Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

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Justitia, Themis, Lady Justice

Hello,

What does the sword, scales and blindfold of greek goddess Themis - Lady Justice represent?

Regards Stephen

For sure, I know that the blindfold means that justice is blind - everyone is treated equally under the law. I'm not sure about the sword and scales - probably the scales means that justice is balanced and suchness. Dysprosia 13:17, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)

• Off the top of my head, the scales represent the accurate weighing of the two sides of a dispute, the blindfold indicates she is blind to extraneous factors (like power differences), and the sword is the power to back up the decision and punish the guilty. Alteripse 13:21, 14 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thank you.

davidzuccaro 09:17, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC) (for Stephen)

Girl in Advert

There is an advert currently running on TV in the UK for Lux Shower Gel in which a girl morphs into Sarah Jessica Parker. Who is the other girl (who IMNSHO considerably outshines SJP but that's a different question :-)? --Phil | Talk 13:51, Jun 14, 2004 (UTC)

Not that I know her name, but is this [1] who you mean ? (maybe the photo will stimulate someone's, err, memory) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:04, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Not that this helps, but you're not the only one asking, and I'm not the only one asking why anyone would pay to turn into SJP: [2] -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:11, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yes, that's her. While you're on a roll, how about the girl in the Spirito di Punto advert (who drives her sleeping boyfriend all over town, up and down stairs even, and he only wakes up when some steamy hunk offers her a coffee)? --Phil | Talk 14:35, Jun 15, 2004 (UTC)

Stephanie March

Moved from Stephanie March by [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]]

I am looking for information about the female that played a lawyer before the one that is on the program now. Her name is Kelly Lynch and noticed her on the movie Curley Sue and wondered why the computer won't show her on this program or Elias Koteas (note--s/he mentioned Law and Order:Special Victims Unit in the edit summary)

Movie Database shows Stephanie March started on Law and Order SVU in 2000. The only acress who left the series in 2000 or before was Leslie Hendrix [3]. There is no record of Kelly Lynch or Elias Koteas appearing there, even as guests. IMDB is very rarely wrong on these matters. DJ Clayworth 18:51, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Siebrigje

Note: An anonymous user (Kirky) created an article asking this question. I've deleted the article and moved the question here.  – Jrdioko (Talk) 04:15, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Anyone know what the old Frisian (female) given name "Siebrje" means? Sorry about that. Oh, and apparently it's spelled "Siebrigje", I remembered it wrong. Kirky

Siebrigje has Germanic origins. "Sie" meant "victory" and "brig" derives from "burg", which meant "protection". Thus, the name roughly stands for "she who guarantees victory". (The "je" is a just a diminutive thing.) Alternative forms of the name, all female, are Siburg, Siberchje, Siberkje, Sibrechje and Sibrich(je).

I should point out the existence of a treacherously similar set of names: Sibrecht(je), Siberdina, Siberta, Sibertsje and Sibetsje. (There are also male forms.) In these, the second part means "shining", so that the names mean "shining as a result of victory".

In case you need a formal reference, I based the above on page 227 of "Woordenboek van voornamen" by J. van der Schaar, published by Het Spectrum in 1970. 80.127.225.134 18:31, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Reflexognosy

Does anyone know who invented reflexognosy, when, and what techniques reflexognosy uses? Thanks Elpenmaster

If you can be bothered to trawl through Google:Reflexognosy you're welcome to it: looks to me like yet another way to separate poor benighted people-in-pain from their ready cash (but what do I know? I'm just a poor benighted cynic-in-pain tired of being ripped off). --Phil | Talk 09:31, Jun 15, 2004 (UTC)

British Broadcasting Corporation

Does the BBC have a motto (say in Latin or otherwise)?

"Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation" [4] -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:13, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that's the UN motto isn't it? Mark Richards 15:33, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

A google for "bbc motto" finds numerous occurances of "nation shall speak peace unto nation", with no UN hits. A google for "UN motto" and "united nations motto" doesn't find anything worthwhile. Moreover, here's a picture of the crest with that motto, from the BBC's website [5]. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:52, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fascinating, I always thought that was written under the UN fig leaf log. Clearly I was halucinating... Mark Richards 22:08, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Why is snot green?

Why is snot green? -Anon

Only infected snot is green. I heard that this is because of white blood cells called Neutrophils which engulf the bacteria and digest them. One of the digestive enzymes is lactoferrin (the "ferrin" referes to iron. I.e. this enzyme is dependent on iron for it's activity. Now any chemistry teacher will tell you that iron compounds are usually green. theresa knott 11:26, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I heard it was the result of two bacteriae present in the snot; one is blue and the other yellow. I shit you not.--[[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo|TALK]] 16:02, Jun 30, 2004 (UTC)

Bacteriae? That's a funny fake-learned plural! Turia Sediento 18:02, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Curry powder vs. Garam Massala

The article Curry claims, that curry powder, aka Massala powder, is a spice mixture invented by the British. My cookbook, however sais, that Garam Masala is a genuine Indish spice mixture and not the same as curry powder. So, who is right? Simon A. 12:34, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

As I understand it: There are loads of different garam masalas (trans. hot mixtures) and they vary from dish to dish and region to region. Masala can be a dry spice mixture or a sauce. The curry powder you see in the supermarket is a bastardised version originally pioneered by the Victorians to add an exotic flavour to the food they made back home and is now used by their descendants to perk up baked beans, cheese on toast and the rest of our proud, epicurean tradition. The British can also be directly blamed for Beef curry, some people's disconcerting habit of sticking sultanas and much of the fruit bowl for that matter, in an Indian dish and the Phal. So I suppose curry powder is a kind of masala and the British have to take responsibility for it. Real Garam masala was used in Indian cusine long before the Europeans showed up though. adamsan 23:10, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Can u help me with a translation?

I would like to add a motto in Latin to literature I am producing for my football (soccer) team. the motto I would like (in English)is:

We are working, we are beautiful, we are glorious

Can you provide the Latin? Happy for suggestions - perhaps the imperative (let us work, let us be beautiful, let us be glorious).

Thanks for any help you can give

Eamon Doyle

Odds are I'm butchering this, but..."Sumus laborantis, sumus pulchri, sumus magni" is "We are working, we are beautiful, we are glorious" (or close to it, anyway--my Latin vocab is only slightly better than my Latin grammar). Note that this construction only works if your team is all-male--otherwise, it would be "pulchra" and "magni" (neuter form). On the bright side, no matter how much I botched this, not a lot of people will be able to tell. I'd definitely get a second opinion before using this, however. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 13:26, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The problem is that (though it's not obvious in English) the first part of the motto is a verb and the second and third parts are adjective phrases. Latin would never use the verb "to be" and a present participle for "we are working": it would just use the present tense, "laboramus" ("we work"). Unfortunately this would be very odd in a list of three things, so you could alter the sense a bit and make it something like "pulchri gloriosique laboramus" ("beautiful and glorious, we work"), or alternatively you could use an adjective for the first part and have something like "diligentes, pulchri, gloriosi" ("hard-working, beautiful, glorious") (Latin would probably leave out the verbs there, as they can easily be understood). If the team consists entirely of male players or a mixture of male and female players, the words should be as above (in the masculine); only if it consists entirely of female players should they be in the feminine (either "pulchrae gloriosaeque laboramus" or "diligentes, pulchrae, gloriosae"). Proteus (Talk) 22:49, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

1) "We are working" is indeed a verb phrase, with are working consisting of an auxiliary verb plus a progressive participle. 2) and 3) The second two occurrences of are, the ones preceding adjectives, are not auxiliary verbs but copulas (aka linking verbs, link verbs), meaning that they link the subject of the sentence to subjective complements, phrases completing the meaning of the verb and mandated by its subcategorization. If we wanted to say "We are humans", then the noun would be considered a predicate nominative?a restatement of the subject and a complement to the copula. Because of the differences in the grammatical structure of the various independent clauses (which when strung together without coordinating conjunctions are the members of an asyndeton, by the way), the three are not parallel and therefore need some reworking in the Latin translation.

I'd just like to offer advice. Please rethink the motto. It stinks. In English at any rate. And even once it's in latin you'll still have to explain it to people. --bodnotbod 22:01, Jun 18, 2004 (UTC)

The best Latin mottoes are terse - usually 3 words max. How about Labor Decor Gloria (Work, Beauty, Glory)? (...and don't let anyone try to tell you that means "you did a fantastic job repainting the lounge") -- Picapica 19:30, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

poetry contest?

Any chance of some more specifics on this one? Thanks! Mark Richards 22:10, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Specifics from you would be helpful....  ;) Try Poetry Scam Warnings for a start. Catherine | talk 16:06, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Tony Iommi

Does anybody know how to pronounce Tony Iommi's surname? Thanks in advance. --Auximines 07:49, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Eye—Owe—Me. HTH HAND --Phil | Talk 09:10, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

Treatment

This is to certify that Mr Arjun Tripathi (age 36) is suffering thyrotoxisis since 1997. Which is pathilogical proved. He want to take needful trteatment in your hspital. so plase help him aAnd now extra case of Dagmsed case of #both bone distal 1/3rd of Lt.forearm /c Thyrotoxisis.During the admition, Medical consultant say his surgery not done now until TFT is NWL.

Present history of patient

Tammer. Palpitation, wegiht lose, Appitite high,Both neek swelling. Differe thyroid swelling both lobe.B.P. 160/80 His pathology report as flows,

T3 2.8 (Normal rate 0.69 -2.02mg/dl, T4 18.9(normal rate 5-11.4)microg/dl TSH 0.6(normal rate 0.6-6.2)micro g/dl I refer my patient for some treatment in your hospital.

1) Complete patient evalutation. @) 1-131 update study. 3)possible 1-131 thyroid ablation. 4) Test for human thyroid stimulation immuneglobion. 5) Opimization of medical Therepy.

Thamks Dr.Papshupati Regmi Director B.P.K.C. Hospital. Nepal,Chetwan

I don't know where you think you are posting, but this is an encylopedia not a hospital. We don't treat people here. theresa knott 10:04, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

When will they learn? That pile of dead bodies out back is starting to smell. --bodnotbod 22:05, Jun 18, 2004 (UTC)

The profile of the prime minister of trinidad and tobago Mr Arthur n r robinson

The profile of the prime minister of trinidad and tobago Mr Arthur n r Robinson

Wikipedia doesn't seem to have a page for him as per Robinson. Politics of Trinidad and Tobago can be a good starting point. Jay 10:55, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

We have the current Prime Minister as Patrick Manning - I will check to see if this is out of date. Secretlondon 19:28, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

ANR Robinson was Prime Minister from 19 December 1986 - 17 December 1991. We don't yet have an article on him - see List of Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago Secretlondon 19:32, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I've made a very small biography - A.N.R. Robinson. Secretlondon 19:43, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

"Tukong Musool" Spelling

I wish to write an article about the Korean martial art (I've recently written two linguistics articles, a field I know nothing about, and I think it's time to vary my ignorance) Tukong Musool, which is derived from Taekwondo. However, a Google search for the term comes up with 35 results, which, to me, means that I'm spelling it wrong. Does anybody know what is the correct spelling? -- Itai 14:52, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Li said "A man who googles for the wrong thing finds it". Only when you have lost your desire to find this will you find it. Or you could look here: [6], [7] -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:23, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

W.C. Fields said: "Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child - if you parboil them first for seven hours, they always come out tender." Nevermind that, however. You are wise and sagacious, Sensei (if we are all one, then so are Japan and Korea), and have managed to convince me that it may be advisable at the moment that I stay off areas of which I know absolutely nothing. <cue gong> I must say I was more than a little shocked when I saw some of the names of the martial arts were trademarked, which means that at least some of the masters got fed up with uncooked rice. (I think I cracked the system, though. As you'll notice, there are but a few component words, which are jumbled together to create the full name of the martial art. Thus, I am master of Han Sool, the Way of George Lucas.) <cue Far-Eastern Star Wars theme> theme I shall now abandon this unholy goal of mine, and settle instead for mastery of that new South Korean martial art, that of getting a home bandwidth connection thrice as big as the one used by Project ECHELON and using it all on MMORPGs. -- Itai 22:38, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The fact that it is trademarked should not stop us from writing an article about it (see Kleenex, SPAM). The mark needs to be treated slightly carefully, but that should do it. Mark Richards 20:54, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Brazilian Federal District

I cannot find details of the districts population or area on Wikipedia, or Google... Anyone got these to give me?--Oldak Quill 15:31, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Brasília's population is about 1.75m inhabitants according to [8]. -- Itai 16:16, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

According to statoids.com it's even more - 2,051,146 (2000 census). Seems like Brazilian Federal District needs work, as that article should list the number... andy 19:23, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Actually, I'm not sure whether the BFD and Brasilia are the same thing. I know that the BFD was formed so that Brasilia can be founded - very much like the American District of Columbia, or the Australian Capital Territory - but it could be that it encompasses more than Brasilia alone. -- Itai 00:11, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Transit of Mercury from Mars: camera resolution of rovers Spirit and Opportunity

On January 12 2005, there will be a transit of Mercury from Mars. If Spirit and Opportunity are still functional, they could observe it. Opportunity would be able to watch the first half of the transit from the start until local sunset, while Spirit would be able to watch the second half of the transit from local sunrise to the end.

