Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

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June 5

Taylor Hicks

Can you please tell me where you got your info on Taylor Hicks. On a sign outside his door is a sign that states Taylor Hicks EST 10-7-1976...you have his BDay down as the 6th...you need to change it

Jinafer

Take a look at this. The Governor of Alabama says in his proclamation that it was the 6th. By the way, what door are you referring to? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 05:08, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Peachtree help needed?

Hey to anyone whom it may concern.

I am a novice regarding the software Peachtree 7. Recently I joined a firm which used Peachtree and I am the financial manager.

The fellow before me had his own password on the databases and I need your help to copy or move that data into a new company.

I want to bypass the password. If there are any forums please email me the link to them. Blog and torrents will both work.

Thanks For your co-operation.

Regards, Qazi Wahaj (email removed)

I would suggest googling for peachtree password recovery and be wary with the results, as this kind of keywords are often the target of spamdexing. I've removed your email address from the post, so that it would not get into the dirty hands of numerous spambots. –Mysid^(t) 09:44, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Chucks

Tonight I noticed a guy wearing Chuck Taylor All-Stars and for the first time I realized that the circular emblem with the star on the side of the shoe is on the inside half of the shoe. I've been unable to locate any reason why it's not on the outside side. Does anyone know why this is? Dismas|^(talk) 09:59, 5 June 2006 (UTC)....... I wear Converse high tops which have the logo inside and I think it's from when the old canvas "base-ball" boots used to have a plastic ankle guard there(hotclaws**== 13:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC))

dataDyne

Okay, this is gonna be a bit of an odd question. More like a series of questions, all about a subject that ends up having no meaning whatsoever. (Should fit in well here.) I need to know:

• where the "business district" in London is
• what its postal code might be
• what its dialing code might be
• where an address might be in said district where the Lucerne Tower (aka dataDyne's headquarters) might be

Bleh; I know it's a worthless subject but I promise to show you all the fruits of your labour when it's done. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 10:25, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Clarification: DataDyne is a fictional company in Perfect Dark. According to the central business district article, the CBD of London comprises City of London, West End, and Canary Wharf. After googling it seems there is not a real building called Lucerne Tower in London – though there are several ones elsewhere (Google Images). –Mysid^(t) 10:42, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

The STD (dialing) code for the whole of London is 020 (but see 0207 & 0208. There are no codes specifically for the business districts, as there are hundreds of codes that will cover these areas, neither are there dedicated postal codes for the many business districts, although those starting EC and WC are in the city (the oldest business district). See London postal districts.--Shantavira 11:41, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Business district is 1 mile square in london centre, called City of Lindon Post codes in Uk atsrt with aa1 1aa which is buckingham palace, and works its way out from there. 0121 is the inner city dialing code and finally, the lucerne tower is in City of London. May i please see the fruits of my labour?193.115.175.247 13:42, 5 June 2006 (UTC)Anton

Unfortunately 0121 is the current code for Birmingham (see UK telephone numbering plan). The information supplied by Mysid and Shantavira appears to be more accurate. Road Wizard 18:37, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Gaaaaah...curse my American upbringing. It would be a lot easier to design letterhead for a fictional corporation if you knew how to fake a foreign address >_< 67.168.96.173 21:06, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify, the traditional financial district of London is the City of London. This area of one square mile has a precise definition - the city limits are shown on maps and so on. City of London postcodes begin EC followed by a digit between 1 and 4, and telephone numbers in the City of London begin 0207.

The West End is the traditional home of retail and theatre in London. It is not precisely defined, but is usually considered to be the area within a mile or so of Trafalgar Square and Oxford Circus. It lies immediately to the west of the City of London. Telephone numbers here also begin 0207 (0208 is mainly the outer suburbs of London). Postcodes beginning WC followed by a digit between 1 and 3 are all in the eastern part of the West End (where most of the theatres are), while the main shopping streets (Oxford Street and around) have postcodes beginning W1. Buckingham Palace, Parliament, and most of the other machinery of government is in an area just to the south of the West End proper, and this area has postcodes beginning SW1.

Canary Wharf is the name of one complex of buildings in the area known as the Docklands, several miles east of the City of London. This area was not traditionally considered as part of the main business district, but many of the financial businesses have moved their offices there in recent years. AndyofKent 11:05, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Theme to a Discovery Channel advertisement

Hi, I've forgotten to ask this for so long now... A little while ago, say this winter, the FBI Files on Discovery Channel had a special theme to its advertisement on that channel. I tried mailing DC, but they wouldn't release that information. Does anyone know of what theme I'm talking about? I thought it was very, very good, a rare jewel among promotion tunes. I would love any information about it that's possible to acquire. Henning 10:52, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Couldn't release it? They just didn't want to bother. --mboverload@ 23:50, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

bamboo flower

The Indian Army moves to help deal with a plague of rats in northeastern India, following the Mautam, a flowering of bamboo forests that occurs every 48 years.

Concerning this featured article, could some one please provide a picture of the flower. Thank you

noticeability of staring and eye contact

I'm the sort of person who tends to look at passers-by frequently, and when I see a group of people, although I don't stare directly at anyone, I look at the people a bit, and notice what they are wearing etc. When I do it to passers-by, they almost always notice, because they return the eye contact, then we both look away. How abnormal am I? How does it come across to the people (if anyone can guess)? Also, when someone does this to a group without looking directly at people's eyes, how noticeable is this? 203.221.126.204 14:16, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Nobody is answering this last batch of weird questions, so I'll try. I used to try this experiment in the subway all the time. Most people are scanning back and forth all the time. You're brain puts out the immediate alert if there is somebody staring at you because this is one of the most important image-patterns laid into your brain. Then you lock on to the starer, in case it is a friend, threat or beautiful person. If it is an intense stare, then most people perceive this as a threat (except for supermodels!). The standard Canadian subway response is to look away. Other responses may tend towards the violent. --Zeizmic 16:20, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

A little girl was staring at me on the bus once, and then told her mother I was "funny looking." :( Adam Bishop 19:44, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

The article Eye contact describes in some more detail the potential interpretations of eye contact. Road Wizard 19:57, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting. I think it definitely depends on how long you stare at the person and your facial expression while doing so.--Proficient 08:25, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

galaxy in a jar

there was a tv show on uk tv a while ago where a guy did an experiment that created what apeared to be a tiny galaxy in a glass jar, it emited alot of light and was really beutiful. Can anyone shed ony light on this in any way, please excuse the punn. thanks

Did it look anything like this? (Really just a blind guess; that's the first hit for googling galaxy glass jar.) Weregerbil 18:11, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

• Do you recall what channel it was on, or perhaps a rough guide to day, time or year of showing? This will help in trying to track the programme information down. Thanks. Road Wizard 19:12, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I think it was either on channel 4 in uk or it was on bbc learning zone. I think it was late night/early morning 2am 3am thereabouts. Thanks again

I Know both the Twilight Zone and Superman comics have galaxies in bottles so was it Hollywood science where they try to reproduce film effects for real? Bioluminesence could be involved maybe? It sounds great,hope you find it then I can see it too...hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:26, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

It was more of a show about physics, it also was not a jar as such but rather a container. Any one? hotclaws and i need some help here guys. :-) 193.115.175.247 13:37, 6 June 2006 (UTC)Anton

If it was on the BBC, it was probably part of the Light Fantastic documentary series. Unfortunately I didn't see it myself, so I can't identify the experiment you describe. However, if you contact the BBC directly, they may be able to answer your question. Road Wizard 17:16, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Psilocybin mushrooms in Britain

Post-ban, does anyone know of any specific places in Britain where psilocybin mushrooms can be found growing wild?

No, sorry. But you can buy the spore kits (if you're willing to take the risk) - here are some links: Free Spore Ring Europe, Azarius and Traveller's Garden. Otherwise, a cow paddock the day after a good rain is the first place I'd start looking. Natgoo 18:20, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Any unmown pastureland in England and Wales that's not too dry will probably have a patch of these somewhere. (I suspect the same is true of Scotland.) When I lived in London in the 70s people used to travel to the end of the Picadilly Line of a summer's evening and stroll around Trent Park.--Shantavira 19:49, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Someone gave me some used up potting material which I recycled through my compost bin.I used it to feed my chamomile lawn and Oh Boy! were the fairies surprized by what came up!...hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:29, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

There are rumoured to be some in the remote areas of the New Forest, a rural area that has just become a National Park between Southampton and Bournemouth,roughly, in the UK. When I last looked possessing the mushrooms was not illegal but toasting them counts as processing and is (or was, in UK law anyway). They may also be endangered or protected in some way.Britmax 11:25, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Illegal Immigration Wall

Illegal Immigration Wall

You have heard about the Immigration Trail. How about the new Illegal Immigration Wall? ...IMHO (Talk)

• Cute. And if done right, will also stop the westward movement of Americans, which might have some advantages. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:02, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I think it makes the assumption that anyone wants to go to Saskatchewan ;). I kid.. I kid because I love... TastyCakes 17:28, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't want to be a pill but the base image there looks like it is from Google Maps and as such it is copyrighted and probably can't be put on Commons. --Fastfission 02:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It should be moved from Commons to Wikipedia, where it might turn out to be useful in an article like Immigration debate.--M@rēino 21:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I've long heard that North Dakota is the last line of defense in the Mexican invasion of Canada. --Golbez 03:42, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It'll screw up the NFL and MBL divisions! ...hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:30, 6 June 2006 (UTC)) Why just stop the westward movement of Americans(LOL)!?Britmax 11:27, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Why just stop the westward movement of Americans(LOL)!?Britmax 11:28, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Characteristic data

Is there a good source of characteristics data for various items like consumer products, dog breeds, etc.? In most cases the only data I have found for any particular item like for instance HTML Editors is limited pretty much to the author's name and data of origin. ...IMHO (Talk) 17:41, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Uhm... if I understand correctly the answer you are looking for is... an encyclopaedia. Or am I mistaken? Characteristic data for items like dog breeds you will definitely find here or in a dog breed lexicon or specialised encyclopedia of dogs. Details on consumer products (from t-shirts to blenders to scotch tape) can be also found here or on the labels of the products themselves (but it really depends on what you are looking for - e. g. the circuit diagram of a blender might not be so easy to find, but definitely exists, whereas the ingredients of jell-o or whatever are usually printed on the product label provided the manufacturer is not lying). The place you look for things depends on what you are looking for. Oh, and then there's google :)

I am feeling kind of sick so please excuse me if the above didn't make much sense. --Ouro 19:16, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

No sorry you feel sick. What I am looking for ideally is such information in spreadsheet form with the characteristics in the first row starting at the second column with the items listed in the first column starting with the second row with the body of the table containing relationship between the characteristic and the item, .e, true, false, maybe, red, big or any descriptor, etc. a list of bakery items for instance where all of the possible ingredients are listed as characteristics and amounts or each per item placed in the spreadsheet cells. In other words a Book of Tables similar to a Book of Lists. Hope you feel better. ...IMHO (Talk) 20:13, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

How broad a topic are we talking here? You have already mentioned consumer products, dog breeds, html editors and bakery items. I don't think you will find one single source with all of that data, so it would help if you could define some specifics. Are you wanting one or two examples of data sets and you don't mind what type of data sets you get? Or are you specifically wanting data sets on consumer products, dog breeds and html editors? Road Wizard 20:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm looking for a Book of Tables similar to one I have seen published for kids that makes a topic really quick and easy for them to learn. Such books of tables usually start with things like an addition or a multiplication table and expands from there. Whatever will help a kid with attention deficit disorder learn stuff quickly and completely before something triggers his mind to do something else besides learn whatever that particular topic is. ...IMHO (Talk) 21:44, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Unfortunately, what you are asking for sounds a lot like a commercial product. There are very few public domain data sets/tables available, and I have yet to stumble across one that would have any educational value (most of the ones I have found list raw data like the changing birth rate of cattle in various parts of Scotland or the estimated amount of carbon emissions produced by different industries). The problem stems from the fact that it takes a lot of time to put a book of tables together and there are very few people willing to give that much time away for free. However, I will keep my eyes peeled in case I find anything relevant. Road Wizard 22:39, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Kind of makes you wonder who paid to have all those ancient astronomical observation tables made. ...IMHO (Talk) 22:46, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

In actuality I am feeling better, thanks. Back to the subject: uhm, I am not aware of anything that would be constructed like what you're describing. 's got me thinking hard, but sorry. The second thing, as Road Wizard mentions, is the stuff you want to focus on - taking HTML editors and dog breeds into consideration you might whip practically anything and everything in between those two. Perhaps if you gave a hint as to why you need such information in such a form (curiosity doesn't count :) ) or what specifically would interest you (I know this has been said already - I gather a comparison of properties of different things according to their quantitative and qualitative make-up, huh?). No more ideas for the moment. Your turn to write now :) --Ouro 21:38, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Pencil Lead Consmption

is the consumption of pencil lead (graphite) poisenous or harmful in any way? KingstonJr 18:32, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

According to some sources ([1], via Google), the pencil lead is "relatively nontoxic", but sometimes its consumption can cause stomach ache and vomiting, though there can also be no symptoms at all. –Mysid^(t) 18:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

It's nearly all carbon and no more toxic than a tiny fragment of charcoal. alteripse 20:04, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Pencil lead is a mix of carbon (graphite, which makes marks on paper) and clay (which holds everything together), with the ratio depending on the hardness. --Serie 21:17, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Note that charcoal and clay can actually be used to absorb toxins in the digestive system. Many animals use one or the other for this purpose. However, I wouldn't suggest chewing on pencil "leads", since there might be some toxic additives in it. StuRat 23:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I chewed pencils down to the "lead" then ate that too as well as the wood and the paint.I think the paint was probably more harmful.It has had no long term ill-effects...oh wait....I'm on here AGAIN! ...aaaahhhhh!...leave it to " hotclaws**== " Beaver...(81.136.163.210 09:42, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

• Since graphite absorbs other toxins, even though it is fairly harmless itself, it might be a bad idea to eat pencil lead b/c who knows what sort of chemicals the pencil factory used.--M@rēino 21:24, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that it would be a relatively small amount of pencil that you would be consuming (presumably by accident), so it should do you no harm, I suppose.--Proficient 08:28, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Soccer in the USA

Why is real football (soccer) in USA primarily played by girls? Do boys only play American football in that country? Surely USAns must be aware that they are the only country in the world to play American football, and there are over a hundred countries that play soccer both recreationally and professionally, and primarily as a boys' game? JIP | Talk 18:36, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I think your initial premise is completely wrong. What makes you think that the game is played primarily by girls? Certainly the members of the Men's National Team might be confused by that. --LarryMac 18:45, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Hoo boy! There's a lot of unsubstantiated assumption there.

• Evidence of girls playing more than boys? From my (albeit anecdotal) experience, it's roughly equal.
• Only country to play American football? Err, no. It's not nearly as prevalent as Association football, but neither is it exclusive.
• Unaware? No, we're well aware that soccer is popular internationally. A fine debate is raging as to whether Americans will ignore the NHL finals or the World Cup more, but we're at least aware the the Cup is happening.

If anything, the US can claim to be one of the most sport-diverse countries. — Lomn Talk 18:47, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

• Some other editors appear to have already answered your question, but I thought I would point out that Soccer can't really be called the "real football". The first game of football to be invented was Rugby football (rules codified in 1845) while Association football (also known as Soccer) had its rules first defined in 1848. American football is not unique in being played predominantly by only one nation, with other examples like Canadian football, Australian rules football and Gaelic football in existence. I don't think it is possible (outside of bar room punch ups) to define which one is the "real football" - they all seem real to me. :) Road Wizard 18:59, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Speaking from Canada rather than the US, I think that the perception of soccer as a 'girls sport' is because of the relatively even numbers. The other major sports, (hockey, football and to a lesser extent basketball) are male dominated, and soccer isn't. Canada even put up a pretty good showing in the Women's World Cup, something it's mens team is unlikely to do any time soon. But then again the Women's hockey team won an Olympic gold, more than the men's team did. It's also possible that soccer is more female-friendly because, unlike football and hickey, it doesn't involve crashing into each other on a regular basis. DJ Clayworth 21:56, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I think the statistics on the increase in female knee injuries will disprove your last point. Rmhermen 22:03, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

it doesn't involve crashing into each other on a regular basis - actually, it does. Only at the very top level is football a non-contact sport. If you look down the leagues, all the way down to amateur park football, there is a lot of rough play, all the way from hard shoulder-charges to pretty reckless slides. And, funnily enough, there is far less rolling around on the ground theatrically begging for a penalty, as well. I wonder why... --Sam Pointon 22:04, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I would sujest that Soccer could rightfully be called "football" as in the other sports mentioned one can use thir hands to play. However Galic is by far the better of the "football" sports.Ken 22:31, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

It has been suggested by some that the word football originated as "a ball game played on foot" as oposed to ball games played on horseback (like polo). If that is a correct interpretation, then there is no real requirement for the foot to encounter the ball for the game to be called "football". Road Wizard 22:47, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the comments made above. I don't think the sex ratio is that different when it comes to participation in soccer in the U.S. It might diverge a bit at high school and college due to Title IX and the fact that women generally don't play American football. But at the youth and adult recreational levels, I would doubt there's much of a difference. There might be a misconception that Americans think soccer is a "girl's sport" due to the surge in popularity of women's soccer in the U.S. after the 1999 Women's World Cup, which took place in the U.S., was won by the U.S. and featured Brandi Chastain ripping off her shirt. For a couple of years, people like Chastain and Mia Hamm were celebrities in a country where hardly anyone knows who Ronaldo is. And yes, we know the rest of the world doesn't play American football. We just don't care. -- Mwalcoff 23:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I think in the USA the women are more successful at soccer therefor have a higher profile.Either that or American men are great big softies and can't play a sport where they're not padded up and the women rule!...hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

• Canada (see CFL) and Samoa (see Category:Samoan Americans and notice how they're almost all NFL players) also play American Football. I agree that Title IX and the success of the US Women's soccer team are big reasons why it's thought of as a girls' sport. I know plenty of boys who play soccer; they are rarely teased for playing a girls' sport but occassionally teased for playing a foreign sport. Also, as to the assumption that soccer is a universal sport, consider the number of Caribbean and East Asian nations where baseball is by far the dominant sport.--M@rēino 21:31, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Pocket Battleship - Name Origin???

What is the origin of the English term pocket battleship? These are the heavy cruisers that were built by Germany in the 1930's in an attempt to defeat the terms of the Versailles treaty. I have not been able to determine why the English term "Pocket" came to be used to describe the ships.--69.1.26.166 18:41, 5 June 2006 (UTC) Thanks Glenn

According to our article on pocket battleships, they were smaller than battleships, but were equipped with more weapons than the other ships of its size. Cf. pocket knife, which is smaller than a regular knife. –Mysid^(t) 18:50, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Try pocket battleship and battlecruiser for a discussion of some of these "intermediate" class terms. In short, though, these ships were an effort to compress battleship-caliber power into a smaller ("pocket-sized") vessel by sacrificing armor and survivability. — Lomn Talk 18:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

For further examples of this "Pocket" nomenclature, look at the questionably successful invention of the Pocket Fisherman. --Kuzaar^-T-C- 19:34, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Oy, the balding rotisserie cook strikes again. 67.168.96.173 21:00, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

No need to be so uptight when you can Set It, and Forget It! --Kuzaar^-T-C- 12:59, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Anyone up for a quick game of pocket pool ? StuRat 22:54, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

They have a thing for taking stones out of horse's hooves in them?..hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

StuRat, the correct term is Pocket Pool. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:36, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I see, so it's in caps because someone has copyrighted this entertaining game and is now marketing it to the masses ? StuRat 01:58, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Having created that redirect, I really wish I hadn't clicked on the link. Skittle 09:16, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a rather tricky game, as you frequently end up scratching when you try to get the ball in the side pocket. :-) StuRat 20:37, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Opposite of Driving directions

Is there a website that is just about the opposite of a driving directions website. Meaning, You pick a point and select how many hours you want to see a radius for. For Example, Let say I wanted to see How far i could get from Chicago in 10 hours, driving at the highway speeds.

AFAIK, this is a "business" solution for delivery-based companies and isn't offered for free. here are two examples. --Froth 23:39, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Interesting idea, but it wouldn't be too hard to estimate where you could end up from a starting position in said number of hours.--Proficient 08:31, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Photoshop Letter Size

When printing a full regular letter sized page (8.5in X 11in), what should the DPI be? --Jamesino 23:25, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

...You can't tell from just that information. It depends how much image resolution you want. —Keenan Pepper 00:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

the maximum your printer supports. especially if there are truetype fonts (text) on the page, then any resolution (DPI) you print at will be better than a lower resolution (DPI), without a cut-off limit.

Generally speaking, 300 dpi is usually considered adequate for printed materials. --Fastfission 14:51, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Keenan Pepper, in general, use the maximum the printer supports. However, with a few matrix or inkjet printers, using a lower resolution than the maximum might speed up printing significantly at the expense of quality. For the advice of User:Fastfission, printing in 300 dpi can be incomfortable if the letter contains text in size smaller than about 8 pt. – b_jonas 14:56, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Comic book age copyright?

How old does a comic book have to be before the art in it becomes public domain? Does it fall under the same (95 year?) rules as other stuff? The only reason I ask is that I want to use some of the old comic book art for a fun personal project, but one that others will see, and I don't want to do any illegality. Thanks. --Kickstart70-T-C 23:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

• It depends on what country you are in and where you are planning on distributing it. Different copyright laws operate in different countries. Road Wizard 23:33, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
  • In this case, I'm in Canada, and the results would likely be posted on the 'net. --Kickstart70-T-C 23:58, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

When you mentioned 95 years, I assumed you must have been talking about the US (or somewhere else), a jurisdiction that I'm not completely familiar with. But since you mentioned Canada, that's right up my alley!

Please don't take this as the gospel truth as the law may have changed since I last looked at it...and needless to say, to watch my ass, I should probably give you the boring old disclaimer: I am not your lawyer and this is not meant to be official legal advice, therefore, despite whatever professional designation I may have, the following is meant to be taken as no more than the opinion of a layperson, and by no means as official legal advice. Ok now that we've got that crap out of the way, according to Canadian copyright law, copyright protection expires 50 years after the death of the the original creator. In cases of multiple creators, it expires 50 years after the death of the longest surviving creator. Hope that helps! Loomis51 02:01, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

And comics always have a long chain of creators. --Zeizmic 02:06, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

BTW, what "95 year" rule are you refering to? I've never heard of anything in Canadian copyright law that refers to any "95 year" period. I'm very curious, as perhaps I'm wrong after all. Please tell me where this "95 year" period came up, I'm genuinely interested. Is it possibly some US rule? I'd therefore strongly advice you to double-check with a lawyer who specializes in IP before relying on my very basic knowledge in the area. I'm still quite sure I'm right, but please take my response as only an "unofficial" answer. Loomis51

My real confusion here (I guess) is that I wish to use comic books that were almost guaranteed to have been produced in the U.S. Whether that affects what I do with it in Canada, I'm not sure, especially with the variety of trade and copyright agreements that have been made between the two countries. In the case of these comic books, where the list of creators will be almost impossible to find, what do I do if I want to use some of that art? If, indeed, there are any comic books that are old enough for me to use the art of in either country, I suppose. --Kickstart70-T-C 02:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Try contacting the writers/inkers etc.They are sometimes quite helpful in this regard.hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

June 6

Sex

(removed)--Zeizmic 02:04, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Why was my question removed? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.232.31.226 (talk • contribs) .

See Wikipedia:What is a troll. -- Rick Block (talk) 02:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I am not trolling! I want to know!

Origional question:[What does sex with a ten-year-old girl feel like? My little sister is coming on to me pretty heavy, and I want to know what to expect if I agree.]

