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September 12

Will an Electric Takoyaki Maker from Japan Work in the US

I want to buy a takoyaki maker, because I don't have a gas oven for the skillets. Its power supply is AC100V 50/60Hz would it work in the US, and would it heat up hotter in the US? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.210.104.79 (talk) 02:26, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Where in the world is 100 v the supply voltage? Why do you presuppose that you octopus dumpling maker would run on 100 volts, a supply voltage I do not know to be presently used in any country? The US gave up 100 volts in favor of 110 or 120 in the 19th century, and most countries use 230 volts. A 100 volt appliance would probably overheat on U.S. 120 volt supply, and a 230 volt appliance would probably work on a U.S. 240 volt supply, but the manufacturer should be consulted to make sure it would be safe to use it on 240 volts. 2409 volts is widely availabe in the U.S., and in some locations 208 volts is supplied in addition to 120 volts. Edison (talk) 04:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I found one rated at 100 volts [1]. I am puzzled still as to where 100 volts is the distribution voltage. [2] suggests using a "voltage converter" or transformer. A 100 volt appliance should not be plugged in to a 120 volt supply. Having read about takoyaki, now I am craving some. Edison (talk) 04:49, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

[3] says in Japan 100 volts is the distribution voltage. So I would find a voltage convertor or transformer rated at the demand of the appliance or higher. Edison (talk) 05:01, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

What's the power consumption of the machine? If it's high, I think it's dangerous to use the machine in the USA, even if you use a transformer. Oda Mari (talk) 05:41, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Why would you say that? If the transformer has a power rating greater than the device, the electricity will be exactly the same - it can't tell they're not Japanese electrons. The device Edison links above is 650W and carries CE and GS safety ratings. Especially since it's a straight resistive load, it would work perfectly well with a 120/100V 1KVA transformer. Franamax (talk) 06:39, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, my mistake. It's OK with 1KVA transformer. Oda Mari (talk) 14:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

God

Duplicate question removed. See #God Being An Angel on this page. --Masamage ♫ 03:21, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Who does all yer lawyerin'?

Just wondering where you guys get lawyers from because I know a guy who would be good at it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.159.158.34 (talk) 04:11, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you offering his services? Plasticup ^T/C 05:28, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

If you are referring to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation - there is only one lawyer retained, Mike Godwin. There doesn't seem to be a need for anyone else. Nanonic (talk) 05:29, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I live near Washington DC. When we need a lawyer, we just open the door and shake a checkbook. --- OtherDave (talk) 10:59, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes you don't even have to do that.Say 'lawsuit' without thinking and you'll find hundreds of them in the house.You'll need to have them removed by professional exterminators Lemon martini (talk) 12:04, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Altering a tailored jacket

What is the easiest way of taking in a mans tailored wool jacket that is too big at the waist —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.12.240.8 (talk) 18:28, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The easiest way is to take it to a tailor. Strawless (talk) 18:48, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

A tailor or seamstress who advertises "alterations" will provide an assessment of what can (or can't) be done, along with a cost estimate. Be sure to specify a time frame in which the work is to be completed. Ideally, the jacket would be tried on for fitting and marking the necessary alterations, but if this is for someone who's not available for the try-on, it's helpful to bring along a similar garment that fits well, or failing that, a well-fitting, preferably tailored shirt of woven (i.e. not knit) fabric that will give an indication of the wearer's build and proportions. -- Deborahjay (talk) 04:05, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Tamil and Chinese words

Moved to the Language Desk, where you should get a better response. -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:56, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSJcXPCxlzI

who is singing in this clip, not suitable for the office. nazi executions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.18.32.117 (talk) 20:38, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

"From the Time You Say Goodbye" is sung by Vera Lynn. DuncanHill (talk) 22:02, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

"Lily Marlene" sounds like Vera too. And I have now just found a comment by the originator of the clip on the site linked to that all 3 songs are sung by Vera. DuncanHill (talk) 22:04, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

The third song is "Auf wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and is definately Vera Lynn. DuncanHill (talk) 22:09, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

See also Hanging. Edison (talk) 03:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

SAT I

What is SAT I? The SAT article on Wikipedia doesn't seem to say anything about it. Is it something completely different? --212.120.246.239 (talk) 22:13, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Googling makes it appear that it is (now) the same thing, since it seems to be being used interchangeably with just plain 'SAT'. Rather, the SAT article makes reference to an 'old' SAT II: "the writing section of the SAT, based on but not directly comparable to the old SAT II subject test in writing," which suggests that there was, once, a SAT I and SAT II - the latter of which was dropped. Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 22:46, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Googling for "Sat II" gives a College Board page as the first hit, with the opening phrase "Subject Tests (formerly SAT II: Subject Tests) ...". (Note that SAT Subject Tests are still given) It appears you are correct that the "SAT I" is equivalent to the modern SAT Reasoning Test. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 22:21, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Found a direct answer [4] "Originally, SAT was an abbreviation for the Scholastic Aptitude Test. In 1993, the test was renamed the SAT I: Reasoning Test. ... In 2004, the numerals "I" and "II" were dropped, and the tests are now named the SAT Reasoning Test (or just SAT) and SAT Subject Tests." -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 22:35, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Gas Detector

What machine or tool is able to detect gas underground, like if there is a leak? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.156.167.54 (talk) 23:56, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

A Canary. DuncanHill (talk) 00:10, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

We have a very stubby article Gas detector. DuncanHill (talk) 00:11, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

A Davy lamp ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by BellyGrease (talk • contribs) 22:54, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

What type of gas? The internet supplied me with detectors for radon, propane, and natural gas. Plasticup ^T/C 05:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Utilities and fire departments use combustible gas detectors. Some are specific to detecting particular gases such as methane or pentane. They are modern electronic instruments which provide a digital readout. [5]. There are also "Explosimeters" [6] from the MSA company which measure combustible gas or vapor concentration in air (not suitable for detecting their concentration in inert gases or in oxygen enriched environments). They draw the gas over a heated filament. Burning of the gases raise the temperature of the filament and a bridge circuit calculates the result.Edison (talk) 03:08, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

September 13

Larry King Live

I am thinking about calling Larry King Live. Please tell me what happens when you do this. 66.53.210.120 (talk) 00:37, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Be bold and call LKL then come back as an expert. -hydnjo talk 01:12, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Do I have to get put on hold or anything? 66.53.208.56 (talk) 03:55, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

If you get past the busy signals, most likely an assistant or five will be taking calls. No one gets directly through to the host (he's old, but he's not crazy). They'll ask you about your question or comment and try to gauge its relevance, its interest to King, its interest to the viewers. They'll ask you to turn your TV down (so the sound won't come over the phone.) This is what happens with any call-in show, unless the host is playing phone-line roulette. Millions watch him, and probably hundreds if not thousands try to call, so the odds are high, but if you don't call you have no chance at all. Be clear and direct in making your point; that'll help you stand out in the crowd of hemmers and haw-ers. Good luck. --- OtherDave (talk) 04:02, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

As someone who has screened calls for TV programs (not Larry King) I can give some advice on how to get through:

1. Mute your TV — preferably before you call. If the screener hears you TV or any other noises in the background he'll likely hang up immediately.
2. Call on a landline. We can hear your cell phone breaking up, causing static, whatever.
3. Call on a decent phone. Don't use the football phone you got with your subscription to Sports Illustrated, it sounds like crap.
4. Know what you're going to say: Have a one or two-sentence comment or question ready to go.
5. Sound coherent: Enunciate clearly. Speak with confidence. Be sober or at least don't sound drunk!
6. Add to the conversation: Make it personal and bring your unique perspective to the discussion. Make sure your question hasn't already been brought up in the program.
7. Pay attention: the phone will probably ring for a while before a screener answers. Be ready when they do because if we ask, "Caller, what's your question?" and get no immediate response we're going to assume you're drunk/dim-witted/misdialing and hang up.

Maybe only 10% of callers follow all of these rules and most get hung up on pretty quickly. Follow my advice and stand out. That said, Larry King gets a huge number of calls and takes very few on his show. They seem to like callers from exotic places so block caller ID and say you're from Ouagadougou or someplace like that. —D. Monack ^talk 07:22, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

The Faith Exhorts Pantomime

What is the significance of the phrase "The faith exhorts pantomime."? And what does it actually mean? 71.113.3.76 (talk) 07:32, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Its a coded message that can be translated as "will the troll please leave". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.4.187.55 (talk) 13:42, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

The creed of the Church of Marcel Marceau? (The affiliated monks have to take a vow of talking.) Clarityfiend (talk) 02:13, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

According to the internet, it is an anagram for "Matrixism the path of the One". Something to do with that mediocre author, Dan Brown. Plasticup ^T/C 05:39, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Refilling a lighter

I have a few lighters like this one: [7]

They are out of fuel. How do I replace the fuel, and what kind of fuel do they take? I don't have any more information about them other than what is on this page. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 08:56, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

You can buy bottles of "lighter fuel", try anywhere that sells lighters. That page says it's a butane lighter, so make sure you get butane, not naphtha. As for how to refill it, try google. --Tango (talk) 09:22, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

marketing in adidas

what market segmentation approach are most relevant for adidas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.33.140 (talk) 13:36, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Advertise more heavily to people who do their own homework because they're more likely to have a greater earning potential later on and buy more adidas merchandise. - Lambajan 15:17, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Even if we assume you're referring to the Adidas brand and not the company, I still think your question would be more answerable if you specified a particular product (that list is by no means complete). If you haven't looked at Market segment#Variables Used for Segmentation yet, I suggest you do. Btw, {{dyoh}} is only eight characters. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 21:28, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

iPod Nano 2G: quiet chirping noise

When my iPod Nano is on, I can hear a very quiet hard-disk-like noise coming from it. If the iPod is idle, it's just a high tone, but when skipping songs, it starts chirping like a small harddisk, even though all Nanos use flash memory. Does anyone know why it does this? --grawity 15:25, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like that commonly come from switching power supplies. These operate at ultrasonic frequencies but often still tend to make some audible noise, especially as they change operating modes. It might also be some oddity in the beeper/clicker circuitry.

Atlant (talk) 21:19, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Blue Human Blood?