The question is, what is the resolution of their cameras? Opportunity was able to photograph a transit of Mars's moon Deimos, with an angular diameter of 2', but Mercury's angular diameter would be only 6", or about 20 times smaller.

Does anyone have any contacts at JPL who might know if they're aware of the transit of Mercury, if there's any chance that Spirit and Opportunity might still be functional at that time, and if the Rover's cameras are capable of photographing it? -- Curps 18:20, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This link indicates that the angular resolution of the cameras is 0.27 m/rad per pixel , which I presume is a milliradian. If that's correct, a pixel covers about 55", way larger than the figure you quote. --Robert Merkel 02:45, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Even if they can't resolve Mercury during the transit, they may be able to measure the drop in intensity for the obscured pixels. I guess it would be about a 1% reduction in intensity for an individual pixel. -- Solipsist 14:02, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

China

China is showing signs of becoming the next superpower. Its economy doubles every 8 years, it has a huge trade surplus with the U.S.A. and if this trend continues it will replace the U.S.A. as the world's leading economic power in the next decades. If China becomes a superpower, will this create another cold war scenario? Will it be a peaceful coexistence? China has even send a man into space, clearly it wants to become the second superpower.

This is quite possible. However, I think politically, China is not entirely stable (granted, it's not as unstable as, say, Iran). →Raul654 18:49, Jun 16, 2004 (UTC)

It's important to realize that the USSR was largely self sufficient - it did not rely on the US until quite late in its life. China and the US, however, economically rely on each other - inasmuch as I recall, America is the biggest market for Chinese goods. I'm not sure who would stand to benefit from a cold war. As for the EU, which you didn't mention, it too should be watched. While at the moment it seems to be stagnating, all member countries have too much to lose if its potential is not realized. Non of this is very encyclopedic, by the way. -- Itai 19:17, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

China has huge numbers on it's side, and may well become the world's largest economy within a short period of time. This is somewhat different to becoming a superpower, since that implies a wide-reaching influence with the rest of the world. Additionally, China's unprecedented growth may be limited to the short term. IMHO opinion, neither China nor the European Union will have both the motivation and ability to initiate a cold war with the US in the next few decades. akaDruid 14:13, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Bear in mind that the profit system in the United States, as well as worldwide, is increasingly inefficient and unattractive. It is increasingly based on a vast difference in wealth between the richest 1% and an impoverished majority of "working poor." Profit economics has proven itself to the onlooking world as the greatest producer not of goods or wealth but of homelessness, joblessness, inadequate medical aid and increasing malnitrition. So the idea of there ever being another cold war is quite ridiculous. America itself is rejecting profit-based economics even as China is experimenting with or flirting with profit-based economics in a delimited geographical area. The experiment, while producing wealth for some is also producing increasing poverty for many, and this has been noticed. It is very unlikely that any "communist vs. capitalist" standoff will ever occur in the world again. The very notion is restricted to a small minority of so-called radical conservatives in the United States to whom anything liberal, anything that has economic policies which put the needs of people ahead of profits for corporate owners and executives, must be "stamped out." To this conservative minority, a cold war mentality is the same as the salvation of their profits and so they are for it. But it is aberrant in world thought and unlikely to confront, in the future, a powerful China whose economic base is in the public ownership of industry and resources.

Doric and Ionic Order

I'm looking for a high resolution digital image that matches (an exact match would be perfect) for the image on this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_orders Does Wikipedia license images for use in other sources? I'm desperate. This is for a book I'm working on and I can't find this image anywhere!

If you click on those images, the image description page states that they are in the public domain, so you could use the images there, without permission, if you wanted. However, if you want access to higher-resolution images, the Wikipedia doesn't keep those; everything that we have is public by the very nature of Wikipedia. You'll have to contact the user who uploaded the images to see if they have a higher-resolution version available. If you click on the image and bring up the image description page, you can find out the user (Liftarn) who uploaded the image. If you click on their name, you bring up their user page. You can then contact them by either leaving a message on their discussion page, or clicking on the "e-mail this user" link on their user page. Hope this helps. --Robert Merkel 02:28, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Note there's a book published by Dover, [9], The Architectural Plates from the Encyclopedie, which should have that illustration. Since the Encyclopedie is very much public domain, there would be no problem scanning it from that book. -- DrBob 02:36, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

There's also a somewhat higher resolution copy of that plate here, but I doubt it's detailed enough for re-printing. -- DrBob 02:44, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Richard M Nixon's Funeral

I don't recall President Nixon being laid out at the capital rotunda in D.C. before his funeral at Yorba Linda.

Was this his choice or not?

I did a Google search, and it turns out this very question was discussed about 10 days ago in [10], according to which it was according to his and his family's choice. (See the link I provided for details.) -- Itai 23:56, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I think that there was a worry from his family about the potential satirical amunition that his 'lying in state' might provide... Mark Richards 22:03, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Nixon was, literally, a lawbreaker, a criminal, when he left the presidency -- in disgrace. For his body to be in the capitol rotunda would have been a mockery.

The Nixon family published a memo about it. Nixon himself felt that Washington, DC was too hostile against him and that it was the "enemy's turf." Instead he was laid in state in California. He also didn't want his presidential library to be governed from Washington, DC. That is why his presidential library is one the only libraries that is run by a private corporation that the former president established. Gerald Farinas 16:23, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

articals on the body building compititions held in camden

which Camden ? I can see 15 of them in Camden. Jay 15:12, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Banana juice?

I know that you can't get banana juice, since squeezing bananas only makes them mushy, instead of producing juice, like most fruits. But I understand that recently there was a way discovered to have banana juice, that circumvented this problem, but I can't remember how they did it. Anybody know? Rhymeless 05:37, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This article looks like it has found your answer, Rhymeless. The way they do it sounds quite efficient, something like 1mL of juice for every 2g of banana. DO'Neil 12:39, Jun 18, 2004 (UTC)

Neil, good material ! I've added the stuff in banana article in the 'Properties' section. Jay 15:12, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Unknown Christopher Walken movie

I need someone to help me figure out what movie I am talking about. I only saw the first 20 minutes of it, or so. It's set in modern times in a large American city. Christopher Walken plays an eccentric magnate. The opening shows him screwing a prostitute, and then he tries to throw her out without paying because that's how he gets his kicks. (This is where it gets fuzzy) I believe she robs him, so he sends someone to rob her and beat her up. (Again, this is all in the first 10-20 mintues) What movie am I talking about? →Raul654 07:38, Jun 18, 2004 (UTC)

• Wild Side (1995)?
• King of New York (1990)?
• One of his other movies?
• (Got tired of looking.) blankfaze | ?? 15:01, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Genealogy (moved from help desk)

I am a genealogist and normally assist italians and english descent persons seeking their family genealogy. I have recently been requested by a family in England to trace the family immigration to Chile and,specifically, Valpariaso where a child of english parents was born and the family appears to have remained in Chile on or about the 1850's. What links or databases can be accessed by computer,e-mail or snail mail?? Thank you. Peter Timber, Los Angeles. [email protected]

• Unfortunately in the majority world the only genealogy that tends to get done is by Western settlers and even then it only tends to be those that are descended from peerage, or by western descendants who no longer live there. However you may wish to try any of the following links for your research:

• Familysearch
• Chilean Genealogy Forum
• HGAB Chile
• Cyndi's List

• Graham  :) | Talk 08:25, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

British Broadcasting Corporation

Does the BBC have a motto? B.T.Edwards

"Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation" [11] -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:13, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Solar system's orientation in galaxy

Is the plane of our Solar System parallel to the plane of our galaxy? -- Heron 21:34, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Nope, it's inclined about 60°. If it was parallel, then the Milky Way would be aligned alone the ecliptic (which it isn't). -- DrBob 22:12, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Gay Football Players

Are there any gay football (that's - grits teeth - soccer) players? --bodnotbod 00:12, Jun 19, 2004 (UTC)

Justin Fashanu (but he's retired, I think) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:54, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Justin Fashanu sadly killed himself, partly as a result of the negative reaction he got from his colleagues and family after being 'outed' by The Sun. Although there are likely to be other gay footballers, his experience has meant that none have openly admitted it in the English game. adamsan 06:41, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about him. --bodnotbod 19:38, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)

Universities.

What are the best Universities in the World, in terms of pure teaching and researching quality alone?

It depends on how you define "pure teaching." For example, "pure teaching" for me means "well-rounded" and free of dogmatic pressures. This is a hugely biased opinion but I'm going to mention it anyway. I think the Jesuits have come close to perfecting the institution of academia based on their ideals of liberal arts as a base, complemented with character, service and leadership education. They also were the first to champion free-thought education, allowing students to wander from philosophy to philosophy, religious value to religious value, to allow the student to come up with his or her own conclusions about a particular issue without setting limits as defined by the Jesuits' Catholicism.

If you're talking about "pure teaching" as in teaching strictly from facts without discernment (and minimal discussion of challenges to theories), then what you're looking for doesn't exist today, I think.

Pure researching quality? Depends on what subject. Universities tend to specialize in certain areas of research. Major academic journals and the media claim that University of Hawaii has the most advanced marine biological research methods of exquisite quality. Just last year, I remember a story that CNN did about the University of Hawaii making strides in challenging Harvard Medical for superior medical research quality. University of Chicago is thought to be the best in anthropology, archaeology and sociology. Gerald Farinas 16:37, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I remember a reference to some list like "the top 100 universities" during discussion about reduced funding of Australian universities. Google finds 1880 sites with that phrase, but they're mostly talking about more specialised or localised criteria. -- Mark Hurd 17:51, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The question as posed is pretty much impossible to answer meaningfully. Many comparative lists are published, the ones I am familiar with are annual lists of universities in the US and UK. They are rated by research and by teaching, and possibly by other things too, but the criteria vary between lists. If your question is part of a 'where should I study' type of enquiry, I would say that you should try to articulate more clearly what you want. If your question is one of general interest, I would say that more clearly articulating what you mean by 'best' both in teaching and in research. Mark Richards 15:44, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Even within a broad field, the strength of a university can vary greatly based on the particular interests and skills of its staff. In the IT department of my university, the software testing group, of which I am a part, is probably the best in Australia in this area. The molecular simulation people are also apparently very good. Down the road at the University of Melbourne, they have some excellent groups working on data compression and logic programming, where we don't have any specialist expertise.

Secondly, it's my experience that quality research and quality teaching are not necessarily all that well correlated. Many of the most brilliant researchers are very average teachers. They regard it as a drain on their time to be minimised, have no clue about the actual capabilities and learning process of the average student, and often aren't up with the practice of the discipline outside their own field of research. Another thing to consider is that there are far more factors to consider than just teaching quality when selecting a place to study. The location, costs, the academic and social culture; all of these are very important.

Finally, if this is for the purposes of selecting a university for your own or your child's education, don't get too hung up on finding the "perfect" university. In most large Western countries, there are many universities (heck, in the United States, there are probably hundreds) where an enthusiastic student can get a good education. --Robert Merkel

Yeah, it's a very individual thing, like asking who is your perfect spouse, there are things that people might be able to point in the direction of in terms of identifying compatability, and things to avoid, but no right answers. Mark Richards 07:19, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

On another forum somebody posted this ranking list. Can't vouch for it in any way, but it's relevant to this thread: [12] --bodnotbod 14:25, Jul 1, 2004 (UTC)

Pot Noodle Adverts.

Is there an Internet archive or depository for Pot Noodles T.V. Adverts for both the United States and the United Kingdom?

Hehe. This might be a silly question, but what is Pot Noodles? Gerald Farinas 16:41, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Pot noodles sounds like slang for ramen.Rhymeless 02:37, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The nearest US equivalent is maybe Nissin Cup Noodle, although Pot Noodle has fewer recognisable ingredients and (even) more chemistry. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:30, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Pot Noodles are a brand name for an instant noodle product. Mark Richards 15:46, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Here's the UK ads. It's dirty and you want it! Do they even have Pot Noodle in the US? Under the same product name? --bodnotbod 19:42, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)

trying to find out how to translate a web article into english from albanian

i am having no luck trying to get this translated. it is this web article http://www.iliria.net/politike/isufbajrami_epiri.htm i have been looking for my maiden name and stumbled upon it in this article.,and am hoping you can help, thank you!!!

Ruth Ksilander Diercks

Orwell's list?

Is there an online version of Orwell's list of crypto-communists? A google search just brings up reviews of it, not the actual list itself.

It would be very useful for this article to see his views on his peers. I have only been able to see a review of his list at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16550 , not the list itself.

Naelphin 06:15, 2004 Jun 20 (UTC)

"Steinberg Clean" Programme

Have you used the Steinberg Clean programme?

I have been told that it does a great job making scratchy vinyl records sound as good as CDs but although I follow the instructions everything still sounds the same. The firm I bought the programme off say that many people have bought this programme and they have had great success with it. They want to charge me US$40 an hour for instruction! That will most probably work out more than double the cost of the programme.

Hopefully there is someone who lives near to me, biut if not, are we able to work something out online?

