Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

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February 27

A map program for mobile

Is there any (java, possibly) program that can be uploaded onto my mobile phone that shows maps, but also fits the following circumstances:

• free
• can be uploaded onto my phone from my computer, not downloaded from the mobile browser
• doesn't have to download new map sections, instead, the entire map comes downloaded with the program (entire map can just be a map of the city, not the entire country)

thankyou--User3141592 00:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

What country? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 00:48, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

You can refine your question by googlizing 'java maps'. I just did it and it comes up with a bunch of java mapping applets. What actually works on your phone is something you have to try, and nobody can answer here (but they'll try ...) --Zeizmic 02:07, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

It all depends on what mobile phone you have. What sort of mobile phone do you have? Proto||type 16:05, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

It's a Motorola V190 and it has java2 thing. i need maps for around toronto and hamilton.

themesong

Where can I listen to/download the "Don't forget your passport" themesong? (it's a travel show) --User3141592 00:46, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Try asking here or here. They may make it available or know where you can get it. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 01:44, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Try some p2p file sharing softwares.... like Ares or edonkey2000.... they might have the song and a lots more... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 20:16, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

The Similarities and Differences Between My Network TV and Univision

What are the similarities and differences between My Network TV and Univision?

• I refer you to the articles about these two networks, but for clarity, My Network TV will be broadcast in English while Univision broadcasts in Spanish. (This sounds like a homework question, but I can't determine what kind of class would assign it.) --Metropolitan90 02:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

It is a new model for publicity : buzz in WP:RD. Don't help! --DLL 20:32, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Theodore Sedgwick

Why is (Judge) Theodore Sedgwick not listed in the Sedgwick Family catagory when you have a page for him in Wikipedia. (It was an interesting article.) You list Edie, Kyra and Misha Sedgwick only in the Sedgwick family catagory.

Maybe I'm missing it but the article doesn't seem to mention that he is/was related to Edie, Kyra, and Misha. Therefore he may be from a different Sedgwick family. Dismas|^(talk) 04:02, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

P.S. I see where someone just recently added a few sentences about the relationship to the article on Edie Sedgwick but they did not provide a source. If it can be confirmed, then he should be added to the category. Dismas|^(talk) 05:06, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

It's twue, it's twue. - Nunh-huh 07:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

"Odin`s Curse"?!?

I m almost sure that i saw an article here that was called like this(the title of course). I read in it that this was a disease that kills people by stoping their breath while they are a sleep. So they cant go to sleep or else theyl die. Victims are generaly babies, as the patient doesnt live that long. It was also called "obganjes"

Can anyone tell me something about this article? Could it be that it was erased? Cause i can t seem to find anything about this anywhere. Has anyone else seen it

Thank you

Try Ondine's curse. You're welcome. alteripse 04:37, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Ear Wax Problem

Lately, I have been getting a lot of ear wax in my right ear. What can i do about this besides using q-tips (which doctors say not to use). Sometimes it's so much it blocks hearing for a while. Other times chunks the size of small peas just tend to fall out. Is there an over the counter medicine i can buy, or would a trip to the doctor be in order?

I've heard that you could use hydrogen peroxide to clean your ear.. i am not sure how you can use it... but probably the best thing you can do is to go see a doctor.... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 05:45, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

That warning not to use Q-tips in the ear is just to keep them from getting sued by idiots who jam them in and puncture their eardrums. The only reason to put a cotton ball on the end of a long stick is to make it fit in the ear. Just be careful when you use them. If you really don't want to use them, there are ear cleaning systems involving a liquid cleaning fluid squirted into the ears. In any case, after a bath or shower the wax will likely be warmer and more humid, both of which will soften it up. One final comment, a large amount of wax in one ear may be due to an irritation, such as an object in the ear canal. I suggest having a doctor look in the ear to see if they can identify and fix the problem. StuRat 06:06, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I would also recommend seeing a doctor, like the people above suggested.

If the doctor tells you there's no problem, you can read MedlinePlus for more info. I think the OTC ear drops that contain carbamide peroxide are more effective than the home remedies. Brands include Auro® Ear Drops, Debrox®, E.R.O® Drops, Murine® Ear Drops. Some may come with ear syringes, which are rubber bulbs with an opening at the tip (image). You can buy these separately, and you use them to squirt water in your ear to rinse out the earwax. If you use an ear syringe, avoid inserting the nozzle into the ear canal and try to use water that is close to body temperature-- squirting hot or cold water in your ear will make you feel dizzy and sick to your stomach. After you remove the wax, you can dry out the ear with low heat from a blow dryer. Also, you can use the ear syringe on a weekly basis to prevent this problem, according to the MedlinePlus article.

As stated in the MedlinePlus article, don't use any of these remedies if you have a ruptured eardrum. --Uthbrian (talk) 08:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

A simpler solution is to use a shower head with a 'narrow squirt mode' (pardon my lousy English). I used to use shampoo to clean my ears, but that just aggravated the problem (it wasn't as bad as you describe it, but came close). I suppose that was a reaction of the body. The earwax is there for a reason (whichever it may be). Remove too much and the body will produce more. When I stopped using shampoo (altogether, by the way, but that's a different story) and switched to the shower squirt, that had very positive effects. Now that shower head is broke and doesn't give the squirt anymore, but I no longer need it because the problem is gone. An alternative might be a syringe. With plain water - cheaper and better for the ear. But because it's so cheap manufacturers aren't interrested. They don't make money from giving good advise, only from selling stuff. A very general problem and I'm still thinking on how it could be solved. Until I have, be very wary of anything that comes with a ®. :) DirkvdM 10:10, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

The doctors have this great little plastic loop that just scoops out the wax. --Zeizmic 13:05, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I recently saw a product called Earigate advertised in a magazine. It says that it's a revolutionary solution to prevent earwax blockage. The nozel device was developed by an ENT (ear, nose & throat doctor) It squirts 100% natural source sea water(from an aerosol can) into the ear without forcing it against the eardrum. It's probably available in pharmacy. Their website is www.earigate.ca. Good luck.70.48.197.214 16:28, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

When I was in alaska the doctor used this large needle looking thing to squirt a warm salt water solution in my ear. It felt really good.--God Ω War

05:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Saline solution for contact lenses would also work. It's sterile, which is important, as you don't want to cause an ear infection. Distilled water would also work, but might be absorbed by the skin in the ear canal, causing it to swell. Water with the same salinity as the body won't do that. StuRat 09:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Camcorder

Is the Sony HDR-HC1 compatible with iMovie software that comes with the new iMac Core Duo computers?

Thank you, Harvey

• Well, Apple lists it for sale on their iLife page, so I'd say either the answer is "yes" or Apple's being a real apphole. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:40, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Salt on a railroad track

Why is putting salt on a railroad track dangerous?

Putting pennies on a railroad track is dangerous. We always tried to do it as kids, but we weren't smart enough to glue them down with bubblegum, so they always jumped off before the train hit. Seriously, I suppose you are thinking of winter deicing, and salt has a nasty habit of doing terrible things to steel. Think of an unrustproofed Yugo in Canada! --Zeizmic 16:45, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, salt encourages rusting. Something to do with raising the number of ions in water. This is why cars rust quicker in humid cities near the coast. Proto||type 14:02, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

How can open a .iso file?

How do i open and run a .iso extention file on my PC? It should be a game but it has a .iso extention. 86.129.82.87 16:12, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

ISOs are cd images. Most likely you will need to burn it to cd, and then boot from it. Dending on your cd software, you should make sure that you burn it as an image, rather than burning the iso file as a file to the disk. I rather suspect what you have is illegal though.

(after edit conflict)

An .iso file is an image file, probably meant to be burned on a CD or DVD. Open your CD/DVD burning program and select a command like "burn image" , select the ISO file, and burn it to a CD/DVD. See the documentation with your CD burning program on how to do this. When the burning has finished, put the disk in your CD/DVD drive and run it. We have a good article on .iso.

Alternatively, you can use a program like Daemon Tools to "mount" the image as a virtual drive - what this does is fool your computer into thinking that it has another CD drive, with a disk in it with the contents of the ISO file, which you can then run the same way you would have run the 'real' version above.

I should note that, unless you own the game in question, what you are doing is illegal. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 16:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

just to ease your minds i created the game however it is only stored as an .iso 86.129.82.87 16:44, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

You created a game and don't know how it works? What program did you use to create it? --Optichan 17:03, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

That does stretch the imagination. However, you did come back, which is rare. --Zeizmic 17:22, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Incidentally (I appreciate that this isn't remotely what the original questioner was really asking) it is possible to "open" an ISO file; as it's an ISO 9660 filesystem, you can mount it and then move around in it just like any other read-only filesystem,

• On Microsoft Windows XP, this program from Microsoft allows you to make a virtual CDrom device, and then mount and unmount ISO images into it.
• On Linux (and other *nix type environments) you can do it (I guess, I've never done it with a CD image, only HD images) with losetup to make a bound loopback device, and then mount -t iso9660 to mount it.

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:34, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I use Nero Image drive to mount my images. Works perfectly every time and is a great when you want to put rip some movies off your dvds so you can take them with you on your laptop easily. I bought it from the kazaa store. It was on sale for 0$ !!. However, I had to wait in a long line to get it.--God Ω War

05:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Free speech and thought bubble clip art

I'm looking for clips of speech and thought bubbles for a presentation, ideally in OmniOutliner stencil format, secondly in any mainstream outline format, but any common format would do... Thank you!

List of Former Socialist Countries?

I am a college freshman and I am doing a project about socialism. Part of the project is to find a list of former social countries, I have looked in countles books and spent tons of hours on the internet and i have found nothing, all i find are fromer communist countries and in my class there is a group doing communism so i can not use that list. So if anyone could help i would greatly appreciate it.

It's a definitions issue. You'll have to clarify what you mean, since the word 'socilism' is used very differently in different contexts. eg. USSR stands for Union of Soviot Socialist Republics, the Nazi were National Socialists, and the Labour Party in England used to be socialist which is why you're getting confusion.

It seems your first task is to decide what constitutes a Socialist country. I presume you have read the article Socialism in detail, and followed all the links from that. One of the links is to Socialist parties, so it should be easy to go down those and see which ones have been in government. For any that have, that country is former socialist.