Per Blood, "Vertebrate blood is bright red when its hemoglobin is oxygenated." Does this mean that when our blood is not oxygenated, it is a different colour? If I was to cut open a vein, what colour blood will flow out? Acceptable (talk) 16:24, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

Upon exposure to air, it will oxygenate, so it will be bright red. Inside the veins, it's a dull red (it appears blue through skin only in comparison to the red around it). I doubt it's ever completely deoxygenated, though, so what colour it would be if it was, I don't know. (You'll probably get at better answer on the Science desk, by the way.) --Tango (talk) 16:35, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

And, of course, Wikipedia has the answer: Blood#Vacuum! --Tango (talk) 16:38, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

To clarify one of Tango's points: I don't know what color the original poster's skin is, but there are several places in the body where veins lie close to the surface. At least on a person with "white" skin and no heavy tan, they can be easily seen (for example, as I sit here typing, if I turn my hands over I can see the veins on the underside of my wrists.), and they look bluish. But as Tango says, this is not the true color of the blood. When a medical person draws blood from one of my veins for a blood test, it's dark red. --Anonymous, 21:21 UTC, September 13, 2008.

You mght be interested to know there is a medical condition that can give rise to [green blood] Dmcq (talk) 09:07, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

How do I keep my battery and alternator from sparking?

Seems that every time I drag them from the back of my car I have this problem. I've tried driving slower and sticking gum on the corners, but this doesn't help. I dont want to draw too much attention and get a ticket or freak out the drivers behind me, I simply want to celebrate my 5th wedding anniversary. Not sure if you guys give automotive tips, but any help would be appreciated.Sunburned Baby (talk) 22:52, 13 September 2008 (UTC)

You drag your battery and alternator from the back of your car? - Lambajan 03:59, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Steve Baker is generally very good with the automotive stuff, but I suspect that even he will be stumped by this one. What exactly are you dragging behind your car? Plasticup ^T/C 05:35, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, this is a serious problem. Have you considered a candle-lit dinner instead?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:30, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Best things to drag behind your car to celebrate a wedding or anniversary:

1. Tin cans

2. Streamers

...

154,321. Alternator

...

93,231,548. Lead-acid battery

93,231,549. Spouse

Hope this helps. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Tin cans are sometimes dragged from the back of a car in celebration of a wedding - but those are merely inert pieces of metal, not active functioning parts of the car. I've also never heard of this being done to celebrate an anniversary. And in any case, a battery would be far too heavy to get the proper effect (I don't know how much an alternator weighs), and there is also the fact that a battery is full of liquid and an alternator has moving parts that have to be coupled to the engine to function properly. --Random832 (contribs) 19:41, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

It is easy enough to drag a battery and alternator behind a car, so long as they are not required to provide electricity to the car. They are likely to leave a trail of metal fragments, lead plates and battery acid. Edison (talk) 02:59, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Note: lead and battery acid are hazardous chemicals and you may well get in trouble (depending on your local laws) if you spill them along the road. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 15:33, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

This user is most likely trolling. Note the pattern of his past contributions.[8][9] Don’t feed the troll please. --S.dedalus (talk) 00:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry if I was bein' a bother, but if you look at my [| other questions] you'll see that mostly I'm serious. Yeah, the what if God turns off the sun thing was rather lighthearted and was inspired by that even sillier day where everyone was supposed to shut thier lights off. I really was interested from a psychological standpoint, however (and thank you for your answers).

Same for splitting the atom with everyday equipment. I wasn't just being silly for the sake of being silly. I've always wondered why simple movement never splits atoms, what force was necessary, etc. To sum it up, I was trying to learn something.

This question here really was in my future plans to get the car part dragging thing right. I live in a pretty sparse suburb and no one probably cares about this sort of activity (but some might). Us folks in the middle of nowhere have strange customs, and show love to our honeys in unusual ways, but it takes all sorts and more, right? I have many sides to my overly complex psyche and vent them thru questions that everyone may not want to know.Sunburned Baby (talk) 23:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

September 14

Eating sandwiches - around and round versus just going throught he center

When I eat a burger or eat a sandwich, for some reason I have always liked to eat in a circle/square, so as to be turning my food. I was just wondering how many people do this, becuase while I have continued this as an adult, I notice most people eating through the middle so that the edge is left at the end. (I guess my idea has always been to get the "boring" part out of the way frist, and finish with the part that's got the most filling or something.)209.244.30.221 (talk) 02:52, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Eating from one side to the other is less messy. ;) --S.dedalus (talk) 03:54, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Spinning it in circles is messy! I prefer to get a firm grip and hold steady throughout the whole ordeal, munching onward through the center and out to the other side. Plasticup ^T/C 05:34, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I use a knife and fork for large sandwiches and hamburgers. Much less messy! Pierre DuPaix III (talk) 06:22, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Some sandwich fans invert the sandwich, since the juice has dripped onto the lower piece of bread rendering it less capable of supporting the contents than the dryer upper bread. Edison (talk) 02:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Sandwich fans? And I didn’t realize people thought about these things so deeply. :) --S.dedalus (talk) 00:30, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

When I eat toast I always eat three of the crusts first then the middle then the last crust. --124.254.77.148 (talk) 10:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC) I spin my burgers while eating them. I prefer them sloppy, and eating from just one direction would quickly push the more gooey contents out of the other end of the burger, (and possibly all over my hands). Eating around the centre pushes the contents into the middle, making less mess and keeping more of the flavour in the burger. 82.36.179.20 (talk) 13:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Chess

I was playing someone in Chess, and the game ended in a draw. I was down to a queen and my king, and my opponent had a rook and his king. Was there any way for me to checkmate him?CalamusFortis 03:37, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

If you cornered his king it is hypothetically possible, but chances are you could not position your pieces in such a way that you wouldn't lose one, and your opponent wouldn't have left his king unguarded by his rook. Stalemate. 70.9.225.189 (talk) 03:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

We have a monstrous article on Chess endgame. I've stumbled through it before, and I think the answer is Yes. You technically could have, although I don't know how difficult it would have been. Plasticup ^T/C 05:07, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Apparently, checkmate is inevitable with proper play. See Philidor_position#Queen_versus_rook. —D. Monack ^talk 09:16, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it should be winning, see Pawnless_chess_endgames#Queen_versus_rook, but it can be extremely difficult; there are many examples of grandmasters failing to find the winning line, e.g. Gelfand vs. Svidler, 2001. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.171.56.13 (talk) 11:53, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, then it would have been impossible for me since I am no grandmaster. Thanks to all of you for answering my question.CalamusFortis 18:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's a bit of an oversimplification. I assume the examples of grandmasters failing to win in this case are mostly against players of the same caliber - your opponent could have just as easily screwed up as you could. So basically - in theory, yes it's possible; and, as always, you can't really know who would have won in your game unless you actually played it out. --Random832 (contribs) 19:36, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You may also be interested in our Endgame tablebase article. If you can remember the positions of the pieces, there are links in that article that let you query the tablebases on the web. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:17, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes the Queen can checkmate, but more often the queen has to win the rook by a fork or skewer first. In all but a few cases the queen wins, but there is a defense that is very difficult to break down. Bubba73 (talk), 20:26, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

Why no naked zombies in films?

In zombie movies typically (such as 28 days later), a zombie is created when a person is attacked and bitten by a zombie. These zombies are very aggressive and attack people everywhere, breaking into homes, etc. My question is if that's the case why are all the zombies wearing clothes? The zombies presumably would have attacked naked people too, like in their sleep at home, or while having sex, and those people would automatically become zombies. And i doubt that they, as ravenous zombies, would bother getting dressed. So what's the deal, folks? Pierre DuPaix III (talk) 05:36, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that they are going for realism, having accepted zombies and all. Plasticup ^T/C 05:41, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Because if a female zombie smashes some guy's skull and eats his brains, that's PG-13, but if you see her breasts, that's R. --Trovatore (talk) 06:23, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

It is worth noting that the film you cite as an example, 28 Days Later, does have naked female zombies in it. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:19, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I dont think it does. Why just female zombies? Pierre DuPaix III (talk) 07:32, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

It probably has naked male zombies, too. I can't recall if it's at the road blockade or later, at the military fort. I am leaning toward the former, but it may even be both! The scene shows a female "infected" running down a hill, in a somewhat forested area. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:37, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Just checked the DVD, there is a naked female zombie at 1:29:20.58.170.101.47 (talk) 10:58, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

While it has been long supposed that zombies are just frothing, hungry idiots, indeed they have their own culture, mores, etc. To assume that zombies should naturally run around naked simply reflects your own anti-zombie bias. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:24, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Can a GEICO commercial be far behind? Clarityfiend (talk) 18:32, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

There are naked zombies, both male and female, in Return of the Living Dead. Corvus cornix_talk 20:40, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The film-makers are limited, to a degree by people's expectations of what will be in a movie. Although people who go to see zombie movies are probably less likely to be offended by nudity, most of them (as heterosexual males - the target audience) would prefer to see female nudity. The presence of full frontal nudity in a film, especially in countries with higher levels of censorship, such as the USA and the UK, will result in a higher rating (R18+, etc.) that might reduce the number of people able to easily see the film. As a practicality, they may leave it out. Additionally, you probably have to pay extras more if they appear nude. Steewi (talk) 23:54, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

British Board of Film Classification guidelines [10] allow the depiction of "natural nudity with no sexual context" at all levels of classification, even U. The levels of horror and violence which one would expect in a Zombie film would normally attract at least a 15 rating. I think it's highly innaccurate to suggest that nudity would attract a higher rating than violence in the UK. The MPAA may indeed be a different matter, it is much less liberal on matters of sex and nudity than the BBFC, but I'm bemused at your description of the USA or the UK as countries with higher levels of censorship. Where do Saudi Arabia or China come on your scale??

On the more general question, I recall some naked or semi-naked zombies in the grand-daddy of the modern genre The Night of the Living Dead, so I'd dispute the premise of the question that you never see naked zombies. Valiantis (talk) 14:05, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

There is a naked male zombie in Shaun of the Dead. Seraphim♥Whipp 09:37, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It's only fair. The Alien was naked, the shark was naked, Natasha Henstridge was naked. Cast off your shackles of horror, my friends, you have nothing to lose but your clothes! Franamax (talk) 10:09, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

May I just point out that the people infected with the "rage" virus in 28 Days Later are NOT zombies? A zombie is a reanimated corpse; the people in 28 Days Later have not died, thus zombification is not possible. --LarryMac | Talk 12:38, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You might want to see Lifeforce.

