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Write to the President of Germany

Hello:

I would like to write a letter to the President of Germany. I cannot find a way in doing so.

If you could pass this question on to the President. Back in the early years, there was a man who lived in Germany from what we call the beginning of time. This man was called King Henry 1st. Ok Im talking about history from the past, but King Henry 1st going back 23 generations ago was my grandfather. Where Lord John was his son, and King John of England, all are my grandfathers. I do have all of the proof of all of this. I have the real last name as well as the last name that is in the books that we already know of. As strange as it sounds, the family has married into the Stuart-Stwart family. Not just onece but several times. But on April 13 of 2002 there was another joining of the two familys again. When my wife and I joined for the last time. I know that the house of King Henry the 1st is in Osterburg. Yes I would love to live there, but that house belongs to Germany.

What Im trying to say is that the President of Germany has very little power, but the grandson of King Henry the 1st, I should have the right to say if the President shoud receive more power than what he has right now.

Yes you have a President, but I place as a Prince as well as a King. According to the family history. So I should have a say so of the power.

You can write to me at the following address. royalfamily2@myway.com I will await for your responce. Dennis.

Sorry, but I don't think any of us here are that familiar with Johannes Rau. Good luck, though. Garrett Albright 01:02, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
That, and Germany is now a republic, with no royalty; the last Emporer, Wilhelm II of Germany, abdicated his power after Germany's loss in World War I -- See also the Weimar Republic. Sorry, but you have no sovereignty over Germany. Garrett Albright 06:00, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
It's a shame Germany is a republic. England however isn't. Since you are the grandson of king John perhaps you could lay claim to the English throne? Our own royal family have been shown to be somewhat lacking of late. The Queen is OK of course but she can't live forever, what will happen when she dies? Many people don't like the thought of prince charles becoming king, perhaps a new pretender would solve those problems. Of course the royal family don't have any real power nowadays but they do get to live in a nice big house. Anyway it's just a thought. theresa knott 08:42, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
After 23 generations pretty much everyone in Britain has some family connection to royalty, particularly on the wrong side of the sheets -- and many people have a closer connection than Henry I - Charles II was particularly prolific with his mistresses! Being a Pretender to the throne is not particularly advisable, look what happened to the Duke of Monmouth! Arwel 11:28, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Funnily enough, somebody has just recently discovered evidence that the entire British royal family has been illegitimate for about 500 years. I'm not joking! It should have gone to the Duke of Clarence instead of Edward IV. It turns out the real direct-line descendant is an Australian republican named Michael Hastings [1] - IMSoP 23:08, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Well i don't know my history all that well but i'm pretty sure that Henry Tudor took the throne by force from Richard III. I don't see any reason who that wouldn't have happened anyway. theresa knott 22:35, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Citing Wikipedia

who runs Wikipedia so I can give credit in a school research paper?

See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Garrett Albright 13:11, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Diacritic, apostrophe, or nothing?!

We are in process of looking for a new name for our company. The owner has come up with a "unique" spelling of a name that he thinks will give it more class! I'm wondering if it's correct (or somewhat correct!) to use an apostrophe?!!

The word is venture. He wants to name the company A'venture.

As another example, dish ... which he would change to A'dish.

What do you think? (Aside from the fact that it makes no sense...)

Thanks for any help/advice you can give me!

Lynn

Well, at least with A'venture, one could say the apostrophe stands for a "d" and get a play on "a venture"/"adventure." Silly, but not totally meaningless. A'dish on the other hand is a little weird. Personally I think the whole thing is pretty dumb but hey, he's the owner of the company, you might as well resign yourself to the fact that you have to put up with his silliness. moink 16:49, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

See if you can get any ideas out of List of company name etymologies. Jay 17:37, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Egypt in 1947

What was Egypt officially called in 1947, before it became the United Arab League in 1958?

THANK YOU.

Try History of Modern Egypt. Jay 17:37, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Daniel Bernoulli's Nationality

Recently, an anonymous user's only contributions have been to change Daniel Bernoulli and related articles to say that he was Dutch not Swiss. I've always been told in all my engineering classes that the whole Bernoulli family, Daniel included, was Swiss, but really, I'm an engineer, not a biographer. Can someone check this out? Thanks, moink 16:46, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Presumably that change was on the basis of his having been born in Groningen, NL; on the other hand he did live in Switzerland for nearly 60 years. NL wikipedia describes him as "Nederlands/Zwitsers", but the German, French, Spanish and Slovene Wikipedias all call him Swiss. On the basis that he spent more than 2/3rd his life in Switzerland I'd call him Swiss! Arwel 18:40, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
I'd go with 'Dutch-Swiss' or something to that effect. --Smack 05:13, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Or "Dutch-born Swiss" -- Jmabel 07:18, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia website font

Hi, I love this website and it has been more than useful to me on many, many occasions. The site is VERy professionally done but I thougth I will, if I may, make a suggestion that may help.

