Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/December 2004 II

A formula to calculate the freezing point of water

See Talk:Water_(molecule)

aristotelian model of compassion vs. dalai lama's view

This question was posed at the Main Page talk and is transferred here: aristotelian model of compassion vs. dalai lama's view -- All that comes to mind is the Dalai Lama's comment that "we Buddhists can learn something more of compassion from Christians" -- info on aristotelian model and compassion and dalai lama -- I don't know where to look to see if my earlier question has been answered--where would I look?

it would be answered here. I don't know. This seems not like something that can be answered in a nutshell. Start with Ethics in religion (sadly without references) and Avalokitesvara. this seems like a good article (with references). Go to a library from there... dab (ᛏ) 11:11, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

ah, yes, you might want to plod through the 151 hits of google scholar first,

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=aristotle+buddhism+compassion

would be great if you wrote a WP article about what you found out, after. dab (ᛏ) 11:48, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Dbachmann's reference above gives a good 1-paragraph summary, which is re-phrased below:

• Aristotle notes that a prudent/virtuous man acts for the good. The Dalai Lama would also espouse virtuous actions. Both require one to choose between right and wrong action, as shaped by practical wisdom. But compassion informs one's own (practical) response to the suffering of another. For someone to feel compassion, one would have to know/feel what the suffering of another entails. This might prompt one to act, or not, depending on one's own powers.

Ancheta Wis 02:08, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Note, it is possible for other animals to perform what we might view as compassionate acts, such as the rescue of humans by gorillas, dolphins and dogs, and the rescue of caterpillars and aphids by ants.

Don't make much from Dalai Lama's statement. He is not representative of Buddhism (unless you want to know his view specially). He is a head of a Buddhist nation. His statment is more politically correct than correct. Buddhists do not need to learn copmassion from Christians ( No, I am not a Buddhist ). The compassion of Buddha is unbound and unconditional. You don't have to beleive in Buddha for Buddha to have compassion for you. Buddha's compasion is not limited to man kind only. As reflected in the story where he saves the swan when Devdutt hurts it. Christ's compassion is limited to christians only. He does not give a damn about those who do not accept him as a savior. In fact he warns them There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day(John 12:48). They pretent to do chariatble work among non-christians only because they hope to convert them to christianism. Buddhists know what is compassion, they just do not have enough infrastructure to practice it.

Here is a good link comparing western models with eastern (including other pov's from the Dalai Lama), however, not sure if it covers anything about the Aristotelian model:

http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/research_compassion_goetz2.html hope that provides some sort of constructive start for a complicated subject allie 02:29, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

You may find the best answer in a fascinating book, published last year, "Traditions of Compassion - From Religious duty to Social Activism", by the philosopher K.Lampert

Posting to a newsgroup without compromising my email address

I'd like to post to a newsgroup without revealing my email address (or at least with a "nospam" bit inserted).

I'm signed up with Google newsgroups which insists on using the email address unmodified (unless you know different).

For the newsgroup concerned there seem to be some web interfaces I can use to post but I need to register and give them my email address. It doesn't take a genius to suspect that they run the webservice for free because they make their money selling the email addresses they garner.

I'm really only concerned about spam - perhaps I'm being overly worried as I've had the address for years, it's a Hotmail one and presumably it's on every list going by now anyway. If that's the case then please just confirm this notion and I'll press on regardless and let MSN's spam filter do all the work. --bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly) 06:49, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

Check Google's Privacy Policy if you think they might sell it although if it's going to be posted with your messages then your email address will be harvested by the spammers anyway. Maybe the account settings will let you garble it. You could take out a second email address at Hotmail or Yahoo or somewhere and use it just for your newsgroup subscriptions instead though. adamsan 09:13, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Get a "disposable" address (a new Hotmail account?), mark in the signature that the from: address is something you're not likely to read, and use that. (On the other hand, an address I was using to post to Usenet for years currently directs to a hotmail account, and it gets only trivial amounts of spam; the filters they have are getting better.) I also feel obliged to point you in the direction of a proper news-service ;-) - http://news.individual.net offers "proper" (ie, not through a web interface) access for no charge, and are good reliable people. </evangelism> Shimgray 14:09, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I haven't been on usenet for years but why not use a newsreader such as forte Agent or even outlook express? You can whatever adress you like in those. Failing that create a new email address say spammypot@throwawaywebaccount.ta-very-much then use that. Put "I never read email at this address" as a signature to warn people not to bother you, then let thaty adress catch all the spam it wants. Periodically delete everything from it every couple of months to keep it active. Theresa Knott (The snott rake) 11:42, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I typically use pseudes@falsus.ne, from the Greek word for "false" and the Latin words for "false/cheated" and "not." :-) --Gelu Ignisque

• Thanks for the replies. All of them seem to leave me with other problems ;o) I use Mozilla for my mail and a quick Google suggests I can use it as a newsgroup client, but the references to that point to an option I don't appear to have on my menu bar. I think I downloaded a non-newsgroup build for disk space reasons. And I'm sure I must have privileges to have another email address through my ISP since I currently don't even use the one they gave me but I have no clue as to how to sort that out.

I'll give them a ring in the morning. I think I've actually solved most of the problems I wanted to go to the group for anyway by doing some more thorough searching of its archives. --bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly) 23:25, Dec 14, 2004 (UTC)

PS: Forgot - yes, the setting up a new Hotmail account was a solution that occurred to me very early on but I have rather a hate/hate relationship with the one I've already got and I was thinking I may want to get into reading messages too which would painfully slow in Hotmail. I think the thing is I'm uncertain as to what I really want and what I'm hoping to achieve. I'm like that. It absolutely infuriates people...

Given that you have your own domain (et al) they should give you a magic catchall email address (on looking at your host, it seems like they give you an impressive 200 real addresses, but you don't need them for this). If you set up your mail client to read mail from that catchall account, then it gets mail sent to "anyoldrubbish AT bodnotbod.org.uk". But best of all, every time you need to subscribe to some online thingy that wants an email address (e.g. bigscary.com) you make up an email address for that (bigscary_2004 AT bodnotbod.org.uk) - and if you subsequently get spam, you can tell who sold your email address (and you can block one of these useless addresses without blocking your "nice" one that only your friends know). That catchall address gives you throwaway addresses without the bother of throwaway accounts. - John Fader

Create an account with your fake/spammable email address in Mozilla Mail or Thunderbird. Make up your POP3 mail server name if the address is bogus. The new address can then be selected from the "From:" drop-down menu when composing an email. Alternatively, simply click on your new account in the "Folders" pane, and any subsequent emails you send will use that address in the "From" header automatically.

chocolateboy 17:05, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Well, thanks for pointing up how much of me is traceable and scaring me even more ;o) Actually, I signed up to a website recently and was not asked for my real name and address and I got, within a week, a magazine delivered to my home on the very subject of the website. It can only have been through the scanty details I provided to the site that this happened, it would not have been to do with any other 'real world' activity or anything. Having said that I used to avoid associating bodnotbod with my real name, but I've stuck my real name on my website now, so it's definitely part of me. But I can't imagine they hire someone who individually looks someone up based on their username every time they get a new registrant.

Now I wait for the day that a girl sends me a brochure of pictures of me getting drunk they've found online, in response to any attempts I make to woo them.

I'll have a go at that domain email thing. I'm not sure where you got the 200 figure from but it might be skewed by the fact that I got my domain for free since I know a man who owns his own hosting company (which is nice). I suppose the next question is "so why don't you ask him about all this then." Well, yes, good idea. I'll do that.

Whilst we're on the subject, have we got any articles about, well, I dunno what you'd call it, online detective work? --bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly) 01:27, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

westchester county ny

Is at Westchester County, New York, hope that helps. --fvw* 00:56, 2004 Dec 15 (UTC)

Economic / Banking Statistic

How many checking accounts (or demand deposit accounts) are there in the US? How many in EU? How many checks are written in each per year? What is $$$ value of checking transactions in each per year? Any such statistical info regarding the size/volume of demand deposit accounts worldwide, or links to such information or data, would be appreciated. Thanks - KPM 14 DEC 2004

• For the US, at least, you may be able to get some idea of the numbers by examining the statistics available at [1] and [2]. SWAdair | Talk 05:58, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)

ABout AndhraPradesh reference

SIr/Madam, I'm krishna from india..i'm creating one webpage on Andhra Prdesh.. MAy i use ur information/articles regarding Andhra Pradesh,,, Thanking you sir, krishna andhra pradesh, india.

Wikipedia is free. Feel free to use information from Andhra Pradesh or any other article. If it helps, you can add an acknowledgement. See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for details. If you wish to give back something, you can contribute any useful information that you might have to Wikipedia. -- Sundar 07:13, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Thermostat setting

Where can I find information about how to set my programmable house thermostat most efficiently? I am interested esp in whether it is better to keep the house a little warm all the time, or let it cool down completely then heat it up again in cycles. Thanks.

According to [3] and [4], a common misconception is that it's better to keep the thermostat on rather than letting a building cool down and then heating it back up. So during winter months, turn the temperature down when you're gone and turn it back up when you get home. Here in California, we hear nonstop pleas to be energy efficient, especially from the folks at Flex Your Power. They offer some ideas, but I generally go by this rule of thumb: 68°F (20°C) during winter while I'm at home, and 78°F (25.5°C) when I'm at home during the summer. Of course, YMMV. Best, David Iberri | Talk 18:05, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Lactose

(Moved from Talk:Lactose --David Iberri | Talk)

Why some population became able to metabolise lactose when they could eat cheese or yougurth that doesn't contain lactose? Isn't the calcium contained in cheese not enough for a diet?

Are you asking why lactose tolerance (as opposed to the more common lactose intolerance) developed when humans could have met their dietary calcium requirements by eating cheese and yogurt rather than foods like milk, which contain lactose? If that's the case, it sounds like you're saying that cheese and yogurt don't contain lactose, which is only true of recently developed lactose-free substitutes. And lactose tolerance emerged long before those products were created, somewhere around 4000 BC. Perhaps you could clarify your question? --David Iberri | Talk 18:39, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

running of Chincoteague horses

When is the annual "running of the horses" festival on Chincoteague Island, Virginia? Or are there several festivals? It's not mentioned in the article. Mjklin 19:04, 2004 Dec 15 (UTC)

According to [5], [6], and [7], it starts on the last Wednesday in July. --David Iberri | Talk 19:19, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. Mjklin 19:34, 2004 Dec 15 (UTC)

the 'salt of a molecule'

I understand how some molecules (for example, acetate) can exist in an acid form (acetic acid) or in a salt form (sodium acetate, etc.). When reading the Wikipedia article on cocaine, I came across mentions of the salt form, the base form and the pure form of the cocaine molecule. What I don't understand is... don't these terms only make sense when the molecule is ionizable? Where is the ionizable group on the cocaine molecule? And what is the pure form of the molecule, relative the salt and base forms? ike9898 19:05, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

The salt form of cocaine is cocaine hydrochloride, Coc + HCl. In solution, the nitrogen on cocaine would pick up HCl proton, giving the salt, Coc⁺ + Cl^-. The base form can then be produced by filtering out the chloride precipitate and then adding NH₃. A base, NH₃ strips the proton off of Coc⁺, giving Coc + NH₄⁺, a base form of cocaine. It's not clear from the article what "pure" cocaine is; I'm guessing the pure form of cocaine is just the molecule cocaine all by its lonesome. Does that answer your question? --David Iberri | Talk 21:31, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Yep, thanks. ike9898 22:23, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)

Need Help with a 390FE

Anonymous request moved from the Village Pump. Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 19:20, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC) Thanks for taking a minute to look over my questions. I am currently rebuilding a 309 big block in my spare time. I was wondering if any of the Ford Guru's might have some feed back. Keep in mind, Im in college right now for diesel mechanics, and my funds are extremly low. I am looking at maybe tring to strok the engine. Any body had any luck tryin to build on of these monsters

I took the motor out of a 76 3/4 ton 2WD. It was painted from the facory as Orange Blossom Special. Needless to say, with a bad drinking problem, the ol' truck didnt last that long. It was buttoned up behind a 4 speed manual, with granny gear. It was fun while it lasted, but it doesnt scare me anymore. NEED MORE POWER!!! I took my heads and block into school to clean them up a lil. Belive it or not, the block actually was blue at one time.

I'm pondering the thouget of Buying a F250 Highboy. It sits in this guys yard every morning on my way to school. I think its a 78, and its runnin a C6. Its a closs toss-up between goin really fast, or goin wherever I want. Once again, thanks for your time reading this. Please reply to this web site, or email me at Viss79@hotmail.com Give me the guidence to build a winner.

Is this a request for instructions on how to build a monster truck? Surely us Wikipedians are too elevated to get involved with this sort of ting? (Hoists nose in the air, sniffs theatrically, flounces off). --bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly) 02:02, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

If you're hurting for cash, an FE block is not a very smart way to go. Dump the 390, and try to find a "385 series" big block, aka a 460/7.3L. The parts are cheaper, much more plentiful. Ford stopped building FE blocks in 1969, stopped putting them in cars the same year, and continued to put them in trucks, usually as 360s, until 1976. The 385 series 460 cu. in was in production until 1997. There are 4 fold the number of 385 series blocks out there. They sell mount kits for the 385s to fit in almost anything you can drive. You also need to get the block and head casting codes for what you want. Not all 460s are alike. If you goto a dealership, they should have it on microfiche, a book or CD for sale. You need those codes before you go treasure hunting for a "385 series" 460/7.3L. Check this site out [8] --scupper 15:47, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Another note is that the 390 can't be bored or stroked very much further. The largest FE-series is the 428, and that's about as big as you can go (and you'd do better just buying a 428 Q-code engine anyway).

Ford blocks were often blue, if painted. My 428 is unpainted but the rocker covers are blue.

I echo User:Scupper's suggestion to look at the Ford 385 engine if you want easier, cheaper power. You can bore/stroke these to utter monsters; look at the 557 cubic inch motor from Coast High Performance, for example, with over 600 hp. —Morven 20:42, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

CSI: NY Theme Song?

I know this might sound stupid, but is the CSI: NY theme song part of a regular-sized song? (i.e.: The "Charmed" them song is part of "When Is Now" or something like that.) If it is, what is that song/singer and where can I find the lyrics to it?

--Tina

I can't swear to it, but someone claims it's "Baba O'Riley" by The Who. - Nunh-huh 04:16, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Dear Tina, The theme song for the CSI program that is set in LAS VEGAS which stars, among others, Marg Helgenberger, is "Who Are You" as sung by Roger Daltry of the English band called The Who. Watch the end credits to see for yourself. John Gambardella

The theme songs to all of the CSI series are songs by The Who.

• Crime Scene Investigation - Who Are You
• CSI: Miami - Won't Get Fooled Again
• CSI: NY - Baba O'Riley

-- Cyrius|✎ 05:02, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

qualifications of a member of the Sanhedrin

To Whom It May Concern;

I would really like to know if you can either tell me where to find the answers or just give them to me for these questions:

Have the qualifications for a member of the Sanhedrin changed over time?

I understand that one qualification for a man to be a member of the Sanhedrin in Jesus' day was that he had to be married. Is this correct?

Thank you for your time and efforts on my behalf.

