Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

THIS IS NOT A HELP PAGE FOR PROBLEMS WITH WIKIPEDIA. See the Wikipedia:FAQ, Wikipedia:Help and Wikipedia:Village pump for questions about Wikipedia itself.

The Wikipedia Reference Desk serves much the same function as a library reference desk. Do you have a specific question that you want answered by Wikipedia? Then ask below! To request that a complete article be written, go to requested articles.

If you know an answer, give only a very limited answer on this page. Just post a link to the Wikipedia article that contains the answer (although you might have to supply a few missing details, relevant to the specific question, here on this page).

Old questions and answers will be removed periodically. You can browse old questions and answers in the Reference Desk archive.

Non-reference questions will be moved to more appropriate pages.

Brett's question about setting up a wiki moved to Wikipedia:Village pump
Muriel Gottrop's question about Macedonian phalanx moved to Talk:Macedonian phalanx
Translation question moved to Wikipedia:Village pump

Does anyone know (or know of a page that might help) what, if any, were the more humane approaches taken towards slaves in Rome between 2BC and 2AD? For example any legislation or general attitudes... Thank you for any assistance. Paul, 15:15 April 10, 2003

you could start by looking at slavery, which has a section on "Slavery in the Mediterranean World". Try asking at talk:slavery, if you haven't already.

Hi Paul. Are you studying Classics? ;-) Swing by your library and borrow An Introduction to Roman Law by Barry Nicolas. It's an excellent overview of Roman law, and has some good bits on the legal and social rights of slaves. -- Stephen Gilbert

What are the consequences of taking the Truth Drug with alcohol and in a party environment?

Many thanks in advance for your feedback on this.

[email protected]

"The" truth drug? I thought there were lots... anyway, isn't alcohol a truth drug as well? In vino veritas and all that. :) Martin

Does anyone know a Japanse local government unit, 郡 should be translated either county or district. My Japanese-English dictionary shows both. -- Taku 05:23 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

You may find your answer on this page. It has a lot of information about the Japanese address system, with English equivalents. kwertii

Thanks. The page helps a lot. -- Taku 01:24 Apr 24, 2003 (UTC)

Can someone with good knowledge of electrochemistry please help with the vague fuzziness in electrode about anodes and cathodes, reduction and oxidation, and the fuzziness in related articles about anions, cations and their relationship with electrodes? The Anome 07:58 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)

I think these articles have all been sorted out. I removed the self-contradictory bits from electrode and made the definitions explicit. The article has been stable for a couple of months. (One user disputed it but I convinced him that the article was right.) Anode and cathode are now just redirects to electrode. Anion and cation are redirects to ion, which has a correct definition. -- Heron 20:59 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Hello! I'm new to Wikipedia but so far it seems very useful. My question is for someone with Ancient Historical knowlege. Could the Spartan foriegn policy in the Classical Period be described as 'consistent' and if so how far you would judge it to have been a success. I realise that this is a broad question but any help would be much appreciated (perhaps even just a further website). Many thanks in advance, [email protected]

Whether Sparta's foreign policy was consistent or not is really a matter of interpretation, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions. Take a look at History of Sparta. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that's the best Wikipedia can give you; our coverage of Greek civilization is a bit spotty. -- Stephen Gilbert

I've just acquired an encyclopedia called The Oracle Encyclopædia. Nearly everything I know about the work and its editor is in the the stub article I created for it. My initial web search only turned up that Eastwick's wife, Mary Eastwick, was a novelist who had the same publisher. I'll be bothering my university librarians when I have the time, but until then, does anyone know anything about this work? -- Stephen Gilbert 19:15 Apr 12, 2003 (UTC)

Could somebody tell me the origin of the phrase "I'm verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves."? I know it's from a movie, and is now a catchphrase on bulletin boards. Also, does "verklempt" actually mean anything in any language? If so, what and in which? ThirdParty

Someone has given an answer at http://pub122.ezboard.com/fwordoriginsorgfrm7.showMessage?topicID=493.topic - Brettz9 20:34 May 2, 2003 (UTC)

Verklemmt is an actual German word that is still in use, and means shy, self-conscious, repressed. Verklempt sounds Yiddish to me, and probably has a similar meaning. Here's a page about the SNL feature that seems to have popularized the phrase. --Eloquence 01:16 May 6, 2003 (UTC)

Does anyone come up with a good translation word for a Japanese word 支庁 or 庁 as administrative units? It seems usually

Branch office
Branch of the Prefectural Government
Subprefecture

are used. To me subprefecture sounds fine but I am not sure it is a common usage. Thanks in advance. -- Taku 21:38 May 4, 2003 (UTC)

There are two distinct meanings to 庁:

When referring to a political division, Chinese use "subprefecture" for 庁 (traditional: 廳; simplified: 厅) as well.
The first two definitions are used to describe another meaning of 庁, namely, a government branch. The usual Chinese translation is "department." --Menchi 21:30 May 5, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Subprefecture seems fine. -- Taku 00:57 May 6, 2003 (UTC)

i was searching the web for specific info related to fully automatic gun laws in the US. i was particularly trying to find info as to when "machine guns" were banned in the US, but i keep finding info only about the 1994 semi-auto ban. on one of Wikipedia's pages, i found "Assault weapons ban (USA)" which stated that fully auto weapons were banned in 1933. however, when i click on the link for 1933, i didn't find any further data on the subject. perhaps i missed it? can someone please help me find out more detail about this gun ban? please email me at [email protected] when you find an answer. thanks a bunch! 8-)

There's a reason you couldn't find it; the date is wrong. You're looking for the National Firearms Act of 1934. See <http://www.gunrunner.com/NFA.html>.