Atlant (talk) 20:01, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The common name of that wood photo-op thing at circuses, tourist traps, etc

More specifically: They're wood panels that have something painted on them (some scene or another) and with holes cut in them so that people can stick their heads (or other body parts) into the painted scene.

Like this: http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a281/BlogAbroad/Clarissa/IMG_6796.jpg Clngre (talk) 12:03, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

They seem to be most commonly referred to as "carnival cut outs": [11] Fribbler (talk) 13:30, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Train driver

How does one become a train driver on either the Trans-Siberian Railway or the Qingzang railway? 58.146.161.138 (talk) 13:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

By applying for a job with one of the railway companies that operate on these lines, I would imagine. I don't know how many of them there are, but I do know that Russian Railways is one of them. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Russian Railways, which CD has linked to, also gives a postal address on its website and maintains a number of offices in Europe (in Berlin, Warsaw and Helsinki, inter alia). --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 20:16, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Such a high profile railway as these would probably demand some experience with train driving. You might be able to get some experience on the outback freight rail lines in Australia, Canada and the US. What a dream to have, though. Good luck with it! Steewi (talk) 23:56, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Or you might have to work up from a more junior position. Decades ago in Britain, with steam locomotives, you would have to work for some years as a locomotive cleaner, then as a fireman, before becoming a driver. --Anonymous, 00:58 UTC, September 15, 2008.

EU

How could you define the new superpower EU ,a nation or what else? Could you give me in a word a good definition ? (organization is a non sense answer).Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 14:06, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The lead section of Confederation describes the current status of the EU quite well. The article goes on then to say it is not a de jure confederation. Fribbler (talk) 14:48, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Then again the EU article describes it as being a sui generis political entity (i.e. uncagegorised). Fribbler (talk) 14:54, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

A not very clear explaning....it isn't a confederation in fact it's a union.....You rightly said is described QUITE WELL,in fact the guys that wrote the article have no idea of EU.Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 18:49, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

The EU clearly isn't a nation, it's a collection of many nations. I am even wary of "superpower" - the EU is an economic superpower, but it doesn't yet have a common foreign policy, and it may never have united military forces in the way that the US and China have them. Strawless (talk) 21:23, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Superstate? It's used as an example in our article. I'd prefer suprastate, but I'm not up on my Greek (or Latin, or whatever). Franamax (talk) 10:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

EU is a superpower because has High Rapresentant for Foreign Affairs Solana.He can act with the whole support of EU states(as we have seen also in Georgia).EU has EDA(European Army) which can set on the battlefield in a very short time 60000 soldiers ,100 battleship and 400 aircraftsall over the world.So everibody answer me about other things(and not very quite well) but not about the main question about EU!Nobody answer? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 10:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Hey, sunshine, you get to ask the question, but you don't get to control the answers. The EU is not a nation; it's not a federal republic like the U.S. or Russia. And given current political realities, you'll be waiting a long time before you see 60,000 European Defence Agency troops anywhere, even on parade in Brussels. NATO, not the EU, leads the ISAF in Afghanistan, with 41,000 troops as of July 2007 -- more than a third of those were U.S. --- OtherDave (talk) 11:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

EU isn't interested in Afghanistan.EDA has already done huge movements all over EU,also in south Italy my darling.Us troop should stay alone in Afghanistan and not asking the help of other states.Anyway how can you define the superpower EU?Nobody answers!What a delusion! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 14:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Why do you have to define it as something else? There aren't exactly a lot of them. What difference would it make to you or what would you do different if you were able to group it with other things? Dmcq (talk) 18:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That's the typical insignificant answer!Who is able to give an exact answer?Nobody?Who wrote the article had no ideamay be.I'm waiting..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 18:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Time to move on. OP is not interested in answers, merely in propaganda. Corvus cornix_talk 20:16, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not waiting for offensive things or unuseful opinions ,i'm waiting for a real answer.Not more.Who is able to answer in a sufficient way? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vindobona (talk • contribs) 09:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You're not going to get a good answer, because the EU is unique. We used to have a statement in the article saying "the European Union may perhaps best be seen as neither an international organization nor a confederation, but rather a sui generis entity". Sui generis here isn't a classification of government, but a descriptor meaning "of it's own kind." There isn't a single word which adequately describes what the EU is, because until the EU existed, there was never anything quite like it. So you're either going to have accept that you can't describe it adequately in a single word; describe it inadequately with "union", "confederation", etc.; or coin a neologism meaning "like the EU". -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 00:53, 19 September 2008 (UTC)

This answer can be good.The EU is a political sui generis and sovereign subject.I like also your definition...EU is a new thing...different from others...it 'd need as you said a neologism to be referred at EU,like eunionism...for istance...i like your answer.Very GOOD!

turkish cuisine - fircones

Last week in Istanbul, I saw bottles containing various sizes of fircones in among the pickled and bottled vegetables. Can you really make fircones edible? If so, how, please? What do you eat them with? Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.199.89.144 (talk) 14:43, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I assume that you would be after the pine nuts inside the pine cones. They are common in western culture too, although we usually sell them without the cones attached. Those with nut allergies are usually allergic to these "nuts" too. Plasticup ^T/C 15:47, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry if I was unclear. What filled the bottles were complete fircones, some three inches from nose to tail. Some bottles had smaller ones, so were perhaps immature. In either case, I do not think it would be possible to extract the pine nuts from them upon opening. Knowing how woody fircones are (I use them as fuel) I wondered how they could possibly be rendered edible to anyone without the teeth of a squirrel.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.199.89.144 (talk) 17:02, 14 September 2008 (UTC) 

Sometimes you can get Pine honey in bottles/jars with a pine cone inside. Nanonic (talk) 17:46, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

And, of course, Pine nut oil. There seems to be a current fad for putting all sorts of weirdness in bottles of oil, so it could have been this. Nanonic (talk) 18:12, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your replies. I do not think either honey or oil can be the explanation - the bottles were 90% filled with cones. Any more suggestions please?

My first response to what do you eat them with is indeed the teeth of a squirrel, but there's a reference here[12] to pickled cones and many other things in Istanbul where pickling of all kinds of things is/was a high art. So as pickles are used to preserve food and to enhance less flavoured foods, why not the fir cones? Julia Rossi (talk) 11:08, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

My guess is that the whole cone is pickled so that the pine nuts can be served in the cone. As you probably know, in France people eat snails. They often gather them in summer and bottle them to consume in the winter. They keep the shells by (separately) so that they can eventually serve the snails in their shells, with the garlic and parsley butter that is much nicer than the actual snails. The difference in the case you cite is that it is possible to keep the item whole in the jar. Itsmejudith (talk) 11:15, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks yet again, but I am still not answered. The snail shell reply will not work because the fir cones were totally closed. You could neither extract nor replace any nuts. No doubt, the cones had been 'pickled' in some way, presumably by placing in vinegar, but I still want to know how any hard wood, impregnated with resin - as a pine cone will be - can be rendered edible. It would be a great answer to world hunger! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.199.89.144 (talk) 07:10, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Dummy cell-phones/mobile-phones

Similar to the ones at this site, does anyone know where I could find a high-street store in the UK that would sell or be able to order in such items? I don't do online commerce where I can help it, you see. Thanks. ╟─Treasury§Tag►contribs─╢ 18:10, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Most branches of Woolworths that I know of simply throw these out (the fake display phones) when the ranges are changed, they're great as kids toys. Might be worth asking in-store if they have any. Nanonic (talk) 18:12, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

(Not a direct answer, but...) Online commerce via paypal is very safe. It need not be linked to your bank account or anything dangerous like that. Plasticup ^T/C 14:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Help finding interest rates

Hi. I'm trying to help a friend locate some information, and we're not having much luck Googling. My friend is saying that he's heard about good interest rates that banks are paying on CDs in Italy. How can I find that kind of information, preferably in English? Thanks in advance if anyone can help. -GTBacchus^(talk) 19:27, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Gay (and possibly straight) etiquette question

Hello,

Firstly, I know its tragic to ask this to a bunch of strangers but nonetheless, i'd like some advice so here goes..

You're walking down the street and you see someone you like, so you give them 'bedroom eyes' followed by the follow-up backwards glance as you pass by.. Now, its not uncommon (at least in the gay world, and perhaps the straight one too) for both parties to do the backward glance, so you're eyes meet as you're walking away from each other. What are you supposed to do then? is there any way to capitalise on the situation and talk to them, or is coquettishly walking away the only thing to do? Thoughts please!82.22.4.63 (talk) 19:51, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Is there any way to talk to them? Well... yeah. You can stop walking and say, "hey, what's up?" I mean, I'm sure there are some intricate signals you can start with at that point, but if you're interested in someone, at some point you're gonna have to bite the bullet and say something. If it's at a party or some other comparable event, you can take your time about it and try to pick a good moment, but I'm afraid that if the two of you are walking in the opposite directions, that's pretty much the definition of a point where you have to shit or get off the pot -- either you communicate your interest or you keep walking. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:09, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

You could always try (depending on a million variables) stopping and saying, "Hey, you don't by any chance know a good place around here to get a cup of coffee?" Moves the conversation in a (possibly) positive direction. Darkspots (talk) 21:15, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

I usually just keep on walking with a slight inward smile acknowledging that brief yet meaningful connection with another human being. Plasticup ^T/C 00:18, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm hopeless at this. Shortsighted as I am, I can't tell the difference between I-want-you eyes and why-are-you-staring-at-me? eyes. I would recommend the coffee shop example. If the other person likes you, maybe he/she will walk you there. -- _{Escape Artist Swyer} ^Talk _{Contributions} 00:44, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You could always “accidently” drop something that contains an email/phone number. If they’re actually interested in you then they have both an excuse and the means to contact you at a later time. --S.dedalus (talk) 02:17, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Speaking of time, one well-recognised code in the gay community is "Excuse me, would you have the time?" . Innocuous enough if you've misjudged their interest, but it can be interpreted another way if your gaydar was in fine tune. -- JackofOz (talk) 04:51, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Except that I and many other straight people use the exact same phrase to see if we’ve missed the bus. :) --S.dedalus (talk) 05:22, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Drop your handkerchief? Exploding Boy (talk) 05:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm with Escape Artist Swyer on the eye ball thing – hard to spot nuance with bad eyes and poor social intuition. Here in oz, eyeballing can be aggressive leading to Taxi Driver type situations, (Are you lookin' at me?) – and that's just the women. Figure what works in pubs anyway, is asking for someone's number or offering it. They/you can always say not. Then there's the go-between recourse. Julia Rossi (talk) 10:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You guys are awesome.. I think 'shit or get off the pot' just about sums it up nicely.. I rthink i might start relying on wikipedia for more of the stuff. Someone should start a WikiDate?82.22.4.63 (talk) 20:08, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

One of my socks is single ;) -- _{Escape Artist Swyer} ^Talk _{Contributions} 23:24, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

September 15

Can this be an exhaust mechanism to expel hot air?