What makes you think Socialism does not include Communism? And don't say 'because there is another group doing communism'. That probably won't be an acceptable answer at college level. You'll need to decide for yourself, and if you think Socilism includes Communism then you should say so in your report. DJ Clayworth 18:17, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Communism is to Socialism what militant fundamentalism is to religious belief - It's largely a question of degree. Mind you, the same is true with political conservatism and fascism, and any such definitions are going to contain a fair degree of the writer's own point of view. As to Socialism, many countries have had socialist governments, they just haven't called them that. After all, boiled down to its simples forms, cosocialism is government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Which sounds vaguely familiar. It would be fair to say that, by some definitions, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal was socialist, although, of course, it was never officially called that, since so many Americans seem to think that anything socialist is automatically a Bad Thing, and Roosevelt himself declared frequently that he was anti-Socialist. Then again, Nixon declared he wasn't a crook. Grutness...wha? 01:09, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Let me also point out that it's a matter of definition. And there have been loads of discussions on this at the various articles' talk pages (which sometimes make more interresting reading than the articles themselves if you can stomach some bitching). To me, Communism is an idealised state (not 'State') in which everyone does what they can and takes no more than what they need. That is a very widely used definition of something and then of course there has to be a word for it. And the word is 'Communism'. So it won't do to use that word for something else. But then a lot of people do and we're stuck with that too. Basically, Socialism can be either State Socialism (what is commonly referred to as 'Communism') or a socialist element in the politics of a country. And in the latter case it's a matter of degree. Almost all countries in the world are capitalist (including the poor ones, so if anyone talks to you about the collapse of the USSR proving that Socialism doesn't work, throw that back in their faces - but I digress :) ). All of those countries have some level of Socialism thrown in to soften the sharp edges of capitalism a bit. In the US this is minimal. In Scandinavian countries it goes furthest, as far as I know (and they are dominant among the highest scorers on the Human Development Index, so you can throw that in the faces of those people too :) ). So by my definitions (and I'm not quite the only one), the difference between Communism and Socialism is by no means a matter of degree, but there is a matter of degree between the various implementations of Socialism. First of all, you'll have to decide what you mean by Socialism and probably check with the Communism group what definitions they use.

But I now notice you say you need a list of former socialist countries. What does that mean? Countries that are no longer Socialist (whatever that means) or Socialist countries that are no more? DirkvdM 10:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Almost all Western European countries have had Socialist parties in power at some time or other (maybe not Ireland?). But Ive never heard them described as former Socialist countries. I would take that as meaning the former satellites of the USSR in Eastern Europe. But if its supposed to be different from Communist? Youd better check what exactly your professor means. Jameswilson 00:24, 1 March 2006 (UTC) ( this post moved here by JackofOz because it seemed the right thing to do)

Bumblebee Man

On Spanish dubbed versions of The Simpsons, what language does the Bumblebee Man character speak? --Maxamegalon2000 19:25, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

English???? Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 20:07, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

I'd imagine that in at least Castille versions, he'd be speaking Mexican Spanish, probably with a (to Castilian ears) exaggerated and funny sounding Mexican accent. --BluePlatypus 22:07, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Of course, they'd probably change the lines somewhat then. Bumblebee Man's Spanish isn't so good, although I think the Spanglish is part of the joke. :) --BluePlatypus 22:37, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

That's a really good question. I'm going to ask it on the Spanish reference desk. —Keenan Pepper 23:11, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Hossmann says there are two Spanish versions, one for Spain and one for Latin America. In the Spanish one Bumblebee Man speaks Spanish with an exaggerated Mexican accent, as BluePlatypus said. Don't know about the Latin American one. —Keenan Pepper 00:04, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Some Spanish girls I knew had never heard of Fawlty Towers, which surprised me. A year later they said that Spanish tv now also showed it and they especially liked Manuel, the Mexican waiter. :) DirkvdM 10:22, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

We have an article on The Simpsons in French, is it time for The Simpsons in Spanish? - SimonP 14:28, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

February 28

My Ipod

Hello, I have an ipod and I was wondering how I can have an audiobook in the audiobook section. I put a book on there but it is just listed as songs. Can anyone help me? Thank you very much. --Zach 00:14, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• Using iTunes, try changing the Genre in the "Get Info" for the track to "Audiobook". --Canley 02:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Tried it and it didnt work. Thanks anyway. Any other sugestions? Zach 21:45, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
    • What's the format of the file? Did you download it from Audible.com? I think it has to be a .AA or .M4B format to appear in the Audiobook category. If it's an AAC, I think you can just change the extension (in Windows) to .M4B and it should work. --Canley 23:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Work

Hi,I want to know what is the hard and honest work with the more money paid and material success?

Stomping grapes in southern France. --Zeizmic 00:47, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

It is very rare to find a job with "hard and honest work" that ends up being one of the highest paid. The two things are usually mutually exclusive. Grutness...wha? 01:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Try becoming an actor or something..... although it is very hard to work honestly... but you might find that hard work truly pays off..... atleast.. thats what i think.... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 07:39, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Define 'hard and honest work'. Sounds like manual labour and that will not get you rich (with the possible exception of sports if you want to call that manual labour). But a 'traditional trade' like plumbing, which is a combination of hard and dirty work and some expertise, can give you a decent income in countries where most people are too 'decadent' to want to do it. DirkvdM 10:27, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Obviously, from the lack of response, I won, and he's off to stomp grapes. :) --Zeizmic 18:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

A job will not give you material success. Living within your means will. -LambaJan 06:17, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

The Format of My Network TV

What is the format of My Network TV?

A format designed to format listener's and viewer's heads. This is publicity I guess. Help to stop it. And do not click ... they have had a counter installed on the WP article. --DLL 20:34, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

IP address tracker for location

Is there a website that traks down the exact location of the IP. I know some just give you the city but is there one that gives you the address or the exact location? Thanks a lot!

• In essence, no. There are websites which may give you the postal address of the registered owner of the IP (if there is one): see Wikipedia:Vandalism#Trace_IP for a list. Most of the time it will be an ISP who, if required to by law, may be able to track down who used that IP at a particular time from their records. Imagine if your exact location was accessible to anyone everytime you logged on to the internet - you can see why I don't think this will happen anytime soon. --Canley 02:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

MSN IP

Is it possible to find the ISP of whoever you are talking to on MSN Messenger?

Do you mean the IP or the ISP? — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

MSN conversations are conducted through Microsoft servers (may not be true as of MSN 7.5), so you can't find their IP simply by talking to them. However, when you transfer a file between you, your computers connect directly. The IP of the person you're talking to then turns up in some sort of "netstat" thingy which can be accessed through the command line program. Someone else probably knows more about that one. -- Run!  09:21, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Why not on 7.5? ^KILO-_LIMA 17:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I heard 'somewhere' that Microsoft just decided to allow direct connections on the latest incarnation. Probably rubbish.  -- Run!  19:44, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Hello

Hi,I am a college student and my current study is literature,and i was wondering that there is a guy who just ask questions about jorge luis borges,i am a very fan of him,and just for curiosity:what author is/was a mix of jorge luis borges and stephen king?

Well 206.170.104.24 why do you ask so many similar questions on the reference desk and why not sign them? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 04:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it's time he starts the article List of Jorge Luis Borges hybrids. It wouldn't be the stupidest article on WP, for sure. --BluePlatypus 04:53, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Was he also the annoying QuizMeister? --Zeizmic 18:52, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Greg Egan - Egan's Law?

In one of his earlier stories, whose title I've forgotten, the Australian SF writer Greg Egan wrote (bitterly) about the tendency of modern mystics to invoke quantum physics in their dogma -- from memory, he talked about how much these people love the Uncertainty Principle, and also how little they understand the actual meaning of the whole quantum thing. Since then, I've noticed the phenomenon several times - recently in "What the Bleep Do We Know" movement - and was thinking of naming the principle 'Egan's Law' - until I saw there's a law of the same name in the States.

Can anyone help with the title of the story, and perhaps suggest a name for the law? Adambrowne666 04:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Cybersex

Is there an age of consent in the United States for cybersex? Interrogus 05:11, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

If you mean sending pictures to each other then you both need to be over 18.--God Ω War

05:31, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I meant text. Interrogus 05:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

First, see Wikipedia:legal disclaimer. That said, in some jurisdictions, I believe specific laws have been introduced to specifically make seeking sex from minors online a crime, I believe, and I'm sure that there's plenty of eager prosecutors just itching to try such laws out. So if there's more than a year or two's difference between the ages of the people involved, particularly if one is over 18 and one isn't, the senior party is likely to be running very substantial risks. See grooming a child and cybersex for the limited amount of information Wikipedia has on the topic. --Robert Merkel 09:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Falkland Islands

The 1833 invasion of the Falkland Islands article states:

After the possession of these miserable islands had been contested by France, Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The government of Buenos Aires then sold them to a private individual, but likewise used them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal settlement. England claimed her right and seized them. The Englishman who was left in charge of the flag was consequently murdered. A British officer was next sent, unsupported by any power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a population, of which rather more than half were runaway rebels and murderers. (The Voyage of the Beagle.)

If this is true, maybe the Argentine government renounced sovereignty with that sale and the Falklands are really British, but the Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands article also says:

Great Britain abandoned their settlement in 1774, and formally renounced sovereignty in the Nootka Sound Convention.

So apparently the Falklands are neither Argentine nor British. Is this correct?

• The majority of people who live there consider themselves to be British. The British government considers them to be British. The UK has control over the islands. I doubt any historical facts are going to make the Falklanders suddenly consider themselves Argentinian. So, in my opinion it's British for all extents and purposes. --BluePlatypus 07:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• All intents and purposes, too. StuRat 09:13, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Whoops, I should finish my coffee before writing. I meant to write "for all in tents with porpoises". --BluePlatypus 09:31, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

For all intense corpuscles. --Zeizmic 12:52, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Being in a fair-minded mood, I'll put the other side of it. The 2,000 Falkland Islanders are of British descent so obviously they consider themselves to be British. The Argentines say their presence is just a natural consequence of the illegal British occupation and is irrelevant to the original dispute. They are illegal settlers and cannot be allowed a veto. Jameswilson 00:35, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

THe most recent successful (re-)conquest of the Falklands was by the British in 1983 so Britain has soverignty. AllanHainey 12:25, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

This only answers a question of de facto, rather than de jure, sovereignty. Nobody claimed that Paris was legally German during the early 1940s, and similarly, no one claimed it as American thereafter. Hmmm, there's a thought.... — Lomn Talk 13:43, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Keep your dirty fingers off Paris...!!! ;-) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:01, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism on this page....??

Hi... Can i know how many times has this page been vandalised? Thank you.......Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 07:44, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Nobody keeps count, but you could make an estimate by sampling some changes and counting the proportion that are vandalism, then finding out the total number of page edits. --Robert Merkel 09:21, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

also, it depends on your definition. Quite a number of the questions we get on this page are deliberate trolling, - do you count that as vandalism? And do you count the facetious responses to those trolls? Grutness...wha? 23:40, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Vandialism++. Isnt that the C language?

i mean general vandalism like blanking out the page....and writing some gibberish.....

Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 10:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

You can go the history of the page, and view the differences between the latest and next-to-latest entry. Does that look like vandalism? If so, count 1. Now click the link to view the previous revision. Does that look like vandalism? If so, add 1. Repeat until satisfied or bored. Notinasnaid 11:25, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Ha ha... .. i was only thinking whether if we can have a vandalising counter on this page.. i think that many people would find it interesting.....its just a thought.... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 13:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I, for one, would rather that not happen. Then they'll start popping up all over the wiki and get really annoying. Having them on user pages is one thing, but on these pages is another. Dismas|^(talk) 13:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Also there are those out there who would see it as a challenge to increase the number of vandalisms. Grutness...wha? 01:06, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

But i think it could work both ways.. Most of the vandals are people who haven't registered or are very new to wikipedia... Many of them dont know that an article can be reverted very easily and probably think that we labour to restore an article again... and they also dont know that we could block out their ip's.. so they think that they are safe.. if we had a vandalism counter i think many of those vandals would know that they are being watched... but then again, its just a thought...:-) Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 17:02, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

OK, let's think about a vandalism counter. If you do not intend to follow counts yourself manually, it must be a program that does the job. What shall we teach to the program ?

When the page is 100% blanked, count. Only if it is not archiving, else forget. When the page is 20%, 40%, ... lets us decide what to count. For a paragraph itself : if it contains the words "Gödel", "television", "bush" (but not ambush nor Kate Bush), "Intellignet Desgin" ... let us create a section for suspect words. And so on. The whole affair is not so simple, think about it. --DLL 19:52, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Installing Linux on D Drive

I can install Linux on my C drive, but it won't boot when installed on the D drive of my Windows 98 PC. Here is the warning I get:

Analysis of the Master Boot Record (MBR)
----------------------------------------
No LILO found in the MBR.

Warning !

The partition in which LILO will be installed cannot be booted
directly from the BIOS (because it is not in the MBR and is 
not on a primary partition on the first hard disk).  There
does not appear to be another boot manager which is capable of
booting this partition.  If you continue you may not be able to
boot this partition.

The partition type is LINUX NATIVE. I tried disconnecting the C drive, in which case it installs and boots fine. I also tried swapping the two hard drives (unplugging each and plugging them into the other connector), and I get the same behavior, so it's not the disk, per se, but the fact that it's the second disk, or D drive, that causes this problem.

So, the question is, how do I add a "LILO" to the Master Boot Record for Drive D or otherwise get Linux to boot from the D drive ? StuRat 09:41, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• The message seems fair enough: most PCs cannot be booted from their D drive. Do you have a switch in your BIOS to control which is the bootable disk? If so, try switching it, and your D drive is likely to become temporarily C. If not, then there is no way to boot Linux on D except to install a boot loader like LILO onto C. Or, set up a boot floppy. Notinasnaid 15:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, flipping a switch on the BIOS would be a hassle everytime I want to switch between booting Windows 98 and Linux, so that's out, even if I did have the switch. StuRat 23:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

In that case the problem is not solvable on D alone. The system will boot from C or boot from A. You have to have a boot loader on one of those disks which then starts the boot process from D. I have made good use of boot floppies in this situation, to avoid disturbing the C drive. The RedHat distributions I used would offer me this choice. Notinasnaid 09:05, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

• What distro are you installing? It should give you an option to install LILO onto the C: drive which will then give you a choice of which OS to use on boot. Keep in mind if you reinstall Windows after Linux it will typically wax your MBR and you'll have to reinstall the MBR before you'll be able to boor to Linux again. To make it clearer, installing LILO in the MBR on the C drive will allow accessing the Linux bootloader you have installed on the D drive. Oh and don't forget to make sure your jumpers are set up right. - Taxman ^Talk 18:58, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I have a very old distribution, Caldera OpenLinux 1.3. StuRat 23:43, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Get two $15 hard disk caddies, and put whichever disk you want into it -- the OS you choose will always be on disk "C" then, and no need to wait for the dual-boot menu. Ojw 20:08, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I tried that, but this PC won't boot from external hard drives connected via a USB port. StuRat 23:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

The answer I got below here might also solve your problem, although I haven't tried it yet. But I'm confused about your use of the terms C drive and D drive. I know those as msWindows terms and whichever drive (or rather partition) you boot that OS from it calls the C drive (msWindows changing the names of partitions can be extremely confusing (and dangerous!) and I suspect your confusion arises from too much exposure to msWindows). Are you referring to the master and slave on one connector or drives on different connectors? In the former case the jumpers would certainly need to be changed (unless they're sata). I've got a feeling I don't need to tell you this, but the Linux designations hdc1, sda5 and such would make more sense (although that too mixes up connector (in the letters) and partition (in the number)), but at least they're a clearer designations. Oh, and it also advised to make the drive at the end of the ribbon the master, though I don't know what effect it might have if you didn't do that (I always do).

Notinasnaid, what do you mean by that most pc's cannot boot from their D drive (whatever that is). Linux can boot from any partition on any drive. Or are you referring to the MBR? DirkvdM 21:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok, using Linux terminology, I'm trying to boot Linux from /hdc, meaning the master on the secondary controller. I have Windows 98 on /hda, meaning the master on the primary controller. I was hoping to select the hard disk to boot from by hitting the DEL key during startup to get into setup and change the boot disk. This would be an easy way to select either Windows 98 or Linux to run. My workaround is to put both on /hda in different partitions. This works, but requires that I use FDISK to swap the active partition, then reboot to get the other O/S. This is a bit of a hassle. StuRat 22:55, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

You should be able to access the BIOS. You could check here to see if you need a different keyboard command for that. Although this should be displayed on your screen as you boot (on a cold monitor this info might be gone by the time you get an image, though, so boot again when it's warm). DirkvdM 08:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Let's try and clarify "boot from". Most PCs will boot only from the active primary partition on C, A, or a CDROM. The place it boots from is the place where the initial bit of boot program is read. This initial boot program CAN then load the boot program from a different disk, so that it appears to be booting from D or whatever. But crucially there's nothing you can put on D alone that would get the boot program on D to run. And the Windows boot loader will simply boot the copy of Windows on C. I can't remember whether it is safe for Windows to run Lilo on C, hence I use a boot floppy. The lilo command can be used after installing Linux to make a boot floppy if you can figure out the man page. Notinasnaid 09:05, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

(More) Hence, the (partial) question how do I add a "LILO" to the Master Boot Record for Drive D is the wrong question. You can install LILO all you want on drive D, but your PC won't look there at boot time. More incidentals: some older versions of Windows only run if they are installed on a C drive. More recent versions relax this somewhat (but not completely), but will not cope with the drive letter changing after installation. Notinasnaid 09:10, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

It is still not clear what you mean by D. That's an msWindows designation that can mean loads of things. If you only have one drive it's the second partition. If you have more than one it's the first partition on the primary slave (or was that secondary master?), unless the active msWindows resides there, in which case it's the first partition on the primary master. I think. msWindows moves in mysterious ways. Why not use the clear designations like 'primary slave' and such? Or Linux shortcuts like hdb? In which case it's also easier to say 'primary partition'; just add a one; hdb1. DirkvdM 11:38, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I already clarified this above. Here it is again:

"Ok, using Linux terminology, I'm trying to boot Linux from /hdc, meaning the master on the secondary controller. I have Windows 98 on /hda, meaning the master on the primary controller." StuRat 00:50, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, got that, I was talking to Notinasnaid. DirkvdM 07:23, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Ok, so first up why are you still using an old distro? You can just download and burn a new one.Try Ubuntu or Mandrake or even Elive! Oh well, your life. ;-)

• Patient: "But docter, if I install lilo on /dev/somevg/wierdplace, it won't work!"
• Exasperated docter: "So don't do that!"

You want to install lilo on the MBR of /dev/hda. That's where it's supposed to go. Even if linux is installed on "the D drive" lilo still goes on /dev/hda. You'll still be able to boot into windows!

So ok, now you install lilo to /dev/hda. But what if it turns out that I accidentally lied, and now you can only boot into linux? Argh! Then you have a silly old distro that didn't automatically get even that right! :-P What silly people! Ah, but even then, don't get yourself in a twist. Here's what to do if you find yourself in that predicament:

Just boot into linux anyway. Now go to the linux command line as root, and edit /etc/lilo.conf with your favorite editor. If you have no favorite, try pico or nano.

Add the following lines to the end (assuming C: - pardon, /dev/hda - has only the one (important) partition, which I guess it does) :

 other  = /dev/hda1
 label  = boot_into_windows
 table  = /dev/hda

Save the file

at the root command line, type:

mount /boot   #(This is just a precaution. If it gives an error, we probably
              # didn't need it. Just ignore any errors here, and continue)

lilo          # <- this reinstalls lilo with your new settings.

And reboot.

Now select the option boot_into_windows for windows. Your other options should still be there for when you want to go back to linux

If at some point in time you want to remove lilo, then IN WINDOWS, open a dos box, (on windows98 start->run and type command.com <and hit enter>) and do:

fdisk /mbr

HTH, HAND. :-) Kim Bruning 09:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Hey, I didn't know that it doesn't necessarily go into the MBR of the same drive. This might explain some problems I once had when I removed a drive. Not a smart way to do it I'd say. Is that a Lilo thing or Linux in general? (I use Grub.) But it isn't necessarily hda1 because I don't have that. My two IDE drives are designated hdc and hdd because they're on the secondary connector (the dvd drive drive is on the primary connector one). So would it then go into the MBR of hdc1 (the first hd in 'alphabetical' order)? DirkvdM 11:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

It would go on the one and only disk your PC will actually boot from. If you know what disk that is, you are set. Notinasnaid 14:23, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

It's not a LILO or Linux or Grub thing; it's a PC BIOS thing, since it's the BIOS that has to load the bootloader from the MBR. --cesarb 14:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

There is no one and only disk the pc will boot from. If I connect only one hd it will boot from that (I just tried it with two hd's to make sure I'm not imagining things and it worked). I just realise why this might work in my case. Whenever I install a new OS I disconnect all other hd's to avoid mistakes (I learned this the hard with with msWindows and the habit stuck). So the boot loader is installed on the same hd the OS is on (it can't go anywhere else). So I don't even need any of the hdx's - the two OS's I mentioned are on my two sata drives, which booted just fine without hda, hdc or hdq or whatever.

Cesarb, I find it odd that during installation of the OS the boot loader would be installed by the BIOS. Which would then put it in the first hd (alphabetically). And then upon booting you can specify in the BIOS which hd to boot from, but it still looks in that first hd for the boot loader? That cannot be because I can boot the installation I use now, on sda5 (first logical partition on first sata drive) with or without any other hd connected. And it's not like it regards sda as the first drive, because the same works with my win98 installation on sdb1. Or did I misunderstand you? DirkvdM 15:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers everyone ! StuRat 00:50, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Dynamic boot manager

Is there a utility or method I can use (maybe something on a floppy) that analyses my computer upon startup, detects any OS's installed on it and then give sme a list I can pick one from? I have several OS's on my computer(s) and every time I change something I have to change the boot loaders on each drive. Which is a pain, but sometimes an OS simply doesn't start anymore, such as when one makes the mistake of installing msWindows after Linux. Such a tool would circumvent this problem and it seems to me this shouldn't be too hard - if only one knows how. This would also solve StuRat's problem hereabove (which is what inspired me to ask this). DirkvdM 10:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

While this page is not a search engine, Google certainly is. There's lots to choose from, Smart BootManager looks interesting and is free. --LarryMac 16:48, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm sorry I didn't Google first. Although it seemed like something that should be easy to make, I assumed this would be something obscure because else what are those other boot managers for? Compared to this they seem horribly clumsy. Well, I'll try it out and maybe find out why. :) Thanks. DirkvdM 20:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I was just having a little fun, since a common response on the desks is "this isn't a search engine." Hope you didn't mind! Good ol' OS/2 used to come with a boot manager; Microsoft seems to be the only vendor who wants to be the single allowed OS vendor allowed on your PC. --LarryMac 21:03, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Look for your BIOS to have the ability to boot from 'D:' or boot order 'DtoA' or Boot HDD-1. Then you can use grub for your linux experments, and not mess with windows.