I am a web developer and we now see a much greater tendancy for Internet pages to be displayed in a font that is not Times New Roman. I agree that in a printout form Times New Roman is often the font of choice but for displaying on a monitor, as Wikipedia is intended, a font such as Verdana is more advisable. You will se my point when you look at two of teh biggest sites in teh world: www.microsoft.com and www.bbc.co.uk, they are both designed on the Verdana font and are much easier to teh eye when displayed on a monitor.

As i understand, it isn't that difficult to change the font and I strongly recommend that the Wikipedia webpages be changed to Verdana font. -- Thank you, Alom

Alom, a signed in user can select an alternate stylesheet "Cologne Blue", which has a sans-serif (I think it might well be Verdana) font. I think the reason the "classic" stylesheet remains the default is partially inertia, and partially the rather poorer handling of some older browsers with sans-serif fonts (and we do try very hard to sustain even the most antique browser). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:01, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Since when did "teh" Microsoft become an authority on graphic design? I mean, have you seen Windows XP's default appearance? Ug. I know the "experts" say that sans-serif fonts are better for screen design, but in my experience (I am also a web designer, of seven years) that applies more for short pieces of text (such as a list of links in a menu) than for long chunks of it as in a Wikipedia article. Garrett Albright 22:32, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Also, if you use a good browser like Mozilla or its derivatives, you can choose your own font preferences. -- Wapcaplet 03:04, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I personally think Times is underrated. It is a beautiful and highly readable font if only given proper spacing between the lines (preferrably 1.5em). Headings should always be sans-serif, though. Fredrik 20:57, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thomas A. Hendricks

I'm confused- and wondering if there are any vice-presidential trivia buffs that could clear something up for me. According to this article, Thomas Hendricks served as Grover Cleveland's first VP, but died in 1885. It says that he was succeeded as VP by Levi P. Morton, who didn't enter office until 1889. Was there no one in the VP spot for those four years? Why wasn't someone promoted to VP, in following with United States Presidential line of succession? - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 22:50, Mar 31, 2004 (UTC)

At the time of Hendricks' death, the constitutional amendment allowing for a replacement for a vacant Vice Presidential office wasn't in effect. Whenever a Vice President died or resigned, the office was left vacant until the next election. The appropriate amendment was Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was ratified in 1967. RickK | Talk 02:55, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

math

Could someone explain how the math works in the following trick? I realize that in this case, the "phone-number" is just a number in the millions, but what is the formula?

1. Grab a calculator. (you won't be able to do this one in your head) 2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code) 3. Multiply by 80 4. Add 1 5. Multiply by 250 6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number 7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again. 8. Subtract 250 9. Divide number by 2 10. The answer is YOUR PHONE NUMBER.

Sincerely, Kingturtle 00:34, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Easy enough. Say the 1st 3 digits of your phone number is "x" and the last 4 digits are "y". Then the whole phone number is 10000x+y.
You multiple "x" by 80: 80x
Add 1: 80x+1
Multiply by 250 : 250(80x+1) = 20000x + 250
Add "y" twice: 20000x + 250 + 2y
Subtract 250: 20000x + 2y
Divide by 2: 10000x + y
Voila! --DrBob 00:41, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Nicely demonstrated. →Raul654 00:43, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)
Minor point. We don't all have 7 digit phone numbers.


DrBob, thanks. But all you've done is the basic math again, which I already knew. I should rephrase my question. Why those specific numbers? why add one? Why multiply by 250 and later subtract 250? Kingturtle 01:21, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)


You can pick any numbers or procedures you like. If you generalise this procedure completely, and work through to get an algebraic expression, you can proceed again assuming a 7 digit phone number, with x and y as before, the phone number is 10000x+y.
Multiply x by a, a constant, add c to get ax+c, multiply by b, bax+bc, add y n times, bax+bc+ny. Now, to get back to 10000x+y, we need to reverse our steps and namely eliminate bc and n. Since we are allowed a little freedom in picking our constants, for bc, we only want to add 1 after we multiply by 80 (or a in this instance). So now we're back to bax+b+ny. Subtract off b, and we're left with bax+ny. Now, to make this equivalent to the phone number, we want to let ba=10000*n. If n=1, you can stop here and use factors 16 and 625 here, but the constants a=80 and b=250 give ba=20000, so divide by 2 also (so n=2). In general, if you pick constants a and b arbitrarily, you need to divide throughout by n=ab/10000.
Dysprosia 01:34, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)