If I put simple vents (just holes and pipes, no conical receptacle) on a flat concrete roof, will that draw out the hot air indoors, like a chimney does? 59.91.254.103 (talk) 03:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Nome. Not unless it's hotter inside than outside. 124.30.235.62 (talk) 06:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You need a either a heat or pressure differential for any vent pipe to move air in or out of a building. If there is some breeze entering the lower part of the building, a roof vent will allow accumulated hot air to exit from the top portion of the enclosed space. Otherwise, as noted above, the air movement will depend on the heat difference and won't be particularly efficient, unless you have a very large vent.

When you say "conical receptacle", if you mean the little hat sitting over the vent pipe, that is to prevent turbulence effects which interfere with air exit (and keep rain out). If you do have breeze, a whirlybird-type cap might more effectively remove air. And of course, you can use a fan (with vent cap) to move the air - again though, before you start punching holes through your roof, where is the cooler air going to come from? Franamax (talk) 09:48, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If you look at the title: Can this be an exhaust mechanism to expel hot air? Assuming that "hot air" is hotter than the air outside, then yes. Plasticup ^T/C 14:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That's precisely why much traditional Arabic architecture employs minarets. You may consider jutting a piece of pipe a few feet up, not so much that it can be seen from the street, but enough to catch some extra breeze above the lip of the roof. And cover the pipe somehow (the least amount possible) to prevent rain entering or birds nesting. But as mentioned earlier, you need to allow air to come in on the ground level for it to work. - Lambajan 15:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You describe a method of passive cooling. You might be interested in our articles stack effect and solar chimney. Itsmejudith (talk) 17:07, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone responding. There was enough information already on Wikipedia as linked by User:Itsmejudith; only that I had no clue to search where. I was talking about a tropical situation where sunlight greatly heats up the concrete roof. The air inside the room would very hot. If you switch on the ceiling fan you will feel the heat coming down. By conical receptacle I meant the suction part of a chimney which is often conical in shape. I assume that the if the vent pipes were to draw properly, some sort of extra heating would be necessary, as happens in solar chimney. 59.91.253.148 (talk) 03:25, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How close of a call was it?

The metrolink accident has made me look into rail safety around the world. I see in List of rail accidents that I've recently been on many of the lines that have had HUGE disasters. It seems fire on a train creates the worst disasters Al Ayyat train disaster. I remember traveling through Tanzania on TAZARA and riding through a brush fire. The fire was so close that we could hear loud crackling and the heat felt similar to standing three feet from an open home oven. One person in my compartment was the son of a railway engineer and had a pass that allowed him to frequently take the line. He told me he had never seen anything like it before. Was it careless of TAZARA to run through a close brush fire? What were the odds of an incident?

Lotsofissues 04:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Did the fire span over a long stretch of track? Perhaps the conductor decided that stopping would be a greater danger. By the time the train stopped, it might have ended up in the middle of the fire—not the safest place to be! — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 05:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I moving and seeing fire for at least 8 minutes. Most of the time the fire would only be visible, but sometimes the fire was close enough to activate other senses. Lotsofissues 05:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The train engineer could have stopped the train (which can take 1km or so to do, and you stop where you stop) and left themself and the passengers in the middle of a brush fire - or radio ahead for the conditions and just keep going. Rail accidents are more commonly caused by poor track maintenance (derailments) and mistakes setting the points (collisions). Franamax (talk) 09:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

And, as apparently in this case, by failure to obey signals. Of course many other different causes are possible -- including fire. --Anonymous, 15:15 UTC, September 15, 2008.

Of course at this point in the investigation they can't possibly know that the signal was translated into the correct lighted bulb. It could be that the right signal was sent from the station (or wherever they are sent from) but the wrong signal was displayed on the track. Lots of people have come out saying that the preliminary conclusions are nowhere near as conclusive as they sound. Plasticup ^T/C 02:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

For sure; that's why I said "apparently". In practice, it's a lot more common for the train driver to get it wrong, and if the stories about text messaging are correct then we also know he was distracted. But the signal or the person controlling it could certainly also be at fault. (For an example, follow my "causes" link above.) --Anonymous, 04:42 UTC, September 16, 2008.

Boil Advisory, Boil Order?

What is a Boil Advisory and/or a Boil Order ? I am under one. Got caught in Hurricane Ike, and my city govt. issued a "Boil Advisory" today, because the water processing area was damaged and power was out. Powerzilla (talk) 04:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It means you are strongly recommended to boil all water before using it. See Boil-water advisory. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 05:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm not the only one that is affected by Hurricane Ike. Got power restored today, Internet access shortly after that. Several towns are under this order, as inspections for damage, etc. continue, more towns get this order. Powerzilla (talk) 05:50, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I heart wiki. Lots of <3

We had a boil advisory here in the Washington DC suburbs some months ago because a large water main broke. The advisory was precautionary (they don't have water police to come check on you) but remained in effect until 48 hours of testing showed no harmful elements in the water. My point is that the advisories are not limited to huge disasters like hurricanes; they can be local emergencies as well. --- OtherDave (talk) 11:53, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I can't believe you got emergency healthcare advice (something on which your life might depend), didn't understand it, and asked a pile of random guys on the internet! And believed their answer! Fortunately they were right. DJ Clayworth (talk) 04:00, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You'd be surprised. The other day we had a guy on hear saying "My friend has a heart condition and terrible pains in his chest. What should we do?" Plasticup ^T/C 04:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

And "we" got that one wrong, at least until I came along, by not saying that this is an emergency and an ambulance should be called. There's medical advice and then there's knowing what's an emergency. --Anon, 04:17, September 16, 2008.

Poisons

What is the most commonly available, and yet, potentially lethal poison that can kill a human being? And, has anyone used said poison to commit suicide yet?? 117.194.227.156 (talk) 07:11, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, for starters, good old nicotine is pretty nasty stuff. It's really easy to obtain, as your average cigarette probably contains about 1.5 mg of it, and apparently 40-60 mg can be lethal for adults. The reason smoking a couple of packs doesn't kill you is simply that most of the nicotine ends up outside your body. And yes, millions and millions of people have killed themselves with nicotine, but that's probably not what you mean. I'm unaware of any specific incident in which someone set out to kill themselves with it, but I'm sure someone has done it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 07:42, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually I wouldn't be so sure that "millions and millions of people have killed themselves with nicotine", if you're talking about tobacco smoking. A substantial majority of tobacco deaths are, I imagine (with no medical advice implied!), caused more by the "tar" than by the nicotine. Not that nicotine is exactly good for you—the nicotine article details ways in which it can contribute to cardiovascular disease—but I doubt that epidemiology has any way to tell how much the nicotine really contributes to that ("tar" also causes cardiovascular disease, and so does carbon monoxide, and so does particulate smoke).

The thing that irks me about this is the resistance to the development of a delivery system for nicotine as a recreational drug, without the other noxious substances in tobacco. I think that could save a huge number of lives. Instead the FDA wants to limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes—reduce the substance that causes the pleasure rather than the substances that cause cancer.

(Oh, one last thing—the 1.5 mg in a cigarette is the delivered dose; there's lots more than that in the cigarette before it's burned. I wouldn't be surprised if the nicotine you get from smoking two packs would kill you, if you got it all at once and hadn't built up a tolerance. But I'm speculating.)

Carbon monoxide is pretty poisonous. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:51, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

You can be sure that people have used commonly available poisons to kiil themselves. Many household chemicals are poisonous (and will cause a prolonged and painful death, so perhaps we shouldn't be too specific in case you are thinking of using them yourself).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:43, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Living is 100% lethal. Franamax (talk) 09:24, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Things like arsenic and strychnine were often sold over the counter in Victorian times to kill off rats...and unwanted husbands,wives,etc. Lemon martini (talk) 10:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

And there's no metabolic pathway for alcohol. See alcohol poisoning. Julia Rossi (talk) 10:38, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Consuming a large quantity of salt would kill a person. Useight (talk) 16:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

... or consuming a large quantity of water. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:18, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Paracetamol is widely available and lethal. DuncanHill (talk) 17:03, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Meanwhile, your local hardware or gardening supply store no doubt stocks dozens of items which are intended to serve as poisons. (While most aren't targeted specifically at mammals like us, a sufficient dose would certainly do you in.) Rat poisons containing warfarin ought to be effective. Most over-the-counter insecticides, herbicides, and pesticides are toxic at some dose. I'm sure that someone, somewhere, at some time, has died – or come close to it – through deliberate or accidental misuse of virtually all of these products. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Oxygen 98.169.163.20 (talk) 02:07, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oxygen is only toxic under pressure. Carbon dioxide, which is present in every breath you exhale, is lethally toxic (not just suffocating) at a concentration of about 20% in air. Drinking too much water can also be lethal. Are those substances common enough for you? --Anonymous, 04:25 UTC, September 16, 2008.

