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
Linnaean taxonomy question moved to talk:Scientific classification
e-business redirect answered at wikipedia talk:redirect

See also Wikipedia:Requests for summaries for requesting a Wikipedia-internal summary of reports, documents, websites etc.

Does anyone know anything about the Oracle Encyclopædia?

I've just acquired an encyclopedia called The Oracle Encyclopædia. Nearly everything I know about the work and its editor is in 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)

Information on Suheir Hammad

Does anybody here know where can I get more information and biographies on Suheir Hammad, the Palestinian-American poet who wrote 'First Writing Since'? A Google search yielded very limited information. I'm more interested in biographies and I can't seem to find them on the net. -Zaim

There is a biography and a photo starting on page 37 of Listen Up!: Spoken Word Poetry by Zoe Anglesey (Editor), Zoe Angelsey (Editor), Yusef Komunyakaa (Introduction); One World/Strivers Row; (April 1999). Available at amazon.com. --Zero 11:40, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Simultaneous German pronunciation

Were W and V pronounced the same in Middle High German? (See Talk:V)
--Menchi 02:06 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Calling European-history buffs

French Revolution
I had half a mind to rewrite the article myself, but then I saw a long comment on talk: that contradicted much of what I thought I knew. I replied, unaware that the user who had made the comment had since been banned. So I'm trying to find out whether or not I really have my European history all wrong. -Smack 22:01 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Discrepancies in list of countries

I was wondering if anyone would like to comment on a note I made about discrepancies I found between spanish page and english page on List of countries by area? See comments here. We are having a hard time trying to figure out what is an authoritative source for our information. TIA

BTW, thanks for the answers to my question about the hat trick! I learn something new every day! :-) Randyc 01:54 9 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Private overprints

Can anyone give me information, or just edit into the appropriate article, about private overprints (distinguishing them from private cancellations, as explained in the private express statutes article) in the United States, particularly the recent Florida overprint? --Daniel C. Boyer 22:11, 30 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Formosa and Ships

Ship lovers and Formosans, please comment on the disambiguation fate at Talk:Formosa. --Menchi 17:39, Aug 9, 2003 (UTC)

Any engineers available to take a look at the Screws article?

Please take a look at my comments on screw at talk:screw (the first one) and edit the article if I'm right, or dump them otherwise. -- Gutza 23:11, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Definition of a word

I would like to have feedback on the definition of the words, PSALM, HYMN, and SPIRITUAL SONG.

I have attempted to find a hebrew dictionary on line that would give me a defiinite definition but have been unsuccessful.

Please respond to my email @ [email protected]

THANK YOU

Question moved from Village Pump

Real-time computer control

Moved from village pump

In a sequence control,what is better, a PLC or an industrial PC?

...could you explain a little bit, what you want to know? Thanks, Fantasy 14:12, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)

PS: Please sign also your question, Thanks.

I think he wants to know whether to use a PLC or an industrial PC, for a sequence control. I don't know, maybe he'd have better luck asking these people rather than these people :) -- Tim Starling 14:34, 29 Aug 2003 (UTC)

PLC if it is simple. PC if it is complex(PLC will not have the processing power). Anjouli 20:30, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Princeps Senatus

I just created a stub for princeps senatus, ancient Rome's speaker of the House. Does anyone have an idea of where to get information to compile a list of them? I'm not very optimistic about results to this question but... Muriel Gottrop 15:36, 31 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Jordan History and Geography Questions

1). What is the reason and history of the numeros Rock Walls east of Azraq?

2). Who was the Hiden in Wadi Hiden?

requested by: [email protected]

Earliest use of the term 'circumpunct'

Does anyone know an earlier authenticatable use of the term 'circumpunct' than the 1992 Book of Brian?

Anjouli 16:31, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

No replies? Okay, that's good enough for me. I'm going to define it as a Brianist-coined term in the article. Anjouli 06:37, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Wait a sec, wasn't this a Dalton-chemical symbol? Don't know if he called it a "circumpunct" though... Dysprosia 06:40, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Oh yes. The symbol itself is ancient. Neolithic, I believe. It was the word circumpunct that seems to have originated in 1992. I just find it hard to believe that people have been calling it a "circle-with-a-dot-in-the-middle" for the last few thousand years. Seems clumsy. Anjouli 06:56, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Only links I can find on Google re circumpunct are theWP ones and Brianism related ones Dysprosia 07:02, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

My point exactly. I think it's a Brianist coinage - although it is the proper Latin way of describing the symbol. Anjouli 19:27, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Semi-Automatic Rifles in the First World War

Why weren't there any semi-automatic rifles in the First World War? They had semi-automatic pistols, but why no rifles? CGS 22:27, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC).

