Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

Brain capacity

1. In biology, are there specific situations where the absolute brain mass of an animal is an important measurement?
2. The encephalization quotient produces a dimensionless number reflecting relative brain mass. Are there equally informative calculations which would produce different values for the same parameters? That is, are there multiple semantically equivalent representations of relative brain mass?

--[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 20:30, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

To answer the former, yes - Carl Sagan's Dragons of Eden specifically says that a certain minimum amount of brain matter is necessary for 'housekeeping' functions. So that for very small animals, the EQ will be disproportionately large. For the latter, I'm not really sure what you are asking. →Raul654 20:43, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

To answer your second question, no. There isn't any other manner of determining brain parameters in a similar manner as the brain to body mass ratio - at least none that are both quantitative and reasonably convenient. ClockworkTroll 14:31, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, nothing official maybe, but you could for instance try brain mass vs surface area, or brain mass vs total sensor resolution across some or all sensory systems. You might be able to find all kinds of interesting correlations like that. How about brain mass vs length of the gut? I never tried that, but there might be an interesting indirect correlation there as well. Physics types enjoy graphing everything vs everything on the off chance that they might find some kind of correlation. Biologists should do that more often eh? Kim Bruning 01:17, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Grammar question: 'try and' ...

To my ear, it sounds perfectly normal to 'try and find out somthing', or to 'try and see who is there', or to 'try and get more'. My ever meticulous (is it spelled correctly)...editor (mother), changes 'try and' to 'try to' every single time...'try to find out', 'try to see who', 'try to get more'. Seems to me that 'try to' is correct, but is 'try and' incorrect, and why?

I hope someone can try and help me out on this one.

In descriptive linguistics, a common usage is never judged correct or incorrect; scientists studying language aim to describe how language is used and not dictate how it should be used. Because so many English speakers employ this usage, it is obviously part of the English language. The rhetorical device of joining two elements with a copulative conjunction rather than subordinating one to the other is known as hendiadys (a Latin-language modification of Greek hen dia dyoin, "one through two") and was common in Roman and Greek literature; it is like saying nice and warm or cups and gold for nicely warm and golden cups respectively. --Gelu Ignisque

A prescriptive grammarian would however say that "try and" is being incorrectly substituted for an infinitive. What is meant to be said is "try to draw" not "try and draw". But as Gelu notes, some would consider that a bunch of bull. So if you want to conform with someone's idea of "correct", use "try to" instead. Grammar also explains the above idea nicely. - Taxman 21:37, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

This reminds me that J. R. R. Tolkien (who was first a philogist and an English professor, and quite respected for is academic work in his field) was annoyed that his editor changed his "try and" to "try to" (Letters, 148). So, if you prefer to stick to "try and", you are in the best of company. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 19:04, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Speedy-quick translation

How would one say "hidden key" in ancient Greek? I know the root words are kleis and kryptos, but how to make those agree in grammatical gender and in the nominative case? Thanks in advance, Gelu Ignisque.

Kleis is feminine, so the adjective would be kryptê. Adam Bishop 03:27, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thank you SOOOO much! Gelu Ignisque

Polish+Lexicon

Um... Topic + Question = Answer. ;-) func(talk) 04:27, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Figure of speech

I just posted this on Angela's talk page:

Your home page is a disgrace to the community. It's preposterously stylish and well-organized; a textbook case of rampant simplicity. You make everyone else look bad. Forget that! You make me look bad. And stop doing so much for Wikipedia and its community! Your tireless dedication and positive attitude are lifting everyone's spirits to revolting heights. No wonder everybody is throwing "please-retire-you're-stealing-my-job" barnstars at you! Why don't you and Jimbo get a room, for crying out loud! JRM 22:14, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

(No, she hasn't responded yet. Forget about the exact content for a moment. I'm getting to a real question. :-)

Is this a recognized figure of speech? What's it called? It's not exactly irony—it's more like heavy sarcasm, but sarcasm typically does not contain both positive and negative elements—only positive elements brought in a clearly ironic fashion, intended to mean the exact opposite. Here, I'm giving the superficial impression of heavy and insulting criticism, but on closer investigation this is untenable, because the statements at the core are clearly positive. Perhaps it's a sort of inverted sarcasm with verbal rather than tonal clues? Does it have its own name? JRM 22:32, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

Tongue in cheek? :) func(talk) 03:59, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have no idea what it is. Nor do I know whether I was expected to respond and how one might do so if that were expected. :) Angela. 08:15, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Oh, I'm thinking a week-long ban is in order. Wikipedia is not a comedy outlet. :-) JRM 09:41, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

A week-long something without a doubt. --Phil | Talk 11:22, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Flirting? --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 10:49, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

ITYM "playing with fire" :-) --Phil | Talk 11:22, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Arguing against naturalism

What are common arguments against philosophical naturalism? --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 23:00, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm... I guess, for academic purposes, that I would start off with some of the things mentioned in the last paragraph: semantics, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of mind. These areas of human study can be seen as representing a "grey area" for naturalism advocates. For some reason, the chinese room thought experiment comes to mind as a potential battle ground for those opposed to and in support of naturalism, (but maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about ;-) ). func(talk) 04:09, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oooh Ooh, there's an entire stack of possible ways to go at Epistemology. Philosophical naturalism only covers the output from a rather old and overused Epistemology called Empiricism. Sounds like it should be relatively easy to poke a large number of holes in it. (I'm not an expert in using philosophies to poke holes in each other though, maybe a Real Philosopher might yet show up :-) ) Kim Bruning 02:06, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

baby goanna

What is a baby goanna called?

I think you've answered your own question. :-) "Goannling" doesn't seem right, and I don't imagine that the English language has designed a diminutive specifically for this species as it has for, say, cows ("calf"), cats ("kitten"), and dogs ("puppy"). I imagine "baby goanna" would be the only recognizable word in English, though if I am wrong I hope someone will correct me. Jwrosenzweig 23:15, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I would concur with you. Looking at this handy appendix from our sister project [1] there is nothing listed for iguana (from which they get their name), monitor lizard (which is their actual family), or lizard (under which general category they should fall). Admittedly, since goanna itself is not listed, there may still be a term of which I'm unaware. Of course, many lizards are egg layers, and I IIRC that includes monitors, so theoretically you could use the generic term hatchling. --Cvaneg 00:57, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I believe the general term for a very young bird, amphibian, fish, or reptile of any species is hatchling. That may be suitable for you... ClockworkTroll 14:21, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What is Westphalia?

Is Westphalia a region, former region or German state or district? --Anon

See Westphalia. [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 03:00, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Time

How is time part of nature?

The best way to answer that is to simply say that time is a dimension, just like any of the other Euclidian dimensions you are familiar with (height, width, or depth), although it is one that we do not percieve as readily. →Raul654 03:05, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

• I think we perceive it quite readily. Cosmetics companies keep reminding us of it... that's as opposed to the gym industry, which is more concerned with width. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 10:54, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

It may depend on what you mean by "nature". In truth, we don't really have a very firm philosophical hold on what "time" is, but we can measure its passing, and doing so along with measuring other "dimensions" allows us to understand more about the universe, (nature). Much of our understandly of the physical world involves mass and energy in motion, and the notion of motion requires measuring time. We can't comprehend somthing moving at a single exactly point in time... all motion has a duration. With regard to my philosophical hold comment, our ability to notice the passage of time is considered by some to be a part of human a priori knowledge, that is, things that we understand without experience, (we seem to be born with an intuative sense of time). func(talk) 03:52, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

John Soane, R.A.?

In our article on John Soane, it reads that Sloan, who was an architect, "became ARA in 1795, then full RA in 1802." Both ARA and RA link to disambiguation pages, but none of the offered alternatives seem appropriate. My best uneducated guess is that RA stands for Registered Architect, and that ARA for something like Associate Registered Architect. Can anyone with actual knowledge either confirm or correct my guesses? -Rholton 04:03, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It denotes membership of the Royal Academy of Arts -- Associate of the Royal Academy, Royal Academician. See here and here. -- Arwel 10:54, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! You are a gentleman and a scholar. -Rholton 15:08, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Noam Chomsky

What is known of Noam Chomsky's personal life? Is he married? Does he have children? What does he do in his spare time? [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 04:20, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

I saw some documentary on Chomsky once that said he's married with children (one or two I think) but because of his political opinions he tried to shield them from public view. That started in the 60's, when he first stepped out of his role as just a linguist to broadcast his views on Vietnam. As I recall, the film portrayed him as being pretty courageous for putting his family at risk to make his views known (no comment by me). Mjklin 04:38, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

As for his "spare time", fepending on your point of view, he has a very impressive career as a political commentator and is a noted academic in his spare time, or vice versa. Which is to say, I don't think the man has a lot of what most of us would call spare time. He is usually not involved in most aspects of contemporary popular culture, although he has certainly not been unfriendly to anarcho-punks and has occasionally welcomed opportunities that have been offered him to use popular-cultural channels as a mode of outreach for his own ideas; for example, he once contributed a cover-story essay to Maximum RocknRoll (at Tim Yohannon's request) and allowed Chumbawamba to package a CD of a lecture of his in with one of their albums. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:50, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

No sound on European DVDs

Alright all you techies, I bought some DVDs in Europe recently, brought them back to America, and attempted to play them on my laptop computer. After switching over the region code in Windows Media Player, I get picture but no sound. Any ideas on how to make my French movies as French as they wanna be? Mjklin 04:31, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

Have you maybe tried using another DVD-playing program which ignores regions, such as VLC? If you can't get sound out of any other programs either, then it could be possible that, while you can change or ignore the region in your software, your actual hardware DVD drive is hard-coded to Region 1 (or whereever) and isn't playing along so nicely. (Though I doubt that's the issue, 'cuz if it were, I don't think you'd be getting video either...) Garrett Albright 07:02, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it's a region thing, French tv uses SECAM rather than NTSC. I know that trying to play SECAM films on a PAL player gives you black and white pictures and no sound and I'm guessing there's a similar incompatibility between SECAM and NTSC. If the disc is encoded for a different tv standard then you'd need a p[layer that can cope with it. adamsan 09:02, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are several issues discussed here:

• the US and Europe are in different zones with respect to the DVD zoning system; instead of changing the zone of the DVD drive (which you may do only a finite number of times' unless you have a "hacked" machine), one method is to use a player program that ignores DVD zoning by using DeCSS to decrypt the contents of the DVD;
• Europe (both PAL and SECAM) uses a 50 Hz vertical frequency and the US (NTSC) a 60 Hz vertical frequency (this originally came from the frequencies of distribution of AC current to customers); both also differ in the number of lines used vertically; TV sets usually can only cope with a fixed vertical frequency, and some DVD players may be incapable of playing a DVD designing for one frequency on another; of course, DVD players on computers have no such limitation.