When you come right down to it - it's kinda tricky to find something that ISN'T toxic under some circumstances. Anyway - my vote goes for Ethylene glycol - the main ingredient of anti-freeze. One mouthful is enough to kill an adult. One 'lick' is enough to kill a small child or a cat or dog. Since it tastes and smells sweet and it's usually a pretty color (like Gatorade actually) - it's a disaster waiting to happen. For suicides, I think Carbon Monoxide is a common poison for suicidal people. Shut the garage door - start the car engine. SteveBaker (talk) 13:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Surprisingly, no. One of the most dramatic measures of how clean modern car engines are is that almost nobody commits suicide by running the car in an enclosed space anymore. --Carnildo (talk) 22:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

My vote would be aspirin, which has led to many deaths in infants who have taken overdoses of this drug. Saukkomies 09:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

T.V Costings

How much would a 40 to 60cm flat screen T.V cost? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.83.26 (talk) 07:52, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Where are you? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That would depend, among other things, on where you live. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:23, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

In the UK, the Argos catalogue has 19inch tvs starting at GBP150.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm in Australia. 220.233.83.26 (talk) 08:46, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Here is a 20" LCD TV for AUD 725. You could search for others on that site too. Fribbler (talk) 11:12, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

WalMart (Texas, USA) $220. SteveBaker (talk) 00:12, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Flat screen or flat panel? For a couple of years flat screen TVs were all the rage. They are like normal CRT sets except that the screen doesn't have that slight curve in it. Then they came out with the thin flat panel sets that weigh like 2 lbs and mount on the wall all sexy-like. I have the former :-( Plasticup ^T/C 04:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Chinese Culture

Could someone give me a brief explination about Chinese Culture? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.233.83.26 (talk) 07:58, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Culture of the People's Republic of China. I don't think it would be easy to give a brief description. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Reminds of Woody Allen's joke about speed-reading War and Peace in 20 minutes – "It was about Russia". So hey here's a try: there's a comedy club for standups in Hong Kong and the HK International Comedy Festival. Julia Rossi (talk) 10:34, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Or Monty Python's Summarising Proust competition. But a game we can all join in. Paintings of pine trees. Stir-frying in soy sauce. Itsmejudith (talk) 13:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The one I liked was the Peanuts comic where Charlie Brown kept on begging Lucy to tell him a story. Exasperated, she said "There was a man. He lived, and he died. The end". -- JackofOz (talk) 20:52, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I seem to remember it being Linus doing the begging. His response to her story was something like "Wow, I almost feel like I knew the man..." jeffjon (talk) 12:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How's this: China has had periods of stability that eventually end, resulting in periods of chaos, which in turn then end when a strong ruler emerges that once again establishes a new period of stability. These periods are called Dynasties, and they last anywhere from 14 to 600 years. It could be theoretically argued that the current regime in power in China (the Communist Party) is just another Dynasty. Of course that really doesn't fully address your question, which was specifically about Chinese culture, but it's a quick take on China's history, which helps provide some of a basic foundation to understand the cultural aspects of China. Saukkomies 09:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

...or periods of instability that eventually end. It's like whether the cup is half full or half empty, although in this case the instable periods are much shorter than the (mostly) stable periods. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

New Mexico cliffs

Is there really a Four Fingers mesas in New Mexico? I saw the cliffs in Outrageous Fortune. They were where Lauren was taking leaps with Michael in pursuit.72.229.139.13 (talk) 08:39, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Outrageous Fortune was filmed near Santa Fe and Abiquiu, New Mexico. There are a lot of beautiful rock formations near there. Corvus cornix_talk 20:21, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Copycat urban legends

Have there ever been any cases of someone hearing an urban legend and acting on it, turning it from contemporary mythology to an actual documented event? Bradley10 (talk) 12:17, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Not quite an urban legend, but close:IP over Avian Carriers. -Arch dude (talk) 17:29, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Snopes refers to this as pseudo-ostention. --ColinFine (talk) 23:35, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Practically every episode of Mythbusters. SteveBaker (talk) 23:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Has anyone here actually been present when an event usually described as being an UL has occurred? I have once - and I get accused of 'talking shit' by people who think they know everything whenever I try to tell the story. Which is irritating. It's this one, FWIW. I was there when it happened and I could name fifteen other people that witnessed it too. I could even name the girl, if I had any particular desire to do to. It was in a sex education lesson at school when we were 12/13-ish. I doubt that she'd just heard/read about the UL somewhere and decided to try being funny in class either - she was in floods of tears afterwards and was still getting laughed at weeks later. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 00:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Snopes has some details of cases where sharp objects actually were hidden in Halloween treats; that seems to qualify as a "yes" answer. In the site's "horrors" section, follow the "malicious mayhem" link, then the "razor blades" link. --Anonymous, 04:36 UTC, September 16, 2008.

Treatment of HARDWOODS.

I live on the Southcoast of South Africa anf have a Balau (Malaysian/Indonesian) hardwood sundeck which is showing signs of deterioration due possibly to the cyclic nature of our climate and strong sunlight and humidity.

What can I use to preserve my deck to prevent further deterioration.

Reply to Mike <email removed to prevent spamming>

15th September 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.239.197.244 (talk) 12:57, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

We use "Cuprinol" on various outdoor wood thingamajigs. Heres the South African site: [13]. Fribbler (talk) 15:48, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Is Sarah Palin any relation to Michael Palin

Is Sarah Palin any relation to Michael Palin... cue jokes about Monty Python and policy. -- Q Chris (talk) 15:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

If they were anything other than distant relatives (by virtue of having the same surname) I'd expect the media to go into a pun-laden fluff-piece spasm. So, I doubt it. Fribbler (talk) 15:51, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Note that Palin is her married name. You might better check if she is related to anyone named Heath. Or maybe Heath Ledger. Edison (talk) 20:09, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

(thinks) Heath Leadger ... Brokeback Mountain ... cute cowboys ... lumberjacks ... cute lumberjacks ... who like to press wild flowers and hang around in bars ... Canadian Rockies ... Alaska ... Sarah Palin ... well, obviously there's a strong connection here. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As the comic strip Get Fuzzy said last Friday, "NO-body expects the Alaskan politician." Deor (talk) 21:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Off-topic, but kinda funny: Michael Palin for President. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 22:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

That was the GREATEST off-topic comment I've ever read! Thanks so much for brightening my day. Saukkomies 09:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Daffy Duck

Why, when daffy duck gets out of the shower he puts a towl round himself, yet when he goes outside he only hears a shirt? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:54, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Daffy Duck does not generally wear any clothes at all. Perhaps you are thinking of Donald Duck, in which case your question is no less jejune. It's a cartoon. There's no need for an immense amount of logical consistency. --LarryMac | Talk 16:59, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As much as this is a question using a quote from the tv series Friends I would answer it thus: Why wouldn't he put a towel around himself? He is going to be wet from the shower and will need something to dry himself down, why not wrap a towel around himself? ny156uk (talk) 21:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Suspension of disbelief has some fantastic writing. To quote: "Gary Larson discussed the question with regard to his comic strip, The Far Side; he noted that readers wrote him to complain that a male mosquito referred to his "job" sucking blood when it is in fact the females that drain blood, but that the same readers accepted that the mosquitoes (in "fact") live in houses, wear clothes, and speak English." 98.169.163.20 (talk) 02:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Democratic Presidents

During the years that America has had a democratic President in the white house was it usually with a republican controlled congress or with a democratic held congress? Does anyone know the stats on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.156.167.207 (talk) 18:45, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Compare List of United States Congresses and List of Presidents of the United States. I will point you in the right direction, but you should do the research yourself. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:49, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with a pointer to someone else's research, if anyone knows of one. I'm moderately curious about the answer myself, but I'm not sufficiently curious to do the legwork—and I'm definitely too stubborn to reinvent the wheel if the answer were already out there. (And I would be shocked if it weren't.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:10, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

(addendum) For that matter, I'd also like to know how it breaks down for all parties, not just Democrats. Be explicit about your methods of analysis, and be careful how you report results from the early Presidencies in particular—it hasn't always been just Democrats versus Republicans. Check out the 1st United States Congress, divided between the Pro-Administration Party and the Anti-Administration Party. Note that for about a quarter of a century, U.S. Presidents (from Jefferson to John Quincy Adams) came from the ranks of the Democratic–Republican Party. How would you count those? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:20, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

I was skimming through the list of congresses and it seems like for much of the Clinton, Bush Sr. and Reagan administrations the congress was primarily of the other party as the Executive. The Carter administration was primarily democratic in both branches. I didn't skim back any further than that. - Lambajan 20:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

After the 82 elections (41 mid-terms) between 1836 and 1998, the party not holding the presidency controlled one chamber 16 times, and both chambers 19 times. Divided government was common after elections between 1836 and 1894 (50%), rare between 1896 and 1946 (15%), and most common between 1948 and 1998 (62%). Ware, Alan (2001) "Divided Government in the United States." Divided Government in Comparative Perspective.—eric 02:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

USMC PFT

Hi all I have a question: In wikipedia's USMC PFT article, it states that a Recruit (or Marine, after boot camp) must score at least 135 points; however, I've heard that the testee (is that a word?) must score at least 300 points. 300 sounds more likely, but I'm not sure which is the case. Anyone know? --AtTheAbyss (talk) 21:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

It's far less than 300. That's the maximum score. See here for a table of passing scores. Seems its a bit complicated. Fribbler (talk) 22:27, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

United States Drilling own oil

Joe Biden made a statement that even if the US were to open drilling it doesn't mean the oil would stay here. Since the US is not a part of OPEC, how is the pricing & sales of US oil handled?LADYOFLAKE (talk) 22:00, 15 September 2008 (UTC) LADYOFLAKE

The open market, just like all oil. OPEC controls prices (to an extent) by changing the amount of oil they produce. But they still sell it to whoever wants to buy it. If you want to keep the oil, you would have to have government drilling and refining. Nationalisation isn't too popular in the states. Fribbler (talk) 22:22, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The government could also keep the oil in the country by passing a law saying you couldn't export it. They wouldn't have to actually run the drilling themselves. Algebraist 22:55, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

But then the oil would still reach the same market rate, as it would compete with the US's necessary imports of black gold. In fact the whole situation is a bit of a political red herring. Drilling in say, Alaska, would only produce a small amount of extra oil which would reduce the world oil price by less than the daily whim of a stock trader. And "it would just leave the country" is also irrelevant in terms of a global commodity. The government would have to produce enough oil for self-sufficiency and regulate the price. Hmmm A Planned Economy in my Amerikaz? Fribbler (talk) 23:04, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Biden is correct. Left to their own devices, those companies would sell their oil on the open market. Legistlating that it could only be sold in the USA wouldn't make any difference to the price because it's still a matter of supply and demand. Legislating the prices of oil for the internal market would get the US into deep trouble with all manner of international trade agreements. How could our negotiators continue to insist that (for example) Japan and China allow their internal rice market to 'float' in order to allow the import of rice from Texas at a fair market rate? Before you know it, US exports would be getting import levies from every country on the planet. It's not so much that US oil would or would not "stay here" - it's that the price would simply go up to meet whatever the international price of oil is. Worse still - what makes you think that the oil companies would invest in drilling for the stuff and pumping it out of the ground and onto the shore at $60 a barrel - when they could invest in any of several other offshore drilling prospects outside of US waters and sell it at $100 a barrel? You can't force a company to do that - so they won't. You'd have to set up a US government owned oil company or something. This whole "drilling for US oil" thing is merely a pathetic attempt by politicians to look like they are "DOING SOMETHING"...they don't give a damn that it won't work ten years from now because they won't be in office then. SteveBaker (talk) 23:45, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to the electoral process. I also heard that candidates believe in the myth of Social Security, despite overwhelming evidence that it won't be around for my generation to collect. Plasticup ^T/C 03:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

A Planned Economy in my Amerikaz?

