Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2009 June 8

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June 8

Tallest Building

What is the tallest publicly accessible building in London, England? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.177.122.112 (talk) 00:39, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

List of tallest buildings and structures in London? Vimescarrot (talk) 00:46, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

That page does not answer the question as asked. It says the highest public viewing point in London is on the London Eye, but that is a ferris wheel, not a building. If this is what the original poster really wanted, we're fine. As to buildings, I know that St. Paul's Cathedral has a high-level gallery open to the public (accessed only by stairs), but I don't know if there is a higher one in a building in London. --Anonymous, 04:05 UTC, June 8, 2009.

The question says nothing about viewing points. From the list, it would seem that One Canada Square is the tallest building that the public can access. They may only be able to go into the lobby before having to then show some sort of proof of employment there but they can access the building. Dismas|^(talk) 04:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

If you are happy to pay for access, it depends how deep your pockets are. 30 St Mary Axe (the gherkin) has a "dinner club" under the dome on the top floor. That is open to members of the dinner club (and presumably their guests too). Membership seemed to be open to anybody, though when I asked the security team in the lobby said it was "very expensive" but couldn't (or wouldn't) say how much membership was or who I should contact for membership - they had that slighty snooty air you get at some top nightclubs and restaurants, so maybe they didn't want the riff-raff coming in their nice building. Astronaut (talk) 09:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Assuming you're meaning buildings it is possible to go to the top or near the top, and based on Wikipedia entries, etc, Tower 42 (aka the NatWest Tower) is the tallest that's definitely accessible, with a bar on its top floor, called Vertigo 42[1]. It's the 4th-tallest building in London (and the UK), and the 6th-tallest structure in London; One Canada Square, 8 Canada Square, and BT Tower[2] are not accessible to the public; I can't find info about Citigroup Centre, London but it seems to be purely offices and not publicly accessible, and Crystal Palace transmitting station is probably not accessible either.--Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:01, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Male Identity

What would be a simple explanation for what male identity actually is? I know it is what makes a male but what factors would be involved in manliness e.g. males in media and literature, male stereotypes, father and son relationships etc

220.244.76.121 (talk) 01:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Your question is kind of unclear. can you clarify what you mean by "factors"? You may want to look at the articles masculinity, man, Gender role, and Gender identity. Sifaka ^talk 02:18, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I am talking about factors such as males in media and literature, male stereotypes, father and son relationships etc and their relevance and influence to the sense of male identity, and how they affect the male identity. 220.244.76.121 (talk) 02:30, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The repetition does not clarify. Are you asking about how (among other things) media portrayals of male characters affect my sense of self, or something like that? —04:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

sounds like homework —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.75.191.210 (talk) 06:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

This is a question that is going to come up with different answers in different cultures. E.g. in the US pants are a male symbol in Egypt and other African nations (and some Asian) males are just as male in Kaftan, Jellabiya or skirt. Sikh boys may wear their long hair in donut style like some girls do elsewhere thumb|donut hair. In some cultures males would feel incomplete without an Assegai spear while in others a brawny body does the trick. Male image also changes with time. Hair length e.g. keeps alternating between short and long (compare e.g. Image:Cicero.PNG, File:Durer self portarit 28.jpg, File:James Dean in East of Eden trailer 2.jpg, File:Jethro Tull 5.jpg, File:Arnold Schwarzenegger.JPG) So the answer is: depends.71.236.26.74 (talk) 18:03, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Digital databases help

I work on a lot of articles on obscure topics and the only way to find decent sources on many of them is to trawl digitized newspaper/other periodical archives. I'm talking about stuff you can barely find a nugget to work from using google web, books, news (many news results you do find there you have to pay for to access more than an abstract) nyt.com, etc. I recently found quite a bit of material for articles using ancestry.com via their free trial, which you have to cancel before two weeks expire or be charged an arm and a leg. I just spent some time attempting to find other sites to use. Highbeam Research has a five day trial and then charges boatloads. Proquest is another subscription site. I don't really feel like paying third parties for the ability to research material so I can add it here as a volunteer. I am also philosophically opposed to paying for educational material like this. I just stumbled across accessmylibrary.com, which is apparently free and claims to cover 33 million+ articles, but entering searches for material where I found hundreds of results at Ancestry.com, I'm finding nothing. Their search is very poor because I then tried as a test a few searches that should return many thousands of results, which are returning very few. For example, Richard Nixon only returns 200 results. I would expect maybe 100,000, so something's not right. Anyway, I am looking for recommendations, comparisons, other site prospects—anything anyone has to offer in the area.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:07, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