Brian G. Baxter bbaxter@shaw.ca

Neither the article Sanhedrin nor my Bible Dictionary give any indication that marriage was a pre-requisite. I quote "The method of appointment is not clear, but the aristocratic origin of the body suggests direct appointment of members of the ancient families". DJ Clayworth 03:26, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah (Laws of Sanhedrin, ch. 2) lists the legal qualifications for a member of the Sanhedrin. Among them is the requirement that a member of the Sanhedrin should have sons, so that he would be merciful, although marriage itself is not listed. The legal requirements (according to Maimonides) did not change over time, although of course the practical build of the Sanhedrin would have. The Sanhedrin ceased to function entirely during the 4th century. --Avi 17:03, Dec 26, 2004 (UTC)

Trinomial as square of binominal (math help)

As a liberal arts kind of person, I have ask Wikipedia's many mathematics buffs:

1. How can I write the trinomial x² - 18x + 81 as a binomial?
2. How can I solve the equation of x² + 2x - 35 = 0 by "completing the square"?
3. How can I find the height and weight of a triangle given that the area of the triangle is 35 square feet and the height of the triangle is three feet longer than the base?

Thanks. Neutrality/^talk 04:48, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

1. You can't. But you can write it as a binomial squared:

   x² - 18x + 81 = (x - 9)²

   How you get from the one to the other is fairly well described in binomial. We're exploiting the equation (a - b)² = a² - 2ab + b²

   a² = x²

   b² = 81

   -2ab = -18

2. This one's more complicated. Take a look at Completing the square for a full explanation of how the 1 was decided on.

   x² + 2x - 35 = 0

   1 - 1 = 0, so we can add it to one side

   x² + 2x - 35 + 1 - 1 = 0

   rearrange

   x² + 2x + 1 - 36 = 0

   just to be explicit with the parens

   (x² + 2x + 1) - 36 = 0

   completing the square allows us to do the following substitution into our equation

   x² + 2x + 1 = (x + 1)²

   (x + 1)² - 36 = 0

   add 36 to both sides

   (x + 1)² = 36

   take the square root of both sides (square root of 36 will produce both positive and negative 6)

   (x + 1) = ±6

   subtract 1 from both sides, and get two roots (as you should)

   x = 5, x = -7

3. More steps to this one.

   basic triangle area formula

   Area = 1/2 * base * height

   given equation

   height = base + 3

   substitute the given into the area formula

   Area = 1/2 * base * (base + 3)

   multiply it out

   Area = 1/2 * (base² + 3*base)

   Area = 1/2 * base² + 3/2*base

   put in the value for area

   35 = 1/2 * base² + 3/2*base

   rearrange to get a zero on one side so the quadratic formula can be used

   1/2 * base² + 3/2*base - 35 = 0

   This produces two values for base: 7, and -10. You can't have a negative length, so we can throw out the -10.

   back to the given

   height = base + 3 = 7 + 3

   and we have the answer

   height = 10

   base = 7

It's fairly likely that some math nerds will show up to berate me for some mathematical inexactitude (probably relating to the square root bit), but this is how you do it. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:33, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

1. For the third one, there's an easier way to do it:

   70 = base * height (because the base * height equals twice the area)

   height = base + 3

   70 = base * (base + 3) (substituting)

   70 = base² + 3*base

   Rearrange: base² + 3*base - 70 = 0

   Solve that on your calculator or whatever, get two solutions: base = 7 and -10. You can't use -10, because it's negative, so throw it away.

   Base = 7, Height = 10

ugen64 05:42, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually, that's equivalent, you're just multiplying both sides by 2 instead of carrying the 1/2 around. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:17, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Which is the smart way of doing it. -- Cyrius|✎ 06:23, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Silly question about roads

In the US, a length of road might be called "Padonia Rd.", "Padonia St.", "Padonia Dr.", etc. Is there any difference between a road, street or drive in this context? What about an avenue -- these are typically large multi-lane roads, I think, but not always. The only constant is "court"; "Padonia Ct." always ends in a cul-de-sac, right? Tuf-Kat 06:25, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

There's no consistent meaningful distinction between any of them. In my experience, the suffixes are ignored completely by residents. Anecdotal evidence suggests that some cities have roads with duplicate names but different suffixes, but I've never come across it. Is the distinction between types of road important in the context? -- Cyrius|✎ 06:52, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Just look at Atlanta, Georgia, which has a dozen streets called Peachtree, but with different suffixes. Or a couple days ago I discovered there are two Nightingale streets in the Cincinnati, Ohio post office, one a court the other a drive. PedanticallySpeaking 21:56, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Corner of Pike and Pike

Correct on "Court". Otherwise, there are many areas where there are local distinctions (e.g. in both New York City and Seattle "streets" go east-west, "avenues" go north-south). "Place" is usually minor, "Alley" is always minor and usually a service road between more major streets, "road" is more often rural or suburban than urban (but there are exceptions), "way" is usually not entirely straight (but, again, there are exceptions).

As for duplicate names but different suffixes — or prefixes — Seattle is full of them. The picture at right is the corner of Pike and Pike: the photographer was standing on Pike Street; Pike Place runs off to the right. There are arterials called NE 45th Street and 45th Avenue NE, which locals distinguish as "NE 45th" and "45th NE", almost never bothering with "street" or "avenue". University Street is a major downtown street; University Way is near the University of Washington, 3 miles away (it was founded on a small campus on University Street, but it hasn't been there in almost a century). I could go on, but I'll spare you. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:28, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

The insanity continues when road namers have "foreign" languages in which to get lost. Consider California's Spanglish delights, including:

• Palo Alto, California's "El Camino Way" (the way way)
• Escondido, California's "Sendero Avenue" (path avenue)
• Sacramento, California's "Camino Avenue" (way avenue)

I dread to think what nasties they've visited upon Hawaii. -- John Fader 13:54, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

English is quite capable of getting lost within itself for street names. "Avenue" meant, at one time, a row of trees, and "Avenue Road" was a road bordering trees before Avenue became a type of street. "Boulevard" was a grassy divider in the middle of the street, or a grassy bank at the roadside. As a street name it once meant a street thus divided or bordered, but the organic origins of Boulevard, like Avenue, are lost to all but trivia buffs. It is still sometimes used to mean generally the space between a road and adjacent private property, hence "boulevard cafe", "boulevard parking", etc.

Toronto is a city in which you should pay attention to street types, as street names are re-used, often very far apart, mostly as a result of growth by annexation. Centre St is in the far northwest of the city, Centre Ave is in the downtown core; Spadina Rd begins where Spadina Ave ends; Danforth Rd forks off from Danforth Ave. Sharkford 21:22, 2004 Dec 16 (UTC)

Avenues are usually small neighborhood roads. Maybe you were thinking of boulevards? There are a large number of names for types of roads. One county in Michigan has named every east-west surface road, a highway. Rmhermen 14:18, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

I don't know where you live, but these are not small neighborhood roads:

1. Fifth Avenue (or any of numerous others), Manhattan
2. Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC

Jmabel | Talk 07:22, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

In the suburbs of Philadelphia we have many roads that are named with the suffix Pike (Bethlehem Pike, Ridge Pike). I have heard that this indicates that these roads were once private toll-roads (you had to pay someone to 'turn the pike' and allow you to pass. ike9898 14:36, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

It's definitely not a suffix, it's a noun-phrase head. --Gelu Ignisque

My hometown has four streets named "Grenfell" (Court, Place, Crescent, Drive), all connecting to each other in the same neighbourhood. Adam Bishop 04:17, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Is your hometown Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada? I checked Microsoft MapPoint 2001 but did not see any "Grenfell" there. -- Toytoy 02:38, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

Ah, no, I mean London, Ontario, although I suppose that is not literally my hometown... Adam Bishop 02:57, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I see. It's a terrible mess out there. The Grenfell Drive branches out Grenfell Crescent which branches out Grenfell Court and Grenfell Place. The Post Office may want to pay them $5 to change these names. -- Toytoy 04:19, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

I'm currently staying with my parents for Christmas, and there's a good dozen (at least) streets here of the form X Avenue, X Way, X Drive, X Gardens, X Road... it's fairly common in the UK, for streets built as part of a single housing estate. (another popular approach is "themes" - all named for flowers, or trees, or battles - I always felt a bit uncomfortable with the idea of a Somme Road, or a Ypres Terrace, but there you go.) Shimgray 02:24, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Many thanks for everyone's responses! FTR, I didn't want to know for any article, or for any reason in particular... Just curious. Tuf-Kat 05:59, Dec 19, 2004 (UTC)

In the UK it's very common for streets with the same name and different suffixes to be located close to each other. And the suffix is not normally omitted in speech as in the USA. Normally "Street" is in an urban area (except for Watling Street etc which are names of Roman Roads). Road, Way, or Drive would be normal in a suburban area. "Close" is always a cul-de-sac (but I know of at least two exceptions!) rossb 15:47, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Just to add a little anecdote ... In the South Bay, Los Angeles, there is a street called Ramona Street at its north end and Fir Street at its south end. In between, it's called Firmona Street. RickK 07:59, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

"In my experience, the suffixes are ignored completely by residents" (above). I am a London Private Hire driver (NOT black cab - better and cheaper than black cab). I am still waiting for an American to get in and say "take me to Oxford" (meaning Oxford Street). They may get a shock when I drop them off at Maudlin and ask for 80 pounds.

I live on Warner Avenue in a small village in upstate NY, my road is very short low traffic with maybe a dozen houses on it one of those last plowed deals. So i deffinetly dont think that Avenues are always bussier roads.

Indonesian Hats

File:Soekarno Indonesia.jpg

Sukarno

What are the brimless hats (shown in the picture) worn by many Indonesian men called? PedanticallySpeaking 21:58, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

I think they are 'peci'. google:peci indonesia - Key45 22:25, 16 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pug Rescue in Ohio?

I know there are places called Pug Rescue. But are there any in Ohio? Any information about Pug Rescue would be helpful. Or even Schnauzer Rescue. ^^ KThx.

--Tina

A quick Google search turns up ohiopugrescue.com at #1. --David Iberri | Talk 23:07, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Driving Arizona

I'm going to be taking a one-man driving holiday in CA/NV/AZ in Jan/Feb of 2005, and I hoped y'all would fill me in on some driving conditions info that ordinary guidebooks and weather sites seem to miss.

• Firstly, I was planning on visiting either or both of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. It's clear that the temperatures in northern Arizona in early February are routinely below freezing (often considerably so). Should I anticipate a significant amount of ice and snow (i.e should I bring chains, and expect to be driving slowly) or is it a truly desert cold (an essentially dry chill)?
• Secondly, I'll be renting a car near San Francisco and driving it to Phoenix, Arizona. Will a soft-bellied California rental car be properly winterized, or will I have to perform a fluid-transplant somewhere in Nevada?

Thanks. -- John Fader 02:04, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Well, the NPS website would probably be a good place to start, in particular the weather page (It says snow on both the north and south rim during winter months). In general, you should probably bring snow chains since they are relatively inexpensive, and it's far better to have them and not need them than the other way around. As for the kinds of weather your car will be prepared to take, I would recommend asking the company, as they are the only ones who would know for sure. --Cvaneg 02:28, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

One condition you're probably not aware of.... at the top of the canyon, the climate is essentially alpine; it will be cold and maybe snowy in the winter. At the bottom of the canyon, it is more like Phoenix; it won't be hot in Feb., but it will probably be comfortable. However, if the trail to the bottom is wet and mucky, it is a little sketchy! By the way, other than the Grand Canyon, the best places in AZ are Tucson and Bisbee. I wouldn't bother with Phoenix. I'm biased, but I lived in AZ from from '98-'03. ike9898 03:18, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

I spent a short New Year's vacation in northern Arizona last year. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon, the place was very cold but quite dry. An centimeter or two of snow fell the night before our departure, but our city-slicker Accord was able to navigate safely all the way from the village to the east entrance. After a day or two in the likewise dry eastern part of the state, we passed through the highlands southeast of Phoenix literally on the heels of a snowfall that reached a depth of, oh, 10 cm or more in places. The snowplows were on top of it, though, and no harm came of it, though I did have to slow down a good bit (from 60 mph or more to 40 or so) for the conditions. You wouldn't be courting disaster if you entered the area with no chains, but it would be reasonably cautions to bring them. --Smack 05:00, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

On some of the freeways in AZ, the speed limit is 75 mph - which means people drive 85 mph. ike9898 19:39, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

Mingus Mountain runs from Prescott up through the small mining town of Jerome (pop.463.5) and is considered THE motorcycle ride in the western states. It has approximately 55 curves in the road, and is incredibly scenic (including the Red Rocks of Sedona). If you do visit Jerome, a popular tourist site, be advised that this little mining town has roads that are about as narrow as the average sidewalk in America. But don't miss it. allie 02:22, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

polar bear with warrior woman on top

what is the name of the vodka with the woman warrior riding a polar bear? please help thanks send email to wskipper@satx.rr.com

A simple google for "polar bear with warrior woman vodka" displayed a link to eBay selling a "1987 Rumple Minze Warrior Woman Polar Bear Ad" as the first result. I guess, the name of the vodka is Rumple Minze, though, if I am correct, it's actually schnapps. Paranoid 20:22, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Correct, it is schnapps. See this thread "[9]" for a brief history of the origin of the ad, and links to assorted versions of the ad campaign. Anyone know who handled the 1990's ad campaign? I'd like to find out.

Nazi Architecture

I was reading the article on Nazi Architecture and came upon an interesting quote- "Nazi buildings were an expression of the essence of the movemnt buildt as a Nationalist Socialist building should be regardless of the style used" and I want to know how to find out who this quote was originally said by. Thanks.

Well, it seems to have been written by User:Rsloch, so perhaps you can ask them on their talk page. Adam Bishop 06:32, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

It might be difficult to trace the origin of the exact quote itself. If you're curious about the why, then that's a bit broader. The buildings were typically monumental in scale, regardless of any particular style. Instead just doing a Google on Albert Speer (Hitler's favorite architect), go to the Baker Library website (Dartmouth) and look up some reference books on Speer. You'll find plenty of books on the topic. They'll email you a printout of books available, and then you can locate one at your local library. Hope that's helpful? --allie 17:47, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Interpreting Demographic/Population Statistics

I have a question regarding the interpretation of demographic statistics - in particular as related to cities within the USA. I will use San Antonio, Texas as an example, and here's the question:

In looking at population demographics by race for San Antonio, it lists the %'s for various races along these lines: 68% white, 7% african-american, 1% native american, 2% asian and 22% other. Then it goes on to say that 59% of the population is of latin/hispanic race.

Do those statistics indicate that the latin/hispanic %'s are included within the white statistic as presented, and that therefore the actual % of the white population is only 9% for San Antonio?

I guess I don't understand why the hispanic population is not called out separately (as is the native american group) in the first listing of population percents.

Thanks very much.