My school notes from a History lesson in (gulp) 1958 say it was because rifles were needed in huge numbers, whereas only officers carried pistols. (The 1911 Colt?)

Semi-automatics at that time were still hand-built to some degree. The technology of the time could not mass-produce semi-automatic rifles in the required numbers.

Interesting to note that cavalry-charges and swords were still (somewhat ineffectively) used at the start of WW1. Anjouli 06:46, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. CGS 17:40, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC).

Defunct Publishers

Now that all the small publishers have been swallowed by a few Evil Conglomerates, it can be rather hard to find the publisher of a book a few decades old in order to inquire about rights or whatever. You can write all the letters you like to Lindsay Drummond or Boni & Liveright, but it won't do much good.

Is there a source anywhere for information on the history of cannibalism in publishing? I know of a database the tries to give the whereabouts of the literary estates of authors, but its coverage is very limited. Knowing who acquired the old publishers would be a real help. Dandrake 00:48, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I assume this is about copyright. If it's a quotation (even a big one) then the 'fair use for review or quotation' rules apply. If not, why not just re-write it? If you are too busy and it's for Wiki, I'm sure you can find some volunteers. Anjouli 06:54, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

The White Terror

I ( Kingturtle ) found this request in the wrong place. I deleted where it was, and am pasting in here:

"I'm just trying to do my homework, could I have some help please!! I f you can please update this page before thursday 2nd of October (that is when my homework is in for), I have to make comparisons between the russian revolution and the George Orwell book Animal farm. Thank you" signed User:195.92.194.17

See http://www.myfreeessays.com/politics/054.shtml Bear in mind that most teachers and examination boards know about free essays on the 'net, so just use for guidance. Don't simply cut and paste! 195.238.50.252 10:45, 2 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Sum of consecutive nth powers

Can you give a formula for calculating the following, if m and n are given?

$\sum _{k=1}^{m}k^{n}$

--Juuitchan

I think this is a power series, though Wikipedia doesn't give an explicit analytic formula for it. Mathworld does, though the formulae themselves involve some mathematical functions that I'm not familiar with. --Robert Merkel 02:37, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

At least you can use Taylor's approximation anytime, though that is not an answer you are looking for. I will ask my math teacher, maybe. -- Taku

The answer is rather complicated. In general, it's a polynomial of degree n+1 in the variable m. The coefficients of the polynomial are given by the Bernoulli numbers B_i:

$\sum _{k=0}^{m-1}k^{n}={1 \over {n+1}}\sum _{k=0}^{n}{n+1 \choose {k}}B_{k}m^{n+1-k}$

The Bernoulli numbers were discovered by Jakob Bernoulli in connection with this exact problem, but they appear elsewhere as well. The first few Bernoulli numbers are 1, -1/2, 1/6, 0, -1/30, 0, 1/42, 0, -1/30, 0, 5/66, 0, -691/2730. B₀ = 1, and the later Bernoulli numbers obey the general recurrence

$\sum _{j=0}^{m}{m+1 \choose {j}}B_{j}=0$

You can find an extensive discusion of the summation you asked about, and Bernoulli numbers in general, on pages 269-276 of Concrete Mathematics (ISBN 0201142368) by Ronald L. Graham, Donald E. Knuth, and Oren Patashnik.

I hope this is what you were looking for. Dominus 18:22, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Japanese term translation

Does anyone have an idea to translate 政令指定都市 to English? -- Taku

Long: "Cities designated by government ordinance" [1]; short: "Government Ordinance City" [2]. --Menchi 03:43, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Thank very much. I googled but couldn't find good one. -- Taku

A couple of more

中核市
特例市
地方公共団体

They are terms related to Japanese cities and local governments. -- Taku

中核市 = "core city" [3], [4]. You may already knew this, if not it may interest you: A Japanese core city must be over 300,000 in population, and 100 km² in area. A Chinese source
The Nippon Foundation Library's glossary translates 特例市 as "special case city".
I cannot find Japanese reference, but a Hong Kong online .doc says 地方公共團體 is "local authorities", and a Mainland Chinese webpage say it is "local self-government".

