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October 12

Quick reference-reliability question

Hello, do you think that this citation by independentaustralia.net is reliable and can be used? I believe it is, but I haven't encountered this publisher before, so I wanted to double check. Cheers! Johnson524 15:21, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

Yeah it's fine. Nanonic (talk) 15:38, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

@Nanonic: Thank you 🙂 Johnson524 15:41, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

independentaustralia.net is listed in User:Headbomb/unreliable.js as a "generally unreliable source". I'm not sure what caused it be listed there, (perhaps User:Headbomb can comment), but I would not use it without first discussing the particular page you want to cite at WP:RSN. CodeTalker (talk) 06:08, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

@CodeTalker: I didn't know about this, thank you for telling me so I can double check. Cheers! Johnson524 06:11, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

In general, such questions are best asked at our Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard (WP:RS/N).  --Lambiam 04:48, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

October 14

Correct licence plate code of Nigeria: WAN or NGR?

According to our list International vehicle registration code, the current code for Nigeria is WAN since 1937. This is in accordance with the source, the official UNECE list, however this PDF is undated and may not be up to date. The Dutch Numberplate Archives claim that the code of Nigeria has changed to NGR in 1992. German automobile association ADAC has taken over that apparent new code in their list, as did German website landerdaten.info in their collection of all kinds of country codes. However, this may have happened because the claim was first taken over in the German Wikipedia article. The list at targheitaliane.it declares NGR only to be "unofficial". Is there an official, indubitably up-to-date list where we can make sure which code is the correct one - WAN or NGR? --KnightMove (talk) 14:41, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

This website [1] gives the dates the codes changed. Gambia has been WAG (West Africa Gambia) since 1932. Ghana was previously WAC (West Africa Gold Coast) until independence in 1957. From 1959 it is GH. Nigeria has been WAN (West Africa Nigeria) since 1937. Sierra Leone has been WAL (West Africa Sierra Leone) since 1937. This website [2] agrees, as does [3] and our article Vehicle registration plates of Nigeria. Some websites also give the International Olympic code, and on this one [4] you can see how confusion might have arisen. Nigeria became independent in 1960, so a 1992 change is unlikely. 88.111.190.170 (talk) 17:04, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Turquoise mining in the Sinai

Good afternoon, everyone. In Sinai in Serabit-El-Hadem and Wadi Moghar ancient Egyptians mined turquoise, but I have not found any data on modern turquoise mining there. What data is there about modern mining of turquoise in these places? Thank you in advance! Vyacheslav84 (talk) 16:32, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Couldn't find much except: "Today's Egyptian Turquoise is still mined from the original, ancient mines of the Sinai Peninsula". [5] I suspect that there's not much left. Alansplodge (talk) 21:19, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! --Vyacheslav84 (talk) 19:26, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

@Vyacheslav84: Mindat.org gives Wadi Maghareh in the South Sinai Governorate as the only locality in Egypt for Turquoise. See here and here. DuncanHill (talk) 21:05, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! --Vyacheslav84 (talk) 04:55, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

I had turquoise mined from the Sinai. I gave it away a few years ago to someone who was a fan of the mineral. If I knew it was rare, I would have never given it away. Viriditas (talk) 23:54, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Energy price development

Have energy prices actually risen anywhere else like they have in Germoney... sorry, mean Germany? 2A02:8071:60A0:92E0:856B:25F3:1ABA:A66D (talk) 20:02, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Household electricity prices worldwide in March 2023, by select country suggests that Germany is not an outlier. That Putin fellow has given everyone a hard time. Alansplodge (talk) 21:27, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Fossil fuels and other forms of energy are traded on a world-wide market, so prices are correlated. There're still differences resulting from trade embargoes, transport costs, conversion costs (turning fossil fuels to electricity costs money; how much depends on the fuel you use and the technology used in your power station), taxation and subsidies. You can count on the prices being tightly correlated within the EU.

If you're referring to petrol, I think that Germany has, compared to other countries in Western Europe, relatively low tax and high sales. That means that an increase in the price of crude oil has a relatively large effect on the petrol price and the government has limited ability to do something about it by lowering taxes. When petrol hit well over €2/litre (for the Americans, that's about 8–9 dollars per gallon), German tank tourists even visited the Netherlands to buy petrol, while normally the opposite happens. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:23, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

"German tank tourists even visited the Netherlands" - an odd turn of phrase, open to an unfortunate historical interpretation. By "tank tourists" do you mean people crossing the border just to fill up? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:38, 15 October 2023 (UTC)