Steve

Hispanic origin is a separate census question. Hispanics can consider themselves white, Native American, or more rarely black, Asian, etc. Rmhermen 18:48, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

We actually have a Hispanic article which deals with the matter in specifics. Although in general the argument goes that the term Hispanic draws from several disparate ethnic groups and is about as useful a categorization as American when it comes to determining race. Race in general is a sticky subject, and even in the dispassionate realm of science everything is not as clear cut as one would hope. --Cvaneg 19:49, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Most likely, nearly all of the 22% identifying themselves as "Other" also identify themselves as Hispanic. I don't think "Mestizo" is listed as a race on US census forms, but it is how the bulk of the Mexican population identifies itself. Ergo, if what you want to know is the percentage of San Antonians identifying themselves as "White Non-Hispanic", it's probably roughly 30%. Diderot 20:41, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

You are correct in that Mestizo was not on these census questions. You could have used it on the ethnicity question on the long form but I think it would have been a write-in. Rmhermen 20:55, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

Thompinian

Where is the Thompinian phonetic alphabet used? --ᓛᖁᑐ 21:58, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• The Thompinian alphabet seems to have been the creation of a Spanish speaker in Colombia for personal writings in Spanish, and then extended to other languages. Like most other personally constructed orthographies (including my own), I don't think it is in wide use anywhere, and is probably not used at all except by its creator and possibly some of his friends. Ливай | ☺ 23:48, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Standardised sizes of bowls, cups and plates

How were the standard sizes of bowls, cups and plates established? Constafrequent, infrequently constant 08:13, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I don't think they are standardized. ike9898 19:37, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

Surely they must be, since the majority of dinner plates and so forth are the same size? Constafrequent ^{(talk page)} 03:43, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I don't know if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but...the National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com) allocates size and color codes for use on Universal Product Codes (UPCs) for all sorts of stuff, including dinnerware. I guess that means that if you want to sell something in volume (ie you want to slap a UPC on it), then you have to go to the NRF. They'll also allocate a new code for a new size/color. I don't know if this is just for the US, or globally. -Rholton 06:34, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks ike9898 and Rholton. Others? –– Constafrequent ^{(talk page)} 08:18, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Cups, mugs, bowls, plates, cans, cigarettes, and other containers and consumables have common dimensions. What is the history of such standard dimensions? –– Constafrequent ^{(talk page)} 20:08, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Girl scout uniforms

I was wondering where I'd be able to find pictures/diagrams of the uniforms of various girl scouting organisations around the world (specifically in europe). Any comparisons, or pictures of obsolete uniforms would be very helpful. (I'm trying to identify one that I've recently acquired) Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss) 09:26, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sorry for being a bit late, but I have only just seen this, but surely a quick look at the 'Image' pages of either Google or Yahoo Search would bring a few things up that might be useful? Dieter Simon 00:29, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Try the official Girl Scouts of America link. They have a "contact us" email form; and overseas information; information on badges; so it's a start. The Girl Scouts began as an American organization, so finding a European badge will require a little digging. Maybe you'll find a match for your badge though :

• http://www.girlscouts.org/

Hope it helps, allie 02:45, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Emic and etic

What are the differences between phonemic alphabets and phonetic alphabets? --ᓛᖁᑐ 19:13, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Most people use the two words interchangably. However, in principle, a phonetic writing scheme is one where each distinguishable sound - according to some observer - is seperately represented; a phonemic writing scheme is one where each sound distinction that can change the meaning of a morpheme or lexeme is distinguished, and no other sound distinction is represented.

Inuktitut example: Inuktitut speakers use the shound /sh/ before most /u/'s and some /i/'s insread of /s/. But, which sound they use is completely controlled by the surrounding letters. The places where they say /sh/ they could never use /s/ and vice versa. So, both sounds have the same underlying phoneme and can be represented with the same letter of the alphabet without confusion. Thus, people writing inuksuk phonetically write inushuk, but a phonemic script for Inuktitut would write it inuksuk.

Same with the /u/ - /o/ distinction. Greenlanders write two different letters for the sounds /o/ and /u/, but they are really the same phoneme. Greenlandic spellings are not phonemic because they derive from Kleinschmidt's work some 150 years ago. Qaliujaaqpait - the Canadian roman system for eastern dialects - was invented much later by professional linguists, so it is a mostly phonemic writing system.

Different linguists sometimes disagree about exactly what sounds are distinguished from which others, and what mechanisms are necessary to explain the differences. As a result, a language may have more than one phonemic analysis and therefore more than one different phonemic writing scheme. Phonetic writing is entirely dependent on which sound differences someone perceives, so there can be many different phonetic writing systrems as well.

Diderot 19:40, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Extinction

The article Extinction event claims the background rate of extinctions is about two to five marine animal families per million years. What is the rate in terms of species or genera? --ᓛᖁᑐ 21:26, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

War: What is it good for?

Business? alteripse 21:48, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

To quote Edwin Starr, "absolutely nothing". -- Cyrius|✎ 07:23, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Say it again. Dysprosia 09:25, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

As far as I can tell from the brief research that I have made, it ain't nothing but a heartbreaker, and is friend only to the undertaker. It seems to be an enemy to all mankind, frankly, the very thought of war blows my mind. Intrigue 19:36, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Heraclitus would tend to disagree... [10] dab (ᛏ) 20:11, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Solving the overpopulation problem, perhaps. Ливай | ☺ 04:56, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

War is not a cost-effective way of doing this. For the price of one stealth bomber you could manufacture about 80 billion condoms (stealth bomber: more than $2 billion; condom: $0.025). Gdr 13:01, 2004 Dec 24 (UTC)

Ah, but you have to force people to use condoms. You can impose your own solution with the stealth bomber. RickK 08:03, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

And not one link to War#Costs and benefits of war. People! :-) JRM 14:13, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

Most of the best films have some sort of war in. In fact, this makes me think of a question i shall post here--Wonderfool 00:22, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Political gain? Either in the spoils of war from a successful military conquest, or within one's own country. A nation at war is a nation with a common enemy, therefore much more likely to follow any lead which opposes that enemy - that is to say, whatever differences political groups have, they will generally abandon them and unite if a greater external threat faces them. This can be advantageous to a suitably cunning person or group. Noodhoog 06:14, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

War is a great way of kick-starting the economy... Alphax (t) (c) (e) 15:01, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

how do i make a request on a new subject

I would like to know what turpenoid is.

I moved this from the help desk. As for what a turpenoid is, I think it's a good name for an elected official who publicly displays a combination of moral turpitude and stupidity. However, if you want to know what a terpenoid is, click on the word and you will be magically whisked away to an answer. alteripse 22:49, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Turpenoid is now a redirect to terpenoid. Now we can all agrue over whether it should be. :-) -Rholton 18:21, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I vote no, or at least make it a disambiguation page with the new definition offered above. Let's see if we can start a word! alteripse 23:13, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm...Well actually, Turpenoid seems to be some sort of turpentine substitute, apparently a trademark. If I get a chance, perhaps I'll turn the page into a stub for this meaning.

However, just to be clear, neologisms tend to be quickly placed on VFD, and usually end up deleted (or so modified as to no longer be about a new word, as in this case). The reason I thought there may be some question about having the redirect is that some may not consider turepenoid a common misspelling of terpenoid. For the time being, I'm going to change it back to a redirect. -Rholton 00:39, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Turpenoid is indeed a kind of petroleum distillate and a cleaner for paint brushes. Again you can find quite a few explanatory websites , for example "define turpenoid" without quotes lets you see a number of explanatory sites on Google or Yahoo Search. Dieter Simon 00:49, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

significant omission in your list of dates of death

Good evening,

in your list of dates of death I find an very significant lack: please check yourself.

Kaspar Hauser died on Dec 17 after a murder attack.

I would wish very much that this be considered.

Respectfully Hans J. Struck

Kaspar Hauser died December 17 in 1833. Hardly material for the recent deaths page. Or did you mean a different page. Feel free to edit the page yourself; that's how the article get improved. Rmhermen 23:27, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)

Accuracy, truth

Dear Sir or Madam,

If hundreds-of-thousands of articles are being submitted, how does Wikipedia know that they are accurate? Surely, it is not possible to have someone double-checking (triple-checking?) every article submitted?

Many thanks for a very interesting website.

Sincerely Bert

Hey Bert (sorry, couldn't help it), your question is answered in some depth at Wikipedia:Replies to common objections. If that doesn't meet all your concerns, feel free to ask (although Wikipedia:Help desk is probably a marginally more appropriate venue for such discussion). -- John Fader 00:20, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

How to find info on a non-public corporation?

What resources are available to find out information about a non-public corporation in the United States? Are there any publically-accessible records which a private corporation has to report to the government? In particular I'm trying to find out information about t/Space. --NeuronExMachina 01:14, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

There is very little a private corporation has to report. I don't think even their tax records are public information. For a large enough company Forbes magazine may have published some information. I am not aware of any other public repositories of data. Access can be paid for to private databases such as Dun and Bradstreets.[11] They maintain as much information as they are able to get, including revenue, officers, credit worthiness, etc. - Taxman 03:04, Dec 19, 2004 (UTC)

One of your best bets for free information is the public library in the town where it is headquartered. Most public libraries happily take phone calls on this sort of question and will track down what they have on file. -- Jmabel | Talk 06:16, Dec 19, 2004 (UTC)

What sort of information can one typically find on a company from a public library? --NeuronExMachina 09:37, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Ring them and ask! - Adrian Pingstone 10:54, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Most good public libraries keep some clipping files for local newspapers, although less so now in the Internet age. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:03, Dec 20, 2004 (UTC)

One of the great advantages of keeping your corporation private is the, well, privacy that you can maintain. In many parts of the U.S. and Canada, "WHMIS" documents relating to materials that they're using must be put on file and available to the public (possibly at the nearest fire station?) so that might give you a clue as to what they're up to, or at least what kind of white board cleaner they use. Sharkford 21:18, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

help identifying jacket patches

Anonymous request moved from the Village Pump. Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 21:26, Dec 19, 2004 (UTC)

My father was in the 20th Air Force--677 B Squadron--flew the Hump I'm tring to identify or get the meaning of several patches that he wore on his flight jacket. I know I don't belong on this site but don't know where to go. Thanks Tim Borden timborden1@mindspring.com

Tim, we welcome these sorts of queries from visitors. As far as Wikipedia is concerned, virtually everyone belongs on this site! As far as the patches go, if you could upload photos of the patches, or at least some fairly detailed descriptions, we might have a good shot of helping you identify them. -Rholton 01:53, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Everyone except that guy asking where to pirate games. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:15, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Tim: check out this web site. By "20th Air Force" you probably mean the United States 20th Army Air Force possibly 677th Bombardment Squadron - since you know what you're looking for, you're more likely to find it than we are. Search for his plane type (e.g. "B-29", "F-4", "Phantom", etc.) or for his base (e.g. "Hollomon AFB"). If I've guessed right about your father's squadron, be sure to look at those other websites which may not help with the patches but might have some interesting photos. - Nunh-huh 04:59, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Caustic pineapple chemicals?

I checked pineapple but found no reference to that chemical that makes your tongue feel raw and painful if you eat uncooked/unprepared pineapple. Is it pineapple that does that? This is one of those things I have a faint memory of, but no hard information. grendel|khan 02:36, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

Possibly bromelain or papain? =- Nunh-huh 02:39, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

cooked pineapple? it makes sense to me--Wonderfool 00:27, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pineappe contains an enzyme that is an excellent natural exfoliant for your facial skin. Makes you look dewy and radiant when applied on a regular basis. Highly recommended. Oh, wait. I meant papaya. However, if you're spending too much time on Wikipedia, try it anyway, "It's a good thing." --allie 21:46, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Currency copyright question

Image:SacDollar.jpeg comes from the United States Mint. Their copyright policy states, in part, "Also for example, copyrights in the Dollar Coin Obverse Design featuring Sacagawea [... have been assigned to and are owned by the United States Mint." I was under the impression that the Mint, being a part of the Department of State (which is part of the federal U.S. government), couldn't copyright anything at all. So, is the U.S. Mint's page in error, or is the statement that the U.S. federal government copyrights nothing in error? I'm pretty confused on this one. grendel|khan 03:21, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, the US government can hold copyright on materials transferred to it by third parties. In addition, the laws regarding the reproduction of money or images of money are strange and twisted. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:12, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

We have an article on the work of the United States Government which discusses what Cyrius is talking about. --Cvaneg 05:39, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Antique Rifle-Who made this model?

There was a rifle discovered by a friend of mine. He collects guns and cannot find any information of any kind on this rifle. The only markings on this rifle are machine engraved (just like Winchester or any other markings) and say Cherokee 75. That is the only identification on this rifle. There are no serial numbers or anything. Does anyone know who made this rifle or where it came from or where I can look up the information? It is not in any collectors' books that we have checked. Thank you. Candy Arp

Does the rifle look anything like the one in these pictures? If so, it's probably made by Thompson/Center. -Rholton 06:20, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Quote from Ayn Rand

We the willing, led by the unknowing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

Is this quote from the Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged? Thanks! Elaine A. King, CPA

No. It's not from Ayn Rand: it's a popular office joke, by Ayn-Nonymous<g>! It's certainly nothing that Ayn Rand would ever have thought, let alone written. - Nunh-huh 22:10, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• I don't know what came first, but a popular slogan in Vietnam among disgruntled grunts was "We are the unwilling led by the unqualified to do the unnecessary for the ungrateful." --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 00:31, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Million dollar question

How do I make a million dollars, attract beautiful women and become famous? I figure we know everything else, we might as well find out about this one. Thanks. - Ta bu shi da yu 11:32, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC) (Oh, sorry about the male POV — except for you gay guys of course)

1. Insider trading.
2. Take over an underdeveloped nation through a romantic peasant revolution.
3. Record a top 40 hit.

Failing that, there's always sports. Hitting a baseball four times out of ten ought to do the trick.

Diderot 11:41, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If everyone sends me a thousand bucks, I'll post the answer here! ;-)

-Rholton 18:27, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

You could deal drugs. They're real expensive these days, plus all your profit is tax-free. If you want something legit, you could start a McCarthy-esque paranoia against a scapegoat of your choice (Jews, Hispanics, gays, heck probably even extraterrestrials...people seem to get more gullible every year), then get elected to Congress, where you can give yourself raises whenever you and your co-workers feel like it. Ливай | ☺ 22:18, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

No you can't, according to the 27th amendment [12]. Payrises for Congressmen and Senators don't take effect until an election has intervened. Kind of a nice incentive for congresscritters to avoid hyperinflation, don't you think :) --Robert Merkel 06:09, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

But it doesn't really matter; the vast majority of incumbents are re-elected anyway. It looks better, but doesn't really do much. -- Mote 16:39, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

It matters even less when you're in Australia. Alphax (t) (c) (e) 15:07, Jan 18, 2005 (UTC)

Ted Turner, asked this question, said "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and ADVERTISE!" -- John Fader 00:56, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Conduct seminars in which you teach people the secret of how to make a million dollars, attract beautiful women and become famous. (What do you teach them to do in the seminars? Easy! Conduct seminars in which you teach people the secret of how to...you get the picture).