For her I suspect it would feel very similar to the feeling you will get on your first night in prision after being convicted of child molestation. Mayor Westfall 02:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

See Statutory rape. Whether she says she wants to or not doesn\\\'t matter. Your IP address is registered to a company named Layered Technologies (which operates out of Texas, in the United States). There are a few things that would induce Wikipedia to cooperate with law enforcement authorities. This is one of them. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:43, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Do your own homework pal. Rickblock, keep in mind this is probablly just a troll. I doubt a child is in real danger. However, I wonder how Layered Technologies would feel about someone using their network resorces to post this material? Maybe Ill make a few calls.... Mayor Westfall 04:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure this is one case where we don't want someone to do their own homework. --Serie 00:17, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Would they really go after a fourteen year old?

Yes. With everything they had. Skittle 10:33, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

FYI, I sent a little email to each email address I found here: http://www.layeredtech.com/contact.shtml Mayor Westfall 20:09, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

See!!!!! This is a perfect example of I'm annoyed to no end by Wikipedia's policy of assuming good faith, avoiding personal attacks, and the old "NPOV" mantra.

There is simply no good faith to be assumed in this situation, to avoid personal attacks is also totally inappropriate in this circumstance, as the questioner is clearly a sick individual, and to try to maintain a "Neutral Point of View" is totally inappropriate, as to merely state without judgement what it may feel like to molest his sister may actually encourage him to do so. Wikipedia should seriously reconsider it's "policies" as much harm can be caused by strictly adhering to them. Loomis51 01:09, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm... I think this is a clear case where using common sense and temporarily ignoring the rules would apply. We don't really need a wholesale changing of policy just to deal with situations like this. Road Wizard 06:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Help with this Riddle

Greetings!

Shopping at the hardware store for my new house, I'm told 1 will cost 25c, 12 will cost 50c, and 122 will cost 75cents. What am I buying? I realize this may be a bit trivial, however, I've been scouring all kinds of reference books, and online search engines and it is driving me nuts! I have never heard of Wikipedia but maybe you can help.

Thanks, Mike. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.252.146.96 (talk • contribs) .

I don't believe that there is an answer to this. But if there is my best guess would be is that you are trying to buy an object of little or no value that is only sold attached to another item perhaps screws or nuts or something. When you are trying to buy one you must buy the cheapest item that has one in it, it costs 25c, however when you want to buy 12 you can buy an item twice as large, or twice as expensive that will have 12 of these (usually worthless) items on it or in it or part of it. And likewise for 122, there is an item 3 times as expensive that has many of these worthless items on it. Again, I don't think that there is an answer. Jon513 03:09, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

This is an old chestnut of a trick quiz question (1000 will cost you $1, BTW). What' you're buying is numbers to attach to a letterbox or front door. If you live at number 122, you have to buy three digits at 25c each. If you live at no. 12, you only need to by two. So "12" will cost you 50 cents and "122" will cost you 75 cents. Grutness...wha? 03:15, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Good job! That definitely seems to be the answer to the original poster's question "Shopping at the hardware store for my new house, I'm told 1 will cost 25c, 12 will cost 50c, and 122 will cost 75cents. What am I buying?" The "new house" and the exact phrasing of the sentence makes it clear that you've given the correct answer. (I'm not the original poster.) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 87.97.8.58 (talk • contribs) .

Folding/cutting paper into a small hollow hemisphere

I've been thinking about trying to create a paper model (no restrictions on construction, though made from a sheet of standard paper -- cutting, glueing, taping, etc. allowed). But the project in question would require a number of hollowed hemispheres. The best way to visualize the shape would be to imagine a sphere with another, smaller sphere inside it that was hollow, bisected in half.

I'm somewhat at odds for how one would do this by just folding paper. I know how one can make cones by cutting a slice out of a circle and then connecting the exposed edges. Is there any way to do half of a sphere? Any suggestions? --Fastfission 02:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

If you ever find a way to make a sphere (or even half a sphere) with a single sheet of paper without cutting it, taping it, etc., you'll make a fortune. This very problem (in reverse) is the whole reason that we have to put up with imperfect map projections, since the layout of the earth (or any spherical object) can't accurately be portrayed on a single sheet of paper, as it can't be laid flat. If you're interested, Map projection discusses this problem in some detail. --DavidGC 03:37, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Cutting and glueing is just fine in my case, though.. --Fastfission 15:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I would suggest instead using some cheap little plastic spheres, either from a craft store or appropriating them from some dollar store toy.--Pharos 03:44, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, that won't work for what I'm trying to do, but thanks for the suggestion. --Fastfission 15:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Or papier machie(sorry have no idea how to spell it,but mushed up paper dried into a mould)would still keep it paper and you can easily find balls as moulds of differing sizes.We used to use balloons when I was Young.hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 09:55, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

are you trying to make a model of a person? and if so what are you going to use the half speres for? breasts? why?

No. --Fastfission 15:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

The suggestion about Paper mache seems the best for small hemispheres, but that is not cutting, folding, pasting work. I see Wikipedia uses french spelling : Papier-mâché, but the article does not live up to the sophistication of the title. Fortunately, searching for "paper mache globe" yields many recipes (e.g. at familycrafts.com). We used the instructions found at the following pages to make ordinary cut-n-paste maps for a school project: Make Your Own Globe and Map Fold-outs. Cutting the first one in half would give almost perfect hollow hemispheres, but it's difficult to do accurately if you want "small". The second gives you fascinating polyhedrons to make. --Seejyb 20:24, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

That globe link might work out, actually. I'll give it a shot and see what I can come up with. Thanks. --Fastfission 15:39, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Question....ON WHEELS!

I just read about the very interesting charictar willy on wheels. I must say I found this guy to be very funny. For those of you that dont know, it appears he would take an article [NAME] and move it to [NAME ON WHEELS!!!!!]. I dont know why but I laught so hard at this. Just the ideas of articles on wheels driving away to a new location is hillarious. Can willy really be considered a vandal after he has contributed so much to wikipedia in the way of humor?

Also, How close did Willy come to making the wikipedia project fail?

What would happen if Jimbo Wales suddenly turned evil and started to vandalize wikipedia?

If I were to want to "vandalize" wikipedia in such a manner that my positive contrubutions outweighed any negative contrubutions from the actual "vandalize" and do so in a creative manner that wouldbe notable enough to get my own article on wikipedia like willy has, what would be a good way to go about doing that? Mayor Westfall 02:55, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

He didn't come anywhere close to making the project "fail". It is easy to undo vandalism and easier to block vandal accounts than it is for them to create new ones or get new IPs. Jimbo Wales will not turn evil. But if he did start to vandalize I imagine his account could be blocked like anyone else's. I don't recommend vandalism as a good way to use Wikipedia, or your own time. People do have to clean up after you and as such it's a pretty crummy way to treat other people. --Fastfission 03:16, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Suppose one merely wanted to contribute to the BJAODN page with humor, would that be vandalism? Also, what if that person contributed signifigantly to offest the unintended consequence of someone having to revert is attempts at humor? Or what if the person reverted his own edits after a short period of time. Would this person be considered a vandal? What if the person was a member of a tribe that sacked rome? Would that person be considered a vandal? Mayor Westfall 03:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Don't start. There's also a college out there whose mascot is a Vandal. And for the record, it wasn't just the Vandals who sacked Rome. Isopropyl 03:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a humor website. This behavior is more welcomed on Uncyclopedia. When it's done here, the person doing it is not generally considered to be funny by anyone but himself. Generally, he's just viewed as being an annoying, unfunny dick. --DavidGC 03:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Then why is there a BJAODN page? Mayor Westfall 04:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Because occasionally a user's contributions (not necessarily vandalism, or, to put it better, malicious vandalism) are unintentionally humorous. And even Wikipedia editors need to have a good chuckle every now and again. — QuantumEleven 07:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

"Unintentionally" is the key word there. Like Bash.org, if you deliberately try to get in, you will almost certainly fail and expose yourself to even more ridicule than the people who get in accidentally.

As for Jimbo, well, he owns this website, so he couldn't just be blocked, at least not permanently. But if he did turn evil and made Wikipedia unworkable, because everything on Wikipedia is licenced under the GFDL, we could move the entire encyclopaedia to a new server and continue without him. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

In addition, if the urge to make a particular joke is too much for you, you can put it in the Uncyclopedia (as said) or even straight into BJAODN. I've seen people do that when a funny thought occurred to them, keeping it out of article space, but if it isn't actually funny people will likely revert you. Skittle 10:29, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Even admins have been known to add their own silly thoughts straight into BJAODN occasionally (whistles nervously while trying to act nonchalant and not look suspicious). Grutness...wha? 11:08, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The point is, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a repository for any kinds of information, like jokes. – b_jonas 14:30, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm. I therefore call upon administrators to BAN anyone who has contributed to the BJAODN page immediately. Also, was the "Mars on Water" joke really unintentially put on wikipedia? I can see someone tripping falling on their keyboard and accidentally posting that little article...or posting it with the sincere belief that it applied to the Mars article it was uploaded to........XM 17:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

• Please, leave BJAODN alone. I'm going to assume that the question was posed honestly. I happen to think that all the information about Willy on Wheels is an example of WP:BEANS, or giving out waaaay too much publicity to a bad guy. We really make it out like Willy almost single-handedly destroyed Wikipedia, when really the only reason why he was remarkable was that he came along with a speed and tenacity never before seen, scaring the crap out of a lot of editors and admins (who are, after all, volunteers and not paid and trained to deal with full-on attacks). Willy on Wheels would be hilarious, IMO, if he would (1) revert all his own stuff, (2) stop doing the same three jokes over and over, but since he doesn't, he's more annoying than anything else. I forget where, but I've seen the question about "evil Jimbo" before. The answer is that Wiki is devolved enough that we would probably survive. The REAL question is how long it would take for him to be removed from all the corporate boards that he's on. He could do a lot more damage by shutting off the servers and returing the donated money than he could by making silly edits. --M@rēino 21:42, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Actually I think the main reason he's remarkable is because he's got a really catchy moniker. It sux, but really the '... on wheels!!' thing is veery memorable, it has the same kind of ...clever, but creepy!... hook as the references to balloons in It.--Anchoress 07:54, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you completely, Mareino. I think the treatment of persistent vandals here -- with specialized templates, little logos, etc. -- hurts the problem more than it helps it. Vandals want attention; the best thing to do is to quietly block them, erase their contributions, and more-or-less ignore them. Otherwise we just end up perpetuating their silliness indefinitely. I wouldn't be surprised if "Willy on Wheels" was really multiple, independent people deciding that the same joke is funny and wanting to get in on it. --Fastfission 15:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Anything that damages wikipedias value as a source of information, however humorous to the contributors is bad for the project. Remeber, the project isnt here to pose as a source of ammusement for those who edit it, but as a source of information for everyone, contributors or not. Philc _T^E_C^I 12:00, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Basic stuff

How do I load images to Wikipedia w/o loading them to the commons? --JD

See Wikipedia:Uploading images. You can upload images directly to the English Wikipedia with the Upload File link at the left. But make sure you've read our Wikipedia:Image use policy first. --Fastfission 03:14, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Borders of West Florida

It's me again! I'm trying to make a map, and the borders of West Florida have perplexed me. This is what I've come up with:

1. When Spain owned it, it was simply Florida.
2. When Britain gained it, they split it into West Florida and East Florida; West Florida's borders were from the Mississippi to the Apalachicola, from the Gulf to 32'28 North.
3. When the Spanish gained it, question: Did they keep the British division of West and East?
4. With the Treaty of San Lorenzo, West Florida's northern boundary shank to 31 North.

However, the Republic of West Florida, and the subsequent US annexation of West Florida, only mention a region west of the Perdido. Likewise, we have several maps in the article, and both the Perdido and the Apalachicola are cited as borders. So, question: Is this simply a confusion in borders, or did the border between W and E Florida shift westward at some point? I'd really like to know this. Further confusing things - when Florida Territory was organized in 1822, articles I've seen say that it combined East Florida and part of West Florida, meaning that West Florida still extended to the Apalachicola. (the Perdido is the modern western boundary of Florida; if West Florida only went to the Perdido, then it could not be part of Florida Territory. The remainder of West Florida went to Mississippi and Orleans Territories).

Please help make sense of this. --Golbez 03:35, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Our Florida Territory article has a link to the 1822 law organizing the territory, if that helps. --Cam 04:51, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but it doesn't mention the borders, except that Florida Territory included part of East Florida, which means that it DID extend to the Apalachicola. I think.

Another source I've found [2] say the western half (which another site specifies as west of the Pearl; i.e. modern Louisiana) was occupied by the US in 1810, and the "remainder" was occupied in 1813 - but another site I read said that he US annexation only went as far east as the Perdido (modern Alabama and Mississippi) - I have yet to find a conclusive source that says the US annexed up to the Apalachicola (i.e. all of West Florida) before the Floridas were formally ceded by Spain. Sigh. Yes, it matters. :( --Golbez 05:25, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

• The short answer is that the area was poorly surveyed, populated mainly by Natives who had no interest in being part of a European nation, and defined slightly differently in different treaties and documents.--M@rēino 21:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Half-lotus in yoga?

Hi, I'm a minor contributor to the Bangasayusang article. It's about a sitting statue with one leg on one knee, a half-lotus position, if you like. Is there a proper name for such a position in yoga? --KJ 04:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The short answer is no, because it is not a yoga position. It's the usual way a lot of people sit in India. But the lotus posture is padmasana, (padma = lotus; asana = posture) so I guess a half lotus posture would be padmadrasana.--Shantavira 12:52, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

archery

I am considering entering a philatelic display/competition relating the connection of English surnames which originated in the 1300's and 1400's to the advent and resounding success of archery through the development of the longbow. I can relate to Bowman, Bowyer, Boyer as makers of bows. Fletcher as a maker of arrows. Arrowsmith probably as a forger of arrowheads. Are there any others and is there a reference work or website I can access. It appears New Scientist has a webpage but it is presently out of commission.

Don't forget "Archer" :) Adam Bishop 05:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

smit/smyth/smith= black smith jones=puts shoes on horeses Baldrick-a diagonal belt across the chest used to hold a quiver.Butt-a straw target used in archery.Longbow and Strongbow exist as names.I think Vambrace is the leather guard on the inside of your arm and I've seen that as a name somewhere too.hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 10:03, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

Hmm. Jones is usually "son of John". Here's some which sound like they should relate to archery but don't (so you can cross them off the list!): Bowen (son of Owen), Bowness (rounded headland), Bowden (curved hill). "Baldrick" usually comes from the German for "bold ruler", although it's true that it was also the name of the belt mentioned above. Don't be confused by the surname Nock, either - it means "by the oak". However, Flower is a surname which can mean arrow-maker (although it can also refer to the plants and to flour-milling). Grutness...wha? 11:05, 6 June 2006 (UTC) (and his copy of "The Penguin Book of english Surnames")

Proper English Word

What is the proper english word for that drops which come from penis when we involve in love with some one? Note: (not semen)

pre-ejaculate? aka Cowper's fluid?

sperm or ejaculate

No, that comes later (no pun intended). It's wot 'e said above - pre-ejaculate, or in plain language "pre-cum". JackofOz 13:53, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Although, even pre-ejaculate can have some semen in it, though very small doses. Dismas|^(talk) 13:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course, if you're into water sports, urine may be a correct answer as well. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 16:04, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Why wouldn't the proper English word be "semen"?--Proficient 08:36, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

He said "not semen", so he is talking about some other fluid that comes from the penis. The only 2 other possibilities are pre-ejaculate and urine. Urine can be, but is not generally, associated with love-making. Pre-ejaculate is. JackofOz 04:08, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Lubricant. --hydnjo talk 02:30, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Mexico-US Situation

Umm...interesting question above mine lol. But anyways, considering the whole Mexico-US immmigration issue, I pondered a situation. Let's say an American rancher down in Texas owns land that borders Mexico. If he wanted to, could he sell the land to the Mexican government or are there laws prohibiting this? Now what if that's alright, and Mexico decides to change the border, as this land is now "rightfully" theirs. Would this be legit? I know the US would probably nuke Acapulco but I was just wondering how the scenario would play out. 05:47, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

There's a big difference between property rights and sovereignty. It's quite possible that Mexico could buy some parcel of land in the U.S., to own it as any other property owner would own it, but it certainly could not aquire sovereignty from some rancher, who didn't have it in the first place.--Pharos 05:55, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree with Pharos with a slight modification. Mexico won't have soveringty on any land it buys in foreign countries, unless that land was made into a Mexican consulate or embassy. If it was oficially recognised by the U.S.A. as an Embassy then it would in effect be Mexican territory governed by Mexica laws & under mexican soveringty. That said there is no way the U.S.A. would recognise land along the Texas-Mexican border as a Mexican embassy. AllanHainey 08:28, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

However, government-to-government sales of soveriegnity do have precedents. Historically, the United States purchased soveriegnity to land in the Louisiana Purchase, and the purchase of Alaska off the Russians. So, theoretically, the US government could arrange to transfer soveriegnity over that piece of land and receive fees in return, but a private citizen can't.

One other interesting concept here is the idea of self-determination. But at what level does that operate? At the level of one family's ranch, almost certainly not. But when? --Robert Merkel 15:13, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Private citizens do not possess the authority to cede U.S. territory to another country; only the U.S. government can cede its own territory. --DavidGC 05:33, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Switching workdays.

I work a 4 day workweek 10 hours a day adding up to 40. There is a coworker at my workplace who is switching days this week with another coworker. Can anyone tell me what some probable reasons could be for doing that?

Even you cannot believe you asked this question. Because they want to go to a funeral. because they've decided that wednesdays in bed for the next year would be a good thing (tm). Um. And 1,000,001 other possible reasons. --Tagishsimon (talk)

I don't suppose you've tried asking them...? — QuantumEleven 07:54, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

We've got a guy who wants a schedule like that so he can take off every Wednesday to visit yard sales. Maybe that's it?

The better question is why have a yard sale on a Wednesday?? That's the type of thing you have on weekends! Dismas|^(talk) 13:53, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The most obvious reason is that the person is going to have an all-day Wikiparty. But, don't you have anything better to do than try and figure out water cooler riddles? I mean, seriously. (Tag: nice touch. XD) Cernen Xanthine Katrena 17:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah might be right about that.

Personal reasons, perhaps? --Proficient 08:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Getting rid of cats

My neighbours cats have dug about in the growbags in my garden and killed some of my sweet pepper, Jalepeno pepper & tomato plants so I need to know any methods there are to keep cats out of my garden. I don't want to loose any more plants to them. I've tried rubbing a bit of rotten orange around my plants as I've heard this works but I'm not optimistic as I'd tried last year scattering grated orange peel about the garden & this didn't work. My only other thought is aversion therapy, that is hitting them with a catapult when they're in my garden, but that'll only work when I'm at home & could cause hassle with the neighbours (& isn't too nice anyway) so any other solutions would be gratefully appreciated. AllanHainey 08:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Two words: super soaker. Unlike a catapult, it only injures the cat's pride, and the decent models have excellent range. Your neighbours would have every right to complain if their cat came back with bruises or even an eye missing, but giving it a good soak should be perfectly reasonable.

As you say, that only works when you're at home, and I don't have any personal experience of orange peel tricks. Googling for "keeping cats out of the garden" or similar phrases turns up more suggestions than you can shake a paw at, though - this link alone has plenty to be getting on with, and there are also several commercial repellents available. The most reliable cat repellent, of course, is a dog or a more tenacious cat. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

A wire cage made of chicken wire will protect them while they're small and they can grow through the gaps which still protects the roots.Also I make a nice little litter corner in my garden which I clean up regularly,it's no worse than weeding ,and my cats and others use that 'cos it's nicer.hotclaws**==(81.136.163.210 10:07, 6 June 2006 (UTC))

I believe in some pet or pest stores you can buy anti-feline spray which deters the cats because of the strong aroma.--Andeh 10:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

• Buying a good fence should stop the cats from getting in in the first place, avoiding the need for slingshots and supersoakers. - 131.211.210.16 12:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Umm, yup. 'cos cats can't climb, right? --Tagishsimon (talk)
  • I concur. Most cats can get over most reasonable garden fences. To keep them out, you'd have to be using barbed wire tops, no holes (so regular inspections), mesh sunk deep into the ground, overhangs, clearance of trees and poles in the vicinity, etc. Skittle 12:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

You can get automatic electronic deterrents, for example here. You can also get automatic detectors that will squirt the critters with water, but I can't find a link at the moment. One way to protect a flat board fence is to slit a length of plastic drainpipe lengthwise and press it along the top of the fence. Cats cannot can a grip on it.--Shantavira 12:46, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Knowing my cat, I can't see that drainpipe-fence trick working for long. She'd get it off, or leap far enough to get a grip on the other side, or find something to jump off, or sneak round another way... You should see the devices we use to keep her in the kitchen at night. Skittle 15:33, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

This is diabolical! [3]--Zeizmic 13:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, anyone else find it kinda odd that they received more feedback about deer than any other animal? GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 16:03, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Bleh, shoot the bastards. If not them then near them. And, failing that, Zeismic's solution seems to be the winner this time. And GeeJo, it's Texas. Just be thankful they didn't receive feedback on people... Cernen Xanthine Katrena 17:03, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried Anti-freeze? Mayor Westfall 20:16, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

• DON'T use barbed wire, or your neighbors will complain about bleeding kitties. Instead, just get a wire cage or bendable wire to cover the tops, too. If the wire is spacious enough, plenty of sunlight will get through for your plants, but cats (and rats, deer, and whatever else) can't get in.--M@rēino 21:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I wasn't going to use barbed wire & I can't put in any new fencing/wire mesh or anything like that as it's not really feasible for the garden (wouldn't work either as there's a field at the back & the cats get back & forth through there easily). I don't think I'll bother with the scarecrow though I'll check out the stuff suggested on the other link & posts. AllanHainey 12:57, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if it would work for cats, but I read a few years ago about an ingenious way to keep dogs out of gardens, and that's by laying chicken wire on the ground, because they hate walking on it.--Anchoress 17:55, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

BEAT IT WITH A SHOVEL LOL.. but seriosly, i didnt take the time to read this articly, but if you sprinky hot pepper aorund your plants it deters them from wanting ot dig up your garden

My neighbour's cat also keeps cr*pping on my flower beds. I found that hanging shiny CD-Roms off the fence scares the cheeky b*stard and also keeps the birds away (ideal when seeding the lawn). Cheers, --E Asterion ^{u talking to me?} 20:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Don't scare away the cats. They don't like it. Ceiling cat 20:18, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

When my dad was stationed at Fort Sill we had a neighbor whose cat kept wondering into our yard. Our solution was to set up a cat trap and turn the animal over to animal control. Animal control then charged the guy for all the shots the cat had to get, fined him for not having a leash, and informed him that the animal could not be returned to his residents until he could conclusivly prove that the cat belong to him. After two weeks he got the cat back, but from that point he made good and sure to keep it out of our yard ;) TomStar81 00:24, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Measuring returns in ROI---61.95.184.98

hai,

Thanks for spending your time reading this and helping me. Im doing a project in the Return on Investment (ROI) analysis for a retailer. The problem is, i need to measure the returns(or benefits) which may be obtained from investing in the furthur improving of the retail store. Im not supposed to disclose any more information.

What is need to know is, how to measure the returns(benefits) without any prior data knowledge, ie, before the actual investment is made. I have to collect the data regarding what are the factors which can be taken into consideration for formulating the basics for quantifying the benefits.

I know what I have written above is quite difficult to understand. Not much of you will find this interesting, nonetheless im in desperate need. I cant collect much data by Googling…

I would be much happier if you can provide me with some hard facts and data, material, links,… anything which may help me…

Thanks again for helping me…hoping to see a reply soon.

Siva.----61.95.184.98 09:03, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

What you should be looking for is a good corporate finance/Project finance textbook. I assume that, since you are employed to do a feasibility project, you must have some background in this field/access to such materials.

From the very limited information that you have provided, your analysis will involve making "reasonable" guess-timates of improved sales (directly caused by the investment), increased cost of goods sold, increased indirect expenditure (labour, rentals) using all of which you would be constructing a hypothetic P&L statement.