It's msWindows that's the experiment now because I can't get XP installed. Linux is my mainstay OS. DirkvdM 08:20, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Did Tom Scholz receive any assistance on Boston's 1st album?

QuizMeister strikes again! --Zeizmic 18:53, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes. I believe that Bradly Delp helped him out on Vocals. Just a guess...

When was the Italian peninsula united under one goverment??

March 17, 1861. David Sneek 21:18, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't the correct answer be "never". San Marino has never been part of the Italian Republic. The Vatican City's status after 1871 was always a bit of a question mark, and it has definitely been a sovereign state since 1929. JackofOz 21:55, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

See the Italy article.
Slumgum 21:50, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Only philatelists care about San Marino and the Vatican... I mean, how many divisions have they got? David Sneek 22:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Two, with a total of fifteen teams :). Grutness...wha? 23:48, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Philatelists have feelings too. Not to mention the Sammarinese people. Sammarinese philatelists would no doubt be doubly sensitive to us pretending they don't exist. I think we need to answer the question asked, which was about the Italian peninsula (a geographical entity), not about the nation of Italy (formerly, in Bismarck's words, a "geographical expression", but now a political entity). JackofOz 22:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• A learned Italian once told me that Italy wear blue (at sports) because it was the heraldic colour of the family that claimed the Italian peninsula as its own. I can't find anything to back this up. Does anyone else know?
  Slumgum 22:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Not from Victor Emmanuel II of Italy's shield, at least. Rmhermen 23:03, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• Kinda seems to me the peninsula was rather well united in Roman times. But that's probably not what the questioner wanted. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:24, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Why do short-sighted people always have a small handwriting?

Wouldn't it make more sense if they'd write larger? David Sneek 21:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Because when they write, their nose is squashed right up to the paper, leaving little room for pen movements. At least that's what I noticed in Grade 3. --Zeizmic 22:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm (very) short-sighted, and I don't have particularly small handwriting, just illegible handwriting (it has once been described as looking like "a dyslexic spider on acid crawled across the page.") -- AJR | Talk 23:13, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

So then the answer is that they don't always have small handwriting. ;-) You sound like you may be interested in Graphology. -LambaJan 06:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Full disclosure: the question is from Aristotle's Problems. I read it a few years ago, and in my limited (myopic) experience his observation seems to be quite accurate. David Sneek 10:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Grapes

Who is the richest man in the grape industry?

We're on to you QuizMeister 207. I'll be starting to delete from now on, unless I get a bunch of whiners whining. --Zeizmic 23:41, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I forget - is it seven whiners whining, or is that trollers trolling? Oh, and the answer may well be Bill Gates Grutness...wha? 00:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

The richest man in the grape industry is in actual fact a woman. I can't tell you her name as the vast right wing conspiracy of leftists that run Wikipedia have the information suppressed. I can tell you that she speaks only Latin, is a combination of Enid Blyton and Florence Nightingale and answers to the name Hi there richest person in the grape industry. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 01:18, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Didn't he appear on one of the seasons of The Batchelor? ;) --Robert Merkel 03:34, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I can't believe that I live in Canada and din't think of this guy eh! CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 04:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Any idea how he got the name "Grapes"? I don't really see much of a similarity between cherries and grapes. --Optichan 16:31, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

The only thing I could find is here. You need to search for "grapes" and you get the sentence

'Mr. PATTERSON is credited with starting to market the Grapes nickname by which Mr. Cherry is known to Friends and television fans. The nickname is said to have come from an encounter with the late Eddie Shore, who dismissed an argument over money by saying, "That's just sour grapes."'

and this is Eddie Shore. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 19:56, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

swimming

what were the commonwealth games swimming uniforms like in the early 1900's and what are they like now? angelique gabriel--210.11.188.16 23:50, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

There were no Commonwealth Games in the early 1900s - the games were first held in 1930, as the "British Empire Games". I would imagine that competitors in swimming competitions around 1900 would have worn swimsuits identical to ones worn by anyone going swimming at that time, i.e. covering a lot more of the body than modern suits do. Swimmers in the moder games will, I imagine, wear the same sort of hi-tech swimsuits as anyone in top swimming competitions. -- AJR | Talk 00:09, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

If you know what they wear in the Olympics, then you know what they wear in the CGs - it's not like different technology is needed because the water used to be in the Empire. Have a google search for inages of people like Ian Thorpe (probably the best swimmer in the Commonwealth) and you'll see the sort of swimsuits worn. Grutness...wha? 05:52, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

March 1

Telenovelas on My Network TV

From which Spanish-language television networks are broadcasting telenovelas on My Network TV?

Another dropping from the tn12.18 bot. These things (along with qm207) must be on a timer. --Zeizmic 14:48, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

definition of reticular lamina is what?

try [[1]] or [The development of the reticular lamina in the hamster: an examination of transitory features and their functional roles. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 04:17, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

In plain English, it's a kind of connective tissue. --BluePlatypus 07:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Morrowind

Where is the island with the woman who you are meant to save to get Azura's Soulgem?

And where is the GOOD BEAST in Soltheim that you are meant to kill to do the Beast Stone Quest?

See GameFAQs, Wikipedia's not the best place for this sort of thing. But there is also a huge pile of helpful links at The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Hope that helps. Proto||type 13:51, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

"Dexter" on Television

Is "Dexter" going to be on television sometime in 2006? If it is, is his name going to be "Dexter Perkins"?

Do you mean "Is Dexter's Laboratory going to be on commercial broadcast television (as opposed to cable/satellite) ?" ? StuRat 00:36, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Also what country? – b_jonas 11:26, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Deja-vu and sickness

Hii... This might seem to be weird.. but everytime i get a feeling of deja-vu... i get a nauseating feeling in my stomach and my head spins a little.... it only lasts for a second or two.... and then i feel completely fine again.... i've had this for years... and when i was a kid i actually used to vomit from the nausea... even though now its not much of a problem anymore i still wonder why it happens to me... i've asked a lot of people but even though they told me about their deja-vu expiriences...none of them have ever reported the sickness acompanying it.... just wondered if you can help me find an answer......i checked the article too..nothing in it... Thanks a lot

Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 19:39, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

It would be better to ask a doctor if you are worried about this or if you are looking for a cure but it sounds like Classical conditioning to me. I know that foods that I have eaten when I was very sick make me feel nauseous when I see them once again. It wasn't the food that made me feel ill the first time, it was a disease but I have been subconciously conditioned to associate certain foods with sickness. Perhaps you had feelings of deja-vu when you were sick once and now the conditioned stimulus causes an unconditioned response. Trngl999 20:27, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd probably think about talking to a doctor if it happens with any frequency. It is probably nothing but in these sorts of things there is always the off-chance it could be something serious that early detection would really be helpful with. A doctor will probably have you run a routine head scan which would just make sure everything was in the place it ought to be. --Fastfission 02:59, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah... probably i'll do that.... Thanks a lot..... does anybody else have any suggestions??? Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 06:13, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Wining offers

Hi, I would like to know what does some sites gain by telling u that when u register then send an invitation to this site to a number of people u'd win a certain prize? Do they really give these prizes? It sound weird because this site doesn't contain any other material than the winning subject. Thx Yasmeen

Check for advertising. They might be using that to generate profit. Also check their terms and conditions: they might be selling e-mail addresses.  -- Run!  20:43, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, I'll accept your wining offer. Red please.  -- Run!  21:02, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Some are no doubt completely fraudulent offers. The company that makes the offer is in some country with lax law enforcement, so they get away with it. In other cases the offer is legit, but you must do something to get the prize, like fill out a lengthy survey. If they say you "could" win a prize, that means you have only a slight chance of winning, in addition to having to do crap. StuRat 00:31, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Registeration

How do i register to Wikipedia?

click here  -- Run!  21:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

Counter-decapitation unit

The list of special forces units article state that the Nighthawks Force (Taiwan) is a counter-decapitation unit. What exactly does it mean?

They glue people's heads back on ? LOL. But seriously, "decapitation" in a military sense means destruction of the command and control of an opponents forces. Therefore, I would think an anti-decapitation unit would protect the command and control of a friendly nation. For example, by keeping Pervez Musharraf in office in Pakistan if a Muslim fundamentalist revolution breaks out there, since having the fundamentalists succeed and gain control of that country's nuclear weapons would be a very bad thing. StuRat 00:23, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

This appears to be a very Taiwanese term (on Google) as in: "Decapitation strategies short-circuit command and control systems, wipe out nationwide nerve centers and leave the opponent hopelessly immobilized. Many military observers say China is very likely to use this strategy to invade Taiwan by seizing its center of power, Taipei and its top leaders." --Zeizmic 02:45, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

killers armed with tiddlywinks. MeltBanana 20:10, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Firefighter

How much money does a firefighter gets paid? User:Lord Lutz

Depends on which country they work in.
Slumgum 23:44, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

For one example, I searched Google for the phrase "New York Fire Department" plus "pay". Following links off the second hit led me to this page, which says that the starting salary for a New York City firefighter is $32,724 plus up to $6,500 in differentials (whatever those are) and other pay. That's in US dollars, of course. Incidentally, they only accept US citizens; I have no idea why. --Anonymous, 07:12 UTC, March 2, 2006.

A lot of firefighters are volunteers. Search for 'volunteer' on the firefighter article. DirkvdM 08:35, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

differentials would probably be extra pay for different parts of the shift. You might get a $1 an hour extra for 6:00 pm - midnight and $2 an hour for midnight to 8:00 am. Things like that. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:31, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

March 2

italian irish combination

Never mix whiskey and chianti. Grutness...wha? 01:09, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

ethnicity of winky wright

what ethnicity is ronald lamont "winky" wright(the boxer)?