Failing that, let's ignore inflation for the moment. If you could save $5000 per year and invested it in an S&P 500 index fund (which returned about 6.2% per year real returns between 1965 and 2002), in 43 years you'd have a million dollars. Savings and compound returns, m'lad. --Robert Merkel 06:05, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Art. but do really good art though. films, literature and architecture too. those things are great. learn poker too. and play online poker.thats an easy job. i wonder how u can tell poker faces online--Wonderfool 00:37, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Cure the common cold. Neutrality/^talk 03:45, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Focus on becoming famous first, the rest seem to come along with it. Now, to become famous is easy, just kill someone who is also famous. George W. Bush would be a good place to start. — Kieff | Talk 08:11, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Oh lets see, 1. do something that people will pay you $1 for a million times. Or sell a million of something for a dollar each. But making a million and having a million leftover are very different. Most people in developed countries will make a million dollars over their lifetime. Few have it at any given time. 2. Have something they want. Having lots of money and being lead singer in a band are easy ways to do it. Having an incredible personality works too. 3. Do or be something noteworthy that people want to know more about, talk about, and think about. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. - Taxman 04:23, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

Selling Wikipedia dudes. make it a hard copy and flog it for a lot. Then every year you could sell an upgrade. Plus, the contributors may get paid too then. And everyone will be happy--Onefool 02:40, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Marry up: The best society people do. Of course, you might have to forego the "beautiful women" part of your quest, but it's a question of priorities. Some people want to change the world; some people want to get rich. It's a question of priorities. allie 02:54, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Names of English & Spanish ships at Battle of St Vincent

Moved here from article namespace, please email questioner, article deleted. I am a member of the Britannia Naval Research Association based in Oxford England. We are preparing a presentation of The Battle of St Vincent in 1780. The battle was fought between the Spanish and English fleets. We are having difficulty in naming all the English and Spanish ships present and historic records seem scarce. We also require details of the Spanish flags, both national and admirals' flags of that date. Malcolm Lewis mandblewis@onetel.com

Wikipedia's article on the battle is at Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780) and George Brydges Rodney and Juan de Lángara have more information. Unfortunately, we can't conjure historical sources out of thin air any more than you can. If you can find good sources, please use them to improve the article. Gdr 16:49, 2004 Dec 23 (UTC)

The discussion page on the article mentions [13], which is an annotated painting of the battle giving some ship names. Shimgray 17:19, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[14] also has a painting, although without ship names. Shimgray 17:25, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[15] notes that the 2nd Bn, 73rd Foot (they would later become the 71st Foot, and then the HLI) fought in the battle as Marines, although it doesn't give a ship name. Might be worth chasing up that angle. Hmm... [16] seems to suggest the Prince George fought there, as well.

I've put some more details on Talk:Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1780), to avoid cluttering this page. (of course, it'd help if I could write this cleanly...) Shimgray 18:02, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Questionable actual military rank, common use of title Colonel in Virginia, West Virginia

In writing several articles on not-so-famous people, I have run across indications that some individuals who did not formerly attain the rank of Colonel apparently assumed the use of this title (or it was used by others when referring to them) in the years after the American Civil War. From my own experience, I was aware of several such people who were still alive in the mid-20th century in Virginia. That leads me to speculate that this was/is some kind of colloquial situation. Following the lead of author H. Reid in The Virginian Railway, I addressed the issue in the William N. Page and related articles and have side-stepped the issue in Algernon S. Buford and related articles. In both instances, there are published indications that the title of "Colonel" was not an earned military rank.

• 1. Has anyone else run across this?
• 2. Since we are compiling and writing article with information of a factual nature, how do we address such a situation?

Thanks. Vaoverland 17:33, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

One famous example of it was late Colonel Sanders who knew much about chichen cookery. They used to (sell?) these honorary titles in the American South.

The Colonel is also often a shorthand reference to Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, who was an honorary Kentucky colonel. The title is an honorary title offered to celebrities by the Governor of Kentucky. -- Colonel

2 : a minor titular official of a state especially in southern or midland U.S. -- used as an honorific title -- http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=colonel

-- Toytoy 18:06, Dec 20, 2004 (UTC)

• I wrote the short article Kentucky colonel. The title is extremely common today--I see cars all the time with the sticker signifying membership in the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. One non-military colonel is Colonel Tom Parker, but his article notes the title was from Louisiana. PedanticallySpeaking 18:21, Dec 27, 2004 (UTC)

I'm an Alabama Colonel. All I had to do was write the governor and ask for it. I have a framed certificate with a pretty gold seal on it. RickK 08:08, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

questions about WikidPad

I have recently discovered the software WikidPad, which seems to operate almost identically to Wikipedia and is simple enough to be used by non-programmers (unlike MediaWiki). It uses the file extension .wiki, and its files will export to HTML. However, it will not import text files, so there is a bit of up-front work to do cutting and pasting from my current journal. My question is, is there any other (better) software like this I should know about before I start copying all my files, or does it not matter because I can always export later? Or should I just go ahead and learn PHP for MediaWiki? Thanks. Mjklin 18:08, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

Media wiki isn't really that hard to install or to use, and one certainly doesn't need to be a programmer or to know PHP to do so. As, like most of the more capable wiki implementations, it requires one to set up a web server, a PHP installation, and a MySQL server, the configuration can be daunting for the non technical. Our wiki software article lists numerous alternatives. If Mediawiki really is too daunting, look for the ones that incorporate the database function (so one doesn't need an external database system like MySQL). Examples of this include UseModWiki. There are even a few that even include the web server too (so one need install only the language runtime and the wiki software itself); I've used Instiki, which is incredibly easy to install (but is also rather basic). I belive MoinMoin is also really easy to install (no SQL, and with optional included webserver), although I've never used it (but it is very popular). -- John Fader 22:20, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

You might also try Kwiki, which is implemented in Perl. It's lightweight, backed by flat files, and is quite easy to install and maintain in my experience. --David Iberri | Talk 07:10, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

Prescriptive grammar

Are there any Web sites where people bemoan the use of current slang, neologisms, usages, and grammatical patterns? Thanks, Gelu Ignisque

• I'm sure there are. I enjoy this one (it does not really bemoan the use of slang, but it's rather fun if you like to make picky distinctions): [17]. -Aranel ("Sarah") 01:06, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Hitachi Automatic Home Bakery Bread Maker

I have recently purchased a Hitachi HB-B101 Bread Maker.  There was no instruction booklet for it.  Is there anywhere that I can contact to get an operating book for my breadmaker.

Teri Lindsey

HERE IS WHAT I LEARNED TO DO: I have this machine with no instructions either, but have had very good results just doing things and not following any rules or recipes other than some bread baking basics:

I always use 1 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast and about 4-5 cups of some sort of flour and grains, along with a few pinches of salt, about a tablespoon of sugar, and a few tablespoons of milk. And hot tap water.

I am not particular about any order of ingredients or even measure the amounts. Just dump it all in and watch for a few minutes to makes sure there is enough water for a relatively loose dough. And you might need to add more flour or more water and stir things down at first. Maybe plan on a few trial and error loafs, but I bet you will soon catch on.

Then I have fun putting various flours and grains together with enough water to make a fairly moist dough - that seems to be key to make a nicely rising and well-grained bread. (Just the opposite of what I had expected - I thought a really tight ball of dough was the most desirable. But this loose dough seems to work the best and you could never knead it by hand, which is not the problem with the machine.

Right now I use about 2 cups unbleached bread flour, 1 cup wholewheat flour, and about a third cup each of gluten, yellow cornmeal, and bulgasr type cracked wheat. This is making a really yummy loaf. But you could substitute almost anything or increase amounts of one over another extra ingredient or use just plain flour for up to about 5 cups total.

I have also added a baked potato to a similar ratio of flour/water/yeast. Or left over mashed potatoes, or dried potato flakes. This is where you can be creative with about a cup of "extra" ingredients.

So feel free to ad lib following some of these basic guidelines, set the timer on "dark" and push the button and sit back until the wonderful smell of baking bread fills your house.

Photo stitching software

I am looking for software to stitch together 8 large tiff images (they are sections of a map). I'd love it to be free. Any ideas?

I've done a good deal of this sort of thing, but with photographs instead. All of the tools mentioned here are free: I use Hugin and Autopano-SiFT, which automatically aligns the images based on detected features. (It's practically magical.) Hugin also supports the selectable use of Enblend to blend the edges of stitched pictures together seamlessly. The toolchain should be adaptable to photographs; just pretend that they're photos taken with a very, very long lens. There are tutorials on the above pages, but if you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer them. grendel|khan 23:47, 2004 Dec 20 (UTC)

Questions of grammar

Just a few questions about grammar that I have been curious about for quite some time. 1) Why is "colonel" spelled the way it is? 2) When do you use "burnt" and when do you use "burned"? (Same with any other words similar with the "t" or "ed" ending.) 3)How do you know when to use "who" or "whom"?(Same with "affect" and "effect".)

--Tina

• Regarding "colonel", Random House's writeup on it is real good. Regarding burned and burnt, as far as I know, they are completely interchangable -- "burnt toast" sounds more assonant than "burned toast", but that's about it. --01:54, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

OK, here are the next two

Who is used as a subject in a clause or sentence and whom is used as object of a clause, preposition or transitive verb: who hit whom? is correct, but whom hit who? is not. In Latin, they would be translated into nominative and accusative forms of the pronoun respectively.

Affect as a noun usually means mood, as a verb to affect means to change, but rarely it means "to pretend to" a quality.

Effect as a noun means the result of change, and as a verb to effect means to cause.

Many writers here and elsewhere who are otherwise literate cannot keep these straight. Start noticing and you'll find more semiliterati with pretensions than you might expect. Unless they are politicians affecting demotic ignorance (cf Bush's nucular). alteripse 02:16, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

To answer the second question, "burnt" to me tends to mean "charred": "burnt toast". In other senses "burnt" is not used, always "burned". Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 02:33, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

Burned is a past participle, burnt is an adjective.

I burned the house down.

It smells like burnt toast.

But not:

*I burnt the house down.

*It smells like burned toast.

("*" is the international linguistics symbol for an intentionally incorrect sentence.)

People don't make the distinction consistently, so don't worry too much about it.

affect and effect have different argument structures.

The stock market affects the bond market.

Lowering the interest rate effects a reduction in the cost of financing government debt.

But never:

*The stock market effects the bond market.

*Lowering the interest rate affects a reduction in the cost of financing government debt.

X affects Y means that X is an actor of some sort and Y is a thing that changes because of the actions of X. X effects Y means that X is an action and Y is a consequence of that action.

People do try to make this distinction consistently as it has real content and potential for ambiguity. You should try to get this one right.

The "colonel" and who/whom questions have already been answered.

Diderot 03:46, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

And see whom for Wikipedia's take on it. JRM 14:22, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

• I find the following explanations helpful (and entertaining): affect/effect, who/whom. I imagine that burnt/burned has some American/British English influences, whether it is supposed to or not. -Aranel ("Sarah") 21:18, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

____

• Okay, for burnt vs. burned, American English generally uses burnt as a perfect participle (the equivalent of an adjective), as in "burnt-up paper," and uses burned everywhere else. Whether to use -(e)d or -t on other verbs (learn, spoil, spelt) depends on the verb, but I'd say that the -(e)d forms are predominant in American English, except for, say, dwelt (dwelled) and knelt (kneeled). We are discussing here only verbs that have alternate forms; there is no *creeped to alternate with crept.
• Regarding who/whom, using who in all instances will really get you by unless you're among conservative stylists. Linguists agree that the distinction (like the Old English case endings that showed whether a noun was the subject, direct object, or whatever) is moribund in American English; neither the mass media nor the youth observe it.
• The affect/effect distinction, explained above, is observed by literate adults, so yeah, learning it is a good idea. --Gelu Ignisque

____

Mega-esophagus

Where can I get information on Mega-esophagus (Megaesophagus?). --Sgeo | Talk 01:50, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

• Googling for the latter gives some useful hits, amongst which [18]. When you've read the material out there, it'd be much appreciated if you could write up an article or at least a stub on it. Thanks in advance! --fvw* 01:57, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)
• or this one] which contains links to other resources. -- Nunh-huh

Question of law

Is there any site that I can go to that would tell me anything about law? (Like a law dictionary.) Or if it has the statutes/ punishments for crimes (i.e.: Murder First Degree, Second Degree, etc.)?

Statutes and punishments vary by jurisdiction. Every town makes its own parking laws and punishments, while each state makes its own statutes defining degrees of homicide and potential punishments. And of course, these variations are applicable in every other jurisdiction and every other country around the world. There are of course people you can pay to advise you on the laws and punishments applicable in a particular jurisdiction. We won't invoke their name in polite discourse here, though.

Here is a "law for nonlawyers" email course: [19]

Sometimes law schools offer such courses locally. You might call your local law school. E.g., [20]

Here is a law dictionary for nonlawyers: [21]

And finally, here is a possible source for relatively cheap advice about a particular situation (since I assume you are not looking for this info from idle curiosity) [22]

Good luck.alteripse 03:36, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Many places have their legal code online. For instance: California State Law, and Los Angeles Municipal Code. Try googling for "MyState legal code online" -Key45 19:55, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The United States Code (US federal law) is also available through the links at the bottom of its article. -- Cyrius|✎ 20:35, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Also note that in many (most?) jurisdictions, statute law is supplemented by case law or jurisprudence from the courts. Some of it may be available online. David.Monniaux 16:32, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

• There is a difference between the civil statutes and the criminal statutes that vary by state. The Attorney General's Office/county judicial court are mandated to carry these books for public reference by law. They have the current statutes that you are looking for. Each state publishes a book listing not only the criminal law, but citations regarding previous verdicts that generally set forth the precedents for rulings for each statute. Warning: It takes time to figure out how to read these books, they are not for amateurs. Remember: A client who represents himself has a fool for a client. allie 03:13, 14 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Ancient Olympics

At the end of the 5th century BC, how many days of competition were there in the Ancient Olympics and what were the events?

Reading Ancient Olympic Games would be a good place to start. -- Cyrius|✎ 17:50, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

IED'S DESIGNS AND COMPONENTS USED IRAQ

WE ARE TRYING TO DEVELOP TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE THE CURRENT IED PROBLEM IN IRAQ. WE NEED MORE SPECIFIC INFO ON WHAT THE "BAD GUYS" ARE USING TO DETONATE AND TO SIGNAL THE DETONATION...CIRCUITS AND COMPONENTS. CAN YOU HELP? THANKS HAUTEINTELLIGENCE

IEDs are most commonly mortar or artillery shells with their fuses replaced by very simple electrical triggers. The exact circuit depends on the native fusing mechanism of the shell, but in general one really only needs to deliver a pulse of current to set the thing off, so a battery a wire and a switch is all that's needed (maybe a cap and a transistor too). Radio ones are reportedly chopped up walkie-talkies and sometimes cellphones. I think I've heard of some efforts to jam the radio frequencies involved, but it's not hard to change a walkie talkie's frequency range. It's extremely unlikely that anyone will find a technical solution for the wired variety. -- John Fader 14:41, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

DEAR MR. CAPITAL LETTERS: One not-so-technical solution: Say sorry to them, pay them lots of money for the damages done, go home and hope for the best. It still solves nothing. They will still be there killing each other because their former bad but working government has been ruthlessly overthown without a good reason.

The IEDs are built to explode. They can be installed almost everywhere. Many of them may not work or detonated by animals but it only takes a few of them to kill some invaders. They are created using available materials. That means each one may be of a slightly different design. They are no Model T cars. You may send bomb squads to some sites, but there will be many more undiscovered ones waiting for their preys. To tell the truth, the problem of IEDs will not be solved. It will be like the land mine problem, possibly, only worse.