                   Ross Lambourn
                   Auckland
                   New Zealand
                   [email protected]

I doubt that it gets old recordings as good as CDs, but it should be able to remove most of the clicks, scratches and surface noise. Have you tried asking for advice on the forums at Sound on Sound magazine? You will probably find a more focussed audience there. You can also find there original review of Clean at [13], which might give some clues about what to expect. -- Solipsist 13:04, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

lava lamps

Does anybody know if it's possible to fix a lava lamp when it's wearing out? This one is about 8 years old, and it seems like it no longer heats up as quickly as it used to, taking, by my count, about 10 hours before I see any independent movement inside. I've checekd and made sure that the light bulb I'm using conforms with that recommended by the instructions. Rhymeless 14:32, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Is the light bulb new? One issue might be that light bulbs have become more efficient in recent years, giving out more light and less heat. When you say that the one you are using conforms to the recommendations, what are they? You might want to try using either an older bulb, or a higher power one. Obviously, do that at your own risk etc. Mark Richards 15:50, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

language learning

sir, i need to learn english through malayalam. do u have any programme free of cost for me to download in my system and learn english. kindly let me know. bye pradeep

No, the Wikipedia is a volunteer-run encyclopedia. It does not offer any form of English instruction. Maybe some of the material on this directory page may be of help.--Robert Merkel 03:45, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Battle of the Alte Veste

Can somebody give me a clue as to where to look for information about the Battle of the Alte Veste, fought during the Thirty Years' War? RickK 21:58, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)

escalator psychology

I've started to notice that people almost invariably walk down the last few steps of an escalator, despite having let the machine do the work for the rest of the descent. Any psychological terms for this kind of 'the end is in sight' behaviour? --Chopchopwhitey 23:35, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It's the mentality of "I must rush, or I'll not get there in time. I believe rushing for the last 5 steps will save me 10 minutes of my life". If I rush, I walk the whole way. If I'm in a lazy day, I never walk any steps at all. People are just impatient. And of course, children are always in fear of got stuck in the esclavtor, and people always told them to jump off the last few steps really fast. That education carries on I guess. You don't wanna get rolled under the esclator into a blood trail. --Menchi 00:58, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I was never told to jump off the last few steps, but I walk the last 4 anyway. My theory is that you need to be at escalator speed at the end (to avoid falling over), so you need the last few steps for acceleration. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 01:16, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Maybe it's not so much speed, as simply the fact that you're walking. I've certainly experienced on the deck of a rolling ship that it seems to be easier to keep my balance when walking (carefully) than when standing still. Perhaps whichever hindbrain ganglion it is that takes care of balance has a "walk mode / stand mode" flipflop, and it isn't so good at handling external pushes when one is in stand mode. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:25, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Another escalator-related phenomenom of interest that I've noticed is how I nearly fall over when stepping on to an escalator that isn't moving. How come? (And it isn't alcohol-related.) I assume the subconscious must make some kind of automatic speed adjustments when we step onto an escalator, and when the escalator is out of order the adjustments are unnecessary and cause us to lose our balance slightly. I find it fascinating that my brain must be making all these adjustments without me even having to pay attention. Any names for this kind of automatic compensation? Any other examples? --Chopchopwhitey 04:54, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Its an intersting observation. I would primarily go with the 'getting up speed' theory. It is certainly possible to get off an escalator by waiting to the last moment and stepping off, but it takes more active thought and you usually end up doing a small hop for the first step. There could also be elements of

• compensating for very slight motion discomfort as the escalator rounds out
• reacting to the person in front of you starting to move as they get off the escalator

So one thing to check is exactly when people start moving (about 1 step before round out?) and whether this changes if there are people infront of them.

Also of interest (if you have never tried it) is making a small jump when a fast lift (elevator) starts to slow down to stop at a floor. If the lift is going up, you will suddenly feel much lighter, and if its going down you feel that someone has turned the gravity up. I suspect that Einstein liked this game. -- Solipsist 10:30, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Gateway screens for Web sites

I've noticed that some Web sites (thankfully, not many)foist upon the user what may be called gateway screens. The ones I have in mind are those that carry no links except one to another page on the site. These are analogous to splash screens for programs, in that you can't do anything with them--they're just another screen to get past. But they're a considerably bigger annoyance than programs' splash screens, in that (a) while the programs' screens serve a promotional purpose for the program or publisher, that doesn't seem to make much sense for a Web site, since the first page of *any* Web site would be expected to prominently identify the site, and (b) the programs' splash screens will remove themselves almost instantly, while the Web sites' gateway screens will typically hang around until the user finds and uses a link to proceed to a functioning page on the site.

My question is:

What possible reason can Web site developers have for making us users wade through these opening screens before we can use the site?

Sometimes it seems to be that the designer has some fancy graphic or design idea that they can't think where else to work into the site. Or perhaps they believe some users will find a nice-looking and fairly simple splash page more of a draw to a site than an introductory page filled with lots of that annoying content you sometimes have to read.

One analogy that I can think of is how sometimes in bookstores I'll pick a book off the shelf simply because it has a nicely designed cover, with lots of bright and fancy colours and a lovely font, and then once I've been reeled in by the peacock feathers of the marketing department I'll actually read what the back has to say about the book itself. --Chopchopwhitey 05:12, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I suspect there are two reasons. One comes from CD-ROM developers who migrated to web site design. This carries the view that this web site is a self contained 'garden of delight', walled off from the rest of the internet and the opening page is the entrance to the site, or the 'cover' as Chopchopwhitey says.

The other reason would be that a web site developer usually has to present the finished site (or working drafts) to the client. This tends to involve sitting in a meeting room with a laptop and the web site on the local hard drive, because you can't guarantee an internet connection during the presentation. The opening page is then on display for much of the preamble to the presentation, so it helps if it looks good and is a little dynamic because that creates a good impression with the client no matter how bad the rest of the site is.

Of course both of these approaches rather miss the point of the internet and irritate genuine users. Perhaps there is an argument for the former with flash dominated sites which promote a band or a film. -- Solipsist 10:18, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I don't mind a simple, fast loading, striking graphic as a "cover". It's bloody flash animations that get me. I feel that as an expectation increases that the average user might have broadband this sort of heavy content is liable to increase. Sigh. --bodnotbod 23:43, Jun 24, 2004 (UTC)

permutations of a digital clock

My combinatorics isn't up to much, so perhaps someone could help me figure out how many permutations there are of both a 12-hour and a 24-hour digital clock face (excluding seconds)?

I'm not sure what you are asking, if you are talking about legit times. there are 60 mins in an hour and 12 ( 0r 24) possible hours . Just multiply the two times together. If you are talking about all possible times even the ones the clock will never actually show e.g 68:92 there are four digits - that means 9999 possible numbers that could be shown. theresa knott 10:46, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Doh! Of course. I did mean legitimate times, but for some reason had convinced myself it would be far more complicated than the obvious solution. Thanks! --Chopchopwhitey 11:11, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

(Also of use would be any mathematical arguments as to why my repeated viewings of the time 12:34 over the past view weeks when glancing at the clock isn't lucky/proof of a higher being in any way, and is just a strange coincidence to do with what hours I keep.) --Chopchopwhitey 09:15, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Is your clock brand new? Sometimes clock manufacturers place a strip of plastic over the face with a sample time on it. Remove this, put some batteries in and turn the clock on ;-) theresa knott 10:46, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

repeated viewings of the time 12:34 - This one is usually down to psychology. You are probably subconciously glacing at the clock quite frequently, but only really stop and notice when you see combinations of digits that you regard as interesting. There are not so many interesting patterns of numbers on a digital clock - 11:11, 12:34, 00:00, 01:23, 22:22 (possibly 12:21). Only the first two occur at times when you are at work and clock watching and arguably 12:34 is the best combinations of the lot. Also you may be starting to feel hungry at around 12:30 and start glancing at the clock more around that time.

Similar arguments can be used to explain what many people consider coicidences, especially I was just thinking about them and then they phoned. In practice you are thinking about many different people all the time and you are also receiving many telephone calls. But you don't remember the particular occaision when you were thinking about John when Mary phoned.

Lottery probability

I once tried to convince someone that in picking numbers for the English National Lottery, they might as well just pick 1,2,3,4,5 and 6, as probabilistically those numbers have as much chance of coming up as any other set of 6 numbers.

They of course refuted this as being ludicrous, and asked why then did there, in general, seem to be a fairly even spread of numbers each week (e.g. 3, 10, 12, 23, 33, 42, which for some reason looks a little more reasonable).

I know there's a reason but can't for the life of me figure it out mathematically. Why is it? --Chopchopwhitey 09:35, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I suppose it's entropy. 3,10,12,23,33,42, is a highly unlikely possiblity of being a winning combination! but it looks like any old random set of numbers, so we can stick it in our "random looking set of numbers" pot, along with 22,23,34,38,40,49 and 1,7,9,33,46,48 and so on. 1,2,3,4,5,6, is just as unlikely as all the others, be we stick it in a different pot based on what we think is a random looking set of numbers.

Incidentally, even though 1 through 6 is just as unlikely as every other combination, you should still avoid it! This is because people have a habit of picking this combination, so if it should come up you are more likely to have to share your winnings. The same goes for the low numbers, (<12) people go for bithdays and anniversaries. But these are not random, they will only have numbers <31 and are likely to have numbers <12. By going for high numbers you will ensure that you don't have to share your dosh with a birthday choosing punter. theresa knott 11:04, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I doubt I can remember my Combinations and permutations correctly, but I think the reason is; a ball can only be selected once, so the chance of each subsequent ball falling into the same decade is reduced as the decade gets filled up.

For the UK Loto, you have to select 6 numbers from a range of 49. So the total number of combinations is C(49,6) = 49! / (6! * (49-6)!) = 13,983,816 or a probability of about 14 million to one that your numbers will come up.

The number of possible combinations of six numbers in the first decade is C(10,6) = 210. Or about 13000 times less likely than if you had thought you could divide the 14 million combinations between the five decades.

You would have said Wow! if the all the balls had fallen in any one decade, but the probability of that happening is approx (5 * 210) / 14,000,000 or about one in 13,000. If the lottery has been going on for ten years with twice weekly draws, there have been about 1000 games so the odds are 13:1 that we would have seen this happen. (There must be a small complication, because we would count 10 in both the first and the second decade).

You are right that (1 2 3 4 5 6) is as likely to come up as any other combination to help highlight how unlikely you are to win, but it is not good advice to choose numbers from the first two decades. A lot of people select their 'lucky' numbers based on significant dates, so most people favour the lower numbers. As such, if you did win the jackpot it is more likely that several other people would win at the same time and you would have to split the prize. Conversely, you might be better off select runs of consecutive numbers because no one believes they can come up, on the other hand you may have to split the prize with a group of mathematicians. -- Solipsist 11:12, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Better to split with mathematicians then some 'birthday choosing punter' Ilyanep 14:26, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'm coming in late on this discussion again. Trying to put it in another plain-language mathematics description rather than formulas as to why it looks as if there is a better chance of getting spread-out numbers: If there are 49 numbers, then there are only exactly 44 sequences of numbers that will give you 6 in a row (1 thru 6, 2 thru 7, etc.). Meanwhile, there are thousands of combinations where the numbers are, say, at least 5 numbers apart from each other. So it's true to say that there will be more draws where the numbers are separated by, say, at least 5 values (1,6,11,16,21,26; 1,6,11,16,21,27; etc.) than there will be draws where there is a set of numbers in sequence. HOWEVER, that's comparing apples and oranges--that's asking whether the odds of getting a specific set of numbers is less likely than getting some random set of numbers. Well, yes, of course it is. However, saying that any one *specific* set of numbers (e.g., 1,8,16,21,27,40 and no other possibility) is more likely than getting any other *specific* set of numbers (e.g., 1,2,3,4,5,6) is just wrong-- we're talking about a specific set of 6 digits in either case, for which the odds will always be 14 million or so to 1, no matter what they look like. The issue is clouded by people's perception that the numbers themselves have something to do with it. They don't. What if the balls were labeled with 49 different icons, to which no order could be implied? It would be clear that the odds of getting any specific set of 6 icons is exactly the same as getting any other specific set of 6. Hope that helps. (If you want to browse thru the last 200 California lotto numbers, see [14].)Elf | Talk 02:17, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Euglena gracilis as a prot5ozoan ?

Why were they classified in this catogory? plz email me with the answer [email protected],or [email protected]

You might want to check out Pr0t0504n, which explains the criteria for clasification. Mark Richards 17:53, 21 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Why are we using Leet to write protozoan?

I believe it's Mark having fun with the fact that luckygirl2 accidentally hit the 5 key while typing protozoan. Jwrosenzweig 20:39, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. ;) Mark Richards 17:08, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fire Walking

What's the deal with Fire Walking and people who walk on hot coals?

