Jump to content

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Toytoy (talk | contribs) at 11:01, 1 December 2019 (→‎The 17 mm lens mount for smartphones: new section). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.


Welcome to the miscellaneous section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.
Select a section:
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.



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.
See also:


November 24

Alcohol consumption

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_diet#Harvard_School_of_Public_Health

I realise that alcohol is not recommended for everyone but they've said twice that alcohol can have health benefits when consumed in moderation. When they mean "alcohol" do they mean all alcohol has health benefits or not?

When they say "alcohol", they mean ethanol-based drinks - not pure ethanol, and not the many other types of alcohol such as methanol or propanol, which are much more toxic. They are saying wine, beer and spirits, consumed in small quantities (1-2 drinks per day) can be beneficial for some diseases, so long as you avoid risky behaviours which can result from such drinking. "In general, risks exceed benefits until middle age". Please don't take my summary as the whole story, read the full Harvard document.-gadfium 05:14, 24 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
For the purpose of most of these studies, a standard drink is about 14 grams of ethanol diluted by water and other ingredients. See here. That amounts to about one 12-ounce serving of 5% beer, (standard bottle or can size in the U.S. In countries that use the metric system, a standard bottle/can is about 330 mL or 11.2 ounces) a 5-ounce glass of wine (12 % abv), or a 1.5 ounce shot of hard liquor (80 proof/40% abv). --Jayron32 12:59, 25 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What are they talking about when they mean artificially sweetened drinks? -- 60.242.121.62 -- 06:54, 26 November 2019‎ (UTC)

Read Sugar substitute. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots08:14, 26 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What I mean is when it comes to artificially sweetened drinks, are they talking about energy drinks or soft drinks?


They're not just saying red wine is the only alcohol that has health benefits is what I'm saying when i mean "alcohol" or are there other options as well or not?

From WebMD:

"The strongest evidence suggests alcohol of any kind can increase good cholesterol," says Harvard researcher Eric Rimm.

However...

"Heavy alcohol consumption wipes out any health benefit and increases risk of liver cancer, cirrhosis, alcoholism, and obesity," Rimm says. "Heavy or binge drinkers may have increased risk of stroke, chronic hypertension, weight gain, colon and breast cancer."

  • Zelman, Kathleen M. "The Truth About Beer: Calories, Bellies, Nutrition, and More". WebMD.2606:A000:1126:28D:9417:2118:29F3:6E25 (talk) 21:50, 26 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

What i mean is are they saying any alcohol has health benefits in moderation or only some?

...alcohol of any kind can increase good cholesterol.

2606:A000:1126:28D:9417:2118:29F3:6E25 (talk) 15:39, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, recognize that 'can' does not mean 'to anybody, in any conditions'. --CiaPan (talk) 16:39, 27 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Podcasts

Why is there no central place like YouTube for podcasts? Surely there's one place that just lists them all (or tries to)? I want to listen to podcasts, but I can't work out how to get started. Can anyone help?

YouTube isn't "a central place" for videos (or whatever you want to call them), it's a site on which the video originators (or others, sometimes illicitly) actively place them. YouTube itself doesn't proactively "collect" the videos (to my knowledge), and there are various other such sites of lesser popularity.
By contrast, podcasts are usually made by people (or organisations) to place on their own websites, in order to draw traffic to them as well as simply to present the podcasts' contents. It would be counterproductive of them to additionally or instead place the podcasts elsehere.
A central directory of podcasts would certainly be useful for viewers/listeners, but it would be a lot of work to create, and difficult (though not impossible) for the creators to monetize effectively.
Perhaps there's scope for a Wikipedia-like crowd-sourced directory, although the volatility of the internet where podcasts naturally reside, as contrasted to the relative stability of established facts and the published reliable sources we use here, would make compiling and maintaining it quite a challenge. That said, we do have on Wikipedia the article List of podcasting companies. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.217.209.178 (talk) 16:17, 24 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Some podcasts, I believe, are published on iTunes. —{The poster formerly known as Tamfang} Tamfang (talk) 23:52, 24 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
[1] finds tons. 67.164.113.165 (talk) 07:46, 25 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The nature of podcasts is that they would be decentralized. Therefore, they use RSS and Atom (Web standard) for syndication. The whole idea of podcasts is that they are independently served on whatever webpage they are hosted on. In the wild days of Internet colonization, it was considered a virtue to be decentralized and not have a "single contact point" for hosting all kinds of information; multiple sites were tied together, in a web of sorts. Elizium23 (talk) 23:17, 25 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, the best place to find a list of podcasts is in your podcast player. Every app I have that plays podcasts, has a huge directory of podcasts that allows me to discover them, along with Internet radio and other protocols and formats. Have you tried sampling different podcast player apps? Elizium23 (talk) 23:21, 25 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