First see Deep Web and Metasearch engine, then check out this list of research sites. 152.16.16.75 (talk) 09:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It's worth looking to see if your local public library has subscriptions to any useful sites - they may allow you to use your library membership to access them remotely. Warofdreams talk 10:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I assume you have been to the List of digital library projects article? --Saddhiyama (talk) 18:24, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Library of Congress's Chronicling America is free, and has a million newspaper pages from 1880 - 1910. -- KathrynLybarger (talk) 02:56, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Also this site has a comprehensive list of international newspaper digitization projects. --Saddhiyama (talk) 11:44, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the responses. I will be checking out the links provided. This is a slow process because the only way I can really check, is when I am actually doing research; actual application will determine for me if these are a good substitute for the pay services.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 22:53, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Migratory Birds Pre 1492

Lots of birds migrate from Europe to America or vice versa. Prior to the 'discovery' - or rather publicisation - of the Americas where did the Europeans think they went to when they migrated? AllanHainey (talk) 12:29, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Most European birds migrate to Africa. If the Europeans thought about it at all, that would have been a good guess. Off the top of my head, I'm not aware of much migration between Europe and America in any case - what would be the point? The seasons are pretty much the same. Matt Deres (talk) 13:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Barnacle Geese were thought to transform into driftwood since they disappeared during the summer when they breed in the arctic. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 14:26, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

There seems to have been much speculation on this subject specifically with regard to swallows (fully laden or otherwise), for some reason. The Cambridge Bestiary (twelfth century) clearly says that "overseas it lives during the winter"—and its author also recognizes that storks migrate. Nevertheless, it was a widely held opinion for centuries that swallows and some other small migratory birds wintered at the bottom of lakes or streams; see footnote 1 at the stork link in the preceding sentence for Samuel Johnson's pronouncement on the matter. Deor (talk) 16:26, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Nice link - but my read is that he was being sarcastic! Tempshill (talk) 05:27, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

2009 EU UK election results at county or constituency

Last night the BBC were showing vote share at (what looked like) results at the constituency level, but I can't find these results online. Does anyone know where to find them?

Look here [3], it is voting is by region rather than constituency. -- Q Chris (talk) 13:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I know it's voting by region, and it's easy to find those results. I specifically asked for the voting at the constituency level, not the regional level, because that has more relevance to an upcoming general election. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.78.45.24 (talk) 15:56, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Well EU constituencies are not contiguous with local authority constituencies. I doubt you'd be able to get the EU results by local authority constituency. However, in England, local authority elections were held at the same time and their results were available on Thursday/Friday, so you could extrapolate from them. --TammyMoet (talk) 17:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The results that the BBC were using were based on council areas, the ones Vine pulled up were mostly them (the % vote bits he did). Couldn't find them online, sorry. Trying to extrapolate from Local to EU would be very hard, given UKIP's performance. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 18:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The results by council area are generally available on the website of the lead council. For example, breakdowns for districts in Yorkshire and the Humber are on Leeds City Council's website, linked from here [4]. Warofdreams talk 20:19, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

District results can be very interesting, in Cornwall Labour were 6th behind the Cornish Independence Party, and the Greens were 1st in Norwich and Brighton, which will make them hopeful of getting their first MP in either the Norwich North By-Election or Brighton Pavilion in the next General Election. Prokhorovka (talk) 20:38, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

They will be very lucky to get an MP in the Norwich North by-election, as they are much stronger in Norwich South - I believe that is another of their target seats for the next general election. Warofdreams talk 20:44, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How to verbally and nonverbally manipulate people?