Hmm, not the best standup routine i've ever heard, but here's your answer anyway: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_036.html - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:39, Jun 21, 2004 (UTC)

From what i heard anyone can do it(although im not saying you should try it). All you need to do is keep the coal under 1000'C and walk briskly. Then your feet won't get hot enough to be painful. 22:15, jun 29, 2004

Literary Technique

What is it called when an author or screenwriter writes themself into the script as a character? Examples are Borges in The Book of Sand, Paul Auster in The New York Trilogy and Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation (movie). It seems like there would be some literary or cinematic term for this. Anyone have suggestions? - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 21:28, Jun 21, 2004 (UTC)

Is this something to do with breaking the fourth wall? Mark Richards 14:15, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I always thought that the fourth wall was more about a character acknowledging that they were in a play... which doesn't necessarily mean that it's the author. The concepts are definitely inter-related though. If there's no term for the concept, I might as well just call it self-reference. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 14:50, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

It's not what you're looking for exactly, but the concept of "author surrogate" is moderately close -- an author surrogate is a character who embodies the thoughts and opinions of the author. Jwrosenzweig 17:34, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I don't know what it's called either, but Kurt Vonnegut uses it very well in Slaughterhouse Five. moink 17:38, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It's decades since I read Slaughterhouse Five, but as I remember it the material there about Vonnegut himself is something very close to non-fiction: he was, indeed, a POW in Dresden during the firebombing. I don't know the Paul Auster work in question, but both Borges and Charlie Kaufman use far more clearly fictional characters who are on some level supposed to be themselves. That is, the events described as happening to them in their stories did no happen in their real lives. -- Jmabel 21:18, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

Yes, he was where he said he was, etc. But rest of the story and the character who encounters him a few times are fictional. Not exactly sure if this particular literary technique could even have a name, since it's so rare.moink 22:24, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Whoever knows it please add it to the narrator article. Jay 18:11, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Argh this is driving me crazy. Particularly, Paul Auster's character in the new york trilogy isn't even the narrator. The narrator is looking for a fictional "Paul Auster" and mistakenly looks up the actual author, and visits him in his brownstone in manhattan. It's quite bizarre... Perhaps 'author surrogate' is as close as I'm going to get here. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 21:32, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

Autobiography? Mark Richards 22:31, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

When a novel has fictional characters who correspond to real people then it's a roman à clef. When a narrator appears to embody the character and opinions of the author, that's an authorial voice. In fan fiction, a character who represents the author for the purpose of wish fulfilment is a Mary Sue. But there seems to be no widely-used term for this. "Author surrogate" doesn't sound right to me: the character is a representation of the author, not a surrogate for them.

So I suggest the new word autagonist (from Greek autos, self, and agōnistēs, actor). Gdr 13:44, 2004 Jun 23 (UTC)

Greek agônistês meaning "actor" comes from agonis-, the stem of agonizesthai, "to act" (from agôn, "struggle, contest", + -izesthai, a verb combining form corresponding to English -ize, having the stem -is- in common with -izein, and related to -izein > Latin -izâre > French -iser > English -ize), plus the agentive suffix -tês also found in the English agentive combining form -ist (from Greek -is-tês). --Gelu Ignisque

Cold War

Where did the Cold War get its name?

• According to Cold War, "The term was first used by the American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch during a congressional debate in 1947." Cheers, Kingturtle 01:32, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)
  • I think what the chap means is why did they use the name "Cold War", rather than when the appellation was given to it. The name was a description of the relations between the USSR and the USA: icy, but not red hot warfare. Hope that answers your question. DO'Neil 11:45, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

Identify these items

A friend of mine asked the following question, and now I'm really curious. moink 01:48, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

We're moving, so we're packing. I find, in one of the cups on the tea cup shelf, some odd little items. I remember putting them there when I lived across the hall. I remember knowing that they were when we moved over here, thinking, when I found them then, "Oh, yeah, these things. I should keep these, just in case." I remember not knowing what they were when I first saw them, when they came with a new product I'd bought. There was no explanation given. J and I both stared at them strangely and then, like a flash, it dawned on me what they were for.

But now it's gone. Completely gone from my head what these little things are, what they're meant for, and what product they came with in the first place. Photo can be found at [15].

ps: there was also a washer in the cup with them, which may or may not have anything to do with them.

pps: I have the weird feeling that they were for threading something through something ...

What they look like is some lengths of PTFE (Teflon) tape, wound around bits of plastic straw. PTFE tape is usually wrapped around threads of pipework (before tightening a joint), to make a better seal. Something left over from plumbing in a washing machine, maybe? -- DrBob 15:54, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! I think that's exactly what they are. She says that yes, it's slippery, and they may well have come with her showerhead attachment. And she's never used it, and her showerhead leaks. moink 17:32, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Can I also suggest you buy a moisturiser for your hands? --bodnotbod 23:49, Jun 24, 2004 (UTC)

Agreed Ilyanep (Talk) 02:57, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Continuing offtopic: I moved recently, and found that my hands became much drier than normal during the pre-move time, while I was packing. In my case, I was folding many boxes by hand, so I assumed that the cause was prolonged contact with the abrasive, dry cardboard.Lisa Paul 22:34, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Ultimate Goals of the Rote Armee Fraktion

What exactly was the ultimate aim of the Rote Armee Fraktion (aka the Baader-Meinhof Gang or the Red Army Faction)? Did they seek unificiation of Germany under East Germany's terms?

Or did they want to take over the West German government and set up a parallel communist German state?

If anyone knows, it'd be very helpful. DO'Neil 04:15, Jun 22, 2004 (UTC)

You could try asking this guy, who's writing a book about them. From reading the introductory chapter of his book, you get the impression that the people behind the RAF hadn't thought that far ahead. --Robert Merkel 02:44, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Time zone?

What is the time zone of Texarkana, Texas? And does anyone else think that articles about cities should include time zones, so that people like me can find it? moink 22:26, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Well, ok, the background to this is that Texas actually straddles two time zones, most of it is in Central Time Zone, with a small western part in Mountain Time Zone. I can't find articles for those, but they must be there somewhere, so the question is where is Texarkana. Hang on. 22:36, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Nevermind, I eventually found it in the Texas article. It's in the Central time zone. moink 22:35, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Too slow... Never mind. Still - we should include the time zones! Mark Richards 22:36, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Ah, all the time zone names redirect to Time zone. Is there anything to say about each one I wonder? List of places in the Central Time Zone anyone? ;) Mark Richards 22:39, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Mark. Actually, the info that it straddled two zones and what they were would have been enough, since Texarkana is at the very East edge of the state, on the border with Arkansas. moink 22:42, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Interesting that it spans two though - the western part is very small. I wonder why it does this? Mark Richards 22:44, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Usually when small segments of states/provinces are in a different time zone from the rest, it's because that segment is economically attached to a city in another state/province. So it's quite possible that there are significant numbers of people who live in West Texas and work in, err, whatever state is West of Texas. moink 17:35, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

New Mexico. :-) Jwrosenzweig 18:02, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Vocabulary help

moved from main page talk

I'm looking for a word to descibe two situations:

1) When a plane is accelerating for take off, it reaches a point of 'no return'. That is, regardless of what warnings may be displayed, the plane must take off, as there is not enough run way left over to come to a safe stop. Does anyone know if there is a word to describe this threshold when the 'point of no return' is reached/exceeded?

2) When mixing two groups, often an instructor will draw two cricles side by side — though each circle will partially overlap the other. This overlap provides an area where the two groups come together. Does anyone know if there is a word to describe this overlap?

The intersection? -- Kaihsu 09:45, 2004 Jun 23 (UTC)

The diagram itself is called a Venn diagram or an Euler diagram. The first is to show relationships, the second is to diagram set theory. In either case, the "intersection" would probably be the appropriate term. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 17:03, Jun 23, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. You may respond directly to: [email protected]

Hi. We don't usually reply to e-mail addresses, but on the page itself. That way we share knowledge. — Chameleon 08:38, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

On Q 1), I don't think it is really a point so much as a velocity. I don't fly powered planes, but I think the sequence during take off for a fixed wing powered aircraft is something like;

• Initial ground roll - full throttle, maximum acceleration
• V1 - The take off decision velocity. Before V1 you can shut down all engines and stop safely within the remaining length of the runway. After V1, you should proceed with the take off even if you loose one engine. I suspect you don't continue under any failure condition, you would still abort if you lost all engines (you won't reach VR) or you lose control to the elevator (you won't be able to rotate), however you would expect to crash off the end of the runway.
• VR - Rotation velocity. The point at which you pull back to lift the nose and begin to leave the ground.
• V2 - Is the safe take off speed or initial climb speed. The point at which you start the optimal climb properly. A very heavy aircraft might lift off the ground and fly parallel in ground effect for quite a while, still accelerating until it reaches V2 and can start to climb safely.

V1 is probably the term you want. All of these values have to be calculated before each flight. They depend on the type of plane, its loading, and the environmental conditions (rain on the wings etc). Later in the flight there is also the Point of no return when the plane no longer has enough fuel to return the original airfield, usually a little over halfway through the flight for a commercial jet. -- Solipsist 11:57, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I've just found that there is also a less common term, called the Accelerate-stop distance, which is something like a point on the runway at which you can stop safely. See Section 25.109. -- Solipsist 12:19, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I believe "accelerate-stop distance" is the correct term. The speed V1 mentioned above is also called "decision speed" as it is the speed at which the decision in case of an engine failure changes from "abort takeoff" to "complete takeoff anyway." Interesting factoid: During the takeoff run of a commercial airliner, it is the captain's job to fly the plane. It is the co-pilot's job to watch the airspeed indicator and announce this speed, V1 or the decision speed. The captain then switches his mind from being prepared to shut off the engines and abort the takeoff to being prepared to complete a takeoff with an engine failure. moink 17:25, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

star on England football uniform in Euro 2004

During Euro 2004, the England national football team's uniform has a yellow 5-pointed star in front, under the team coat-of-arms. What does this mean? A championship they have won? Or just decorative? -- Kaihsu 09:43, 2004 Jun 23 (UTC)

It shows they have won 1 major football tournament (the 1966 World Cup Final). It is not unique to England, several other countries have followed this trend recently, although there is not a standard. It was started by Brazil as a celebration of the fact that they have won more World Cups than any other nation1. Some countries include regional tournament wins such as the UEFA European Championship or the African Nations Cup in their star count. akaDruid 10:30, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I thought the stars were exclusively for World Cup wins. Anyway, observant TV viewers will notice that France also has one star, Germany has three, and Brazil has five. -- Arwel 22:35, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

There are mostly used for World Cup wins. I heard a commentator say recently that at least one country has stars to represent UEFA wins too but unfortunately I don't remember which country. Perhaps someone else can help? akaDruid

Frank Skinner and David Baddiel's Fantasy Football said that the common usage is for World Cup wins but pointed out that a couple of teams had done their own thing, giving the impression of enhanced status compared to reality. I don't remember who the naughty teams are. --bodnotbod 23:53, Jun 24, 2004 (UTC)

Indeed, the star is an unofficial (as far as I am aware) way of indicating world cup wins. The Danes I believe have a star on their shirt in recognition of their shock win at Euro 1992 (which they only qualified for as a result of Yugoslavia's disqualification), as do some African nations. Seeing as it is not an official practice, it is debateable whether or no it is "naughty" (as an England fan I would say it is though :)). I believe England have only recently introduced (or re-introduced) the star on their away (but not home) shirt above the three lions. Ed g2s 16:57, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Huguenots

I'm writing a book, Exiles Are Assets. Its aim is to show that exiles and refugees are good for their host countries. I wish to include information about Huguenots who fled from France to England. May I quote from your material?

The short answer is 'yes', but doing so may place certain obligations on you depending on how you use the material. For more information, see Wikipedia:Copyrights, and Wikipedia:Text of the GNU Free Documentation License. Mark Richards 17:09, 23 Jun 2004 (UTC)

You can quote short extracts from Wikipedia as you would from any other source, following the rules of fair use in the jurisdiction where you plan to publish (see Wikipedia:Copyrights). See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for advice on how to cite your Wikipedia source. If your quotations are so big that they can't be justified as fair use, or if you derive sections of your book from Wikipedia material, then your book is a derived work and you must license it under the GNU Free Documentation License (this doesn't mean you can't also publish it conventionally, but some publishers might be unhappy that they don't own the copyright). Gdr 17:15, 2004 Jun 23 (UTC)

Greenland

Shouldn't Denmark+Greenland+Faroe be the world's 14^th largest country(+dependancy) totalling up 2,210,580 km²? Nichalp 20:22, Jun 23, 2004 (UTC)

Adoption - District Court

Adoption - District CourtI am looking for any references on the court system in Olawa. My wife and I are adopting twin boys from the region and have experienced significant challenges. Any information on the district court system located in Olawa would be helpful.

Thank You for your assistance.

Jeff Cox

[email protected]

Jeff, my father used to work for Mercer, and my sister currently does -- small world, I guess. :-) I take it you are referring to Olawa, Poland? I'm afraid I can't help you. If you leave a note on User:Ausir's talk page (he's the only editor I can think of around here who is Polish, though I'm sure there are more), perhaps he can help with some ideas. Good luck! Jwrosenzweig 16:26, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Ah, also User:Przepla wouild be a good choice -- his talk page is here. Jwrosenzweig 16:28, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

How long the Black Sea been called the Black Sea?

Answer: according to Black Sea, "The name (initially Pontus Euxinus) was coined by the Ancient Greek navigators, because of the unusual dark colour, compared with the Mediterranean Sea. Visibility in the Black Sea is on average approximately 15 feet (as compared to up to 100 feet (30 m) in the Mediterranean)." So, somewhere between 776 BC and 323 AD.

Cheers, Kingturtle 20:39, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Jesus Prayer in Japanese

Can someone please transcribe the following into romaji?

イエス・キリスト、神の子よ、わたしをあわれんでください

Thanks. --Xiaopo ℑ 22:57, Jun 24, 2004 (UTC)

You can use Jim Breen's WWWJDIC to translate and romanize words in Japanese. Your sentence romanizes (in the Hepburn system) as iesu kirisuto, kami no ko yo, watashi o awarende kudasai. あわれんでください is written 哀れんで下さい using kanji. Gdr 13:10, 2004 Jun 25 (UTC)

Trains?