They make the answer non-obvious. If I said take your phone number, add 1, and then subtract 1, it would be pretty obvious what the answer is. Extra (and more complicated) steps are necessary to make the answer nontriival. Why those numbers in particular? It's arbitrary. →Raul654 01:24, Apr 2, 2004 (UTC)

morphology of vernacula earth build in the UK

mlarcher@uclan.ac.uk Land 08703215390 0701 0713 765 To whom it may consern I'm Mike a degree student and at last I have found what seems to be a useful site that collates and disseminates information. sorry about my spelling I’ am dyslexic and don’t really worry about such things. To me the important thing is the content not the presentation. I am writing an assignment on the Morphology of vernacular earth build in the world with a particular interest in the UK. I already have lots of information on the world but appear to be struggling in the UK. there are lots of examples of earth construction but I want to see if I can prove a link between them showing an evolutionary nature to our knowledge and their construction over the millennia. So far I can see substantial variation in the types of early build with the great wall of China and Hannibal’s watch tower mentioned by the Roman historian Plyny from David Eastern book. But where is the change from one level of knowledge to another. Nina Jennings referring to Clay Dobbins of the Solway plains refers to the Long house derivatives their making a connection to the Norse tradition of building that was found in the Artic circle and changes in the locations of the fire wall but what about all the other changes to addobi or clay lump, when and where? I am desperately looking and quickly running out of time Please send me any information on changes to earth construction however insignificant it may seem. it may just provide the missing links I am looking for. In return I am willing to post my finished paper SPELT Correctly!! Thanks in anticipation Mike A

Thank you Mike but this page is for questions. DJ Clayworth 16:38, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

UK v. GB

What's the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom? --Alex S 16:26, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Great Britian is the name of the island. UK is the country plus all of its territories (Scotland, England, Wales, the Antillies, Gibralter, etc). →Raul654 16:29, Apr 1, 2004 (UTC)
That's "Britain", "Antilles", "Gibraltar". And the latter 2 are not part of the UK. -- Jmabel 07:23, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I can't speak to the Antilles, but from Gibraltar: "Gibraltar is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom" →Raul654 07:27, Apr 2, 2004 (UTC)
Simply put, the difference is that "United Kingdom" includes Northern Ireland, whereas "Great Britain" does not. "United Kingdom" is short for "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". --Auximines 16:46, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Erm, the Great Britain and United Kingdom articles go into this in quite some detail. Mark Richards 20:09, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Someone needs to run a bot to fix all those links to Great Britain that are actually intended for United Kingdom or Kingdom of Great Britain. British is a disambiguation page and many links to Britain are relevant to the country, not the meaning of the word. Any bot operators around? --Jiang 07:30, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Whoa there. A thought - every history book I've ever seen refers to the "British" during world war II, even thought it was the whole of the UK that was actually fighting. Don't ask me why, either, it's juts an observation. my point is that I think it's important to be in agreement with all the other texts on the subject. So whoever runs that bot had better know what he is talking about - I don't want him making changes if he isn't certain (or virtually so) why he is changing something. →Raul654 07:34, Apr 2, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, there will be a number of options:

--Jiang 08:42, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I annotated the list with comments - hope you don't mind!Mark Richards 18:41, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I think the best thing would be to go with one of the CIA World factbook conventional forms -
  • conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
  • conventional short form: United Kingdom
  • abbreviation: UK
Unless we are talking about one of the historical precusors or different geographical or political entities mentioned above like the Roman Empire or the British Isles. Using Britain to mean the UK is common, but incorrect. This is subtly different to the use of the word 'British', which, confusingly, can mean either 'related to Britain', or 'related to the UK'. Mark Richards 18:35, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, it's because it's very awkward to say "United Kingdomer", "United Kingdomish", whatever... so generally, it's either "British", "Northern Irish", or the specific area of Great Britain (English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish). ugen64 22:43, Apr 7, 2004 (UTC)

