia exiles people from the state for five years for possession of a concealed handgun without a permit. Brian G. Crawford 18:39, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

In the Bible manslaughter (that is unintentional murder) was punishable by exile to a "city of refuge". Jon513 22:19, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

How can I publish my discoveries?

Hi! My name is Abel Cavasi, I live in Romania and I discovered a new conservation law in Physics. Since some months ago I tried unsuccesfully to draw up the attention of the world on this result. I sent the material (which can be found on the Internet address: www.geocities.com/abelcavasi) to few Physics Universities in Romania, to Physical Review, to Scientific American, to Newscientist, to American Journal of Physics, to European Journal of Physics, etc. While some of them advise me to search other magazines, others maintain that the shape of the article is unacceptable and others have not replied at all. Could you help me? abel 18:28, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

You'd probably be best off working with a professor in this country directly who's an expert in your field. They'll be well suited to telling you if you've got something genuinely new, errant somehow, or have simply rediscovered an old law in a new form. Try checking out the websites of research universities with prominent physics departments and asking their professors via email. While Wikipedia is a good resource for current knowledge, it is not the place for original research. see WP:NOR. Night Gyr 19:59, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Mr. Cavasi, you might also have a look at the philosophy of science, especially the bit about empiricism. Newtonian physics can be used to make very precise numerical predictions, which agree very well with experimental measured data. To be accepted, you need to show your theory can do the same. Your current material does not do so. --Robert Merkel 00:48, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

You need to present your theory more boldly, and in such a way to catch the reader's eye. Add some colors and pictures. Take the work of Professor Gene Ray, for example. Also, Dr. Alex Chiu. KWH 05:57, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Your best bet is to find a physicist who is willing to take some time to look at it. The odds are that they will find something wrong with it, simply because "the odds are" that most new theories derived by non-scientists are incorrect (there are a few notable examples of this generalization being wrong historically, but they are exceptions). Most university physics departments have very large files of such theories sent to them by amateurs (they call them "crank files"), though some physicists are patient and kind enough to write back to such people and give them their suggestions about their work, but I imagine that this is currently a rare thing. Anyway -- the fact is, like it or not, that the scientific community is unlikely to respond well to people outside of its boundaries, rituals, rites-of-passage, etc. This neither means you are correct nor that it is a conspiracy, but it is a difficulty you should understand and anticipate before trying to do anything to the contrary. There are good reasons for scientists to be "conservative" in this respect (it is a purposeful attempt to direct their resources towards things which are likely to pay off), so be aware of this when you contact them. If you have been instructed that the shape of the article is unacceptable you may try to model it on articles which have been published previously. At this point, my suggestion to you is to try and find a good newsgroup online where someone will be willing to go over it in detail and give you suggestions about it. --Fastfission 16:15, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Soddy Daisy WV

Is there such a town as Soddy Daisy, West Virginia? I have been told there is. Please help.

Two Google hits and nothing here on Wikipedia. Sorry, but I doubt it. Unless, of course, you mean Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, http://soddydaisy.org/? Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 19:39, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Album

How long does it typically take to make a music album? Could Somebody Please Tell Me, I would really appreciate it.

There is no "typical length of time" for this. Some albums are cut over a large number of sessions over a period of months or even over a year. Others take one or two sessions and can be finished in weeks or even days. Generally they'd be towards the longer end of that continuum, but that would give you only an average, not a "typical" length. Grutness...wha? 04:01, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

And if you take add all time required to write all the lyrics and dress the sounds...it'll take about 3-4 months, i guess...it also depends on the type of music you wanna make...for example a rock band might take a lot more time than a rap artist since the band has to make all the music and write the songs, and for the rap artist, most of the music is already ready in the form of samples and stuff...but the actually recording of all the songs in the studio depends on the length of the album.... if say, there are 10 songs in an album of 30 minutes... and if the band has practised pretty well so that they dont make any mistakes while recording, it might take a couple of days to a week... i, myself am in a band and it takes us about 10 hours straight to write one whole song along with the lyrics and the music and to finish recording it ...so i guess that should give you a pretty good idea..... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 12:08, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Quill

Does anyone know what shops in the UK that sell writing quills? I've tried eBay, and they are about £5 ($8.75); is this good? Thanks! Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 19:34, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

massachusetts state sales tax

when was this put in to effect in massachusetts month day year please

Massachusett Sales Tax law is in GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS CHAPTER 64H. Seems like it should be easy to know when a law was made once you know where it is in the records. Nevertheless I could not find it. Jon513 22:39, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

naked

Who invented this nudism? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Don Mustafa (talk • contribs)

What do you mean by "this" nudism? —Keenan Pepper 21:50, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

Nudism wasn't invented, it's naturally occuring.  -- Run!  22:03, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

See nudism. --Robert Merkel

Yes, but who first invented the idea of not wearning clothes? Oh, wait... For great justice. 08:32, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Nudity is lovely and fine. Clothes, on the other hand, are a sin and abomination before God. See Genesis 3:9 and following, and strip off that evil cloth! Grutness...wha? 12:15, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia really has ths top well-covered. Now I'm off to go to a naked party. --Optichan 15:20, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

It might have the top covered, but what about the bottom? :) Grutness...wha? 07:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Photo

Why some like to take pictures of ladies? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Don Mustafa (talk • contribs)

I would image that the vast majority of picture of both men and women are personal photographs of close family members. Many people like to take picture to show to relatives, look at latter, or just for fun. I have notice that parents love to take picture of their children and show them to others and exclaim “look how cute they are”. Jon513 22:25, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

See also pornography. For great justice. 08:31, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

what happened to her face

what happened to the old face of the french women who was given a face transplant. also lets say my leg is amputated what happens to the leg after it has been cut off.