If you want to know more about it, join the US army, go to Iraq and ask them nicely. Please use the magic word frequently. I still don't think you can get anything done. -- Toytoy 07:53, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Headphone socket on CD-ROM drive

Is there a simple way to use the headphone socket on the CD-ROM drive on a Windows XP computer to listen to music from, say, LAUNCHcast? The monitor speakers work fine but my colleagues would rather not listen to my personal tastes in music :-) --Phil | Talk 18:38, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

I don't think so. Can you plug unplug the cord that connects the monitor speakers and plug you headphones in there? That will work, but depending on how your computer is situated, it can be inconvenient. ike9898 18:46, Dec 21, 2004 (UTC)

You should absolutely be able to plug your headphones into your computer. I would try the headphone socket on your CD drive first, just to see—it's not going to hurt anything if it doesn't work! There will, however, almost certainly be a sound output socket on the back of the tower, assuming that's how your computer is arranged. (Usually it's green.) You may need to go into your sound settings and request that output not be digital if your speakers take digital input and your headphones don't. (My old desktop with Windows 98 requires this adjustment. My laptop with XP doesn't.)

If the cord isn't long enough, you can buy headphones with a really long cord and they're not that expensive. (I have some that will stretch across the entire room. Wonderful for late-night television watching.) -Aranel ("Sarah") 21:06, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Wow, I've come to this one a bit late, but what the heck, I'll throw in my 2p's worth anyways. The simple answer to your question is no. Standard CDROM drives only allow for data/digital audio being transmitted from the drive to the host PC - there is no way for the drive to accept input. The headphone socket in a CDROM is simply a way to listen to a standard audio CD through it. Interestingly, for a standard CDROM to function as an audio CD player you don't even need a computer. So long as it has power (which can be provided by a standard PC power supply) and a play/stop button on the front, you can use it as a CD player simply by plugging in headphones or speakers to the headphone socket.

In more practical terms, as others have already said, it sounds like what you really want to do is get the sound from your computer on your headphones. Check your speakers - often speakers will have a headphone socket in them for convenience. If not, then you'll need to plug your headphones straight into your soundcard or breakout box. Be careful to get the right output when doing this, and lower the volume beforehand to avoid any loud bangs or pops.

Hope this helps you. --Noodhoog 17:20, 17 Jan 2005 (UTC)

ARTSTOR and the public domain

If this discussion should be somewhere else, please move it. This is where I usually ask questions, so this is where I'm putting it.

I've just had a rather disturbing discussion with the art librarian at my university, a public research school in the northeastern United States. (Well, it's recently stopped being my university, but I'm still hanging around.) The university library has recently purchased access for its campus to a data base called ARTSTOR. I am informed that this access carried a one-time cost of thirty-six thousand dollars, as well as a yearly fee of about twenty thousand dollars. Not cheap. It contains over a quarter million high-resolution, high-quality art images, including sculpture, painting, and photography.

Their terms and conditions detail a variety of things one is not allowed to do with the data therein, including publication on a third-party website. I'm further told that the university could lose its license if the data were so leaked. Yikes.

I'm particularly interested in the collection of paintings (I'd like better versions of this and this, for instance), so I asked the art librarian, who has some experience in publishing books with reproductions of art in them. (Thus, I take him to be a somewhat authoritative source.) He told me that collections which hold paintings also hold the copyright on them, which is why the books have credits and 'with permission of' notes in the back of them, even if the works are very, very old. (I asked about items passing into the public domain from age. He maintained that the galleries own the copyright.)

Also, he was very adamant that photographers of old works own the copyright on those photographs. I referenced Bridgeman Art Library Ltd. v. Corel Corporation, remembering the substance, but not the full name. ("Corel versus... someone.") He assured me, rather emphatically, that photographers go through a lot of effort to take good pictures of art, and that they also take great pains to protect their copyright on those pictures.

If so, what about the scans I've made of old (first published in the 19th century) prints and photographs that were reproduced in a relatively recent book? It seems to me that either both the above scans and ARTSTOR's contents (though, of course, not its indexing, presentation or tools) are in the public domain, or neither are. So who's right?

He also informed me that copyright infringement is the most popular thing in the world (literally) to sue people for. I explained that Wikipedia tries to be self-policing in these matters, and that I was in fact currently working on a project to tag images according to copyright status. I'm not sure he believed that we aren't a bunch of smelly pirates. (Though he'd heard of Wikipedia before.)

This is very disturbing to me. The guy clearly has done his research, having actually published some art books and dealt with acquiring permission. I will be consulting with my legal staff (a friend halfway through law school who just finished his 'intellectual property law' class) this evening, and reporting back the results. grendel|khan 22:20, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

Addendum: They have an email address, questions@artstor.org. If anyone writes them and gets a response, please let me know under here. grendel|khan 22:29, 2004 Dec 21 (UTC)

There was a discussion on this on the Wikipedia mailing lists in August. after a chap from the British National Portrait Gallery contacted Wikipedia about the provenance of certain images. Some people, including myself, did a bit of digging. While museums and collections like this assert that there is an independent copyright in digital images of public domain artwork, in practice the statutes around the world are vague on this topic, and the only case law of relevance seems to be Bridgeman vs. Corel which supports the position that no separate copyright exists. When they think nobody's listening, the museums are much less confident in their legal position than they let on. --Robert Merkel 00:59, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

So... (1) how do I get the art librarian to help me scan in those art books, and (2) how do I get ARTSTOR to let me post their laboriously scanned and catalogued---yet uncopyrightable---content here? There's a very large, well-funded organization backing up these assertions. Where do I go from here? I mean, they clearly can't do this, so... what do I do? Anyone else want to weigh in? grendel|khan 05:14, 2004 Dec 22 (UTC)

Two things to ponder: just because something may be legal under copyright law doesn't mean others are obliged to help you do it, and people (or organizations) can sign their rights away with a contract to do something that would be legal under copyright law. ARTSTOR looks like it's got your university to do just that. --Robert Merkel 06:51, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

By 'help', I mean 'not kick me out of the library'. This all seems terribly disappointing, in that I've discovered that there are gobs of free resources out there, but I can't make use of them because... well, I'm not even entirely sure why not. grendel|khan 08:20, 2004 Dec 22 (UTC)

That's easy: because access to those free resources is controlled by people who charge for giving others access, and they have enough power to maintain the status quo. This is good for big companies, what's good for big companies is good for the economy, and what's good for the economy is good for you.
Personally, I would just try to Robin Hood a digitally accessible version of the thing, if it exists. I have no qualms about violating contracts and breaking the law to deprive people of secondary income whatsoever—no more than they have about extorting the general public. (Though I would go out of my way to prevent the university from being associated with it, of course.)
On a less revolutionary note: negotiating is always an option. We should try to get a delegation that's impressive to suits together, and then brown-nose them with assertions about how it'll be bitching for their public image, and won't hurt their commercial endeavours at all, because their clients will always prefer the source over some pissant, poorly accessible free encyclopedia. (Which is true, except for the "always" part, but we don't need to tell them that.) Failing that, try to negotiate access on a case-by-case basis, promising to link the image to our "generous" sponsors, of course. Getting individual pictures is still better than nothing. And who knows, maybe slow and steady will even win the race. JRM 00:18, 2004 Dec 25 (UTC)

peaceful films

Are there any films where nobody dies? Im convinced that the percentage is about 3% of all films or somethin measly like that. also, I wonder how many ppl die in the average movie. Even kid films have the oblig death. I read somewhere that only about 6 Disney films didnt have the main character's parent die

Yes, there are many, many films where no characters die. I watched one on Monday night - the hilarious Napoleon Dynamite (unless you're counting an unfortunate cow). Any number of romantic comedy films, from Pretty Woman to Before Sunrise do not have death as a plot point, as is the case with innumerable other comedies. Dramas that do not involve death in one way or another are rarer; examples that spring quickest to mind include Apollo 13.

Sorry I'm so late, but there is death in Pretty Woman. A hooker (Skinny Marie?) is found in a Dumpster near the beginning. Nelson Ricardo 01:15, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)

If your question is "are there films which do not rely on the violent death of a character as a major plot point", many more films fall into this category. --Robert Merkel 01:16, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Didn't Apollo 13 open with the Apollo 1 fire? And the whole movie involves death and the avoidance thereof. -- Cyrius|✎ 08:09, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Can't remember if it opened with the fire or not, but the full cast list has entries for actors playing Grissom, White and Chaffee, so... Shimgray 19:28, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Well, I know of about 2 that nobody dies- one is "Milo and Otis" (it's about a pug dog ((Otis)) and a tabby cat ((Milo)) and their adventures to get home) and the other is "Stuart Little".

What about Air Bud? There's more peaceful kids films than you think... Mgm|^(talk) 09:21, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

I saw After the Sunset and I'm pretty sure no-one died in that, despite the fact that it's a pretty adult movie. And the movie with the highest body count I've ever seen? Finding Nemo. (Think about it...) DJ Clayworth 04:18, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pretty sure there is a death in Apollo 13. I think most, if not all, Marx Brothers films pass without fatal incident and there's not much of a bodycount in Laurel and Hardy I hope. Jackass:The Movie is probably a bit cheeky. And I feel compelled to give a nod to Terminator 2: Judgment Day since Arnie swears not to kill anyone, so compromises by merely disabling tens of policeman for life and consigning them to desk duties. Of course the baddie terminator carries on a-slaughtering. --62.255.64.5 18:15, 18 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I stand to be corrected, but how about

• Real Genius
• Bowfinger --Etimbo | Talk 19:49, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

looking for a song

Anonymous request moved from the Village Pump. Peter O. (Talk, automation script) 01:20, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC) I have been trying to find a song that i only heard in germany.This song was out around the same time as rappers delight.The song was very long & sounded like it was computer generated.I thought the name was "computer rappin",but i can not find anything about it.I was in germany between 1979 & 1982.The song may have been a couple years old before i heard it.Please help this is driving me insane.If you know the song send any info you have to me at ociris69@hotmail.com Thank you,Robert.

Maybe something by Kraftwerk, particularly from Autobahn. It's not really computer rapping, just vocoder singing (augmented by a thick Düsseldorf accent). -- John Fader 01:45, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Series Of Unfortunate Events

What are the names of all the books in the series? I know there are 11, but I can't remember the names in order.. Also, is there going to be a 12th one?

--Tina

A Series of Unfortunate Events lists the 11 books. -- John Fader 02:42, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

But......What about a twelfth book??? There has to be!!! Snicket can't just end the book series like that...=(

the article says there will be 13 (makes sense) in total. It doesn't give the names of the outstanding two. -- John Fader 02:51, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Okay, thank you.

Parts of Speech

Hi I remember reading, a while back, that a certain Greek scholar. philosopher, and thinker actually was the first to label or name the parts of speech and to place all words into one of 10 categories (in Greek). I believe English has 8. Do you know his name or where I may find it? Enjoy your site. Art Haykin Bend, Oregon

P.S. You might ask the people over at the Help Desk why your otherwise excellent site is infected with such a distracting background pattern behind the text. It often makes the text difficult and even impossible to read. I simply don't understand what useful purpose it serves.

RE the P.S.: Background pattern behind the text? Am I missing something? Does this happen with a particular skin? -- Jmabel | Talk 07:28, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

who designed the first?

moved from helpdesk -- Ferkelparade π 09:04, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Somewhere out there, someone will have the answer i'm looking for. Who designed the first Ford in South Africa??? this might seem like a trivial question, but u have no idea how important (and urgent) this is.

thanx

Alton User:168.209.98.35

I don't have any help with the answer, but it would probably help to clarify:

• • By Ford I assume you mean the auto.
  • "in South Africa" -- manufactured in? designed in? sold in? used in?
  • I don't have any specific knowledge, but often an auto is designed by one company, and sold under another's nameplate. Would this sort of arrangement be counted in your question?

Clarifications will help get the correct answer. -Rholton 15:46, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I found that the first Ford in South Africa was a 1903 Model A which reached Port Elizabeth in September 1904. Beginning in February 1924, Fords were assembled in Port Elizabeth from kits exported from Canada (rather than the U.S. because of preferential tariffs for fellow Commenwealth members). Engine assembly at Port Elizabeth began in 1964. This may narrow down the search. Do you mean something like the local versions of the Cortina? I notice that Ford of Southern Africa doesn't mention any design first on their company history timeline.Rmhermen 16:49, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Death sentence

When was the last person sentenced to death for a crime other than murder in the UK? Warofdreams 13:03, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The last person executed for something other than murder was Theodore William John Schurch, hanged at Pentonville by Albert Pierrepoint for treason, on 4th January 1946. His trial by court-martial took place on 17th September 1945. William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was hanged by Albert, also for treason, at Wandsworth on 3rd January 1946, but his trial at the Old Bailey took place between 17th-19th September. The last person condemned for treason was John Amery, whose trial was on 28th November 1945, and he was hanged by Albert quite promptly, on 19th December 1945. The only other people executed for other than murder were German spies (last one: Oswald John Job, tried 24-26 January 1944, hanged 16th March), and a number of US soldiers convicted of rape under the US Code of Military Justice and executed at Shepton Mallet - the last being Aniceto Martinez, court-martialled 21 February 1945, executed on 15 June 1945. -- Arwel 17:04, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

We have an article on John Amery, by the way, certainly an interesting character. If memory serves, the reason he was hanged so promptly was due to his trial being uncomplicated (it lasted a few minutes - he pleaded guilty, there was a statutory death penalty, and there really wasn't anything else to do at that point) - so no appeals or the like. 17:49, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"Well, I'll guess we'll just move right on to the hanging, then." Quite refreshing compared to the unexpected hanging paradox. :-) JRM 00:25, 2004 Dec 25 (UTC)

There's a brief mention of some of the Treason trials at the end of the war in "The Trial of William Joyce" in the Old Bailey Trials series (note not in the Notable British Trials series). Amery is covered on pages 172-80. He did have a defence and there was an attempt to prove he had become a naturalized Spanish citizen in the 1930s, but efforts failed. Shortly before his trial was due to begin his defence counsel was called to the cells where an hour of discussion took place; when Amery came up, he pleaded guilty. The Judge asked his counsel whether Amery knew the implications of this (automatic sentence of death with no right of appeal at all) and was reassured that he did. His trial therefore lasted 8 minutes. C.E. Bechhofer Roberts speculated that Amery recognised his case was hopeless and decided to spare his family the infamy of a long trial. Dbiv 17:25, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Shop Manual for 1987 GMC Caballero

I am restoring a 1987 GMC Caballero and am looking for a "GMC Caballero" manual - not a manual that says - "Chevrolet El Camino". If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. Thanks

Given that you're restoring the vehicle and specifying "no El Camino manuals", I'm guessing this is for looks as much as anything. Otherwise you could just go grab a Chilton or Haynes service manual and be done with it.

When looking for oldish semi-obscure stuff, often the best bet is eBay and its auction-house ilk. A good place to start checking is the eBay Motors website. A quick search turns up a 1983 GMC Caballero Service Manual, and the same for 1979. -- Cyrius|✎ 20:33, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Czech Republic

Dear Sir: What rights does a mother (who is from Czech Republic) have in keeping her baby who was born in the United States when her and her husband visits Czech Republic. She may choose to stay in Czech Republic. Can her husband bring the baby back to the US without any problems from the laws there in Czech Republic.

As the child was born in the United States, the child is a US citizen. As the mother is Czech, the child is also a citizen of the Czech Republic under Czech law. As long as there is no child custody dispute, there's likely to be no significant problems with the father and child travelling back without the mother. Be sure to have documentation of the familial relationship to make sure things go smoothly. However, don't take my word for it.