Apart from this, PAL, SECAM and NTSC are standards for encoding color TV on analogue channels; DVD is digital. In short, there is strictly speaking no PAL DVD, no SECAM DVD, no NTSC DVD; contrary to what Adamsan implies. :-) There are only differences between the kind of TVs they expect to be played to (PAL/SECAM vs NTSC), and these differences do not matter for playing the DVD on a computer. In any case, such differences do not affect the way sound is encoded.

Proprietary DVD playing software tends to implement many "features" aimed at preventing users from playing DVDs on "unauthorized" devices, or to copy DVDs to videocassettes. It is possible that one of these "features" is responsible for the problem.

In any case, I advise using a free DVD player such as Videolan. You will have much more control over what happens. David.Monniaux 20:50, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

David and I are referring to the same program by two different names, just in case that was throwing you off. And yes, you don't need to worry about PAL or SECAM DVDs; VHS tapes are another matter. Garrett Albright 05:01, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you really need the sound with your *cough* French films? I can tell you, from a wealth of experience, that those sorts of DVDs normally just have funk noodling, with some fretboard slapping - you could just put on a Level 42 album or something... it won't really degrade your, er, degraded pleasure. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 15:38, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Videolan worked fine guys, thanks. Couldn't put in the subtitles though, but it's no biggie. Mjklin 16:30, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Did you try "Subtitles Track" in the "Video" menu while the movie is playing? Garrett Albright 10:13, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Pseudonym and Alias

I asked this question on talk:pseudonym but no one would answer me : Whats the difference between a pseudonym, nickname and an alias ? Can royal and religious titles be considered pseudonyms, for e.g., is Dalai Lama a pseudonym for Tenzin Gyatso ? Jay 07:35, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Well, Dalai Lama should be considered a formal title rather than a pseudonym. Since Tenzin Gyatso is generally referred to in English as the Dalai Lama, that's a reference to a title rather than a name. I don't believe that the fact that the title supercedes the name matters in this case. A nickname is generally applied by other people, as opposed to one's self. I believe the main difference between alias and pseudonym is one of connotation; as an alias is more commonly used as a name taken to evade something, whereas a psudonym is usually adopted in order to hide one's actual name but not to actually evade anything. Hope this helps. [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 07:55, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I answered on talk:pseudonym, and my answer is, roughly speaking, the same as Rhymeless'. David.Monniaux 20:56, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks all, I've copied over Rhymeless' answer too. Jay 10:09, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

reference of editing wikipedia

Well it looks like you may be learning on the fly, but you could try looking here if you're having problems.--Cvaneg 13:05, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

wikipedia

The answer is Wikipedia. There are also certain things that Wikipedia is not. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:51, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Radiation poisoning

I am living in Bulgaria and have just heard of confirmation from a Romanian border guard of a hushed up leak in the past week. Perhaps some confusion with the Russian "leak/incident", but it got me thinking--in your entries on radiation poisoning and radioactive contamination, there was no information as to whether any self-help was possible in these cases. I am thinking of things like increased consumption of red wine (Ok, any excuse!), which was suggested by a friend as a way to increase anti-oxidants. Scare stories are bound to occur, but lack of information about incidents will surely lead to others like myself searching your site for ideas, as i couldn't find useful information by using google.

Thanks in advance for any helpful comments. 9th Nov 2004

Quoting the U.S. Department of Energy: "There is no medicine that will effectively prevent nuclear radiations from damaging the human body cells that they strike." However, potassium iodide pills can prevent the thyroid from retaining radioactive iodine which lowers the risk of thyroid cancer which is one among many worries from radiation. Rmhermen 14:38, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Ugh, I hope conditions are safe there. Antioxidants are always good, but the body can only cope with so much ionization at once. Some radiation will reach DNA in any event, at which point you need effective DNA repair more than protection from free radicals.

Of particular concern are radioactive iodine and xenon. The thyroid will absorb any iodine that you intake, which will lead to thyroid cancer if the iodine is radioactive. You can protect yourself from this by taking large amounts of potassium iodide, so that dangerous forms of iodine are less likely to remain in your body. (However, excess iodine or inadequate iodine may also lead to thyroid cancer, and excess potassium may be quite dangerous).

The best way to prevent radiation poisoning is by staying well away from any source of radiation. A dosimeter can be used to measure radiation exposure over time, and a geiger counter or a scintillometer can measure immediate exposure. The limit of safety is 2 millirems or 20 millisieverts per hour.

If you have already received a lethal dose, there is little you can do. If you do not suddenly become nauseated, followed by hair loss, you are probably safe from radiation poisoning. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 14:46, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If this concerns the Balakovo nuclear reactor in Saratov, it was found to not have a leak. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 16:22, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The incident the guard is most likely referring to is the shutdown on November 4 of the Number 4 Rivno nuclear reactor, in the Ukraine. Fortunately, there was no leak of radiation. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:07, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

what does one call a follower of Russian Orthodoxy?

A "Russian Orthodoxist" gives a few Google hits, but Google wants me to search for Russian Orthodentist instead... Dunc|☺ 17:38, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, obviously, just "Christian" would do, but I would say "Russian Orthodox Christian". Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia refers to "Orthodox Christians", which is less specific but I think probably acceptable in some contexts, depending on what you are trying to emphasize. Of course, I'm not Russian Orthodox. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 18:00, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

concur. "Russian Orthodox Christian". -- Jmabel | Talk 20:51, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

The phrase "follower of Russian Orthodoxy" is somewhat misleading; "member of the Russian Orthodox Church" would be more to the point. "Russian Orthodoxy" is not a separate religion from "Greek Orthodoxy" or other forms of Eastern Orthodoxy; rather, these are separate organizations, mutually recognizing each other as parts of what they consider to be the "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" (Roman Catholics also claim that title; Catholics and Orthodox disagree about which of those two communions is entitled to call itself that). But I agree that the phrase "Russian Orthodox Christian" does the job. Michael Hardy 21:56, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, one could call them a "Christian," "Orthodox Christian," or "Russian Orthodox Christian." You would generally be safe enough with "Orthodox Christian" unless there was some special reason to distinguish them from the other jurisdictions. Wesley 03:03, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) (member of the Orthodox Church in America)

Michael Hardy's point is very good. "Orthodox Christian" is the best generic term; "Russian Orthodox Christian", "Greek Orthodox Christian", "Serbian Orthodox Christian", etc are okay if it is know for certain that the person so designated is actually a member of the Russian Church, the Greek Church, the Serbian Church, etc. Otherwise, one risks either offending or demonstrating ignorance of Orthodox ecclesiology. JHCC 19:46, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think it's not just a question of what is known, but of what information one is trying to convey. If one writes "Bishop X recognizes the autocephaly of the OCA because he is a Russian Orthodox Christian", then obviously the term "Orthodox Christian" without the word Russian would fail to convey the point, which is the he belongs to a particular jurisdiction that grants that recognition, whereas other Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions do not. Or "He descended through a hole cut in the surface of the frozen river because he is a Russian Orthodox Christian"; clearly just "Orthodox Christian" would fail to do the job; members of the Cypriot Orthodox Church don't do that very often! Michael Hardy 01:24, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Westphalia Again

I still don't understand whether Westphalia is a region, former region, German state or district?

From Westphalia: Westphalia is a historic region in Germany ... now [mostly] included in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia. It used to be part of the duchy of Saxony, was created a separate duchy by Barbarossa, elevated to a kingdom by Napoleon, then became a province of Prussia, and now parts fall in two of the federal states of Germany. So it is a region, former region, former duchy, former kingdom, former province, and also forms parts of two German states (one of which is named after it). HTH. -- ALoan (Talk) 18:49, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's right.

I suppose "historic region" could be replaced by just "region" since regionhood is more or less in the mind of the beholder. Otherwise, the situation is pretty much as you describe it. Several entities of varying character have been called "Westphalia." Their borders have differed quite a lot, but they are all basically in the same part of Germany. Today, there is no institutionalised entity called "Westphalia", but one German Bundesland contains part of the area that has, at some time or other, been part of one or more historical institutionalised entities called "Westphalia", and is thus partially named after it. Diderot 12:09, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Just to make sure the above is understood: a bundesland is a federated state, in Germany. David.Monniaux 21:08, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

History of the Irish health care system

Does anybody know where I could find some information about the history of the Irish healthcare system throughout the 20th century (by Ireland, I mean the Republic of Ireland)? Thanks in advance. --Edcolins 19:35, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Spam

If one has an email account that is being used (by persons unknown) to send out spam, what can be done to stop this? [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 01:44, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Change your password. If you have some sort of secret question that someone else might be able to answer, see if you can change it. (How is someone else sending spam from your address unless they are logged in to your account?) Is the spam really coming from your address? There are a lot of viruses these days that will fake it so that it looks like it is coming from your address, but really it isn't. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 01:59, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well this is a backup email account that I sortof forgot about for a year or so. I come back, and not only do I have a lot more incoming spam, but I seem to have what look like automessages from normal-looking email accounts, saying this is spam and they have an automessage (etc etc). The account in question is webmail.