The key point will be comparison. In doing a rigorous analysis, you would be considering comparable investments in other products/similar companies (the use of which you should be able to justify). One cannot suggest how that could be done, without knowing what exactly is the improvement. You might also be forecasting probable scenarios (favourable or unfavourable - anything from product going out of fashion to earthquakes, Tsunamis, Godzilla attacks, your competitior going bust, if you wish to be thorough) and assign probability to each and calculate the net expected values for all the above parameters. Good luck :) Chancemill 09:22, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

IQ

How can we increase our IQ? Thanks.

Theoretically, by reducing your age ;) Chancemill 09:27, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

google iq test. bear in mind that i scored 3 different scores on 3 seperate occasions. To increase your score, eat well and healthy for a few days, get enough sleep, and eat something sweet right before. dont drink or smoke either. this will seriously increase your score, and keep it secret.193.115.175.247 09:32, 6 June 2006 (UTC)Anton

IQ is a relative score - that is, the 'average' (mean) IQ score is theoretically 100, those with above average intelligence should get more than 100 and those with below average should get less. Therefore, one way to increase your IQ score is to kill people who are cleverer than you, thus bringing down the average.

The problem with this strategy is that given the number of people in the world, you will probably get caught and sent to prison or executed before you bring down the world's average intelligence enough to raise your IQ by even a single point. Corpses are generally agreed to have an IQ of zero, while prison is not a good environment for the brain, due to lack of mental stimulation and the possibility of getting your head bashed in frequently by your fellow inmates. Therefore I would recommend 193's suggestions, and only attempt the lowering strategy once you have become intelligent enough to figure out how to commit the perfect murder on a regular basis. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 09:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

• I fail to see why one would want to increase their IQ. It's only an avarage as the test that determined it. - 131.211.210.16 12:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Well sam blanning, interesting theory there, i think it has been tried though, by a strange little man called hitler, had some success, but if your iq is 0, kill all you like, it aint gonna help further more, different countries have different iq statistics, eg the average iq of areas. Also, below 95 is below average, and over 110 is above average, however if you score about 120, (it think)then you qualify as a genius, in which case whatch out for those slimy MENSA types.193.115.175.247 13:53, 6 June 2006 (UTC)Anton

Actually, I don't think 0 on the scale has any particular meaning, so yeah, if you were so mentally handicapped that you scored a 0, but you somehow manage to kill everyone on Earth smarter than you, then you could raise your IQ up to 100 (or even more if there were people stupider than you, or if you counted monkeys or something). This whole conversation is getting pretty silly, though... —Keenan Pepper 14:24, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

So that's what Hitler was trying to do. If only we'd realised earlier, we could have avoided so much tragedy. If you're scoring 120 in most normalised IQ tests, you have done a bit better than the average score. 'Genius' level (or 'very much higher than the average' to be more accurate) is usually closer to 145/150. Average is supposed to be about 95-105, but most 'fun' tests average higher, probably because the users prefer to score higher. And yes, IQ is meant to average 100 in any given population, so move to a country full of stupid people and take it there. Skittle 15:29, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I find my IQ goes up when I stop drinking. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 14:44, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

According to WHOIS the original poster is from Malaysia, one of those countries that does all the world's real work nowadays while the inhabitants of the so-called 'first world' rot in jobs with 'Compliance' or 'Risk' or 'Health and Safety' in the title. So if I have my stereotypes lined up correctly, moving to the United States or England will be very effective in following Skittle's idea. I recommend moving to Norfolk, which will increase most people's IQ by at least 20 points. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

move to england, average iq is 85-90, and speaking to the average man-in-the-street, yup, they are pretty thick.

The man on the street may well be but how about The man on the Clapham omnibus? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:27, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Is that the average of people, or the average of people who have taken the test?.... Philc _T^E_C^I 17:04, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

A night out in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire would make you feel as the most intelligent guy on Earth. Alright Duck?  ;-)--E Asterion ^{u talking to me?} 20:12, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

the secret of englands greatness by rev john brown

we have this bible and we want infomation on this bile E.G. who was the family who owned the bible at the start thank you ( now we r the owners of it )

I think we'll find it a little difficult to identify the original owner of a single copy of a book. If it helps, there is in the National Portrait Gallery,a huge painting by Thomas Jones entitled "The Bible: The Secret of England's Greatness." In it Queen Victoria is shown presenting a Bible to an African. The setting is the audience chamber of Windsor Castle. I guess this might have something to do with your book. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Nice, both links go to disambiguation pages, well done. Philc _T^E_C^I 19:15, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Rather than the mean sarcasm directed at someone who was trying their best, you could have helped.

• • Thomas Dow Jones (1811–1881), artist apparently doesn't have a specific article
  • National Portrait Gallery (United Kingdom) might be what they meant, by the context

Hope that made anything that was unclear, clear. Skittle 13:51, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

666

Will the world end today? Should I take any precautions?

Yes, its all over at 18:23pm, so pack your bags and dress for warm weather as we all heading to a lake of fire, further more, before you go, sleep with every one you can, or wank profuslly. idiot.

Why would it? Months, Days and Years are just a point in time invented by humans, it has no real value.-aihewohyop45u

---

It will end in the traditional fashion, as it has done every century since the gregorian calendar was launched, at 13 o' clock (a rare treat, especially for the chosen). This will be terribly exciting for those of us who live in the world, and we wish you the best of luck wherever you may be. Skittle 15:23, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

What time zone are we talking about here? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Time zone! $UTC+{\sqrt {(}}-1)$ obviously! Philc _T^E_C^I 17:09, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Precautions: "I always thought we should put a paper bag over our heads" / "Yes, if you like." / "Will that help?" / "No.". DJ Clayworth 15:42, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Follow up questions. Will there be a wind and if so "Will the wind be so mighty, as to lay low the mountains of the earth?" CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:09, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I really don't think you people are taking this seriously enough. You should all be prepared. Luckily I still have an emergengy supply of canned food in my basement leftover from Y2K.

The world will only end today if you're a George Noory listener. What you REALLY need to be worried about is the 2038 problem. 12.72.246.151 16:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for fixing my broken link, whoever you are. I'll give you a plusbox or buy you a beer in two years. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 17:13, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

2038, huh? Lessee... you know who was born around 4AD and was crucified in his mid thirties, and reputedly will come back after a multiple of 1000 years. Must've been from his ascension date, not his birth date. The milleniarists were off by a handful of years. Grutness...wha? 09:32, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Lol. Very nice theory. – b_jonas 18:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

STOP PRESS It was a mock drill.. and most of you were found to be severely underprepared. There is anyway a severe shortage of living accomodation in Purgatory and Hell, so the next tentative date to end the world has been set to July 7, 2007 (it took a long time to persuade the beast to change his number, though). Start saying your prayers, people! We have enough problems already. (Official communication from Pearly Gates, signed Peter) Chancemill 04:00, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Jehovah's Witnesses used to predict that the world would end in 1975 according to their calculations.Well,that fell a bit flat didn't it?(hotclaws**== 00:25, 8 June 2006 (UTC))

Dun dun duunnnnnn... Cernen Xanthine Katrena

All is safe and the world did not end that day. --Proficient 08:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Duplicate photos on Wikipedia and Commons

I'm trying to link to a file in the Commons, but apparently there is a file with the identical filename on Wikipedia that is coming up in my article instead. How can I tell Wikipedia to use the Commons photo instead?--Nmajdan 14:59, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Well you could copy the Commons file to your computer and then upload it to Wikipedia under a slightly different name. Or you could explain the problem to the person that uploaded the picture to Wikipedia and ask if they don't mind having it moved to Image:name_1.jpg (or something like that) and then fix all the pages that link to it. I would go with the second one. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I thought there was a way to do this, something like Commons:Image:Klein-Venedig in Bamberg.jpg? But that only creates a link. Rmhermen 15:03, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

great schims/western schism

the afore mentioned article is dreadful, more of a shopping list than an encyclopedia article. could some one with knowlege help us to increase our own. Thanks Again

The reference desk isn't the place to highlight poor articles. You might wish to add templates to the article to draw attention to it, though. Have a look at Wikipedia:Templates (particularly the Cleanup section) and find appropriate templates. Simply edit the article and include the template tag at the top.  -- Run!  16:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

volenteers

due to the overwelming amount of questions on drugs eg marajuana and magik mushrooms, and the sarcastic, yet amusing way in which questions are answered here, i was wondering how many people answering questions either use narcotics, or chat online in chat forums.

I have definitely done at least one of those activities. DJ Clayworth 15:40, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm almost certain that there's a good degree of overlap between the two groups. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 15:56, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I have never chatted in an online forum I have too much respect for my mind and body. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:00, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

We used to have a guy who did everything, but I think he's dead now. --Zeizmic 16:04, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Naw, I'm just lazy. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 16:56, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Shamans use narcotics to answer questions. --DLL 20:36, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Just to be a little pedantic, marijhuana and majic mushrooms aren't infact narcotics as the questioner seems to be implying. AllanHainey 07:24, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm innocent officer!(hotclaws**== 00:27, 8 June 2006 (UTC))

I have chatted on online forums, but do not do so much any longer. --Proficient 08:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Looking for a simple graphic of a face

I'm creating a non-commercial booklet on anti-acne facial cleansing practices, and I want to include a diagram to show how to wash the face and apply masks in a way that will minimise wrinkles and exfoliate. I want to find a really simple line drawing of a face (no shading, depth etc, just really really simple) that I can add arrows to in draw or whatever and include in my booklet. I'm only going to be distributing it free to about 6 people, so licensing isn't an issue. Anyone have any ideas where I could find one on the net? --Anchoress 15:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

What about this one? You might have to edit it to get rid of those inexplicable red lines but that's about all I could find in a google image search.  -- Run!  16:06, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Hey I think that will work, thanks! May I ask what you searched on to get the pic?--Anchoress 21:26, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Google image search, using the terms "face outline" ;)  -- Run!  08:51, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Cool, didn't think of that. Thanks a bunch, it worked out great!--Anchoress 10:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

HIV AIDS

hi I asked an HIV AIDS related questions before few days. I got most of the information which i asked for. However i left with one question, which is unanswered from the information i get from you. Once again i am looking for the information:- so far(from 1981) how many people died in Sub Sahara Africa due to HIV AIDS?

This MSNBC article has a graph of AIDS-related deaths from 1985-on, specifically highlighting Sub-Sharan Africa. Pre-1985 deaths are insignificant relative to the present total, so that should be fine for an estimate. — Lomn Talk 18:21, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Colds

To those of us wikipedians who smoke, I ask the following: When you first started, did you end up with cold-like symptoms (running nose/sinus pressure, trouble popping ears, sneezing)? Cernen Xanthine Katrena 16:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Those of us who don't wonder why you'd keep doing it if it was as lovely as that... Skittle 18:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

No, really. Why did you keep going if it made you feel so bad? Skittle 13:47, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The way you talk about, first started, sounds like you chose to start smoking, a very poor choice indeed, from every perspective. All of the people that I know that smoke, got addicted before they knew just from sharing and things with freinds, and build up from there. It's terrible if you chose to smoke, when you had the option not to. Philc _T^E_C^I 19:12, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

The press has been touting some science that shows the first cigarette softens up the receptors for many years, and makes it more likely to get addicted later. --Zeizmic 20:35, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It's commonly reported that some people experience cold-like symptoms when quitting smoking, as the lungs work to flush out impurities. (Googling "quitting smoking" "cold-like symptoms" will get you some relevant hits, so this might be one way to start your search.) It's logical that cold-like symptoms would also arise for some people when beginning smoking, as one might reasonably expect the lungs to behave in the same way at the beginning. I had less luck finding confirmation of this, though, but it does make sense.

And good grief. When did the Reference Desk become such a bloody soapbox? I love how everyone here just babbles on about whatever axe they have to grind while avoiding offering any help by actually answering the question -- something that happens increasingly frequently here. This place is here to guide people in the right direction for them to find an answer to their question, not give advice on life or play the role of a parent. -DavidGC 05:54, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

:::Thank you for aiding and not judging me. I appreciate it. (You know who you are.) 12.72.245.156 10:33, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh my god!!! the blatant hippocracy of that very statemeant is dumbfounding. It angers me. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:15, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I never said I wasn't a hypocrite. I just said I don't want to stop smoking, and made you look like the bad guy in the process. Apologies. Doctors say I have a LRTI (lower resp. tract infection), gave me some pills and told me to bugger off, so it turns out, it's a natural thing. Though, to clear up any confusion, I started to spite my mother, but I rarely smoke. In fact...I don't smoke all that often at all. It probably has something to do with all the bupropion I'm taking for depression. Who knows. Anyway, apologies for pissing y'all off. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 08:09, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Request for information about a list of U.S. Army TOEs

Dear Sir,

I am a non-US citizen civilian interested in the subject of military organization and, to that efect, I have been analizing information about the Tables of Organization and Equipment of the diferent United States Army units.

There are good a number of TOEs published in the web, both in military and non-military webs, among the later in www.fas.org and www.globalsecurity.org. Nonetheless, I haven’t been able to find many other TOEs because, as a special note in those pages informs, their list “includes only combat and direct related major support units”, and does not include “numerous headquarters, maintenance ans other support units which are normally attached to or associated with the listed combat units”.

Althoug TOEs (or at least almost all of them) are nor “restricted” information, I do not know of a web site (or publication source) where all of them are available. Could you informe me of any I could have overlloked?

As a (very) second best, it could be useful to have access to a list of allt TOEs (including the respective TOE number and unit title).

Yours most sincerely,

(Mr) Jorge Navarrete M. Chilean citizen

E-mail addresses: removed to prevent spam

And the hair growing on the toes is digital era. --DLL 20:34, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

weird episode previews in Japanese anime

I was just wondering if there was a special name for the "weird" episode previews at the end of episodes in some Japanse anime. I would also like to know why exactly they do that? Or is it just weird translation?

They show images and give comments, usually just short sentences. They are very emotional (sometimes weird compared to the tone of the series) and aren't very specific.

Here is an example of the subtitles during such a preview. Spoilers ahead!

Well "spoilers" : at the end of episode 5 of Elfen lied : Anxiety and relief. Suffering and gentleness. Uncessant overflowing of mixed feelings. A contradiction in quality, only one thing can have that meaning, Comprising of past memories that are... washed by the pouring rain. Memories that before long, will be quietly washed away.

at the end of the first Kenshin ova, about the second part :

Blue spirit flowers disperse. Blood waves billow. A shadow sighs behind the paper door. Memories of those holding hands, an illusion.

Evilbu 18:36, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if there's a special name for it but I do know exactly what you're talking about. And no, it's not a mistranslation. As for why they do it ... it's just for something different. Also, this way avoids spoilers ... as it's sufficiently vague to not spoil any of the events of the upcoming episode while still informing you about it. I don't watch previews on American TV because they give away half of the damn upcoming episode. --Cyde↔Weys 20:27, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks,I guess it's a cultural thing. I have become so used to Western films and series... Watching anime is nice, you learn little differences in culture (like sleeping on the floor). Well about the spoilers, they do show images which spoil a little bit. Still I find it weird, when you watch Elfen lied, it can end spectacularly, an ending song...and then ..so weird, so poetic, it seems like it doesn't fit the tone? Evilbu 20:37, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Without knowing the exact number of syllables in the original Japanese preview it is a little hard to say for sure, but the English translation has the feel of traditional Japanese poetry. See Haiku and Waka for more information on two forms of Japanese poetry (although the translation seems a little long for a haiku poem). In the case of the Kenshin OVA at least, traditional poetry was probably used in order to add to the veiwer's sense that the story was taking place in the Edo period. Why it was used for Elfen lied, I cannot say without watching the show for myself. Road Wizard 20:59, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Taking a closer look at the translation above, the original Japanese may have been a Tanka (variant of Waka).

Blue spirit flowers disperse, (5)

Blood waves billow, (7)

A shadow sighs behind the paper door. (5)

Memories of those holding hands, (7)

An illusion. (7)

However, as I said before, it is impossible to say for certain without knowing the original Japanese text. Road Wizard 21:08, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

How to link to an image without the image appearing.

How do I link to an image without the image actually appearing?

The example in question is on the Nelson's_Column#Other_monuments_to_Nelson page, where I want to include a link to the picture of one of the other Nelson monuments (and there is no article).

1. I tried the following, but it just gives a giant picture.

* In the [[Bull Ring, Birmingham]], [[England]], there is a Grade II* [[listed building|listed]] bronze '''[[image:Nelson_Statue_in_Birmingham.jpg|statue of Nelson]]''' by [[Richard Westmacott]], dating from [[1809]].

2. I tried removing "image" from the link, but it just pushes me into an edit of a non-existant page 3. I tried searching the help under "links" but I couldn't find it there (maybe Help needs a link in the "Links" section to the detail.

Thanks!

Try putting a colon in front of image. Image:FieldHouse Fountain.jpg or Field House Image.--Nmajdan 18:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

That's the general method for getting a plain link instead of a magic one. For example, [[es:Página en español]] puts a link to the Spanish Wikipedia in the navigation box, but [[:es:Página en español]], with a colon, inserts a plain link into the text. BTW, questions like this should go on Wikipedia:Help desk, not the reference desk. —Keenan Pepper 18:59, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedias 1st article

What was the 1st article on Wikipedia?

Wikipedia came from Nupedia, which already had may articles. However, you may find this page interesting; the oldest page, which I think is what you mean by "1st article". This is the oldest known edit, I believe. You may want to read History of Wikipedia for more information. СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 20:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

You may also want to read the entry in the May 2006 archive for First Ever Article. Road Wizard 20:12, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the contributers here. The people here are really knowledgable and have help satiate my intellectual curosity on different occasions. Mayor Westfall 20:18, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

We may make an exception for multiple posts, for thank-you's. --Zeizmic 20:31, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, I wanted to thank the guys on Science & Math Ref desks as well.Mayor Westfall 20:48, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

a message written in math/english

I have found a math code of more than 60 patterns that form symbols, starting in english, but written in math. I was wondering if anybody has any idea how it could have got there. The math code is at http://inthemath.com but the question is:

one tWo tHree fOur five six Seven Eight Nine Ten

As I understand it languages grew sought of haphazardly, but someone would have had to be skilled in math to get it there.

My first instinct would be to answer the question with:

oNe twO three fOur five six seveN Eight nine ten

Given the way language has evolved, it is highly unlikely that someone was able to "place" a code into our numerical system. Just one mispronunciation or misspelling at any point in the last thousand years could have thrown any code straight out the window. It is far more likely that the creator of the named web page spent many hours creating a theory to justify the code rather than identifying a theory and finding the code as is the proper scientific method. Road Wizard 22:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Road wizard, that would be your first instinct, the second should be to look. Did you see the site? It's free. Try and move the math around, like you moved the letters. And if you noticed, I did not pick letters to suit myself, those words are there.

Those words are there on the web page. But as I said, it is likely that the theory was made to suit the answer. If your question is "Can we prove that this person's theory is incorrect?" Then the answer is likely to be "no", as that would involve original research. However, by the same measure we cannot state that the theory is genuine and proven. In the absence of any proof I tried to help the editor who left the question by giving the answer that the code is probably a result of coincidence. If you are asking us some other question, then please state it. Thank you. Road Wizard 22:50, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

You answered the question. If there is a code there,the evolution of the language would not account for it. So either I put it there, or it is a coincidende. What other option is there?

Properly read capitals tell this : Who sent ? No one!, but the second lettering comes from nowhere. I checked the link and they say also : What is that saying? "Math don't lie." You can make every text, every book (try the Bible) tell what you expect. --DLL 19:36, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand what the significance of all of this is supposed to be, but it looks like numerological digit summing to me. I find it very unlikely that it is of great significance that one can form English words out of a few arbitrarily chosen letters from the English words for the first ten numbers. --Fastfission 21:13, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

How do you trace a contributers ip address if...

They are unregistered and it doesn't appear. For example, just an unregistered user name. Thanks!

A contributor's IP address cannot be seen when a username is used (unless you are one of the very select few with CheckUser). If a contributor is unregistered, the IP address may be found in a page's history, and traced through a whois search. — TheKMan^talk 21:44, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Name of a game?

I remember playing a board game in which you start off w/ a few pieces, and would either be able to place a new piece in a square adjacent to one of you pieces, or you could jump a space. Any of your opponent's pieces that were adjacent to the new/jumped piece would be turned into your pieces. The main goal is to either completely annihilate your opponents army or trap them so they wouldn't be able to jump over your pieces. On neopets I believe this game is called Armada. Does anyone know the actual name of this game?

It sounds like the ancient board game Go, or perhaps a variant of it. Road Wizard 22:10, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Correction, it is probably more likely to be Reversi. Road Wizard 22:13, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

It's neither Go or Reversi, in Reversi for a piece to change, it must be surrounded on both ends. In the game I'm talking about, a piece changes if its adjacent to recently placed/jumped piece.

Is this played on a square grid, or a hexagonal grid? If it's on a square grid, it's based on Ataxx. If it's on a hex grid, it's based on Hexxagon. --Serie 00:24, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Othello?(hotclaws**== 00:30, 8 June 2006 (UTC))

Ansonia Magenta clock

Has anyone ever come across an Ansonia Magenta 8-day clock? I've just put mine in to have the springs replaced, and I have never managed to find an internet reference to the model, even on eBay! G N Frykman 22:26, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

June 7

What are the Army ranks?

What are the army ranks form lowest to highest? So for example I know the first is private. Please include both enlisted and officer ranks.

Which army? There are a couple of hundred distinct ones around the world. On the default position that anybody who doesn't think to put a country in a country-specific question is from the United States, here's a link to United States Army. This article has an complete list of rankings. --Robert Merkel 01:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

And here I would be tempted to answer with the ranks for the Luxembourg army. :-) StuRat 02:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Questions like these make me propose to set the default on Luxemburg for real! Then maybe, just maybe, the problem might disappear.

Or...the poster just meant ALL ranks in ALL armies.Evilbu 13:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Try Category:Military ranks by country for all your ranking needs. Rmhermen 14:40, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

But that doesn't list the ranks for the Luxembourg army ! :-) StuRat 20:01, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Luxembourg has an army? I'm sure the ranks have altered over the years: did you just want the most recent lists? EvocativeIntrigue _{TALK | EMAIL} 20:45, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, we do have a list for Luxemburg - see Ranks and insignia of NATO armies officers from the category mentioned. Rmhermen 20:51, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Le Mans 1955 disaster Mercedes-Benz press release

after Mercedes-Benz called the cars back to Stuttgart, they issued a press release. is there a copy on the internet? on anywhere i could find one?

For the benefit of others, the accident you're referring to is the one that killed Pierre Levegh and dozens of spectators.

I'm fairly certain you won't find a copy of that press release on the internet, but I expect the company archives would have it. Try contacting Mercedes-Benz in your country and asking. --Robert Merkel 01:38, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Matilda

Does anyone know the artist and the title of the song that does the theme song for Matilda? --71.98.6.115 01:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Is it not one of the songs listed on the IMDb page for the movie: click here? Dismas|^(talk) 03:30, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It's Rusted Root. Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 18:08, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Western New York Boundaries

Hi! I was wondering which Counties and Cities are considered to be within the Western New York region. Technically, anyone living east of a specific region would be considered living western but which cities are actually considered withing WYN. Specifically, is Randolph, New York considered to be in Western New York?

Thank you, Steve Andolina

Randolph is in Cattaraugus County, New York; I'd say that's definitely western New York. --Golbez 03:17, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Internet Image

What was the first image to be put on the internet? I thought I saw an article about it on here awhile ago.

The article is First image on the Web. There is also something about the matter on Ask MetaFilter. –Mysid^(t) 04:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Woof. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 10:43, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

X2

I seem to remember (perhaps from the DVD?) something about comic backstories being produced to go with the movie. I am particularly intrested in the one for Nightcrawler (ein flockiger Damon! *squee*), and would like to know whether or not I imagined these, what the titles are, and whether or not it would be physically possible to find them (like whether or not someone has actually seen them existing somewhere). Thanks in advance! 172.165.117.66 04:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

"Of particular interest in this section was a detailed look at one of the promotional comic books that was released prior to the theatrical release of ’X2’, and which contained the complete back-story of Nightcrawler’s character (i.e. the events leading up to Nightcrawler’s attack on the White House). Chuck also provides us with some details about Nightcrawler’s anatomy that probably belongs in the “too-much-information” basket!!!"