This should give you an idea.
Slumgum 01:31, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Asian Language

Hi,my question is:What Oriental or Asian language i should learn?because i want to speak another language rather than english,please help me THANKS! Lord Lutz

This is a question you should answer yourself. It seems you've narrowed your new language to an Asian one. Ask yourself if you want to travel to a specific country, or will ever need to speak a foreign language. That should help you answer. And sign your questions with four tildes (~~~~).
Slumgum 01:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

• For no particular reason other than its fun-sounding name, I suggest Obo Manobo. --BluePlatypus 04:45, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

The economic biggies are Mandarin or Japanese, obviously (as I understand it, the language of Indian commerce is English). But then, there are squillions of others you might consider - Korean, Arabic, Malay/Indonesian, and so on. Be warned that learning an Asian language is generally harder than a European one (for a native English speaker) because most are written in non-Latin scripts. --Robert Merkel 06:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I disagree a bit with that. The more significant thing is whether it's an ideographic script or phonetical. If it's the latter it's just a question of learning a few dozen characters, which isn't much memorization within the context of learning a language. OTOH, some people find it very easy to learn chinese characters, although it's still a lot more work. Using the Latin alphabet does mean less work overall of course, but it has it's drawbacks, since it can lure you into a false sense of familiarity. The letters are the same but the pronunciation can vary widely, and at least in the beginning you'll often find yourself slipping up and using your native pronunciation. --BluePlatypus 07:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

If you just want any language but don't want it to be too hard, try Indonesian. That's relatively simple because it's a lingua franca, originally a second language to all of its speakers (before it became the national language of Indonesia). Also it's spoken by hundreds of millions of people (and Malay is almost the same). And Indonesia is a nice country to visit (although lately that's become a bit more difficult). DirkvdM 08:40, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

You didn't say your criteria, but if it's likelihood of being used, choose among those with the highest number of speakers, that would be Mandarin, and Hindi. For business use, I agree much Indian business is conducted in English, but certainly not all is, and knowing the native language of people you are doing business with is an advantage. India and China's economies are of course growing very quickly so there's plenty of opportunity there. But like others said it doesn't matter how many speakers there are if you don't ever plan to go to those countries. Hindi has the advantage of being much easier to learn, and there's tons of Hindi films to watch. The sound system is fairly straightforward, and the writing system is very logical. - Taxman ^Talk 15:24, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Old playstation one roms?

I was wondering if anyone knew a reliable place to download old playstation one roms. I am looking for a game called Taregoro - Tarepanda no Iru Nichijou, and can't find it anywhere. Is there a place I can buy games like this?

To try and buy the game I would suggest this. It might help if you used the English name whenyou are searching. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:23, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Free VoIP-style PC-to-Landline service?

Is there a free service that will let me call landline phones from my PC with a mic? I'm in Australia, so I need to call Aussie landlines.

There are such services available, but they are not free. Engin or GoTalk can do what you want. They are significantly cheaper than conventional providers for calls to non-local landlines. --Robert Merkel 06:34, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

British European Airways flight numbers in 1952

We have an article on its successor airline, Flybe. If you're looking for some notable (for the wrong reasons) British European flights, take a look at Munich air disaster in 1958 and British European Airways Flight 548 in 1972.

And if you had read the top of the page, you would have seen that this is not a search engine. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:33, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Dogs sticking their heads out of car windows.

Whenever I take my dog (a bichon frise) for a drive, he sticks his head out of the car window. I immediately close the windows, but I'm wondering why he does this? Does he like the wind in his ears, is he trying to see something, or is he delightfully quirky?

Interesting question. Could be many reasons

- The idea of wind brushing past him is rather a strange sensation, which usually doesn't happen (unless he spends all his life in a car)

- He's hot and wants to cool down

- Is looking around

I'm no dog expert, have you tried asking him? -Benbread 14:21, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I can't believe we actually have an article on this: Human-animal communication. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:35, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Ohmygod, that article is something else! Imagine keeping a straight and serious neutral tone while expressing whether Star Trek characters can talk to their cats. It's Wikipedia gone wild! --Zeizmic 14:44, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

He may indeed by delightfully quirky, but not because he likes to stick his head out the car window; lots of dogs like to do that. There are some theories about why dogs do this here. It isn't terribly safe, because any type of flying debris could get in your dogs ear, eye or mouth. Closing the window is indeed the right thing to do, assuming the dog's head is no longer in the way. It's probably OK to keep the window down just a bit so he can still get all those smells flying by. --LarryMac 14:49, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

But has anyone ever noticed that when you blow air from your mouth on the dogs face....he tries to take a piece out of you.....!! But they seem to enjoy the wind while riding in a car... !!! Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 15:19, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

My dog used to enjoy sitting in front of the fan in our living room.  -- Run!  17:56, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

My dog sits on the prow of the cottage boat when we zoom along, to the point of being dangerous, so we have a kid spotter. I don't want to live with a wave knocking her off, right into the prop! --Zeizmic 18:05, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Animals getting sick with humans?

I know humans can get sick from animals... But can animals get sick from humans? What types of diseases and what type of animal? Thanks! (reformatted anon question ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯)

That's a great question. "I had a cat once, but I couldn't keep him. He was allergic to humans." ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 16:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Well any disease that can travel from animals to humans can probably travel the other way, eventually. Diseases like West Nile virus are transfered by mosquito (and affects birds, humans, horses, other animals?) but other disease are caused by parasites that require different animal hosts at different life stages like Broad fish tapeworm. Our articles on vector (biology) and host (biology) are rather poor. Rmhermen 16:58, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Here's a news article about it [2]. Check out the pic of a cat using an inhaler! --Uthbrian (talk) 17:49, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, animals can contract diseases from humans, both bacterial and viral infections. The diseases vary from animal to animal. For instance, the Armadillo is almost unique among animals in being able to contract leprosy from humans. The effects also vary within strains of the same disease, for instance the Reston strain of the Ebola virus kills primates but not humans. --BluePlatypus 18:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

A cat in Germany died from avian flu the other day, although probably it contracted it from a bird, rather than a person. User:Zoe|^(talk) 16:37, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

How far it is from Turin to Flachau

According to this, it's 318 miles / 512 km from Pongau to Turin.
Slumgum 20:59, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Playstation portable?

Is there a method to run games from the playstation one on the psp?

No.

computer as host

I have windows XP, and I want to put my best PC as host of the lan so the other PC of the lan will be able to use the internet too, but when finish to configure the pc in the Network Setup Wizard, the program give me a error message and don't put my PC as a host. What I do?????? Please help.

What did the error message say? Without knowing that, it's almost impossible to say what went wrong. Having said that, it should be quite simple to set up, just enable Internet Connection Sharing on the internet connection of the better PC, and then connect the computers together as a LAN. IIRC, it should do the set-up automatically. -- AJR | Talk 23:32, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

The error message is (translated): Its not possible to conclude the Network Setup Wizard. And I tried to make like you said and doens't worked too.

Ice Dancing

How did ice dancing devlop?

see Ice dancing. -LambaJan 21:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't say how it developed.
Slumgum 22:45, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, someone walked onto some ice and started slipping and sliding all around the place, so he pretended he was dancing, hoping that wuld make him look less silly. It caught on. (I made this up :) ). DirkvdM 07:37, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

See figure skating#History (also history of dance). --Shantavira 12:42, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

People too lazy for figure skating. --Nelson Ricardo 19:26, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

During Closing Ceremonies in what order do the athletes enter the stadium?

Unsigned q. by
User:MJLuzzi

Altogether in a big mob - but the massed flag carriers come in first. Rmhermen 23:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

In opening ceremonies they enter in order of their country's English Nato name. So the Republic of Macedonia comes in at "F" for "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" as Nato calls it. As for the closing ceremony, as I recall, they usually just pile in, as Rmhermen says, above.
Slumgum 00:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm pretty sure the opening ceremony order is in alphabetical order in the Host country's language. Lisiate 00:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Lisiate is right - assuming we're talking the Olympics here. Greece always first (as nation responsible for founding the games) then other countries alphabetical in host language, the host nation last. Grutness...wha? 01:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

In the Closing Ceremony, the flags are brought in in alphabetical order by the language of the host country, except for Greece first, the home country last, and the host country of the next Olympics next-to-last, but the athletes just come in willy-nilly. User:Zoe|^(talk) 16:39, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

March 3

Casino

Why there are no casinos in Mexico?

Most probably because they're illegal under Mexican Law? Many countries don't have casinos for this reason. Lisiate 00:40, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Why illegal : plenty of money games were illegal for moral (easy money vs. impoverishment) or security (fights between players ...) reasons. Card playing was once a crime in some countries. Then the treasury understands that there is matter for taxes ... and the game becomes moral. --DLL 19:24, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Are there any real radio shows like Frasier's?

Are there realy "radio psychiatrists" like Frasier Crane in the TV sitcom Frasier? Could anyone tell me about one (that's preferably got a podcast or is downloadable)?

Dr. Laura isn't really a psychiatrist (her doctorate is in physiology), but she plays one on the radio. In other words, she handles calls similar to those placed to Frasier, but without having his qualifications. For this she's been criticized. Also, although I didn't see every episode of Frasier, I doubt that he ever posed nude. JamesMLane t c 08:05, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

wondering if James has it bookmarked Given a choice I'd take Laura naked instead of Frasier any day. (I almost wrote 'over' but decided 'instead of' would be clearer.) But at least she isn't the pointy-headed intellectual who loved to gloat from time to time. Both shows are good though. —Mike 08:28, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd never heard of Dr. Laura, but after reading her article, it's very clear that there's a Frasier character who is based on and parodies/satires her - Dr. Nora, appearing in an episode of the same name.

Making espresso at home

I bought an espresso machine - one of the ones where you put the grounds in a filter and it drips down into the cups below. Unfortunately, the espressos it makes are nowhere near as thick and honeylike as those served in cafes. Is it possible to thicken my espresso using one of these machines, or even to get the red foam (crema)?

A Google search for home espresso turns up a number of links about making good espresso at home. Hopefully there will be some useful information for you; one key point seems to be that you get what you pay for when you buy a very cheap home espresso machine. --Robert Merkel 03:46, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Assuming you bought a pump-driven pressure espresso machine, the five key factors for a good espresso are the quality of the water, the quality of the coffee, the right pressure, the right temperature of the water (80 – 90 degrees Centigrade), and the coffee must be ground fine enough. If the pressure is too low or the coffee ground not fine enough, you won't get a crema. (BTW, if your crema is red, something is wrong. It should be a light brown.) Also note that you don't get a crema with a stovetop espresso machine. Lupo 09:05, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd say it's a matter of how strong you make your coffee. I simply poor boiling water on ground coffee and then filter that. The simplest way to make coffee. Except I use a double the amount of ground coffee one normally uses. If on top of that I use just a tiny bit of water, I get better 'espresso' than one gets in a bar or restaurant. Of course the quality of the coffee is also important. I use Max Havelaar coffee, which is Arabica. Most coffees are the inferior robusta. Reading that last article I know understand why I don't get the crema. Then again I don't care. It's the taste that counts in the end. DirkvdM 12:56, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Given hot water, good coffee and all, modeling percolation shows that pressure is truly the key. If you pour water and it goes through too quickly, you get plain water. The drops will find multiple paths amongst ground coffee ; the longer the paths, the better the drink. The percolation should be slow to be effective.