What we substitute each with depends on context, of course. If it's in a historical context, the refer to the precuror (e.g. "The American colonies declared independence from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Britain]]"). But someone reading that sentence would not be interested in how the word "Britain" evolved, so linking to [Britain] would do no good. We have different articles for UK GB&NI (at UK) and UK GB%I. For the UK before 1927, we would link to the latter. --Jiang 00:14, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I agree - but I think that the poster was suggesting that where we link to Great Britain, but actually mean the UK, we should fix it. I think you agree with that too - I share your concerns about using a bot to do this! Yours, Mark Richards 20:43, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Objects that talk to people

I am looking for the name(s) for objects that talk to people. Like a current TV show, where brass monkeys and wax lions talk to and give advice to the main character(Wonderfalls). I believe this is a common "myth" in many cultures, but I do not know what it is called, or where I can gain more information. Any help would be appreciated.

Seems like a type of anthropomorphism to me. Gentgeen 21:53, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Artificial human companion ? Jay 18:46, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Saint Ysidro

Does anyone know anything about the saint after which San Ysidro, California is named? Anglicised name? Biography? Reason for canonisation? Patron saint of anything? Vatican.va turns up nada, and google only finds the district of San Diego. No me gusta. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:46, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

60 seconds of googling brought up numerous references to one "San Ysidro Labrador" (de Chaperito) →Raul654 01:06, Apr 2, 2004 (UTC)
PS - translation = Saint Isidore the Laborer. See [2] →Raul654 01:07, Apr 2, 2004 (UTC)
Thanks. I really need to quit pretending to speak spanish - I managed to look at all those google hits and somehow think they were something to do with Labrador. -- Estupido.
Oh. I thought he was something to do with large friendly dogs! -- Arwel 02:08, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The first thing it reminds me of is the province, not the dog from the province. Associations. --Menchi 10:04, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Bing Crosby Records

I have several 78 records by Bing Crosby,Nat King Cole,Gordon Mac Rae, Rosemary Clooney,Sammy Kaye,Kate Smith,Patti Page,Gene Autry,Dinah Shore. There are 48 records in all , I was wondering if anyone knows the value or if there is somewhere I can find if there is any value to this collection.

Try looking on eBay for similar records (completed items) to judge how much they are worth. I don't think the majority of 78s are worth a great deal though, usually only a couple of pounds ($5) in junk shops Mintguy (T) 08:41, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Train Gauge

The news headline says that S Korea has a new train. What gauge do they use in S Korea?

It's a TGV derivative. I expect that the gauge is 1435mm, as virtually all high-speed lines are built to that gauge, even in countries like Spain and Japan which have extensive broad or narrow gauge networks. -- Arwel 21:56, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Japanese weddings

I need a person to talk to that knows about Japanese weddings. If anyone would answer a few of my questions please e-mail me at andy_lyn86@yahoo.com. Thanks

Perhaps try asking over at the Talk page for Shinto. Garrett Albright 10:59, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Actually do Japanese still marry in Shinto way instead of in church? -- Taku 01:28, Apr 8, 2004 (UTC)

list six different sounds that you can hear in your envirment

  1. The sound of me refusing to do your homework assignment.
  2. Sweet silence. - Fennec 23:42, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)
  3. The screams of those whom I have imprisoned. - Also refusing to do your assignment
  4. The sound of a tree falling in the woods when no one is around. Gentgeen
  5. The sound of your English teacher telling you off for spelling "environment" incorrectly. - IMSoP
  6. My cat farted. - Nunh-huh 00:24, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Anyone else? (We only need one more now...)

I'd grade that an A+ if I were marking it! Mark Richards 00:48, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Urdu language file help required

hi, I have a problem with the LanguageUr.php (Urdu language file). The problem is that even if I edit the file and complete all the parameters still, it doesnt reflect the changes on Urdu language main page. I have tried few things and tried to find the answer by looking at the language files in other languages but didnt help. (may be because I can only read urdu and english :) ) Can you help please?

See my reply to your query on the Village Pump - hope this helps! Arwel 14:05, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Source of Strategery

I'm trying to find when George W. Bush first said, as he was later famously quoted by Saturday Night Live, "Strategery." Does someone know of a newspaper or magazine article thats it in? Or maybe the context or date that it was said to make finding a secondary source of it easier? Its really hard to search for, since the word has practically entered into our vocabulary.


Irenaeus on giving

Several encyclopedias list Irenaeus view on giving as a free will giver, where can I get information on exactly what his position was on giving/tithing?

Adv. Haer. 4.18 might be what you want; if not, you can look through his writings ([3] [4]) yourself.