Found at [4]. It indicates that the information is found on Disk 2 in 1.The History of the X-men ii)Nightcrawler Reborn. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on them, so maybe you should try rewatching this. Skittle 18:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Male 'aim' interference

This is a question that has been preying on my mind all day. I'll put it as delicately as I can. Usually, when a person of the male gender urinates, he will begin by pointing his appendage towards the toilet, and yet sometimes when the urine emerges, it flies off into a completely different direction (at a very strange angle) and goes on the floor of the bathroom, thus embarrassing himself and infuriating his girlfriend. The strangely-directioned stream lasts barely a second before the piss rights itself, thus following the path originally intended by said male. Why does this happen? What could possibly cause a well aimed stream to fly outward at an angle totally out of sync with its proposed direction? Is it too late to claim that a friend asked me to ask on their behalf? Phileas 05:30, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Dried semen blocking the stream, sometimes. Oh dear, and now I have to sign with my real name. Adam Bishop 05:32, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Don't be ashamed, Mister Bishop! Thanks, that never occurred to me! It makes sense, definitely. Phileas 05:41, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

For a start, perhaps it would be better if his girlfriend didn't stand right next to the toilet. If the gentleman is an "anteater" (i.e. uncircumsised), the foreskin can get folded across the outlet and be somewhat stuck down. This will be a bit like putting your finger over the end of a water tap when it's running. Once it gets wet it becomes unstuck and things are back to normal. Pulling the foreskin back a bit to release it before urinating will prevent this. --Shantavira 08:04, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

You could always sit down, if it distresses you (or your girlfriend) to have a urine-soak bathroom. It takes only seconds longer, maybe not even that if you normally have to lift the seat. Skittle 09:01, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

As seen at the in-laws: "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie." --Zeizmic 12:02, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Or at work: "Our AIM: a clean toilet. Your AIM: helps." sandman

There must be more! We aim to please. You aim too, please. --Zeizmic 22:56, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

On a (slightly) related note - a sign seen in a local pub toilet reads "We don't piss in your lungs, so please don't smoke in our toilets". --Kurt Shaped Box 23:00, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Does bono like bush?

Does Bono like Presiden Bush?

• Well, according to the article you linked to, Bono gave Bush "an iPod and a book, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson valued in total US$440." I personally wouldn't give such lavish gifts to someone who wasn't one of my friends... but then again I'm not as rich as Bono. I think the only way you could answer that question would be by asking Bono directly, but even then his answer would likely be swayed by whether he was currently campaigning for more US investment in Africa. Road Wizard 06:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

• I think if Bono gives someone a book which purports to re-explain to him his religion, that's not actually a sign of high respect. ;-) --Fastfission 13:35, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

How to title Flood article

How would I title an article about a specific flood. Would it be 2005 Example River Flood or something else? If it is the example I gave, would "flood" be capitalized, since it does seem to be proper there? Thanks, Chuck 07:44, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Also, what if the flood concerned a few close quartered rivers, how would an article be titled then (each river probably doesn't need it's own articles, but rather just a section). Thanks again, Chuck 07:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It might be best if you ask your question again over at Wikipedia:Help desk, as they are more geared up for helping you with questions about editing. :) Road Wizard 08:03, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, Chuck 08:05, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Growth

According to this graph, the number of articles in the english wikipedia was growing rapidly until February of 2006. At the time, new articles seems to drop off completely, with almost no new articles being created.

Is this graph accurate, or is there some sort of artifact that explains the oddity in the graph. If the graph is correct, what explains the sudden drop-off in new articles?? -Alecmconroy 10:19, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

There are no stats for EN after February, IIRC. Something to do with the xml files being to big, or somesuch. I forgot where I came across that gem, but you'll note that all the stats at http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm such as http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesArticlesTotal.htm have a certain blankness in the EN column from Feb 06. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Can we assume the same exponential growth continues then? Philc _T^E_C^I 21:01, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

By & large yes we can. If it runs in some proportion with pageviews, reference to Alexa internet stats is helpful - there might be some flattening of growth. --Tagishsimon (talk)

I would think it's safe to assume exponential growth indefinitely. (If the growth rate is greater than the worldwide population growth rate, then obviously the hard limit is the number of people * 16 (since everyone sleeps or is otherwise unavailable for Wikipedia for about a third of the day) * ~4, since it's not really possible to average more than 4 noteworthy new articles per hour for any length of time unless you're a script. A more reasonable metric is that there should be a hard limit of number of new articles that holds significantly close to the number of news stories appearing per hour on Google News, which indexes all major news sources.).

Is large file size why the edit count tools by Kate and Interiot (the original version, anyway) don't give accurate counts anymore?--Tachikoma 12:50, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Recording phone conversation

I have a lead with a normal headphone male connector (Ipod style) at each end, and a phone that accepts it. How do I record via a computer? I want both kinds of the conversation.--anon

Plug some headphones into the phone and see if it plays both sides of the conversation. If so, get a 3.5 mm jack cable and plug the phone into your computer. You don't mention what computer or OS you're using, but Audacity should work on whatever it is and be able to record what you want. --Canley 15:37, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I've just actually found that the 'phone doesn't take a 3.5mm Jack, it takes a different one that looks a bit like a broadband cable plug. ANy way of getting round this without buying anything? Thanks--84.51.149.80 16:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

post codes

The system of post codes in the UK is very precise. One post code can, I think, apply to no more than a few houses in a street. It is therefore possible to write just [house number] [post code] on an envelope and the letter will be delivered to the correct address. This is very different from most other countries, where a four- or five-digit post (zip) code covering a much wider area is the norm. (Canada may be similar to the UK.) Why is the UK system so different? In other words, why did the British feel the need for such a precise system when few other countries did? I checked postal code and UK postcodes and there is plenty of detail there, but nothing to answer my specific question. --Richardrj 12:46, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, that's an interesting question. I always hate it when people who actually know nothing about a topic answer *my* questions lol, but I'm going to break my own rule and speculate. First, Canada has a fairly similar system to the UK; the difference is we have way more physical space and about half as many people. :-) I've actually received letters with just my name and postal code. :-) But I think the important thing about your question isn't why the UK is different, but rather why *other* countries chose to be *different* from the UK. Or to put it another way, who was first? I predict that the historical competition between Britain and the US was a reason why the codes developed differently; either the US chose the numeric system to be different from the UK or vice-versa. Canada probably adopted the UK system because of being a former colony, and other nations probably imitated either the UK or the US depending on their political sympathies (notice France also uses the 5 digit system). Or perhaps the US chose to imitate the French system? In summary, I think that in order to understand how the postal code differences played out, it's necessary to understand the political climate during the eras when the codes were developed in each country.--Anchoress 13:04, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

(After Edit conflict)

I don't know for sure but I'd guess general thoroughness, efficiency & attention to detail. Hard to believe of the Royal Mail I know but it was back when we had the best postal system in the world. AllanHainey 13:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

By the way there are a lot of examples of post being delivered without a house number or postcode just something like "Tony, House with the green door, Kiddeminster", etc. But that's down to the skills of individual postmen & post offices. AllanHainey 13:09, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

My personal view is actually that the British system is too precise. If other countries get by on a simpler system then we should be able to as well. I'd be interested to see some stats on the relative proportions of mail going astray under the different systems - although this would be subject to many other variables as well, of course. --Richardrj 13:19, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

As to the history, it appears from our articles that the U.S. system was developed before French or the UK systems (but started implementation after the UK). Rmhermen 14:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

One reason the UK system is so precise is that it was invented at a time when not only was manual labour becoming more expensive, but the technology then existed to enable mail to be electronically encoded and automatically sorted down to that level. However, the ability to sort mail electronically extends only as far as the sorting office. The individual delivering the letter is unlikely to have memorized all the local postcodes and probably won't even look at them. He still needs to tally the street name with the street they are walking down, so although in theory you could get away with putting just a name or number and a postcode, this won't work in practice. At 11 Park Road, I regularly get mail for 11 Park Hill, even though they have a different postcode.--Shantavira 14:36, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

In theory, the United States system currently allows for a unique code for every addres, see ZIP Code and Delivery point. AFAIK, the full 11 digit code is never written out in numerals, but it printed on envelopes using the POSTNET bar-code. This is a system that has evolved over time, however, it don't think it was in the original ZIP specification. --LarryMac 14:47, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

The US system has a five digit system (the classic ZIP code) where each number represents around 10,000 addresses. There's also the nine-digit ZIP+4 system where each number supposedly represents a single address; in practice, allocation mistakes means it's sometimes a group of addresses. Finally, there's the Postal Service-internal bar code system where each code represents a single address. --Serie 20:13, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

theology

What are some of the emplyment opertunities available if one were to study theology. I do not want to be a priest, monk, nunn, minister. So outside of the obvious?

Professor. Rmhermen 14:28, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Religion editor of a newspaper or magazine.--Anchoress 14:31, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Barista--Anchoress 14:42, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Librarian or archivist in some religious institution? Or a specialist or researcher in a museum? --Shantavira 14:46, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Or how about a career where the subject you studied isn't that important? You're going to learn essay writing and critical thinking, so I would imagine that a number of writing-based careers are available. You'll probably find some additional training is needed though. DJ Clayworth 15:36, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Shepherd. Jon513 18:25, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

God ? --DLL 19:24, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Flipping burgers at McDonalds. --Serie 20:15, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

God, well since i am gods gift to woman, and am a god already is so, so many ways, i will probably end up flippin burgers, but will do it to obtain Karma, and free food.

Naming your country might help. – b_jonas 18:34, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

uk. Thanks dude.

Civil service? Skittle 13:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

civil service? please elaborate, this sounds very interesting, would this refer to military type work? thank you.

The British Civil Service covers a lot of different jobs, and I believe they have a fast-track system for people who have recently graduated. I was thinking along the lines of civil servants who advice politicians and make decisions, but there are other areas. There's also the security services, informally called MI5 and MI6, plus GCHQ. I'll have a look for the site(s) for you, as it has a lot of info. Basically, you can do a lot of things with a decent degree. You don't need to find something specific for it, as many companies and areas just look for a degree to show that you can learn. Skittle 17:16, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

MI5. Civil Service Fast Stream. Skittle 17:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Race relations? As long as your theology course is not looking at just one religion's viewpoint, you should get a very useful feel for the views of different ethnic groups. A broad knowledge of the different religions accompanied with the skills in debating you will likely develop should probably put you in good stead for any role where liaison between communities is necessary. Road Wizard 20:30, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen not by some internal church process as one might expect, but by the British Prime Minister. It could be said that the spiritual head of the Anglican Church is therefore a Civil Service post. JackofOz 09:46, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Select Few With CheckUser

How do you trace a contributers ip address if...

They are unregistered and it doesn't appear. For example, just an unregistered user name. Thanks!

A contributor's IP address cannot be seen when a username is used (unless you are one of the very select few with CheckUser). If a contributor is unregistered, the IP address may be found in a page's history, and traced through a whois search. — TheKMantalk 21:44, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

There are no "unregistered user names". There are user names, which can be checked with checkuser, and ip addresses, already visible. Any unsigned edits (which is perhaps the thrust of your question) show the responsible user/IP, as appropriate, in page history. — Lomn Talk 15:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

How would I get one of these select few to check this for me? 20 dollar handshake? Thoughts?

There's a reason why checkuser rights are limited to a select few. I believe that you would have to make a convincing case of some sort of abuse, such as the use of sockpuppets or threats, in order to get a registered contributor's IP address. --Tachikoma 15:38, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser is the place to go but you will need a valid reason and not just on a fishing trip and you will not be give the IP address of a registerd user. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:42, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

And how would one do this on their own wiki? --Optichan 18:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

General Sound/video file Converter

In the past few months someone suggested (at least twice) a converter for sound and/or video files called something like "media encoder" (I'm only sure about the media part) to people who needed something converted, but now I forgot the link and I can't find it in the archives. Can someone remind me of the program and its location? - Mgm|^(talk) 18:10, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

There are hundreds of formats (digital file type specifications) for audio and video, and dozens of programs to "convert" from format to format. Some formats can be decoded and re-encoded into the destination format, while others actually have to be played and simultaneously recorded and encoded by the converter program.

Sound formats range from MIDI (like a GIF is to images; best for sustained frequencies and not much level of deatail) to MP3 (the PNG of sound) which is very well-compressed and is good for all types of sound.

Video formats are more varied, and range from Windows AVI (completely uncompressed; enormous filesize) to WMV (windows's video format). Video formats, like audio, can typically be encoded at different framerates and resolutions, and with different video compression codecs (DivX, XviD).

You can get more specific help by providing the file extension of the media you're trying to convert (if the extension is AVI, give the compression codec if possible).

--Froth 20:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Or you can just run it through mencoder: with the right codecs installed, it can handle anything under the sun. --Serie 21:33, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

• The converter I had in mind could pretty much convert any of the major formats (at least that's what the user who posted it claimed). I'll give MPlayer a go. - Mgm|^(talk) 21:58, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Auto vs. general aviation fatality rates

Looking for info on whether it is safer to fly a private plane (obviously with a good pilot) or drive. In particular, i would like to know the fatality rates for driving under 100 miles vs. flying a four seater for the same distance.

Road casualty figures vary greatly between countries and also within a country on different classifications of road. Which country's figures are you interested in? Road Wizard 18:40, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

For such a short trip, I would expect driving to be safer. Small planes are more dangerous than large jets, typically due to less redundancy and pilot training, and, since take-offs and landings are the most dangerous parts of a flight, short flights are more dangerous, per mile, than long flights. Of course, if we're talking about driving a Yugo, then all bets are off. :-) StuRat 19:30, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

How far do you have to drive to get to and from the airport at each end, and how much of that driving can you avoid just be driving directly? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:55, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

True enough. I used to fly from Detroit to Toronto for business, on a regular basis. Since the drive took four hours and the actual flight took only 40 mins, I thought I was saving time. However, when I added up the hour to drive to the Detroit airport, the hour to drive from the Toronto airport, the time to check in and go through security, the time to rent or return a rental car, and the extra time I needed to arrive early at the airport "just in case", it was actually taking me longer than 4 hours total to fly. Since then I've been driving. StuRat 13:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Bust size by nationailty?

Can anyone shed any information on the average bust size (breasts) by nationality or rather ethnicity? KingstonJr 18:42, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm... interesting question. I think the problem with your criteria is over- and under-nourishment. When people of any ethnicity migrate to Western countries (well, the US and Canada mainly), they tend to get bigger. So Chinese women are likely to have smaller breasts than Chinese-Americans, black African women smaller than African-American, etc. Never mind the general quality of Westerners being over-fed, while other ethnic groups may on average be less well-fed, or even undernourished. Unless women with similar body fat percentages are compared, it's hard to tell whether a particular ethnicity tends to have larger busts. And then there's the implant issue. Do you mean natural breasts only?--Anchoress 18:54, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

You also might need to define "size" more precisely. Volume might have mainly to do with body weight, which would be higher in wealthy nations, while length can be a result of stretched breasts from lack of bras and breast-feeding multiple children. This would be more common in poor countries. And, as the previous responder asked, are we including women who have been "blessed by the silicone fairy" ? :-) StuRat 20:06, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Certainly there are studies of this on the web if you look hard enough. --Proficient 08:46, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

User Page Formatting

I'm not very good at formatting Wikipedia, so if someone could help me, that would be great. At the bottom of my user page is the 'Where I've Been' section, which is just below my user boxes. I used a level 1 heading for 'Where I've Been,' but it was located to the right of my last userbox instead of below it. I pressed 'enter' about 8 times, so it looks better, but doesn't seem right. Just link to my user page and click 'edit'. Thanks! Reywas92 19:00, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Try {{clear}}, {{clearleft}}, or {{clearright}}? If that doesn't work, perhaps another template at Category:Wikipedia special effects templates will help. Jon513 19:05, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

None of that worked for me, perhaps you could take a look at it. Reywas92 13:28, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Try this : put 'Where I've been' before your too many userboxes sexion. --DLL 22:22, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• I have placed the {{clear}} template just in front of the affected section and it appears to have fixed your problem. Road Wizard 20:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

field of view in video games

I was wondering.. what's the traditional angle of vision in first-person video games, specifically shooters? Were there any noticably deviant games?

Metroid Prime and Halo seemed to have a lower field of view than other games, and in Unreal Tournament you could practically see next to you.

I'm guessing about 90 or 100 degrees?

--Froth 19:13, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't that signifigantly reduce the comfort of the gamer, and perhaps even cause him to sweat? XM 20:43, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

The viewing isn't actually taking place in a field. --Froth 21:28, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

According to Half-Life 2 controversies and criticisms, Half-Life 2 "defaults to 75 degrees instead of the more commonly used 90 degrees." It caused some problems, apparently. Sum0 22:23, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Quake-engine games defaulted to 90 (the console command is "fov 90") but many consider fov 120 to be more "natural". I personally enjoyed doing fov 180 so I could watch everywhere when defending the flag. ;) --Golbez 00:36, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I've tried playing halo with a 300 degree FOV (theres an fov hack) for that very purpose, but it was way too hard :D --Froth 05:43, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Golf majors

Something I always wanted to know - why does the world of golf allow the Americans to host three out of four majors? It is a global sport like tennis, and tennis is shared amongst different countries, so why not golf? Who makes/made this decision, and whose decision is it to continually allow this? Sandman

Tradition? The U.S. has a lot of open space and a lot of golf courses? A lot of golfers are American? On a per capita basis, the United States has seven times as many courses as Europe. Europe is catching up, but it's not surprising that the U.S. is still king when it comes to golf. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:20, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

In my opionion, the USA can host as many as they like, if other countries want to host a tournament, no one is stopping them, i quess America is just more of a golfing nation than most others.Anton 14:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)Anton

Humor

What's funny? XM 20:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Humor is funny, if you'll forgive the truism (read the article for a start..) --Froth 21:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

White people with phoney Jamaican accents are always funny. --81.76.118.221 22:27, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I thought we'd got over this phase? -Benbread 10:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It's also usually funny when people are caught on CCTV licking toilet seats or sniffing the chair seats of female co-workers. --81.76.118.221 22:29, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

See Inherently funny word. Dismas|^(talk) 01:34, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Many things are funny.--Proficient 08:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

relatives

are ray romano and christy carlson romano related?

The best African country?

I realise that this is a difficult question to answer, but are there any countries in Africa that do not have excessive corruption in government? What are the well run countries in Africa?

People actually study this, and there's a published Corruption Perceptions Index, which we of course have an article on (and maps!). The best run country in Africa, according to this study (and other, more anecdotal evidence I've heard) is Botswana. Trailing it are Tunisia, South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius. --ByeByeBaby 22:35, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I concur with the Botswana comment. I had an econ prof who did a semester there, and he talked to use about their econ policies. Basically, the government has adopted the spend-thriftly and save-wisely mentality that most farmers there practice. As a result, the country is in extremely good fiscal shape. Raul654 22:41, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

(As an aside, Botswana still has its share of troubles despite its decent management: "Approximately one in three Batswana has HIV, giving Botswana the second highest HIV infection rate in the world after Swaziland". — Matt Crypto 23:05, 7 June 2006 (UTC))

Yes Botswana has the strongest economy in Africa. I hear from people who have worked with Botswana government that you do not step out of line there, they play hardball. And they reward contractors very well. BTW I live in South Africa and my personal perecption is one of higher corruption - just follow the Jacob Zuma case as an example. sandman

This is a very interesting question. When it comes to peace (no rebels) and stability I would have said Botswana and Tanzania are the best? And I also would have said South Africa is the richest country (although even if that is true, one still does not speak of how wealth is distributed among the South African population). Evilbu 12:23, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Viva Africa, Viva Botswana Viva

Also Botswana has Precious Ramotswe keeping the country in order! -- SGBailey 15:57, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

But also all the land is publicly owned, and so farmers take no care for it, so soil erosion is becoming a major problem and unless they do something all of the farmland will be infertile and there subsitence farming population may starve. Philc _T^E_C^I 13:26, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

having been born in Botswana, and concerning the previous answer, there is soil erosion, but the rest of that answer is utter fucking rubish! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk)

Yes as I was born in britain, therefore I am also an economic expert on the countries agriculture industry, and physical geographical concerns it has. Philc _T^E_C^I 20:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Anyway the point is overgrazing of the land by subsistences farmers who do not own it is destoying the farm land and soil erosion is become a major issue especially as it supports about 30% of the population. Philc _T^E_C^I 20:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Looking for a news story from a few years ago - man shot in the head six times and survived.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I think it was a failed contract killing. I remember reading about it on the web a couple of years ago. There was an execerpt from the police report which went something like "Mr X. approached Mr. Y's car, knocked on the window, drew a gun and fired six shots into Mr. Y's head at point blank range. At this point, Mr Y. opened the car door, pushed Mr X. to the ground and ran away to seek help". Anyone have any more details about the incident I'm talking about? If I remember correctly, the victim made a full recovery. --81.76.118.221 22:26, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know anything about the attack, but I'm not surprised the victim survived. A .22 caliber pistol round fired from a short-barreled gun doesn't hit that hard, and some parts of the skull are quite thick. Add in the (very slight) protection from firing through a window, and the victim is likely to end up with nothing worse than six very bloody scalp wounds (scalp wounds always are) and a headache. --Serie 23:32, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

This is almost certainly not what you are thinking of, but: notorious terrorist Abu Nidal died in Iraq in 2002 under controversial circumstances. Saddam Hussein's police forces closed in to arrest him, and claimed he committed suicide before they could take him into custody. The problem with their story is that he died of multiple (as many as 6) gunshot wounds to the head. Raul654 23:37, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Tragically accidentally brutally stabbed himself in the stomach while shaving? Skittle 08:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Several people survived getting shot multiple times. See Martin Foley, some guy and a cat. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 05:24, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Identifying the incident would be easier if you could provide some info on what country it occurred in. AllanHainey 08:44, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Kurt Cobain, shop twice. 50cent, shot numerous times.

And the bullets still try to find a neuron. --DLL 22:09, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Is this it?--Anchoress 22:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Or this? (Although I'm not 100% sure this one's real).--Anchoress 22:51, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

And here is another one (PDF file, 'Lynne Vines').--Anchoress 22:53, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Surgery and drugs

What kind of surgery might of someone had done if they are currently taking Hydromorphone?

V.Painful surgery, or surgery on something v.painful, by the looks of it. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Would this be taken after an abortion?

• I don't have any personal experience, but I doubt an abortion (a legal one) would be physically painful enough to warrant this kind of medication. (Quick note: It's might have, not might of) - Mgm|^(talk) 08:47, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

You can't deduce type of surgery or procedure from the choice of analgesic. These practices vary widely around the world for all sorts of reasons. Anyone who thinks he can answer this has no idea what he is talking about. And for the questioner, if you are not intimate enough with the patient to ask, the answer is none of your business. alteripse 10:53, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Hear hear, good answer.--Anchoress 11:02, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Legality of copying music to portable devices in the UK

Is it really the case that in the UK "currently anyone transferring music to portable devices breaks copyright laws"[5]? What about the rest of the world? (I've looked up Ripping#Legal_status, so far). (P.S. I'll assume that you're not a lawyer ;-) — Matt Crypto 22:43, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It's currently illegal in Australia ("format shifting" as it's called in the UK and Australia), but the government announced recently that they were considering changing these laws [6]. --Canley 03:05, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I believe it is illegal in the UK, as far as I know it is still illegal to tape songs off the radio (seriously doubt anyone's ever been charged though). AllanHainey 08:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Alan Greenspan

How is it that Alan Greenspan makes $150,000 per speech? Are there any other speakers who make so much? JianLi 23:13, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

How? Supply and demand - i.e. there are organizations willing to pay this much. Others? Yes. Bill Clinton. Colin Powell. Lance Armstrong. John Cleese. Jack Welch. [7]. -- Rick Block (talk) 00:32, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Half remembered anime I'm trying to track down

Recently, some memories of an anime series I watched years back, when I was younger and even more foolish, have resurfaced, and I'm trying to track it down. The features I'm fairly certain are accurate are:

• the main hero had the power to transform into a armoured-man type thing, for more effectiveness in combat. The hero may have been named 'Spike' or 'Balde', though that could be Cowboy Bebop clouding my mind.
• it was set approximately in the 21st-23rd centuries, and was post-apocalyptic of some sort.
• there was an orbital ring around the equator, and it was falling apart. The first episode is set there, as that is where the hero meets the rest of the 'good' characters.
• some other members of the 'good' party could also turn into an armoured-man.
• at some point later in the series, just turning into an armoured man isn't good enough, and to save the world the hero must undergo some sort of transformation to make him more powerful, but it means his body will disintegrate under the strain within 24 hours. Or something like that.