--Menchi 06:38, 7 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Particularly, a website http://nippon.zaidan.info/seikabutsu/2000/00086/contents/188.htm glossary seems really good place to find out translation terms. -- Taku

I think it can be translated into English as ?????? :-) dave 01:33, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Surname question

If a person's surname is "D' Souza", can anything be said about his/her race, country of origin, language or religion? -- Ramesh

Language and religion are not strictly heritable, but as for country of origin, I'd say either French or Italian. -Smack 01:53, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"Souza" sounds Brazilian (or Portuguese). --Menchi 01:57, 9 Oct 2003 (UTC)

That is Portuguese. Also, I always see "D'Souza" as an Indian name (I guess descended from Portuguese colonies there?), while Souza or Sousa alone is from Portugal. (Of course, I am only speaking from personal experience and memories of people with those names...) Adam Bishop 01:48, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

D'Sousa is a contraction of de and Sousa. de, do, da are particles used in Portuguese like the german von and the dutch van. Muriel 16:40, 12 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I once knew a De Sousa who was a South African of Indian ethnic origin. He always said is was from a Portuguese community in India in the 1800s. But I also know an African American called McGreggor. Anjouli 19:34, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Summation of squares of binomial coefficient

I want to find a closed form for

\sum _{j=0}^{M+1}{\left({{M+1} \choose {j}}M^{j}\right)}^{2}

If it helps, I do know that

\sum _{j=0}^{M+1}{{M+1} \choose {j}}^{2}={{2M+2} \choose {2j}}

- Dominus 02:00, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Feeding the first into Maple gives

(1-M^{2})^{(M+1)}\mathrm {LegendreP} (M+1,{M^{2}+1 \over 1-M^{2}})

where LegendreP represents the Legendre function of the first kind, it seems Dysprosia 09:22, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Postal code and telephone numbers in Japan

Does anyone have a list or table of postal code or telephone numbers in Japan? I mean not a complete list but those of prefixes or area code. -- Taku

William Henry Harrison

could you please tell me if it is possible to go inside william henry harrison's tomb..if it is what times and days...thank you bill loening
[email protected]

A quick Google search turns up someone's travelogue. Information stealthily culled from the title of that page turns up the official website. -Smack 05:07, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Zauschner

The Zauschner who is the namesake of Zauschneria lived 1737-1799 and was a professor in Prague, but the only additional info I see online is at http://www.hamelika.cz/shamelika/1973/1973_05/h73_05.htm, and my Czech is not very good. :-) Is there anybody who can translate this? If I have raw facts, I can at least make a short article. Stan 18:25, 18 Oct 2003 (UTC)

My assistance is only to rule out the two obvious options. An ambassador has yet to arise from the Czech wiki, and Babelfish does not have Czech support. -Smack 05:07, 19 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Ed Gein,

How can I get real photos of Ed Gein, and the crime scene. Thanks very much. [email protected] 66.38.53.20

A Google search turned up some very graphic photos of the crime scene at http://www.vampireofparis.com/thecellscsGein.htm, and a photo of Gein at http://www.urbanchillers.com/serial/serialkiller.asp?sk=24. RickK 01:41, 28 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Postcode

Hello, I would like to know the postal code for Hillersdon Ave in London. Many thanks for your help. Robin at [email protected] 63.195.32.78

It depends which area of London you mean. There is certainly more than one Hillersdon Avenue. The one in Edgware would be HA8 7Sx but there is also one in SW13 and maybe others. Try http://www.royalmail.com. Angela 21:12, Oct 20, 2003 (UTC)

Bosnia Texts

I believe there are some first-person narratives written by young adults during the Bosnia crisis and ethnic cleansings. Can anyone tell me what the names were of the authors? And where I might be able to read their narratives? Kingturtle 00:34, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Do you mean Zlata’s Diary, by Bosnian teenager Zlata Filipovic?

Natural vs artificial systems of classification

I've googled for an answer on this, and searched wikipedia but can't seem to find the answer - what exactly is the difference between natural and artificial systems of classification? Any help or information on the subject would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou 81.178.232.245 15:44, 1 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Can you clarify your context? Are you talking about taxonomy in biology, or some other context? Jmabel 05:45, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Nagoya, Nagasaki

What is it? I think the city doesn't exist today. The article sounds correct but can anyone tell me more about it? Thanks in advance. -- Taku 06:18, Nov 3, 2003 (UTC)

TeX markup wiki

Does anyone know of another wiki which supports TeX markup for math formulas? -- 65.92.244.98 18:44, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)

This wiki does, however I think there is a bug in the system however, which I'll go and report at SourceForge. Dysprosia 09:10, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Working now. Dysprosia 02:11, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Check out Meatball:WikiToLatex for a short list -- Stephen Gilbert 13:53, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Citing Wikipedia

How does one cite a Wikipedia page in Turabian Style (using 6th edition of the manual)?