For actual honest to goodness professional legal-type advice, I'd suggest contacting the consulates. The website for US Consular Services in Prague is here, and the one for Czech Consular Services in the US is here. The US Department of State also offers a Consular Information Sheet that summarizes normal issues about traveling to the Czech Republic. -- Cyrius|✎ 20:09, 22 Dec 2004 (UTC)

What is the molecule thickness of benzene?

Dear Sir/Madam, I would like to know what is the thickness of the molecule of benzene? Your help would be appreciated. Regards Del..

I suppose the answer depends on what you mean by "thickness". If you're asking about the distance between electrons, then I'd assume the thickness of benzene would be twice the covalent radius of carbon, namely 144 pm. On the other hand, using the van der Waals radius might be more useful for modeling; doubling carbon's VDW radius gives 340 pm. N.b. I am not a chemist; with any luck, someone will come along with a more authoritative answer shortly. Best, David Iberri | Talk 22:06, Dec 22, 2004 (UTC)

Longest word?

What is the longest word in the English language? In the world? I've Google'd it, but Google(TM) turned up nothnig useful. (Or maybe it's just my computer.) Also, I would like to know the definition of the really long word. ((And it would help to have the pronunciation,too.))

--Tina

There is no clearly longest word, because chemistry has systems for naming molecules that can be carried to absurdity by giving a techincally legitimate bur impossibly cumbersome name of a complex molecule. Same may exist in other disciplines. -- Jmabel | Talk 01:14, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

There's an article at Longest word in English that may be of some interest. - Nunh-huh 01:16, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

More discussion at Longest word in English --Tagishsimon (talk)

Chemical Compound of Sugar?

What is the chemical makeup of sugar? (i.e.: Oxygen is O2.)

Most sugars conform to (CH₂O)_n where n is between 3 and 7. See Sugar, and remember there are various sorts - sucrose, fructose, &c. --Tagishsimon (talk)

If you're thinking of table sugar, you want sucrose - Nunh-huh 01:20, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Math question

How do I solve the following problems?

1)

(–q)3(–q6)4
----
(q3)6

Use your power rules.

$x^{a}x^{b}=x^{a+b},{x^{a} \over x^{b}}=x^{a-b},(x^{a})^{b}=x^{ab},(xy)^{a}=x^{a}y^{a}$

Given this,

${(-q)^{3}(-q^{6})^{4} \over (q^{3})^{6}}={(-1)^{3}q^{3}(-1)^{4}(q^{6})^{4} \over q^{18}}$

$={-q^{3}q^{24} \over q^{18}}=-{q^{27} \over q^{18}}$

$=-q^{9}$

2)

GIVEN that f(x) = 4–x2
      that g(x) = 2–x

What is the rule of the function (f * g)(x)?

Assuming you mean the product of functions, use (a-b)(c-d)=ac-ad-bc-bd.

I think you meant (a-b)(c-d)=ac-ad-bc+bd.

So, (fg)(x) should be (2-x)(4-x²)=8-2x²-4x+x³.

Yes, you did. -- ALoan (Talk) 10:56, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Damn signs ;) Dysprosia 07:51, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I would guess that what is meant is composition of functions, so (f * g)(x) = f(g(x)) = f(2–x) = 4–(2–x)² = 4–(4–2x+x²) = x²+2x. —Bkell 08:28, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

3) What is the inverse of:

a) f(x) = [(3, 9), (9, 3), (-4, 2)}

What is that? Do you mean the function defined only at x=3, 9, and -4 with function values 9, 3, and 2? If so, the inverse function is {(9, 3), (3, 9), (2, -4)}.

b) f(x) = x - (2/3)

Let y = x - 2/3. We solve for x. y+2/3=x=f(y), so this is the inverse function. (You can check by substitution, (y+2/3)-(2/3)=y, so this is correct) Dysprosia 05:08, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. --Math idiot/^{"liberal arts person"} 04:45, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, y'all. I got an A on my exam, so I did all right. --Math idiot/^{"liberal arts person"}

sperm

Can sperm die?

Not really, because sperm was never living. Masterhomer 05:01, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Although you could consider them alive just like all the other cells in your body. In that sense, they do die after a certain amount of time(I believe its a few weeks, but not sure) in the testees and can be "killed" by stuff like spermicide. --Aqua 09:36, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

Of course they are alive. They move and consume energy and metabolize and respond to the environment and contribute dna to reproducing themselves. When they are dead they stop doing all those things and decompose. They can be frozen in certain conditions and revived, but they are not like viruses or fungal spores, some of which can be dehydrated and survive on an inanimate object in the environment for long periods of time. alteripse 13:01, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Uh, it depends on how you define life. Unlike most all other cells in the body, a sperm cannot reproduce itself. On the other hand, yes, it can decompose, but so can pretty much any complex chemical. →Raul654 13:03, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

You are confusing being alive and being an independently complete organism. You are the mechanism for your father's sperm to reproduce itself. Sperm is not an independent organism for very long, but is closer to than than any other cell in your body. The point about death and decomposition is that it is just as clearly definable for a sperm as for any one celled organism. A department store mannequin can "decompose" but that argument is a perversion of my point. Surely you don't need that spelled out. alteripse 13:19, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

AI, ixnay on the haughtinessay. And what is and is not life is by no means clear-cut. Sure you need that spelled out. :-) 82.92.119.11 12:07, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

OK, spell it out because it isn't clear to me. It is of course tautologically simple that "it depends on how you define life", but I cannot think of any of the common biological definitions by which a aperm is not alive but a bacterium or protozoan is. Read your linked article. Check out the criteria in a biology book. Go watch the Woody Allen movie. Every cell in your body that is consuming energy, metabolizing, reacting to its environment, maintaining itself and actively fighting the good fight against entropy is alive. When it stops doing those things it is dead. A virus may be an arguable case of something having some but not all the qualities of life, but there is nothing borderline about a sperm. alteripse 13:40, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Your wish is my command. From life:

In biology, an entity has traditionally been considered to be alive if it exhibits all the following phenomena at least once during its existence:

1. Growth
2. Metabolism, consuming, transforming and storing energy/mass; growing by absorbing and reorganizing mass; excreting waste
3. Motion, either moving itself, or having internal motion
4. Reproduction, the ability to create entities that are similar to itself
5. Response to stimuli - the ability to measure properties of its surrounding environment, and act upon certain conditions.

Spermatozoa do not meet criterion 4, hence they are not alive—according to a strictly literal interpretation of this particular definition, of course (you could take the ability to produce offspring when fused with an ovum as "creating entities similar to itself", for example, though that's a pretty long stretch). I would therefore argue that there is something borderline about a sperm, even if you or I or even most biologists would agree that sperms are alive (but I'm not at all sure about that). And for the record, my remark was more about criticizing your "surely you don't need that spelled out" than your assertions. At least use a smiley when you say that. Try assuming that people are not stupid, and genuinely in search of answers. (And if you are assuming that, try expressing it more clearly.) Just my $0.02. 82.92.119.11 14:58, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If you don't stretch your reproductive criterion, you are not alive, because you can only produce half the DNA needed to reproduce yourself. Your argument is silly and seems to be powered primarily by your wish to contradict me because you didn't like my "tone". Right? And I hate smileys (yes, I'm a card-carrying member of curmudgeon local #112). But Merry Christmas anyway. alteripse 15:18, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If you don't stretch your reproductive criterion, you are not alive, because you can only produce half the DNA needed to reproduce yourself. No. I am capable of "creating entities that are similar to myself". Spermatozoa are not. The "stretch" I proposed was something quite different.

Your argument is silly and seems to be powered primarily by your wish to contradict me because you didn't like my "tone". Right? <Monty Python mode>I'm not contradicting you!</Monty Python mode> And my argument is only indirectly powered by the wish to contradict you—directly, by the wish to deride your indirect assertion that Raul654 was being silly. The reasons for my argument don't invalidate it, however.

But Merry Christmas anyway. No argument there. We are in full agreement. And as a non-card-carrying member of the Harmonious editing club, let me say: :-) 82.92.119.11 15:49, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I think this is the silliest argument I've seen on wikipedia yet. If you want to argue sperm is half alive, I'll take that. But to say it is not alive at all is absurd. Sperm is part of the essence of reproduction. A successful one will certainly produce something similar to itself--it will be half identical! --ssd 05:44, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

HOW DO I GROW CRYSTALS USING SALT COAL HYDROCLORIC ACID AND AMMONIA AS FORMILA COMPOUNDS---ANON

We're talking elementary school science fair project here, right?

If you google crystal coal ammonia, you get lots of answers and even recipes. Here's an explanation: [23], [24]. Here is a recipe: [25].

Most of these recipes also include a coloring agent like laundry blueing. With NH3 and HCl you will get ammonium chloride crystals which are clear/whitish. Add a drop of something else if you want color. Good luck. alteripse 13:56, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Please check this short text for grammar

Which of the commas are required and optional in this paragraph: "So that's it, everything you need to know about inducing lucid dreams using [ Acme Dream Dabbler ]. Hope this helps a lot of people, who have failed to succeed with other techniques, to become lucid." Also, what punctuation mark should be in the place of the # here? "Think of [ Acme Lucidity Lozenge ] as an anaesthetic# it will force your body to sleep while you can use your mind to induce a lucid dream." r3m0t 15:05, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"So that's it, everything you need to know about inducing lucid dreams using [ Acme Sleep Sparrow ]. I Hope this helps a lot of people who have failed to succeed with other techniques to become lucid."

"Think of [ Acme Nap Flap ] as an anaesthetic: it will force your body to sleep while you can use your mind to induce a lucid dream."

--fvw* 15:42, 2004 Dec 23 (UTC)

Oh, and for pedantry's sake, please don't write "failed to succeed". --fvw* 15:44, 2004 Dec 23 (UTC)

Thanks very much. I'm helping a document to be written at [26]. "failed to succeed" seems bad? I'll ask for it to be changed to "haven't managed to succeed". Hoping that's better. r3m0t 15:56, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"Failing to succeed" is "Failing", that's what failing means. How about "who have failed to achieve lucid dreaming with other techniques"? --fvw* 16:00, 2004 Dec 23 (UTC)

Or "failed to achieve lucid dreams", a matter of taste. --fvw* 16:01, 2004 Dec 23 (UTC)

Both pretty wordy. I'm settling for advising "[Hope->I hope] this helps a lot of people[,->] who [have failed to succeed->haven't succeeded] with other techniques[,->] to become lucid." r3m0t 16:06, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually: "not succeeded". Anybody else? r3m0t 15:59, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I would replace the first comma with a semi-colon or possibly a colon. DJ Clayworth 18:07, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

shortenings of it is to it's should not be used in formal text, but is okay in informal text or dialogue. Also very formally people is not the plural of person, persons is, though that's slightly archaic, looking at it use those. I'd use a semi-colon instead of the # a colon is too harsh; though an m dash is a possibility, as is a comma. I'd prefer the m dash for the most profound pause, I don't like the colon. You've overused commas in the second sentence that stops the flow nastily. My version; So that is it, everything you need to know about inducing lucid dreams using [ Acme REM Trembler ]. I hope this helps those who have failed with other techniques to become lucid." ... "Think of [ Wake Me Up Before You Hypnagogo ] as an anaesthetic — it will force your body to sleep while you can use your mind to induce a lucid dream. Dunc|☺ 16:33, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Legal implications of meta-search, and also of shared usernames.

I am interested in knowing about the intellectual property issues involved in metasearch, and also in the use of shared usernames such as those available on BugMeNot.com. To what extent does a site own its content, if that content was ultimately produced by others? What are the legal distinctions between:

1. Search results on Google (publicly displayed and created by individuals who have no relationship with the website)

Google does not own the intellectual property of the websites it links to. The short snippets of text it provides(see literally random search) are provided under fair use. The links themselves are citations.

2. Classified ads on Craigslist (publicly displayed, but created by individuals specifically for display on that site)

"Although craigslist does not claim ownership of content that its users post, by posting Content to any public area of the Service, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to craigslist an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute said Content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, said Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses (through multiple tiers) of the foregoing." (from the TOS (terms of service)). This probably is different at other similar sites, and depends solely on the TOS that all users implicitly agree to.

3. News stories on NewYorkTimes.com (displayed only to registered users, but registration is free)

I am certain that NewYorkTimes.com owns all content.

4. Encyclopedia artices on Britannica.com (displayed only to registered users, and registration costs money)

Again, they own all content.

To what extent can a 3rd party facilitate access to each of these 4 types of content? Thanks in advance! Schmeitgeist 17:15, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

A 3rd party can link to any of these forms of content, without permission. Despite what companies may tell you, linking is merely a citation, and thereby not even possibly a copyright violation. This is the same as it being legal to put a book in your works cited without permission. Now, you can link to a google search, and even legally put a search box on your site. You can link to the other mentioned sites as well. As for outright copying, you cannot do that for any without a license, even with citation. You may be able to get a license, though, depending on your application. As for meta-search, according to Google's TOS,

"

No Automated Querying

You may not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system without express permission in advance from Google. Note that "sending automated queries" includes, among other things: using any software which sends queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage "ranks" on Google for various queries; "meta-searching" Google; and performing "offline" searches on Google. "

As for BugMeNot.com in conjunction with nytimes.com, according to nytimes.com Subscriber Agreement, "

As part of the registration process, you will select a password and a Member ID. You also have to give us certain registration information, all of which must be accurate and updated. (a) You may not (i) select or use a Member ID of another person with the intent to impersonate that person; (ii) use a Member ID in which another person has rights without such person's authorization; or (iii) use a Member ID that NYTD, in its sole discretion, deems offensive. Failure to comply with the foregoing shall constitute a breach of this Agreement, which may result in immediate termination of your account. (b) You shall be responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, which you will not have to reveal to any representative or agent of NYTD."

So therefore, you have to give your real name originally, but then you can "authorize" everyone else on BugMeNot to use the name, as long as you take responsibility, it seems.

If you have any questions, post again. - Superm401 01:34, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

hammocks

You ever seen a double hammock? Plus, has anyone ever made a film about Salvador Dali

This search [27] at the Internet Move Database turns up six movies with Salvador Dali as a character. One character is "ambassador who talks like Salvador Dali", and I wouldn't bet that "Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills" contains much biographical info, but that leaves four probables. DJ Clayworth 18:18, 23 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Could/should we have a Wikipedia biographical questions section?

I have been working on several WP articles on some not-so-famous people, and I am having trouble obtaining dates of birth and/or death. I have exhaustively searched through Google, Yahoo, and several other search engines. I have also checked historical societies and genealogy source on-line. I need to be able to work from home. I specifically need:

• date of death for Algernon Sidney Buford who was born January 2, 1826. He was from Chatham, Virginia, and became head of the Richmond and Danville Railroad in 1865. I have found some records which indicate he died sometime in 1911. *UPDATE: I have found May 6, 1911 in the Dictionary of Virginia Biography Index Vaoverland 18:22, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• date of birth (around 1840-41) for Abbie Palmer Gifford Rogers, who died May 22, 1894. Abbie was the wife of Henry H. Rogers of Standard Oil and Virginian Railway. She was probably born in or near Fairhaven, Massachusetts. *UPDATE:A contact with the local library in Fairhaven resulted in January 21, 1841, and apparently she was never Abigail, just Abbie.

• Is there a place on WP to ask such questions or post specific research requests?
• Can anyone help with more free Internet sources for this type of biographical information in general?