Is it true that there were trains during Roman times? Plus did the Romans invent the train? Thank You!

The train as in the thing on railway tracks? Who told you that the Romans had those? DO'Neil 01:06, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

While I doubt you'd call it a train, apparently the Romans had horse-drawn tracked vehicles of a kind; see Wagonway. --Robert Merkel 01:14, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Clever chaps, those Romans. They also invented (well, had, at least) traffic calming. If memory serves, the roadways discovered in Pompeii are crossed by stepping stones. Primarily these allowed pedestrians to cross the streets without getting their sandals dirty, but the size of the gaps in the raised stones meant that some hotheaded puer in a stolen chariot couldn't go peeling around the streets (at least not without a few tooth-shattering jolts). Just like council estates today. Hey, you travellous wikipedians - does someone have a photo of said stones, so I can add it to traffic calming? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:24, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Maybe this question comes from a garbled version of the rather silly old tale that the standard gauge of railroad tracks in England (or something) is descended from the width of Roman carts, which determined the width of the old Roman roads, which were used for ages afterward, and so on. So somebody who has half-heard the story says, "The width of a railroad train coms from the Romans", and person to whom that sounds weird—it is weird, after all—directs a query here. 209.204.169.149 04:52, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC) [wrong name because my login went bye-bye]

Artist Parkinson Fox?

My mother inherited a painting from my great-grandmother signed by artist Parkinson Fox. Does anybody know anything about this artist, or where I can find out something about him? She lived most of her life in Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and California. RickK 05:07, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

civil rights denied through Ca. workers comp and funded by the federal government

Ho, I am Kathleen Chase, proudly desended from the Hupa Tribe in Northern California, and not only do I seek help but to share what Grandfather has shown me. I was hurt while working as a certified nurses aid in 1997 repeatedly, my attorney was paid over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars to shaft me and drop me as a client. In mid 1999 I began to investigate and research in the law books what was happening to me, this search took back to 1992 and farther.My work comp files are full of documented evidence medical negligence, fraud, to an attempt to perform unnecessary spinal fusion and prosecute me for fraud. Unable to go to a law library because of my pain and they are an intimidating place if you don't know what your looking for or where to look. I found the books I needed, did you know a lay person can not just walk in a buy law books? I found them anyway and walking with Grandfather in the medicine wheel he showed how people of authority can file under the fraud prevention act with the Control Board or some unknown court that the person they are filing against is guilty of commiting unprosecutable frauds, like when you work and get welfare, that is an unprosecutable fraud, even though the person did nothing wrong and reported their income like they are suppose to. When this happens the accused is not informed or notified, and have no opportunity to defend themself. The people who filed the claim recieve a judgment, for each judgment they are given 2 to 4 years to legally engage in criminal activity to entrap, in my case me, in a prosecutable fraud, and prosecute. During the time period my citizenship status was altered. I was found to not to be entitled to the benefits of society, and no longer entitled to protection under the law or due process. Because of this my complaints of criminal acts commited against me in my work comp cases are not valid. To report this type of crime you can not guilty of even an unprosecutable fraud. They can take a levy against your personality, and a lien against your reality when I first learned this I laughed but I soon realized this was no joke. My phones were sencured, my computer corrupted, my credit cards ran up, my home entered and my notes and records taken. I am followed and video taped and electronicly eves dropped on. They can end your life if they want with the approval of the system, which they attempted to do, but following my gut at the time I discovered this I picked up the phone, it was tapped and making that tell tell beep beep sound, I began to call anyone I could think of telling them I believed a lawyer I had upset had taken a contract out on my life, I recieved a phone call from a friend confirming this and telling me I needed to make a safe tape of what I knew, I also wrote a letter to the presiding judge informing him that I knew my life was in danger and that I was binding my life to his and if I died the truth of my case would move forward. I recieved a sign that I would live for a time. Not only have I suffered these things and more, but my children and grandchildren, my man, my friends,and anyone who assists me have suffered. So I stay alone and have no close relationships with anyone but my man. Over the years I have written many places to file my complaints, last year during a work comp trial the judge told me "Things were changing in the work comp system because of me just how much would change depended on what I did." I didn't know what he meant, he went on to tell me I am the first person in California to discover what was happening. When I told him I was trying to report a crime commited against me, he replied "yes we know about you but we don't know what we're going to do." I just realized to night what it was I did. One of my complaints went to the attorney general, I never heard anything back and had forgotten about it. I found their web site and read how the attorney general is agressivly enforcing civil rights laws and how they were taking legal action civilly. Then read how they would accept complaints from people but would not an individual such as myself. Even though my complaint caused them to investigate my claims, and make changes to the system. The legal statute that allowed this to be done to me and many other people was repealed last year, but my situation has not changed. I am seeking legal help or guidence. What has been done to me is a violation of the 1972 Hayes act in which I was granted federal recognition as a Native American although I am not a tribal member. I believe they have violated many treaties and discriminated against many people of all races, anyone who has received public aid is a target. In case I can't reconnect to your web site I want you to be able to contact me by e-mail or by phone but please do not include it when you post my message <deleted by Jwrosenzweig>. May the sun warm your face on the cold winter days and a cool breeze be with you through the heat. Kathleen

Kathleen, I am sorry to tell you that we are not lawyers here -- this is a free online encyclopedia project, and we are all volunteers who are helping to build it. Any legal advice you get here would be offered by people who mean well, but who likely won't know enough about your local area's laws. You seem to have had a rough time with your lawsuit, and I hope you can find someone to give you aid. I suggest contacting community organizations like the YMCA to see if they know of legal professionals who help in situations such as yours. I believe the term you should be looking for is pro bono -- unless I'm mistaken, it's a phrase used to describe a lawyer who takes a case for free out of a desire to do good. Perhaps that will give you some help. Keep checking locally -- I wish you well in your search for justice. I have deleted personal information you posted above because you said "please do not include it when you post my message" -- around here, all messages are posted instantly. Thank you for your warm blessing, and if I may return it, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. Jwrosenzweig 16:45, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Beautifully put you wonderful person, you. --bodnotbod 22:11, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

Pigs

 Are pigs native of Asia?

They are part of the Chinese Zodiac, so they have been there a long time. Not sure of the original birthplace of pigs and whether they were brought with or brought to asian cultures. - Tεxτurε 15:31, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Quick, grab the Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond says they were first domesticated in Southeast Asia. In any case, yes, the wild boar that gave rise to the modern pig is native to Eurasia and North Africa. Dandrake 05:04, Jun 27, 2004 (UTC)

Dodge ball

What is the history of dodge ball?

Dodgeball (or Dodge-Ball) was invented in Akron, Ohio in 1897 by cousins Clarence A. Ball and Hubert Dodge, who patented the game under its first name, Clarence-Hubert the following year. Shortages of vultanized rubber following the 1902 Sino-Caledonian war meant that the pair were forced to play with a broken housebrick. It was during this era that the game, then generally known as "DeathBrick", enjoyed its golden age. By 1910 DeathBrick was played at colleges including Princeton, Yale, and the DeVry Institute, and the increasing popularity of the sport saw the formation of the National Deathbrick League in 1912 and the United Negro Deathbrick League the following year. In the prosperous years following the First World War, deathbrick became the first american sport to integrate, and in 1928 the unified leagues replaced the regulation six pound housebrick with a lighter solid latex ball. The name Dodgeball, by then genericized, was adopted at the same time. Some critics believe this marked the advent of commercialisation of dodgeball and the end of the gentleman's game. Some amateurs continue to play deathbrick with reproduction equipment, and the traditional thunk of brick on cranium continues to be heard in council estates and in bus shelters the world over.

Man, we need an article about this. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:00, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Finlay is having a little fun with you, which I fully enjoyed and appreciate. :-) But if you want the actual answer to your question, I suggest reading the Dodgeball article. Jwrosenzweig 17:12, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, can we somehow promote this to BJAODN without actually creating an article? Ehh... n/m. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 19:49, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

Oh, don't encourage me. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:44, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

If we posted every funny thing Finlay wrote around here to BJAODN, he'd have his own namespace. ;-) Jwrosenzweig 22:29, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

help finding an old Wired magazine article online

Steve Steinberg's "Net-Heads vs. Bell-Heads" Issue 4.10 October 1996 Wired Magazine article used to be online at http://hotwired.wired.com/wired/4.10/features/atm.html and http://hotwired.wired.com/wired_online/4.10/atm/index.html and now the full text is not there anymore. Does anyone know where else it archived? - Bevo 16:28, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Wired Magazine was founded in 1917 in Toulouse by cousins David Wi and Etiene Red ... Oops, sorry, force of habit. It's at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.10/atm.html -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:16, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! - Bevo 19:46, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

River City

As far as I know, there are several cities that are referred to casually as "river city". Among these are:

• Memphis, Tennesee
• Sacramento, California
• Portland, Oregon

Does anyone know if the "River City" in River City Ransom refer to any of these actual cities? Are there any other instances of a "River City" in literature or other media? - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:00, Jun 25, 2004 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, Mason City, Iowa claims to be the River City from a famous old musical, Music Man. Alteripse 22:36, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

calcium to ephedra

Is it possible to chemically alter calcium to become ephedrine chemical name of [(methylamino)ethyl]benzene-methanol. C10 H15 NO

Only with a philosopher's stone that transmutes elements. Alteripse 22:39, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It would appear that Ephedra is a far more complicated substance than merely altered calcium -- specifically, it appears to me that ephedrine alkaloids are added to calcium to make ephedra (although more, it appears, is involved). Furthermore, I doubt any such processes are available to the public, seeing as they are probably lucrative for the pharmaceutical companies who no doubt protect their patent. But perhaps a biochemist can help. Alteripse's suggestion of alchemy is as noble and tantalizing as it is whimsical and antiquated. :-) Jwrosenzweig 22:42, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

To clarify Alteripse's statement, calcium is a chemical element. Ephedrine, according to the chemical formula you gave, does not contain calcium but contains the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. A chemical reaction can combine atoms of elements in new ways, but cannot convert atoms from one type of element to another. moink 22:44, 25 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Precisely, Moink. I'm guessing that the gap between the science types and humanities types is yawning here? Alteripse 02:42, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

What's it called when a word has more than one spelling?

For example. Spatial - and - Spacial. What's the word to express the multiple spellings, if any?

Thank you, any help is appreciated.

The word you want is variants. --Gelu Ignisque

When they sound the same, but are spelt differently? They're homophones. When they are spelt the same, but have different meanings, they're homonyms. Dysprosia 03:58, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The Guardian (british newspaper) has a thing called Homophone corner in its errors and clarifications section. I'm trying to think what the common journalist's mistakes are... but I've been typing on and off for 36 hours without sleep now, so I'm struggling. --bodnotbod 05:48, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

alcohol, consumption of, excessive and persistent, from the journalists I've known... oh, you mean spelling errors? m.e. 10:03, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I actually thought you was putting me on the analyst's couch. --bodnotbod 18:54, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

Well although they are homophones that is usually used to describe different words that sound the same. In this case (and many others thanks to Webster's rationalisation) they are really the same word. Following the pattern of heteronym, I would suggest hetrograph but that doesn't appear to be a word and heterography has a different meaning. Interestingly, before Samuel Johnson set the standard for English orthography, spelling was not well defined. The phonetic variations in spelling is one of the methods used to trace the evolution of pronunciations and language. -- Solipsist 11:48, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Your word would have to be heterograph, from the Greek heteros, "other," + graphos, "writing." --Gelu Ignisque

Some other related thoughts, what is it called when the same word is both spelt and pronounced differently, e.g. aluminium vs. aluminum. Or is that just confusing two languages that appear the same but are now diverged.

What is it called when the same word in the same language can be written in more than one script, e.g. the kanji, hiragana, romaji example Jesus prayer above. -- Solipsist 14:01, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'd just call it having acceptable variant spellings. -- Jmabel 17:43, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

"Written dialect"? --bodnotbod 20:41, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

Brushing your tongue

I put a question on the tongue talk page, but answer came there none. I asked (of course, for a notional friend) why a tongue can be persistently coated. What does it mean? Brushing my, I mean his, his tongue... why is it that when he brushes his tongue it comes out looking a bit healthier then returns all coated and turgid next time I poke... I mean he pokes it out? Does brushing the tongue damage the taste buds? Or does it make them more vigorous and healthy? --bodnotbod 04:12, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

Dentists say: "Don't forget to brush your tongues!" So I assume it will not damage the taste bud. I mean, there are so many of them. Killing a few probably will just decrease your appetite a little bit and make one less voraciously unappealing at dinner parties. --Menchi 05:11, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Don't worry about your taste buds, but you've got to stop licking the cat. Alteripse 05:15, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Dentists say: "Don't forget to brush your tongues!" - jeez, I'd find a new dentist. Most people I know have only got one tongue. If he's using the plural I think he might be sniffing his own codeine. Either that or you speak, quite literally, with forked tongue. Next time you go in for a check up say "how many teeth am I holding up?" If he says anything above zero then either he's out of it, or you've already let him extract one too many. --bodnotbod 05:44, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

I think there might be something to this though - there are products for cleaning the tongue - scrapers and the like. I have never used them - anyone know whether they are snake oil? Mark Richards 06:48, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

snake oil and patent medicine are two of some favourite articles I've found since I've been hanging around this place. --bodnotbod 07:11, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

My friend recently bought a toothbrush which had some ridges on the reverse of the head designed for 'tongue scraping', which might suggest that the normal bristles shouldn't be used, but then again it could just be a gimmick to sell a few more toothbrushes. I also once read somewhere that you could scrape the white gunk off with a teaspoon, but that feels a bit weird of the taste buds too. Plus you should always remember to wash it before you put it back in your neighbour's cutlerly draw. --Chopchopwhitey 07:28, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, there are designed tongue scrapers. Like a... thin horseshoe. Stainless steel. I remember they had them on some tawdry British breakfast show. I think the cold feel of steel on the tongue is kinder than a shovelling of bristles. I'm not really...I mean my friend isn't really happy with the answers so far. Where's the Wikipedia Dentistry Arbitration Committee?--bodnotbod 19:01, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

Did you know toothbrushes before 1938 were made of animal hair ? Wonder if dentists then used to suggest brushing the tongue. Maybe this could be put in the "Did you know .." section on the Main page. Any Wikipedian here who has brushed his teeth before 1938 ? Jay 14:11, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

LOL! Well, I bet they're not still brushing them now. Perhaps rubbing them down with brasso... --bodnotbod 20:43, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

Obituary

An ancestor, Minnie Armstrong Barrie lived in Battleford at the time of her death, 23 May 1957. She was buried in the Moose Jaw, SK Cemetery in the Armstrong plot. She had previously lived, in Moose Jaw. She was the widow of Alexander Ingram Barrie. Was she also the former widow of Charles Ernst Armstrong? Can you send me her obit or any information about her?