The page on Citing Wikipedia suggests a format for the APA style, but Turabian is oh so very different.

I am writing a paper using the Turabian author-date Parenthetical Reference format in text, and the reference list rather than bibliographic format. I need to cite several different Wikipedia pages such as Wikipedia:Copyrights, Wikipedia:Ignore all rules and http://wikimediafoundation.org/fundraising as I am writing about wikis and have referred to several different Wikipedia pages.

A collection of FAQ's on different writing styles might be a very handy thing to have in Wikipedia - you know, all those questions not covered in the manuals! Noconnotations 20:03, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Lovers by Pablo Picasso

Heavily refactored from Talk:Pablo Picasso:

I really need some help. The thing is I am looking for Picasso's creation Lovers I found it but i also need to know, when he created it, what did he use, and where did he create it?

PLEASE HELP, OR I'LL FAIL MY TEST & GET A BIG fat C!

I love your website extremely; now it's one of my favourite places.

Please email me as soon as possible if you can help me out.

MAIL ME!

[email protected]

If you help me out I will be ever so grateful.

Unknown Artist 1935-1950

can you help me identify a NYC artists? His water color was given to my wife's grandfather, then to her by her grandmother. The signature seems to read Gaylwing , the picture is of a large pear shaped cop with a brace and bit at a ballpark fence. please help Larry Borkowski [email protected]

Original UN Charter

Note: this was originally posted on Talk:UN Charter by an anon user, but I felt it might be better off here. -- Mattworld Question: Is there an original UN Charter document? esp. scans of an original document online?

Err... I'm not sure where this goes, but a question about some words

I hope that this is in the right place... ^^;;; If it's not, will someone please move it and notify me? Thanks.

I got this from a site with lyrics of a song from Enya... Does anyone have a clue as to what it means?

Anol shalom Anol sheh lay konnud de ne um {shaddai} Flavum Nom de leesh Ham de nam um das La um de Flavne…

We de ze zu bu We de sooo a ru Un va-a pesh a lay Un vi-I bee Un da la pech ni sa (Aaahh) Un di-I lay na day Un ma la pech a nay Mee di nu ku

(Fast tempo, 4 times) La la da pa da le na da na Ve va da pa da le na la dumda

Anol shalom Anol sheh ley kon-nud de ne um. Flavum. Flavum. M-ai shondol-lee Flavu… {Live on…} Lof flesh lay Nof ne Nom de lis Ham de num um dass La um de Flavne… Flay Shom de nomm Ma-lun des Dwondi. Dwwoondi Alas sharum du koos Shaley koot-tum.

--jdstroy @ 20031112 00.21 -0500 EST

"Shalom" means "peace" or "hello" in Hebrew. None of the rest looks Hebrew, but if it's been transcribed phonetically by someone who didn't know whatever language it is and couldn't hear it very well and Enya isn't enunciating very well... who knows? Loren Rosen 03:31, 13 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Taken from an interview with Lisa Gerrard about the song:

...The rest of the vocals, sung with sounds rather than in a conventional language, are an example of melismatic singing. "It's a language invented within the music, inherently, and the words mean more than I can say in English", she says. "The way I sing is not new; it's been around since the beginning of time, and it's something all children are born with. It's not unique to me, but for some reason I never lost the ability".

It's not a language at all! Anjouli 19:46, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Ah, thank you all!

Jdstroy 22:36, 2003 Nov 22 (UTC)

Indus-Sarasvati

I'm wondering whether the Indus-Sarasvati script is in any way related to the Sabaean script used by the early Ethiopians... Given the time frames that you've mentioned in some of your articles, I'd guess that late second or early first millennium B.C. would need to be the time when the development occurred. Is this possible?

[email protected]

Lester R. Ford, Sr.

Can anyone verify the following dates for mathematician Lester R. Ford, Sr. (father of Lester R. Ford, Jr.) ? The dates I have are born 29th Oct 1886, died 7th Mar 1975. These come from
http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/Genealogy2/fam00001.html
but I was wondering if someone can find another source to verify them.
Gandalf61 21:31, Nov 12, 2003 (UTC)

Comma usage

Without mentioning names, does anyone agree or disagree that these sentences are incorrect grammar and punctuation?

"The British could be removed from the sentence, and it would remain accurate."
"The Germans invested more heavily, in the development of science and pure research, than the British."
"The Germans invested more heavily, in the development of science."
"The Germans invested more heavily, than the British, in the development of science and pure research."