November 28

How to spot a fake university in USA, Germany, UK, France, Japan?

https://www.ndtv.com/indians-abroad/90-more-students-mostly-from-india-arrested-from-fake-us-university-2139879

There must be some way to verify a university in different country. — Preceding unsigned comment added by RijuThakur (talkcontribs) 05:57, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure there are many ways. One would be to see if it exists on Google Maps. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots06:59, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
In the UK: "Check if a university or college is officially recognised". GOV.UK.
You didn't mention India, but The Telegraph (Calcutta) has an article: G.S. Radhakrishna. "How to spot a fake university". www.telegraphindia.com.2606:A000:1126:28D:9417:2118:29F3:6E25 (talk) 07:17, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

La Macarena Airport - Etymology

Why is La MAcarena Airport in Columbia called that, is it to do with the song? 143.159.150.89 (talk) 21:27, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Probably more to do with being located near the town of La Macarena, Meta. MilborneOne (talk) 21:32, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The song was written in the early 1990's. Our article for the airport doesn't say when it was built and my google search came up empty but I'd guess it predates the song. MarnetteD|Talk 21:43, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
This is all very sensible but undeniably disappointing. 143.159.150.89 (talk) 22:16, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
More likely to do with Virgin of Hope of Macarena. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots22:55, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Wikt:Macarena#Etymology_2; "It is disputed whether it comes from Ancient Greek μακάριος (makários, “blessed, happy”), or from the homonymous neighborhood in Seville, from Arabic". Alansplodge (talk) 13:55, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Macarena, Seville#Etymology of the toponym Macarena says:
The origin of the toponym Macarena is disputed. While some authorities think that it is derived from Arabic, others maintain that it is from Latin. If is from Latin, Macarena would be derived from the male name Macarius. It is supposed that a patrician named Macarius would have been an important Roman landowner in this area. Alternatively, it is known that during Muslim rule, the still existing city-wall gate Puerta de la Macarena was named Bab-al-Makrin, which could be related with to the current denomination Macarena. The neighbourhood of La Macarena lends its name to the sculpture of Virgin of Hope of Macarena, sometimes known simply as La Macarena. Many Sevillian women are named after this statue. This gave rise to the name of Los del Río's Spanish-language song "Macarena" (the last sentence is unsourced).
So the answer is that the airport is named after the town in Colombia, which is named after an image of the Virgin Mary in Spain, which is named after a district of Seville, which is named after a gate in the walls of Seville and nobody is certain how that got its name. Alansplodge (talk) 13:59, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
@MarnetteD: Page http://aviation-safety.net/database/airport/airport.php?id=LMC mentions a flight in January 1976, destination to La Macarena, so the airport is at least that old. --CiaPan (talk) 16:42, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the info CiaPan. Nice work on the research :-) MarnetteD|Talk 17:55, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Always glad to help (alas, recently, not having too much time...) --CiaPan (talk) 19:43, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

December 1

The 17 mm lens mount for smartphones

Most, if not all, smartphone lens are using a 17 mm thread lens mount. At least several Aliexpress pages call them 17 mm lens. Do they have an official name? Can I get more information about it? I want to use them on my Raspberry Pi camera module v.2.1 or v.1.3. -- Toytoy (talk) 11:01, 1 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]