I think she is recovering, trying to avoid publicity (see Face transplant. Your leg most likely gets incinerated. For great justice. 08:30, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

The old face, IIRC, was nibbled off by her dog. Henry^Flower 14:55, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

April 11

Irish Lottery Syndicate

The An Post National Lottery Company page says "A Dublin-based syndicate bought all combinations in one week and made a £500,000 profit. After this incident the numbers were increased to 39 (1 in 3,262,623 chance) and later on to 42." - I was hoping to learn more about this on that page as I vaguely remember the furore surrounding it. I thought they only bought a a substantial fraction of the ticket combinations, rather than all. What's the full story? Jooler 00:13, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

As I recall from a news feature on the subject around the time that the English National Lottery started, they planned for a long time, but in the end didn't have enough time to get every single combination of numbers. They didn't get the jackpot, but did get several of the other prizes (the equivalent of five numbers and the bonus ball in the UK Lottery, for example). Combined with the smaller prizes, they made a profit, but not as much as they intended.Phileas 04:25, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Name of garden designer

Hi I am trying to locate a garden designer/landscape architect by the name of carroucho (or something similar as I cant find nothing under that name). If anybody could point me in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Could you at least narrow down which country you're in? Breaking it down even farther like a specific state or province that you think they may be in would help too. Dismas|^(talk) 03:54, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe that he is spanish and could be a "celebrity" type garden designer. That is all I know at this stage. Thanks.

general hospital

whos the actor for the character named manny? hes the one who kidnaped elizabeth or emily(i forgot the name)and manny jus broke out of jail. this is in the '06 season. can u help me?

Robert LaSardo plays Manny Ruiz. Grutness...wha? 04:06, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Copyright Question

I've been thinking of starting a webcomic, and one of things that been holding me back is my grasp of US Copyright laws. Can someone clear this up for me. From what I understand things are copyrighted from the moment they are created and published, but how is this inforced? How can I stop people from using my ideas as their own, my characters, my comics. Thanks in advance Evil Vin 06:00, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

You can't copyright ideas (like a plot, or the concept of a robot monkey character), but you can copyright their exercise (such as the appearance of your robot monkey, with orange fur and metal tentacles and a distinctive nose and the name Muzu). If someone copies your character, they may only do so under the terms of fair use or permission from you. If they violate these terms, your main recourse is legal action, such as a DMCA takedown notice to their web host, or a lawsuit in court. Keep in mind that you're probably just being paranoid. If they rip off your jokes, consider it an honor. Just make sure you tag your strips with your name and your web address and every time people pass it around you'll get some free advertising. Night Gyr 06:53, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

• Actually characters are trademarked instead of copyrighted, but it amounts to the same for this question. Particular images within a comic are protected by copyright just as the specific text of a book. - 131.211.210.17 09:09, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Basically, copyright is enforced in the courts or, more usually, by threat of the courts. That is, you'd have to sue somebody. Usually the threat of suing somebody is enough in and of itself if the infringment is blatant. If you want an easy-to-read primer on how copyrights work, I recommend Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture, which is available online. His argument about the danger of copyrights might not appeal to you but regardless he has a great discussion about the ins and outs of copyright issues which is easy to understand and make sense of. --Fastfission 16:15, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

• Ok thanks. But are trademarks for my characters auto-trademarked or will I have to register with the goverment? If I do not have to register with the goverment for the trademark, should I anyway? Heh just a little paranoid. Evil Vin 23:09, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

You don't need to register a mark for it to exist (see [5]), though registration does provide some benefits. If you are really paranoid, just make sure you maintain evidence of what you have created, how you created it, and, importantly, when you created it. One easy way to do this is to go to a notary public and get it certified that you created X document by at least the point in time when you went to the notary (you can do the old "mail yourself something in an envelope and not open it", but a notary public would be more legally meaningful). --Fastfission 16:39, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

How to increase my membership of my society?

I am a member of *The Sherlock Holmes Society of India.I have been a part of this Society ever since its existence. However, the increase in its membership has been at a snail's pace despite the high quality of the discussions which are held in the Society. I have tried posting my links with other Sherlockian societies but with limited success.Can you help me out with suggestions to achieve increase in membership? sumal 11:08, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

• Try see if bookstores and libraries in your area want to help promote it. People in other Sherlockian groups are unlikely to switch or join another (especially the foreign ones). I think you'd do better if you focussed on getting people from India to join. - 131.211.210.17 11:48, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
  • You may try the yahoogroup quiznet. Don't post it as an advertisement, or the moderator will not approve it. Post a 10-12 question Sherlock Holmes quiz and add a few words about your group or link to the mailing list at the end. Tintin (talk) 12:18, 11 April 2006 (UTC)
  • If Indian publishers sell advertising space in the back of their books (I have no idea whether they do or not, it's become much less common here in the UK), you might approach them to see if they'll carry a one-pager in the back of relevant books. Might be fairly pricey, though. --Bth 12:41, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

• Membership is usually a function of visibility. Try to find ways in which you can, in a non-obtrusive way, increase attention and awareness of your society's existance. One way to do this in your case might be to try and pool your member's resources in the attempt to create a good web resource relating to Sherlock Holmes, on the assumption that people interested in Holmes will be interested in the society. --Fastfission 16:42, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Tactical shooter SWAT games