Thanks. Vaoverland 17:20, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• • You are at the right place on Wikipedia to ask this sort of question, but these look to me like you may have to (gasp!) go to a library and try to search among the dead trees instead of the dead dinosaurs. -- Jmabel | Talk 19:14, Dec 20, 2004 (UTC)

• Shazaam! both dates have been resolved. My local library wasn't much help, but the folks up in Mass her hometown came through via e-mail, and more research found information here in Richmond at the Library of Virginia on the other person. Thanks to all. Vaoverland 17:55, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

• I still wonder if we shouldn't have a place in Wikipedia where we could leave brief biographical research information questions such as these? Vaoverland 18:02, Dec 23, 2004 (UTC)

• • We already have a place to ask these questions: the Reference desk. Gdr 12:42, 2004 Dec 24 (UTC)

• touche'. Vaoverland 00:47, Dec 26, 2004 (UTC)

Merry Christmas in Catalan

How do you say Merry Christmas in Catalan. I had to find out for a progect, which was cancelled, but I still want to know.

Bon Nadal i un Bon any nou ... which I guess is Happy Christmas & a Happy New Year. Google is your friend on this one, as normal... [28] --Tagishsimon (talk)

Thanks! I'll correct it on the link CP gives. Lee S. Svoboda 20:53, 24 Dec 2004 (UTC)

electrical engi neering

what is the emf equation of a transformer

For an ideal transformer that consists of: a coil of the primary circuit that has N1 turns and that of the secondary circuit has N2 turns. The primary coil is conected to an A-c voltage circuit source V1(t) and the secondary coil is connected to a load resister R1. In an ideal trahnsformer, the core has an infinite permeanibnility (mu = infinity), and the magnetic flux is confined within the core. The directions of the currents flowing in the two coils, I1 and I2, are defined such that, When I1 and I21 are both positive, the fleux generated by I2 is opposite that genereated by I1... On the primary side of the transformer, the voltage source V1 generates a current I1 in the primary coil, which established a flux Phi in the magnetic core. The flux Phi and the voltage V1 are related by Faraday's law, V1 = -N1 * dPhi/dT, and similiary on the secondary side, V2 = -N2 * dPhi/dt. The combinations of these equations gives: V1/V2 = N1/N2. -- Fundementals of Applied Electromagnetics, Fawwaz Ulaby, 2001 edition, page 237. →Raul654 05:45, Dec 24, 2004 (UTC)

Computer problems

My computer will not install either Windows XP or Ubuntuu Linux. On Windows XP it gets past the first part of installation, but when the computer reboots for the second part, the second part crashes. On Ubuntuu the screen starts to flicker and the installation dies. What could be the problem? Masterhomer 05:20, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

1. First, make sure your CPU isn't overheating. You can monitor this in the BIOS for most modern computers.
2. Check your memory. Faulty memory chips can cause very odd behaviour, including crashes only when doing certain things. I don't have links handy to memory testers, but an easy way out is to take out memory chips one by one and trying things again. (Though the BIOS is supposed to "test" memory, this is a pathetic and meaningless sanity check—about the only thing it establishes is that the chips are there.)
3. Obviously, if you have no clue what's going on, letting a professional look at it sounds like a good idea. JRM 16:24, 2004 Dec 25 (UTC)

For a memory test, you really can't beat memtest86. Free, open source, anally-retentive, and best of all it comes as a bootable ISO cd image, so you can be sure you're testing memory (not a bad hard drive or a dodgy windows install). -- John Fader 01:52, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If you install linux and then try to install windows, you often end up with a crappy MBR on the primary hard drive. When you try to boot into a subsequent windows install it fails the first time, complaining it can't load the OS image. This happens even if you'd had windows delete all the partitions and make new NTFS ones. You'd think windows would write a decent MBR, but it's too stupid to do so properly. If this is your problem, you need to boot into linux from a CD (I use knoppix for this, I don't know of the Ubuntu install CD has a boot-from-cd rather than install-from-cd option). Then, from a command prompt, enter this:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda count=2

That will annihilate the MBR on the primary (IDE) hard drive. After that, windows should install okay. Also, running knoppix for a while is a good way to be sure your hardware (memory etc.) is okay, without having to install. -- John Fader 21:21, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

leaving the door open when broiling in an electric oven

My mother always insisted that you need to leave the oven door cracked when broiling in an electric oven. Is this true and if so why? (A christmas morning around the tree Q) ike9898 15:10, Dec 25, 2004 (UTC)

• With common electric ovens, there's a thermostat that regulates the temperature; the heating element turns on when more heat is needed, and turns off when the desired temperature is reached inside the oven. With the broiler, you're often trying to brown the top, carmelize the outer surface, etc., so you want it to stay on. With the door open, the heat is allowed to escape enough that the broiler (one hopes) doesn't turn off. On the other hand, if you aren't concerned that the heating element stays on constantly, you can leave the door closed. -- Wapcaplet 15:37, 25 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Broiling (called "grilling" on the UK) creates flavor by causing the Maillard reaction to take place in the surface of the dish being cooked. In an electric oven the heat is largely transferred from the element to the dish by direct radiation; convection and indirect radiation from the hot walls of the oven contribute much less energy to the reaction. So broiling works fastest if the heating element is on all the time. Gdr 00:51, 2004 Dec 28 (UTC)

My mother always seemed to think that the oven would get damaged. Of course, my mother has a lot of baseless worries! ike9898 14:39, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

• I suppose baseless worrying is part of a mother's job :-) My wife's mom used to worry that you could be electrocuted using a cordless phone during a thunderstorm (maybe she still does!) I would be curious to know whether leaving the door open poses a greater threat of damage, since it causes the broiler to stay on for a prolonged period. Perhaps, with things like this, it's a case of "my mother did it, so I do it also." Heard a story once about a woman who always cut the ends off a large ham before roasting it. One day, her husband asked "honey, why do you cut the ends off?" to the reply "because my mother always did." She asks her mother why, and gets the same response: "because that's what Grandma always did." So she goes to Grandma and asks her the reason. Grandma says "I don't know why you do it, but I did it because my pan wasn't big enough." -- Wapcaplet 00:36, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

If it matters, the instructions for my oven are to leave the door slightly open when broiling — this is a special setting where the top heating element is always on and the meat turns in front of it. I suspect the idea is to have lots of infrared light grilling the meat while the air inside the oven does not get too hot. David.Monniaux 16:38, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Sheep defense mechanism

Please tell me about a sheep when the preditor comes it's self defense cames it freeze for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal. Thank you

The fear response you speak of is not specific to sheep; it's pretty highly conserved in animals (e.g. humans, rats, dogs) and is generally thought to depend on the amygdala, a structure in the brain known for its contributions to emotion. The response is an adaptive behavior meant to protect the sheep in the face of danger. Of course this doesn't apply to exploding sheep, which are doomed to utter fulmination. Best, David Iberri | Talk 01:35, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

VB.Net Objects

I'm new to VB.NET and I have a simple question. I want to make new objects of the type BankAccount (which I have allready made) whenever the user hits a new account button. The number of objects should be determined solely by the number of clicks (so I can't create them all before hand). Preferably the name of the class should be their SS# or full name. Obviously each needs at least a unique name. Can this be done? I've done some research and I think maybe a constructor could help. BrokenSegue 04:45, 26 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I seem to have solved the problem by making an array of objects and the redimensioning it as needed. BrokenSegue

Demographics in Poland

You're going to have to ask an actual question. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:35, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The answer may be demographics of Poland. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 06:25, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

Why wasn't there any warning system placed in the Indian Ocean to warn people of catastrophic tidal waves such as this? (Anonymous question from User:206.169.172.226, moved here from Image talk:2004 Indonesia Tsunami.gif)

There is an international warning system in place, but it's not been fully implemented (India and Sri Lanka don't participate in it, and Thailand hasn't set up the necessary wave detectors in its southern peninsula) [29]. According to an Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official, the costs of such a system are rather prohibitive. A guest geologist appeared today on Good Morning America and said that even a warning system like that the one monitoring the continental United States wouldn't have been very effective since it only notifies up to about an hour or two in advance. However this page says the international warning system would be capable of warning 3-14 hours in advance. --David Iberri | Talk 23:39, Dec 27, 2004 (UTC)

Dealing directly with the questions: It's been a long time since a really big tsunami in the Indian Ocean, a monitoring system costs a lot of money, and it would require a bunch of countries to do some pretty complex cooordinating. The Pacific warning system was created only after a really damaging tsunami in the 1960s and financed and hosted by the U.S. BanyanTree 05:07, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Depatriation

How difficult is it for a United States citizen to defect, as it were, to the European Union? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 03:29, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Voluntarily, it's very easy. It simply requires an overt act of renunciation (such as obtaining citizenship under another flag). →Raul654 03:37, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

How great would the expenses likely be? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 03:52, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

With the usual provisos about legal advice (I'm not a lawyer, you should probably talk to one or research carefully if you'd want to do this) once you are outside the U.S., you can legally renounce your citizenship by walking into a U.S. embassy and renouncing it. Do a web search, the magic word to use is "renunciation". Note that once you do this you probably cannot get your citizenship back and that if you have not already obtained citizenship in another country, you will be stateless, which is generally not a good thing to be. I have heard stories of U.S. embassies refusing to go through the process when someone would be left stateless, but I can't recall the details; however, if you already have any other sort of citizenship -- that is, if you are a dual citizen -- renouncing U.S. citizenship is extremely straightforward. BTW, simply taking citizenship under another flag won't do it any more, the U.S. now allows dual citizenship. And I don't recommend renouncing it by, oh, joining an army that is fighting against the U.S. -- Jmabel | Talk 07:50, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

The State Department says that active application for foreign citizenship is a good start to losing your US citizenship. -- Cyrius|✎ 08:19, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

So getting rid of your US citizenship may not be as hard as getting the new citizenship. See what requirements the country you desire to live in has for that. Those expenses could certainly vary, but my guess at filing fees, etc would be the equivalent of a couple hundred dollars. I'm sure most countries in Europe have requirements for the ability to support yourself, such as a job or valuable skills and enough assets. Those may vary so you would have to check with the relevent offices of the country you want to seek entry to. - Taxman 15:23, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

There are a large number of US citizens who also hold other citizenships, in most cases without problems. On a day-to-day basis the us is generally not interested unless it causes an actual problem (like being called to national service in a country that the us is at war with). In particular, I cannot imagine that holding dual nationality with an eu country (except perhaps France ;) ) would be a practical problem. You mention 'defect' though. The problem would most likely be gaining eu citizenship. Mark Richards 18:22, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

*nod*

I'm mainly curious about how difficult it would be for those in poverty to get out of the Western Hemisphere entirely. For example, if the Social Security Administration collapsed or was severely curtailed, would the people dependent on it be able to escape? Might European countries consider granting asylum in that circumstance (or for other reasons)? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 22:48, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Asylum is almost never granted for economic reasons. Even if the entire social security system of the US collapsed most of the people there, even the poor ones, would still be better off than most Third World countries. If you had a hundred dollars to your name, or owned a single vehicle or appliance, you are still richer than millions of people in the world.

If you are really poor getting into any country is difficult. However if you have a skill or professional training an underdeveloped country might take you. But again, why would you want to leave? DJ Clayworth 04:55, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Acquiring citizenship of an EU country can be difficult. The easiest method is to have one parent or grandparent who was born in Ireland, in which case you can apply for and get Irish citizenship immediately; other countries may look kindly upon you if one of your parents was born there, but no others that I know of will give you credit for grandparents! The next easiest method is to marry one of their citizens, go and live there for the requisite number of years (usually 3), keep out of the police's attention, fill in the forms, then pay the requisite couple of 100 €'s or so and swear an oath. Otherwise, as an unrelated person you have to somehow get a work permit (very difficult unless you have a needed skill) to get legal residence, live there the requisite number of years (usually 5), keep out of the police's attention, fill in the forms, then pay the requisite couple of 100 €'s or so and swear an oath. It doesn't apply in the case of those in poverty, of course, but if you've got a couple of million euro to invest, then you'll be welcomed with open arms. Of course you may also want to renounce your US citizenship (neither side will particularly care that you also have the other side's citizenship, as long as you use their passport to cross their borders), but if your principal reason for renouncing US citizenship is to avoid paying US taxes you may still be liable for them for 10 years. -- Arwel 20:40, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Toxic fumes?

A humorous email just made it my way noting that the combination of brake fluid and chlorine bleach produces a lot of smoke. I couldn't think of the chemistry involved and wondered if that produced any toxic gas as a byproduct. I'm thinking chlorine gas or something. Or if not, what is the chemistry involved there? Googling just brings up many copies of the original humorous list. Thanks - Taxman 04:14, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

It may depend somewhat on the variety of brake fluid used. DOT 2 is essentially castor oil; DOT 3, DOT 4, and DOT 5.1 are composed of various glycol esters and ethers; and DOT 5 is silicone-based (specific chemicals below). Most of these are incompatible with oxidizers such as bleach, and may lead to a number of interesting reactions mainly producing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and formaldehyde. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 06:03, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks. Now I'm curious, so do you mind expanding and being more specific on the interesting reactions? And what products other than those three and the chloramine might be created? I also went and created the brake fluid article with what you included here. If you have much more knowledge of it you may want to work on that a bit. - Taxman 22:39, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

Mineral brake fluid

• alkyl ester
• aliphatic amine (likely to produce chloramine gas)
• diethylene glycol
• diethylene glycol monobutyl ether
• diethylene glycol monoethyl ether
• diethylene glycol monomethyl ether
• dimethyl dipropylene glycol
• polyethylene glycol monobutyl ether
• polyethylene glycol monoethyl ether
• polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether
• polyethylene oxide
• triethylene glycol monobutyl ether
• triethylene glycol monoethyl ether
• triethylene glycol monomethyl ether

Silicone brake fluid

• di-2-ethylhexyl sebacate
• dimethyl polysiloxane
• tributyl phosphate

Positive Manipulation? v2.0

Moved from Wikipedia:Help desk

Hello, I'm very new to Wikipedia so please don't judge this question or my command of the website controls (for posting comments) too harshly...(speaking of which,sorry about the previous post... I got a little overzealous).

A friend of mine and I were driving home in the car after a game of Risk, when he insisted that he manipulated me. After an extensive discussion on the matter, to make a long story short, it turns out his definition of "manipulation" is as follows:

"manipulation is the art of getting someone, through any means, to do what you want."

He admits that it is quite a broad definition, thus allowing the word/term to have a positive connotation, as well as its innate negative one... and I am convinced that to alter the definition in this way makes the word lose all meaning (after all, if a drowning man accepts your offer to save him, under this definition, it is manipulation on the rescuer's part).

So my question is... is it possible to manipulate someone to a positive end? And if so, is it still manipulation or is there another word for such a definition?

As a reference, the real life definition of manipulation is listed below from Merriam-Webster.com: 2 a : to manage or utilize skillfully b : to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage

(http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=manipulation)

Thanks for your consideration!