Also, this may be an inept or malevolent spammer who is using your address as the from: or reply-to: address. Anyone can put anything they want in those fields. Or as Aranel said it could be a virus, which probably means that someone who has you in their address book is infected. There isn't a whole lot that you can do about forged from addresses, this is one of the reasons mail servers really shouldn't bounce virus or spam warnings back to their 'sender'. Rhobite 06:00, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Receiving bounce-back emails due to a spammer forging your email address is becoming ever-more common. It usually doesn't mean your account has been compromised in any way. Unfortunately there's very little you can do about it. -- DrBob 16:45, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

At this point, I would recommend closing that email account, if you can. Try checking out the support area of whatever webmail service you are using. Garrett Albright 04:56, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The Years

How was the year 1 A.D. and the B.C. years measured? Was it measured by the sun, water or something else? And the way we measured the years in the last hundreds of years what is the origin of it? Thank you!

These are not measured according to any physical standard. They are measured according to the traditionally believed date of Jesus Christ's birth, though later scholarship suggests that he was born a few years earlier than this traditional date. The adoption of this year for the epoch was an amendment to the Julian calendar after the end of the Roman Empire by monks. See Anno Domini for an explanation of this. --Robert Merkel 04:13, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the poster's question, with regard to the sun, water, etc. Are you referring to how long a year is? Many people, both in ancient times and today, use a lunar calendar, which produces "years" which are a little less than one solar year. The Mayan people were fascinated by time, and had multiple means of measuring it. Today, very careful observations are made of Earth's progress around the sun. In addition to our system of leap years to keep our calendar in sync with the solar year, occationally a leap second is added to UTC time. func(talk) 04:56, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Many cultures used the occurrence of solstices as a significant yearly milestone, which yields a rather more reliable measure of the solar year than counting full moons. The 5000 year old Newgrange site was built to align with sunrise on the winter solstice. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:53, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are many ways of measuring years. Using seasonal events like the flooding of the Nile or the migration of a species of bird is simplest. The ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius (i.e., the day on which the star first became visible above the eastern horizon just before dawn). Solstices are another method. The year article covers this in detail. Gdr 16:08, 2004 Nov 10 (UTC)

who is st. liem de la paz?

i would like to know who is st. liem de la paz. thnx for your help.

I think this is a St Vincent (see [2] - Vietnamese Dominican martyr, 1773) but I'm not sure if he is one of the Sts Vincent mentioned on the disambiguation page. -- ALoan (Talk) 15:06, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

names of places in the cape and they origin

Perhaps you could elaborate on the cape to which you are referring? --Cvaneg 16:10, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Antivirus

Is there any open source antivirus software? Is so, do they work or are they easily defeated because they are open source? Rmhermen 15:39, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Several. ClamAV is one that's well known. I don't know how they compare to closed source AV software. Gdr 16:11, 2004 Nov 10 (UTC)

I think it is a well known secret that heuristic scanners can do a much better job of virus detection than a signature based one can, but the AV companies stake their claim on how much you need them to update the signatures and constantly remind you of all the new serious threats. It's the fox watching the henhouse to some extent. They make a lot of money and are thought of as the guys we need to have around, so this little fact is glossed over. - Taxman 17:35, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

While heuristic scanners may be the wave of the future, and better in theory, it is my understanding that they have not yet proven as capable as signature based services. Specifically, they often state you have an infected file where in fact you don't and state your files are ok when in fact theres an infection. Salasks 02:19, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

It's a bit of a fallacy to assume that open-source anti-virus software would be easily defeated; the idea behind security in open-source software, which has played out quite well in practice, is that there are far more whitehats ("good" computer users) in the world than blackhats (malicious users), and that, more often than not, the whitehats will spot a security hole or glitch in open-source software and work to fix it before blackhats will find it and work to exploit it. See full disclosure. Really, though, perhaps the best open-source anti-virus software is Linux; install it and all your worries about Windows viruses go far far away. :) Also consider switching to the Apple Macintosh if Linux is over your head — Mac OS X has yet to have a proper virus, just a couple of pathetic attempts. Garrett Albright 04:53, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yasser Arafat

What nation's citizenship does Yasser Arafat hold? PedanticallySpeaking 18:20, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Arafat presumably has some sort of diplomatic passport, though more to the point, what passport would a normal Palestinian have? Jordanian? Egyptian? or can the Palestinian Authority issue their own?

Ah, here we are: from passport "Stateless persons (those to whom no country will grant a passport or citizenship) generally travel internationally on transit documents issued by the United Nations under the terms of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. These are accepted in lieu of passports by most governments. Similarly, refugees and asylum seekers often travel under non-national interim documentation, rather than the passport of the country from which they are fleeing."

The PA issues passports, which you can apply for here. The PA consider this passport to be a right of "every Palestinian citizen"; the USA apparently recognize it as a valid travel document but do not recognize it as conferring citizenship of any country, in some bureaucratic twist. Arafat, presumably, has a PA passport.

• Not necessarily. Heads of state do not require a passport to travel, e.g. Queen Elizabeth II does not have one though British passports are issued in her name, and if the Authority can issue passports then Arafat would be in the position of a head of state. PedanticallySpeaking 15:53, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

Palestinians outside of Palestine mostly get "travel documents" such as those alluded to above. In Egypt, they get Palestinian Travel Documents; in Lebanon, they get Lebanese Travel Document for Palestinian Refugees (pdf). The exception is those living in Jordan: they get Jordanian passports, and are considered Jordanian citizens. There's an art project on it... - Mustafaa 19:15, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Very interesting - I hope someone is writing this up for passport :) -- ALoan (Talk) 19:58, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It does get quite confusing. A couple of my best friends are Palestinian. She's from Nablus. She holds a Jordanian passport, even though she's never been in Jordan (except inasmuch as Jordan still claimed the West Bank when she was born in the early '70s.) Her parents and one of her sisters hold Israeli passports. Meanwhile, her husband and his family are a mix of stateless and Israeli citizens. It's a mess. --jpgordon{gab} 20:09, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Asthma and Allergy medication

I'm heading to my relatives for thanksgiving, and they have cats. I love cats, but my Asthma goes through the roof around them, and I'm allergic to them. My question is will an over-the-counter Allergy medicine (anti-histamine) help? Or do I need something more professional? Any experience? Terrapin 20:51, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Of course, you should probably ask your doctor. If your condition is serious enough you may want preventative medication (long-acting inhaler, singulair, etc) or at least a rescue inhaler (albuterol). You do not want to have a potentially life-threatening asthma attack. As for over the counter medication, Claritin (loratadine) is now OTC in the U.S. and you can get generic stuff pretty cheap. Many people find Benadryl (also OTC) is more effective than Claritin, but it does make you drowsier. In short: An OTC antihistamine is better than nothing, but you need to see a doctor to make sure that your conditions are under control. Rhobite 22:42, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Medication is a very personal thing. If you haven't taken much, any of the above should be fine, but be sure to read the instructions; for instance, it takes TWO DAYS of taking claritin before it reaches maximum effect. Also, be aware of side effects, and switch to another medication if they start to bother you. (Not all side effects occur with every person.) However, some people "wear out" drugs (even antihistamines), and become resistant to their effects over a long period of taking them. In summary, people can suggest what to try, but not even a doctor can say if they will work for sure without knowing your past history and you trying them. --ssd 06:30, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are professionals who give advice on this sort of thing. They are called doctors. Allergists especially. Antihistamines don't do much to avert asthma if you have a real-for-sure animal dander trigger, but there are some other things that might depending on how severe your asthma is and how long you intend to expose yourself. Alteripse 19:12, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

training in the US Marine Corps

Is the training course described in the article Basic School pretty much the USMC equivalent of Basic Training? ike9898 21:36, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

I don't know for sure, but I think not. From the description, Basic School sounds like an officer-only training course. Basic Training is for enlisted recruits, right? Key45 23:54, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Not really. TBS (this being how a Marine makes an acronym for "The Basic School") is only for Marine officers. Every Marine officer completes TBS as their first assignment after being commissioned. Many come directly from the Officer Candidate School located on the same base at Quantico, but others come from ROTC or the Naval Academy. The Marine Corps has basic training for enlisted soldiers just like the other services. Isomorphic 16:02, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Electric blanket tests

I am a chartered engineer and feel competent to check my blanket myself. Just what checks are undertaken by "competent authorities"?

David Turner, Derby,UK. -- (unsigned by) 62.254.0.12

I suggest you contact the blanket manufacturer or your local electricity authority. They will probably give you detailed maintainence intructions for next to nothing. -- FirstPrinciples 05:56, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Shoe store in the Ala Moana shopping center

How can I get a list of stores in the Ala Moana Shopping center, shoe stores that is. Is that possible thru you???

This is most definitely not something that Wikipeida in general, or the reference desk in particular covers. I'd recommend something along the lines of Google or some other search engine/directory when you are looking for information on local businesses. This one time, though, you can get it here. --Cvaneg 19:16, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Tweaking Windows from outside to get it working again

I've just rebooted my computer and, to my horror, Windows (Xp Pro, SP1, English) hangs on the blue screen with the Windows logo just before you get to the GUI. The cause was a manual drive-letter change carried out in PartitionMagic 8.0. PM caused the computer to restart and run a batchfile to make the required change, but this file appeared to be corrupt and the letter-change failed. I would guess that the change was half-completed however, because that partition (containing the operating system) no longer boots correctly.

My data doesn't seem to be corrupted: there must just be some little boot file somewhere with the wrong information. I luckily have ways to access the relevant files, if someone can tell me which to edit (or point me towards a site with the info). I want to avoid reinstalling Windows because I spent a long time refining settings, installing programs and visiting Windows Update.

• I have a bare-bones installation of Windows on another hard disk, which I can boot into, but I want to avoid that because it seems to be infected with a trojan.
• I have a live CD with Knoppix that allows me to access all my files securely.