I tried NLP that promises to do that but it turned out to be a pseudoscience and it does not who what it claims. Something like social engineering applied on a smaller scale would be nice. Can you please recommend books/websites that teach people to manipulate others?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.26 (talk) 13:51, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

If you send me $150 I'll send you complete instructions on how to manipulate people just using the internet. I'll even throw in instructions on how to make money doing it. ;-) DJ Clayworth (talk) 13:57, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How to Win Friends and Influence People —Preceding unsigned comment added by Maltelauridsbrigge (talk • contribs) 15:05, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I do know how it's done, but I don't know if I could explain it adequatly without writing a book on it. Having seen it first-had, I also believe (at least the methods I know) that it would be far too dangerous to spread the knowledge any further. I'm not going into details which are private with various individuals, but we're not talking party tricks here. Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 15:09, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Brainwashing, Mind control seem to be relevant wikipedia pages. Other than that cults and (pseudo)-religions like e.g. Scientology seem to have methods that work on quite a few people. Not that I'd recommend dabbling in any of this. For some people getting married seems to work :-) 71.236.26.74 (talk) 17:21, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Or, you could check out body language for a good start on the nonverbal stuff, if you mean something simpler. I'm not sure if by "manipulate" you mean just normally influence or really trick/coerce them. But, all the ones mentioned seem to lead toward the verbal part, so I thought I'd throw that in there. A few books in the references look promising. Oh, and while it's been a long time since I've read him, anything by Macchiavelli would be good for really manipulating things, though he talks more about politics than one-on-one stuff.209.244.187.155 (talk) 17:29, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It really depends what you mean by 'manipulate' people, but Derren Brown is very good at combining all sorts of tricks to very entertaining effect. His book Tricks of the Mind would be a good book to start with, as would many books on hypnosis. Also see Milton H. Erickson.Popcorn II (talk) 18:15, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Pheromones in humans are still poorly understood and affect different people differently (some react adversely to what attracts others). They do have a strong influence, though. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 18:20, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

For the record, I doubt very much that NLP has ever "promised to manipulate people". What it offers is "influencing people with integrity", a rather different proposition. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:27, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Interesting that the "influencing" is done on "people with integrity". What about the rest of us, I wonder? :-) // BL \\ (talk) 02:14, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

How disappointing to learn you're not a person of integrity, Bielle. You said it, not me.  :) :) -- JackofOz (talk) 09:35, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I missed Jack's comment earlier. If a lack of itegrity makes me difficult to influence, I shall have to consider the trade-off seriously. :-) ". . . the rest of us" also sounds less judgemental than "the rest of you", though I suppose I could have stopped at "the rest". // BL \\ (talk) 16:48, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

By manipulating I mean making people doing what we want. We have all seen smooth talkers in everyday life doing it. Its an inborn skill I guess. Is there anyway how others can learn it?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.26 (talk) 09:02, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I have only seen smooth talkers manipulate others on film or tv - are you sure you have seen such people in real life? Manipulating others is likely to rebound on you, as people will distrust you and not cooperate with you. In my experience honest cooperation and teamwork with others is the key to success, not manipulation. I've met lots of people from all walks of life, and I have noticed that the selfish manipulative types are found on council estates, while contrary to the popular stereotypes wealthy people are charming and friendly. Which rather suggests that the best way to manipulate people is to be genuinely nice to them. 78.144.202.233 (talk) 20:45, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Seems to work for most of the US senators. They keep getting reelected anyways. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 15:05, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

code

Does anyone know the style of code this is and perhaps an idea or two to break it?

IIMEAGAMEAFIRESAMESITGETSOWESTNEXTANIXANTFORAQUICKCOGGOTNOTSIXAICARE
ASTREEROADATOAMANATOFANASCANEFONTCHATTIREIAMVIEWSAINTTAMEFOURITOME
SONICTROTPOOLROCKFORASENDATOPICKQUARTOFWIRESAPROMOANYUSSAMEFROMAARE
NOTINFROMAFORTNOINUNTILITEMMOVEIFORTHEPATABEENAOFTHESTEAKIMARKAOVEN
FINDTOAISAVEROTWHENSCENTPINKTONPERAMESOIAONLYREADTOSONILAWNAFULLY
IAMAMANYSODATEFULLYHAVETOSERVEAWARMSOFORANDTHEAMBEAONLYIBUTFORMELONE
AHILLASMUCHSANDYGOTOAIMEBUTMANWOODSTOSPRITAMAINIHITSHESONICGASLABELA