George Olsen

I need to know who else recorded the song 'Who' besides Olsen. I know there was another recording, possibly british or canadian made in the mid to lat...

Ship SS Bellona

Hello from Eugene, Oregon USA:

I am looking for a picture/drawing/photo of the ship SS Bellona.

Regards, John Schlesinger.

Do you mean the HMS Bellona? Catherine 20:14, 3 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Public Domain classical music recordings

Does anyone know where I can find some public domain classical music recordings? I need them urgently! Thank you so much. Conover 20:54, Apr 3, 2004 (UTC)

Try [5] from the Library of Congress. They might have other collections to search, too. Gentgeen 00:19, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Incredible. Thank you so much! Conover 00:46, Apr 4, 2004 (UTC)

Self-reference of characters in movies

Does anyone know exactly what the first movie was whose characters referred to themselves ironically as characters, as in "What do you think this is, a movie?", "That only happens in the movies," etc.

I don't know which movie (it kinda depends on how you define things), but this technique (which is called "breaking the fourth wall") is an ancient theatrical device - see Fourth wall. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:11, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Well, I don't know when exactly this rather post-modern form of self-reference first cropped in film in this way, but you might find some information of interest on Fourth wall. - IMSoP 00:20, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC) (written simultaneously)
The best way to find the answer to this question is to register on the message boards on IMDB and ask a question on the I Need To Know board. Mintguy (T)

Cause of Premature Gray/White Hair?

Hello, I'm a sufferer of premature white hair, and I'm interested in knowing the cause of this condition, particularly given my rather young age of 14. Much thanks in advance. --Johnleemk 13:39, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

According to the Columbia University Health Education Program:
The change to grey or white is caused by the gradual decrease of pigmentation that occurs with age. Contrary to what you may have heard, special diets, nutritional supplements, certain vitamins, and protein will not affect the graying process. Graying, whether it comes with the normal process of aging or prematurely, has a genetic basis. Hair turns gray or white when a pigment (melanin) ceases to be produced in the hair root, and new hairs grow in gray or white. If you're a smoker, take note: a 1996 British Medical Journal study conducted by J.G. Mosley, MD found that smoking may cause premature graying. When compared to nonsmokers in the study, smokers were at a four times higher risk of graying prematurely.
Although graying usually starts in the thirty-something age range, there's nothing to worry about in graying prematurely -- some say it's rather sophisticated and sexy!
Have to agree, by the way -- my brother-in-law (like his father) had silver at the temples at sixteen, and it looked really good on him. He's completely white now at 26, and it's very striking!
I'm adding this info to Hair color...we seem to be lacking in that section -- thanks for asking! Catherine 21:30, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Ismn't there a stress component to greying? Mark Richards 20:45, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

HELP!

(moved here from Talk:List of muscles of the human body — Timwi 15:41, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC))

I had a TBI 4years ago. I took my first swim class yesterday! BUT,now the back of knee hurts! What is name of that muscle,how can I strengthen,stretch it? THANK YOU, LisAnn Becotte

meaning of names

I was wondering at what point did the names in the bible receive their meanings? For example, Isaiah, which means the salvation of the Lord. Did that name always mean that or did it get its meaning after Isaiah became know for being a prophet and trying get Isreal to turn back to God? And this question is posed for other names as well that have a meaning that refers to God in someway in the bible.

Wikipedia entries for the names you're wondering about will often provide etymologies. For instance on Isaiah you can see that the name came from the Hebrew ישׁעיהו or "Yeshayahu". In that you can see יהו, from יהוה, YHWH, Yahweh, the name of God in the Tanakh, which suggests that Isaiah always meant "(something) of Yahweh", at least. Someone fluent in Hebrew, which I am not, could probably go so far as to say that it has always meant "salvation of Yahweh", which is what the etymology provided there says. The root words which make up a name are not likely to change meaning because of one individual, and Hebrew names tend to be made up of Hebrew words.
Of course you may have to trust the etymology provided in some cases, or cross-check it with other resources; one freely-available resource to chech against is Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), which while dated is still of some use. For example, you can see here that "Isaiah" has an etymology that agrees with the one in the Isaiah article here.
(This means that you would have to do the same sort of research for whatever other names you were curious about, but that's probably the best-case scenario anyway.)
Incidentally, note there that "Isaiah" does not refer to "the Lord" in those words, but to the specific name Yahweh; you've probably encountered an etymology based on a Bible version which systematically replaced direct mentions of His name with "the Lord" as is typical. — mendel ☎ 01:29, Apr 5, 2004 (UTC)