~Andy

End moved text

The DictDef does not seem to me to contradict your friend's defintion. In short, you seem to have a problem with "manipulation" being for positive intent. Umm. I can't see the problem. The essence of manipulation seems to me to be that one has influence over things (clay being manipulated by fingers; someone else's thoughts and intentions manipulated by another person's deliberate behavious/actions/words). The intent of these things may be good or may be bad, may serve the manipulator or the manipulatee, but these would seem to be secondary elements which do not have any standing in whether or not manipulation was going on. In short, other than the "by any means" part, I'm with your friend on this one. ("By any means" ... could easily overstep the mark into coercion) --Tagishsimon (talk)

Thank you very much for your speedy reply and for the outside perspective! Your argument sounds reasonable, so I guess I'm going to have to admit that I was manipulated. >_< Oh, well... there's always the next Risk game. ^_^

Influence would be the more common term for what you are looking for because it connotes positive (or at least neutral) effects. But as noted above, the meaning of the word manipulation still certainly allows for positive results. It just usually has a negative connotation and is associated most often with negative effects. - Taxman 23:08, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

This is a personal view: I would say that although the results of manipulation may be positive one expects the manipulated to be slow to acknowledge that a positive outcome has been reached, since they are liable to resent being manipulated ;o) And usually the manipulated would not agree that the outcome is positive since, if they were persuaded of a positive putcome for them at the outset they would almost certainly just do what you say if asked nicely.

I would say a necessary, and as yet unmentioned, aspect of manipulation is that the manipulated is acting based on a false motivation provided by the manipulator. If and when the truth is revealed this will usually lead to much the same feelings experienced by someone who has been lied to. I have a horrible sensation, having written all that, that someone will say "well, yes, but we took all that as too obvious to spell out" - but I've done it now, so... --62.255.64.4 00:06, 16 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Can dogs develop Diabetes?

moved from Village Pump by BrokenSegue

Ive heard, although very vaguely, of dog Diabetes.

My dog is eleven, and suddenly, she has begun to drink a lot of water and, as a consequence, urinate much more frequently than before. This is one of the basic symptoms of human Diabetes, and besides our climate is pretty good now, its not hot.

"Antonio Dober Man Martin"

Answer: Yes. Google broken today? [30]

Drinking a lot of water may also indicate kidney failure, which is a frequent problem with older dogs.

Number of Jews arrested during/after Kristallnacht

Can anyone please tell me what is the correct number of Jews arrested and sent to concentration camps during or immediately after the Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)in Germany in 1938?

Two different Wikipedia articles give different figures: The article Kristallnacht puts the number at 30,000 whereas Racial policy of Nazi Germany puts it at 20,000.

--Dr Gangrene 18:10, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich quotes a report from Reinhard Heydrich to Goering as saying "20,000 Jews were arrested" - index entry for "Week of the Broken Glass" should find you it if you want to check a copy (...this suggests "Kristallnacht" was not in use in English at the time he wrote, since the term is never used, which is odd.)

The death figures quoted by the SS at the time were low, and turned out to be several times higher, but I doubt any error of significant magnitude in the arrest figures would have crept in - a lot of deaths would be unreported, but undercounting the numbers arrested by a half (especially since the orders were to arrest "as many (...) as can be accomodated") seems unlikely. I'd tend towards the 20,000 figure.

Diving in a tsunami

Some of the victims of the recent tsunami were reported as being scuba divers. What would be the effect of being (say) 30m under water when a tsunami hits? Did these people die because they were unable to return to their boats, or by being battered by the wave? I would imagine that the wave (not really being 'moving' water, more transmission of energy) would simply pass through the divers, perhaps lifting them? Thanks, Mark Richards 18:16, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Depends on what depth they are at. Most divers are fairly shallow. So the idea that no water moves in waves is a misnomer. In shallow water the game changes. In very large waves like tsunamis the circular motion of the waves could involve rotating the underwater diver into a rock or other object. Possibly it could involve pulling them up if they are very shallow and then the force of the wave could be transferred into significant forward motion causing collision with other objects. A large enough wall of water could also create a very strong riptide, sucking the diver out to sea, disorienting them, breaking or separating them from their equipment, etc. It is conceivable that a diver in deep enough water simply suffered no major effects and would not be among the casualties. This is all conjecture, but seems reasonable from what little experience I have. - Taxman 23:21, Dec 28, 2004 (UTC)

For the wave to not affect the diver, they would have to be at least as deep as the amplitude of the wave. If the water is shallower than the amplitude of the wave, it will all get sucked up in that "circular" motion, and then flung at the land. --ssd 00:50, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• The amazing thing is that several divers survived the tsunami. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 01:34, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

cartoon

who were the first cartoon couple to be seen sharing a double bed

• do you mean animated cartoon?

It depends on your criteria for a couple to be sharing a bed? Is it necessary for the audience to see the bed? Does the couple have to be seen together in it? What if it's just implied that they're sharing the bed? In any case, Google is your friend here as usual. Here's a page from Snopes.com that alludes to Fred and Wilma of The Flintstones being the first cartoon couple to bunk together (this was apparently in the episode "Monster Fred" which aired in 1964); also see forum thread at [31] which agrees. If the mere suggestion of a couple sharing the same bed is sufficient, then the record might go to the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Honeymoon Hotel" [32] which aired in 1934 and apparently implied that a pair of newlyweds were sharing a single hotel room bed [33]. Best, David Iberri | Talk 00:35, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Crimes in the name of God?

Dears, I would like to write an essay concerning the myriad of crimes committed in the name of God, primarily in the United States. These crimes should involve hate crimes, crimes of passion, persecution of those who either do not believe or have different values from the masses. Actually, this essay would be made up mostly of documented stories of such crimes.

My question to you is what might be the right search words to use in order to better direct my research? Of course I found slavery, genocide, witch hunts, inquisitions, etc., but I'm looking for a clearer association between the self righteous & torture, murder & mass murder.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, including those that advise me to "take my research elsewhere". Thank you for your time & kind consideration. Sincerely, John Gambardella Dec. 29, '04

I wonder if you should maybe define your terms a bit more clearly. For example, was slavery done in the name of God, or for economic reasons? If there were religious justifications for such things, that may not be the same as doing something in the name of God. Here are some suggestions for you to consider:

1. Islamic terrorism. An obvious and stereotyped example, and maybe you should consider 9/11 and how much the for such things was religious and how much political
2. Abortion. The intimidation (and in at least one case killing) of abortion medical staff on religious grounds
3. Going outside North America you can look at Northern Ireland and former Yugoslavia, and maybe again consider whether religion was really the driving force behind the fighting there or whether religion was simply a label that various factions attached to themselves.
4. Maybe consider American Civil Rights protests (they were crimes) and look at the religious motivation there
5. Witch-hunts are obvious ones, but you should again look at the economics as well as the religious aspects.
6. The Spanish Inquisition. Don't rely on folk knowledge here: go and check a reliable history book.

You have a big topic on your hands here, and frankly I wouldn't rely on Wikipedia. You need to go to source documents if you are going to get to the facts behind the stories that 'everyone' knows. However this gives you some key phrases. Take them to the web, and also to your local library. Good luck. DJ Clayworth 04:46, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC) Thank you for your excellent suggestions, DJ. You are right when you say that my goal needs to be better defined. I thought that might come about during the research. However, the main purpose of this proposed essay is to bring to light the fact that the self righteous are some of the most grievous criminals on the planet, well into the 20th & 21st centuries. Being an American, I'm determined to focus on Americans, i.e: the religious right & other like minded extremists, but not the simply criminally insane.

Once again, I thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. Sincerely, John G.

I should probably ignore this like I did when it was first posted since you confirm exactly what I suspected. What you suggest is a piece of bigoted religious hatred: don't confuse me with any conflicting facts-- my mind is already made up. Apparently it hasn't occurred to you that if you look back at the last century of cruelty, persecution, and inhumanity, that it doesn't sort by believers and unbelievers? The officially atheistic regimes of the world in the last century apparently accounted for more deaths and suffering on a quantitative scale than those that were perpetrated "in the name of god" in the last 2000 years, (but hey, who's counting?). Here's a counter thesis that is pretty obvious to many of us: as soon as a person or an organization is so convinced that his vision of how human political, social, or religious life should be ordered is so important that it justifies mistreatment of individual human beings, he and his organization have become monstrous and evil. It doesn't matter whether the abstract idea is of god or an atheistic just society, the evil arises from the combination of power to harm and the belief that ones' goals are more important than other people's welfare. But if you just want to be a bigot, be my guest. alteripse 03:09, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Jack Johnson a spy?

On Jack Johnson, there was a mangled paragraph which contained the following.

Some where in France while working for the Allies as an undercover CIA Agent on the movements of the Germans etc and relaying information back to the USA. Jack Johnson continued his marvelous undercover work. When Andrew O'Neill of the DMP was reinstated without charge over The Howth Mutiny incident 1914 Erskine Childers & the Asgard Howth Gun Run At the end of The Royal Commission on the ircumstances connected with the landing of arms at Howth Jult 26th 1914. Andrew O'Neill got a congratulations postcard from Jack Johnson.

Is this deleteable nonsense? Or is it encyclopedic data that got mangled somehow? grendel|khan 07:23, 2004 Dec 29 (UTC)

Remove - unverifiable and smells phony. All edits by that anon (194.125.42.52) to that article should be reverted unless verified. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:17, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Well, Jack Johnson died in 1946 and the CIA was established in 1947 ... RickK 07:35, Jan 11, 2005 (UTC)

Ugh. You'd think I would have noticed that. -- Cyrius|✎ 23:19, 11 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Help about categories

We are working with the articles of wikipedia. We intend to create a knowledge base which is semantic web enabled. We have downloaded the dump files which have the articles and their categories, but we failed to understand the relation between the categories. The hierarchy of the categories is available on the site, but couldn't be found on the dump files. Needed guidance on the same.

Thankin you.

See response at Wikipedia:Help desk#Help about categories. --David Iberri | Talk 19:48, Dec 29, 2004 (UTC)

Greek alphabet

Could someone please type the Greek alphabet linearly, analogously to abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz? It would be helpful if you could also include all accented variants of the vowels. Thanks! --Gelu Ignisque

As I understand it, the order given on Greek alphabet is the correct "alphabetical" one - alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, &c... you should be able to just copy/paste that. α, β, γ, δ, ε... Shimgray 21:21, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC) - I should have added, apparently, that some of the characters there (Digamma, San, Qoppa (what a lovely word) & Sampi) are now "archaic" - they fell out of use sufficiently long ago that they're not worth noting. Shimgray 21:25, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Well, not really "not worth noting". Digamma, for example, fell out of use as a letter, but stayed in use as a numeral. Likewise qoppa and sampi. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 01:31, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)
  • Ah; never had cause to encounter the numeral system, just the alphabet. Shimgray 22:50, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Volcanic activity

Where would one find a list of recent volcanic eruptions? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 18:19, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

The SI/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report is a good start. Their archive runs back to 2000. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:12, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Same Name, Different People

When I was searching for Charles Greene it links to some runner, even under the article on Arts and Crafts Movement and American Architects. Is there anyway to fix the link so it get's referenced correctly?

Thanks

Macguy4321macguy4321

Yes, there is a way. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation. -Rholton 04:53, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

What are the question to ask when assuming a loan?

Same as for a loan you would take out yourself. Interest rate, payment, etc. Is the interest rate variable? If so, what index and margin does it have? What is the maximum the interest rate can vary to? If it is hybrid variable, fixed for a period of years and then varying, how long is it fixed for? Depends on where you are at, but most assumable loans now are variable rates, so you may be better off getting a fixed or hybrid variable loan of your own. It really depends on the details of your financial situation. An ethical advisor when provided with all of the details could tell you the pluses and minuses of different options so you could choose. - Taxman 16:02, Dec 30, 2004 (UTC)

long-term effects

Are there any negative long-term effects on someone who habitually uses menthol and camphor product? (Specifically, eating ~5 cough drops a day, using menthol/camphor gel inside the nostrils)? Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 20:33, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Camphor and menthol can be liver toxic if exposure is excessive. With a quick search I found no reports of liver damage from nasal use of either, but if someone uses it daily for prolonged periods it would be prudent to have liver enzymes checked. The most severe types of toxicity (seizures) occurred when small children ingested preparations meant for topical application. alteripse 14:33, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

University of Sydney and copyright

The Convict King is a autobiography edited by James Francis Hogan and published in 1891, the University of Sydney hosts the novel on its servers claiming that the texts are free of copyright. However they put forward various conditions of use including "The texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without permission from the University of Sydney Library." and "The texts are not to be mounted on another server for public or commercial access without permission.", am i right in assuming that they are no position to make such a claim and can be safely ignored? -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 14:12, 2004 Dec 31 (UTC)

Well, IANAL, or even anything close. I've never even played one on tv. However, do the "conditions of use" refer to using their website? It seems that there could be "conditions of use" of their website above and beyond the copyright of a particular item. In other words, the text itself may be free of copyright, but taking the text from their website would be a violation of their conditions of use. You could obtain the text some other way. Just my musings. -Rholton 16:42, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

These are in the public domain. See Australian copyright law. They literally can't do that :-) Ta bu shi da yu 01:43, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Further, the Australian legislation can be found here: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s33.html. I quote:

COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 - SECT 33

Duration of copyright in original works

1. This section has effect subject to subsection 32(2) and to section 34.
2. Subject to this section, where, by virtue of this Part, copyright subsists in a literary, dramatic or musical work, or in an artistic work other than a photograph, that copyright continues to subsist until the expiration of 50 years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the author of the work died.
3. If, before the death of the author of a literary work (other than a computer program) or a dramatic or musical work:

   (a) the work had not been published;

   (b) the work had not been performed in public;

   (c) the work had not been broadcast; and

   (d) records of the work had not been offered or exposed for sale to the public;
   the copyright in the work continues to subsist until the expiration of 50 years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the work is first published, performed in public, or broadcast, or records of the work are first offered or exposed for sale to the public, whichever is the earliest of those events to happen.

4. A reference in the last preceding subsection to the doing of an act in relation to a work shall be read as including a reference to the doing of that act in relation to an adaptation of the work.
5. If, before the death of the author of an engraving, the engraving had not been published, the copyright in the engraving continues to subsist until the expiration of 50 years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the engraving is first published.
6. Copyright subsisting in a photograph by virtue of this Part continues to subsist until the expiration of 50 years after the expiration of the calendar year in which the photograph is first published.

Ta bu shi da yu 01:51, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm...I hope you're right, TBSDY, but my question is not whether the text is in the public domain, but whether the web page's terms of use restrict the way in which the web site can be used so that it prevents using that web site to obtain a copy of the public domain text. If I am in posession of an old book that is in the public domain, that does not compel me to let anyone have access to it so they can make copies. Again, IANAL. I'm just asking. -Rholton 05:41, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Out of interest, how are they going to prove that you copied it? :-) But seriously, if the copyright has expired, then I'd like to see them suing for breach of copyright! And I reckon Project Gutenberg would pull out pretty quickly too. I wouldn't touch their formatting or layout though. Those would be under copyright. - Ta bu shi da yu 16:22, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Latin expression for "Things as they are"

What is the Latin expression for "Things as they are"

status quo? adamsan 14:39, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Ceteris parabis? ("All things being equal") PedanticallySpeaking 19:34, Jan 3, 2005 (UTC)

The phrase that lawyers use is: rebus sic stantibus: as matters stand --the phrase means 'things as they are.' Source: Erlich, Eugene. Amo, Amas, Amat and More. 1987. New York: Harper & Row ISBN 0062720171 (pbk)

Leave it to the lawyers to come up with something even more cryptically latin. They need to further justify their need for existence don't they? - Taxman 10:26, Jan 22, 2005 (UTC)