I've recently tried the demos for SWAT 3 and I've found I really like this type of shooters. Not mindlessly blowing the baddies away, but using actual tactics is great. Until I get the cash to buy this game, has anyone got ideas for free alternatives? My computer is an oldie, so my CPU will probably not do anything too far over 266MHz. Any ideas are welcome. - 131.211.210.17 11:46, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Well then you are in luck. SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle requires only 233 MHz. Or did you mean SWAT 4? Jedi6-(need help?) 21:51, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

• Yes, I know, but I was wondering if there were any similar games than just SWAT 3 I could run. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:49, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six - One of the pioneers of the genre, gives you an opportunity to trace out each stage of assault (reqs:System: Pentium-166 or equivalent RAM: 16 MB Video Memory: 1 MB); Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (reqs: System: PII 266 or equivalent RAM: 32 MB Video Memory: 4 MB); Delta Force & Delta Force 2 (reqs:System: Pentium-166MMX or equivalent RAM: 32 MB). If you have access to a faster computer, try America's Army - it's accurate, fun, and free. ˉˉ^anetode╞┬╡ 06:48, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Userbox

Why is Rudy Giuliani on the face of a vandalism userbox? Thanks, Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 12:12, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I would guess it's a reference to zero-tolerance. Henry^Flower 14:57, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Eating endangered animals

i one day would like to eat lots of endangered animals :). such as panda, elephant, Humpback Whale, Leopard, Loggerhead Sea Turtle and komodo dragons. i was just wondering where these animals are eaten and how much they cost. i know that it is illegal to eat these kinds of animals but people still do in asian countries. just wanted to know where and how much it would cost to eat these animals.

any help would be greatly appreciated!

From mr P

Well, if you want to eat endangered animals, a trip to the local fishmongers may be the easiest way to start, since all fish are endangered. Mind you, if enough people eat the species you mentioned, you might also wish to consider cannibalism, since the reduction in numbers of rare species indirectly endangers the human race as well. Grutness...wha? 13:29, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Any species becomes endangered if you eat enough of it. So all you need is a large appetite, a large wallet, and a mind firmly set on your job. JIP | Talk 14:45, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you start with homo-sapiens. They're cheap, abundant, not difficult to find, and rather tasty. Raul654 14:49, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Not all endangered animals would be good to eat. You can pretty much rule out predators like big cats. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:08, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

There used to be a restaurant in Washington, DC (might still be there for all I know) which bragged that they served lion. User:Zoe|^(talk) 18:17, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Too bad Brando's dead, he could've hooked you up. Although if you're willing to lower your standards a bit, certain African and Asian safaris have restaurants that feature wild animals on the menu. For instance, at Mamba Village, you could check out the crazy antics of a group of crocodiles, and then eat one of them! Or, if you're really famished, go to the Chiang Mai Safari Park and feast on a buffet that includes lion, tiger, elephant and giraffe meat. ˉˉ^anetode╞┬╡ 07:03, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

i was wondering more about the black market prices for animals such as these, e.g. the price of panda meat. and in what country this happens. Mr P

See bushmeat. Bhumiya (said/done) 06:29, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Size of the internet/Porno

Im sure this question has been asked many many times, but is there ANY approximation how large the internet is? Probably a dumb question/ but yeh, any answer welcome

Additionally, Ive always wondered what percentage of the interenet is porno. Is there any answer to these questions? ~ Anklepants

Have a look at How Much Informations? Shimgray | talk | 14:53, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

But that doesn't answer the question about the pr0n. The made up statistic tends to be around 90%. Here's the Straight Dope having a go at figuring it out properly. (While we're at it, where did "give me the informations" get started? I used to know but have forgotten and Google is just coming up with people using it, not discussing its etymology.) --Bth 17:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

"Informations" there was a typo, incidentally!

The study does mention what fraction it thinks is pr0n:

2,743 sites (or 28%) appeared to contain pornographic content. To generate this statistic, we matched a list of 94 pornographic stopwords to terms in the associated URL and the index page.

and to me "about a quarter of sites" sounds a pretty plausible estimate, though bear in mind this doesn't equate to about a quarter of the content, especially given the number of SEO domain-redirects and so on porn spammers will have. Shimgray | talk | 17:55, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

So it does; I didn't manage to find that bit. Your typo has been made before -- "give me the informations" is a wider Internet version of "suitly emphazi", but I forget where it came from. --Bth 07:37, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

for an authoritative answer, you'd need to run an operation the size of ECHELON. to answer the question of what percentage of data transferred (not, hosted) is porn, counting google hits is worthless (hence, the fraction of 28% estimated to contain pornographic content above tells us nothing at all about the fraction of internet traffic due to these sites). Counting search terms frequency is worthless too, because the people who transfer the lion's share do not idly look for "porn" on google. Anything related to counting websites is worthless, since the data transferred by viewing some web page pales in comparison with a gigabyte's video download. To really get an idea, you'd need to stat the bittorrent networks. To get a first idea, you'd probably want to look at a site that indexes both porn and non-porn content such as torrentspy.com; compare the number of le(e)chers connected to each torrent, multiplied with the torrent size, and you'll have an idea. I wouldn't be surprised if it was significantly more than 50% (but you'd expect the ratio to drop significantly at times when a newly pirated Harry Potter movie is being distributed), while about a quarter sounds reasonable for the fraction of data hosted. At the moment, the largest share of data transferred via the pirate bay tracker is Basic Instinct 2, a 4.36 G file, downloaded 1500 times with another 1800 downloads in progress, amounting to 8T worth of this file distributed over this tracker alone in about two days (you can view many image-laden websites to get to such a number). I leave it to you to decide if this particular file qualifies as porn or not :) dab (ᛏ) 18:28, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

The large amount of torrent and P2P software is making this even harder to research. Note that the pirate scene via the internet is huge, and that there is a very large porn pirating scene with it. If you know where to look, you can find thousands of files being offered/torrented easily. As such, it will be impossible for any private person to even approximate the percentages involved in the amount of data being up and downloaded.