It's more likely than you think.Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 05:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If the Social Security trust fund exists, then Social Security will be around for a long time, with only a brief period of insolvency. Unfortuately, that period will start right around the time when I'd be retiring. If the government can't repay the money it's borrowed from the trust fund, then yes, Social Security will be non-existent. --Carnildo (talk) 22:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Who is this man?

Can someone tell me who the man in this video is? Thank you. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:36, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

The caption on the clip itself says he's "William Veale, Retired Public Defender". Googling shows him to be a "truther" with a blog. - Nunh-huh 22:41, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I didn't notice that. Thanks. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:13, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

CAFE standards widely ignored?!

In this list of "science questions" and the answers from the two US presidential candidates:

http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

McCain asserts that:

"I have long supported CAFE standards - the mileage requirements that automobile manufacturers' cars must meet. Some carmakers ignore these standards, pay a small financial penalty, and add it to the price of their cars. But I believe that the penalties for not following these standards must be effective enough to compel all carmakers to promote the development of fuel-efficient vehicles."

(The CAFE standards set limits for fuel economy for cars.) I've been horrified at how pathetic the CAFE targets are - and now we find that even those targets are not being met?!?! That's outrageous!

I've been trying to find out more about this - to what extent is this happening? Are all car companies doing this? How much is the fine? How long have they been doing this?

SteveBaker (talk) 23:31, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Linking to the article in the title to improve the accessibility to non-American Wikipedians. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:28, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, here's one link: [14]. $675 mil in penalties since 1983 is really a drop in the bucket, considering the size of the US auto market. And if it's BMW and Mercedes buyers paying the penalties, that's just one more line item, right? Of more concern is that (I do believe) light trucks and minivans escape the CAFE standards altogether. And I'm completely gapping out on the name of Chrysler's hit retro-looking car of recent memory that got classified as a light truck and thereby escaped the CAFE net (edit:PT Cruiser). Also, the CAFE standards were supposed to be progressively tightened over time and Congress has granted several waivers. There's plenty of outrageous in there.

And what's even more outrageous is that all the waffling on fuel standards was largely for the benefit of US-based automakers, and now suddenly fuel is expensive and they don't know how to make small cars and they are somewhat screwed. But don't worry, a lot of car company executives got paid big money to put them in that state. Franamax (talk) 02:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Nonsense! American car companies are doing all they can! In fact, by 2020 they plan to almost catch up with Cina's 2005 requirement. Plasticup ^T/C 02:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

And here's the skinny, according to NHTSA: [15]. Turns out there are light truck CAFE standards, currently 22.2 mpg_‑US (10.6 l/100 km). That's up from the 20.7 mpg_‑US (11.4 l/100 km) from 17 years ago. For passenger cars, the standard is 27.5 mpg_‑US (8.6 l/100 km), right where it's been for the past 18 years. To me, even in terms of the little baby gallons used in the US, these are both ridiculously high consumption numbers - but I don't need a floating palace to drive around in. Looking at the penalties, they seem to be mostly paid by the Eurolux makers, and I forgot to include Porsche and Lotus. Franamax (talk) 02:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You can hardly blame the automotive companies though. They are simply responding to market forces. As individuals begin demanding more fuel efficient cars, they will begin to provide them. We can already see the trend starting. Plasticup ^T/C 03:56, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I largely agree - although the long-term decline of US automakers from when GM alone had >50% market share, a great part of which was due to penetration of fuel-efficient imports, hardly suggests nimble response to market forces. :( True though, the US makers are finally starting to respond to the end of the American fantasy of unlimited cheap energy. This will also help with the global warming problem - if there even is such a problem of course. The globe seems to have decided, but America is not quite sure yet ;) Franamax (talk) 04:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Digging a little more here: [16] By the structure of CAFE, there are actually disincentives to improving fleet economy, because the fine amount is determined from fleet-wide fuel economy but the fine is paid per-vehicle. So adding efficient cars can actually cost you more. Steve, you like to crunch numbers, there's lots of sigma's and dX's in there (no integrals though). Franamax (talk) 05:09, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

OK, one more post, then I'll really try to shut up. :)

• McCain is talking a good populist line but making no sense. Here are the recent CAFE fines: [17]. Note how they are largely luxury and high-performance makers, with pretty low unit volumes. These makers are not the ones destroying our planet (though they're not necessarily helping) and as Plasticup notes, they simply are responding to their market, which sees a CAFE penalty as just another line item, just like the high-end BOSE stereo - no matter how high the penalty, the customer has already decided to buy a Porsche. So in general, the CAFE penalty payments aren't so much a scandal as a reflection of the segmentation of the auto market into niche makers and corporate "vehicle fleets". If Mr. McCain had to meet "Family Average House Ownership" standards, he might find his fleet a little unwieldy too. (And BMW is at the cutting-edge developing fuel-efficient high-power engines)
• Here's a list of CAFE numbers for the major makers: [18]. Fascinating comparison there on how well the US-based makers have responded to market forces - just compare the CAFE numbers to changes in market share. Oops, better not do that. No, what matters in the marketplace is profitability, just look at how much money the US makers have earned ... uh, no, let's not do that either.
• And hidden in that last link is a little gem: if you sell an E85 capable vehicle, you get credited as 15% of the overall mileage whether or not ethanol ever goes into the vehicle! Now I have no problem with not using ethanol fuel, what with it providing slim to no benefit and having the side-effect of people undergoing slight problems with starving because they can't afford food, but that makes a mockery of the whole scheme.

not certain if it's still the case, but a few years ago the E85 credits existed even if you lived in a state where E85 wasn't even available. this included the 51st state, canada; where you could get an e85 credit even though there was only one E85 station in the whole country. (last i heard they opened a second one; may be even more now.) more impressive when you realize there isn't even a corn lobby in canada, they don't stick corn syrup into their soft drinks, etc. Gzuckier (talk) 19:20, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

• And finally, looking at the -new- CAFE standards, they seem to have been re-jigged. [19] And the overall result seems to be that the best strategy to escape potential penalties is to make your vehicles bigger!

Hell in a handbasket I tells ya, we're goin' to hell in a handbasket. Franamax (talk) 06:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

While we're on the topic of making a mockery of CAFE, don't forget the PT Cruiser. How many sheets of plywood can you throw in its bed? -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:39, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that was the one I vaguely and then definitely remembered above. Turns out it had more "cargo space" than "passenger space" I guess. I would have loved to get the contract for the software that helped tweak the design just past that 50% mark - imagine the rewards for getting a vehicle into the light truck fleet! Let's see, $5 per 1/10 mpg, transferring between fleets with ~5 mpg differential, volume of 100,000 vehicles per year: $25 million net benefit? Of course, that needs to be fed into the disincentive equation I linked above - but with the positive incentive to remove the vehicle from your passenger fleet. Huh, maybe the accountant should get paid the most on this one :) Franamax (talk) 11:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, and while we're on the subject, what about that PT Cruiser, huh? Sorry, I looked for a previous mention of it and missed it... time for some coffee, I think. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

slightly OT: the chinese recently ramped up their fuel economy standards according to their set schedule; there isn't a single car assembled in North America today which can legally be sold in China. astounding, since one of the most popular makes of car in china is buick; but if you look at what's for sale there, they have much smaller engines than what's for sale here, in the same model. just another means of offshoring manufacturing, while keeping the corporate profitability; i.e., saving investment income at the expense of salary income. (not meant to be a political polemic, just an analysis of the shift of the US economy from farming to manufacturing to service to investment/"ownership") Gzuckier (talk) 19:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

September 16

Coed Naked Sports

What sport was the original "Coed Naked" T-shirt made for? 71.113.3.76 (talk) 07:40, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I dunno, but your question was made for the entertainment desk. ;) Julia Rossi (talk) 09:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I think I went to the wrong college. Plasticup ^T/C 01:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Squeaking Pedal

The damper pedal on my upright piano squeaks every time I press down or release on it. Is there any way to lubricate or make the squeaking sound stop? Thanks in advance, 220.244.72.108 (talk) 09:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

If it is an expensive piano don't do anything until you are sure you have good advice, or call in an expert. Its very easy to squirt some oil around but removing it later could be a very difficult and expensive task if its wrong. -- Q Chris (talk) 11:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I had exactly the same problem, and I was reluctant to fix it myself for fear of doing some damage. I asked the tuner, and he said to just carefully put a few drops of cooking oil, baby oil, or whatever oil I happened to have on hand, or a shot or two of oil-based cooking spray, on the mechanism - nothing more special or elaborate than that. I thought he'd do it himself since he was there anyway, but he said I didn't need him to do that and I was more than capable. We'd never met each other before, so he apparently didn't think it was the big issue I thought it may have been. I did what he said, and it was fine. I moved house and never saw him again, so I don't know whether the fact that it wasn't a particularly expensive piano made any difference to his approach to what I would have thought were part of a piano tuner's role. But thanks for the reminder; my piano's been squeaking again lately, so I'm off to the kitchen to fix it. -- JackofOz (talk) 12:14, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

you keep your piano in the kitchen?? -- LarryMac | Talk 12:29, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

maybe the cooking oil/spray is in the kitchen -- Julia Rossi (talk) 12:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