Try this : first press upon the ground coffee to eliminate air holes ; stop your espresso machine after one or half a minute. Then wait and start again ; coffee is glued and the pouring must be slower. --DLL 19:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

These are all good tips, but your problem is that you bought the wrong machine. If the water drips down through the coffee it is not espresso, it's a drip filter. If pressure forces the water up through the coffee, you're making espresso. This is my favourite type of home espresso maker - it only takes a few minutes and I get perfect crema every time. Natgoo 01:31, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

DLL, my method is not percolation, it's more like the method of making tea. The water is exposed to the coffee at the right temperature (near boiling) and for as loing as you wish. Although my experience is that after a few second there is little improvement. Also, it's the simplest way to make coffee, so you can try that for free before you try anything else. All you need is a decent filter. At first I used a piece of coarse cloth in a sieve (a straining cloth). DirkvdM 10:09, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

High School Newspaper

Hello, I am on the staff at my high school. For the april fools issue this year we are writing fake and real articles. I was wondering where I could find the legal aspects of a fake article. Thanks Zach 01:56, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

You might want to take a look at Nihilartikel. СПУТНИК^{ССС Р} 03:15, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

How fake? Silly fake or believable fake? If the former, uncyclopedia.org will provide some inspiration ;)  -- Run!  10:09, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

It would have helped if you had said what country you are in. But (disclaimer IANAL) I would think that there would not be too much problem with the fake articles. A lot of magazines and newspapers print April Fools articles without any legal problems. I would also suggest though that you stay away from articles that suggest your Principal is having an affair with the vice-principal and stuff like that. On the other hand an article suggesting that English classes will be cancelled because all the text-books have to be rewritten to remove British English would not really cause any leagl problems. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:29, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Have a look at The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/index) or if you are Australian, Chaser (http://www.chaser.com.au/). Both provide satirical news articles. - Akamad 10:52, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

• It's also a good idea to explain what you did in the next issue. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:53, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Put in a headline that the word 'gullible' has been removed from the dictionary. --Zeizmic 13:03, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

In Cleveland there are two competing free weeklies. One broke the Lebron James story first. The other got jealous and made up a story about 'Shebron' who was appearently supposed to be a ladie's basketball phenom. They had photos and everything. Larger respectable papers were calling them up asking about how to reach her. They came clean the next week in page three. -LambaJan 16:39, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

• You might like to have a look at April Fools Day and some of the pages that link from it as well. Grutness...wha? 23:53, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Stressing!

Hi. I am so stressed because when I'm 18 (i live in Australia) I wanna do my gap year in England, how can I do that, how can I find jobs and such over here over there, I am just so confused, I am one who likes to have their futur planned out.

And that's really good! So, you have any plans on specific things you'd like to do on England, such as jobs and etc? Depending of what are your specific goals, you can find easier ways to do things you want to. Provide more information so people can help you. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 16:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Depending where abouts in Australia you are, there are different companies that deal with helping students find work overseas, just like you.--Ali K 04:16, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I live in Canberra and I just want to drandom jobs, maybe help out at schools.

Christmas Dream

Please can any one help. I am driven to distraction to try to find the German words to the song A Christmas Dream which features on the soundtract of the Odessa File. I have the english words by Tim Rice and have the recording by Perry Como with the London Boys Choir. I cannot find any way to contact Andre Heller who wrote the German words So if anyone has either a copy of the words or an e mail address for Andre Heller I should be most grateful and can then get on with the rest of my life. many thanks --Norvin 17:03, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Mahatma Gandhi vs. Bill Nye the Science Guy

Who would win in fight of Mahatma Gandhi versus Bill Nye the Science Guy? Both have all resources available to them (Gandhi - followers, Nye - gadgets). This fight takes place on the deck of the starship enterprise, the good one with the A, NC-1701A. Captain Kirk is completely fine with this, and actually is in favor of the fight. Bill Nye built a time machine to go back in time and took Gandhi to the starship enterprise to fight him. [preceding unsigned question by 204.38.36.31 added 17:51, 3 March 2006 and retroactively edited several times since then: 18:25-18:32, 18:56-19:00]

Where is this fight taking place? Does Gandhi have his loyal followers? Does Bill Nye have his gadgets? —Keenan Pepper 18:02, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Gandhi is dead. Bill Nye is still alive. So I'd say Bill Nye wins by default. Chuck 18:05, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Good point. I should have asked, where and when is this fight taking place? —Keenan Pepper 18:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Since Gandhi died before Nye was even born, the when quickly becomes irrelevant as well. Dismas|^(talk) 18:31, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Bill Nye built a freakin time machine dude.

In that case I'll have to go with chuck norris--64.12.116.199 20:31, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Taking into account the edits made to the original question, Picard would never allow the two to fight on his bridge. He'd have Worf haul them both off to the brig before you could figure out who the winner was. Chuck 18:43, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Which Gandhi? I had a classmate Gandhi who can beat the sh*t out of Bill Nye. If you are talking of Rahul Gandhi, I'm not so sure. Sonia Gandhi doesn't stand a chance. deeptrivia (talk) 18:47, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

There can be no better answer to this sort of question than number 4 in this interview. —Steve Summit (talk) 18:50, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I haven't a clue who Nye is, but if he'd physically attack Gandhi he'd look pathetic fighting someone who keeps on turning the other cheek. So Gandhi would be the moral victor. That was the core of his strategy. And of course his followers (true ones anyway) would one by one take his place in getting beaten, which would not just make Nye look even more pathetic but also wear him out. That is the way Gandhi's strategy managed to make his moral victories into physical ones. DirkvdM 13:04, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Someone ? sez "if you think you're immune to flattery, it is because you did not meet the flattery you hope for". So the Nye guy (never heard of him) should devise a trick that would push Gandhi guy in true anger and desire to fight. A menace for his daughter ... tickles ... canadian jokes ? --DLL 17:14, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

This situation kinda reminds me of Terminator... Man vs. Machine scenerio....and in the movie Man wins the battle... so i guess i'll go with Mahatma Gandhi... and also cause i dont know who Bill nye is....;-D......Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 18:31, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Seems this Nuy guy is pretty unknown for someone who is claimed to be famous in the article. :) DirkvdM 10:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Put Bill Nye up for an AfD as unknown on the reference desk. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:47, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

John Stossel or Bill Nye

Who is cooler on a scale from 1 to really goddam cool, John Stossel or Bill Nye?

Bill Nye. Stossel's moustache is impressive, but Nye is legend. -- Наташа ( ^User ♡ ^Talk ) 01:06, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Gallery Row Building..

I am trying to find out if the Gallery Row Building at 409 7th St, NW in Washington DC has ever won an award for it's unusual design. I am thinking that it might have won an award as the building has a weird diagramal shape to it. To go further the steps inside go in a square shape. So far my search has come up with very little. Any help that you might be able to provide me would be very helpful.

Hey.....is your name Stephen Hosmer?? Just wondering... And can you tell us what kind of awards can that kind of building win...?? A google search for building awards gives a long list of Awards.... it would be easier if you can narrow down your search.... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 18:22, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Who Was Watts Branch

I am looking for detailed information on whom Watts Branch is named after. I believe that it might be named after a family who own land there in the late 1800's but I have no proof of that. For your information Watts Branch is a stream that begins in maryland and ends in Prince Georges County. I really don't know much about the stream. My main purpose is to find out any information that might be available about the family who it might have been named after. I would like to receive some proof of it, if it is available in the sense of links.

The article of Watts Branch would help you out. User: Eric Hartley--12.18.90.130 21:05, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Since that article doesn't exist yet, it really can't help much. The word "branch" can mean a stream or creek (see number 4 here), so I think Watts Branch was probably named after somebody named Watt or Watts. --LarryMac 21:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I was able to find a genealogy page showing a reference to Watts' Branch (note the apostrophe), and another page showing the name in use in 1715, as well as evidence of a Daniel Watts as witness to several transactions in the area in 1711. Thus, I'd make a guess and say that it was named well before the late 1800's, although there may still have been Watts living in the area at that time. Both pages, by the way, make reference to a book called The History Of Montgomery County, Maryland, by T.H.S. Boyd; however this book seems to be out of print. HTH HAND. --LarryMac 21:54, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

RUOK - Registered trademark violation

I did not find a way to contact anyone there by phone so I thought I would try this approach.

You have an article entitled RUOK (Are You OK?) which states that RUOK is a "is the common name for a service offered by many local communities that contacts the elderly or handicapped on a daily basis using a phone service"

Please note that the above statment is incorrect. RUOK®, Are You OK?®, Are YOu Okay?®, etc is a registered trademark of Bruce L Johnson for a compterized telephone reassurance system and not a "common name" sor such a service.

Please remove or amend your article to reflect this legal infringement on my Registered Trademark.

If I am addressing this issue to the incorrect party, please inform me of where I should send this letter to correct the above sitution.

Please not your own statement below that "Content must not vilate any copyright" (ruok® is copyrighted as well) "and must be verifiable."

Thank you,

Bruce L Johnson

Are you sure the trademark is registered? The USPTO search page finds three records for "RUOK", but none current. (Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "copyrighted as well", because unless I'm mistaken, you can't copyright individual words.) —Steve Summit (talk) 20:47, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I didn't find it there either and the links on the RUOK page seem to be using it generically and with even more different spellings. Rmhermen 21:08, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Ruok.com, a commercial site selling software for this, appears to be associated with Bruce L Johnson and uses Are You O.K.?® throughout its site. Rmhermen 21:13, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Dear Sir, We at Wikipedia realize that you have a serious problem. It seems that a simple Google search turns out all sorts of sites that use RUOK in a generic manner, including the name of a music band. As you are aware, the common use of a term weakens any claim of trademark (not copyright). We suggest that you have a lawyer send registered letters to all of these people. Our lawyers will only respond to a letter from a lawyer. --Zeizmic 21:31, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

I found a record for Are You OK? but that's it. howcheng {chat} 21:50, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Mr. Johnson, please note that you can request the immediate removal of a purported copyright infringement here, or by writing to or contacting the Designated agent by phone or fax. KWH 09:07, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Puerperal fever

When I was born in England in 1935 my mother contracted Puerperal fever. I would like to know what medical treatment was given to patients suffering from Puerperal fever at that time. My mother was ill for 5 years and part of this time she was confined in a facility for the mentally ill. I cannot understand why this was done to her. I hope you can find something in your archives that will shed some light on this subject --Diana1 20:29, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Puerperal fever is a bacterial infection contracted during childbirth due to tearing and disruption of membranes and normal immune defenses. There were no effective antibiotics in the 1930s. Women would either run a fever for a few days and then recover gradually (typically days to weeks), or die. It was a leading cause of maternal death in the days following childbirth. If you want to find out what the standard treatment was, look up puerperal fever in a British obstetric textbook from the 1930s. If you live in England you should have little trouble finding a hospital or medical school library that still has one you could look at. You can also find them in old book stores. I cannot think of any way that it could result in 5 years of illness culminating with involuntary confinement in a mental institution. Your family understandably dates the trouble to her childbirth, but the long term problems are likely not attributable to the puerperal fever. alteripse 20:57, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Amazon Online

Can I Buy from Amazon Online by chick ? why Not ? what the alternative way instead of visa card Or Master card?