All I know so far is it has 18 words. I am assuming it is English. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 15:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Well, it is made up of English words. Adding the spaces gets:

I I ME A GAME A FIRE SAME SIT GET SO WEST NEXT AN IXANT not sure about that bit FOR A QUICK COG GOT NOT SIX A I CARE

AS TREE ROAD A TO AM AN A TO FAN AS CANE FONT CHAT TIRE I AM VIEW SAINT TAME FOUR I TOME

SONIC TROT POOL ROCK FOR A SEND A TO PICK QUART OF WIRES A PROMO ANY US SAME FROM A ARE

NOT IN FROM A FORT NO IN UNTIL ITEM MOVE IF OR THE PAT A BEEN A OF THE STEAK I MARK A OVEN

FIND TO A I SAVE ROT WHEN SCENT PINK TON PERAME not sure about that bit either SO I A ONLY READ TO SON I LAWN A FULLY

I AM A MANY SO DATE FULLY HAVE TO SERVE A WARMS OF OR AND THE AM BE A ONLY I BUT FOR ME LONE

A HILL AS MUCH SANDY GO TO A I ME BUT MAN WOODS TO SPRIT or that AM A IN I HIT SHE SONIC GAS LABEL A

If anyone can work out the 3 bits I couldn't get, please do. I'm not sure what to do next, though. The order of the words seems completely random, so perhaps only the frequency of the words matters? Take the 18 most common words and see if they form a sentence somehow? I don't know... good luck! --Tango (talk) 16:06, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

The first tricky bit resolves with AN IXANT being A NIX ANT, PERAME could be PER A ME. SPRIT could be a misspelling of spirit or sprite or SPUR IT or something. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 16:12, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

(Ciphertext above changed to monospace.) OK, so what do we do with this large number of mostly unrelated words? Taking the first letter of each word doesn't seem to yield anything; it starts "iimagafssgswnaifaqcgnsaicatrataaatfacfctiavstfitstprfasatpqowapausfaa" and I terminated the experiment. Tempshill (talk) 17:13, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

"sprit" is a word for some kind of nautical pole. 213.122.54.27 (talk) 02:36, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Some odd things about that list of words: there seem to be a lot of 1-letter and 2-letter words, which might fit a coder (or computer) filling in dummy letters around the original text in order to make words - the short words would represent places where they got desperate. There are a few fairly obscure words, such as nix, per, and promo, which might imply a computer using a dictionary to choose the words at random. Against this is the fact that all the two-letter words are very ordinary; if a computer was picking words at random, where are the two-letter words like pi, ma, hi, ho, ef, en, oh, and ox? Also the word sonic appears twice, which is a bit unlikely to happen by chance (but might represent a human word-picker being uninspired). 213.122.54.27 (talk) 04:05, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

All of the words except 'PARAME' (which is indeed more likely to be "PER", "A" and "ME") are between 1 and 5 letters long. Since the answer is believed to have only 18 words, there is considerable redundancy in the code - each of those whole rows of text corresponds to maybe 2 or 3 words in the solution. Perhaps this is just about the lengths of the words (minus one) in base 5? Which ought to be something you can attack with more conventional numerical code-breaking methods. It would be nice if the OP gave us some more context. Where did this come from? What is it for? SteveBaker (talk) 19:01, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I asked and got the following hint. It is a quote from a politician (US most likely). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.121.141.34 (talk) 19:08, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, that isn't a very helpful hint. We'll know when we've got it right when we find something which makes sense and there are too many political quotes for guessing to be helpful. A hint about how it is encoded would be better. --Tango (talk) 23:20, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

I am almost certain that each word codes a letter; the question is, how are the words grouped to letters? I've tried reducing them to vowel/consonant combinations (so save and game would code for the same letter: there would be 23 unique letters in the text this way) and taking first letters of words. Neither approach has yielded fruit for me when put through frequency analysis, but I'm not particularly good at it. I tend to get a lot of a few letters together in the first line, which doesn't look very likely. The 'first letter' approach gives more likely-looking results than the vowel/consonant method. 80.41.126.158 (talk) 19:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

