Welcome to the miscellaneous section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

Select a section:

WP:RD/M

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

How can I get my question answered?

Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
Note:
- We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
- We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
- We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
- We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

March 26

Strange anomalies

It's OK to show a man's nipples in public, but it's not OK to show a woman's nipples.
It's OK to show the clear shape and size of a woman's breasts through her clothing, and depending on the setting she can even be economical with her clothing and allow a large area of her breasts (except for her nipples) to be exposed - but it's not OK to show the clear shape and size of a man's genitals, either exposed or through clothing.

What is behind these strange anomalies? (Obviously, there are cases, such as nude bathing, where exceptions to the above apply. Ignore these cases.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 11:23, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

_{Isn't bathing always done in the nude?} Zyc1174 _chat? ^{what I did} 03:04, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Which particular culture and period are you asking about? I have lived in a culture where no one worried if a woman showed her breasts - but showing her legs was quite unacceptable. Then there was a time in Europe where cod-pieces were worn to show off the size and shape of male genitals. In each case there are reasons behind those customs. Wymspen (talk) 12:18, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Topic already covered in articles Nudity, Toplessness, and Topfreedom. Dimadick (talk) 15:46, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Wikipedia has articles titled Mores, Value (ethics), Social norm, Sexual ethics, Sexism, Nudity, Toplessness, all of which and many more could lead the OP to insight as to the origin of these particular double standards regarding western cultural norms. It's not the sort of thing which can be answered with a simple answer, and requires much study into the history of gender and sex cultural norms, mores, and politics. --Jayron 32 15:50, 26 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:06, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Hey @JackofOz:, you may be interested in reading some of these relevant past discussions [1] [2] on the reference desk. I seem to recall that we had an article specifically about men's crotch "bulges", but all I can find at present is Packing_(phallus) and tucking. And if you want to see a whole bunch of bulging crotches in a modern Western culture, head to San Fransisc sometime near one of their many festivals ;) SemanticMantis (talk) 16:21, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

My beating heart would not survive such a cornucopia of carnality. But thanks for the offer. :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:41, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

March 29

Solar panels

I just read that solar panels have a life expectancy of 20 to 30 years. After this time, can the panel be recycled completely into another panel, like for like. Or are new materials required to replace any expended ones from the old panel? If so, I guess solar panels aren't really renewable? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.242.209.68 (talk) 09:07, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Silicon-based solar panels (the most common type) have good potential for recycling with 90-95% of the materials being recovered in existing processes. However, the recovered glass and silicon is usually sold for use in other industries as the recycling process introduces too many impurities to be easily used in new solar cells. At the present time it is more economical to refine new raw silicon to the required purity than it is to recover it from recycled solar panels. That might change in the future, but at the moment one generally doesn't recycle solar cells with the aim of creating new solar cells. Dragons flight (talk) 09:25, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The general concept is called downcycling and it's very common. The opposite, naturally, is upcycling. Recycled material is less pure than original material and may not meet the same needs as before. For example, recycled fine paper may get downcycled into newspaper which gets downcycled into toilet tissue. Matt Deres (talk) 12:21, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have three anecdotes (my brother, my neighbor, and the company I work for) in which they paid to have the panels removed rather than sell the panels for recycling. The cost of removal was high enough that my brother strongly considered leaving the dead panels on his roof. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 13:01, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Amateur archivists and data hoarders who amassed huge collections

I have read about Marion Stokes [3] (40,000 VHS tapes), Vivian Maier [4] (150,000 photographs), Henry Spencer (2 million USENET messages), Paul Mawhinney [5] (3 million records), and I find their commitment really inspiring. Are there any similar examples? People who grew huge amounts of data throughout their lifes (I am aware of Jason Scott of Archive Team [6] and Brewster Kahle of Internet Archive [7] too). Regards and thanks. emijrp (talk) 21:48, 29 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Forrest J Ackerman is generally credited with amassing the largest collection of sci-fi memorabilia in the world. Our article doesn't really go into it, but there's a bit more here. Typing largest collection of into Google gives you no end of collections, from Star Wars to rubber duckies to garden gnomes. Guinness World Records would obviously have quite a lot of such items, for example: see this. Matt Deres (talk) 13:43, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Norman Yarvin's http://yarchive.net is another significant Usenet archive. This was hand-selected, not a completist and automatic one. Andy Dingley (talk) 19:31, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

March 31

Expat man who abandoned his baby and disappeared

Hi,

I know an expat from the UK who got a lady pregnant in the Philippines and then who disappeared. What options does the lady have to get financial assistance? Can she report him to her or his country's authorities? What if the father left to a third country with no way to be tracked? Can she still ask a DNA sample for one of his family members to prove the kid is his? Will the UK provide her assistance with the kid? Thank you very much. 2001:EE0:4041:3567:74CA:ACE7:E56F:2A46 (talk) 08:58, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you know the man, then you could put some pressure on him to "do the right thing", but we cannot provide legal advice here. Dbfirs 09:32, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to be related to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 March 8#Man who impregnates unwilling women on purpose. 86.169.57.223 (talk) 11:16, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

More than related, it's likely the same questioner, a single entry from an IP that geolocates to northern Vietnam. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:45, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

She will likely get very little help in the Philippines, as that country takes several steps to reduce paternal responsibility. Unless he signed an affidavit of admission of paternity, which is unlikely, the child is officially considered illegitimate and both mother and child have limited ability to force him to provide support, especially as he is out of country. Matt Deres (talk) 14:53, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Objects on buildings

I've seen a couple of such objects on the walls of two old buildings in Warsaw. Are these old radio horn loudspeakers (possibly pre-war or post-war) or something else? Brandmeister^talk 19:28, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Think this is a good case where it may help to ask the people who live there. They may not have been living there when these horn where installed but they may have heard why and when they were installed. With that information you can cross check it. They may have been left in place as a reminder of Soviet era. If so, the local people will know this and be able to tell you. Aspro (talk) 19:59, 31 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]