I think it was on Cartoon Network, but I've looked through the list of CN programs and couldn't find anything that looked like this. I also checked our lists of 'notable' anime, and, you guessed it, zilch. Googling is difficult because I don't have any concrete terms. Thanks to all you anime-lover-types in advance, --Sam Pointon 23:35, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like Tekkaman Blade (alternatively called Teknoman) Road Wizard 23:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's it. Many thanks --Sam Pointon 00:13, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

June 8

Rock

Hi there,

Recently, I visited urbandictionary.com and when I was looking at the defintion of Goth chick, they were showing a picture of a goth chick kissing a punk chick. Can anyone tell me the difference between a goth and a punk?

Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]]) .

Try looking in goth and punk. -Goldom (t) (Review) 02:36, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Goths are generally depressed, stay indoors, come out at night, hat the world and dress in black, most importantly, they listen tio goth rock music such as Type O Negative, Sisters of mercy, ect. A Punk is a rebel, they hate organizations such as government, and anything that is pretty and nice. more importantly they listen to Punk music such as Offspring, Sexpistols. Sorry to steriotype people so, but it had to be done in the context of the question. And listen to more Slayer! Black metal will rule the world! Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir.

The main difference is that goth chicks are gorgeous while punk chicks are ugly :) --Richardrj 09:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

that was so well put, richardrj, goth women are beautiful what with the dark hair, and the pale skin and green eyes and the oh my god(simpsons?)

Iraqi Civ Casualties

Hello,

I'm doing research on the war, and I was wondering if anyone could point me to a reference that gives the statistics to Iraqi civilian casualties as a result of a) Insurgency, b) Criminal, c) Genocide related, d) & other general murders due to related type of injustice BEFORE the US invasion in 2003. Particularly in the city of Baghdad, as a response to May's record-setting 1300 or so deaths in the capital. I'm basically just trying to see on a very superficial level the before and afters of the war. Also, if anyone has a detailed account of general social development in Iraq (or just Baghdad) as a result of US or coalition intervention (increase in technology, international trade, medical availability, civil liberties, education, housing, etc.)

Thanks --Lt Aurum 02:50, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

You may or may not have seen the Lancet study?[8]--inks^T 04:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Note that the study, while well done, only goes back 14 months before the war. During this period Iraq was on it's "best behaviour" to try to circumvent the invasion. Thus, the study excludes most of the deaths caused by Saddam, such as the Kurdish genocide, the crackdown against the Shia uprising, the Kuwait invasion, and the Iran-Iraq war. Altogether these actions costed millions of lives. StuRat 21:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Perfect, that's just what I needed for what the mortality stats. Thorough and well-referenced. Thank you very much. Still looking for the development arguments. Thanks in advance.

--Lt Aurum 05:56, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• You might want to read the articles Casualties of the conflict in Iraq since 2003, Suicide bombings in Iraq since 2003 and Reconstruction of Iraq. If the articles themselves are not what you are after then they each provide a list of refernces they are based on. A word of caution though on the casualty figures is that no set of figures have ever been agreed by all parties. Supporters of the war (including governments of the coalition forces) generally give the lowest estimated casualty figures whilst those who opposed the war generally quote the highest. If I remember correctly, the figures in the Lancet study linked above (estimating 100,000 deaths) were not accepted by the UK, USA and the interim Iraqi government. Not surprisingly, their support went to the UN commisioned study that only identified 24,000 war related deaths. Road Wizard 06:44, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

IIRC it (aforementioned Lancet study) was also fast-tracked through peer review and just happened to be released a few days before voting during the last US Presidential elections. I'm sure I was not the only person who was a little suspicious about the timing. I'm not on campus at the moment so I can't use WebOfKnowledge to see if its been cited by other publications seeking to validate its findings (or vice versa), but I wouldn't be surprised to find a few in addition to the one Road Wizard mentioned. Regardless, it's certainly an interesting read, and I would be hard pressed to improve on their methodology.--inks^T 07:58, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Except, as I noted above, that the study seemed to exclude the periods during which Saddam did the majority of the killings. StuRat 13:56, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Copy Cat (sick) Site

I was searching on the net (as I usually do) and I came accross something that you guys (Wiki Admins/Whoever) might want to look at... http://articles.ogrish.com/index.php/Main_Page

That's a copy page or wikopedia, if you go into the categorys it looks exactly like Wikipedia (except its all gory) if someone could send me a reply to my talk page and here that'd be great, I dont know if you guys have copyright laws regarding this or something.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Luke Smith64 (talk • contribs) 03:04, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

What makes you think it's copying Wikipedia? The pages I looked at aren't copies of Wikipedia pages. It runs on the same software as Wikipedia, but that's fine, because we make our software open source and free for use.-gadfium 04:14, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you not frown upon the use of your software for sinister purposes? Does it not bother you that the same instruments you use for the purpose of good is being recreated as a mere joke from a site like www.orgish.com ?

The MediaWiki software package is open-source and free-to-use. Since it's relased under GNU General Public License, no one can really force anyone to stop using it. — TheKMan^talk 04:38, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

What's sinister about it? Some of the stuff that I read was actually well written. Granted, the topics are most likely distasteful to most people but who are we to judge? Dismas|^(talk) 05:36, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Lots of sites use the mediawiki software; even I have a local installation of it. --Froth 05:41, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

And lots of sites copy Wikipedia content. This is encouraged. See Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks. --Shantavira 07:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

So that means Uncyclopedia, which uses the exact same layout, isn't in trouble for copying the Wikipedia software either?? Evilbu 10:25, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It's a lot better than wikitruth. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 16:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

It's not "copying wikipedia's layout", it's just using the same software. And anyway, I believe uncyclopedia is one of the officially recognized under-cylopedias of mediawiki. You can download the software here. You need a mysql and php server to run it though. --Froth 04:13, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, who here isn't running PHP and MySQL servers? :) Also don't forget that you need to be running a web server as well. Apache is recommended. --Optichan 18:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Firfox Problem

I can't log into Wikipedia with Firfox because I keep getting "Login error: Wikipedia uses cookies to log in users. You have cookies disabled. Please enable them and try again." I checked at "Tools\Options\Privacy\Cookies" and the "Allow sites to set Cookies" is checked and when I look at the cookies there is a Wikipeda one there. I can log in with Maxthon and when I copy and paste an address from it to Firefox it shows all the usual "CambridgeBayWeather my Talk page Preferences Check my Watchlist My Contributions Log out" across the top. But as soon as I click on any link on the page and not just the top ones I am logged out again. I used it 2 days ago with no problems and there have been no updates and nobody else using the computer. I tried clearing the cookies but that didn't help. Anybody have any ideas why it's doing this? CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 03:22, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you use any of the Sister projects (e.g. Wikisource)? I had a similar problem occur to me and I solved it by allowing the other projects I am involved with to set permanent cookies. It might also be caused by a firewall if you have it set to block 3rd party cookies. Hope this helps. Road Wizard 07:06, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I have an account at the Commons but I haven't used Firefox to log in there and the firewall has been up for months. Thanks though. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 11:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Huh! Fixed now and I didn't do anything. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:14, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Photocopying using hp psc 1315 all-in-one

I have a printer - "hp psc 1315 all-in-one." One of its many functions is to photocopy A4 and letter page size. However when it is set at 100% and I try to photocopy a page of size A4, anything beyond the letter page size (namely the bottom 2 cms. of the page) will not be photocopied. Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong and how I can correct this. Thank you.

You need to change the page size. It defaults to US Letter, rather annoyingly for the rest of the world. The menu system will let you choose page size. On my psc 1210, it used to keep reverting to US Letter size every so often for no reason I could fathom, but doesn't seem to have done so in the last year.-gadfium 09:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you gadfium. Can you please explain to me how to use the menu system to make this change. Thank you.

My model is different, so my menu is likely to be different to yours. However, what I do is press a button labelled "Copy options" - your one may be called something else - and the LCD screen on the printer displays "Reduce/Enlarge". I press it again, and the LCD shows "Paper Type". Several more presses give me "Lighter/Darker", "Enhancements", and then "Paper Size". That's the one I want, so I press the button labelled Enter. The LCD then shows the current paper size "Letter" or "A4", and I use left and right arrow keys to choose which one I want, then press Enter again. I then keep pressing "Copy Options" until the LCD screen says "Set New Defaults". Press Enter, and the LCD will toggle between "Yes" and "No". Select Yes with the left or right arrows, then press Enter to save the changes you made.

Having typed all that, I went to see if I could find your manual online, and here it is:this. I could find no instructions in it for setting paper size, although on page 26 it says paper size is detected by the psc. You may have to ask in a forum dedicated to HP printers to get better help than I can give you. [9] may be a good place to start.-gadfium 20:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you gadfium. I appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to assist me. I will try and do as you suggest.

How can a female parrot lay eggs without a male?

My Sun Conure hen just laid an egg. I have no male bird (and it certainly wasn't me!), so how come she could lay the thing in the first place? She's been broody recently but I didn't know that an egg would come without being mated. --81.77.94.196 08:22, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

it's my understanding that eggs are laid regardless of whether they have been fertilized. for example, eggs you would buy at the store are unfertilized. Similarly, a woman normally goes through a full menstrual cycle even when not becoming pregnant, and this includes ovum leaving the body... Of course, when the ovum is fertilized, humans tend not to "lay" the egg, since "man, like all mammals, gives birth to live young." But the idea is the same. See egg. 87.97.11.143 08:41, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Some birds are able to change thier sex. eg chickens with no cock, may, somtimes, have one of them develop varios characteristics of a cock, progesivly until one day, it is a cock. wiki had a feature article on that a while back.

I have 8 chickens at home. They lay eggs at the rate of about 1/day. We don't have any roosters. And we have a lot of good french toast and pancakes.  :-) Dismas|^(talk) 10:09, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I used to have a canary, and it was sold to me as a male, and then one Halloween my mom called me and told me that "he" had laid an egg! I thought it was a Halloween joke, but when i got home, it was a real egg. She ended up laying about half a dozen more eggs until we sold her. СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 13:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

looking for movie where cigarette is passed on and people confess stuff (hostages in bar?): possible spoilers

First of all I wanna thank everyone who answered previous questions.

However it would be convenient if there was a special place to ask questions about a particular ovie, now it gets bumped back and after a few days it is gone, and nobody will see it even if he knows it. A special place would be good for potential responsing and asking people. Or is there one already?

Anyway : I am looking for a movie (could be a tv series but I doubt it) where at one point a lot of people are sitting around a table (I think in a bar) and it appeared they were held hostage by one guy, in any case he seems to be the boss there. He is not really threatening them at that point, but forces them to tell things. They pass a cigarette around, everyone smokes, and when it burns up, and stuff falls off, that guy has to tell something. One guy started to admit he had impotence problems. Then the 'boss' orders a young woman (I think he called her Candy) to light another cigarette up, and this time a man has to speak up, and I think he has a suitcase of which he refuses to reveal the content.

What was this movie? Does anyone know the name? What was going on?

Thanks

Evilbu 10:24, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Canada's Maritime provinces

What is the general landscape of the Canadian Maritime provinces?What are the relative locations of the Canadian Maritime provinces?

Try Maritimes. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Oaths in a UK court

Can I have the text of the "tell the truth" oaths in a UK court, both the "almighty God" one and the affirmation. Thanks--Keycard ^(talk) 12:05, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. Looks like we need a Sworn testimony article, if anyone knows anything about it. Hang on. Skittle 13:16, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

According to [10] they are as follows:

The Oath - the terms of the oath are:

“I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

The Affirmation - the terms of the affirmation are:

“I do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”.

Skittle 13:21, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• A note of caution on the wording of the oath in England and Wales is that it can be modified based on the religious views of the witness:

I swear by [substitute Almighty God/Name of God (such as Allah) or the name of the holy scripture] that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. [11]

It is possible that the oath in Scotland (see comment below) may have similar permitted alterations. As yet I haven't found the wording of oaths or affirmations in Northern Ireland. Road Wizard 20:32, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• I think I am finding enough variations for a whole article here. This time a variation for use by witnesses under the age of 17, or for all witnesses if none of the accused are over 17.

I promise before Almighty God that the evidence which I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. [12]

The pertinent variation here being "promise" instead of "swear". Road Wizard 20:43, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

An interesting potential future development from [13] Judges at the Crown Court:

We are wholly in favour of replacing the current oaths for witnesses and jurors with a simple formula that can be used by everybody whatever their religious persuasion or lack of it. Its form must nevertheless be sufficiently solemn to drive home the necessity to abide the promise. This is particularly true in a criminal court where there should be no dilution of the undertaking.

We suggest a witness's oath as follows

"I will tell the truth and I understand that I am liable to prosecution for perjury if I state anything that I know to be false or do not believe to be true."

Jurors oath

"I solemnly undertake to try the defendant and to return a true verdict according to the directions of law that am given and to the evidence that I receive."

[LCD ref: 401]

Interesting that it suggests only telling the truth out of fear of prosecution, not because you 'promise'. More of an acknowledgment than an oath. Skittle 13:24, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• The historical reason for swearing an oath to God was so that people would be too afraid of divine retribution in the afterlife to say anything other than the truth. Making people tell the truth out of fear of prosecution isn't too much different. Road Wizard 18:34, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• There is a slight variation in the oath and affirmation of witnesses in Scotland;

Oath: I swear by Almighty God that I will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Affirmation: I solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

I suspect that the ones provided by Skittle are the ones for courts in England and Wales. The Scottish variant makes no mention of evidence, but simply the truth. This was in the Act of Sederunt (Summary Cause Rules 2002. I have no idea whether the oath or oaths in Northern Ireland follow either of the above patterns, or if they have their own variant. Road Wizard 17:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, sorry. As with assuming someone who doesn't specify a country is American (US), it seems like someone who only specifies UK is English... My fault. Skittle 18:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Scotland allowed you to affirm rather than swear for quite a while - nineteenth century at least, I'm fairly sure. Shimgray | talk | 16:12, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

fear of women

I have had sex a number of times with numerous partners, but, not recently: When woman comes up to me and asks me for my phone number or starts touching me, telling me i am sexy ect, i feak. I either just cant think of anything to say, and i end up just running away, this does not help my sex life whatsoever. could some one please tell me how to over come this fear.

If you really don't think you can handle this yourself (by simply working with a female friend or friend of a friend) then you should see a psychiatrist - he or she is bound to be able to help you (I would recommend not going to see one that is attractive to you just in case). - Big O

This is not uncommon. You might it easier to focus on developing platonic friendships (with both sexes) for a while in order to build up your confidence. Check out the external links from our articles on shyness and love-shyness. Also I think a psychoanalyst would be of more help than a psychiatrist. --Shantavira 19:18, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Could it be a case of "better latent than never" ? That is, latent homosexuality may cause you to react with fear or disgust towards women. This is most likely if you live in an environment where homosexuality is considered taboo. StuRat 20:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I concur with StuRat. That is the most likely reason.

It's a valid idea but how can you say that latent homosexuality is "the most likely reason?" --Froth 03:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Hogwash. Homosexuality, latent or otherwise, is not equivalent to misogny or "gynophobia" or whatever. And it's a valid idea only in that it is an idea. --LarryMac 15:44, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

To clarify, it's not the homosexuality itself that may cause a fear or disgust of women, but rather the repression of homosexuality, or more precisely, the forced heterosexuality. For comparison, a heterosexual man may not feel any animosity towards other men, unless he was forced to have sexual relations with them, which might then make him fear or be disgusted by them. Or, for an even sicker comparison, you may not have a fear or disgust for sheep until forced to have sex with them (unless you like this type of thing). Note that the person may very well force themselves to engage in heterosexuality, out of fear of being labeled abnormal, but not without consequences. StuRat 22:23, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

ok, so i am not gay, i have nothing against gay people, i just really really love women, i find them fasinating and would rather spend time with any woman than any man. but i still have the above mentioned problem. any one?

Easy there people! Let's not unnecessarily freak out the young lad about his sexual orientation!

Yes, homosexuality is always a possibilty, and if that's indeed the case here, there are certainly far more appropriate ways of helping another to adjust his psyche to that reality than to have some RD editor conclude without even meeting the person, that "homosexuality is the most likely" explanation.

While there's nothing that should be considered wrong about having such an orientation, at the same time, I think it's fair to say, and I sincerely believe most homosexuals would agree, that having to adjust one's psyche to that reality is, in most instances at least, a rather difficult, if not traumatic psychological experience.

In any case, as a heterosexual, in my younger years I've experienced some of the very reactions described by the questioner. I can actually relate to a great deal of what he's describing.

Based on my experience, I'll give you my take on the situation. The "most likely" explanation to me, is that the questioner, who is likely a rather shy individual, perhaps due to the old "ugly duckling" syndrome, was, for a good period of adoloscence largely ignored and dismissed by his female peers, and was denied the opportunity to become comfortable with the female sex. Now that he's actually become quite physically attractive to his female peers, he has trouble adjusting to his new status as an attractive male, and is confused and frightened about how to react when faced with sexual advances by attractive women.

As was suggested earlier, a psychoanalyst is probably a good idea if this is causing a serious amount of distress. In the meanwhile, however, all I can say is: You lucky bastard! Enjoy it while it lasts and before you develop a gut like an old guy like me! Loomis51 03:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Not that I'm going back on my previous response in any way, I just feel I have to make one additional remark. Although most of the questioner's story seems very plausible to me, the one suspicious statement was the very first: "I have had sex a number of times with numerous partners". That one had me a bit puzzled. If that's indeed the case, why, with all your "experience" are you all of a sudden so shy around women? I suppose there can be many valid answers to that which again I can relate to. Perhaps you were "seduced" several times after loosening up with a bit of alcohol. That's possible. It's also possible though that the "I have had sex a number of times with numerous partners" statement was a bit of a white lie, which is ok too. Perhaps you're actually a virgin, but too shy to admit to it. Don't worry, that's perfectly ok too. Just relax, be yourself, and if you should have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask them here or even to me personally, on my userpage. I'm not always so caring, it's just that I can SO TOTALLY relate to what you're talking about as I went through an almost identical experience in my younger years. Good luck and relax, what you're going through, the way you describe it is very common and very natural. Loomis51 21:16, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

contacts

How would i contact Hotclaws, and what country is she in?

the usual means is to drop a note at eir talk page. — Lomn Talk 15:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• Unless someone chooses to divulge their location, you can't figure that out. Wikipedia values the privacy of its editors. - 131.211.210.10 07:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Well, I can figure out your location. You're at a library somewhere in the Netherlands, or at least you were when you wrote the above comment. If you don't want people to be able to figure that sort of stuff out, you might consider registering an account. --Trovatore 21:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah drop me a line on talkpage and I'll get back to you(hotclaws**== 12:57, 9 June 2006 (UTC)) this applies to all my other fans too*bows modestly*

I think a more important question is: how does she type with two claws and no hands? perhaps it is the same way you type with boxing gloves on. Jon513 18:24, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Ford Bankruptcy

Is it true that GM once bailed Ford out of bankruptcy becuse GM thought the competion was good for business. If true what year did it happen?

Not true, see our article on Ford. — Lomn Talk 16:58, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

No, but Cadillac, a GM division, was formed from the Henry Ford Company when Ford left (He then founded the more successful Ford Motor Company.) Rmhermen 17:51, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

"Content function" on wiki

How do I set up one of those "Content"-functions on my edited pages? The ones that list the headlines in the text?

• Do you mean the table of contents at the top of the page? That appears automatically when you have created enough separate ==sections==. Road Wizard 17:33, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Though if you really want a table of contents NOW! then you could put the reserved word __FORCETOC__ at the top of the article. See Help:Magic words for a list of most of the reserved words. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Historical EPA path of action

Where do I find information on specifically how the EPA enacted requirements for automobiles to have catalytic converters in/around 1976? More specifically, also need to know how the "grandfather clause" applied to vehicles manufactured prior to these requirements?

Thank you, Pclukies 17:16, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• I am assuming EPA means United States Environmental Protection Agency. Is this correct? Road Wizard 17:48, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• I have a number of secondary works on the history of the EPA at home; I'll scan through their indexes later and see if there is anything on this particular issue. --Fastfission 18:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, EPA means the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Thank you for your help.

upload homework

is there anywhere where i can upload my finished homework assignments so that other students can download it and use it? --anonymoUs

• Why would you want to do this? --Fastfission 18:28, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

To help fellow students so that it'll be easy for them to get free time instead of working all the time.

• Do this instead: graduate from school and then upload an image of your diploma. People can download it, substitute their name and print it out. Problem solved! No need to go to school at all and learn all that reedin' and ritin' and 'rithmetic. Weregerbil 18:38, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• • Why not just put a copy of your finished homework on the bulletin board at your school? --hydnjo talk 18:41, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Fictionpress.com or .net, don't know which.--Anchoress 18:50, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

If someone at your school copies one of your assignments, and the teacher finds out about it, both of you could be in trouble. StuRat 20:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Someone (try this site) should design an homeworkizer to slightly and randomly modify the original homework. So plenty of others could take time for interesting things like, editing WP:RD ... --DLL 21:58, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Why, if there is an efficient and reliable way of acquiring a qualification without doing the work, it just completely devalues the qualification, so your not earning anything, your just taking from those who earned it. Do people think!? its a bit like giving everyone a knighthood. You haven't changed the world so that everyone has done something outstanding and earned it, you've just devalued the ones that were earned. Philc _T^E_C^I 23:20, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

• "So you're not earning anything," Have you invested in a spelling qualification? - 131.211.210.10 07:37, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Apparently wikipedians are fiercely proud of their education and don't like the idea of people getting the same degree for less work.. --Froth 03:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Nothing wrong with getting the same degree for less work. It's the no work that is the clincher for me. They're simply not being honest... - 131.211.210.10 07:37, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Alright you bunch of dickheads, I was making a point, and its a valid one, theres no point in having a qualification unless you earned it. I don't, I don't have any, not one single one, absolutely fuck all, but if I do get one, I will earn it, and you will give any tosser that didn't a mouthfull of shit, because thats what they are there for, to help see which people are best suited for which jobs in society, I dunno about you, but I don't bloody want to be on an aeroplane engineered by a bunch of bin men who downloaded their degrees. Philc _T^E_C^I 13:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Remember no personal attacks... 19:47, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I won't be giving my homework to other students at MY school--but instead to whoever wants to use it. I get high marks, and I want others to use it. It'd be like Wikipedia---free shared knowledge--I gain nothing from it, but others do. --anonymoUs

But if you post it on the web, how would you prevent others at your school from copying it ? Especially when you consider that those at your school are more likely to have the same assignments, and thus be able to benefit from copying your work, than other students from random schools. StuRat 14:04, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Surveillance

Hi, what is the name of that programme or web page that, using a satelite from space, allows you to monitor the world, but in real time, like live broadcast, it was something like that i think, you could close up and see people walking and stuff like that,i would require an answer very quickly, please.--Captain ginyu 20:17, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

No such program exists. Sorry. I mean, there might be individual webcams, but I'm reasonably sure there are no live-feed satellites, and certainly none you can aim. --Golbez 20:28, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

You might be thinking of Google Earth, which pieces together a huge amount of satellite imagery to form a picture of the entire globe. It's certainly not a "real-time live broadcast" though - the pictures are up to several years old. Some major cities do have such high-resolution that you can see people and cars (stationary of course). There would be considerable privacy and security concerns if a program or website like the one you describe existed. --Canley 03:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course they exist and they're in the control of rogue NSA agents. The military can buy its way into access too. See Enemy of the State and Behind Enemy Lines (film) respectively. --Froth 04:09, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

NSA "agents," rogue or otherwise, do not control imagery satellites. That is the job of other government agencies. Even with all the issues going on with unauthorized monitoring, we still don't live in movieland, and fictional films are not an accurate guide to reality. --DavidGC 19:34, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

However, the high resolution images of cities are really aerial photos, not satellite ones. – b_jonas 13:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The only organization in the world that has anything approaching that kind of capability is the National Reconnaissance Office, who operates the United States reconnaissance satellite system. That said, it is quite unlikely that their satellites have the resolution to watch people walking about. The maximum resolution is unlikely to be that good (unless they're using multiple satellites on the same target simulataneously and combining the imagery electronically, and have the mother of all systems to compensate for atmospheric distortion). It is unknown whether they do have live-feed capability, though it's plausible that such a capability would be useful enough to have. But they most likely don't have 24-hour continuous coverage of the globe, because the US is currently working on (or has deployed) "stealthy" satellites that don't let other nations figure out when their spy satellites are going over. If they're overhead all the time, you don't need to do that!