So that's why he keeps the piano there! I get it now. --LarryMac | Talk 13:02, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Far be it from me to contradict a piano tuner, but cooking oils can go rancid or turn gummy on year-or-so timescales. I'd favor a mineral oil or machine oil. -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The trouble with mineral or machine oils is that there is likely to be a lot of nice wood nearby - and it's going to soak up oil and will get stained irrevocably. Vegetable oils and baby oil are more natural materials that won't do such terrible things to the wood. I think the tuner guy knew his stuff. Using the correct lubricant for the right situation is a complicated business. SteveBaker (talk) 13:18, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Baby Oil *is* mineral oil. From an manufacturer's page [20]: "Ingredients: Mineral Oil and Fragrance" Unless you're talking about oil made from babies, rather than oil for babies. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 17:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I used to work for a pipe organ company and one of the main lubricants we used for mechanisms that aren't visible was graphite. It comes in a spray can, a stick (similar dimensions to oil pastels), a powder, and another kind of a stick called a pencil. That stuff is great for when you don't want to swell up the wood with an oil and cause a tight mechanism to become tighter. If it's visible I'd suggest mineral oil out of all of the oils listed, or if it's a pin that's squeeking you can even use some wax. Pull out the pin and cover it with some wax and get some wax in the hole and put it back. We actually used the toilet wax ring seal for these types of things, but mostly for screws. I'd suggest graphite or mineral oil before wax just because that's how we did things. - Lambajan 16:29, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree - dry graphite is a great lubricant for small, non-load-bearing mechanisms where you don't want to risk dust sticking to something goopy. I use graphite for door locks and such like. The reason I didn't suggest it here is because it's black and it smudges over everything so it might make a mess of nearby wood. We could also consider a silicone lubricant. Wax is good - but not if the object in question gets cold...that's probably not a problem for a piano. SteveBaker (talk) 17:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

indeed. good lubes for such applications: graphite as in the powdered stuff for locks- but it makes black marks. talcum powder is ok for emergencies, but it absorbs humidity and loses effectiveness quickly. they sell powdered teflon these days for locks, that would seem to be the best idea. wax,soap,etc. work but you need to take the thing apart to get into the moving parts, which you'd probably like to avoid. Gzuckier (talk) 19:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Animal Costume

Ok, I've got a fancy dress party in 3 days and I need to dress up (or attempt to dress up) as an animal. Problem is that I've got a very limited selection of clothing and stuff at home (nothing vaguely resembles an animal) and I'll be too busy to get to a shop let alone make something until just before the party. I'm also not to keen to be spending a great deal on something that I'm only going to wear for a couple of hours.

Given these ridiculous restrictions, does anyone have any suggestions or know any sites that would be able to show me how to make a costume? It doesn't have to be anything spectacular, just half decent and enough to make people think I've made a slight attempt at it. 121.218.194.188 (talk) 11:45, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You could go as a party animal. Or a lounge lizard.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 11:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

How about getting a red top and sticking big black-circles on it, wearing black leggings (ideally) or trousers and shoes and trying to claim you are a ladybird? Failing that try this page (http://familycrafts.about.com/od/costumeideas/tp/fastcostume.htm) 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ears + makeup = animal. Ears can be made of stiffened fabric or painted cardboard, and attached to a hat or a headband. Face paint is easily attainable. So, for a cat, put cat ears on a headband, paint whiskers on your cheeks, and choose some fairly neutral clothes. For a rabbit, do the ears, plus find something you can glue to your butt for a tail, like the pompom from a winter hat. Humor can make up for costume deficits, too- anything you can think of to add that would be funny will score you party points. -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 16:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There are party outfitters that will rent you costumes. If you're too busy to go to one of those in the the next three days, how come you can afford the time to go to a party? DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:26, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, surely it's not that uncommon for someone to be terribly busy for a number of days in a row? I mean, I've certainly been there. That said, I would imagine that going to a store would take a lot less time than making a decent animal costume yourself. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:32, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Pig-costume in 30 seconds:

1. Cut one 3-inch diameter circle of pink cardboard
2. Cut one 10-inch by 1.5-inch strip of pink cardboard
3. Wrap the strip into a cylinder
4. Glue the circle onto the end of the cylinder. Add nostrils with a black marker.
5. Attach over your nose with a rubber band

Make ears if you want. A girl's hairband can hold them up.

If you friends like puns, wrap yourself in a blanket. Plasticup ^T/C 01:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Dead or alive? Wear something red, wrap yourself in a roll of cling wrap and tuck a bunch of parsley behind your ear and you can be animal protein in a supermarket... tape a label with description, barcode and price made with texta. Julia Rossi (talk) 02:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

You could make a catgirl/boy costume if you lack some materials and anime is your thing.--Lenticel ^(talk) 06:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Aircraft flying sideways?

On a recent transatlantic flight, I looked out of the plane window and was fairly surprised to see another aircraft in the sky below me. I have no idea what altitude we were flying at, I'm afraid, but it was some time after take-off, so it must have been fairly high. I know there are rules governing how much space is allowed between two aircraft in flight, but if I could clearly see the plane below me, would that constitute a near miss?

What was even more surprising was that the plane below me appeared to be flying sideways. That is to say, it was moving in the direction of the starboard wing, rather than (as I had expected) in the direction of the nose. Could this have been an optical illusion, or is it possible that it really was flying in that direction? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 12:31, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

See Flight level and Reduced Vertical Separation Minima for information on vertical separation. Other planes can seem quite close while still obeying the vertical separation rules—I've been taken by surprise at times, too. I would guess that the plane appearing to fly sideways was mostly an optical illusion, probably due to the motion of your own plane (you "feel like" you're at rest, and attribute all of the relative motion to the other plane). -- Coneslayer (talk) 12:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Flying Sideways? Probably there was a big difference in wind speed and direction at the two altitudes. This is not at all uncommon. Since aircraft fly relative to the air mass they are in - it's perfectly possible that they seem to be moving somewhat sideways compared to the ground - but compared to the air they are flying within - they are going forwards. It's also possibly for an aircraft to sideslip by banking the wings in one direction and using the rudder to turn the aircraft in the opposite direction...although it's unlikely that a commercial airliner would be doing that in mid-atlantic - so I'm sticking with the "cross-wind" theory.

Near Collision? The rules covering the altitudes that aircraft fly at to avoid collisions are complicated: Flight level covers it moderately well. Basically, aircraft should be separated (vertically) by either 1,000 or 2,000 feet. But transatlantic-capable aircraft are HUGE and when something that's around 200 feet across is only 1,000 feet away, it's going to seem awfully close. If it really was a "near miss" then the pilots involved would have reported it to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. You can check here to see if your flight reported a near-miss situation. SteveBaker (talk) 13:07, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The pilot was probably using his rudder to perform a forward slip. It makes it look like they are flying sideways. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 17:34, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

oops sorry someone had already mentioned that--Dlo2012 (talk) 17:36, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's possible - but why do that in the middle of the Atlantic ocean? Sideslip manouvers are pretty much only used (by big airliners) when approaching a runway for a landing with a cross-wind. Mid-atlantic, the plane is on autopilot. SteveBaker (talk) 17:41, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's probably much simpler than that. If the other plane was flying at a very slightly different angle to you, relative motion would make it seem to be flying sideways. E.g. you are flying at 600mph and the other plane is at the same speed but on a three degree different course from you (a barely noticeable difference in direction) it would seem to have a motion relative to you of 30mph directly sideways - i.e. pretty fast. That's without any sideslip or use of rudder. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Google Earth and Wikipedia

How does Google Earth collect data for its Wikipedia layer? And how often it is updated? Thank you. Eklipse (talk) 13:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Some Wikipedia pages have a 'template' at the top that records the location of the place or event that's being described - you can see it pop up at the top-right of the page. Look (for example) at the shopping complex The Domain (Austin, Texas) - at the top-right of the page you'll see "Coordinates:" then some kind of a blue splodge icon then a pair of numbers. Those are the latitude and longitude of the place being talked about (in degrees). If you edit that page and scroll down to the bottom - you'll see:

{{coord|30.3978|-97.7307|display=title|type:landmark_region:US}}

Which is what makes that text appear up there. Google's search engine looks through pretty much every page on the Internet via a process called "spidering" and indexes what it finds. I guess that one of their people thought it would be a pretty neat hack to find those templates and incorporate them into Google maps. The frequency at which Google spider a page depends on a lot of complex math - relating to how often they've seen the page change in the past, how important the page is and how often the search terms people enter cause it to pop up in searches. So the frequency could vary between many times per day for news sources to once a month or less for rarely visited and rarely updated parts of the net.

There are several other templates that bring up coordinates like this - the one that is used for all towns and cities (for example) contains that same feature. It's very cool that Google do this - and I think Wikipedians should make an effort to add these tags whenever they sensibly can.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:52, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Google's FAQ on the issue is here, and supports Steve's analysis. There are other geo templates than coord, but coord is preferred and there are actions ongoing to deprecate other methods, so as to reduce the confusion that abounds in the area of geo-tagging. The FAQ says that google updates from Wikipedia in respect of coords every 1 to 3 months. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes I've thought about the coord template, however Google displays just a little fraction of these articles. Eklipse (talk) 20:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It appears to be more or less the same section of the article header that you get when you hover over a link if you have Wikipedia:Tools/Navigation_popups turned on in your Wikipedia user preferences. It's the first paragraph - unless it's very short or something. SteveBaker (talk) 21:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

When browsing a Google-map of America, the Wikipedia links cover 100% of the area until almost the smallest resolution. It is quite incredible. Plasticup ^T/C 01:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

"Fed pumps $70B into nation's financial system"

[21] I have little background in economics so what is happening is unclear. Can anyone recommend background reading? Thanks.