Thanks. Chameleon 20:27, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Last time I checked, it's hard to access NTFS file systems from Linux, though this may have changed. I'm assuming you've tried rebooting in safe-mode? (Hold down F8 on boot). You could also try booting off the Windows CD and invoke the recovery console. -- DrBob 23:49, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oops, yes. It looked like I had full access, but it's actually read only. I'd have to change to FAT32 first if I wanted to use Knoppix. The safe mode and the Windows CD are no use. Chameleon 01:27, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Can you unplug your smegged-up HD, plug in your other infected drive, wipe it free of viruses and then use it as a boot drive while you access the other drive? Garrett Albright 02:00, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've got a dual-boot set up, so I can boot from either drive at any time. I've tried to clear the secondary one of viruses and spyware, but there still seem to be traces of something called "Cabrotor". Anyway, it is useable. If anyone can tell me which files to change on the drive that hangs on booting, I can change them from the other drive. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If you're near a bookstore with a good selection of computer books, you might check out Hack #73 in O'Reilly's new book "Knoppix Hacks", titled "Write to NTFS." You can do it with Knoppix 3.4 - the book also includes a CD with version 3.4 if your version is older. Catbar (Brian Rock) 02:06, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I might look into that, but I think it's probably easier to boot from the other drive now. I don't have access to a good selection of computer books here because I live in Spain, so I would be relying on a translation existing. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you have a bootable floppy drive and the Partitionmagic 8 rescue disks? If so, it may be a relatively trivial problem to fix. (I may be able to send you the disk images if you are really desperate). -- FirstPrinciples 05:49, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Another possibility to try is booting from your original XP CD and attempting an automatic recovery. -- FirstPrinciples 05:53, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

My floppies are a bit screwed. I could go out and buy a couple now. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, leave a message on my talk page if you want the rescue disk images. I can't guarantee they'll help, but they are the first port of call if PartitionMagic has an error. (A simpler way to make the disks would be to install PartitionMagic on another machine and make the disks yourself -- make sure you get the latest PM8 patch here) -- FirstPrinciples 09:38, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

The comments above are predicated upon a (very) false assumption. You assume Partition Magic is a product of PowerQuest, a division of Symantec Inc., of Cupertino CA. You have, all of you, been deceived. Partition Magic was made by the dark lord Sauron himself, in the fires of Mount Doom, in the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie. Your partition table is corrupt, and no amount of linux wiz-bangery will fix this. You must take your Partition Magic CD, and any associated floppies, back to the firey furnace in which they were made. There you must cast them into the fire. Only then will your PC boot (and still you should re-install from original boot media, format your fixed disk, and beg Illuvatar and Gilbereth to restore your machine to proper working order). The true path lies not in fixing your machine, but in accepting that it's buggered. - Dave.

Potato clocks

I had an idea out of left field today: I was thinking about solar cells, and the thought struck me that plants (grass, weeds, flowers, etc.) receive a lot of solar energy, and make very efficient use of it. I thought about a digital clock I had as a kid that ran on two potatoes with zinc and copper electrodes (and of course it would also run on salt water and other things, since the potatoes were just an electrolyte). How much power could feasibly be generated in this way? Say, if I found a way to wire up electrodes to the grass in my front yard (possibly at the root level, so they're out of sight), would I be able to get enough useful energy to make the effort worthwhile? Would the gradual corrosion of the electrodes make it infeasible? I did some searching without much success; found this little experiment, and a claim that plants contain high electrical potential. I figure there's got to be a good reason we aren't using our gardens to power our homes by now. Anyone know why? Commence "flower power" and "power plant" puns now :-) -- Wapcaplet 22:10, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Just a wild guess, but it's probably far more efficient to ferment and distill the potatoes into ethanol. People do this now with corn and cane sugar, no reason it couldn't be done with potatoes. Rhobite 23:58, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

Actually, this childhood battery that you made with potatoes does not produce energy out of the potato. It does so by reduction-oxidation of the electrodes. The potato just plays the role of support, and supplies moisture and electrolytes; you'd get the same result with a salty solution instead of the potatoe.

The article that you are linking to actually says exactly the same. Rest assured that if there was an easy way to get electricity out of plants, people would already have done so.

(Note that you could, for instance, produce ethanol (alcohol) with the plants, through fermentation, and then power a fuel cell.) David.Monniaux 20:48, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, I wasn't think of potatoes in particular, but plants in general. -- Wapcaplet 00:54, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

An interesting concept. Too bad I can't answer your question, but I can wish you well in your search for knowlege, as well as link you to a potato radio. Hmm, I wonder if I got a plant large enough (a giant sequoia perhaps?), if I could power my car with it... Not only could I drive around town, but I'd have a cool sound system as well. Garrett Albright 08:22, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I also don't know, but I have the feeling that the chemical energy the plans produce would be much greater than the electrical. Then take into account that your could extract only a tiny portion of the electrical enegery and it would require a vast network of electrodes, I think it would not be feasible. - Taxman 13:26, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

This may not be the same idea, but it is drawn from the same general principles: somebody told me recently about some experimental robots which have been successfully designed to catch flies, and digest them to produce (presumably) electrical energy - a kind of artificial Venus fly trap, I guess, only mobile... So, I think the general concept is feasible, but just sticking electrodes in the ground probably wouldn't do enough; and remember, herbivorous animals tend to need extremely complex gigestive systems to break down the plant matter into a usable form, so artificial carnivores may well be perfected first. - IMSoP 13:49, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fly eating robot here and here. -- FirstPrinciples 14:14, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

See also: biofuel. --Heron 14:21, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure that photosynthesis is that efficient at capturing solar energy. Estimates appear to vary, but This article suggests a light -> chemical energy conversion efficiency of 1.6%, compared to silicon photovoltaic cells which have typicall light -> electric energy conversion efficiencies of around 15% (and can approach 25%) [3]. Using plants for biofuel does have the advantage of lower production costs. However, you might like this story about making photovoltaic cells from spinach.

If you regularly find yourself considering unconventional applications of science like this, you might enjoy finding a copy of The Inventions of Daedalus. One of David Jones' ideas was to scale up the energy potential from squeezing piezoelectric crystals, such as quartz, by strapping electrodes to either side of a continent and using the moon's tidal effect to squeeze the quartz in the Earth's crust. He calculated you should be able to get a 20MV potential across a distance of 1000km (unfortunately its not likely to work in practice). -- Solipsist 15:03, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, well, on a slight tangent, plants actually produce electricity directly, in a chloroplast inner membrane using chlorophyll, the electricity is used to pump Hydrogen ions (a.k.a. protons) into the space enclosed by the membrane. This produces a very large hydrogen gradient across the membrane, which drives an ATPase (== an Enzyme that deals with ATP) to produce ATP from ADP (to imagine why this works, think of an ATP powered proton-pump running in reverse due to the stiff gradient) . ATP is the internal power distribution medium inside cells. This ATP drives the plant cell's processes. Famously: The enzyme Rubisco is powered by ATP generated in the chloroplasts, and links carbon dioxide and water to produce pyruvate which then gets linked into stuff like glucose (with oxygen as a waste product). The best methods we currently have for recovering electricity from a plant are akin to blowing up a power plant and then burning the furniture to get some warmth. It's massively inefficient. Internally plants can get quite good mileage out of their chlorophyl, methinks. ;-) See Photosynthesis for details. Improvements in solar power generation could be based on further investigation of the internal processes in plants. Kim Bruning 01:37, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Study of ancient manuscripts

What is the name of the study and cataloging of ancient manuscripts, i.e. those from the invention of writing up to classical times? And do we have an article on it? I'm interested especially in how one identifies which ancient documents still survive and which have been lost, and how we know. Mjklin 16:44, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Palaeography and Diplomatics. adamsan 16:46, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And epitome gives some indication about lost works. adamsan 23:52, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You may also be interested in papyrology. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:54, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Junket

you have described Junket as a name brand of dessert under "Junket" Where would I find out how to contact the manufacturer so I could find out where to but yhe product?

thank you Bob Eakin beakin { at } telus.net

please advise how to contact the maker of the Junket you describe under Junket so I could find out where to buy it. thankjs Bob Eakin beakin { at } telus.net

Here's a good place to start: http://www.junketdesserts.com/ It looks like you can order it online.Mjklin 20:10, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Any reason we don't link that in the article? I believe that usually when we write about a product we do list the official site. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:14, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

It appears that it is not in there just because no one bothered. I suppose coverage of press junkets could improve the article too. I don't really know enough about them. Maybe it is just being used in the sense of a party, which is another meaning of the word junket. - Taxman 20:28, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

Braille equivalents

I was reading the Braille article, and I had a couple of questions. First off, the article says that Braille has been extended to 8 bits in order to support unicode. Is this what is being taught in schools now, or is it merely something that programmers came up with? Also, what are the braille equivalents in other languages. Presumably languages with roman alphabets can use braille, but what about pictographic languages? --Cvaneg 23:36, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I found this reference on Japanese Braille which appears to use an extra braille character to represent some of the sounds. -- WormRunner | Talk 17:53, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Chinese Names

The Chinese characters are missing from Table 1 (Char./T. & S.) at the bottom of the following web page:

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Chinese%20family%20name

Please provide same.

/Chuck Arnold/

Even though the content is excerpted from Wikipedia, since it is an external site, we have no control over it. However, you can go to the article that the content was taken from (List of common Chinese surnames) for the traditional and simplified characters. --Cvaneg 01:31, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Family Military History

My name is Chebahtah. It is a family of Native American Indian origin from Oklahoma. I am trying to find out how many members of my family have served in the United States military. What is the best way to find this information. I do not want any info except names and dates of service. This woujld include all branches of service. I have tried google and seeveral other engines.