I want to make arrangements for mailing of any obit or newspaper clippings you might have.

Please give me the address / E-mail of the local newspaper.

Bernard J. Diedrich 1140 Windsong Lane Sarasota, FL 34242 U. S. A. 941 349-8001 E-mail// [email protected]

You may find this site helpful: [16] moink 01:55, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Endorheic

Hey latin-speakers. If my (google-based) latin is correct, "endo-rheic" means roughly "acid inside", yet an endorheic lake is invariably alkaline. Does rheic really mean "caustic" rather than "acidic", or am I missing something? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:21, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Well, your basic problem is that endorheic is Greek rather than Latin, and means something like "flowing in" because they have no outlet to the sea. I don't think it has any relationship to pH. Alteripse 00:01, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

"relating to or characterized by interior drainage, i.e., the condition of a region in which little or none of the surface drainage reaches the sea" --Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary Unabridged on CD-ROM. --Gelu Ignisque

The roots are Greek endo-, "inside" (maybe from en, "in," + domos, "house"); rhein, "to flow"; and the English combining form -ic, from French -ique, partially from Latin -icus and partially from Greek -ikos.

Classics Rhyme/Awful pun

Can anyone fill in the blank in this half-remembered couplet?

Scotland, how thee a double darkness _____, For thy name is Scotia and thy teacher Knox

Scotia and nox being Greek and Latin respectively for night. It has to rhyme with Knox so a process of elimination should work but I can't think of the word. The meaning is something like 'curses'. Any ideas? adamsan 01:48, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

From a rhyming dictionary: bloc's, bloch's, block's, blocks, blocs, box, boxx, brock's, brox, clock's, clocks, cocks, cox, coxe, dock's, docks, flocks, fox, foxx, frocks, jocks, knocks, kroc's, locks, lox, mocks, ochs, ox, pocks, pox, rock's, rocks, rox, sachs, shocks, socks, sox, stock's, stocks, stocks', vocs, vox moink 01:51, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps mocks? moink 01:52, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Wow that was fast, it is indeed 'mocks'. Thanks moink I can go to bed now!adamsan 02:00, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Scotia isn't Greek for night. It is Latin for Scotland, e.g., the dear province of Nova Scotia. --Menchi 03:16, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

skotos in classical greek can mean shade, shadow, or dark night. Modern English cognate is scotoma, for a blind spot in one's vision. Alteripse 03:21, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

For the record, scotoma isn't a cognate, it's a derivative; the word was consciously formed from the ancient Greek elements, not simultaneously derived from Indo-European?English wasn't around back then! --Gelu Ignisque

• Wow, I've been out-nitpicked! You are absolutely correct, derivative is the right term. I doff my hat! Although you may not believe it, there is no sarcasm in this note. You wann join our nerd club? Alteripse 22:16, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Hence for searchable clarity, couplet is:

"Scotland, how thee a double darkness mocks,

For thy name is Scotia and thy teacher Knox"

Who is author? Mervyn

This may indeed be a pun, since Latin Scotia meaning "Scotland" could be identical to Greek *scotia, "darkness" (from skotos, defined above, + -ia, a suffix forming abstract nouns). --Gelu Ignisque

I made a small change but messed up and didn't do an explan ..

.. ation, which I would like to add. How can I add my explanation to the history?

You can't, but you should be able to make the change on whatever page you messed up, and explain if necessary on the talk page. Mark Richards 07:15, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

You can also do any kind of little edit just after the first, putting something like "prev edit was major" or "prev edit expanded on the history section and also took out silly POV" in the edit summary. ✏ Sverdrup 01:37, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't this query be posted on the village pump? --Gelu Ignisque

Probably. Mark Richards 23:32, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Phosphenes

What are phosphenes (the shifting glow that one sees when one's eyes are closed)? What causes them? --Eequor 04:37, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

What's wrong with your eyes?; our eyes don't do that... just kidding. Phosphenes are nerve signals from the neurons of the retina to the visual cortex of the brain which are interpreted as lights and visual patterns, but are not caused by visual light. They can be produced by a variety of things, including pressure stimulation to the eyeball, and less commonly various diseases of the retina and nerves. Perhaps some may even be "constructively perceived" in the dark in the same way that we can begin to "hear" vague noises in a completely quiet room. Goodnight, I'm going to go watch some phosphenes. Alteripse 04:57, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Wines

I want to learn everything about fine wines. Where do I start? --Jiang 01:34, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Well, for a start, it depends on the purpose of your learning. If you want to learn for professional reasons, there are professional courses on the topic. Heck, in some countries you can do a university degree in winemaking (you can in Australia and presumably France), and our technical colleges offer certificates in wine for sommeliers and chefs.

However, if you are seeking to learn about wines as a hobby, there are several ways to learn about wine. Obviously, an introductory book on the topic might be helpful. However, to learn about wine the most enjoyable part is trying lots of them and discovering which ones you like! One obvious way to do that is to visit wine growing areas, visit a number of wineries, and taste their wares. The winemakers will be very eager to tell you all about their products, and while there's an element of marketing BS in their spiels you should learn a few things when you compare what your taste buds are telling you to the maker's description of the wine. If you're not so lucky, many retailers and other organizations organize wine tastings, sometimes as part of "wine appreciation" courses.

Oh, and if you're able to go out to a good restaurant, talk to the waiter about what wine goes best with the meal. They should be experts on their restaurant's wine list, and from osmosis you should be able to pick up some guidelines for yourself.

Finally, remember, it's all about what you enjoy. If you think it tastes good or bad, that's your perogative.

Of course, you may be interested in winemaking, which is a whole different sport. Again, a good book or a local club will be able to help you out. Mark Richards 17:26, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for the info...It's mainly for personal enrichment purposes. I'm still two and a half years short of the legal age in the US, so I'll have to wait before making a trip to Napa. I do, however, have a couple hundred bottle of the stuff sitting in my house...

At this point, I'm mainly interested in introductory books on the topic I can look at this summer.--Jiang 07:43, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Well if you have the wine but can't drink it in public, the best option might be an online wine course (random Google example [17]) which could lead you through the tastings. Probably best to gather a group of like-minded friends though. -- Solipsist 09:19, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The Hollywood "Point" system

Can someone explain what it means for an actor or director to have points for a project? I know that it factors in to how much many they can make, but I'd like to know the specifics. (If possible, could you also put the answer on my talk page? Thanks)--Wasabe3543 06:56, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Unless I recall badly, if, say, Tom Hanks has "5 points" on his next film Forrest Gump II: Armageddon, it means that he will receive, in addition to whatever salary is paid, 5% of the film's profits. Points are usually held by major producers, directors, and lead actors (occasionally actresses, although I fear they have been neglected too often in the past). Obviously, points are of widely variable value -- whoever had points for Waterworld was sorely diappointed, whereas one presumes it would have been wise for Elijah Wood to forgo his entire salary for the LOTR in exchange for a single point on the profits. SOmeone else should give a more detailed explanation, however. Jwrosenzweig 16:44, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

copy of marriage

You are really asking for quite a feat of mind reading here. But if you want a copy of a marriage certificate and you are British you should visit your registry office, I think. --bodnotbod 20:48, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

A swift google for 'copy marriage <country>' or 'copy marriage <state>' should give you something useful, such as Registry Offices in London, England. or New York City Marriage Bureau. Sometimes you can print out an application form online, or at least they should provide contact details and a brief description of the process. akaDruid 23:37, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

In the United Kingdom, if you visit your local record office they should have an index of all marriages that have been registered in the UK since July 1837, indexed by surname of both bride and groom. It costs £8 (I think) to order a marriage certificate, and it takes about a week to come through. In the US I believe you need to approach the state in which the marriage took place. -- Graham ☺ | Talk 23:40, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Thesis about Hypertext

hi i'm an italian student and i'm interested in hypertext, i'm planning to write a chapter of my thesis about hypertextual encyclopedia and i'd like to speak about wikipedia. All i ask for is a brief interview with someone i could send few questions about this encyclopedia. I think would be interesting for me and nice for you too, I hope you can help me.

My email address is [email protected] i hope i hear from you soon.

Best regards

antonio

Why not do things in the true Wiki way and put up your questions here? Dysprosia 09:36, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'll contact him. →Raul654 16:58, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

Verbed nouned verbs, or nouned verbed nouns

I was trying to give someone an example of one of my pet peeves: turning a verb derived from a noun into a noun, or turning a noun derived from a verb into a verb. But I couldn't come up with many common ones off the top of my head. I hope to get him a longer list.

The best examples I can come up with right now are actioning: act -> action -> actioning and orientate: orient -> orientation -> orientate. They don't have to be real words, just manglings that get used. moink 16:50, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

My personal vote for most annoying example of this is "to birth" as a verb meaning "to bear" by people who do not understand that birth is simply the noun form of bear. Alteripse 17:03, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

"administer" -> "administration" -> "administrate" -- Jmabel 17:48, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

One attends a party, but should never just "party!". --bodnotbod 20:51, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

I think that this comment exemplifies the reason why gramar mavens are not invited to the best parties. Mark Richards 17:33, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Irrelevant; party is not derived from a verb, so to party would not have the following derivation:

V *to party

|

N a party

|

V to party

--Gelu Ignisque

"burgle" -> "burglar" -> "burglarize"? Proteus (Talk) 09:31, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

That's taken another step and become an adjective as well- I saw a US reality TV cops show where a suspect was arrested in possession of 'burglarious items'. Burglarization cannot be far away; what ever happened to good old fashioned larceny? adamsan 10:09, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Following some googling I now see that burglarious is a venerable term used at least since the eighteenth century and I wish to apologise to the law enforcement agencies of the United States for my baseless slur on their grammar. adamsan 10:17, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

"burglarization" gets 75 hits on Google. Several of them are people commenting on the same thing we are, but there at least a couple of seemingly serious uses of it. Proteus (Talk) 11:00, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

You get another 26 hits if you say "burglarisation". --bodnotbod 16:27, Jun 29, 2004 (UTC)

Just for the record, "burgle" originated as a back-formation from "burglar", so this does not fit.

Unfortunately, I don't actually have any such usages to contribute. Lucky Wizard 22:30, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

That explanation is correct; in other words, burglar independently gave birth to the backformation burgle (primarily a Briticism, I think) and, by derivation, to the verb burglarize (in the U.S.), which are both synonyms. --Gelu Ignisque

My personal peeve is using "reference" as a verb. Whatever happened to good old "refer" or even "cite"? Ambarish | Talk 08:00, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Scrutiny -> Scrutinize -> Scrutinization -- Heron 20:56, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

re:grandfather clock (from vuncent masset`s house)

help me to discuss the grandfather clock that i have that came from vincent massey`s house not sure if it was from the house on jarvis street or the house in por hope ? would you be interested in borrowing it ? please let me know by e.mail or phone at 705 436 3549 thankyou geoff jackson

Hi Geoff. While we have an article on past Governor General of Canada Vincent Massey, I don't think anyone's going to be able to answer your question. You might have some luck e-mailing the Heritage Foundation of Ontario at [email protected]. moink 18:19, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Jambiya knife inscription

I have an old Jambiya knife that has and inscription on each side of the blade in gold, very legible but in an unknown, to me, language. I am just trying to find someone to translate the inscription into English, Can you help me on this? If you want me to I could paste a picture of the inscription but only if would like me to as I do not want to take up you time needlessly. Thank you Earl G. Beall

I think putting up a picture would be the best way to save time all around. Go ahead. --bodnotbod 20:52, Jun 28, 2004 (UTC)

the meaning of semantic differential in corporate communucation

From what I understand, the 'semantic differential' is a measurement of how people percive words. In a corperate context, this is likely to mean what people think of brand names and marketing slogans. You may want to read this page for more technical information. Hope this helps. akaDruid 09:10, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Ambassador Title

When an Ambassador has completed the assignment of Ambassador and no longer holds the post, does he/she keep the title? Is a former Ambassador still addressed as Ambassador?