I have heard that 90% of internet traffic is porn, but I do not know how accurate that is. Nevertheless you have to realize that porn by its very nature is more media intensive then other uses of the internet (that is porn will be pictures and movies, other parts of the internet will be text and maybe pictures). If person reads news online night and day every day and once a month download one pornographic movie, most of his internet traffic is porn. That does not mean that he mostly uses the internet for porn. Furthermore it is quite possible that there are a small percentage of addicts that contribute significantly to the numbers. Be careful how much you read into the statistics, even if they are accurate. Jon513 07:29, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

volunteering

Hello. I am interested in becoming an editor on Wikipedia. Is there a specific process by which I could be alerted of the need for editing of an article, etc. I also like to do reserach and would be pleased to do some of that as well. I'm not even sure if this is possible. Do I just have to choose random articles and select edits as I see fit? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.

Editour 18:57, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Check this out. Follow any of those links in the box to the right to find articles that need your help. --Optichan 19:24, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Create an account (edit: oh you've got one) and just go around editing whatever to your heart's content. If you're stuck for ideas, start with your interests, your home town, etc.  -- Run!  20:32, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

looking for satoo

i'm looking for any information about chief satoo. i work at satoo school in millwoods and i already know that satoo means jumping in cree and there was a chief named satoo. i'm looking for additional information in regards to tribe names, location, lifestyle, and any other history of satoo. thanks to anyone who can help. lynda

I didn't see anything about a chief named Satoo, but [6] looks like it might provide some answers. Chapuisat 20:15, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Also see [7] and of course Cree on wikipedia.Chapuisat 20:16, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Is it possibly an alternate spelling of Sahtu which is pronounced the same. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:20, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Holidays

Does Sikhs have their own holidays like the other religions?

• Yup. [8]. It's a major omission from our Sikhism article, though. Night Gyr 20:49, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Vaisakhi was celebrated just last Sunday. Happy New Year!! Natgoo 23:33, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Copyright in Bolivia

Are sources from the Bolivian government in the public domain? I'm specifically thinking about pictures from the Galeria de Presidentes de la República de Bolivia (Gallery of Presidents of Bolivia). I don't spot any copyright notes on the site; maybe a Spanish-speaking user could help me out here. Punkmorten 21:13, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried at Wikipedia talk:Copyrights? They can be very helpful. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:24, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I'll try. Punkmorten 08:31, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Are you asking if they are public domain in the United States or in Bolivia? Most of those paintings are almost certainly public domain under U.S. law on account of their age. I don't know Bolivian copyright law at all, though, so I have no idea what their legal status within Bolivia is. --Fastfission 16:23, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Edit link

How come the edit link on the right hand side is not working? I just clicked on the last one expecting to edit the copyright in Bolivia section and got this blank section. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:26, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Oh that worked well. The comment ended up in the Bolivia section anyway. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:28, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

For some reason the edit links are working on the section above the one I click on. Very odd. Natgoo 23:38, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I suspect that someone has added a section other than at the bottom, and this throws off the editor. StuRat 00:11, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I deleted the "naked portal" to re-sync this page. If someone knows how to put it back properly, please do. hydnjo talk 02:17, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

This is the stuff I deleted: at ==naked==; {{Clothes free/box-header|Clothes free-related topics|Portal:Clothes free/Clothes free-related topics|}} {{Portal:Clothes free/Clothes free-related topics}} {{Portal:Clothes free/box-footer|}} hydnjo talk 02:23, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

April 12

Boxed messages

What is it called when you maked boxed messages like this? 
 (I feel like a dumbass for asking this.) The Republican 00:45, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

our stylesheet's impression of a teletype (<tt>) tag? dab (ᛏ) 13:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Eating yourself

If you eat your own body parts, does that make you a cannibal? A Clown in the Dark 02:48, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

If you mean nail biting or gnawing pieces of skin from one's fingers then no according to our Cannibalism article, "... because it is not the intentional harvest of a food item." hydnjo talk 03:25, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Why yes, yes it does. Except that it is termed Self-cannibalism. Good luck on your endeavor! ˉˉ^anetode╞┬╡ 07:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Is that spelled yummy or ouch!  ;-) hydnjo talk 18:24, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Mermaid

Are mermaids imaginary creatures or they exist?