That's not the kind of data you are likely to find online. The center for military history might be more helpful place to ask your question- http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/ . →Raul654 04:31, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Camille Pissarro's death

A newcomer to Wikipedia asked on Wikipedia:Help desk about how to get Wikipedians to check out contradictions in articles and I'm putting the queries here: When did artist Camille Pissarro die? The article gives two different dates. PedanticallySpeaking 15:14, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Funny, the death date seems indeed to be controversial...I'm not able to do any serious library research right now, but I noticed that Encyclopedia Britannica says he died November 13, 1903, while the German Brockhaus encyclopedia has him listed as having died on November 12. If two such renowned encyclopedias differ, there's probably some real difficulty in pinpointing the date. I'm intrigued to dig up some biographies and have a look, but that will take some time... -- Ferkelparade π 23:01, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your research, Ferkelparade. In that case, I suppose the article should state that the date is in doubt, unless and until we can resolve it definitively. Stephen Turner 10:06, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ellis Island

A newcomer to Wikipedia asked on Wikipedia:Help desk about how to get Wikipedians to check out contradictions in articles and I'm putting the queries here: When did Ellis Island close? The article used to say that it closed on 12th November but now says that it closed on 29th November. Stephen Turner, who posted this on the Help Desk, says he checked the web and found both dates were equally common. PedanticallySpeaking 15:16, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Both the NPS and Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation use the vague "November, 1954". Rmhermen 23:25, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

I am extremely confused. I've found the 12th, the 19th, and the 29th all listed in about equal occurances. If I were to make a stab in the dark guess, one might speculate that the last detainee may have finished processing on the early date, but with the employees of the emigration service not offically moving off the island until the later date, or something like that. Just thinking out loud. func(talk) 06:55, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your research. Yes, I wondered about something like func is suggesting. Or maybe the arrival of the last immigrant on the island and his dispatch. Maybe I should change the article to say merely "November 1954" for the moment? Unless someone actually wants to call, or write to, the museum's curators? Stephen Turner 10:01, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

World Series Trophy

Is a new trophy created for each year's winning team or is it like the Stanley Cup and passed forward to each new winner? PedanticallySpeaking 15:38, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

After reading the article, I'd be inclined to say that a new trophy is created each year. It talks about recent designs, which implies more than one or two versions. Also, considering that the current design has 30 flags each representing a team in the MLB, that would mean the trophy could at most be 6 years old since the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were added in 1998. Finally, it references the 2003 and 2004 trophy as separate entities. --Cvaneg 16:38, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I had this question a few days ago before I read the article, which also gave me the impression of a series of trophies, I just was hoping someone could confirm that. PedanticallySpeaking 16:45, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Who lied to his diary?

Who was the Clinton administration official who testified to Congress, when hearings were held on how bank regulators treated the failure of the savings and loan owned by the Clintons' friend Jim McDougal, that he had lied to his own diary? PedanticallySpeaking 15:40, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

According to CNN Josh Steiner (towards the bottom of the page) --Cvaneg 16:08, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Mental age

What help is available for individuals who have a high IQ but low mental age, distinct from autism; for example, a person who considers themselves to be mentally a teenager, but possessing a body ten years older and believed by society to be adult?

You may be interested in emotional intelligence, though that doesn't seem to have any practical suggestions. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:04, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You mention autism for some reason. Hmm in that case, might be a long shot, but are you looking for Asperger syndrome? Kim Bruning 22:10, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If this person actually has some sort of mental disorder, then I would recommend seeing a specialist (i.e. a psychiatrist), as Wikipedia is not the best place to look for medical advice. Otherwise, I think you'll need to expand on what you mean when you say this person considers themself to be a teenager. After all, there are plenty of teenagers who are forced into the adult world due to circumstances. What specifically, is this person having a problem with? --Cvaneg 22:46, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It is difficult to answer this question, perhaps owning to the uncertainty of what you mean by considering "themselves to be mentally a teenager". Since you mention a high IQ, then it can be assumed we are talking about social or emotional skills, and since the presumed "age" of equivalence is the teenage years, then we can rule out mental handicap. Here's the thing: I am 32 years of age, but I don't "feel" like an adult. I "feel" very much like I did when I was a teenager. Now, this is all very subjective: in truth, I know that I am more mature, better read, and far more responsible than I was at that age... but it doesn't change that underlying feeling I have that I am still pretty much the same dude I was in highschool. In some people, a certain sense that they are not yet ready for the "adult world" is probably more acute than in others, but everyone has this feeling to some degree. If this person has some access to a professional guidance counselor of some kind, perhaps via a community center or even a church, they should avail themselves of it. func(talk) 02:40, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's the most helpful answer I've been able to find — thank you! Hopefully you're right and that's all it is. Autism and AS have never seemed to fit at all. There doesn't seem to be much study of conditions less severe than AS, though — I'm concerned that something severe in its own way might be overlooked.

To illustrate, the individual in question feels like she cannot progress beyond about 13 mentally, which frustrates her greatly. She has often expressed difficulty in grasping the rules of society, feeling like the world became too complex and left her behind. Otherwise she seems normal. She has gone through many therapists, who dismiss her complaint without consideration — to them, she seems like a normal, but depressed young adult. Yet she thinks this is very serious, without being able to place exactly what is wrong, and she feels like nobody understands her. There must be a way to help her function at an adult level, but there doesn't seem to be much that anyone can do.

It is interesting that you mention the age of 13, because this is around the age at which boys and girls begin to think differently about one another, (or boys and boys, or girls and girls, depending on orientation). I'd like to repeat and stress Cvaneg's concern that Wikipedia is not the best place to seek medical or physiological advice, but a few things occur to me. I remember a story told on Dateline, (or another of those t.v. magazine shows), about a guy in his 30s who had never been able to develop a close relationship with a woman. Numerous psychologists had told him all sorts of things about what was "mentally" wrong with him, but their advice never seemed to help. Finally, a doctor discovered that his body was deficient in one of the sex steroids, that is, he was hormonally unbalanced. After being given certain steroid supplements, he subsequently became, er... a bit randy, apparently. In any case, he eventually settled down and is now living a much more normal life. It has been commented upon by numerous academics that if you seek advice from a psychologist, you get a psychological answer, where as if you seek advice on the same matter from a medical doctor, you get a medical answer. Dr. Oliver Sacks has said words to the effect that there needs to be more done to bridge the gap between psychology and medicine. Hope this helps, (but remember, an open-source encyclopedia reference desk is not a substitute for professional advice). :) func(talk) 20:04, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

SPACE STATION - APPENDECTOMY?

What happens if someone on the space station requires an emergency appendetomy or other life-saving operation?

I imagine it's very much the same as people stationed in Antarctica. Which is to say that they try and get them out as soon as possible, and in the intervening time they will have to figure out a way to make do. Jerri Nielsen, for example, contracted breast cancer while at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and had to self-administer chemotherapy until she could be airlifted out. --Cvaneg 21:14, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Immediate transport to earth, unless an experienced surgeon is member of the team and he/she has the right (sterile) material. Until then normal non-surgical management applies (fluids through drip, no oral intake, broad-spectrum antibiotics, medication to maintain blood pressure eg adrenalin). In theory, appendicitis could be lethal in space. JFW | T@lk 22:14, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The ISS has a Soyuz escape module which can return the station occupants to Earth at any time, in a matter of hours. NASA are also developing a new escape capsule to be available by 2006. (As a side note, "fluids through drip" could be difficult, given that most drips rely at least partially on gravity feed. I'm sure someone at NASA has considered this, perhaps they have some sort of pressure-driven system.) -- FirstPrinciples 00:41, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

IVs run on pumps even in hospitals on earth, and antibiotics could be given to buy time. Alteripse 01:06, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I believe that all astronauts have one before they go, just in case. I'm not sure about this though. Alphax (talk) 08:51, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

Have an appendectomy? Even the South Pole winter-overs don't have to have a healthy appendix or wisdom tooth removed. Pakaran (ark a pan) 22:18, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I had heard this too - it could be an urban myth though. Intrigue 19:15, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

New York tax code change

What changes in the tax code spurred a speculative building boom in New York, which led to a great supply of apartments on the market prior to 1987? --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 02:33, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

There was some legislation about real estate partnerships that created an interesting loophole in the federal tax code for much of the '80s that was closed around '86-'87. I don't remember the details, but it should be possible to find; same thing happened here in Seattle. As I remember it, the loophole had been there for a while, but hadn't been much exploited until the '80s, so it would be easier to start any research from the closing of the loophole. -- Jmabel | Talk 18:51, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

• I'd have to check, but I think its the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the big tax reform bill, you're talking about, the struggle for which was detailed in the book Showdown at Gucci Gulch by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Alan S. Murray (New York: Random, 1987). As I recall, it had to do with banning certain tax shelters, including changing the passive loss rules, changes that helped cause all those Texas S&L's that had gambled on the real estate market to collapse. You might also try the superb Skyscraper Dreams: The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York by Tom Schactman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1991). That book also says that buildings whose foundations were poured by May 13, 1988, got to be 20 percent larger than the zoning would ordinarily allow, some sort of waiver Ed Koch and the City Council approved to spur development in Midtown Manhattan. PedanticallySpeaking 15:29, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)
  • Yes it was a change in the treatment of passive losses by the IRS. Thus it was not just a New York change, but it may have affected New York specifically in the way you refer to, DropDeadGorgias. Basically, for a while passive losses could offset taxable ordinary income. So limited partnerships were set up to invest in real estate and throw off tremendous tax losses. The investments themselves either lost a lot of money or made very little, but the tax savings could be so substantial that they were advantageous for investors to put their money into anyway. Money was solicited from individual and institutional investors for these limited partnerships. The law was then changed, causing many who had put their money in these tax shelters to lose a lot of money, since the investments themselves were typically poor. Limited partnerships live on in the form of successful real estate investments nowadays, but that term can still be used to find more information about the issue. - Taxman 20:40, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)
    • I corrected the name of the act you referred to, PedanticallySpeaking, and linked to it. TEFRA, the name you had before was actually the name of the 82 act. The article currently mentions nothing about closing the passive loss loophole, but it should. I found a reference that does mention the tax reform act of 86 was the one to close the passive loss loophole. All of the above could be used to improve that article by the way. I will see what I can do. - Taxman 16:43, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Douglas MacArthur's middle name

Moved to Talk:Douglas MacArthur

Music markup language

Is there such a thing as a unified markup language for music? Or is this covered by LaTeX? -- Alphax (talk) 09:12, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