Unless you work for the militaries of the United States or its closer allies, however, the chances of you getting to ever see any of this are about zero. --Robert Merkel 07:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

See also this entry in Google Maps help. – b_jonas 13:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone.--Captain ginyu 20:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

June 9

Is watching too much TV bad for your health?

Hi I've been looking all over the net and have found many conflicting articles. Some say that young children watching over 2 hours of TV will have reduced performance at school, others say that TV is a vital learning resource. Apparently the effects of TV watching on adults is unresearched, though it would seem that the efects would be less than those of children's developing minds. Does anyone know what effects TV has on mental health?

This is a complicated and subjective question, but obviously it depends what you watch on TV. The History Channel, for example, is usually better than game shows and reality TV, so generalizations about "the effects of TV watching" have questionable utility. —Keenan Pepper 01:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

There's a good book on the subject called Everything Bad is Good for You (there's actually an article on it, that surprised me). Admittedly, its biased (you can guess which way), but his points are right on. -Goldom (t) (Review) 04:43, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Another book, dealing with the negative points of television, is Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander. I haven't read it but another of his books which dealt with this issue cited a number of studies on the effects of tv (mostly negative) and info/speculations/evidence on the social & cultural effects of the existence of TV. It is quite old now so there has probably been more recent research.

One thing I remember from elsewhere was that some Asian mountainous country (possibly Bhutan but I'm not sure) up until recently didn't have any TV as it was banned. Once it was introduced it led to enormous negative social change as people behaved more like those on TV, acquired consumerism & unrealistic expectations, increased crime rate and decline in social interactions. Not really relating to health but it is interesting, and I expect there would be some affects on health too. AllanHainey 07:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Also, some people who watch too much TV are less inclined to do sports or exersize which is vital for a good health. When it comes to TV as a learning resource, I think it has a positive influence, at least on me. All those hours watching TV paid off for me. It helped me learn English to the point that I'm almost fluent and I learned all sorts of interesting facts from TV too. - 131.211.210.10 07:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

South africa got tv in 1976, before this, most families had at least one musician, as entertainment. People also played ALOT more sport.

Toothpaste

On average, how many calories does toothpaste have?

You're not supposed to swallow it. --Nelson Ricardo 01:23, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

And even if you did, the number of calories would be insignificant, because it's mostly undigestible and it's sweetened with non-nutritive sweeteners. —Keenan Pepper 01:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

You still get calories from gum even if you dont swallow it --Froth 02:58, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

That's because the sugars from the gum leech into your saliva, which you reflexively swallow. Raul654 03:03, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, and toothpaste is more like sugarfree gum in its ingredients. —Keenan Pepper 03:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Yeah but I ate it as a kid,along with all those pencils(hotclaws**== 13:09, 9 June 2006 (UTC))

I watched a documentary some time ago about the UNRRA aid sent to Finland after World War II. The people they interviewed, who were kids at the time, said they thought the best thing in the aid packages was the powdered toothpaste — the didn't know what it was, but it was sweet and mint-flavored, and pretty much the closest thing to candy they had. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

On the Waterfront

I just watched On the Waterfront yesterday. For those who don't know, it concerns longshoremen in New York City and the union that they're in. Near the beginning of the movie there's a scene where a boss is picking workers out to unload a ship. While he's picking men, he hands them what looked like a coin or possibly a button. I thought I heard the characters in the movie refer to them as tabs. The men then show these to another man with a clipboard as they enter the warehouse. This man then appears to be writing down what is on this "tab". So my question... What were these little things? What were they for? And what was written on them? Dismas|^(talk) 01:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I think they're numbered tallies or tokens.It's a way of keepng track of workers without using names or lists especially amongst functionally illiterate people.Systems like this were often in use in early mining operations to make sure no-one got left behind.In the movie it would be a way of controlling who was working,no tab,no job and no records left behind fot the taxman/authorities whatever.(hotclaws**== 13:14, 9 June 2006 (UTC))

I'm pretty sure I saw such an old system for longshoreman at the Brooklyn Historical Society.--Pharos 18:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

So it would just be a little wooden or metal coin type object that had a number printed on it then? Interesting.... Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 06:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Question about women

Why won't those goddamn bitches go out with me? Mayor Westfall 04:37, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Probably because you call them bitches. -Goldom (t) (Review) 04:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

They don't seem to mind that in the rap videos Mayor Westfall 04:45, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I think you need to learn the difference between television and real life. Dismas|^(talk) 05:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Because you think that asking this question will get you in BJAODN. They can spot it, and although they know that you seem to think the attention of being laughed at rather than with is something to revel in, yet still they can't bring themselves to release even the smallest snicker. Skittle 10:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll go out with you and learn you some manners my boy!(hotclaws**== 13:16, 9 June 2006 (UTC))

I tend to find that women enjoy politeness, and shivalrey, such as opening doors for them, saying thank you and gernerally being a nice person. Not by calling them such things,Anton 14:31, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I couldn't agree more. I have always found that women appreciate a gentleman (and it's chivalry, by the way - from cheval (horse) to chevalier (horseman or knight) to chivalry (acting like a knight - gentleman)). СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 17:05, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I've tried being very nice. And have been extremely poilte to women most of my life. When I started being a complete jerk to most women, I noticed I had a very slight improvement in my chances, though they are still not where I want them to be. Mayor Westfall 16:15, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, there is something to be said for the "Negative attention is better than no attention at all" survival strategy. Maybe being "nice" has just put you off the map as a sex object. If you really offend somebody, they are definitely going to be aware of you. I'm not saying you should go that far; you've already discovered that "being a complete jerk" doesn't work either. Try the middle course - just go easy on the "niceness" bit and start putting yourself back in the picture. Once you've got their attention, then all sorts of possibilities come into play. (Disclaimer: Despite having been married for 14 years, I'm probably the last person whose advice on picking up women you should pay any attention to.) JackofOz 04:31, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Dude, the reason why being nice didn't work for you is because you're probably a real prick. So women picked up on your fakeness when you were pretending to be nice. So when you're treating them badly they at least are getting to see the real you, and authenticity is always preferable to fakeness, however nicey-nice the fakeness is. I know guys are always complaining that 'when they're nice girls don't like them', but the thing is, guys who are *actually nice* have no trouble getting girls. It's the guys who *pretend* to be nice who strike out, because we're just too perceptive.--Anchoress 10:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Question GJAODN

How do I find out if any humorous contrabutions I have liscensed to the goat have made it to the BJAODN page? Mayor Westfall 05:19, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

First you have to make humorous contributions. Then you just, er, watch the page. --Golbez 16:24, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• As all but one of your contributions have been to the reference desks, does that mean your previous edits here were jokes for your own amusement? If that is the case, I feel much less inclined to waste my time answering your questions in future. Deliberate attempts to get onto the BJAODN pages will only damage your reputation among many of the editors here. I suggest that you should instead go out and make some constructive edits to articles rather than treating Wikipedia as a joke. Road Wizard 06:45, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Restoring comment blanked by User:12.183.203.184. Road Wizard 17:04, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

You might first explain what "licensed to the goat" means. User:Zoe|^(talk) 17:46, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll have to check the GFDL again. There must be something in there about licensing our contributions to a goat. --Optichan 19:02, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, the GNU logo does look rather caprine. Maybe that's what confused the original poster. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

ATM question

Does anyone know what the average ATM can hold in cash. (the green stuff).

I think it would vary wildly from bank to bank and country to country. The exact model of the machine would also likely affect the maximum capacity. We have an article on Automated teller machines, but with a quick scan through, I couldn't spot an answer to your question there. Road Wizard 07:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I don't know but I would think it would vary greatly based on where the machine is placed. One inside a mall might have a lot more cash than one at a gas station. Dismas|^(talk) 07:57, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

My money isn't green.... -Benbread 08:08, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Well for anyone who is in a different country currency is in different colors.

• I have taken a look around on Google and though I can't give you an average figure, I can provide a rough indication. Quoting from the handy datasheets at Fujitsu, their OEM range of ATMs have a maximum capacity of between 1,200 and 18,000 bank notes. Road Wizard 18:51, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The one I fill up at work has a capacity of about 500 £10 notes. It's one of those stand-alone ones that charge you to withdraw your money, such as you might see in a filling station or a convenience store. The software it runs allows for up to four casettes, each containing up to 500 notes. Assuming they use similar technology all over the world, such a machine in the US would probably hold about 2000 bills, sorted by denomination. --Howard Train 04:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Those are intersting figures. My stand alone ATM at work had just ran out of money after having taken out 25 $10USD bills.

Question about .jpgs

Why is it that a black and white (or grayscale, perhaps only that) .jpg file of equal picture size and compression is a larger file than one in color? I would think it would be the other way around. Or are they not normally and I just have had weird luck? -Goldom (t) (Review) 08:30, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

An important factor in the final file size of a compressed file (audio as well as video/visual) is the complexity of whatever is to be compressed. Perhaps your black and white picture is just a more complex design than your color one. For more information, see

Data compression and JPEG.--Tachikoma 12:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Now that you've said that, I think I get it - grayscale images have a lot more complexity than colored ones, since creating shades of gray requires lots of varying black/white, whereas color can be done with a single.. color. Makes sense that way at least, dunno if it's technically accurate. But that's good enough for me. Thanks. -Goldom (t) (Review) 14:47, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I think you're misinterpreting the answer. The poster meant that your example is not fair -- let's assume you're comparing a large black and white picture of a horse with a small color picture of a smiley, likle Wal*Mart's logo -- since you're comparing a more complex image with a simpler one, so that the complexity is more significant than the color. The resolution might also be different. In general of course greyscale will be much smaller than the same file in color, since no one needs even 12 bits of greyscale color representation, but 16 and 32-bit color image correctness is common. your initial assumption ("I would think it would be the other way around.") was correct. so, it is only about your "luck". (Or maybe a poor image editing program you use.)

Only, I did say in particular they were of the same size (resolution). The case I am thinking of in particular is viewing manga on the computer. Each page is the same size, yet the cover (color) is almost always about 2/3 to 1/2 the file size of the (b&w) inner pages. Also, this is before any editing. On that note though, if I resave a file, a color one will normally shrink its file size (indicating it was previously saved with higher jpg quality), while a b&w one will get larger (as if it had before been saved with less quality). Normally, saving a color picture at even 90% quality will shrink it, but to shrink a b&w, the quality has to go down to 50-60%. In other words, the b&w are both the same size, and more jpg compression, and yet still bigger files. And I've seen this situation in almost every circumstance. -Goldom (t) (Review) 15:03, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I just did an experiment. I downloaded this photo of a mouse at full resolution from Wikimedia Commons, then saved colour and greyscale versions using the same JPG settings (minimum compression). The result: colour 267 KB, greyscale 276 KB. Just for balance, I tried a photo of some cheese. The result: colour 186 KB, greyscale 174 KB. Looks like there's no great difference. --Heron 15:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I think this may be the issue of complexity. The cover of a Manga is generally a field of one or two colours with a few words and a simple image of the characters. On the inside though the pages are much more complex with panels containing multiple pictures of often fine detail in both the images and the text. File compression works by looking for patterns (Simple example: where the top line of an image is blue an uncompressed file would say "blue-blue-blue-blue-blue", but a compressed file would simplify it to "top-line: blue", thereby saving space). As the inner images are often more complex than the cover there is less of a pattern for the compressor to work with, thereby leaving a bigger file. Road Wizard 16:10, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Color JPEG images actually contain one greyscale (luminance) channel and two color channels. The color channels are usually downsampled and more heavily compressed, so they make up only a small fraction of the file size; this does cause some amount of color bleeding, but it isn't usually noticeable since the human eye is less sensitive to sharp changes in color than in luminance.

There are programs, such as jpegtran, which can strip the color channels from a JPEG without affecting the luminance channel. This will produce a slightly smaller file which will, in theory, look exactly the same as a greyscale image compressed with the same settings. Of course, this may not apply in practice, since the "compression level" setting used by paint programs does not generally map in any obvious way to the underlying compression parameters — it's quite possible that paint programs will deliberately adjust compression factor for greyscale images to compensate for the lack of color information. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:13, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

oolololl I don't know anybody here.

Don't you guys have forums? I'm pretty lost...You know, somewhere to just get a feel for the community.

We don't have forums because we don't want Wikipedia becoming a chatsite rather than an encyclopedia. As can be seen, we often relax a little in our edits on the reference desk (here) and in talk pages. Some people look at other's userpages to see what they're interested in and then leave them a message on their talk page, although using that just for chatting is usually frowned upon. There's the Wikipedia:village pump for discussing things about the project, but not really just chatting. It's not that we're not friendly, just that we try to keep this an encyclopedia! Skittle 10:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• The best way to get a feel for the community is to be bold, leap in and simply start editing. Wikipedia:Community portal is a good starting point. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 10:28, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Esperanza is a project based on bringing a community feel back to wikipedia. You can chat to other users on their talk page. Philc _T^E_C^I 11:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

There was no community that disappeared and needs to be brought back. Adam Bishop 15:47, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

If you do wanna chat, just click on my talk page, ill chat to you, as long as you have something interesting intellegent or educational to say, or if you listen to metal.Anton 14:34, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The encyclopedia is the community. That's what's neat about it. --Fastfission 19:08, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

A lot of the community is in the Wikipedia:WikiProjects - if you've got an area of interest that you like to do editing in, find yourself a wikiproject and join it - that's a good way to get to know other wikipedians. Grutness...wha? 01:36, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Just let me mention that there's an IRC channel too: #wikipedia on irc.freenode.net. – b_jonas 11:53, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

UK Coins in Circulation

After counting through the several thousand coins my aunt collects i was thinking about how many coins (we'll say UK coins for 'simplicity') are in ciculation throughout the UK and world. Does anyone know of a place/article where there is an estimate? Tricky question, but i sure am curious! Thanks :) -Benbread 10:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• British coinage has a link to this 18-month-old estimate. Weregerbil 11:57, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanks very much, very interesting :) -Benbread 14:07, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

That totals about £3.25 bn; total circulating part of the economy is ~£23 bn (so about £20 bn in notes) and another £6 bn in the cash reserves of banks. Shimgray | talk | 16:06, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

weather

my friend asked me to ask this. If there is a cloudless sky, why is it that it can be colder or hotter today than it was yesterday, even though yesterdays sky was as clear as todays? in theory, the weather should get progressivly hotter until the summer solstice then colder until the winter equinox. This is not the case, so besides cloud reflection, why?Anton 16:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The sun is not the only thing that warms up the atmosphere. Wait, let me rephrase that - it's not the only thing that warms up the atmosphere over YOU. It may have warmed up a lot of air south of you, and that air is moving north - which it can do without clouds. Or, there might be a rush of arctic air moving south, which is why the next day can be much colder. All of this can happen without clouds. --Golbez 16:52, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I suspect it is because clouds act as insolation, slowing down the rate of heat transfer between earth and space. ATTENTION: I HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO WIKIPEDIA IN A MEANINGFUL WAY NOW, so can you haters of Mayor Westfall please stop making comments to the contrary and recognize my tireless efforts to answer people's (or a person's) question(s) on here Mayor Westfall 16:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• What I meant was that without clouds, we wouldn't have very much weather, which means you the tempatures would experince less varaiation day to day, and would get hotter and hotter until they summer soltice and then cooler and coller. I was just so happy I saw a quesiton I could actually answer that I didnt fully answer the question Mayor Westfall 16:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • That's just restating what the questioner had already theorised, but noted didn't happen. :-? Skittle 17:08, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps you should try asking the same question on the science page of the reference desk. Someone there might know. Mrplastic 07:09, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Video screenshot

hi, I was wondering how i can take a screenshot of a video. For some reason i was onvce able to but now whether i use windows media player, quicktime or realplayer i cannot take a screenshot. the problem is infact when i paste it as it cannot be saved. Even if i take a screenshot of the screenshot it doesn't work. When i close the video the pasted screenshot also dissapears, does anyone know how to solve this? KingstonJr 16:19, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Modern video players use the video hardware to assist in video playback. Most screenshot programs can only capture what is being shown by the software, which is why there's a black square where the video was in your screenshot. There are two solutions: Disable hardware acceleration in your video player, or use a program designed to get around that by using DirectX or what not to get the screenshot. One I know of is HyperSnap. --Golbez 16:23, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

How can I do either of those, sorry about that I am npt very good thanks ever so much to anyone who can help!! KingstonJr 16:32, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

How to disable hardware acceleration depends on the video player. As for HyperSnap, google for it. --Golbez 16:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

What kind of computer do you have? If you tell us that, it will be easier. Usually you can disable hardware acceleration through the video settings of your computer's control panel or system preferences. Here's a page showing how to do it with Windows XP. --Fastfission 19:15, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

google is your friend (first result)--Froth 02:16, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Girls at nightclubs

What percentage of girls going to a nightclub are looking to have casual sex? Or what percentage would likely be willing to consider doing so? What is a good way to spot those? And why do the other girls go to night clubs? Mayor Westfall 16:27, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

"(→June 9 - I can't get laid. I can't get laid. I can't get laid. I can't get laid. I can't get laid. I can't get laid. WHY CAN'T I GET LAID!?)" Try, try again. --Golbez 17:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

To avoid people who try to get into BJAODN? I would say a very, very small percentage of girls in the average nightclub are looking for casual sex. Most of them are looking to drink, dance, socialise with their friends, maybe flirt with some people, maybe even 'pull' as in kiss. If you ask them for their number, some will give it to you, some will give you a fake number, some will refuse. Of those who give you their number, some will never answer the phone, some will look to be friends, some will want to meet up and see what you look like in the sunlight, some will want a relationship. If you ask them for sex, most will move away in disgust or assume you are joking. The easiest way to spot a girl who wants casual sex is by her clearly and relatively soberly saying 'fancy a shag?' to you.

Note that this is about the average nightclub. No doubt there are some 'different' ones out there. It was a real shock the first time I spoke to a guy about picking people up in nightclubs; he seemed to be under the impression that girls were there to pick up guys. Skittle 17:06, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay then what type of club could I find a girl willing to have casual sex (without money exchanging hands)? Or if I can't find one at a club, where can I find one? And if you don't mind, could you please respond by 4 pm today. I would really like to find a girl without having to resort to the Edmund Kemper approch. Thanks. Mayor Westfall 19:07, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Plato's Retreat? You don't get something for nothing. Deal with it. It's called life. --Golbez 20:12, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you can learn the methods developed by the Seduction Community.--Sonjaaa 19:25, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Drop the casual. The amount of girls who go to clubs to get any kind of sex is close to 0%. - Mgm|^(talk) 23:00, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Become the bartender. I love being a bartender. You're never bored and everyone wants to sleep with you. --Howard Train 04:20, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you to whomever posted the link to seduction community, that was helpful. I joined that community, and will be studying up on their tactics. Very good site. I highly recomend to anyone else concerned with this issue.

CORPORATE MASCOT USING RED PARROT

I have searched for the name of the company/corporation that uses a red parrot as its mascot/logo. (It's not the Pittsburgh Pirates; I checked that already.) CHarrison

Anything to do with St Louis, Missouri? Perhaps the St._Louis_Cardinals? Skittle 18:11, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Did you try a Google search with search terms "red parrot" logo? --Halcatalyst 19:01, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Could it be Red Parrot Logos, Inc. ? Mayor Westfall 19:09, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Note to the un-initiated: This link is to the uncyclopedia and thus a joke. Skittle 18:50, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

You people are just jealous. Uncyclopedia is the real sum of all human knowledge; Wikipedia is the joke. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.183.203.184 (talk • contribs) 13:54, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

Computer Help

Does anyone know the socket type for the CPU in a Hp compaq nx5000?

(Pentium M) Socket478 --Seejyb 22:34, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Thanxs

Geico Gecko

Does anyone know who is the voice of the gecko in the Geico commercials? Reywas92 19:34, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

If only a complex Google query could be written to find this answer ... --LarryMac 19:38, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

He is self-voiced Mayor Westfall 19:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

These commercials run in the US. I notice the gecko talked in the earlier commercials, then went silent (as in the ads with him in a car), then started talking again recently. I suspect this means they had a contract negotiation problem with the original voice actor and either got him back or replaced him with a sound-alike for the later ads. StuRat 22:42, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

According to List of American advertising characters, the Geico gecko is voiced by Dave Kelly, Richard Steven Horvitz and others. — Michael J 22:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

The gecko used to have a posher accent, but he sounds Cockney now. --Nelson Ricardo 01:15, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Nobody "posh" would discuss fish and chips, now would they ? For Cockneys, on the other hand, that may be a major part of their diet. StuRat 13:38, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Out of curiosity, would that be British Cockney, or Dick Van Dyke Cockney? Road Wizard 14:05, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

At least one of the links from the Google search that I posted above indicates that the original voice of the gecko was performed by Kelsey Grammer. Until I read through several of those links, I hadn't realized that the gecko originally was not technically a spokesperson for Geico, he was just an annoyed little lizard who was getting wrong number phone calls. He subsequently applied for the job of spokesperson (including one ad that featured a cameo by a "Taco-Bell-esque" chihuahua) and now has become the little fellow that we all know and love. Additionally, the basic guideline for the new, (British) Cockney voice was "like a young Michael Caine." --LarryMac 22:57, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

User Boxes

Will someone help me with these damn user boxes? Everytime I click on someone's profile, I see all these wonderful userboxes, and I WANT THEM. I also want a cool userpage, but I suspect that is too complex. Can someone tell me how to steal existing userboxes for myself? Mayor Westfall 19:40, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

If we give you the link, will you stop trolling the ref desk? --LarryMac 19:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

• Rude, Larry. Very rude. Mayor Westfall 20:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
  • But valid. Please restrain your remarks on this page to genuine responses or honest questions. --Golbez 21:10, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

And creating an Uncyclopedia page in response to an actual, valid question was not trolling? Answering that the Geico gecko is "self-voiced" was helpful? --LarryMac 23:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The uncyclopedia article was bad, but "self-voiced" made me smile :) --Froth 02:18, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

• As this is a genuine request for help, I might as well answer it. Take a look at Wikipedia:Userboxes. Road Wizard 21:50, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

But that page doesn't list all userboxes. I've seen plenty on people's pages that aren't shown there. I assume this is because they're making their own. So what we need is a page showing every userbox that anyone has ever made. --Richardrj 16:55, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

The question was how to "steal" user boxes the editor has seen on other pages - the guidance page answers that one. As for a more complete list, I suggest that you either be bold and start one, or - because anything to do with user boxes is often controversial - make the suggestion at the Village pump. Road Wizard 17:05, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

A suggestion. If you find a page with a cool user box:

1. open it as if to edit it
2. copy the box
3. close the edit window
4. open your user page to edit it
5. paste
6. save

Grutness...wha? 01:42, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

oranges

how long does it take for an orange to become ripe on the tree?