I contend all four are only made correct by removing each and every comma. Daniel Quinlan 02:03, Nov 8, 2003 (UTC) (Oops, I should add that the third sentence is missing a "than something", so it is doubly ungrammatical. Daniel Quinlan 02:08, Nov 8, 2003 (UTC))

I, concur. Poor Yorick 02:05, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Agreed, especially the last three sentences. Btw, I think this is better at Wikipedia:Reference desk. --Menchi 02:07, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I agree for the last three. The first one is not incorrect, I believe, since the two parts of the sentence are independent clauses connected by a ", and". However, when one of the two independent clauses is short, the comma does not have to be included. So, all four would be correct without the commas. The first one is the only one that could pass as correct with the commas. -- Minesweeper 03:52, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I think the commas, due to dividing the sentences, especially the second and fourth, into separate logical parts, are useful.

The commas in the first and third seem a bit redundant, however. Instead of commas, maybe a different form of punctuation, including brackets, labels, goto commands, and things like that, would be more consise. Κσυπ Cyp 09:13, 8 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I agree they all should be removed. But I am sympathetic with the author as I tend to overuse commas as well. Fernkes 13:46, Nov 8, 2003 (UTC)

The first one is OK. The other three should not have any commas in them. BTW, the third sentence could be OK even in the grammatical sense, if the overall text is: "The British invested heavily in .... . The Germans invested more heavily, in the development of science." At18 20:31, 9 Nov 2003 (UTC)

There is more wrong with some of these sentences than just comma usage. The first one has a dangling modifier, and seems to require the use of double quotation marks around The British. The second also has a dangling modifier, which could be rectified by changing it to read than did the British. Contrary to what has been said, I would hold that the third would in fact be correct, except for the comma, if placed after another sentence that provides a clear antecedent. The fourth just needs the commas removed. -Smack 21:12, 15 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Normal, standard, universally accepted (ha) correct usage in English has a comma before the conjunction that joins two main clauses in a compound sentence. Really. The first sentence is conventionally correct without any reservation, but Minesweeper is right to say that the comma may be omitted in a short sentence. I mean, really, look it up in Fowler or Follett or Partridge or anybody who cares, and report back here if you find a disagreement. (But it does appear that the British should be in quotes; otherwise, the sentence would have to mean that one was sentencing the British and some other people to a term of penal servitude or something, and considering letting the British off.)

In the second sentence, the commas are not ungrammatical, but they're surely superfluous. The commas would mean that the bit about science and pure research was parenthetical (and could in fact be placed in parentheses or paired dashes, with different rhetorical effects); this is probably not what's intended.

The third is pretty hard to justify as it stands. The last phrase could be considered a parenthetical, terminated by the full-stop at the end of the sentence, but it's really stretching things to interpret it that way. On second thought, it's not that bad: in context, the author may mean to say something like "The Germans invested more heavily–in science, that is." The lack of an explicit "than" clause is perfectly acceptable, so long as the meaning is entirely clear: if the author has not been talking about the British just before this, then it's wrong.

The fourth is almost equally hard to justify. It's like the second in form. the author could be providing a context in which it's barely necessary to explain, just in case the inattentive reader had forgotten, that the comparison is with the Germans (note the parenthetical comment in commas back there); but it's too much of a stretch.

The comma is a very flexible mark in English, providing (as we English-speakers like to believe) a written language of exceptional power and expressiveness. (A German will reply that his exacting rules of punctuation, such as always preceding a subordinate clause with a comma, provide a language of great precision. Quite so; but this is English.) While I'm up, people with access to bookstores in England should grab a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, an entertaining work that actually gets things right. Dandrake 18:25, Nov 16, 2003 (UTC)

The last three are clearly wrong. In the first the comma is optional, but the sentence looks better without it. Anjouli 19:53, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

As I remarked just above, any of the last three can be reasonably good English writing in a suitable context. Hate to be pedantic or repetitive or anything, but context does matter in the composition of sentences in English. Even in a proper context those commas are probably too weak, dashes or parentheses being better; but that's style and rhetoric, not grammar. Perhaps the problem here is that I was answering the question that was asked: i.e., "without mentioning names" and by implication without looking up the original text to see what the context was; perhaps everyone else has been answering a different question about whether the sentences were good when in their original context (which no doubt they were not). Dandrake 00:51, Nov 20, 2003 (UTC)

I stand to be corrected, but I cannot see any context in which the last three would be acceptable.

If I may throw another onion into the pot, should we consider nationality as well as context? Is 'correct' punctuation the same in all versions of English? I would be surprised if that were the case, although I have not checked any references.