Pat

Probably varies by country, but in the U.S., yes.-- Jmabel 17:31, Jun 29, 2004 (UTC)

alfred hitchcock books

How much would some three investigators books be worth now? There not exactly in mint condition (some wrinkles and ballpoint marks on the pages here and there).how much would second hand mint condition books be?

• I suggest that you research this on abebooks.com. -- Jmabel 17:33, Jun 29, 2004 (UTC)

September 11 personal accounts

Where is the best place to find personal accounts, and even news reports, if possible, from during/directly after the September 11 tragedy? Rhymeless 18:29, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

We have a Memorial Wiki which might be a good place to start. See also the links at the end of the article September 11, 2001 attacks. -- DrBob 20:35, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

find inmates

You're not from a certain security firm are you? adamsan 19:22, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Flora image identification

My knowledge of flowers being somewhat small, could anyone identify these images I've taken? Uploading them as "red flower", "orange-red rose", &c., is rather... useless. Many thanks,
James F. (talk) 22:03, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The plant with lots of heart shaped pink flowes with a white center is a Bleeding heart (plant) theresa knott 11:00, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Fastest Human Speed

What is the fastest speed a human has achieved by running, hopping, crawling, and walking on their hands? Elpenmaster

• Running [18]
• Swimming [19]
• The world's longest, not fastest, crawl... [20]

This is not relevant, but I thought it was interesting! [21]

Mark Richards 23:08, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The fastest time running the 75-yard-dash backwards (in 8.2 seconds) was once recorded by Bojangles (the tap dancer from the Shirley Temple movies)Rhymeless 03:28, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

• Running 11.9 m/s [22]
• Walking 4.6 m/s [23].
• Walking on hands 1.6 m/s [24].

Can't find any data on crawling or hopping. It's possible there is no official record for either of these activities. akaDruid 10:44, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Sept 11 2001

Hello, In your article about the ___ September 11, 2001 attack oportunists do not show a link in reference to cause and effect to Macroeconomics. I need to know where I can go in your site to find this analysis. Thanks,

Marinitza

Getting from Kos to Ios and back

Not a very encyclopedic question, but I've come to rely on the Wikipedia community. Can anyone think of a way to get from the Greek island of Kos to the equally-Greek island of Ios, as well as the other way aronud? (There are no direct ferry lines, and while my DK Eyewitness guide to the Greek Islands claim there is a line between Kos and Naxos, as well as between Naxos and Ios, I have been unable to locate online references.) Comfort and the length of the voyage are of no importance, money is. Also, if you feel compelled to divulge any Ios-related horror stories (of which there is an abundance on the web), go right ahead. -- Itai 23:32, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Well, what you have to understand, young lady, is that the Greeks, not content with dominating the culture of the Classical world, are also responsible for the greatest, some would say the only, work of true creative imagination produced this century as well. I refer of course to the Greek ferry timetables. A work of the sublimest fiction. Anyone who has travelled in the Aegean will confirm this. Hmm, yes. I think so. - Douglas Adams. Mark Richards 23:56, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

:-). That one made me laugh. Gerald Durrell, by the way, has once written quite an amusing tale of Greek seamanship, which I reread in preparation for this holiday. However, it would appear to be that I had best not insult any Greeks who may be reading this, in whose mercy I lie. -- Itai 00:14, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Your best bet is to talk to a travel agency. Not only are the Ferry lines seasonal, they seem to change every season. When I was last in the islands, I couldn't find a single travel guide that had an accurate ferry map. So it may be that there is a ferry between the two now. You may also be able to catch a plane from neighboring Naxos to Kos. Also, you could charter your own boat, if you had the cash on hand or a large enough group. Lots of options, but the bottom line is that you will need to consult with someone who has up to date ferry and plane information. Most websites are pitifully out of date, but this one looks like a good start: http://www.greekferries.gr/ Reid 15:48, Jul 5, 2004 (UTC)

Phrase

A colleague at work came out with a phrase I'd never heard of before and claimed it was very common in certain parts of England. The phrase was It were so hot, it were crackin the flags. What does this phrase mean and where does it come from? (They refused to tell me because I'm a southerner...) -- Graham ☺ | Talk 23:43, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It sounds like it might refer to it being hot enough to crack flagstones, or flags - stones used to pave streets. Mark Richards 23:57, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

That sounds likely. 'Flags' is in common use in some areas of Nothern England to mean road or pavement. I've heard in Yorkshire myself. The phrase 'One for t' flags' is common, meaning a last drink before leaving 'for the road'. akaDruid 09:47, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Dharam Singh Karnataka CM profile

Cities, counties and population in the USA

Hi I found your website through search engines and I think it is excellent. For one of my school projects I need to make a chart of all the cities and their population within each county of each state (any population value within the last 4 years will do). I found entries for the list of cities in some of the states of USA but nothing at all about the counties to which they belong. The population data about those cities appear not to be comprehensive. So here is my question: Can you please guide me where I can find all this info without the need to go through 3000 and more websites? Thank you in advance for you help. Dustin Win [email protected] Santa Ana College California

This question (and answer) is also posted at the Help Desk.

All of the cities within all of the counties within all of the states in the United States? Either this is a monumental task, or you're going to need to clarify. It is not uncommon to have at least 20 cities in any single county, and most states have 25+ counties; Texas, the second-largest state, has the most counties (254) and likely the most cities (upwards of 40,000 I believe). However, on the entry for each state (see California), there is a listing of all of the counties, or a link to it. Although the pages for the individual counties will list their populations, they may not neccesarily list all of the cities in the county. However, the cities themselves are all listed within wikipedia, with their populations and locations. (see Anchorage, Alaska) Hope this helps; I pray that the project you've been assigned is more specific than it appears to be. Rhymeless 06:16, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Answer from Dustin: I know it is a huge task. I am really looking for all cities from all counties per counties. I already know that there are 3140 counties and over 27,000 cities. This is why I need help to find all this info in one central place/website rather than looking for cities state by state and then county per county... I thought that there may be one or several sites providing this info in one go. Thank you for your answer all the same.

RamMan may have something to say about this - didn't RamBot go through all the census data to produce these pages? It must be available in raw form somewhere, probably on the govt. census site? Would this help? fedstatsMark Richards 17:14, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

How about the census bureau's American FactFinder for a human-readable interface. I think you can also download tables of raw data from there as well. older≠wiser 17:26, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Who is Sam Newman

He appears to be, amongst other things;

• A blogger [25]
• Australia's No. 1 Football media personality [26]
• landlord of the fabled Newman Building at the corner of Camp and Lafayette [27]

Any other guesses? Mark Richards 15:56, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Paris France to Basel Switzerland RR during WW1

I need to know if the rail was running continuously between Paris and Basel during WW1 to have clear facts for a book I am writing. Thanks. Jeanette Fusco [email protected]

Public domain for images of artwork

I know that artwork older than however-many years are public domain, as any copyright that would apply would have expired. However, what about the a photo of that piece of artwork? Many of the photos of particularly famous sculptures are done by famous photographers. There are some sculpture images here that are unlabeled, but I don't want to report them as copyvios if they are public domain. - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:47, Jul 1, 2004 (UTC)

A simple photograph is not a creative work, and so cannot be copyrighted. Arguably, any creative interpretation could be. It's complex, and IAMAL. Mark Richards 21:08, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Polynomial Remainders Theory

What is the proof of the polynomial remainders theorem? ie. if a Polynomial P(x) is divided by (x - a), its remainder is P(a). And who proved it for the first time? Is there a wikipedia article on it, and if not, shouldn't there be...?

I wrote a stub at: Polynomial remainder theorem. Samw 04:23, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

UK three pin plugs

Why is it that only Britain bothers with three-pin electrical plugs? Is the rest of the world under cautious, or is Britain over cautious?

It's not a matter of being cautious. I think that there are some US plugs with earth pins, +plugs in other countries with earth pins also. Certain appliances don't need a connection to an earth pin, which is why they are omitted with those devices. Dysprosia 09:15, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Also mains voltage in Britain is 230V whereas in the Us it's 120V (I think), so that might be part of the reason. theresa knott 09:23, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

3-pin plugs usually have a fuse inside, so they have to be big enough to contain the fuse-holder. That might also be a factor. Plus of course the simple expense of replacing all the sockets if we decided to change. --Phil | Talk 09:34, Jul 2, 2004 (UTC)

See [28] for info on earthed (or, as they say there "grounded") 3-pin plugs around the world. -- Picapica 09:58, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

In mainland Europe the earth pin is in the plug surrounding itself. The advantage is that the plugs can be connected also upside-down. Anárion 09:59, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

European plugs differ slightly across the continent. There are plugs with no earth or certain appliances, but also plugs with the earth is various positions (a pin in the wall socket in France, a central pin in the plug in Italy, contacts on the side of the plug in Spain...) for appliances that need it. Are you saying no American plugs have no earth? Maybe it is because the US is still on 120V. Is there no information about this on Wikipedia? Maybe I should photograph some European plugs. — Chameleon My page/My talk 10:15, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Perhaps the short answer is 'Yes, Britain is over cautious', particularly with RCD circuit breakers in domestic wiring now. I seem to recall the IEEE being proud that the latest UK plug/socket design is the safest in the world. One problem with it is that it is also the largest and heaviest. So much so that the elderly and other people with poor motor skills have difficulty handling them.

Another features that make the UK plugs safer than average is that the wall plug contains a cover to hide the live connectors from probing by small children (why try and defeat Darwin?). The longer earth pin pushes the covers out of the way as the plug is inserted. Also the live pins are partially insulated so that it is very difficult to touch any live metalwork when the plug is partially inserted.

I'm pretty sure that there are some earth three pin plugs in the US, although they are not typical on most domestic appliances. I think it is design B on this page of world power plugs. -- Solipsist 12:24, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Many US plugs are 3 pin, with an earth (not sure what the criteria is), and all news plugs in the US have notches to stop people putting them in the wrong way round. Some appliances in the US are 220 volts (on a separate line), for example dryers. These have different plugs. The UK standardised on a very safe design, whereas the US has a variety of designs for different purposes. Mark Richards 15:52, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

OK, there is now a Mains power plug article. Go forth and improve it with your dazzling knowledge! — Chameleon My page/My talk 01:10, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

There's a brief discussion at Mains power plug (which, incidentally, is something that would probably mean nothing to most Americans, as neither would "earthing", which I had never heard up till now--it's a "ground" or "grounding pin"). A little more detail & illustrations at Electrical socket. The grounding pin is usually required on items from which there is a higher likelihood of one being seriously damaged by a short, probably because of higher voltage (or amps, I guess)-- so refrigerators, microwaves, electric lawnmowers, power tools, and such normally have a 3-pin plug. Two-pin plugs are polarized; I don't think that anything legit is sold any more in the U.S. with an unpolarized 2-pin plug. Which can be somewhat frustrating for people with somewhat older houses with unpolarized outlets--or even older houses without even the 3rd hole for the ground pin. You can replace the outlets with new-style outlets but, if there's no grounding wire in the wall (or if the outlet isn't grounded somehow), you're short-circuiting (no pun intended) the safety of the polarized plug or the 3-pin plug. For outlet safety, most building codes require ground-fault interrupts on each circuit in a house so that a sudden draw of power--like from a short circuit or a finger in an outlet--cuts the power. Elf | Talk 01:23, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Incidentally, the reason the UK 3-pin plugs are so big is that there used to be a range of plugs IIRC from 2 Amp all the way up to 15 Amp. So your desk light would be on a small (about 3/4 inch across) three round pin 2 Amp plug (I was in Kenya last month and they were still using them), whereas your kettle or oven would be on a large chunky three square pin 13 Amp plug. For safety, you could get adapters so that you could plug the 2 Amp, 5 Amp etc. plugs into a 13 Amp socket but not the other way around. Needless to say, this requires a lot of adaptors and/or different sockets. They somehow eventually decided to wire all new sockets to 13 Amp for simplicity. (Don't know whether this still applies in the UK, but in Malaysia we still have special 15 Amp sockets for A/C units: the plug is slightly bigger than the 13 Amp and has three round pins, and the socket usually has its own circuit-breaker). I don't think we ever had two pin sockets. Andrew Yong 09:34, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Moved from help desk

How would I go about finding out who is the owner of a Company going under the name of 824389 ONT. INC. (moved by [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]])

natural grass fertilizer formula

Well, the first thing you can do is to leave grass cuttings on the grass when you cut it, that will provide about 1/3 of the fertiliser needs. Mark Richards 15:54, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Winter sports

Let's say that I, an untrained individual living in North America, wanted to try luge or bobsledding. How would I go about this? How can one become an amateur luger, and are facilities for this available? I've always wondered how those people in the Olympics get their starts; who goes out and tries luge? [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 15:21, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Possibly not the best advice, but you might get some ideas by watching the 1993 film Cool Runnings about the first Jamacian bobsled team. See also [29].

If access to ice/snow and a suitable track is a problem, you might attempt street luge which mentioned in Alternative_culture and has been an event in at least one year of the X Games held in San Francisco.