It depends on whether the young lady is willing to be used as a form of barter. JackofOz 23:41, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Can you buy chicks from Amazon online? Do they take cheques? Why not?
Slumgum 23:49, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Click on the Help link, then Ordering -- "Amazon.com accepts American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Eurocard, Visa, Visa Check Cards, Amazon.com gift certificates, payment directly from your bank account, and checks, money orders, or cashier's checks denominated in U.S. dollars and drawn on a U.S. bank. Additionally, we accept Borders Gift Cards and Waldenbooks Gift Cards as payment for qualifying orders. We do not currently accept international wire transfers or Smart Cards." --LarryMac 14:39, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

P.S. I would assume there are similar links and terms for Amazon in other countries. --LarryMac 14:40, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Homosexuality

I have four questions to ask you about homosexuality:

1.Christians say that homosexuality is morally wrong.By that, are they saying or do they mean that it is wrong for a person to fall in love with someone of his or her same gender?

2.What do Christians(and other religious believers against homosexuality) believe causes homosexuality?

3.I've heard some people say that homosexuality is probably caused by one's genes.But have biologists actually discovered any genes that causes homosexuality?

4.If homosexuality is caused by one's genes, then that raises the question of why some people have those genes.It is unlikely that homosexuality is inherited, and even if it is, there still remains the question of what had caused those 'gay genes' in the first place.So this raises an interesting question: Could it be possible that homosexuality is caused by some kind of genetic mutation?

Bowei 23:47, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

1) Not all Christians say that homosexuality is wrong. Parts of the Episcopal Church of the USA, for example, think it's OK (they even have a gay bishop -- Gene Robinson). So the answer would depend on which Christian subsect you're talking about. 2) Again, this depends on the denomination; but many fundamentalist ones believe that homosexuality is just a bad behavior, just like lying or stealing. 3) Some claim so, but this is disputed. See homosexuality. Discovering a gene is not really a straightforward thing -- most genes tend to do different things under different circumstances. 4) All genes are caused by mutations. If homosexuality is genetic, it must be a gene that has two effects: one being homosexuality, which is obviously a disadvantage to reproduction, and another one that is an advantage to reproduction. For example, it has been proposed that a gene for male homosexuality might be beneficial for the reproductive success of women. --Chl 00:36, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Many Christian groups have said is that it is wrong to have sex with a person of the same sex. But afaik, no Christian groups have said it is wrong to simply be homosexual. Many people are homosexual by virtue of their feelings towards people of the same sex, without ever engaging in homosexual activity. Thoughts and feelings don't belong to the paradigm of right and wrong. JackofOz 04:38, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I think these folks Westboro Baptist Church do believe that homosexuality is a sin. I think the real sin here is that a lot of "Christian" people have noting better to do than atttack homosexuals. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 05:12, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

The causes of homosexuality have nothing to do with the morality of it. Assume there was unrefutable evidence it was genetic. Then the gay-bashers would say "See? It's an unnatural disease which must be cured!", and the other side would say "See? It's a natural mutation and not a choice, they should not be condemned". If there was unrefutable proof it was by choice, the gay-bashers would say "See? They choose to live in sin and should be condemened!" whereas the other side would say "See? It's a deep-seated personal conviction like religion, and should be respected". The causes of homosexuality have nothing to do with it. The fact that it's condemned in the Bible has little to do with it either, because the vast majority of 'Christians' attacking homosexuality do not uphold other biblical taboos (such as eating shellfish). In the end it's a question of if you're a tolerant person, capable of 'turning the other cheek' or if you're a self-righteous condemner of others (like the biblical Pharisees). --BluePlatypus 10:58, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I think your reply should read "The fact that it's <currently> condemned in the Bible..." because at one time slavery was condoned by the Bible, though not anymore. So it's quite possible in a few years the Bible may have changed again. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:26, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't a book that is thosands of years old have made up it's mind by now? DirkvdM 13:12, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, I believe I did point out the hypocrisy of selectively enforcing Biblical law? --BluePlatypus 14:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

4) If (or insofar as) homosexuality is inherited one would expect that it would disappear over time. But if homosexuals are 'forced' to live straight lives (through peer pressure or worse) they would still get offspring and the 'condition' would persevere. So it's the ones who disapproved of homosexuality in the past who have brought present homosexuality about. And the present day 'gay bashers' are the ones who ensure it will not disappear. An ironic example of the general principle that one extreme brings about the opposite (action = reaction). DirkvdM 13:12, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Both that question and that reply are wrong, though. It's made on the simplistic assumption that genes always control exactly one and only one thing. If that were the case, there wouldn't be any genetic diseases either. (Nor does it explain why there's homosexuality in animals) Sickle-cell disease is an textbook example of a deadly genetic disease, which by that rationale could not possibly exist. It does though, because the gene gives increased resistance to malaria (see the article). So it's possible a 'gay gene' would bring some advantage. It could also be a phenotype. Or it could simply be the result of a random process, like with fingerprints. --BluePlatypus 14:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

And even if a 'gay gene' controlled only this one trait, it should not necessarily be expected to go away over evolutionary time. Theoretically, if the chances of survival of a homosexual's siblings or cousins - who carry on average 50% or 25% of the same genes - improve enough by having a close relative who does not reproduce but instead cares more for them, then the gene would be passed on from generation to generation by them, and homosexuality would not disappear. (Kin selection) David Sneek 14:28, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

March 4

hyphen search

Are there any search engines that allow one to include/exclude punctuation such as hyphens? I would, for example, like to be able to search for "hip hop" -"hip-hop" or "hip-hop" -"hip hop", to determine which use is prevalent. Google says that "Because some people spell hyphenated words with a hyphen and others with a space, Google searches for variations on any hyphenated terms." [3] The Open Directory Project search does differentiate between the two; although it returns no results for "hip hop" NOT "hip-hop" or "hip-hop" NOT "hip hop", it gives 1165 pages for hip hop and 913 for hip-hop. Even this differentiation would be useful, if a web-wide engine had it. TheJabberwock 01:11, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Type of hat

In this MSNBC article, what is Jessica Alba's hat called? I've narrowed it down to the flat cap or the Gatsby cap, but can anyone answer definitively as to what it's called? --65.95.201.46 07:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

If you'll take my word for it, it's a Gatsby cap. Mark^{your words} 13:10, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Hey, Mark, bummer about your [ and ] keys. If they were working, we wouldn't have to take your word for it: Gatsby cap! —Steve Summit (talk) 16:01, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the questioner has already found that. Mark^{your words} 16:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Oops! Duh. Right. (I'll go home now.) —Steve Summit (talk) 17:08, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

GameCube/PSone ventilation space

Both the PSone (older, fatter model) and GameCube have vents on the side through which air is expelled. How much space should I leave on the sides of these machines? I currently have them both in shelves where there's about 1.5-2 inches on either side -- is this OK, or am I likely to damage my machines? I appreciate any response, thanks. --Jenny McFarlane, Melbourne, Australia

Anything over an inch is usually fine. But any time you're concerned about something like this, you can always stick your hand into the space. If you feel nothing, or if it's merely warm, there's no problem. But if it's noticeably hot, you should probably get better ventilation. —Steve Summit (talk) 15:33, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Its alright if you just leave some room on the sides for the air to circulate.....if you feel that the space is too small or something... you can direct a fan towards it..but 1.5-2 inches is quite fine... Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 17:59, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

looking for a user

Sometime in the past month or so, I came across a wikipedia user page containing a nice rant about use of words like "popular" and "widely held" in wikipedia articles, as in "Brad Pitt is widely held to be one of the most popular actors." Anybody know who that user might have been? I think I wanna join their quest. (I'm hardly the first to point this out, but: statements asserting popularity are exquisitely unencyclopedic and vacuous. If the statement is true and the subject is popular, the reader probably already knows this and doesn't need to be told. If the reader doesn't know that the subject is popular, they should be learning this fact in e.g. People magazine, not an encyclopedia; encyclopedias are not arbiters of popularity.) —Steve Summit (talk) 15:30, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

WP search being on strike, I offer here an oogle search :

"Results 1 - 50 of about 134,000 from en.wikipedia.org for widely held to be one of the most popular" --DLL 16:01, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

"Jock McTavish is one of the most popular American rappers" is a rather informative statement to me: not being a devotee of American rap, I have no idea who the most popular performers in that genre and country are, so it's quite nice to be told. Imprecise statements are not necessarily uninformative or unencyclopedic. Mark^{your words} 16:21, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Mark is right. Whilst the amount of popularity is subjective, whether someone is popular or famous can be factual. In 50 years time, how is anyone going to read a People magazine article on how famous Brad Pitt is? They might just need this info in an encyclopedia article.
Slumgum 16:33, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

I wasn't trying to open that debate here! (And in that spirit I won't try to argue with either of the above.) I'm just looking for that user... —Steve Summit (talk) 17:17, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Try asking around in all the user talk pages you can find and fix a note telling them to forward the msg to the all the users they know if dont know the answer to it...!! Best of luck,,:-D Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 18:06, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

• The problem with the phrase is "widely held". To be objective, a phease needs to be attributed to a source i.e. who thinks they're popular? (which makes is more encyclopedic) This is especially important with people who's popularity is disputed. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:32, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
• Some people on here are IMO much too quick to stamp on any adjective they deem "unencyclopedic" or "POV" so we have to resort to these phrases "widely held to be" "generally regarded as" to avoid them coming along and deleting any vaguely positive adjective. My particular bugbear is the impossibility of describing anything as "beautiful" on en:wikipedia (it doesnt seem to cause problems on other wikipedias). Someone is bound to delete it. I fail to see what is wrong with saying that "Cornwall has beautiful beaches" without having to add these qualifiers. But some people regard it as unacceptably subjective, unencyclopedic and POV. Jameswilson 03:17, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

It just dawned on me what Jayant was saying. Please don't suggest that Steve spams a whole bunc of users. It's likly to get him blocked. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 12:05, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

life existence

Do any body know about Siprits,ghosts?do they relly exist does any one has prove that they ever saw them or actually came across them.