Is this about contributions with questionable punctuation? If so, I do not see it as a huge problem. If I misspelled or mispunctuated a contribution (as I am sure we all have from time-to-time) then I am sure some kind person would fix it for me. There may also be users who are outstanding authorities in their field, but who are not so good at grammar. Anjouli 06:55, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Often commas that look odd in isolation are good or even compulsory. Consider two possible contexts for the third example:

comma wrong: "British science was in a parlous state due to poor investment. The Germans invested more heavily, in the development of science."
comma required: "British investment was weak and mostly directed towards the arts. The Germans invested more heavily, in the development of science."

--Zero 12:09, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Loose Shoes

Malcolm mentions a film from the '80's called Loose Shoes. I remember it well! Can you tell me where I can get a copy, either VT or DVD? I live in the UK. Thanks. 62.254.64.8

Indian Tribes that were around Statesboro or Brooklet,Georgia

I am trying to find out what Native Americans were around the Mill Creek area in Bulloch County. We have found numerous arrowheads and pottery peices nearby... 65.37.106.202

Speed of light

Speed of light#Faster-than-light experiments

What kind of experiments are they? Are they measuring a pulse of light emitted from one point for a short interval, or a constant beam of light, using some archaic method of measuring the "speed"? Or something completely different? I wrote the "I'm here!" analogy, is it correct? And can someone help explain to me what GouRou wrote (which was moved to Talk:Speed of light)? Κσυπ Cyp 15:44, 16 Nov 2003 (UTC)

The experiments I have heard about are performed with a pulsed laser (mode-locked). They send the pulse train into some specially prepared substance, and a pulse train comes out the other side. They measure the arrival times at one side of the chamber/crystal, and at the other side, and from that they can infer the group velocity within the substance. As a matter of fact, negative group velocities have been reported using this technique: the pulse comes out of the chamber/crystal before it goes in. Extremely slow speeds can also be achieved.

Personally I prefer the analogy of a vernier scale. However you'll only understand it if you've seen one. Imagine that the pulse is wherever the two scales line up. As you slide the scale, the point where the scales line up moves very much faster than the sliding rate.

To understand it properly you need to have a vague understanding of Fourier analysis, or at least the general idea that light can be broken up into component frequencies. See [5] for some pretty pictures referring to this idea. -- Tim Starling 06:11, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

Ah, I see we have an article on mode-locked lasers: modelocking. Please don't read it. It is embarrassing. -- Tim Starling 06:28, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

The above comment is out of date. Thanks Dr Bob. -- Tim Starling 23:28, Nov 19, 2003 (UTC)

Do you still need to give them a tap to get them to self-lock, or am I out of date?Anjouli 20:25, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

So I guess my analogy was correct, although perhaps not too clear. (Although perhaps it would be more accurate to say the people aren't standing in a line, more like running in a line while jumping up and down. And some of the people are too tired to jump and run as fast.) Nice applet... Even though the damn thing won't let me send messages back in time to myself... If I choose the negative group velocity and close the shutter, it doesn't show the wave coming back from the right side, even if I'm about to open the shutter... Κσυπ Cyp 15:25, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Bunkers and pillboxes

Does anyone how a bunker differs from a pillbox? thanks, Dori 05:52, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

Bunkers are below-ground. In fact I believe the picture on the bunker page is actually of pillboxes. - Hephaestos 06:18, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Hmmm, those in the picture also have a below ground part. Does it have to be completely below ground for it to be considered a bunker? I am confused. Dori 06:24, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

Now I'm confused, having just looked in the dictionary, which implies a bunker can have an above-ground part. In common usage I've heard (as well as what's implied in the Wikipedia article), a bunker is completely underground, used mainly for command and control, or for storage, whereas a pillbox can have an underground part but necessarily needs an above-ground part to fire a weapon out of. My dictionary on the other hand implies a pillbox needs to be completely above-ground, and that a bunker can have an above-ground part. I usually rely on the dictionary, but I've never heard this usage in military parlance. - Hephaestos 07:58, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Not really an answer to the original question, but I now have an image in my head of two soldiers pinned down on a D-day beach, and one saying to the other "Technically, Sarge, the object that you are ordering us to charge in a heroic display resulting in a courageous but ultimately futile waste of human life is a bunker, not a pillbox". - Gandalf61 09:48, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

A pillbox was a cylindrical white card box, about 4cm high by 4cm in diameter, in which pills were dispensed. (cf pillbox hat.) It entered the language as a military slang term for small concrete bunkers of that shape. It is a common local term for such structures (most with no underground part and many square) on the North East coast of England, where many still remain from the last war. In the (British) army in the 1960s it was mocked as a "civilian" term, "bunker" or "machine gun emplacement" being considered correct. No idea what the current military usage is. Presumably the fuzzy dictionary definitions indicate the term has no clear and absolute usage. Anjouli 20:07, 17 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Wow, thank you for the answer! Dori 03:29, Nov 20, 2003 (UTC)

K-work

Does anyone know K-work is? It might have something to do with condensed matter/solid-state theory, or magnetism... This is the context I saw it in: "Can a magnetic field contribute k-work or not?" I have no idea.