I am doing a research project on the downfalls and problems of the stock market (business and investor side), can anyone help me? It'll add a source for me :)

Well, stock market has a little, but it's pretty rough and only covers the United States. Small articles exist for stock market crash and stock market bubble, both of which are generally considered problems. Stock market downturn of 2002 provides a recent example. You can also find some related material in Great Depression and Efficient markets theory. Finally, see the Wikipedia:Readers' FAQ for info on how to cite Wikipedia in a paper. -- Stephen Gilbert 23:23 May 8, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks a lot

Who do we have here who is good on insects? In particular pond insects in the UK? I have a funny creature I can't identify, I'll upload a drawing. -- Tarquin 14:57 17 May 2003 (UTC)

Juuitchan wants to know the difference between straw and hay; in particular, how to tell them apart.

I think straw is dried wheat and hay is dried grass in general. --Menchi 21:10 22 May 2003 (UTC)

Ship buffs: I wanted to know the power rating of a nice, powerful nuclear power plant, presumably from an aircraft carrier, and perhaps one from a submarine too, to add as an example for orders of magnitude (power), but I've been through pretty nearly all the U.S. aircraft carrier pages, checked the ships' own websites when they had external links, and haven't come up with a thing other than "two A4W reactors". Is the information classified or something? I wouldn't have thought so. If not, does one of you have a power rating of at least one aircraft carrier/submarine in any of your references? -- John Owens 21:06 22 May 2003 (UTC)

While I'm at it, on the off chance one of the ship people pops a head in here, check my recent addition of the volume definition of ton. I'm not quite clear on just when it measures volume of displacement, volume of capacity, and plain old mass. -- John Owens 12:37 24 May 2003 (UTC)

And here I didn't even know I was supposed to be watching this page! :-) Googling '"aircraft carrier" horsepower' turns up a random assertion that Nimitz'es are 260,000 hp, and http://www.dresser-rand.com/newsroom/pr/archives/nptnews.asp says "more than a quarter-million". On ton, there have been different systems in the past, but these days it's volume of displacement, assuming 35 cu ft / ton of water. Stan 07:46 27 May 2003 (UTC)

Hey Library Reference Desk! I have a HISTORY reference question: where might I find detailed county-by-county results for past U.S. Presidential elections? My specific question is New Jersey Counties in the 1860 Lincoln/Douglas contest, but I'm sure I will have other uses for the answer to the originla question. I'll even make an article on it, if I can find out where to get the info. Many thanks in advance... ArloBee 20:12 25 May 2003 (UTC)

here's a first try...[1] says that 109 of 147 counties in the Mid-Atlantic states voted Republican. You could email [email protected] and find out where they got the numbers Kingturtle 20:32 25 May 2003 (UTC)

Thanks Kt. I just queried the Lib of Cong site a couple of ways and found:

Dubin, Michael J. United States presidential elections, 1788-1860 : the official results by county and state / Michael J. Dubin. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., c2002. xxv, 225 p. : maps ; 29 cm. CALL NUMBER: JK524 .D778 2002 Alc The U of Penn library has it and I will go up there tomorrow for that (1 hour away). But if there turns outto be an online source somewhere, that would be pretty great. I guess I can copy some measure of facts out of that book without violating copyright? But I'll feel safer if there is a neighboring book of greater vintage that I can mine from for wiki. ArloBee 20:49 25 May 2003 (UTC)

Did a little more poking around: this is a body of and enormous amount of original research. I will be respecting his copyright! :-) ArloBee 21:21 25 May 2003 (UTC)

In an aqueous solution of, say, a lead compound, why don't all the lead ions sink to the bottom? I suppose that lead is only denser than water because the atoms in solid or liquid lead are packed tighter than the molecules in water, but to me it seems unlikely that all the ions and molecules in a solution have exactly the same density. What is it that keeps them all afloat? -- Heron

Water is a polar molecule so it forms relatively strong intermolecular bonds with ions. Water molecules essentially attach to the ions and act as one large ion/water thingamajing. Basically the same thing soap molecules do to grease. This is the reason that ions are formed in the first place, the polar water molecules attach to the atoms in an ionic compound and pull them apart. Iammaxus 20:48 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I see. Thanks. So the 'ion/water thingamajing' has the same density as water. -- Heron 21:03 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

nope, it'll be denser. This is why you float on the Dead sea: high concentration of ion/water thingamajing, only in that case the ions are Na+ Cl- -- Tarquin 21:57 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

its denser than water, but the entire solution is denser than water, thats why the ions float Iammaxus 02:07 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)

in the context of PC ISA cards, what are DRQ and DACK? -- Tarquin 21:57 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

DMA request and DMA acknowledge -- The Anome 00:07 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)