Australian question inflection

Do we have a page on the Australian Question Inflection (under whatever its real name is)? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:54, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Well, I thought I might come upon something following links back and forth from eh, which does have an article; I ended up at Australian English via Distinguishing accents in English, which probably should cover it, but don't seem to. Which is a bit perplexing, because I would have put Wikipedia down as being the place I'd heard of the thing in the first place, but memory's weird like that, I guess... - IMSoP 21:56, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
No indeed (although the accent article is otherwise excellent). Google finds almost nothing for "australian question inflection" and "queensland question inflection". Maybe it's something that occurs only on Neighbours. Thanks for looking. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:38, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
AQI as it is also known actually stands for "Australian questioning intonation" Mintguy (T)
A-hah! That's the trouble with google - you can't search for something when you don't know its name. Now I can cobble together a couple of lines for Australian English, which is all this (hopefully shortlived) phenomenon surely deserves. Thanks. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:53, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

pollination of pear trees

Seems to be missing a question... Perhaps try at Pear? Garrett Albright 21:44, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Try Pear, Pollination, Pollinator, Fruit tree pollination, Fruit tree propagation, or ask User:Pollinator.  :) -- Catherine 21:59, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)

N X 3

I would like to know what this means please: N X 3. thank you very much

It seems likely to be algebraic notation, where 'N' represents some (possibly unknown) quantity. 'N X 3' could mean that quantity multiplied by three. However, this could be completely wrong; could you perhaps provide some more context in which you encountered this notation? -- Wapcaplet 19:54, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Edward Gibbon Wakefield

yea hi my name is conrad and im doing an assignment for 7th form (level 3 NCEA) New Zealand History. i need information relevant to "how were wakefields ideas implemented" and "what were the outcome and effects of that". I also have other key questions but i have found satisfactory information on them. if you can help with sources and/or information, please contact me go_hungry@hotmail.com thank you for your help.

conrad

Conrad, did you read our article on Edward Gibbon Wakefield? If you find that article lacking, although it seems rather good to me, you might check out the books listed under the "Further Reading" section at the end of the article. You also might look up New Zealand Company for more information. Gentgeen 16:26, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

trix card game

(moved from a now-deleted page moink 18:04, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC))

can anybody please tell me where i can download trix card game :) doctor_laith@yahoo.com thanx al

Object's weight as a function of depth down a mineshaft

Does anyone know if there is a simple formula for calculating the variation in an object's weight as it descends a mineshaft? Perhaps someone has even tried the experiment. It might be easier to assume that the Earth has uniform density. Even better would be a general formula that worked for height above the ground as well as depth below it. -- Heron 20:00, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Above ground is easy: for an object mass m at height h, it's just:
where mE and RE are the mass and the radius of the Earth. (See Gravitation for more).
For below ground, it depends on your assumptions. If you assume that the Earth's density is completely uniform, it's:
where h is distance below the ground. This works because you can treat the gravitation of the Earth as a point mass at the centre of the Earth, with a mass equal to the fraction of the Earth's mass which is below the object's depth.
For non-uniform density, you need to know the density distribution as a function of the Earth's radius. -- DrBob 20:21, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, DrBob. At first I thought your answer was too simple, but then I found this excellent article which explains why you are right. -- Heron 15:56, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Isabella II and First Spanish Republic

Can anyone find the exact date of Isabella's escape into exile? Thhe closest I can get is "late September" of 1868. I'm trying to update the year pages to have the heads of state during each year. Any information on who was officially the head of state in Spain during the Republic (i.e., between Isabella and Amadeo and between Amadeo and Alfonso) would be very helpful too. -- Jonel 04:11, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)

uniforms of Lt. Jr. grade USCG WWII

I am trying to find out what dress and field uniforms consisted of (looked like) for a Lt. Jr. Grade in the Coast Guard in WWI. I'd surely appreciate images or text descriptions. Thank you. Nan Z

Try [6], [7], [8], [9] from the official USCG.mil site; see also [10] and [11] for more stories and links. HTH, Catherine 00:48, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

"Solvitur ambulando"

This phrase, which might be rendered as "It's solved by walking around", pops up occasionally, with a vague attribution to Saint Augustine or sometimes to somebody else. Is there anyone anywhere who actually knows where it comes from? Not "Try St Augustine" (I have, I have, and I might as well have been visiting a city in Florida), but chapter and verse? Dandrake 06:51, Apr 6, 2004 (UTC)

It might come from Simplicius' commentary on Aristotle's Physics, but you might want to check that yourself (my library's copy is checked out). —67.69.189.172 14:28, 6 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Maybe it's related to "peripatetic," describing Aristotle's way of teaching, by walking around his school rather than standing in one room.