Without more context, I can only speculate. Perhaps they are referring to that kind of work which magnetic forces can't do. This is a basic magnetostatics result. From Introduction to Electrodynamics by D.J. Griffiths:

dW_{mag}=\mathbf {F} _{mag}.d\mathbf {l} =Q\left(\mathbf {v} \times \mathbf {B} \right).\mathbf {v} dt=0

"Magnetic forces may alter the direction in which a particle moves, but they cannot speed it up or slow it down... When a magnetic crane lifts the carcass of a junked car, for instance, something is obviously doing work, and it seems perverse to deny that the magnetic force is responsible. Well, perverse or not, deny it we must, and it can be a very subtle matter to figure out exactly what agency does deserve credit in such circumstances."

-- Tim Starling 23:39, Nov 19, 2003 (UTC)

"SHYSTER"- ethnic slur?

I am not sure that i am in the right place, but I used the word "shyster" and i was referred to "List of ethnic slurs-Wikipedia." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs. I am not sure how wikipedia works, but i believe the intended word was "shylock." I have checked several dictionaries and none of them list "shyster" as an etnic slur. If anyone can clarify this, please e-mail me at [email protected].

It isn't an ethnic slur, it's just a slur. I'm pretty sure you found http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=shyster ; that's the normal usage. DJ Clayworth 17:22, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It's a slur. Sheister - Jews - Like a shyster lawyer. One who carries on any business, especially legal business, in a mean and dishonest way. [6] reddi

Not according to my dictionary

 Main Entry: shy·ster 
 Pronunciation: 'shIs-t&r
 Function: noun
 Etymology: probably from German Scheisser, literally, defecator
 Date: 1844
 : one who is professionally unscrupulous especially in the practice of law or politics

-- Maximus Rex 18:14, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

notice the German origin ... may be historical relic which has a more general meaning now ... reddi

So in the end, has anyone managed to find any document (even a good secondary one like a respectable dictionary) that supports a derivation of the term as an ethnic slur? Or, for that matter, good documentation of a shift into an ethnic slur? If not, the feeling that it might be an ethnic slur should go in the same class as the supposed association of "handicapped" with begging and (believe it or not) "picnic" as a reference to lynching. Both of these are patently recent inventions; is shyster any different? Dandrake 08:18, Nov 16, 2003 (UTC)

I checked the OED. It too has the date 1844 as the earliest use. Of the origin it says merely: "Of obscure origin." Does not even mention a possible German derivation. I think it is safe to remove it, until someone comes along with a solid reference. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick 03:23, Nov 17, 2003 (UTC)

I checked the Webster Unabridged and it doesn't have a date but it does say this in the etymology "probably alteration of earlier shicer contemptible fellow, from German scheisser, literally, one that deficates." It also says that it is a person who is professionally unscrupulous in politics and law. Funny thing is that it also has it as a verb. -- M1shawhan 08:35, Nov 18, 2003 (UTC)

The "Jewish" connection is a mistake due to confusion with "Shylock". --Zero 12:13, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

51 Pegasi

I am interested in further information about the Turtle or Tortoise Constellations, particularly in pre-dynastic Egypt. Is there someone in your group working on this project? Andrew Eddy - [email protected]

Symmetry groups

The symmetry groups of the archimedean solids snub cube and snub dodecahedron are like the symmetry groups of the cube and the dodecahedron, just without the reflections. Would those groups be called "O" and "I"? (Instead of "O_h" and "I_h"?) Κσυπ Cyp 14:43, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Yes - the symmetry group of the snub cube is "O", and the symmetry group of the snub dodecahedron is "I" - see octahedral group and icosahedral group at MathWorld. -- Gandalf61 16:06, Nov 22, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. Seems they even have the coordinates for the snub cube there (but not at their actual snub cube article)... Wikipedia is still the only site I know of that has the exact snub dodecahedron coordinates (without having to solve a degree 6 polynomial), though. (Up to mirrors of Wikipedia) Κσυπ Cyp 17:50, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Meaning of a proverb

Hello I am just wondering in which situation "a creeking gate hangs long" is used as proverb. Mostafa

It's a creaking gate hangs longest; "creaking" as in making a noise from hinges that have not been oiled.