If access to a suitable track isn't such a problem I think you can get a relatively safe taste for the sport in an articulated bobsleigh which doesn't go too fast and is safe enough to send untutored Alpine tourists down a steep run without assistance. -- Solipsist 20:42, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Firefighters

Firefighters seldom get into firefights. Is there a word for this kind of thing? Mark Richards 15:56, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Just to add to the confusion, in Catalan a firefighter is a "bomber". (In Spanish it's "bombero"). -- Jmabel 18:21, Jul 2, 2004 (UTC)

By "thing", are you referring to firefight? If so, yes, OED says "fire-fight, Military, the struggle to establish fire superiority over the enemy". --Menchi 21:49, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Erm, I know what a firefight is, I'm looking for a word which describes the situation where you have two words (eg Firefighter and firefight) which, on the face of it, look similar, but in fact have nothing to do with each other. Mark Richards 21:58, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it's quite what you're looking for, but the term false friend refers to a similar phenomenon. Lucky Wizard 00:43, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Also, similarly, "false cognate", but again that's usually for two different languages. -- Jmabel 06:13, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

A misnomer, but that's a general term.--[[User:HamYoyo|HamYoyo|TALK]] 09:39, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

The thing is that firefight and firefighter have different derivations. Firefighter is not firefight + -er; it's fire + fighter, the latter of which is in turn from fight and -er. As any linguistic morphologist will tell you, firefight is not a direct constituent of firefighter, so what may seem like strange lack of association in meaning is due to similar linear forms but different morphological hierarchies: [(noun) [(noun) '''fire'''] [(noun) '''fight''']] versus [(noun) [(noun) '''fire'''] [(noun) [(verb) '''fight'''] [(affix) '''-er''']]]. ''Firefighter'' is not *[(noun) [(noun) [(noun) '''fire'''] [(noun) '''fight''']] [(affix) '''-er''']]. --Gelu Ignisque

erm, yes, that's what I mean, is there a word for that? Thanks! Mark Richards 22:23, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

fire fighters fight fires, what exactly are freedom fighters doing?

Buses stop at bus stations, trains stop at train stations; what happens at work stations?

copyright permission for an image

Hello:

I am writing on behalf of Thomson Delmar Learning. They are an educational publisher of textbooks and cd rom projects located in Clifton Park, NY.

They are working on a project entitled VisTE: Visualization in Technical Education which shows the student how graphics can be used to communicate scientific and technical education. The intended audience is high school students in grades 8-12.

They would like to include an image of DNA polymerase ("Taq pol") or Taq Polymerase from the following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/thermus_aquaticus in the project as Fig. 3-1a.

The article cited is from Pubmedcentral of the NIH but it does not contain any photographs. I am assuming that a contributor to the encyclopedia owns copyright to this image.

I would be happy to forward a written request if you could kindly supply me with contact information for the appropriate person/department.

Thank You, Sharon Rounds S&R Photo Acquisitions,LLC 111 Birds Hill Road Averill Park, NY 12018 ph: 518-674-8182 fax: 518-674-0499

If you click on the image in question, it will take you to a page which gives some more information on where the image comes from (this is usually the case with images on Wikipedia). In this instance, the image appears to be in the public domain and came from the Protein Data Bank (PDB). But you should probably verify this for your publication. -- Solipsist 17:09, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Congressman

How would I find the names of former congressmen from Oklahoma by the name of Connelly or Connor, year 1940-1985. Would appreciate your pointing me in the right way. John Cummings, Lawrence, Ks. .........Thanks

• Well, for starters, this is the kind of thing any librarian could find you quickly, and Lawrence certainly has decent libraries. I wouldn't be surprised if they could tell you on the phone. Your best online bet (I didn't follow through to check for these names) is http://politicalgraveyard.com/. -- Jmabel 18:26, Jul 2, 2004 (UTC)

I would try the U.S. Congress biographical dictionary, searchable at http://bioguide.congress.gov/biosearch/biosearch.asp. Or look in our article on List of United States Congresses, which should have all the congresses from the years you mentioned. Good luck, [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 18:26, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

What is Marlon Brando's ethnic background?

He was English, Irish, and French - his family's last name was originally Brandeau. Otherwise I guess he was just plain old American. Adam Bishop 06:08, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Adamson Act

Seems to have been passed by Woodrow Wilson, it is a labour act that paved the way for the eight hour work day. Mark Richards 23:46, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Jesus's or Jesus'

On many different Wikipedia pages, I have seen conflicting ways of showing a possessive Jesus: Jesus's or Jesus'. It may sound trivial, but I would assume rules of English would require it to be Jesus' and if that's true, what should I do if I find articles with the incorrect usage? (Should I edit them and mark them as spelling changes in the comments box?).

Thanks for any help. --Localizer 03:27, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

This is a "style" issue rather than a "rules of English" one. Neither spelling is wrong. But most people (and the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)) follow the rule "form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's." This includes proper nouns, including those ending in s, x, or z. So "Jesus's companions" is what CMS recommends. (An exception is in expressions such as "for Jesus' sake" or "for righteousness' sake" where the "s" is omitted when the noun ends in an s or an s sound.) The other alternative (simply omitting the possessive "s" on all words ending is "s", ("Maria Callas' singing") is not wrong, but it disregards ponunciation, seems unnatural to many, and is less common. But there's no "incorrect" usage going on here, so there's nothing to correct, and you can probably think of better ways to use your time!<g> - Nunh-huh 06:25, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Yes, both are right. However, I believe only "dogs' love" is correct, while "dogs's love" doesn't work. --Menchi 06:32, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

The rules above are for possessive singulars. Possessive plurals usually are formed by adding only an apostrophe. as you note. -- Nunh-huh 06:40, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Thank you for the clarification. I guess I will have to come up with better excuses for meddling with things that don't need changing. --Localizer 06:53, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

I agree pretty much with what has been said, but I'll point you all in this direction: Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.. It seems pretty authoritative despite being almost 90 years old. Note it says an exception is "Jesus'", so you were right after all, Localizer!--HamYoyo|TALK 09:28, Jul 3, 2004 (UTC)

CMS notes that the general rule is from Strunk, and rejects that exception. Again, this is a matter of style not "right" or "wrong". - Nunh-huh 18:21, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Surgical sutures

Sutures article says "absorbable sutures" are used within the body, whereas for closing external skin wounds "non-absorbable sutures" are used. Are there cases where absorbable sutures are used for external closures ? What are the pros and cons of this ? Jay 17:31, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

• Since I don't think we have a surgeon on board, I'll break one of my own rules about not posting speculation if someone else here probably has access to facts. As described in the article, the key characteristic of absorbable sutures is their ability to be dissolved by tissue enzymes. The two most important qualities for skin sutures are (1) that the wound not re-open before it is healed and (2) that the scar be as thin and subtle as possible. One of the advantages of removable sutures is that the time of removal is controlled-- the doctor can specify exactly when to remove them. Optimal timing to minimize scarring varies for skin of different parts of the body. Absorbable sutures do not have timed dissolution and so there is more potential variability as to when they disappear. The second thing that occurs to me (speculation) is that there may be a bit more inflammatory response to the foreign protein in some of the absorbable sutures. Inflammation can amplify scarring so if removable sutures are less antigenic it would represent a second potential way to reduce scarring. Alteripse 18:07, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Male watermelons

A colleague swears that in Russia there are 'male' and 'female' watermelons, and that you can tell the difference by looking at them. I understand there are male and female watermelon plants. Are there male and female fully grown watermelons? How to tell them apart?

A watermelon is a berry, thus it is formed from the female portion of the watermelon flower (the carpel) after the flower has been polinated. The male parts of the flower (stamen) do not form fruit. Therefore, there are no "male" watermelons. Gentgeen 20:35, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

You can however buy cubic watermelons, or at least you could. There was a bit of an expensive fad for them in Japan in 2001. The are produced by surrounding the growing melons in a glass cube. The process is similar to that used for making Bonsai Kittens (possibly broken link). -- Solipsist 21:58, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Problems with the Random Page

It seems that often when I click the Random Page link I come to a short, dull article about an American town or county. Surely there must be an imbalance of stub pages on American local geography to other pages for them to be occuring so frequently?

The reason is that a while back (not sure exactly when) we had a bot add approximately 40,000 articles from US census data - that's about 1/7 of our database, as of this writing. →Raul654 04:45, Jul 4, 2004 (UTC)

The only real solution is to pack the database with interesting articles about other things. Go to it! Mark Richards 16:29, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

A different solution would be to use the Category mechanism. I have been looking at modifying a bot to add appropriate categories to the small town and county pages. Then with appropriate changes to MediaWiki it might be possible to use user preferences to exclude certain categories from the random page selection. -- Solipsist 16:38, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

National flower of poland

WHAT IS THE NATIONAL FLOWER OF POLAND? THANK YOU. JIM BOYD E-MAIL: [email protected]

• It doesn't seem to have one. Do most nations???? In any case, this webpage claims there's an especial fondness for poppies...--Nunh-huh 04:49, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
  • I'll email him this, unless someone else has already. →Raul654 04:51, Jul 4, 2004 (UTC)

translation of "Schwedenfeuer" / "Finnenkerze"

i searched quite a bit but couldn't find a hint how to translate the German word "Schwedenfeuer" or in Swiss-German "Finnenkerze" .. probably this method of cutting/burning wood trunks is mainly known in the South German area and so only given a name there though i doubt it ..

here are some pictures how it looks like

.. hope that someone knows the word :) tia

Question about 2Step music...

While disambiguating occurences of the word beat, I came across 2Step, and I can't make heads or tails of what it's describing. Is the example wrong? The description? Can someone who knows the first thing about house music (I don't) have a look at it? grendel|khan 16:01, 2004 Jul 4 (UTC)

what is marlon brando's ethnic background

The Marlon Brando article says, "Brando was born in the American heartland Omaha, Nebraska...He was of Dutch, French, English and Irish stock." — Matt 15:36, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

What is a Cantilever Bridge

Is Little Belt Bridge (1935) a Cantilever bridge? I would think so but this page doesnt quite provide pictures that are alike enaugh. --Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 15:19, 2004 Jul 5 (UTC)

It looks like a standard girder bridge. A cantilever bridge would have more complex metalwork which would be taller above each pier, tapering to a minimum height between piers, with counterweights at the outer ends of the two outer spans. See the Forth Rail Bridge for an example. -- Heron 15:41, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Financial institution

Where is to be officially published as recommended information on bank/financial institution called" euro credit union servises, address: euro credit plaza, 4th floor, 73-75 great victoria street, Belfast BT2 7AF - Nothern Ireland, www.eucreditnominee.com Sorry, I want to avoid scambank and would very greatful for yours assistance.

Yours Faithfully

Włodzimierz Stepków, tel/fax: 4822 7891251, email: [email protected]

What an interesting question! Firstly, I must emphasise that Wikimedia Foundation is not authorised under UK financial services law to give any financial advice, and therefore it is unlawful for us to do so. The relevant authority is the Financial Services Authority, 24 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS, they operate a customer helpline between 0800 and 2000 UK time, Monday to Friday on +44 20 7066 1000. Their website is http://www.fsa.gov.uk/.

That said, I did a search on the FSA register, and could not find any institution registered at postcode BT2 7AF since late 2001. Looking at the website you quote, I am slightly concerned that the telephone numbers they give are in the 0774 range, which is in the area normally allocated to mobile phones (see UK_telephone_numbering_plan#Nongeographic_numbering), rather than a Belfast geographical telephone number. -- Arwel 20:17, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

How to ...

Not quite sure what Village Pump catagory this request fits in, the descriptive seems best matched here @ the reference desk, so here goes :

Ok, here’s the dilemma: How do I/we do an entry for “Humanure”.

A critically important concept, I do believe, as an understanding of the waste, negligence and abuse of our only home Earth, as set forth by Joseph Jenkins in The Humanure Handbook, will likely impart, the word Humanure is a noun and as such has a limited potential for a descriptive of what the focus entails.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html

Me, I’m not much of a word monger, certainly not when I’m out of my league ( I try, anyways )so I’m asking for help.

listenin

humanure Click on the new entry link to the left and it will offer you a chance to enter text and save it. Try a couple of sentences, save it, and come back out here and you will see that the link has changed color and (by a process of technology so advanced it is indistinguishable from magic) and has become a real article. Add some more text and put your web link at the bottom of the new article. Some other people will probably set up some redirects from sewage and manure because of the unusual article term. Happy stinky editing. Alteripse 16:38, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Aethiest animal rights activists

Is there any officially aethiest animal rights activists organization? Elpenmaster

Not sure if it counts as an "organization", but I was surprised to learn that there is Atheists for Animal Rights. I'm not sure that they consist of more than one individual with a website. As far as large organizations like PETA, they are independant of organized religion as far as I know, but I imagine that they accept people of any religion, as long as they agree with the organization's views on animal rights! The RSPCA, an animal welfare (as distinct from animal rights) organization in the United Kingdom was apparently founded by an Anglican clergyman, but is not a part of the church.

One of the philosophers whose work greatly inspired the animal rights movements, Peter Singer, is well-known for his atheism and his work heavily critiques the philosophies of the monotheistic religions and their ethical distinction between the treatment of humans and non-human animals. --Robert Merkel 07:56, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

need info about fmri

Dear Sirs

I am starting a novel with fmri and the nervous system as main components. I need to speak to someone who could answer a few hypothetical questions about how these could potentially be used. If you have someone who wouldn't mind swapping some emails, please get in touch. I would be grateful for any help/ideas you could offer.

Tara Allen--62.252.96.6 15:09, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Well, folks here are always open to discussing random questions, fire away! Mark Richards 16:43, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)