Name of "Deutschland"

Why is it that the country known in its own language as "Deutschland" is called in English "Germany," in the Romance languages some variant of "Alemania," and in the Scandinavian languages "Tyskland"? How did these different names come about for the same place? Mjklin 03:21, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I found a discussion of this through some Google searching. It looks as though "Deutschland" came from an old German word, 'diutisc', which referred to a common vernacular tongue (and thence to those who spoke it). "Germany" apparently is from a Roman term for the Germani tribe, which was later applied to a region (Germany) where they once lived. The discussion at the above link explains it all better than I can. -- Wapcaplet 03:59, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
BTW, in Romania they use "german" to refer to a person from Germany, but "neamt" to refer to a person of German ethnicity. -- Jmabel 04:13, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Tyskland and Deutschland are actually the same word, showing sound changes within the Germanic languages (because the Scandinavian languages are, after all, Germanic). In Romance languages they took their word from the Germanic Alemanni...you might ask, why that tribe and not some other one, but I don't know :) The English word I guess comes from Latin Germania, but as far as I am aware no one knows where the Latin word comes from (maybe from Celtic languages). And in Slavic they use some form of "Nemets" which is equivalent to "barbarian" I think. Adam Bishop 23:18, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Ajara - Were Ajars deported by Stalin to Central Asia

I am trying to confirm whether or not Ajars were deported to Central Asia by Stalin, along with other Caucasians...and if so, when. It would help me to have a scholarly reference. Thanks if you can help.

I don't know (though I'm inclined to ask, who wasn't?). As I understand it, there is some controversy as to wheter Ajars even constitute a distinct ethnic group. In any event, you might find it useful to know that the term is also sometimes transliterated "Adzhar" or "Adjar", which at least should help you do a more effective web search. In any event, we really ought to have an article on the Adzhar Autonomous Republic, and we don't yet. -- Jmabel 03:45, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Yes we do. See Ajaria (several redirects are, admittedly required). It doesn't answer the original question, unfortunately, to which I can only say I have heard something along similar lines. I can only the original questioner success in his search, and googlespeed. -- Itai 04:08, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Ships Built in Singapore in the 1854-1870

(from the village pump)

I am trying to find information on my great grandfather's ship building in Singapore around 1854-1870. His name was Daniel Robb originally from Forfar, Scotland.

He had built "Heart's Ease" and "Rainbow" with Mr. Buyers, his partner. In an old newspaper article from Singapore, these ships were called "Sarawack Steamers".

So, I entered "Lloyd's of London" for my search and entered up with your site which is great but I can't seem to get into any sites that will give me any information about ships built outside of the UK and especially in the mid 1800's.

Can you give me any more suggestions for my research? Thanks so much.

Flags of Arab nations

I was looking through the gallery of national flags and I noticed that Jordan, Kuwait, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates all have very similar flags. Is there any reason for the black-white-green/red design in particular? An origins story? --Alex S 23:10, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)~

I did some checking, and I noticed that Flag of Jordan indicates that the colors refer to old Arab sovereign states and to a revolt during WWI. Flag of Yemen indicates that the colors are traditional colors that refer to abstract concepts. LuckyWizard 23:40, 7 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I've often noted that flags seem to go in "batches" in terms of colour - presumably sometimes due to common origin, sometimes due to influencing each other, and possibly sometimes just a subtle similarity in culture. For instance, a large number of European countries use (only) red, white and blue, whereas African nations tend to make heavy use of black, green, yellow and red; a lot of island nations, meanwhile, seem to use light blue/turquoise and yellow a lot, since they are the predominant colours of their environment. - IMSoP 01:39, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Right, you're talking about the Pan-African colours in the latter case and a combination of the Pan-Slavic colors and the Tricolore in the former. What I'm asking is do the Arab flag colors have a similar standard name or origin? --Alex S 01:59, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It's easy to see what IMSop means. The best explanation I can come up with is that they all felt compelled to include green in their flags, green being the color of Islam (see Green#Green_as_a_symbol), and the other colors just tagged along. The second best explanation I can come up with is that they thought no one would notice. I'm not helping, am I? --Itai 04:32, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

What Gm stands for?

question type: medicine

Hi there.