Dutch has the term tanktoerisme, possibly borrowed from German (!) Tanktourismus, a form of cross-border shopping in which the shoppers fuel their vehicles, called tanken in both Dutch and German. The first component of Tanktourismus derives from the stem of this verb.  --Lambiam 08:00, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Note that German Tank always means fuel tank, never tank (which is Panzer). Joking about using tanks to go to other countries has cost some German politicians their careers [6]. —Kusma (talk) 08:10, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I was referring to people crossing the border to fill up their fuel tank. Petrol stations get built as close to the border as possible. It's a significant source of government income in some small countries like Luxembourg and Andorra. And there are absolutely no hard feelings against the Germans in the Netherlands any more. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:43, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks all. There is always a danger in translating idiom, generally it doesn't work. As an anglophone I have never heard the words "tanktoerisme" or "Tanktourismus". As I said, it just seemed an odd phrase in an English language encyclopaedia. As regards hard feelings; my Mother was in Coventry during the Blitz and I grew up playing on bomb sites in the West Midlands, and yet now it is good to see my sons learning German and visiting the country for cultural and recreational activities. Time marches on and keeping old wounds open doesn't help, I could name several places where a battle of 300 or 3,000 years ago still causes division and bloodshed today. Kusma, the link seems to have some sort of demand for money and something about cookies headed "Tagespiegel". Unfortunately Google translate doesn't translate such pop-ups. Regards, Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:34, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Sorry, to read Tagesspiegel you need to either accept cookies or pay money. The story I linked to isn't really worth either. —Kusma (talk) 09:54, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

It is about a young CDU politician who wrote on an Internet forum, "Nach Frankreich fahr ich nur auf Ketten" ("I only go to France on track"; German Kette means "chain" but is also used as short for Gleiskette, meaning "continuous track" such as used for tanks). This was not his only war-glorifying statement made publicly; he also volunteered the opinion that had he been a crusader, "we" would still have Jerusalem.  --Lambiam 20:10, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the précis Lambian. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 20:36, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

October 16

Fastest multi-deck boat in 1940?

Legend of Korra has a situation where they are trying to get away from a Crazy Waterbender, and the boat (which appears to have two decks) speeds up very quickly. Given that LoK technology sort of runs in the 1920s-1940s punk situation (ending with something that is definitely at the A-Bomb wonderweapon level), I thought I'd ask about the fastest a boat of that time period could go... Naraht (talk) 19:04, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

The USCGC Fir (WLM-212) could run at 12 knots, but I don't know how well the ship could accelerate. It was not designed for high acceleration. I suppose with 1940 technology, when aiming at high acceleration, a much lighter multi-deck boat could have been built, resulting in much lower water displacement and thus better acceleration, while still using 1,350 shp engines or even more powerful ones.  --Lambiam 19:48, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

USS Maury of 1938 could manage 42.8 knots (49.2 MPH), although that was a full-sized ship. The British MTB 102, a 1937 motor torpedo boat which had a crew of twelve, could make 44 knots (50.5 MPH). Civilian boats were rather slower, except for racing motorboats which generally only had a cockpit - Miss England III of 1932 managed just under 120 MPH and her competitor, Miss America X, did just under 125 MPH. Multi-deck motor yachts were more sedate; most of the inter-war yachts I looked at didn't exceed 15 knots (17 MPH). Alansplodge (talk) 21:18, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Using the drag equation, I find that the magnitude of the initial acceleration under full power of a boat initially at rest is given by

$a={\frac {P}{mv}},$

in which $P$ stands for the power, $m$ for the mass of the boat and $v$ for its top speed. To apply this, you need to convert the given values from horsepower, tonnes and knots to SI units.  --Lambiam 07:08, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

That formula may be a useful rule of thumb, but it's not hard physics: first, it assumes that maximum effective power is available at top speed; second, it assumes that thrust is independent of speed.

BTW, the drag formula isn't very useful for boats. For a surface vessel, the drag coefficient depends not only on Reynolds number, but also on Froude number and therefore speed in some complicated way. Practically speaking, big ships have a drag proportional to speed, but for fast boats, when getting close to the hull speed and when dealing with planing hulls, things get complicated. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:55, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

October 17

Help me find the "South Forty" on Polson Bay, Montana

With the help of Montana politician Joseph M. Dixon (1867–1934), Congress granted 160 acres for research purposes, 80 of which was set aside for what became the new and current station on Yellow Bay, 40 for part of Bull Island, and 40 for Wild Horse Island, which was exchanged for the "South Forty" on Polson Bay. Later, land on Bird Islands was added fore research use.

This is sourced from the audio transcript here. I listened to it so make sure the transcription of "South Forty" was correct, which it is. But I can't find anything about any islands (or is it in reference to something else?) called the "South Forty" in Montana. I would appreciate some help. Thanks. Viriditas (talk) 23:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

There appears to be a slight error in the text; based on what I am seeing of Flathead Lake, I believe that should read "Polson" rather than "Poison", though I may be looking at the wrong thing. GalacticShoe (talk) 23:44, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

It's my typo, sorry. I will correct it now. Viriditas (talk) 23:45, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

October 18

No answer required

Are we not all guided towards the fountain of truth?

Drink deep. Where else will you slake your thirst?

MinorProphet (talk) 02:32, 18 October 2023 (UTC)