Up to 18 months. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 22:46, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

LAX Terminals

Can you walk from Terminal 1 (Southwest) to Terminal 7 (United) How far. Can a taxi pick up at terminal 1 and then pick up at terminal 7?

Looking at the map here: [14], I would say you could walk it by going through the skywalk from Terminal 1 to Parking Lot 1, then Parking Lot 7, then through the skywalk to Terminal 7. I don't see a scale on the map, but would guess that's around a half mile walk. That's not bad if your luggage has wheels, but may be a bit much if you have to carry it. I see no reason to take a taxi, however, as they have shuttle busses that regularly run between terminals. They will go the long way, of course, but it won't take long on a bus. StuRat 22:33, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

June 10

Song at the end of Germany vs. Costa rica game

Hello, After the game ended between Germany and Costa rica in the world cup, there was a song playing in the stadium. It is a very famous song, but unfortunatly I don't know the name. Did anyone happen to catch the game to hear it and does anyone know the name? And also, it isn't the german national anthem. Thanks --(Aytakin) | Talk 00:18, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

If its the same song that was played at the end of England-Paraguay, then its an operatic version of Go West, originally by the Village People but better known as a Pet Shop Boys song. A number of football chants are based around the tune. Oldelpaso 15:32, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Having fun with SmarterChild

I was bored just now so I was asking SmarterChild about countries and their systems of government; it was generally very helpful, even labelling Iraq as a 'transitional democracy', which was better than last time when it just said '-none-'. I decided to look up Belarus (Belarus being a fairly obscure country, at least to me), and this happened:

lsdjbtsrdhq3#' says: What type of government is there in Belarus? - SmarterChild - says: The type of government of Belarus is republic in name, although in fact a dictatorship.

That's a bit subversive, isn't it? Is SmarterChild allowed to say that? Is it right? And does it say something similar for any other countries? Vitriol 00:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• I'm not familiar with SmarterChild, but lots of people say that Belarus is a dictatorship. For example, the European Parliament adopted a resolution saying Belarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. [15] --Metropolitan90 03:22, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• The alternative is to just trust whatever a country chooses to call itself. This would lead to absurd conclusions like that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is really a democracy. StuRat 13:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

- SmarterChild - says:

The type of government of the Republic of Korea is republic. Try again. Vitriol 17:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• The Republic of Korea is South Korea, which is a republic. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is North Korea, which is nominally a republic but operates as a Communist dictatorship. --Metropolitan90 18:02, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

"The type of government of the Democratic Republic of Korea is Communist state one-man dictatorship." Ha-ha! That's better. Vitriol 20:25, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

..."democracy= one man,one vote" only in some cases it's only the one man who has the one vote..(hotclaws**== 11:44, 12 June 2006 (UTC))

Many countries were called a "People's Republic" or a "Democratic Republic" under the communist regime, e.g. People's Republic of Hungary, German Democratic Republic, People's Republic of China. – b_jonas 11:49, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Some pin that I have

I have a metal pin and on it are the letters "RN" and there's a yellow loop ribbon at the end of the N. The ribbon is in the fish shape but the round part is on the top. What does this pin mean? I'm guessing it means "registered nurse" but I dont know.--Valuefreeperson2 20:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Nurses' pins often seem to have the caduceus, any of that there? Any of these look like ~what you have: [16]. Or get a digicam somewhere and upload a picture here... Weregerbil 10:43, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

It could also be RN for nurse combined with an awareness ribbon; although the yellow ribbon is most famously associated with supporting overseas troops, it also has links to a number of diseases, including cancer. Although I suppose there's no reason why a nurse couldn't support troops. (Our awareness ribbon article has a full list). --ByeByeBaby 16:49, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Fine then, I took a photograph of the pin. Here it is.

Disregard the Canadian flag pin beside it. I found the RN pin inside a car; in a car scrap yard a few years ago. Remember--it might not mean 'registered nurse', that was just a guess of mine.Valuefreeperson2 20:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Royal Navy? TastyCakes 21:05, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Most probably it means Royal Navy, take a look at this link that will explain some things, also, this link says it could have something to do do with nurses, but my guess is the Royal Navy, because of the RN letters.--Captain ginyu 21:37, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

OHH! OHH! On one of the websites you gave, it says on the website

 The "Yellow Ribbon" was used as a symbol in the fight nurses waged to keep the Emergency Rooms in Winnipeg open in 1995. 

I found this pin while I lived in Winnipeg! So it does mean the nurses!--Valuefreeperson2 20:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Looking for Names/Lists/websites of Accounting firms in Norway

Dear sir/madam, I'm an accountant/student from Sydney. I've been looking for names of Accounting firms in Norway for past few weeks, but have been unsuccessful.

Before I started working in the accounting firm I did google search which returned a list of top 100 accounting firms in Sydney. Then I managed to find the home pages of those companies by doing a name search. I wanted to do the same for Norwegian accouting firms. I've tried Wikipedia and it gave me plenty of information on Norway, but nothing on the names or lists of accounting firms there.

It would be a great if you could help me with this search as I need to look at the profiles of the Norwegian accounting firms in order to apply for jobs there.

Regards, Andrea

Google is your friend. A search of the .no domain for "accounting" yields several sites. Perhaps some of these pages will serve as a starting point.

As an alternative, try contacting the Norwegian embassy. If you tell them you're looking to spend a few years working in Norway, they may give you a list of accountancy firms who take on qualified accountants from other countries. Another possible starting point. --Howard Train 04:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• You could take a look through Category:Companies of Norway, but the additional information the Embassy can provide you with would make that the better option. Road Wizard 11:10, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

A partial list is here, a more complete list is here. You could start by contacting the local branches of "the big four". Here are links to their home pages:

• PricewaterhouseCoopers,
• Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,
• Ernst & Young,
• KPMG.

--vibo56 ^talk 13:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Human Isolation

I was watching a movie and a thought occurred to me: what would happen if a young child was literally isolated from all humans for an experiment (Maybe like in a small room or something with a food slot) and what would happen to her/him when she/he was let out after an extended time? Just curious to see what y’all will say. ~Cathy~

• I can't remember the name of it right now, but such things have been proposed by several psychologists. I don't believe it's ever actually been -done- in a controlled environment, of course, but there have been theories. Cases have existed, though, where abusive parents have kept children isolated for years, and as far as I know, none of them were able to survive in the real world to adulthood after being rescued. Sorry I can't think of the names right now for you to look up.. -Goldom (t) (Review) 05:12, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
• I learned about this in my psych class back in college; the most famous case is a girl named Genie, who really was locked up. Click the link, but the short answer is, when found, the isolated child is dumber than a hamster (literally), but she can be taught, and although certain abilities are lost forever, the human mind is plastic enough that a few abilities can rise to near-normal levels.--M@rēino 05:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Of course, wouldn't you know, Wiki has an article: Genie (feral child).--M@rēino 05:46, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

That's so sad! ~Cathy~

Take a look at Danny the Dog (film), a film about that issue.--Captain ginyu 21:08, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• I seem to recall a story in Herodotus about a Pharoah carrying out this experiment with a pair of twins. It's an old question. Lisiate 22:45, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Largest University Presses

I'm looking for a ranking of the largest university presses, or largest book publishers (including universities), or something of that sort. -mercuryboard^talk ♠ 06:10, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Do you have a specific language or type of publication in mind? Some university presses also do sheet music. Are you including that? Mrplastic 07:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I am looking for whatever data is available. University presses has a list, but I need a ranking. I'm interested in the United States but it wouldn't be hard to extract non-US presses from a list if I had one. -mercuryboard^talk ♠ 16:48, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Celebrity lookalikes

Does anyone else think that Keira Knightly looks like Winona Ryder? Mrplastic 07:28, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Well I've asked everyone, and some of them do and some of them don't. I hope that answers your question.--Shantavira 14:01, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

If we are taking a poll, yes, I do think she looks like Winona Ryder. --Cam 17:17, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Kind of a resemblance. I suppose. --Proficient 01:57, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

If they weren't in makeup and I saw one on the street, I guess I could mistakenly mix up their identities, but they do look rather different.. --Froth 05:01, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Personally, I've always been convinced that Lady Diana and Wayne Gretzky were actually one person. Has anyone ever seen the two of them together in the same place at the same time? Of course I'm kidding, but take a look at the two of them, I swear they're the spitting image of each other. Loomis51 20:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

She looks more like Natalie Portman, as shown in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. --Canley 05:04, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

BTW - has anyone seen anything of Ringo Starr since the death of Yasser Arafat? Grutness...wha? 06:52, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

technical info

I am looking for information on shipbuilding,specifically,shaft and engine alignment,in steel hull vessels.

• We have an article on Shipbuilding, but it probably doesn't include enough technical details to answer your question. Have you tried a Google search? Road Wizard 13:27, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Here is a link I found on Google; a page about marine propulsion and shaft design problems. Hope it helps. Road Wizard 13:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

top 20 NFL quaterback lifetime rushing leaders.

Randall Cunningham rushed for 4928 yards in his NFL lifetime.

Where does he rank in the top 20?

According to football.com, as well as our own article on him, Randall Cunningham is the all-time leader in QB rushing, ahead of Steve Young with 4239 and Fran Tarkenton with 3674. Of course, none of these numbers are close to the all time leaders for rushing overall, Jerome Bettis is 10th and has over 11,500 yards rushing. --ByeByeBaby 16:43, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

male or female?

If someone is left-handed, are they male or female? Similarly, if three specific left-handed people are in a group, is the gender at least two of them share male or female. This is not a general or mathematical question. This is about a specific case.

82.131.189.11 16:36, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• I am now working on the assumption that you may be asking us a trick question. If you have 3 specific people, then it should be obvious to you what gender they are. Road Wizard 19:51, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

No, it's not a trick question!!! If you have 3 specific people, then it should be obvious to you what gender they are. Great, so you know the answer, but could you write it too? Are the two "obviously" male or "obviously" female??? 87.97.8.244 20:52, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I think your emphasis of the term specific is confusing the issue; if you know specifically who the 3 people are then you know which gender they are. If that is not the answer, then based on the current information you have supplied us with the people could be either male or female. There is no way to guarantee an outcome of such a question without directly selecting the candidates. The only answer that can be given to you based on a random selection is a probability, in x% of occasions 2 of the 3 will be male. To work out that probability is a mathematics question and should be referred to the maths desk. Either take your question there or supply us with more of your specific information. There is nothing more I can help you with as the position currently stands. Road Wizard 21:17, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

According to left-handed, it's more likely for a male to be left-handed than a female. The relative percentages are 5.24% male, 4.76% female. But that general result cannot be used to predict whether any particular male or female is left-handed. And it can't be used to determine the sex of a person from their handedness. JackofOz 01:55, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

(below was my first attempt with this question, I've tried to be clearer above.)

I'm afraid you'll have to try a bit harder to make the question clearer. I'll try to answer your questions as simply as possible:

Q: If someone is left-handed, are they male or female?

A: Being left handed says nothing definitive about a person's gender. The question is unanswerable. It's like asking: If a person is owns a toothbrush, are they male or female?

Q: Similarly, if three specific left-handed people are in a group, is the gender at least two of them share male or female.

A: Come to think of it, yes. But the left handedness of the three seems to be a total red herring. Take any three people and, barring hermaphrodism, at least two are bound to be of the same gender as there only exist two genders and it is therefore impossible for three people to be of three different genders.

Keep in mind that I'm doing my best to assume good faith, which is extremely difficult given this absurd question.

Maybe you can actually give the details of this "specific" situation, so we may finally understand what on earth you're talking about, rather than be forced to assume that you must be asking some sort of trick question, or worse, you're just wasting our time with some sort of annoying prank. Loomis51 20:49, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

older answers, tangents

They could be male or female. Your best bet may be to ask them. --Optichan 15:46, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Though the article currently has a verifiability warning on it, we do have one that talks about the condition of being left handed. According to the figures in that article, roughly 10% of the world's population is left handed (5.24% Male, 4.76% Female). Road Wizard 16:32, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I actually thought of writing in my question that I looked at this; however, 5.24% of population vs. 4.76% of population is almost no difference when I ask about a particular case. In my case I would like to know whether if someone in particular is left-handed, are they male or female? Here's also a separate question as follows. [also I got like the experiment template from someone, so let me sign all three posts]82.131.189.11 16:36, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There must have been some sort of edit conflict when I was writing my first answer, as your 2nd question only showed up on my screen after I had saved my answer, even though yours was first. I have now supplied the answer to your 2nd question below. Road Wizard 16:47, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Secondary Question

If three specific people are left-handed people, are two of them guaranteed to have the same gender? (no hermaphrodites). 82.131.189.11 16:36, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

p.s. I think the answer is guaranteed to be yes because of the pigeon-hole principle, I would just like confirmation. 82.131.189.11 16:39, 10 June 2006 (UTC).

*If you have three people (assuming no hermaphrodites or those who have had their gender changed) then the only possible combinations are; 3 female, 2 female & 1 male, 1 female & 2 male, and finally 3 male. In that case there is always two of the same gender. Road Wizard 16:43, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Wonderful answer! I think this is the case too, that given three left-handed people (no hermaphrodites/sex-changes/etc), the group will always consist of one of the following possibilities:

1. 3 female
2. 2 female & 1 male
3. 1 female & 2 male
4. 3 male

(this seems obvious, but mathematically how do you know you've listed all the possibilities above? Maybe you left something out, who knows...) Anyway, assuming that those really are all the possibilities, we can see that in all the cases there are at least two left-handed people of the same gender, and in half the cases (#1 and #2) the gender that two left-handed people share is female and in half the cases (#3 and #4) the gender that two left-handed people share is male. (There's no case that has both two left-handed people of the male gender and two left-handed people of the female gender, and there's also no case where no two left-handed people from the three share a gender). So, with that established, what I'd like to know is, in a specific case of 3 left-handed people in a group, which gender do they share? 87.97.8.244 17:56, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

*This started as a simple question about whether left handed people are male or female. From your evovled question above, you appear to be asking about the likelihood of finding a certain number of left handed people being of the same gender based on the proportions of 52.4% being male and 47.6% being female. This is now obviously a mathematical question and should be referred to the Mathematics desk. Road Wizard 18:58, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

But what in the world is this to do with being left-handed...? -Goldom (t) (Review) 17:31, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Maybe this all works into a school assignment. --Optichan 19:05, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

It has nothing to do with being left handed. This has to do with people putting stupid questions into the help desk to get a rise out of people. TastyCakes 19:06, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

"New" Products

Sometimes I see commercials for a product that is advertised as "new," but it has actually been around for quite a few years. Is this legal?

(Corrected spelling, "leagal" > "legal".)

"New" has no legal meaning, unless the government chooses to define a meaning, such as "patented within the last year". StuRat 16:24, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

In human terms, a few years may be a long time, but geologically, 2 years is very little time and the product could thereby be considered "new", I suppose. The term "new", used to describe products, although perhaps misleading may not be illegal, but it would depend on the country you were in- for example, in England, you could complain to the Office of Fair Trading, but perhaps they made "minor" improvements to the product, thus creating (arguably) an effectively "new" product. EvocativeIntrigue 16:19, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

I always remember the furniture retailer dfs, who ran the same adverts claiming "Hurry! Offer ends this Sunday at 5PM!" every week for several years! smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 17:26, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

How about the US's "JCPenny this saturday only sale" every single saturday for as long as i've been alive? --Froth 02:27, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

calender

i dint get the calender ordates of muharram in the year 1976 and 1977... please help me. its very urgent.. its a matter of somebodies birth.. he doesnt know when he was born.. if u could get that dates probably he will find his birth date.. please help.. --219.64.65.19 17:07, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• You can try the Islamic-Western Calendar Converter to convert between Western and Islamic dates. If you are still stuck, let us know. Road Wizard 17:15, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• alternatively, you can try the form at the bottom of this page. You should convert to a Gregorian calendar, since that's what we have used in the West since well before 1978. However, there's a bit of a problem with your phrasing, since you mix Western and Islamic years (according that that page). For example, I tried to convert "the 4th day of Muharram in the year 1976", but the Islamic year 1976 won't happen until 2540. Specifically, the 4th day of Muharram in the year 1976 will occur on the Western date "7 September 2540", ie more than 500 years from now. (Muharram is just the name of a month).
  So, you should try working backwards, using the first form:

The Western date January 1, 1977 was already the 10th day of Muharram [in the Islamic year 1397] and the Western date February 1, 1976 was already the 30th day of Muharram [in the Islamic year 1396].
Do you know which day of Muharram your friend was born? 82.131.187.22 17:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

There is not an ad! A freeware application for Windows called Calendar Magic, a Eurosoft Product, gives this kind of conversion from and to almost any known calendar system (plus bells and whistles +++). I recommend this to my Muslim acquaintances. I'm sure there are other effective programs, freeware and commercial, but since I downloaded this my computer has become a date-related info center for family and the kids' school friends, apparently more convenient than downloading their own version. --Seejyb 09:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

How to stop bogus insertions in articles?

Hello, I recently went through the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharamsinh_Desai_Institute_of_Technology, which is about a college in India. But it seems, the person who created it always inserts some personal info about himself in the article. Like "xyz is a talented person from this college", or "the greatly intelligent xyz passed out in this year..." (where xyz is the name of that person). So how to tell that person that he maintain some composure and maintain decency of articles when creating articles? Thank You.

Use the vandalism warning messages on their talk page. See Wikipedia:Vandalism & Template:TestTemplates. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 17:29, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• You can also give them a friendly pointer to WP:BIO or Wikipedia:Vanity and explain that talking about yourself in an encyclopedia is not appropriate. Follow up with vandalism warnings if they persist. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:38, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Edit count

How can I find the number of edits I've made? I click on 'my contributions,' but the edits are bulleted instead of numbered. Thanks! Reywas92 21:07, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

You could count your edits since 3/11/06 then add them to your number on Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits. —Mike 21:33, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

• Another editor asked the same question on the Help desk the other day. See the answer here. Road Wizard 21:39, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Make sure you do not click the 2nd link mentioned in that answer though as that was specific to the user who asked the original question. Road Wizard 21:41, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

June 11

Black Hole

There was a scifi original movie on TV today:

xyz and xyz star in this scifi drama about a laboratory malfunction that creates a black hole and unleashes an energy monster on st louis

"energy monster" aside, discuss the plausability of a black hole ravaging a major city. there were several questionable ideas in the movie, like driving through the black hole's event horizon, and blowing it up with a large bomb..

Can anyone dispense devastatic critical prose regarding this movie?

--Froth 02:44, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I think that if they could get the bomb to remain intact beyond the event horizon, and it was a big enough bomb (as in, big enough to disintegrate a mass several tens of thousand times the mass of the sun)...then in might be possible to "blow up" the black hole (it would be promptly replaced with several stars of varying size and having total mass roughly equal to that of the disintegrated black hole). Of course, those are rather large "if's" (and I'm quite certain that someone with a PhD in Physics will come along and give you a much better answer) :D --inks^T 04:10, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Keep in mind that the black hole was quite near the earth (it was moving about the city I believe) and the method you proposed would probably cause considerable damage to local residences. --Froth 04:56, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Haven't seen the movie, but you can't "blow up" a black hole; doesn't matter how big a bomb you use. Inside the event horizon, even light, pointing directly outwards, cannot escape. So it doesn't matter how big the energy release is; everything is staying gravitationally bound inside the event horizon. Barring some error in currently understood physics, of course. --Trovatore 06:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Scriptwriters really shouldn't be allowed to get away with this nonsense, even (or especially) if it's meant for kids. I suggest you write to the tv company and complain that this is inimical to education.--Shantavira 10:18, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but if you start there, where would you ever stop? Most of what's on TV gives a false representation of "real life". JackofOz 22:40, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

The amount of energy released by anything being sucked into it would be so great as to vapourise everything nearby anyway (approximately 10% of the matter's rest mass energy, so 1kg of material would release about a million billion joules). Besides, the black hole wouldn't just roll about on the Earth's surface, it would fall straight down, boring a hole right to the core of the Earth. Then the Earth would collapse in into it, if it hadn't already been blown into space by the ridiculous amount of energy being released. And it would all happen in less than a minute. There'd but nothing but plasma left, spraying into the void of space.  -- Run!  22:11, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Wouldn't the majority of the solar system get sucked into it eventually, before it finally attained a stable orbit around the sun? --Kurt Shaped Box 22:40, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Would an object with sufficient mass to capture light orbit the sun? --Froth 02:27, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Well yes, it would. It would become a binary system, I suppose. But there's no reason why the black hole should fall into the Sun - the black hole is just a body with mass like everything else. This black hole in particular would have the mass of the Earth, so at long distances it wouldn't affect any of the planets - it would just replace the Earth. While we're here, the radius of an Earth-mass black hole (i.e. the event horizon) using semi-classical derviation would be about a centimeter.  -- Run!  05:37, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

please help identify a freemason cemetery stone

i am plotting and trying to rebuild the records on a local cemetery i have run across a freemasonry stone other than the simbol of the freemason theres no name or way of knowing who is there how can i find out who was buried in the cemetery with with this stone i know that the grave behind the stone is dated 1831 i am not sure if the freemason stone is as old or older than that please let me know how i can reseach this if you can thank you yvonne —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.203.44.69 (talk • contribs) 21:58, June 10, 2006 (UTC)

Working out who is buried there, if anyone, would depend on whether proper records were kept at the time. Can you specify what country and state/town you are in, as someone here may know the appropriate records office for you to check at. Road Wizard 10:21, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

THE cemetery is in Texas, Robertson County, Hearne from what i can find out so far the cemetery was there before the city of Hearne was and also that the cemetry was also there before Texas won its indepenence from mexico in 1836 and became a free nation onto it self for 10 years till we joined the U.S. in 1845 I have two stones that are dated 1821 and 1831 county records only go back too 1838. I was told that maybe the freemason chapters could tell me who had or has a chapter in this area and if anyone from that chapter was buried in this county from what I have read and what I have been told the freemason were and still are a very select group of people. thank you for all your help if you can give it I really appicate it —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.203.44.69 (talk • contribs) 05:39, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

I have been searching through the external links of our Freemasonry article for the organisation in your area. You might want to check with the The Grand Lodge of Texas (established 1837). They may be able to give you the answer or point you in the right direction. Road Wizard 17:47, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

thank you road wizard for the information if you come across anything else could you post it for me i will keep checking again thank you very much —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.203.44.69 (talk • contribs) 10:59, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

Xbox-to-N64 controller adapter?

Does such a thing exist? I've spent lifetimes searching for one, with no luck. Anyone know where I could fine one, preferably in Australia? (To clarify, I'm looking for an adapter that lets me use an Xbox controller on a N64). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.7.176.130 (talk • contribs) 22:41, June 10, 2006 (UTC)

I highly doubt one exists. By the time the xbox came around, no one was making anything for the N64 anymore. One going the other direction might be slightly more probable, but I've never heard of one. Only N64 controller adapator I've ever heard of was to USB (for computer), and even that is no longer being made. -Goldom (t) (Review) 05:43, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps if you could get an Xbox to USB and then a USB to N64...--SeizureDog 10:21, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

But they're competing companies, so why would they make adaptors? Why do you need such a thing, is there nothing better to do with your "lifetime". Philc _T^E_C^I 22:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Lifetimes. --Froth 02:23, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

They don't make adapters, other companies do. You can purchase a PS2-to-Xbox controller, for example; I'd like to use an Xbox one on my old N64, so I can play my N64 games. You might not have noticed, but N64 controllers deteriorate to an unusable state after 3 or 4 years, and are no longer being made.

old schools

I am searching for a picture of my grandperents when they went to school and some useful info on what was happening at that time my grandma whent to kimberly state school in 1952 but the school was closed down I cant even find the school let alone the pictures I have gone mastly through google but nothing seems to come up my grandpa went to a school called weegena around the same time it is there 60th anniversary on the 24th of this month I would very much like to have a pic and/or some info on what they have achieved together my grandmas name is shiela gaffney and my grandpas name is mick poole my name is luke poole and you can contact me on (email address redacted) even if it the most minute info it would still be very much appreciated the schools are both in tasmania and they have both been closed down your sencerly luke —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.164.143.97 (talk • contribs) 23:06, June 10, 2006 (UTC)

You have a very nice idea for your grandparents. Don't you think that maybe the names of the state, and /or country could help us ? --DLL 19:16, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Thay told us: Tasmania. I'm assuming by this they mean the island by the big landmass of Australia, but it is possible they mean a town called Tasmania somewhere else. Skittle 21:36, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I (JackofOz) have taken the liberty of providing a punctuated version of Luke's post (below). Luke, if you really want people to read your questions, a little bit of effort to make them readable would not go astray, otherwise you do yourself no favours at all. You wouldn't speak that entire paragraph as a single sentence, so why write it that way?:

I am searching for a picture of my grandparents when they went to school, and some useful info on what was happening at that time. My grandma went to Kimberley State School in 1952 but the school was closed down. I can't even find the school let alone the pictures. I have gone mostly through Google but nothing seems to come up. My grandpa went to a school called Weegena around the same time. It is their 60th anniversary on the 24th of this month. I would very much like to have a pic and/or some info on what they have achieved together. My grandma's name is Shiela Gaffney and my grandpa's name is Mick Poole. My name is Luke Poole and you can contact me on (email address redacted). Even if it [is] the most minute info, it would still be very much appreciated. The schools are both in Tasmania and they have both been closed down. Yours sincerely, Luke.