The usual meaning is an old person who complains a lot about real or imagined illnesses may outlive other old people who do not complain. Anjouli 05:59, 24 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Semiconductors

I have a question relating to semiconductor physics. Most of the books I've looked at talk about the valence and conduction bands and then proceed to plot (E-k plots) the energy as a function of k, which they call the wave vector (such that |k| = 2π/λ). I can't seem to find what the wave vector actually represents. Can anyone here clue me in? Maximus Rex 05:23, 25 Nov 2003 (UTC)

k can be seen in two equivalent ways: as the reciprocal of wavelength in the direction of propagation (the definition you cite above) or as momentum:

\mathbf {p} =\hbar \mathbf {k}

In solid state physics, you can usually just think of it as momentum. At a more advanced level, a lattice or wavefunction can be transformed from position space into momentum- or k-space, by taking a Fourier transform. Note that the concept of wavenumber or wavevector originated in pre-quantum optics. -- Tim Starling 04:02, Nov 27, 2003 (UTC)

Geography

Does anybody have a (link to a) map showing Quebec along with an outline of France (to visualise the size difference)? Junesun 11:21, 27 Nov 2003 (GMT)

I'd say that finding such a picture is harder than making it from scratch. Try your hand at National Geographic MapMachine. You should be able to get maps of France and Quebec. There are two copyright holders to this material (NGS and ESRI). ESRI's copyright policy seems to allow us to use the material, but I didn't make much of an effort to find NGS's. -Smack 18:28, 27 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Liu Bang Han Dynasty

I have recently acquired a sword allegedly from the Han Dynasty period. It was owned by a man named Xiangyu, who took his own life after being invoved in some type of an attempt to overthrow the Emperor Liu Bang. Any info on this character and the role he may have played in history from that era.

A sword from Xiangyu! Is this a joke? Anyway Liu Bang became an emperor after Xiangxu killed himself. See Han Dynasty#The Emergence.wshun 21:12, 28 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Might want to ask for your money back. In the Middle Ages there were enough splinters of wood from the Cross being sold to build the Ark :) Anjouli 06:14, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Elusive Painter

does anyone know of a french sculptor named E. Raulin? who lived in the early 20th century in Paris? He did work for Susse Freres foundries.. principally bronzes statues.

Nothing in the 2002 Louvre catalogue. Anjouli 06:08, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Case of Internet TLDs?

Should the Internet TLDs of countries not be in lowercase? Anjouli 07:23, 24 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Yes, I would agree that lowercase is the de-facto standard representation. Daniel Quinlan 07:42, Nov 24, 2003 (UTC)

Such Qs are more appropriate on Wikipedia:Reference desk. --Menchi 07:46, 24 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I beg to disagree. This is not a Reference Desk question since it relates to the standard format used in all WP country pages. It is therefore a WP format issue, presumably best discussed in Village Pump (WP related issues) before making into a style guideline, if agreed. I though that was clear from the countries link, but perhaps I should have been more specific. Anjouli 05:59, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

HIV virus vs. HI virus

This is a problem that I encounter quite often (eg. image caption on HIV). Are there any linguistic rules regarding this? --snoyes 22:01, 29 Nov 2003 (UTC)

HIV virus is unquestionably incorrect (virus virus?). It seems to be common usage in the media and I cringe every time I hear it. I cannot find it in any of 12 medical textbooks I have to hand, but neither do they use "HI virus" or "the HIV". Most medical articles, having once spelled it out in full, refer to it as "the virus". Technically I think "the HIV" is correct, but people seem to go out of their way to avoid it, presumably for the same reason some writers try to avoid the perfectly correct "the data are". Anjouli 05:44, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

That is my reaction as well. The best is to probably spell it all out, or just use "virus" as you suggested. --snoyes 06:06, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Correction. I have found one single use of "the HIV" in Mosby's Pharamcology. Anjouli 06:11, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Many medical professionals consider it fine, apparently. I used MD Consult to search "HIV virus", and 90 published journal articles in its collection used them in the last 3 years alone. --Menchi 06:22, 30 Nov 2003 (UTC)

The only place I've seen data used plural is in my Statistics book... otherwise, it's always "the data suggests" or "I have data that proves that", etc. ugen64 01:31, Dec 1, 2003 (UTC)