There's a lot of ambiguity involved in seperating out the words, though. For instance, AMANATO could be am an a to, a man a to, a mana to, a manat o. I think the words could be a decoy. 213.122.54.27 (talk) 02:45, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I thought of reducing the number of letters in each word to a digraph matrix code (for twenty five letters 11 = a, 12 = b, 21 = f, etc.). Unfortunately it doesn't yield anything obvious, unless there's a word key for a shift at the beginning - I forget how to decipher them. Steewi (talk) 01:33, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Another hint is the word Knickerbocker. Could that be the word key? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 12:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

"I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother."? 18 words, George Washington quote. I've no idea about uncoding but that's the first US Presidents Quote I found that matched 18 words... 194.221.133.226 (talk) 13:16, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Ahh well now you see the 'knickerbocker president' is FDR (according to the book 1945) and the first quote of his I find that matches 18 words is "We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."... or ... "We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization." ... or ... "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward." ... or ... "I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments." ... or ... "I do not look upon these United States as a finished product. We are still in the making." 194.221.133.226 (talk) 13:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I kind of doubt that each word is 1 letter in the final quote because if that was the case, the final 18 words would average 9 letters a word, so there have to be junk words as well. Quite puzzling. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 14:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Thought I had something going there. I wrote out all double letters and got I GET TO SAME LLLO. 65.121.141.34 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:44, 9 June 2009 (UTC).

New hint is "5x5". Perhaps a bifid cipher? I also see no J or Z letters in any of the words. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 16:25, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

That's a useful hint. As I said before - all of the words in the encrypted version are between 1 and 5 letters long. With two words coding for one plaintext letter and 18 words in the answer - you get an average plaintext word length of between 4 and 5 letters - which is pretty reasonable. Hence I'm 99% sure that the lengths of two consecutive words gives you two numbers in the range 1..5. There are 26 letters in the alphabet - and only 25 places to put them - but we can probably ignore 'Z'. So if you were to arrange all of the letters of the alphabet (except Z) into a 5x5 grid and use the lengths of two consecutive words to look up each letter - then I'm sure you'll have the answer. The only remaining issue is how to arrange the letters into that 5x5 grid. The first few word lengths are 11,21,41,44,33,24 - which doesn't produce anything useful for a simple grid:

   | 1 2 3 4 5
 --+----------
 1 | A B C D E
 2 | F G H I J
 3 | K L M N O
 4 | P Q R S T
 5 | U V W X Y

Hence the letters in the grid are mixed up in some manner. A frequency analysis ought to throw some light on that. SteveBaker (talk) 17:47, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Going on that, our number groups are

11 21 41 44 33 24 41 33 31 53 33 31 14 24 41 21 31 23 24 44 41 24 44 41 45 44 43 14 12 45 25 15 32 44 13 32 41 42 25 44 22 33 14 12 35 14 14 42 11 43 45 43 31 22 11 44 23 14 15 12 14 24 54 25 15 22 33 22 14 13 32 41 42 45 22 11 23 35 24 21 21 33 53 51

65.121.141.34 (talk) 18:23, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

after putting them into the simple grid, there is

A F P S M I P M K W M K D I P F K H I S P I S P T S R D B T J E L S C L P Q J S G M D B O D D Q A R T R K G A S H D E B D I X J E G M G D C L P Q T G A H O I F F M W U —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:44, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

With the frequencies

8 - D

7 - P, S

6 - I, M

5 - G

4 - A, F, K, T

3 - B, E, H, J, L, Q, R

2 - C, O, W

1 - U, X

0 - N, V, Y

First letter is p >

65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The 5x5 matrix is a good idea, but if memory serves it's more likely to have I/J in the same cell than to omit Z. That would make it

   | 1  2  3  4  5
 --+---------------
 1 | A  B  C  D  E
 2 | F  G  H  IJ K
 3 | L  M  N  O  P
 4 | Q  R  S  T  U
 5 | V  W  X  Y  Z

How does that change the result -- 65.121, did you automate that process or do it manually?