First of all, sorry by my engrish. I'm not a medic but I have a big yellow medicine book (with a medieval picture in the cover) called Principles of Surgery (Schwartz, Shires, Spencer, Stores, 1976, 3rd edition) (I'm not an expert, but, I think, this is a classical textbook, along with Guyton).

The problem is:

for example:

"Glycogen is stored in muscle and liver in combination with water and electrolytes, so that 1 Gm of glycogen yields only 1 or 2 kcal instead of the 4 kcal found in 1 Gm of dry carbohydrate." (page 19, chapter 1)

the above is a random page I had picked up, but the "Gm" spreads through all the book. So, what Gm stands for? grams? I've found nothing either in gram (unit) or talk:gram (unit), and besides:

"Initial therapy therefore always should be intravenous and should consist of 100 to 200 mg of cortisol as the 21-hemisuccinate or phosphate." (page 14, chapter 1)

So, if Gm stands for gram, why the author putted mg for milligrams? Is Gm a medical jargon? --200.154.209.96 01:16, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

This is almost completely a guess, and almost bound to be wrong, but might it have anything to do with moles? Obviously, "m" ought to stand for metre, and moles should be "mol", but with a "G" for giga, I thought this just might be worth consideration. (by the way, if that's "Engrish", I'm impressed - it was better than many native English-speakers!) - IMSoP 01:34, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I think in this case the author is using "Gm" as an (incorrect) abbreviation for "gram". I think this because 1 gram of carbohydrates = 4kcal is correct.
By the way, your "Engrish" seems like perfect English to me. -- DrBob 01:41, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Different pronunciations of Houston

Why is the name "Houston St." in New York City pronounced Houston as in house, while the city of Houston in Texas is pronounced as if it were spelled Hewston?

emm--emm 03:30, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Final Sigma

What is the code to insert a final sigma (looking somewhat like an English S) into a Wikipedia page? I've tried ;sigmaf, but it hasn't worked.

The semi-colon should be after the sigmaf, and a & sign before, so it turns out as ς Adam Bishop 05:00, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Eponym: Half or Full Nelson - Wrestling Hold - Who was Nelson??

I have not been able to find information on the "Nelson" the Half or Full-Nelson is named after. I am ready to give up, but thought I would try posting the question to Wikipedia. Thank you, Gary Showalter Van Wert, OH gbjja@bright.net April 8, 2004, 10:15 am EDST

A brief internet search suggests that it is named after the 19th century Horatio Nelson. Why, I don't know. Mark Richards 15:34, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)


Post WWII in Germany and Iraq Data

Where can I get information about Third Reich soldiers fighting U.S. or Allied troops AFTER World War II? In other words, the pot shots at Allied soldiers and battles with the Nazis in Europe after the war ended?

Also, where can I find the most accurate figures on the casualites in Iraq since the U.S. and Coalition forces began fighting the Baathists last year. I'm looking for both military and civilian casualities. I'd also like to compare the number of deaths in Iraq from the genocidal actions of Saddam's regime to the deaths incurred in the present operation to liberate Iraq.

Thanks you very much for your help.

Sincerely,

Janet Levy

Democracy, Whisky and Sexy

I remember that early on in the invasion of Iraq there was a commonly shown picture of some Iraqi citizens welcoming the US Troops, and one had a sign that said "Democracy, Whisky and Sexy". Now, when I google for it, I only get blogs that are now using the phrase ironically. Even when I use google images, I only get a blog banner that has pirated the phrase. Does anyone know where I can get a good news photo of the original banner? - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 15:35, Apr 8, 2004 (UTC)


Lenses for my camera

(from the pump)

can someone help me??? i have a Yaschica FR1,wanna buy some lences on eBay...can you tell me please what is the mount type is on this camera?is it a bayonette,or a screw something???

thank you

I don't know the answer to your question, but you might have better luck asking at the Reference Desk. — Adam Conover | Talk 12:05, Apr 8, 2004 (UTC)


Xavier Cugat Caricature.

(from the pump)

Hi there! I have a Xavier Cugat original caricature that I want to sell. I know he worked for the Los Angeles Times during some time. Any ideas who would be interested? Where to go to get it evaluated? You can reach me at latvsion@hotmail.com Thanks, Mrs Worley


translation

(from the pump)

I was curious how you would write the female name of Jordan in aramaic. Or the initials J L L would also be sufficient. Thank You.

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