GNU LilyPond may be what you have in mind. You can find examples and documentation on Wikisophia. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 21:38, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Excellent! Thankyou. Now all I need to to is actually learn LaTeX. Alphax (talk) 03:16, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

evolution

Is evolution taught at Catholic universities in the US? --Tothebarricades.tk 22:01, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It's taught at catholic universities in the Netherlands, Is there any reason why universities wouldn't have a course on Evolution as part of their Biology curriculum? Kim Bruning 22:31, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, it's taught. The church has officially decided it is compatible with belief that God created the universe. (Read this fast, before Eequor censors it). Alteripse 23:13, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't understand the joke about Eequor :-[ ... please explain? --Gelu Ignisque

Eequor has taken it upon herself to censor and remove two of my answers to the reference desk over the last couple of months. I'm not sure whether she has appointed herself political correctness police or whether she has decided she gets to say who is privileged to answer these questions. Anyway, my note is the verbal equivalent of a vertical digital signal to her offensive behavior. Most people on wikipedia can disagree without feeling that they have to remove someone else's remarks. alteripse 00:46, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Journal articles on impact of information technology

Unfortunately, Wikipedia isn't a "reputable source". Anyone know of any scientific journal articles on the impact of information technology on human behaviour, work and biology? Alphax (talk) 03:41, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

Broad subject - I'm not sure exactly what kinds of examples you had in mind, but Scirus is the best place I know to go to to search for academic papers. Salasks 06:25, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

I need articles on the impact of IT or other communications technology on:

• work
• social life
• biology

Can anyone think of specific articles? Alphax (talk) 22:26, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

for Biology journals, try [PubMed]. Searching for "Information Systems"[MeSH] AND impact gives:

The impact of communications and information technology on organisations.

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2002;65:407-21. Review. No abstract available.

PMID: 15460239 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

- Key45 23:28, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Zirconiumnitrite

Is there anyone swedishspeaking who knows if the swedish "Zirconiumnitrid" would be "Zirconiumnitrite" in english?

--Bong 12:58, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't speak Swedish, but Google tells me that Zirconiumnitrid = ZrN, and that ZrN = "zirconium nitride" in English. --Heron 13:43, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thank you! I found that through another source as well. --Bong 13:59, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Middle East

  Is Mideast another name for the Middle East?

Yes, but both terms assume a certain vantage point. The politically correct term for the region is Southwest Asia. --Gelu Ignisque

Which of course, almost no one in the US uses. I don't know about the rest of the English speaking world. Valid point, but another that has not gained popular usage. - Taxman 20:45, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

We of the United Kingdom use "Middle East" both in conversation and in the media. Never heard "Mideast" or "Southwest Asia" used. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 00:32, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

The term "Middle East" is used in Arabic and Persian as well, nowadays - Arabic "ash-Sharq al-Awsat", Persian "khavar-e-miane" (I think). It's not too Eurocentric, considering that the traditional Arabic term was "al-Mashriq" - the east (as opposed to al-Maghreb.) - Mustafaa 00:38, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Besides, how can "Southwest Asia" be correct? Has Egypt been excluded from the Middle East? --jpgordon{gab} 16:58, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Obtaining copies of medical records from Cuba

I need to know what the status, procedure and/or legalities of getting copies of medical records are for individuals who had medical care in Cuba. Specifically in Matanzas, Cuba. Is there anyplace that I can go to research this subject?

Lisa K. Goodwin goodwinlk { at } bipc.com (813) 222-8188

Requested article

I had no clue where to categorize this at the appropriate page. Could someone please add the following request to where it belongs (List of Pokémon name etymologies) or create the article? Thanks a lot, --anon.

There is also a Pokemon project somewhere around here. The people who are working on that are bound to be interested. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 08:40, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Fake products on TV & blurring logos on TV

Sometimes on TV you will notice that the characters are using 'fake' consumer products. For example, it may look like a box of Wheaties, but if you look closely it has some generic name (Wheat flakes). Also sometimes on TV, logos on clothing will be blurred out.

So my question is... if you are making a TV, and you have a trademarked image in it, do you have to pay for permission to use that image? If so, isn't it difficult to film anything on a normal urban street, which has trademarked images all over? Or... is it just that the television stations don't want to give free advertising? ike9898 21:56, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

Well, if you have a trademarked image in a TV program or film, it will most likely serve as advertising for the product. If you don't want to be providing this 'free' advertising (as opposed to product placement), you would change everything to invented brands or generics. Alphax (talk) 22:35, Nov 15, 2004 (UTC)

Free advertising is definitely a part of it. Here's a syndicated article from the LA Times on the subject. Another factor to consider is that FCC rules regarding the promotion of alcohol or drug use can be a bit restrictive, so standards and practices may insist on blurring marijuana leaf logos and things of a similar nature. --Cvaneg 22:54, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Some other reasons:

• In some cases the filmmaker is making a point - i.e. it's a statement against product placement in movies. Alex Cox movies show products labeled with simple generic label (the Repo Men in Repo Man drink cans labelled "BEER") rather than even trying to fake a brand.

Actually, in the 70's in the US there was a trend of truely generic grocery store products. Often they had a plain white or yellow label with the name of the contents in plain black letters. And on top of my fridge at home I have an empty can of generic BEER. It may still be available some places, but if memory serves, it was terrible! ike9898 14:41, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

I believe it was Ralph's Supermarkets that sold (still sell?) very generic products like "BEER" and "CHEESE". Repo Man took it to another level though, with cans of "FOOD" and bottles of "DRINK". -- DrBob 22:12, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Similarly, it can be a parody of said placement (more making fun that a political point). VIZ comic (particularly oddball soccer story Billy the Fish) shows advertising hoardings with the usual niceities removed ("DRINK BEER", "SMOKE TABS", etc.).
• some public-service broadcasters (I'm thinking of the BBC here) have policies against advertising so strong they try not to so it even incidentally (so the fairy-liquid bottles in the model castle that Lesley Judd's had prepared earlier were painted-over to hide their brand).
• And there's also legal issues. If you make a movie in which the villains drink Coors before they go out and shoot someone, you might get sued by Coors, their lawyers claiming you've unfairly painted their fine product as the chosen drink of murderous gangmembers.

This answer was brought to you by Corona Extra, the beer that murderous gangmembers definately don't drink. Honest.- John Fader

To expand on John's point, I don't even think you have to depict the logo in a bad light for a company to sue you. In the US, if a corporation feels that you unfairly capitalized on their logo or trademark without their permission, then they can sue you. Of course in these litigious times, you can get sued over pretty much anything. Sony was sued by various property owners in Times Square over Spider-man for digitally editing out billboards and other advertisements in their shots of Times Square. Admittedly the only reason Sony did it was so they could work in their own product placements, but the point is that they got sued for removing logos rather than leaving them in. --Cvaneg 23:57, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've often wondered if there are actual regulations against brand-name promotion. In an episode of the Good Eats show on Food Network, Alton holds up a familiar round "Ritz cracker" as they're so widely known, but makes a point of not mentioning them by name. I'm sure I've seen similar instances of deliberate brand-name avoidance. -- Wapcaplet 23:53, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, you probably could go ahead and say that they were Ritz Crackers, as long as you added a long legalistic spiel explaining that your use of Ritz Crackers did not constitute and endorsement or any connection between you and RJR Nabisco. Otherwise, Nabisco might complain that you were boosting your own profile by riding on their coattails, or maybe that you were making their product look bad with whatever culinary atrocity you were committing on your show. --Cvaneg 00:07, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

An episode of Alan Partridge makes fun of the BBC's regulations about mentioning products. Partridge keeps naming a car manufacturer as a barely concealed attempt to try and get a freebie. One of the more blatant, genuine product placements I can recall is in Back To The Future where Marty McFly is "attacked" by a holographic advertising hoarding featuring a shark... I think it was an advert for Coke but I may be wrong. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 00:46, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

The most blatant project placement is FedEx in Castaway. The whole movie was one long commercial. Salasks 00:55, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Wiccan Rede

I am trying to find out when the original version of the Rede was written.

• According to a quick google search back into the origins of this ancient religion, it dates back to about 1975, which probably puts it within a generation of its inventor. July '98 Note: Although the origin of the 'Rede and just who rewrote it has been up for debate for many a year, We just received this info via email... "The Rede of the Wiccae should be credited to Lady Gwen Thompson for originally publishing it back in 1975 edition Green Egg Magazine". - Arion Rhys http://www.starkindler.org/arion/
• Found at http://www.witchvox.com/basics/rede.html, an ye hav no idee how hard it is to present this with a strate phace... alteripse 02:15, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I have to say, the capitalization bothers me, as does the use of words like "thou", "ye", and "doth". You know, it should be perfectly possible to create a modern religious creed without copying the 17th century English of the King James Version of the Bible. func(talk) 04:33, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC) Shall we call it the "faux fey affectation"? alteripse 12:19, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Maximum size of a fat32 hard disk in Win98?

I have a formatted 40gb usb external hard disk (fat 32), I have the right drivers, but win98 refuses to recognise it - win2k does though. Is it too big? If so, how small does it need to be to be recognized? Thanks, Mark Richards 14:16, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC) The original win 98 doesn't do USB very well, does it? alteripse 14:19, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I did some hunting, to determine the maximum partition size under FAT32, and found this Microsoft page, which says that it's a lot bigger than 40GB, and certainly wasn't increased under Win2000 (the amount you can format was decreased). I'd tend to go with Alteripse's suggestion that the USB support in Win98 is to blame; or, you have some other problem with the drivers. - IMSoP 14:53, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks - I have a cd of win98 drivers that came with the drive, and the computer recognizes it, but says that it is unformatted. Any clues? Work-arounds? Thank you! Mark Richards 15:56, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Looking at the article you link to, I am wondering how it came to be a 40gb fat 32, since the article says that 32gb is the largest that can be formatted. Is this right though? You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 FastFAT driver can mount and support volumes larger than 32 GB that use the FAT32 file system (subject to the other limits), but you cannot create one using the Format tool. This behavior is by design. If you need to create a volume larger than 32 GB, use the NTFS file system instead. Mark Richards 16:06, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You've been skim-reading haven't you? Let me emphasise the key part of that quotation: "You cannot format a volume larger than 32 GB in size using the FAT32 file system in Windows 2000". Because Windows 2000 is based on Windows NT, Microsoft prefer you to use NTFS, especially for large partitions. Windows 98 didn't support anything better than FAT32, so won't have had that particular restriction. - IMSoP 21:03, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, no, but I was confused - I was confusing 'use NTFS' with 'format as NTFS'. That clears it up though, thank you. However, my drive still doesn't work... Any clues on how to fix the USB issues with win98? Thanks, Mark Richards 21:39, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Faces of criminals in crime reality shows (COPS)

Oftentimes in the American TV show COPS, the criminal is shown without their face blurred out. I am wondering if the (alleged) criminal must give his consent for this to be used on TV?? ike9898 14:46, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Is news public domain?