They were imaginary last time you asked, a few days back. As far as I know they still are. (Gryphons, on the other hand...) Grutness...wha? 07:11, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I think sailors used to mistake manatees, dugongs and other members of order Sirenia for mermaids. (Perhaps the result of long periods at sea without any women available?) --Bth 08:54, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Mermaids (film) exists though... Thuresson 12:29, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I think the truth is more like, they've been using these mammals for sex since time immemorial. And enjoying it - some of them probably preferred manatees to their wives. So they gradually attributed human female characteristics to them to subconsciously assuage the collective guilt of their cultural bestiality and in so doing created a haunting maritime archetype that is deeply rooted to our innate sense of dominance over the animal world. JackofOz 13:34, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I think the answer is that that it is improbable for them to exist, but not impossible. Well, I must admit that so far I have never received an accurate and reliable witness account. Luthinya 20:07, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

If they don't exist, then what are we talking about? How can we be talking about something that doesn't exist? That doesn't make sense.Phileas 04:26, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

We can speak of the essence of mermaids without addressing the existence of mermaids. Just ask Thomas Aquinas. Bhumiya (said/done) 06:40, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Since the question concerns itself with another possiblility to the mermaids' existence- namely, that they are imaginary to the human mind. Just because something is imagined does not say anything about whether it exists or not, therefore you can very well talk about it without addressing their existence- in essence, that is. LCS 08:51, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

It's very easy to talk about something that doesn't exist. Haven't you ever discussed the characters in a film? They don't exist. Notinasnaid 09:16, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I heard manatees made a motion like rocking a baby so sailors thought they looked like women. But I think they look like ugly hippos. Jonathan W 15:22, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

So do some women. For great justice. 23:44, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Cecil Taylor solo Piano

I'm looking for solo piano recordings of Cecil Taylor. I already have "Air above mountains" what solo piano recordings did he make beside this one. Are there any other interresting solo piano artists~(-recordings) with a similar musical style like taylor?

Thanks -- helohe (talk) 09:11, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

There are several solo recordings by Cecil Taylor, and usually they are brilliant. I would recommend Silent Tongues, For Olim and The Willisau Concert. There is of course no other pianist who plays quite like Taylor, but you may find Matthew Shipp interesting. David Sneek 10:40, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

How many animals in a herd

The collective noun of bison is a herd, is there any standard practice or rules as to how many animals you have to have before it can be called a herd. The reason I ask is that a farmer in Wales has bought 6 bison to start a 'herd'. I wouldn't consider 6 to constitute a herd but is there any accepted number which constitutes a herd? AllanHainey 09:55, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I guess the number doesn't matter... if you are referring to a group of bison as a whole then you could call it as a "herd".... and anyone number more than 1 is a group... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 10:10, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

"Starter herds" commonly have some small number of animals (generally greater than four AFAICS, presumably for prevention-of-inbreeding reasons). --Bth 10:17, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

...or when exactly does a pond become a lake? hydnjo talk 19:42, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Look, you're on a safari vacation and your guide points to a group of three or four elephants and exclaims "Look, a herd of elephants" but don't go to the town pub that night and describe it as such. It's oftentimes subjective, one person's herd is another's group. hydnjo talk 20:05, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I've heard of groups. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 20:33, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

See Paradox of the heap. —Keenan Pepper 08:07, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Pink Rice

Does anyone know the existence, or heard of the existence of pink coloured rice?

I've eaten it. Commonly sold in UK supermarkets mixed together with white and yellow rice in an entirely artifical "look, it's exotic and exciting so it's five times the price" marketing ploy.

Here is a recipe for something that definitely isn't what I had. This article claims the pink comes from tomato. --Bth 12:07, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I've added cochineal to rice, and it turned pink. I don't believe that's what you're asking, though. I'm not sure if there's any natural pink rice, it's probably just coloured. Jude (talk,contribs,email) 13:17, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I've read that on Girls Day in Japan, a common gift is pink rice cakes. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 19:46, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I have a bag of rice flour by Lotus Foods that is Bhutanese Red Rice Flour. It says Finely milled red rice. The web site is WWW.world of rice.com info@worldofrice.com Hope this helps.

Forbidden rice is purple... —Keenan Pepper 07:54, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Section 114, Canada Tax Act

IF I've understood correctly (which no one else should rely on!), Section 114 is supposed to say that if you become a resident of Canada during the year, you're not supposed to be taxed on income earned prior to becoming a resident (and vice-versa if you start out a resident and become a non-resident). However I simply can't find in the forms or instructions where it allows you to make this claim. Do you just silently omit the income earned as a non-resident, or what?

By the way, as I read the material on the foreign tax credit, you *cannot* claim a foreign tax credit for taxes paid on income earned when you were a nonresident (oversimplified but I think that's what it comes down to). It seems to me that wouldn't make any sense if you were taxed in Canada on that income; while it might not result in double taxation strictly speaking (because you might be able to claim a credit against the Canadian taxes in the other country), it would be saying that Canada would have *extra* claim on that income, that it wouldn't have had if you'd been a Canadian resident at the time. That seems to fail the minimum rationality test. --69.158.24.50 15:58, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

I'm Canadian, but it turns out that this is a world forum, where a lot of people don't care about our little country. The CRCA web site might have something on this. --Zeizmic 17:03, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

So I understand that Canada is not the whole world (if it were, the question would hardly come up, eh?) but I humbly suggest that the question might be of interest to as many people as are fascinated by who was the first member of the US Navy or the history of the Massachusetts sales tax. Canada Revenue's site turns up little; I was able to find the act itself on another gov site, but it's not so easy to read. --69.158.4.46 18:03, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Found it. See Publication T4055, "Newcomers to Canada", pages 11 and 12. Available here. Boy, they sure don't make it easy to find; you'd think this would come up often enough that they'd put something on the tax form itself. --69.158.4.46 18:38, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Sure, it comes up often enough. On the other hand, every time it comes up, they lose out on potential tax revenue. Draw what conclusions you will from why such information isn't obviously apparent. The same holds for many other locations, too. I went through similar hoops for my mid-year move between states for my income taxes. — Lomn Talk 19:12, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Patouli Oil