Economic Applications

What is the role of commercial banks in an economy like India's? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 221.134.46.227 (talk • contribs) 23:34, June 10, 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much the same as in any other country. Have you read the article about banks? --Shantavira 10:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like a homework question. --Froth 02:21, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Doorbell with flashing light for deaf person

I would like to get a doorbell for a hearing-impaired man living in my apartment building but the regular doorbell makes noise. I would like to find one that flashes light and my Google search isnt turning up good ones. Where do I look? --Blue387 07:32, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

• Any online deaf communities should be able to help you get your hands on such a doorbell. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:34, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

The old age home near us has a handyman who modifies wireless doorbells to give light flashes instead of ringing. The components are cheap, and the design is apparently by the owner of the electronics store, who sells the kits. One feels that Mgm's advice should yield answers, but if you do not find what you are looking for, I can stop off and get the circuit diagrams at the home if you wish (I know they are free for anyone to use). Let me know on my user page. --Seejyb 10:10, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

• From your use of the term "apartment building", I am assuming that you are not in the UK. However, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People in the UK has a handy website that lists a series of useful technological devices. If you contact them, they should be able to give you the contact details of a related organisation in your own country. Alternatively, let us know which country you are in and someone here may be able to give you a better link. Road Wizard 11:19, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Here is the RNID technology webpage I mentioned above . Road Wizard 11:24, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Space Agencies and the Military in Science Fiction

I have two questions to ask you:

1.In Star Trek, do most of the individual planets(including United Earth) have their own a or do they have a space agency similar to Starfleet or NASA?

2.In most science fictions that talk about world government,space exploration, or aliens, do most of the planets with their own central government have an army or do they have a space agency similar to Starfleet or NASA? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.241.147.187 (talk • contribs) 00:48, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

For number 2 that would depend on the author of the book. I have read books which have either. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 15:16, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Also for #2, be aware that the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Consider the US, which maintains a separate Army and Navy as well as a naval-embarked army (the Marines). It's fairly easy to extend the analogy to a "space navy" that doesn't sacrifice other military branches. — Lomn Talk 19:06, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

If aliens existed, I'm sure NASA and other space agencies(or an International Space Agency if one existed) would have fighting against aliens in times of war as one of their duties, though space exploration would continue to be their main mission.But a space navy would have global defence as their main mission, not exploration and research.

I'm not quite sure about Star Trek, but I've read a lot of science fiction and planets (or groups of planets in an empire, federation, whatever) usually have a space navy and space marine and (less often mentioned) army (for occupation of planets). Obviously, it's very common for individual planets in an empire to have their own defense force - usually an army for ground defense and sometimes a wet navy and/or air force (though these are often left out in favor of simply deploying atmosphere capable space forces). Big O

Salvia divinorum

What negative, if any, effects have been shown in the use of Salvia divinorum? In regards to health, both physically and mentally. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.162.157.185 (talk • contribs) 03:49, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

Our article Salvia divinorum discusses some of the possible effects. Road Wizard 11:07, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Please don't double-post. The science desk was the right place to ask this. —Keenan Pepper 20:13, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Panda dog

Anyone know what this is? Genetic experiment, panda pup, dog with odd fur? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2619210151090763074&q=panda+dog —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.7.176.130 (talk • contribs) 04:16, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

Really, really cute, or cruel? It's a poodle x Maltese dyed to look like a panda. Natgoo 11:56, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

According to the text in the Google video sidebar, this is an abandoned dog in Tokyo, which was given a new lease of life after being given a makeover to make him look like a panda, by covering parts of his coat with black dye. Accordning to the same source, his name is Columbo, and he is a poodle-maltese cross. The text appears to be taken from www.itnarchive.com, although to confirm that I would have had to sign up, something I didn't want to do. --vibo56 ^talk 12:02, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

That is damn cool. --Froth 02:17, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Pandas don't have such long tails and protruding snout/nose so it's definitely a dog. -- Миборовский 04:12, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

How to send details for International Simon Bolivar Prize

To, Respected Sir,

Please send the contact details and email add in my email (email address removed)

Maheshjani —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.144.132.203 (talk • contribs) 05:30, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

• We have an article on International Simón Bolívar Prize and the contact details on the associated website is shown here. Road Wizard 13:01, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Inside the park home runs

Anybody know which major league baseball player has the record for hitting the most "inside the park home runs"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 152.163.100.199 (talk • contribs) 09:13, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

According to the Inside-the-park home run article, "The record for most inside-the-park home runs for a single season (12) was set by Sam Crawford in 1901. He is also the holder for most career inside-the-park home runs with 51. The career leader post-1950 is 13 by former Royals outfielder Willie Wilson." --smcro 16:36, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Countdown Word Round Rude Words

Does anyone know if there is a compilation of funny/rude words appearing on the UK Channel 4 Countdown show in the word round. (The one where you choose consonant/vowel and try to make the longest word). When these come up they really crack me up, but after googling and looking at the Wikipedia article i've had no luck, i'd have thought someone would have put together a little archive. Thanks very much -Benbread 17:06, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

• Please see our article on Countdown (game show), it has an external link at the bottom of the page which mentions rude words from the show. Road Wizard 17:15, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

england football team

what is meaning of three lions insignia —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 80.1.192.66 (talk • contribs) 12:14, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

Coat of Arms of England should help you. Sum0 19:25, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Unknown song

Does anybody know that song that goes "Ohhhh, Annie Ah, Ah, Ah". It was in Austin Powers, but I don't know what one. Thanks a lot. Kilo-Lima|^(talk) 20:52, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Check the soundtrack from Austin Powers:International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember, maybe you can find something useful there.--Captain ginyu 21:22, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty certain you mean Mas Que Nada. Sum0 21:50, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

finding out a store name that has come and gone

Moved from Help desk. Road Wizard 22:11, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I am trying to get a history on the store space in Garfield Hts. oh,.. i am tring to remember the name of the store that was there back in the seventies and eighties How would i do that or does anyone know.... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.93.164.118 (talk • contribs) 21:44, 11 June, 2006 (UTC).

If you know the address, call the local library and see if they have a city directory for the year in question. -- Mwalcoff 23:26, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Or look at that location in google earth or mapquest; those maps tend to be so outdated you might find that store :D --Froth

"Officer on deck!"

From pop culture I've learned that Navy and Marine enlisted let others know an officer is nearby and requires saluting by calling out the above phrase. Can anyone tell me if there was an equivalent custom among the sailors of 17th century France, and if so, what they called out?

Thanks Adambrowne666 23:15, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

PS I asked this at Humanities a week ago, but no one was able to help.

Try asking them http://www.defense.gouv.fr/marine, there is a contact link on the top right. If you don't speak french try in english. If they can't answer ask if they can direct you to an organization devoted to french marine history. Good luck. Jon513 15:22, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

June 12

Duracell's bunny

I am wondering what is the name of the Duracell's long time known bunny (which it seems to keep walking and walking and so on). By the way, does it have a name?. When did this character appeared to the media?.--HappyApple 00:52, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

It's named the energizer bunny. He was introduced in October 1989--Froth 02:15, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

See Energizer Bunny. It keeps going and going and going and going and...Adambiswanger1 04:32, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps HappyApple is referring to the Duracell Bunny, which predates the Energizer Bunny (although the article doesn't give a date). Adam Bishop 05:33, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Italy's size in square miles

Hi, May someone please tell me the legnth of Italy in square miles? I need this information for an academic project and my brain is not up to speed. Thank You! :) Jerry C. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.243.215.179 (talk • contribs) 19:24, June 11, 2006 (UTC)

The Italian Peninsula is about 1000km in length. You did want length, not area right? --Froth 02:29, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Our article on Italy gives it in sq. mi. as well as sq km. Rmhermen 02:31, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

The area is 116,346.5 square miles (301,230 km²), --Yarnalgo 02:39, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

The Age of the Earth

Some Christians in the world not only claim that creation is right and evolution is wrong, but they also claim that the earth is not billions of years old but only 6,000 years old.Those Christians are called the young-earth creationists.I have three questions to ask you about young-earth creationism:

1.The young-earth creationists claim that for some reasons, the six days of Genesis Chapter 1 can only mean six literal 24-hour days.Is that true?

2.They also claim that radio-carbon dating is not very accurate.They claim that it can be contaminated with samples that can distort the result.Is that true?If it is, then how accurate is it?Is it accurate enough to prove that the earth is billions of years old?

3.Many people have criticized the advocates of Intelligent Design for proposing a theory that is not really science.If so, than whether you're creationist or evolutionist,Christian or not; what do you think about these more radical creationists?

220.245.178.140 07:49, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

• My answer:

1. No it's not. The fun thing about writing is that it can mean a lot of things. What was actually meant, we'll never know, because the people who wrote it down are no longer alive to tell us. On a side note, the people who wrote down the bible lived at least a 1000 years after actual creation would've occured and bibles were copied and subject to interpretation until the printing press was invented. Who's to say the very original earliest draft off the bible didn't say something different. They want it to mean 6 days, but that's not the only possible interpretation.
2. No, that's completely untrue. Scientists consider radiocarbon dating accurate to about 60.000 years. Carbon dating works by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon 14 in carbonaceous material (corpses, plants, pottery, wood,etc). Each 5730 years this amount halves (see half-life). By the amount of carbon 14 currently remaining, scientists can determine when the material would have the regular amount of carbon 14 in its system (i.e. when it was alive). To make such material seem older, you'd have to remove carbon 14 rather than adding something. It's not very specific anything less than 5000 years can't be measured accurately, but according to the stuff I just found here in Wikipedia, you can use it to prove the earth is at least 60.000 years old, not 6000.
3. I don't think I'm qualified to answer this. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:34, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

1. I believe it is true that they claim it, however I don't know what their basis for doing so it. In general even assuming that the bible is an accurate record of past events (a massive assumption unsupported by most evidence/science) there has been a huge amount of translation/mistranslation/editing & dispute over the precise meaning of words & passages. It is probably impossible tobe definitive about anything in it.

2. Carbon dating is accurate enough, certainly accurate enough to indicate ages of >6,000 years (as do many other forms of dating). The claim of contamination throwing off the dating doesn't seem to hold water as if the universe (& earth) was created in 4004BC (as asserted by Archbishop Ussher) there wouldn't be any older material to contaminate the carbon dating & provide an older date.

3. Both seem to be motivated more by their religious beliefs than any desire to determine the truth, as such they do not deal in verifiable science but unverifiable faith. AllanHainey

--

1)Yes that's what literal creationism is; the literal reading of Genesis (the first day, the second day, etc). 2) Radiocarbon dating can only be accurate up to about 60,000 years in the past. 3) Young-age creationists aren't radical, the young age theory is mainstream within creationism, and a very significant portion (a majority?) of Americans subscribe to the theory. Anyway, it's clearly not in the realm of science to guess at the origin of the earth or even life; whether on the creationist or evolutionist side, it's pseudoscience if the Faith card isn't played, a powerful move by the way--Froth 08:44, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

.1 no, they relate to God-years, In hinduism (if one is willing to look at the correlation between our differing rligions) one will notice that one day for God or the Brahma relates to many thousands of years for us, this is better explained in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice Bailey, i will see if i can dig up the relative passage for you....hence, ill be back. oh, and carbondating is pretty accurate, it can be contaminated, but if 100 000 samples all say the same thing, are they all wrong, i think not.193.115.175.247 13:55, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

No, Young Earth Creationism is not mainstream within creationsim. Creationism is the belief that the Universe was created (by God, usually) which you pretty much have to subscribe to if you believe in an all-powerful God. The young-earth variety is a minority worldwide. But they make the most noise, and they make the most noise in the US, both of which give them undue prominence.

To Froth: it is certainly 'in the realm of science' to investigate the age of the Earth, if not its ultimate origin. DJ Clayworth 14:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

I have left my book at home, but will answer the first part of tour question fully tomorow. 1 year of the brahma equals 432000 years of man.193.115.175.247 15:08, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Reinstalling Windows XP

Miscellaneous seems to fit my question(s). I'm not sure if it's technologic or computer science related.

I've been planning my reinstallation of Windows XP, but I am still a bit nervous that I may mess up. I've never reinstalled it, and it has been two years since I've bought my computer. The reason for the reinstallation is that I want to see if there is an improvement in overall computer quality. I've been reading TweakingCompanion 3.1 and downloaded the recommended software to ensure proper installation. But I have some questions concerning the process. (They are after the specifications, so you can just scroll down then reference the specs as needed.) Here are my computer specifications:

I have a new maxtor 200 gb 2.0 usb hard drive that I plan on using. I am going to make a backup of my current hard drive onto the hard drive in case I mess up. I have the sound blaster audigy drivers, the monitor drivers, and two other cds with drivers.

Do you know of any good software (freeware) that I can use to create backup drivers of the drivers I already have installed on the computer, for further caution? I also downloaded ERUNT to create registry backups. I have the Dell MS Windows XP Pro SP 1a Operating System on a CD to reinstall. One concern that I have is that I do not have a floppy for the RAID 0 volume that I plan to keep when I reinstall. Is there a guide to making one of these floppies? (82801ER SATA RAID Controller)

Also, does a computer that is around two years old need a BIOS update?

So my overall plan is that I will reinstall windows with the RAID 0 volume configured, then transfer some of the files from the external maxtor drive back to the computer for my normal use.

If I decide later on, will I still be able to install another operating system (perhaps Linux) so that it will be a dual booting computer? This is because I heard it is bad to reinstall windows many times especially in a short time period. I'm not sure why though.

Finally, do you see any flaws in my thinking? Will my reinstallation process be successful? If you know of any freeware that will provide me with necessary software for backing up drivers, or making my reinstallation easier, or that will provide me with a more detailed checklist, I will be eternally grateful.

I've been searching on google for guides and have come across some good ones, but before I potentially mess up my computer, I would like advice from fellow Wikipedians. ;o

Thanks for your help. (Anecdotes of your past XP reinstallions might help if you can't specifically answer any one of my questions.)

I have my computer specifications if you need them. This is somewhat the "universal" method of relaying your computer specifications for computer help:

Motherboard: CPU Type Intel Pentium 4, 3400 MHz (17 x 200) Motherboard Name Dell Dimension XPS Gen 2 Motherboard Chipset Intel Canterwood i875P/E7210 System Memory 2048 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM) BIOS Type Phoenix (02/19/04)

Display:

Video Adapter 256MB DDR ATI Radeon 9800 XT Sec (256 MB)

3D Accelerator ATI Radeon 9800 XT (R360)

Monitor Dell E172FP [17" LCD] (M160944C0W5S)

RAM: PC3200 DDR SDRAM 512 mb x4 @ 400 mhz ( Form Factor DIMM

Type SDRAM) [Module Name Hyundai HYMD264 646B8J-D43]

Sound: [ SB Audigy Audio [CF00] ]

DirectSound Device Properties:

Device Description SB Audigy Audio [CF00]

Driver Module ctaud2k.sys

Primary Buffers 1

Min / Max Secondary Buffers Sample Rate 4000 / 192000 Hz

Primary Buffers Sound Formats 8-bit, 16-bit, Mono, Stereo

Secondary Buffers Sound Formats 8-bit, 16-bit, Mono, Stereo

Nothing in other PCI slots.

Storage: IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers

SCSI/RAID Controller Intel(R) 82801ER SATA RAID Controller

Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive

Disk Drive Raid 0 Volume (298 GB, IDE) (There are two internal hard drives and windows recognizes it as one because it is RAID 0 [both of them are 149 gb each.])

Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVDRRW GSA-2164D USB Device

Optical Drive SONY CD-RW CRX216E (48x/32x/48x CD-RW)

Optical Drive TEAC DVD+RW DV-W58E (DVD:8x/4x/12x, CD:32x/16x/40x DVD+RW

Power Management Properties:

Current Power Source AC Line

And if I do indeed mess up, the backup will be in the external hard drive. How would I go about restoring my system before I had theoretically messed up? Certainly it would not be as simple as unplugging and plugging the hard drive back in. ._.

--Proficient 09:51, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

My advice is to do a completely new install rather than a re-install. Windows, over time, tends to get cluttered with driver versions, DLL's, miscellaneous and temporary files, broken registry entries, and heavens forbid spyware or worse, and a clean install is always guaranteed to take away niggles you might have started to experience with performance or other areas. Apart from your usual methods of backup (onto cd/dvd/tape) I don't see why you need to use a third party utility; just keep your driver installations within a single folder on your hard drive for easy access. Note that your 200 gig hard drive requires service pack 1 or above, so make sure your XP install has this built in, OR remember to install the service pack immediately after installation to avoid data corruption on your hard drive. Regarding your BIOS update, I personally only do this if recommended by the motherboard manufacturer. If you're thinking about dual-boot into linux later on, I recommend you research this carefully NOW as many people prefer the linux boot loader to be installed first, as the primary loader. It is not bad to clean-install windows many times, except for the life of your hard drive which will be thrashed a bit. I am sure MCSE-type people would disagree on my advice for a clean install, but this is after personal Windows use for 12 years. --> Sandman

Perhaps you can go the Dell and download all the drivers for your system. That way you would have the latest drivers and wouldn't have to worry about backing up the old ones. If you have devices you've added, you can download drivers at the manufacturers' Web site. As for installing on RAID, you'll have to copy the driver onto a floppy disk, and then during install, Windows will ask you to press F6 to install any third-party drivers. After pressing F6 insert the floppy, select the driver, and continue the install. The only problem I can think of with reinstalling Windows numerous times in a short period is that you'll end up having to call MS to activate. —Wayward ^Talk 15:15, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Treasure Hunters

Hello, I was wondering if someone could help me find the team websites for each team on the new tv show Treasure Hunters. I have found 3: the Brown Family, Southie Boys, and Miss USA. If someone could help, that would be great. --Zach 10:43, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Closest I can see is this, on Coming Soon.net, but it's nowhere near, really. You could try Googling/Asking Jeeves/All The Web/Yahoo-ing the names on that page, though.

The search box feature would have pointed you towards Treasure Hunters, which may be of some use. EvocativeIntrigue _{TALK | EMAIL} 14:01, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

On a second look, I came across TreasurePedia....EvocativeIntrigue _{TALK | EMAIL} 14:02, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Way to increase thumbnail size in Windows XP?

I view many folders by thumbnails, and I was wondering if there's some way I could increase the size of the thumbnails, say to 250x250 or more?

yes, there are a group of application known as power toys. They are make by microsoft, but not fully supported. They "add fun and functionality to the Windows experience". The one you want is Tweak UI - a programs that allows you to customize many features of windows. After installing Tweak UI go to Explorer --> Thumbnails, and you can change the size to anything you want (I think it the limit is 256). And while you are there you can download other fun windows goodies. Enjoy. Jon513 15:08, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

geography

there are how many countries in the world there are how many states in india how many languages are in india

• see List of countries, States and territories of India, and Languages of India. You also might want to see that little box at the top right that lets you search things for yourself. СПУТНИК^{CCC P} 12:13, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Pyschology career

My girlfriend is majoring in Pychology and is considering going to either Med School to get an M.D. or graduate school to get a Ph.D (or just getting her B.S. degree). She's leaning toward Med School, but is uncertain that's what she wants to do. I would like to give her some advice, but I don't know much about the difference in career oppertunities from a Ph.D & MD degrees. Also, how much should she be able to expect to make, and will she have difficulty finding a job due to over-saturation in the marketplace? It seems like a lot of people major in pyschology, so I am tempted to advise her to change her major to business or something more practical. Any advice would be greatly appericated. XM 13:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

My advice: she needs to decide what she wants to do with her degree before making a choice between an M.D. and a Ph.D. Does she want to be a psychiatrist? Does she want to do research for the rest of her life? Does she want to teach psychology? There are a lot of ways to go with a psych degree - don't decide which degree to get, decide what you want to do first and then the degree choice will become more clear. Big O

2 Professional Careers

I am an engineer and my fiancee is going to be a physcologist/physcritrist shrink. To me it seems very hard to find a job in a specified area--It seems like every time I have changed or have had an oppertunity to change jobs, I have had to re-locate. In a situation where two people are living together, their career search must be limited to the same area as their companion--this seems highly restrictive. What can a couple do to deal with this, especially if they expect to change jobs/ presue oppertunities rather frequently? XM 13:06, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

If you both plan to take the best opportunity you can find, you're "screwed." It's pretty obvious that the chances of you both finding the best job opportunity in the same area at the same time (unless you're both in the same field) are almost 0. The best thing you can do (in my opinion) is to search together - start by looking for the best job opportunites but don't get too attached - then cross-reference them to see which locations match, if any. If one of you has a really good opportunity make sure the other one immediately scours the same area for a similar opportunity. If one of you is less career / work oriented consider taking a solid job (as opposed to an awesome job) in the same area as the partner's "super" job. Chances are if you're both intent on finding the best job you'll both end up with solid jobs in the same area (instead of super jobs in different areas). If you truly love each other (which is presumably why you're getting married) you both need to be ready to sacrifice the perfect job to stay together. My advice is not even to consider any sort of long term (greater than 6 months) seperation - work isn't worth it.Big O

Have you considered speaking to a shrink counsellor about this?

On a more serious note, if your fiancée has a practice (or would like to have a practice) and regular patients, she is not going to be able to move around freely. She has a moral and professional obligation not to abandon her patients. On that basis, I recommend encouraging her to find work in a city that you both like, because you're probably going to be there for a while.

You don't mention precisely what type of work she does, nor what type of engineer you are. (Psychology and psychiatry are different beasts, and you don't mention if she is clinically or research-oriented.) This may affect your choice of city.

Perhaps you should just pick a large city somewhere—engineers are usually useful, and there are likely to be more people with mental problems. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:00, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

Chessbase

When will the next Chessbase be out? The current one (Chessbase 9.0) only has games to 2003 and I want to see if its worth waiting for the next one to come out.I know that you can buy upgrades and game databases, but I would prefer to buy the whole package and wouldn't mind waiting for a couple of months.

I would ask the writers. If they don't know, then we can't tell. DJ Clayworth 13:53, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

DISTANCE EDUCATION

I WANT TO KNOW THE NAMES OF UNIVERSITIES PROVIDING TECHNICAL EDUCATION THROUGH CORRESPONDANCE WHICH IS APPROVED BY AICTE? SAMIRAN MITRA. CHANDIGRH

advice?

can i ask for advice in wikipedia?if so where? --— Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.55.174 (talk) 16:34, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

You can ask for advice anywhere, really. The advantage of posting here is that there are lots and lots of people who read this page, so you might get a quicker response. You might want to check out the reference desk front page and see if one of the bold links might be the most helpful for you. --HappyCamper 15:53, 12 June 2006 (UTC)