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 22:34, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I have updated it for 65

p F Q T N I Q N L X N L D I Q F L H I T Q I T Q U T S D B U K E M T C M Q R K T G N D B P D D R p S U S L G p T H D E B D I Y K E G N G D C M Q R U G Q H P I F F N X V 173.25.242.33 (talk) 23:01, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like a quote from a senile politician, or one on crack. Edison (talk) 05:54, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

I rather doubt FDR was on crack. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 12:36, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Fixed some mistakes, and inserted the known letters (lower case) assuming most common is e.

p F e T N J e N L X N L D J e F L H J T e J Y e G Y T L e J W V X J e N J D G Y e N L e H V e T F D O Y N B F D R L e V F R U R V R N M F e N J D J W F B N W V e N X V 65.121.141.34 (talk) 13:29, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

p a t r i o t i s m i s D o t a s H o r t o Y t G Y r s t o W V m o t i o D G Y t i s t H V t r a D O Y i B a D R s t V a R U R V R i M a t i o D o W a B i W V t i m V 65.121.141.34 (talk) 15:05, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Got it, thanks for the help. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 15:14, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

7-3-6 and 2-4-5

• Tour A6M5 Zero cockpit

The two black boxes holding the two gun primers are painted with numbers in kanji.

Seven Three Six	Gun primer	Two Four Five
	Modern Radio

What are these two boxes? What do they do? -- Toytoy (talk) 16:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It sorta suggests to me that they are telling you the order to move the levers. 2,3,4,5,6,7 ...perhaps they are considered to be in the '1' position when both are vertical?

EU parliament elections

The only thing that is not clear to me about EU parliament elections is, that while there's only one parliament, every member country wants their own candidates in, and citizens of each member country can only vote for their own candidates. So how is it decided how many seats each country gets? JIP | Talk 20:17, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

It's allocated by population, [5] might help. Prokhorovka (talk) 20:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Would you believe it, we have an article: apportionment in the European Parliament. And while most candidates elected are from the country which voted them in, that needn't be the case - see, for instance, Marta Andreasen. Warofdreams talk 20:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

WP:WHAAOE! Prokhorovka (talk) 20:40, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Password reminder questions, what to do when the answers themselves won't do?

Some online services (such as Microsoft Hotmail, as I remember it), have a password reminder question option of "your mother's birthplace", and a minimum answer length of 5 characters. As it happens, my mother was born in Pori. What am I supposed to write as an answer? "Björneborg"? I am a fully natively Finnish-speaking Finn, and proud of it, thank you. And to add an extraneous character to "Pori" just to make it reach the minimum length seems artificial, and even if I accepted such behaviour, I would only forget what character I added, and where. So what am I supposed to do in this case? JIP | Talk 20:32, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Write PoriPori. 89.243.39.218 (talk) 11:59, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Is selecting a different question an option? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:33, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

You could choose a different question; or if that fails, choose a response which better fits. The questions are not designed by Swedes to be discriminatory against the Finns; the 5 character minimum is so that random-word guessing hacks have a harder time. You don't even have to be truthful, it just has to be something easily rememberable... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 20:38, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Do you know the name of the hospital or street? Perhaps you could put Länsi-Suomen lääni? Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 20:42, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

How about PoriSuomi? I doubt you'd be likely to forget that one. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 20:45, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Most security experts recommend not having the real answer. The reason is that anyone who knows you even reasonably well can guess it gain access to your personal data, essentially bypassing your password. I use a second passoword for all my security questions, and just make sure I don't forget both of them. Prokhorovka (talk) 20:53, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

What about 'Pori' + '[year-of-birth]' (e.g. Pori1948)? Then it'll be less likely that you forget the extra numbers. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 23:35, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Couldn't you put a comma and then the nation? That's a pretty standard notation. APL (talk) 00:48, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

The problem with all these ideas is that there is a very good chance you won't remember what you wrote by the time you've forgotten your password. It really is very foolish of Microsoft, or whoever it was, to set restrictions on the answers... --Tango (talk) 03:29, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