What is patouli oil? What's its cultural significance - i.e. what images might come to mind about its use? Thee's nothing in Wikipedia as far as I can tell. Some references I've found are in [9] and [10]. Thanks, --81.19.57.138 16:55, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Thee might want to watch thy tone, friend. --Trovatore 02:59, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Wasn't it just a typo for "there's nothing"? JackofOz 03:09, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

It was, of course (but I suspect Trovatore realised that anyway!). --81.19.57.138 07:42, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Of course. I must have been distracted by the sounds of all those anvils. Squilli eccheghi to you, Trovatore. JackofOz 14:42, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Patchouli oil? --LarryMac 17:01, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

That looks like it might be it - thanks Larry. --81.19.57.138 07:42, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Historical list of Congressman & Senators of the US 18th & 19th century

Hello. I am looking for a web page or possibly a book that would list & picture all the Congressman & Senators of the 18th & 19th century.Thanks, Mark

Big job. Lists exist, pictures may be harder. See our Template:USCongresses for member of each sitting of Congress. List of former U.S. Senators and List of former U.S. Representatives. Congressional Biography Guide can also help. Rmhermen 15:36, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Justic vs. Mercy

Which is more effective in an imperfect secular society: Justice or Mercy? Luthinya 20:42, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Yeah! A philosophy homework question! Those guys usually don't hang out here, because their responses don't fit on a page. --Zeizmic 21:33, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the answer's very easy. Neither of them. A combination of the two is the only one which really works. The trick, of course, is to know how much mercy to leaven your justice with and vice versa. And anyway, why assume those two things are mutually exclusive? Some justice is very merciful, some mercy is very just. Grutness...wha? 03:45, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Excuse me, if you accuse me of writing my homework here I shall be very cross, since I am too young yet to study ethics properly in school. It is only a continuation of curiosity after a discussion on the topic with my friends. During this discussion we agreed that in a perfect world where everyone had equal beginnings, there is no real need of mercy, since mercy is used mainly to function as extra opportunities given to those unable to receive them earlier on in an imperfect society. Concluding from that, in a perfect world, justice and mercy are mutually exclusive, since one is giving people exactly what they deserved while the other is more than what they seem to deserve, which is no longer necessary since what people deserved had then been given a rigorous definition in a perfect world, instead of in an imperfect world where every man is different from his brothers and what each deserved appears very ambiguous and cannot be globalizd. Also the seed of mercy is pity- pity for some misfortune uncommon to most men. Yet since everyone had an equal replica for opportunities, what room is there to pity? In a perfect world it also seems to be free of crime, free of even the need to pity.

But for the imperfect world we live in, of course, I agree with you- The boundary between what man deserved and what he ought to be given is no longer so distinct or clear. In these cases it is very well seen that justice and mercy must co- function, and could become each other in very humane yet reasonable ways forbidden had the two sceptres been separate. For Justice is like a clear eye that sees all yet never forgets- too hard often upon mutable man. One must learn to see and judge with great Justice, yet know that it is not the task of Themis to heal, only to find. That latter task must then be left to Clementia, and it shall be just indeed.

But here's another problem: who define the laws of absolute justice, if this is so? Luthinya 09:08, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

And here's a real life case of "Justice or Mercy" Robert Latimer. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 18:28, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

April 13

Editing and Duplicating Movies

Is it legal for local classification authorities (say in Nepal) to edit copyrighted Hollywood movies and then issue duplicates themselves, especially if the submitter of that particular movie is not its licensed distributor? --202.21.189.119 02:55, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

AFIAK international copyright treaties prohibit this, however not all countries are signatories to the treaties and therefore it may be legal somewhere. I think anti piracy laws kick in if the original creator isn't kicked in so unless they're paying it's illegal. -- Tawker 03:51, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I not sure what you are saying in the second sentence. Do you mean that the creator of the original work has not been paid? I get this vision of God being kicked about. Please "suitly emphazi". Thanks. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 04:23, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

A licensed distributor would (ideally) have the right to modify its product to confirm to the targeted market, right? And oh, the movie is being handed over (after editing and duplicating) by this classification body for the submitter's personal use.--202.21.189.119 06:00, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Advanced Placement Exams

Just out curiosity, does anyone know the highest number of AP exams that a single student has taken in one year? (Anywhere, and how they faired). I'm finishing up my S3 (junior) year and plan on taking quite a lot. (Won't mention the exact number as not to embarass myself.)Thanks. C-c-c-c 04:05, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

If you take 8 and score an average of 4 on all exams you'll be an AP National Scholar so people must take at least that many. Chapuisat 14:02, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't have to be all in one year though. —Keenan Pepper 14:18, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Iranian nuclear & solar

The Iranians have enriched their own uranium (& congratulations on this), they say they want this for civil nuclear power because eventually their oil will run out & it isn't good to be too dependent on one source of power. I don't want to get into whether or not they should do this & whether or not they should, or aim to, produce a nuclear bomb but I'd like to know how widely used solar power (photovoltaic, solar hot water heating, etc) is in Iran and whether the government is taking steps to advance the use of solar & other non-nuclear/non-hydrocarbon sources of energy & to what extent. It seems like Iran would be ideal for the use of solar energy but we never hear about whether they are using any energy sources other than nuclear & oil. AllanHainey 09:37, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

They do have some: see A list of solar installation businesses in Iran and a in-progress commercial scale installation. Rmhermen 19:36, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

viewing and watching sexy images and films

Is surfing in porn sites, viewing and watching sexy images and films the reason that a person has abnormal personality considering that most of the people have such interests?