Yes, some people know that they don't exist.To the extent that beliefs obtained through human perception of evidence can be considered known. Mark^{your words}

People actually know a lot about ghost and spirits... but we can't be sure if they really do exist... there have been a lot of photographs and video evidence of ghosts... a simple google image search for "Ghosts" gives a lot of ghost photographs...but we still dont know if the photographs and videos are fake or real....i've seen tv shows where they demonstrate how a photograph of a ghost can be hoaxed quite easily...... if you wanna know the answer to this question.. ask yourself if you believe ,if god exists... according to you if He does...... then the Ghosts and the spirits must exist too...(To maintain the balance between Good and Evil :-D)....Best of luck!!! Jayant, 17 Years, India|^{(My Talk)} 19:11, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

That makes no sense. Accepting the notion that God exists does not lead logically to the idea that ghosts exist. If the poster has let us know where they live, we could have recommended authorities on local spiritualism traditions, as well as pointing out that modern western science is highly sceptical of the existance of ghosts and spirits.

Substitute for deodorant or antiperspirant

Please could someone indicate a substitute for deodorant or antiperspirant, products which contain aliminium (linked to Alzheimer's) and triclosane (linked to cancer)? Thank you!

--anon.

Try talcum powder. User:Zoe|^(talk) 19:39, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

This[4] is what I use. It's absolutely awesome. I found it at a natural foods store I used to work at. The customers were all raving about it. Now I am. My dad found out how cool it is and sent me to buy up their entire shelf stock to send as gifts to friends. Read their info[5]. It's such a good idea, and a good product, and I'm not even being paid to advertise for them. -LambaJan 21:44, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Your father sends deoderant to his friends as gifts? I hope they don't take it as a hint... :-) Dismas|^(talk) 21:53, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

In the drugstore you can find 'non-toxic' deodorants. I use one myself, since I don't really sweat. However, if you sweat like a pig, none of these help. On a side note, if you use an anti-persirant, a hair-analysis can detect a big spike in aluminum. --Zeizmic 15:18, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

80s hard rock/metal band

i need help w/ a band name. the only thing that i can remember about the band is the bass player was female and a music video they did. the whole music video was done on a flatbed trailer driving down a dirt road. any and all help appreciated!!

It sounds like a video that the Georgia Satellites did but their article doesn't mention a female bass player. Dismas|^(talk) 21:48, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

the only ones that come to mind are Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go's) & Annette Zilinskas (The Bangles). Though there were others that played bass for the Bangles. Hardly hard rock/metal though. Or you could try Girlschool and read through List of heavy metal bands and see if any names look familiar. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:39, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Indonesian Rhinoceros

I would like to know do rhinos exist in Indonesia and, if they do, where do they live? 202.87.160.8 23:54, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

Both the Javan Rhinoceros and the Sumatran Rhinoceros live in Indonesia. The articles have a little more detail. Rmhermen 02:20, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Wait a little longer and that would have to be put in past tense. :( DirkvdM 10:19, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

March 5

English, TV terrestrail television

Does anyone know where i can find a list of what can legally be shown on english terrestrial television, eg. nudity, sex, violence, death whatever can be and cannot be broadcasted. Fo r example i know that erect penises cannot be shown however i am sure i have seen on TV during the early hours recently the portrayal of this. thanks 86.129.82.87 01:09, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Heres a link to the revised Broadcasting Code. Jameswilson 02:14, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

What about erect nipples? Or an erect clitoris? An erect arm? DirkvdM 10:23, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

It seems the Mull of Kintyre test no longer applies. --Shantavira 10:44, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

LOL. Just the other day I was looking at a map of Scotland and thought "Ah, so that's where Kintyre is", but I didn't notice this. Apparently my mind isn't dirty enough (that's new :) ). Interrestingly, McCartney's single 'Mull of Kintyre (song)' is backed with a song called 'Girls school'. Is McCartneys mind dirtier than mine? I must be going soft (no pun). DirkvdM 19:39, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

How Random is it?

How random is the random article link? I've been running through it looking for articles to work on. Before I found an article that I had just edited about an hour before. I've been doing this for several days and at least once a day but sometimes more than that I get Help:Contents. I think Wikipedia may be trying to suitly emphazi something but what? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 10:56, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

It's not truly random. For performance reasons, it uses a trick which does not result in a correct uniform distribution: each article receives a random number. When you ask for a random article, another random number is generated and used to chose the article. This means some articles tend to be selected more often, while others are never or almost never selected. --cesarb 17:38, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't make sense in two different ways. First, "it's not truly random" is an expression that people sometimes use when they mean only that the random number generator in use is a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG), as it usually is on a computer. But while some simply PRNGs are pretty poor, there certainly are good PRNGs that are "truly random" for all practical purposes. Second, the last sentence ("This means...") simply doesn't follow. If a good PRNG is being properly used and the algorithm is correct, there will be a good random selection of articles.

But having said that, I have no idea of how the "random article" function is actually implemented. For that matter, I have no idea how many times the original poster has been using it: if you call for random numbers enough times, it's natural that some sort of patterns will occur. If there are multiple repetitions of the same specific article, though, chosen from about a million of them out there, then that does sound like there's some sort of misbehavior. Just as a guess, it might depend on a database that's sometimes out of date, and if it finds that the article it was going to select no longer exists, maybe it selects Help:Contents (on the grounds that this might be useful to someone) rather than trying again.

--Anonymous, 19:22 UTC, March 5, 2006.

The PRNG used is a good PRNG. However, the way it's used causes the result to not be truly random (i.e. not be uniformly distributed). The last sentence ("This means...") follows from the explanation (which is a description of how the "random article" function is implemented).

Let me explain how it is implemented in more detail: each article has a field in the database (page_random) which is a random number between 0 and 1. When you ask for a random page, another random number between 0 and 1 is generated and the page with a page_random value above the chosen value and nearest it is selected. This causes a bias due to the distribution of the page_random field on the database; if there's a relatively large gap on the numbers, the page with the value just above the gap has a greater chance to get selected. If two pages have close numbers, the one with the greater number has a smaller chance to get selected. Thus, each page has a probability of being chosen which is equal to the difference between its page_random value and the next lowest page_random value.

If the page_random values were equally spaced, this would be the same as a uniform distribution; however, to maintain them equally spaced would require the whole table to be updated every time a page is created or removed. Instead, the number is randomly chosen (with a uniform distribution). Some pages end up having a greater chance of being returned than others. --cesarb 19:54, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I've used random page quite often but it's only within the the last four days that I have sat for about 8 or 9 hours while at work hitting random page. The interesting thing is that other than Help:Contents all others have been articles. There must be some bias in it to stop from ending up at AfD's, the front page, here, Admin noticeboard and places like that. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 21:01, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

db cooper on americas most wanted

was db cooper ever featured on americas most wanted the reason iam asking you this is because john list was also featured on americas most wanted and it was at one time believed that the two could be one in the same.

How to put a link in a name ?

Please, how to put a link in a name ? Oscar Araripe [email removed]

I'm afraid it's impossible to answer your question without more context. In Wikipedia, you can make anything a link by surrounding it with double brackets, like [[this]]. —Keenan Pepper 17:45, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Putting name and Wikipedia together, just register, sign anything you put up here with four tildes ((~~~~), save it and there is your name as a link. Click it, write something about yourself and the colour of the link will change from red to blue. If that's not what you mean, your question is indeed too vague. Do you want a name to appear as a link? What do you use for editing whatever you are referring to? DirkvdM 19:46, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Most paid palyer

Who is the most paid foot ball player in the world?

Did you mean American football or soccer?? Jayant,17 Years, India 18:00, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't be that hard to find both. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 19:17, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

It really wasn't. As of last year, Peyton Manning for the former ($14m per year on the field and $7m off) [6] and either Frank Lampard (£5.2m on the field, £1.2m off) or David Beckham (£4.4m on the field, £12.6m off) for the latter depending on whether you want to count commercial interests or not. [7] GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 19:26, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

GEICO commercial

There's a GEICO commercial now running in the US in which a gecko compares free quotes to free "pie and chips". Now, I know that "pie and chips" refers to a meat pie with fried potatoes, but few of my friends have ever heard of it. In the US, "pie" means a sweet fruit pie, and "chips" means thin potato chips ("crisps"), which would make a bizarre combination. Why did GEICO decide to show this commercial to people who wouldn't understand it? —Keenan Pepper 17:35, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

So that it would be talked about ;)  -- Run!  19:38, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I thought a major advantage of viral advertising was that you didn't have to pay for TV time. But you may have a point. —Keenan Pepper 20:52, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I haven't seen that particular ad but the last time I saw a GEICO ad the gecko was talking with an English accent. So the combination of pie and chips would make sense from that angle. However, the ads I am referring to are shown in Canada but I don't recall if I saw them on a Canadian or US channel as the dish has both. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 21:24, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I was just wondering why they didn't use something familiar to Americans, like "burgers and fries". —Keenan Pepper 22:39, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I've been trying to figure out how and/or when the GEICO gecko went from an upper class type, speaking what perhaps may have been Received Pronunciation, to being a Cockney. I figure his use of the term "pie and chips" lends authenticity to his background. --LarryMac 22:46, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Manchester of India

Which city was/is called the Manchester of India? A website says Ludhiana, another Surat, and my school textbook says Ahmedabad. Which one is correct? vedant (talk • contribs) 17:36, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

And the Award for Manchester of India goes to.....Ludhiana...according to google atleast....Jayant,17 Years, India 17:52, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

What would make a place "the Manchester of" anywhere? Do all the natives speak loudly, eat meat out of tins and walk around the house wearing just underpants whilst it rains heavily outside? Or are there lots of "Mad Ferrits" roaming the streets in Burberry clothing?
Slumgum 21:39, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

LOL - BTW other "Manchester ofs" include Barcelona, Lille, Lodz, 2 for Sweden - Norrkoping and Gothenburg, and [8] for Italy. Brno in the Czech Rep was the M. of Austria. Jameswilson 00:39, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Halloween Crabs and how to care for them.

I recently perchased what the pet store called a halloween crab. They told me he eats hermit crab food and he's just like a hermit crab. After several days of living in my terrarium set-up he hasn't eaten anything. I have 2 dishes of water, one with salt water and one with fresh. It appears that he is drinking the salt water almost dry and not really paying any attention to the fresh. I should have researched his species further, but the pet store owner convinced me that he was just like a hermit crab and did not require a lot of water. I have him in a 10-gallon tank now, but if necessary, I could move him to a 20-gallon with more water. I need to know what kind of food he will eat, raw fish, raw prawns, cooked prawns, cooked fish??? He's not even interested in the hermit crab food. PLEASE HELP!!24.113.52.104 20:01, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

Consider the fact that is an encyclopedia. Consider also that we actually have an article Halloween crab. --Zeizmic 21:04, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

• You can't blame him for that. I didn't even expect us to have an article about that. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:31, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I didn't either! I looked it up on Google, and we're #5! Very tiny article, but with some links. --Zeizmic 22:42, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

March 6

House appliances

A friend of mine always has his radio, CD player, TV and DVD player “on”. When he is not using the appliance he just turn the volume down. He says that every time you turn them on and off you damage them more than keeping them “on” all the time. As an example he says that the video stores never turn off the TV‘s off.

So my question is: Is better for a house appliance to turn it “on” and “off” every time is going to be used or is better to leave it “on” all the time? per LG.