It's foolish for MS to even use personal questions for a password reminder system. It's very insecure. You need one tied to a particular email address, phone number, or postal address. APL (talk) 12:44, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Using short answers makes them very, very vulnerable to brute-force techniques. Anyway, as noted, using "real" answers is dangerous anyway. (This is, incidentally, how Sarah Palin's e-mail got "hacked" during the US election—someone was able to guess the answers to these from knowing a little bit about her biography.) What do you do when the answer doesn't suffice? Use something else! Don't whine about it, that doesn't help anything, and it's such a petty grievance... there are far worse size-limitation grievances anyway. I have a long last name so university e-mails that involve automatic assignment based on name always cut it off in weird, arbitrary places. (Which really does have no excuse -- it's not like have a maximum character limit on user account names is really going to screw all that much up assuming they have the system set up sanely.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:50, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

You could always reply with "your mother's birthplace" in Finnish. --Dweller (talk) 11:43, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Pick anything - write it down and hide the piece of paper someplace. Tape the piece of paper inside the cabinet of your PC! Other suggestions as to where to hide a written-down password+hints include to make up a fake entry in your address book:

  M.Y.Paaswurd,
  1234 MothersMaidenName Street,
  MothersPlaceOfBirth
  Finland.

Or to place it inside a sealed glass bottle and bury it in your back yard. My favorite is to unscrew a light switch fitting and tuck the piece of paper in there (keeping it away from the contacts at the back and being careful not to electrocute yourself in the process!) You can come up with a million hiding places for a 2" piece of paper! SteveBaker (talk) 13:39, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

And where do you hide the piece of paper telling your where to find the hidden piece of paper? ;) --Tango (talk) 16:51, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

I forget. SteveBaker (talk) 17:43, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

weight of the average shotgun shell.

how much do shotgun shells weigh each? rob —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.67.192.228 (talk) 20:34, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Shotgun shell? (which)71.236.26.74 (talk) 20:47, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

12 gauge, how much does an empty shell and a full shell weigh? thanks

Robin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.67.192.228 (talk) 21:55, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Have you read Shotgun shell#Shot sizes Robin? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 23:58, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I'm missing it, but I don't see where that article mentions the weight of an empty shell. It just lists the weights of the shot. --Sean 12:59, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Bicycles inner tube

Hi Guys,

I bought a bike the other month and want to buy another inner tube (long story..)., Anyway, its a shrader valve and a 700 x 22/23 c wheel but i can't find a suitable inner tube ANYWHERE online. The man in the shop said that they've stopped making them but how can this be? Its an inner tube not a ****ing VCR player!

Does any one know where i might get one or have an alternative solution? I'm based in the UK but obviously happy to pay intl' postage etc..

Thanks, 21:47, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

[6] They have an English language option on their site, but that doesn't work for this. You could try to send them an email at bestellung@rose.de if you don't dare navigate the German procedure. There's also a product that lets you turn your inner tube wheel into a tubeless one. I can't recall what it was called. Maybe s.o. else can help you out with that. (See Bicycle wheel#Tubeless) [7] [8] 71.236.26.74 (talk) 22:47, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Here's a French site [9]71.236.26.74 (talk) 23:00, 8 June 2009 (UTC)

Inner tubes of different sizes will still fit the wheel. If the wheel diameter is 700, then another inner tube of larger cross section may even be better. If you do not already do so, then patch them. I would definately not advise solid tyres - I had them for a while and they required very much more effort to push along. Perhaps you could get a replacement tyre that required an inner tube that was more available. 89.243.39.218 (talk) 11:56, 10 June 2009 (UTC)

Google gives over a 1000 results for "700 x 22/23c" including online shops. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&newwindow=1&q=%22700+x+22%2F23c%22&btnG=Search&meta= The spelling for the valve is Schrader and not Shrader as you wrote. Many of them look as if they are Schrader valves. If you cannot find a Schrader valve, which are similar to car tyre valves I think, then buy the more common Presta valve and buy a bicycle pump that fits a Presta. You might alsio be able to buy a pump adapter, or a pump that can do both types of tire. Presta valves are thinner than Schrader valves, so you might need an adapter for the valve hole in your tyre rim. 78.147.96.244 (talk) 16:42, 10 June 2009 (UTC)