Opinions on the effects of watching porn vary. Consuming porn is unlikely to be "the reason" for an abnormal personality. And I doubt your assumption that "most of the people have such interests". You might want to read the articles on people like Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin ... probably better brain food than pron. See also Are women human?. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Enjoying looking at naked people is perfectly normal. For great justice. 23:37, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

WaterAid logo

Hi,

I would like to update our logo on this page to our new logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WaterAid

Do you know how I would upload a new .jpg?

My contact details are <email removed>

Many thanks for your help.

Vincent Casey.

• Yes, see Special:Upload and specify Image:Wateraid.jpg as the target destination to overwrite the old file. If it doesn't show in the article immediately, try purging your browser cache or do a trivial edit on the article to have it updated. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:46, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

skill development

what is skill development

Devloping the skills of a person?? And more specifically skills that'd help them to get a job.... Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:09, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Human Rights

Can I please get a list of HUMAN RIGHTS?

Try our article human rights. Notinasnaid 10:30, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

In which age are you posing this question? Human rights have certainly involved since the prehistoric age and the list is changing every minute.Luthinya 11:43, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Not really every minute, although they do change. The concept of human rights is relatively recent, and not universally accepted. For great justice. 23:36, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

film magazines in australia

anyone located here in australia know of any magazines that are available at most newsagents which are concerned with film and cinema; not just reviews and ratings; but scholarly discussion on certain films and other issues to do with the cinema.

i have tried ASKING newsagents and they say they are "not sure what i am looking for".

anyone have any suggestions/ideas?gelo 13:21, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I used to subscribe to an Australian magazine called Cinema Papers but I am unsure whether it remains in circulation. When I was reading it, Cinema Papers specialised in discussing Australian films with the odd reference to arthouse type foreign films. If Cinema Papers is no longer being published then perhaps Inside Film [www.if.com.au] could be your cup of tea. Hope this helps. --Roisterer 13:45, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

aquarium filter emergency

my neighbour went away for Easter and I'm supposed to watch out for her new aquarium; with her barely out the door, the pumps/filters ("Eheim professional" [11]) started to make whining noises, and one of the pumps is leaking water. Is anybody here versed with the art of aquarium maintenance? Will it kill the pumps if we just leave them running? How long until the fish die if we switch off the pump? dab (ᛏ) 13:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Difficult to say. Best thing to do is kill the pumps, and try to leave an air bubbler on if she has one. Best to kill the lights as well to stop overheating and stagnifying. With just a bubbler, the fish should be ok. --Zeizmic 22:20, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Set up a live webcam and we can comment and email you if your fish start to look unhealthy! For great justice. 23:35, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

law suits

what is class action law suits?

There's a good description at class action. Isopropyl 14:42, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Trampoline/Earthquake

I heard that the scariest thing about earthquakes is the fact that the ground is moving. Well what if you were jumping on a trampoline when an earthquake happened? When you're on a trampoline the ground is moving all the time. Jonathan W 15:16, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I take it you've only heard about earthquakes, rather than experienced them. In my experience (and I've got a bit; three significant earthquakes followed me in my peregrinations between Northern and Southern California), the scariest thing is thinking the roof is going to fall on your head. --Trovatore 18:23, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Ya I've never been in an earthquake before. But what about my idea? Jonathan W 21:56, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

If you are simply standing on a trampoline then the "ground" (assuming you mean the surface of the trampoline) isn't moving. If you are jumping on a trampoline, then the surface does move, so to speak, but in a highly predictable manner (and nothing at all like how the earth moves during a quake). If you were jumping on a trampoline at the same time as an earthquake, the trampoline might shift in position as the earth moved, and then you'd likely land somewhere other than where you'd expected. --LarryMac 22:06, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Yes, the fact that the ground moves is not really scary in and of itself, it's the consequences of that, such as buidlings falling down, bridges collapsing, gas lines bursting etc. A trampoline will provide relatively little protection. I was once in a swimming pool during an earthquake, which meant I was isolated from the sensation of movement, your trampoline would give you that, it was wierd to see water sloshing over the sides of the pool! For great justice. 23:34, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the answers. Jonathan 01:27, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

adding information

Hello,

I would like to add biographical information to Wikipedia. What is the procedure?

Thank you.

Sandford Tuey --24.82.89.30 16:01, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

• If there's already an article on the person in question, just use the "edit this page" link at the top. See Wikipedia:How to edit a page.
• If there isn't an article, you'll need to register an account to be able to create a new one (or go to Wikipedia:Articles for creation if you'd rather not create an account for some reason). Do make sure the person you're adding information about meets our notability guidelines.
• You should probably avoid writing about yourself, if that's what you're intending, even if you're notable (see WP:VAIN). However, if you sign in you can create a user page about yourself to tell your fellow editors who you are.
• One last thing: in general, you're better off asking questions like this at the Help desk. --Bth 16:11, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

bio of Joel Norris,Phd

I would like to know if Dr. Norris is still publishing or even if he is still alive. He is one of the earliest published authors of true crime books on serial killers. His latest published work, that I can find, are paperback reprints dated 2002. His last known address was in Columbus, GA.

Thank you for any and all information.