It seems from the public domain article that facts are in the public domain, but reporting of them may not be. A news agency might do a lot of work to collect some news and expect just compensation. So how is it that news stories can be "picked up" by competing agencies, e.g., the Associated Press picking up a story in a local newspaper? Isn't that local news story under copyright? Is there a fee involved or some sort of professional agreement? Thanks. Mjklin 15:10, 2004 Nov 16 (UTC)

As you can see from the article on the AP, it's owned by its contributing newspapers. A local newspaper allows its stories to be used by the AP because it has the opportunity to use AP wire stories itself. So, the answer is that the news story is certainly under copyright, and the only fees/professional arrangements involved are the money and agreements necessary to maintain the AP. :-) Jwrosenzweig 15:16, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ok, but the AP seems to be a special arrangement. Does "picking up" happen in any other situation, say, between Newsweek and Good Housekeeping? What about if Newsweek picked up a story from a British paper?

In cases other than AP - and in some cases involving AP - there is simply a price schedule for using articles established in advance. You can publish AP articles on your own personal website if you pay the fees. Or, a bunch of newspapers will be owned by the same company which will share articles among its different papers. American papers in particular are often part of large chains, where two newspapers in cities on the opposite sides of the country may have identical news stories on the same day for all or nearly all their non-local news.

In short, it all stays under copyright but the rights are presold or prelicensed because news breaks too quickly to ask for explicit permission. Selling news stories is a source of income for some newspapers.

There is no special reason why newsmagazines can't do this too, but magazines don't usually buy stories from wire services (sometimes, but not usually). The fees are proportionate to mean circulation, so Newsweek would have to pay a lot if it used wire articles, and people wouldn't read it much for last week's AP wire feeds. So this sort of thing doesn't much happen. Now, magazines do sometimes exchange stories, but then it's usually negociated specifically for that article and money changes hands. There are sometimes standard fee schedules for reprinting and translating stories, but that means publication in a different market or at a later date. Diderot 16:01, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Just yesterday, The Cincinnati Enquirer carried an AP story from Akron, Ohio about a big series on home-schooling the Akron Beacon Journal is doing this week. The AP routinely moves stories that tell everyone else what is being reported on. One reason is to let editors know there's something they might want to get reprint rights on.
  Now as for a story being picked up by the AP, one of the conditions of membership, is that the AP is entitled to exclusive rights to distribute breaking local news. So if a plane crashes in Seattle, the AP could pick up everything the Post-Intelligencer and the Times wrote and every AP subscriber would be free to use it. This does not apply to where a paper's bureaus elsewhere break a story, investigative reports, columns, reviews, and the like. (Thought syndication deals often exist for this material, just not through the AP.)
  Facts are in the public domain. And for an older Associated Press story you needn't worry so much about infringement because the story has gone stale. However, the AP and others have won court cases--I don't have the citations at hand--where radio and television stations who weren't subscribers simply rephrased AP stories and put them on the air; these precedents are from the 1920s and 1930s. The courts have reasoned that if everyone were allowed to piggyback on the AP's labor then nobody would go into the business of newsgathering and there would be no news since everyone decided to be a freerider rather than a subscriber. The Toledo Blade newspaper got a settlement from a tv station a couple years ago that was basically reading the morning paper on the air.
  Again, I don't have the citations, but a long time ago--in the 19th century, I believe--the courts ruled you couldn't copyright information such as stock quotes, commodities prices, prices quoted on merchandise, etc., notwithstanding the disclaimers you see today on Bloomberg and CNBC.
  As for the workings of the AP, it is a non-profit memership co-operative. Every general interest daily newspaper in America (there are around 1,500) is a member plus some college and weekly papers. Their fees are determined on circulation, so USA Today (circulation 2 million) pays a lot more than The Battle Creek Enquirer (circulation 9,000). (This is how rates for features such as comics and columns are determined, a small paper might only pay a couple dollars a week for them.) Broadcasters, internet sites, and others can subscribe to the AP, but the service is run primarily for the benefit of the newspapers. Back in the 1920's the AP resisted letting radio subscribe until it realized the cash cow it could be and now the income from broadcasters and the rest is icing on the cake. PedanticallySpeaking 17:08, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Richard Nixon on November 22, 1963

The Richard Nixon article mentions he was in Dallas, Texas the day John F. Kennedy was killed, speaking to the Coca-Cola Bottlers covention. I thought it was the Pepsi bottlers--can anyone confirm? PedanticallySpeaking 16:48, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

Wasn't he on the grassy knol-- um, nevermind. ;-) func(talk) 05:17, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

who is the auther

Ah, our frequently asked question again. Try Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. Intrigue 19:12, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

E-MC2

This was posted to the talk page, and Jimaginator asked me to post it here for him. Intrigue 19:12, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I was wondering if someone could explain the units used in this equation. I have never seen an explanation which includes the units. It would seem that the equation would not hold if the units changed. jimaginator

I had the same question. For the unit of mass, it seems like electronvolt (eV) is normally used in particle physics.Units: E (http://) c is a constant the speed of light(m/s). But when calculating the energy of a nucler fission of a chunk of plutonium for example, eV is not suitable to use because the unit is too small. According this website E=mc^2 The Basics (http://www.btinternet.com/~j.doyle/SR/Emc2/Basics.htm), Kg is used in that instance. Both are SI units and are convertible, so I guess that explains it.--Nc622 16:58, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. The E=mc2 Basics website states that it's Energy in Joules, mass in kg, and speed in meters per second. So far so good. Now Wiki says a Joule is: "One joule is the work required to exert a force of one newton for a distance of one metre". ---So now we have: 1N x 1m = 1kg x (m/s) x (m/s) A newton is a SI derived unit defined as the amount of force required to accelerate a mass of one kilogram at a rate of one metre per second squared. ---So now we have: 1kg x m x s^-2 = 1kg x (m/s) x (m/s). So, both sides end up being defined with kg,m,s; the basis of the SI units in the first place. It all seems rather circular in structure to me. If the units are picked to have some inherent relationship in the first place, anything can be used. And I suppose the squaring of the right side is where the really big energy quantity comes from, but somehow it's not all that satisfying. I guess it's the nature of the concept of energy in the first place, since this is more abstract than a meter which we can pace out, or a second which we have all have a subjective feel for. I had always felt that the simplicity of the equation was due to something simple in the fabric of the universe. When I first heard the equation in junior high, it was a wow moment, how could it be so simple? But really it isn't. What would the equation look like in other measurement systems? I suspect not so elegant. I wonder if Einstein was using SI, or even if he was thinking in terms of any particular system at all at first. Jimaginator 14 Nov 2004 UTC

Er... The equation would look the same in any unit system, with the addition of a dimensionless constant k as factor (E = k M C²). In fact, some physicists choose to place themselves in another unit system where they consider C=1 and some appropriate constant k. David.Monniaux 19:52, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Noting that c is also a constant. (So you can call it c²—which I prefer because I know what c is—or you can call it k or you can call it "Bob". It's still the speed of light. You can report it in different units, of course. Whether you stick a k in front or not is purely cosmetic.) -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:55, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Indeed - the units are pretty much irrelevant, so long as you are consistent or convert properly - the point of the equation is that energy and mass are, in some senses, equivalent. In SI units, energy is measured in kg m² s⁻², and mass in kg and c in m/s, so it all works; in particle physics, "natural units" are used where c=1, energy is measured in electronvolts, and mass in eV/c² (these are not the same as the units explained at natural units, but you could use those instead, or Imperial pounds and feet, or whatever) . -- ALoan (Talk) 20:03, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The short version: It really doesn't matter, so long as you are consistent (that is, the units must be the same on each side of the equation).

You could literally make up your own units if you really, really wanted to. (Example: If you declare that c is measured in oranges and m is measured in apples, then E must be measured in apples*oranges^2.) Of course, there would be some wacky conversion factor involved in changing c from m/s to "oranges". ;)

The "inherent relationship" between mass and energy, is, in fact, the point of the equation. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:50, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

How many active cargo ships are there world wide?

I am involved in a project that requires the following information:
1. How many cargo ships are active world wide?
2. How many cargo ships are at sea at any one time?
3. How many merchant seaman are at sea at any one time?

American school system

What grade would a 10 year old American kid be in and what would a regular curriculum look like? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 21:33, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)

A 10 year old will typically be in 4th grade. As for the curriculum, it will vary depending on the federal, state, and local decisions. To give you a general idea you can look at the California Department of Education site which has fourth grade content recommendations for math, english, history, and science. --Cvaneg 21:59, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

To clarify, 10 is the age of most children starting fourth grade. (You are generally supposed to be five years old in order to start kindergarten.) Unless they have been held back, the oldest in the class will be nearly 11 and the youngest might be just a little short of 10. Most 4th-graders will turn 11 sometime during the school year.