-- """

I suggest that you contact one of the publishers of his books such as Random House or Pinnacle Books. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:44, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Google Maps question

Google Maps has pretty good satellite imagery from all over the world, but its actual map is hopelessly USA/UK-centric. For the USA and UK, we get every street in every city, no matter how major or minor, accurately drawn out and named. For the rest of the world, pretty much nothing. I looked at Europe and Asia and saw that according to Google, the only city - in fact the only populated place at all - on the whole Eurasian continent is Torino (Turin) in Northern Italy. Even France or Germany don't have any data whatsoever. Why is this? Is Google purposely taking a side and ignoring the non-English-speaking world, or is it a technical matter because they just haven't had the time to enter all the cities in the world to their database yet? JIP | Talk 17:41, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Try Google Earth -- http://earth.google.com/. User:Zoe|^(talk) 17:54, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

not sure what you mean I get good shots of both Paris and Berlin using the coordinates in their articles. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:59, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Do you mean satellite photography or drawn maps? I get good satellite photographs from everywhere in the world, but drawn maps only from the USA, the UK, and curiously, Torino. Try clicking the "map" or "hybrid" buttons on the toolbar instead of "satellite". JIP | Talk 18:05, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I see what you mean having now tried London as well. I had to zoom out on the map button (Paris & Berlin) and then all I get is rivers and lakes. The hybrid gives me the satellite but no street names. Also your comment about "good satellite photographs from everywhere in the world" should be "good satellite photographs from some areas of the world" There's a lot of places where the coverage is poor and can't be focused and thet includes the UK, the US and southern Canada. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 01:11, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Yeah...i thought Paris and the Vatican were in the list of sighseeing places....and Asia has been covered pretty well.... maybe you didnt activate some of the layers on the thing..... and obviously it'll take some time before they can put up every town in the world to be viewed from above...Jayant,17 Years, India • contribs 18:04, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

It's not every street in the US, just the 100 or so major population centres. The reason is that Google is hosting public domain USGS orthographically-projected aerial photography (which the USGS collected from aircraft during the 1990s and 2000s). This same data is available using NASA World Wind. It is public domain (but if you're intending using it in wikipedia, please use the stuff from Worldwind, as google appear to have done some processing and montaging which is (arguably) copyrightable). For other countries (pretty much every one else) they have to use commercial satellite photography, and that costs a significant sum of money. So most countries are titled largely with PD NASA Landsat imagery (that's the blocky and rather hyperverdant imagery) with commercial imagery for cities. It's not true that we get every street in the UK - Edinburgh is only half covered by the commercial imagery, for example, and we're left with useless Landsat imagery for the rest (the nice bit). The same is true for most other places. So really the reason isn't a US-centricism, it's that the US consititution makes all this nice imagery for free, but other countries constitutions don't, and their national mapping agencies are collectively a gang of cheap bastards (cough OS cough) who want us to pay for photos and data for roads we already own, collected by civil servants we already paid. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:07, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

In Edinburgh, the dividing line is - bizzarely - Murrayfield! It seems to be a set area around each airport, which makes a degree of sense but does lead to some very odd coverage. Shimgray | talk | 18:10, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I looked all over the world in the "Map" mode (as opposed to "Satellite" mode) and saw that the only places marked as being inhabited by people were the USA, the UK, Japan, and Torino. According to the "Map" mode, no one lives anywhere else. Is this because only those places have been kind enough to allow Google free or cheap access to their cartography databases? Please keep in mind that for the entirety of this section, I have been talking about the "Map" mode, you know, the one which draws those black lines on that light grey surface and writes text like "Potzrebie Lane" over them. Not all the pretty satellite photography which makes you feel like you're flying. JIP | Talk 18:12, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

I noticed that there were barely any street maps for places in Australia.

Also, the road maps for Calgary are out of sync with the images, which is annoying. Jonathan W 21:54, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

My guess is that it's simply a case of what map data they've bought access to and inputted into their system. As for why it's only those areas, your best bet is probably to contact Google and ask them. -- AJR | Talk 23:58, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

creating a desk

I've joined the Cleanup Taskforce and am trying to create a desk. I've tried several times, following the directions given, but it doesn't seem to be working. Can you please give me additional guidance? Thanks.

Writeright Writeright 18:15, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Just click on the red link in the box on your userpage, add this code {{cleanup user|q= X (amount of jobs you're willing to take at one time) |d=*Your Interest 1 *Your Interest 2 *etc.}}. Then save. Voilà! --Eivind^t@c 20:48, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

famous people born on 24th of november

what famous people were born on november 24th?

Have you checked November 24? JIP | Talk 18:43, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

• Meredith Henderson comes to mind. She's a Canadian actress best known for her title role in The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, but she also took on the role of Shania Twain in Shania: A Life in Eight Albums, the recent biopic on the country star. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:38, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Functions of Chief Coordinator of Disaster Control

Hi,

I would be glad if I can get some information about the functions of Chief Coordinator of Disaster Control - in general and also within an organization (keeping India in mind).

Thanks and regards,

Bulbuli

April 14

Advanced Placement Exams in States and Canada

How can you become a National AP Scholar (Canada) with 5 AP exams with 4 or more as a grade, and then 8 exams to be a National AP Scholar in the States? Anyone know logic behind this?

00:39, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

I have no idea. Are you considering becoming a National AP Scholar? -Snpoj 01:56, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Largemouth bass

Are largemouth bass native to Virginia waters? It seems to me that I have read somewhere that they were introuduced.