So technically, there will be some 10-year olds in third grade, especially toward the end of the school year, and possibly a very few in fifth grade (at the very beginning of the year), depending on the rules in that area for starting kindergarten (which is the year before 1st grade). -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:39, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think for the most part you are correct, but with the ages shifted one year. I agree that most children start Kindergarten at 5, but that would make kids starting 4th grade 9. (K=5, 1st=6, 2nd=7, 3rd=8, 4th=9, 5th=10). --Cvaneg 22:54, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Er, right. That would be right. (I don't pretend to be able to count.) But in that case, I would say that the more typical grade for a 10-year-old would be fifth, wouldn't it? -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 22:58, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, not to bring counting back into this, but to answer that question, you would have to calculate the probability that a child has a birthday within the first half of the school year (approximately Sept-Feb) rather than the second half of the school year (March-June) :P I'm going to go ahead and call it a uniform distribution and say that it is equally likely that a child spend the majority of his or her 10th year in 4th grade as it is that they spend the majority of it in 5th. --Cvaneg 23:12, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I thought about it. Your assumption is a good first appproximation. However, a better approximation would be to start by saying that children born from June-October will probably be 9 for nearly the entirety of their 4th-grade years. (June/July/August because their birthday will be after the school year is over and September/October because of regulations that one must turn 5 by, say, mid-October during kindergarten). That's 5/12. Of the remaining 7 months, say that students are equally likely to be either 9 or 10 for the majority of the year. You still have 5/12 + 3.5/12 = 8.5/12 of students who are 9 for the greater part of their 4th grade year. You can adjust the first approximation, but as long as it is > 0, the result will be the same. This is an effect of the existence of summer vacation. If school were in session year-round, the probabilities would, indeed, be equal.

It might help to know the reason for the question. If you're trying to compare different education systems, it would probably be best to look at the start of the school year. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 20:06, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for all the info, if you have any more, keep it coming :-) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 09:38, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

In terms of curriculum, there are a number of US organizations that develop so-called national standards -- essentially recommendations for where students should be at a given grade level. A list of the various national centers can be found here, and an overview of the standards is available here. Beyond that it's hard to say what a typical 4th/5th grade American education looks like since states have their own standards that almost always eclipse national standards in terms of determining the curriculum.

My own Californian 4th/5th grade education (before the No Child Left Behind nonsense) was essentially math (multiplying/dividing, simple algebra, order of operations), early US history (Columbus, colonization, etc.), English/language arts (parts of speech, short compositions, book reports), physical education (stretching and running), fine arts (band and chorus with a hint of musical history), geography (what's a strait?), and sex education (what's a nocturnal emission?). Of course, that was some 15-odd years ago, so your mileage may vary. --David Iberri | Talk 18:11, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

Menachem Begin: Bounty from the British?

For whatever reason, I remember reading somewhere that Menachem Begin had a $50,000 bounty placed on him by the British authorities during the Mandate period. Can anyone confirm or deny the veracity of that? Also, if it's true...What's the current status of it? --Penta 22:37, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I imagine the reason would be the terrorist attack on the King David hotel, of which Begin was the author. I hadn't heard about a specific bounty. One would imagine that, as Begin is long dead, so is any bounty. - John Fader

Yeast Fermentation

Can Anyone PLease Help Me Fast ???

what happens to the ethyl alcohol produced by the yeast when you make bread? what happens to the ethyl alcohol when yeast is used to make beer?

PLEASE ANSWER FAST !!!!

Well since you asked for a fast answer rather than a well researched one. I believe the alcohol in bread evaporates during the baking process, while the alcohol in beer is what makes it beer as opposed to wheat and hops tea. --Cvaneg 01:36, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Mmmmm. Wheat and hops tea! - Homer Simpson.

Hey, can you please please please provide a more depth answer? :) i have do a damn lab on this

Not really. "Baking evaporates off any alcohol and inactivates the yeast. It also causes bubbles of carbon dioxide to move through the dough, giving the bread a spongy texture after baking." [4]. So what do you propose to do? Bake bread and collect the fumes? - Nunh-huh 04:11, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

and what about beer?

What about it? The alcohol and carbon dioxide dissolve in the water, which is the whole point with beer. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:18, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

aiite smarties...answer this: could flour function as the carbon source for the yeast to break down? how would you set up the experiment to test this in the laboratory?

Yes, it does. Did you follow the link? It details the chemical reactions. Maltose in flour is catalyzed by the maltase in yeast to form glucose, and any added sugar is converted from sucrose to glucose and fructose by yeast's invertase. Then the yeast's zymase catalyzes the sugars to CO₂ and alcohol. Proving this, however, must be left as an exercise for the reader. I suppose one might use isotopes of Carbon to prove it, but I suspect you're being asked for something more practical. - Nunh-huh 04:33, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

aiite...you guys are hecka smart...anyways...one last question: will too much sucrose in a solution decrease the amount of yeast fermentation?

Well, probably there's an optimal concentration. If you put too much in, you could probably kill the yeast by osmotic lysis. But I would think that the amount that would be normally added to a recipe would be expected to increase the fermentation. - Nunh-huh 04:50, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Alright, thanks a lot man....now i can finally do my formal lab write up... damn ur smart

Theoretically, using wheat flour should produce some sort of Hefeweizen (a favorite of mine). Of course, I imagine true Hefeweizen is made using wheat that has been milled in a specific way or perhaps malted so as to maximize its potential. --Cvaneg 06:33, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Legal smoking ages

Wikipedia has info on the legal drinking ages of countries, but (as far as I know) none on smoking ages. Does anybody know where I can find a list of international legal smoking ages? Thanks.

(Moved from VP by JesseW 01:52, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC))

where did the name flyback tranformer come from?

A quick google search turns up the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ's entry on Testing of Flyback (LOPT) Transformers. It has a pausible explanation of the term's origin. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:43, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Dred Scott Descision

What was the Dred Scott Descision i'm looking for a semi-detailed answer

See Dred Scott v. Sandford. →Raul654 04:43, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

thanx - i thought of that after i posted the question.....stoopid me

Maltose vs. Sucrose

are sucrose and maltose isomers?

No - their formulas are different. →Raul654 05:05, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

Their structures are different, though their chemical formulas are identical (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁). Sucrose is a disaccharide composed of glucose & fructose; maltose is a disaccharide composed of two molecules of glucose. They are structural isomers, but not stereosisomers because they are topologically different. - Nunh-huh 05:33, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

My bad - their formulas *are* the same (I read the wrong one) -- yep, they are isomers. →Raul654 05:38, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

The sound of one hand clapping

Are there certain hereditary traits which prevent the ability to produce a sound by clapping with one hand? --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 06:20, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I was not aware that anyone was able to perform such a feat. Presumably, the question 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' would not figure so prominently in Zen Buddhism if there were a straightforward answer. --Smack 06:37, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well (taking my cue from the source of modern philosophy, The Simpsons), if you mean bending the fingers of on hand so that they come in contact with the palm of the same hand, I imagine that there are plenty of muscular and bone disorders that prevent a full range of hand movement. Also, any sort of condition that brings about paralysis would pretty much do the trick. --Cvaneg 06:41, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Simply put - the sound of a clap is made by hitting two parts of your body together with a moderate force. I assume that by one hand clapping, you mean mean stretching out your hand and then curling up your fingers very fast to make a colliding sound against your palm. Simply put - your hand is not designed to do such an action effeciently. The skeletal muscles in your hand were not designed to isotonically contract at such speeds required to produce a reasonably sounding clap. →Raul654 06:46, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

These are very interesting answers! As for myself, I have no difficulty producing an appreciable sound with either hand (bending all fingers to meet the palm), so this particular koan has always seemed a little strange to me. Certainly there are any number of disorders which would prevent this, but is it common to not be able to clap with one hand? --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 07:06, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Einstein's IQ

What was Albert Einstein's I.Q. ?

Interesting question. No-one seems to know for sure. Various sources give figures from 150 to over 200, but none that I can find are backed up with any hard evidence. The most common "guesstimate" seems to be "just over 160", but it is possible that someone plucked this figure from mid-air and then other sources just re-quoted it (as I am doing !). Gandalf61 11:06, Nov 17, 2004 (UTC)

As Gandalf61 noted, there's a lot of speculation. I doubt it'd be a useful figure anyway, seeing that as problematic as IQ is for quantifying anything apart from ability-in-making-this-specific-IQ-test for people with near average IQs, it's even worse for outliers. --fvw* 11:20, 2004 Nov 17 (UTC)

Folk_och_Rackare

Moved from article namespace: Appeal for help to "Swedish" folk (rock) fans

In the Seventies folk rock group "Scafell Pike" made 7 albums. Even in 1997 a CD with "The best of Scafell Pike" was released (record label unknown).

Albums I know of are: With You In Mind (Colombia LP) 1972 Month Of Maying (Epic LP) 1973 Four’s A Crowd (Mercury LP) 1976 X-Ray Vision (unknown) 1978

I am only familiar with the LP "Lords Rake" from 1974. If I am informed well, Scafell Pike is formed by two Swedish and two English men, all with professional education. I am very curious to learn more about their music, but every attempt on the Internet stranded so far, whatever way I tried. Last year I thought to have found a connection: the e-mail address of one of Scafell Pike's members (Roy Colegate). Unfortunately the reply stated: "Saw your posting, and I'm afraid that I can't help you; but I think you would like to know that Roy Colegate passed away in Stockholm on Thursday the 28th of February 2002. He was 53." Such an early age to die, how sad. I cannot believe that all the master pieces of this group fell into oblivion. Are there more people interested in Scafell Pike's music or am I the only one?

Furthermore, there is the leading Swedish folk rock group also from the seventies: "Folk Och Rackare". It is pretty much the same story like with Scafell Pike. The group made 7 albums of which a CD with a composition of songs ("Folk & Rackare").

Albums I know of are: Med Rotter I Medetiden (Sonet LP) 1974 Folk And Roques (YFT LP) 1976 Rackarspel (Sonet LP) 1978 Anno 1979 (Sonet LP) 1979 Stjarnhasten (Sonet LP) 1981 Rackbag (Amalthea LP) 1985

I cannot find a single trace on the internet of these albums.

I would appreciate your help in telling me who is familiar with these fantastic bands? Who could provide me with an elaborate discography of these bands (songs per album)? Your information would be highly appreciated.

[email protected] Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_och_Rackare"

Thumbs up

Do we have any article related to the Thumbs up / Thumbs Up gesture ? Jay 10:09, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)