Lotsofissues 16:58, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

See debasement. Saintrain (talk) 17:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

What? It's got nothing to do with debasement. --Tango (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe the Fed is pumping out de basement. --- OtherDave (talk) 18:45, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

heh heh. Is that where they're printing it? Saintrain (talk) 00:03, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

In short, banks are scared so are keeping hold of all their cash rather than lending it to each other as they usually do. This means banks that need cash can't get it so can't stay in business. In order to prevent banks having to take drastic action (up to and including bankruptcy), the central bank is lending them money. --Tango (talk) 17:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

nice description of the international credit crunch, amidst a lot of editorialization: http://www.thislife.org/extras/radio/355_transcript.pdf Gzuckier (talk) 18:38, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

There's lots of intelligent articles on this at www.economist.com in particular their finance section (http://www.economist.com/finance/). Though they are written in a technical language it's not hard to understand what's going on. I would recommending reading around on wikipedia, articles such as Federal Reserve, Subprime mortgage crisis (and the many articles linked to from there) ny156uk (talk) 19:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers guys but I should have narrowed down what I meant. I don't understand what "pumping money" means? How does that work? Lotsofissues 23:05, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The "injection" that your article writes about is not the most interesting thing happening right now, and it is described here. What happens is the Fed buys a bunch of Government bonds on the open market, which increases the amount of cash in the economy (people who owned bonds now own cash), which increases general liquidity. With more cash around it is easier for everyone (including banks) to secure the loans they need to make it through this rough patch. The bigger (and more interesting problem) is more-or-less a bank run, except that instead of individuals withdrawing their money it is other banks withdrawing their money. Well, technically they are refusing to roll-over debt, but the motivation and effects are identical. What the Federal Reserve is doing is (and your Yahoo! article totally missed this) is offering a loan to the American International Group, a gigantic corporation which is about to fail. Even if the loan isn't repaid in full, it may keep the company afloat long enough that parts of the group can be sold off, making the collapse less devastating. This is interesting because it is exactly what the Fed refused to do with Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers. Plasticup ^T/C 01:22, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Where does the Fed get the money to buy so much? Didn't the fed assist in making the Bear Stearns buy happen? Lotsofissues 01:45, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out Federal Reserve System#Budget. --Tango (talk) 13:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Help me identify my vacation photos

I photographed these two cute cars in England and haven't managed to identify them. Can anyone help?

• 
• 

There are more pictures at the Humanities, Language and Science desks. Thanks, BenRG (talk) 17:42, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The second one looks like it's an electric buggy as used by the elderly and disabled with a custom body on it. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's an enclosed mobility scooter called an EVS Rainrider [22]. Mikenorton (talk) 21:54, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about the second one, but the first one is a Caterham 7. I wouldn't know this otherwise, but a friend of mine recently realized what was apparently a bit of a lifelong dream and bought one. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:27, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I've added the Caterham 7 image to the article on the subject. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 22:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It was apparently one of the vehicles sold in kit form: it has a 'Q' registration. --ColinFine (talk) 22:19, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks everyone. I may get me one of those Rainriders. I already have a recumbent bicycle and that would be the next step up in awesomeness. -- BenRG (talk) 23:59, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I do believe the second is a Peel P50 Avnas Ishtaroth _{drop me a line} 01:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

The Peel is a three wheeled car. There are clearly three wheels visible in the second image, one at each corner. We can infer the fourth. So, err, no. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:10, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Free hugs!

In anime conventions, one really can't move for adolescent women with signs advertising "Free hugs!" Are they being serious about offering free hugs, or is it just for show? I've never dared to try it out, as I have not seen anyone else do it either. JIP | Talk 19:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

They're probably serious, it's a popular thing. See Free Hugs Campaign — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 19:22, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Benjamin Josiah Huggs was imprisoned in Okinotorishima for producing cheap cartoons at appallingly low frame rates and making the eyes way too big. "Free Huggs!" (I think you misread it). Enjoins everyone to sign a petition...

OK, look never mind - yes, they hug you if you ask. SteveBaker (talk) 20:57, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since we had a good Southpark reference. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 10:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

GIRLS give regular free hugs at Trafalgar Square on any given day,no catches,nothing asked for in return. Signed, Fluter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.86.15.15 (talk) 14:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Joanne Creighton

Who is or are the siblings of Joanne Creighton, President of Mount Holyoke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.243.208.63 (talk) 20:15, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

fauxhawk?

I need to know, is a fauxhawk appropriate for a workplace? I work at an office, and i have a fauxhawk. It isn't one of those really big fauxhawks that many people have that reach a foot. The spike in the middle only reaches up about an inch. Do you think it is ok for a workplace?--72.146.115.196 (talk) 22:04, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Depends on the ethos of the place and how the hairstyle looks on you. I don't think there's a general rule of thumb for this sort of thing. If you're not customer facing, it might be less of an issue. See also Fauxhawk if, like me, you had not a clue what the question was about. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:12, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

The only person that can possibly answer that question is your boss. --Tango (talk) 22:13, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Well what i am asking is if you met an employee with a fauxhawk, what would you think of them. My fauxhawk kinda looks like David Beckham's fauxhawk, just shorter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.146.115.196 (talk) 22:47, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

What industry are you in and what do you do and where are you located? All of these factors come into play. --Nricardo (talk) 00:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - if you were a computer game artist (such as I work with quite often) - we'd mock you horribly but it would in no way inhibit your career. If on the other hand you intended to become a bank manager...no way. Somewhere between those two extremes is your job - but unless you tell us what that is - we can't really offer advice. SteveBaker (talk) 01:41, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

What i'm asking is if it is a little bit smaller than the one in this picture.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp0.blogger.com/_puFfKD8sh_A/R-xXlnIEfhI/AAAAAAAAAdI/uKikEDtZplM/s400/photo-9.jpg&imgrefurl=http://libbylogic.blogspot.com/2008/03/fight-faux-hawk.html&h=300&w=400&sz=17&hl=en&start=78&usg=__60Lye5I8ZLIBXb1FeUSyQy0H5_w=&tbnid=whTzh8o2Vn2s2M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsmall%2Bfaux%2Bhawk%26start%3D63%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

is it ok? I'm a door to door salesman by the way —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlo2012 (talk • contribs) 16:00, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

You'll sell more stuff if you have as unremarkable a hairstyle as possible. A pity, perhaps... Itsmejudith (talk) 16:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, my customers don't seem to mind. I'm selling just as much as i used to before changing my hair, and I have actually gotten some compliments on my hair. --Dlo2012 (talk) 23:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

What kind of tree is this?

This is the second time I'm come to Wikipedia asking about plants...

So we have an average, everyday tree in our front yard with berries which we can't identify. My mom seems worried that if we pick some of the berries from it and feed them to our goats, they might get sick. I doubt it (partially because goats are smart and would probably know if it was something bad, and partially because I don't know of anything that they won't eat), but I suppose it can't hurt to make sure... Anyone have any idea what it is? I'm sure that some rule stickler out there will mention that Wikipedia can't give advice when it comes to medical (or veterinary, in this case) stuff, but I'd like it noted that I'm not actually asking whether or not it's safe; I'm asking what it is. :P

(We are in Montana, if that helps... The berries are redish orange on the outside and bright orange on the inside. Watery but firm in the middle. And they smell vaguely of apples...)

Thanks in advance. You guys are always really helpful.

(PS: Sorry for the crappy image quality... My camera phone sucks.) --69.146.230.243 (talk) 22:44, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Could be an Acacia. DuncanHill (talk) 22:48, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks like a Rowan to me. If so, from the article, "Rowan berries contain sorbic acid, an acid that takes its name from the Latin name of the genus Sorbus. Raw berries also contain parasorbic acid (about 0.4%-0.7% in the European rowan[3]), which causes indigestion and can lead to kidney damage, but heat treatment (cooking, heat-drying etc.) and, to a lesser extent, freezing, neutralises it, by changing it to the benign sorbic acid." Whether that affects goats or not, I know not. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:49, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Now I look at that, yes rowan looks much more likely. DuncanHill (talk) 22:51, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ah, many thanks... This is very helpful. --69.146.230.243 (talk) 23:01, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

You could make Rowan Jelly to eat with your goats. [23]. DuncanHill (talk) 23:03, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

(ec): The stuff (de: Vogelbeere) is used for jams in Bavaria / Austria / Czech Republic. So it would seem to be edible after the heat treatment mentioned by Tagishsimon. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 23:06, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Ha ha... Oh, dear. Well considering that these goats are not meant to be eaten, I'm not sure that we'll go there, but thanks. :P And that's actually rather interesting... I think we shall try some of this jam later on. --69.146.230.243 (talk) 23:11, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not a jam like one would have on a scone, but is very nice with roast & grilled meats, cold meats, etc. DuncanHill (talk) 23:16, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I don't know. Rowan jam on a scone would go beautifully with my world-renowned Creamed Cat and Spleen Surprise.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 22:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

September 17

mean

What split the purse means ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.121.188.201 (talk) 01:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

"the purse" generally refers to a prize in the form of money, given to the winner of a contest. Thus to split the purse is to divide the prize money between two or more competitors. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:50, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Shoulder patch on soldier

What is the shoulder patch on this person? It is most likely army as the marines do not wear shoulder patches. --Blue387 (talk) 02:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

It says the image source is "Virtual CD 002:US Marines", if that helps. If you click "View All Images" you can see more from the set. What I don't understand is the pricing for these photos... — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:30, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

(Especially considering how many free high-rez images of US Marines lying down with various weapons can be picked up for $0 on WikiCommons!). SteveBaker (talk) 05:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks army to me, and it should be a unit patch of some description -- but I can't tell more than that from that photo. I found a page listing a lot of different links to unit patches here [24], but I don't know how current or complete it is. I looked through the special forces/airborne/rangers types, but had no luck. It's important to remember when you're looking for this patch that it's the shape that you'll recognize more than the colors; the bright colors are subdued for field applications. Good luck... Deltopia (talk) 16:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Thor

What country does thor come from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.111.51.41 (talk) 06:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out the article Thor. He's a figure in Norse mythology (and its modern equivalent, Ásatrú), which originates in the Scandinavian countries. --Masamage ♫ 06:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Asgard. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Why were my edits rejected?

moved to Talk:Indian Armed Forces DJ Clayworth (talk) 16:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Occupational Psychology

I wanted to know the scope of occupational psychology/IndustrialPsychology in India as I am trying to do a research on it. Can you help me find sufficient data in relation to this?

Chinese Clubs/Orginisations

What are Chinese clubs/orginisations like in China? Are they exactly like the ones in Australia? 122.111.51.41 (talk) 08:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Chinese clubs and societies tend to be more active than in Australia and have a higher membership activity rate (no sources, though). As a member of a club in China, it would be considered your duty to be actively involved and committee membership has more prestige - more like, say, the CWA or RSL than a university club that's always struggling to find people willing to take on the responsibility. Members would also be expected to contribute their time for general activities, and would probably do so as a duty. Duties are taken more seriously in China. Membership also gives people a connection to each other. This means that members will feel more obliged to help out other members in need. This is also the case in Australia, but the obligation is stronger. Because there are more people around, recruiting is often easier. The organisation's hierarchical structure is likely to be the same as Australian organisations - general membership and a committee led by a president. Steewi (talk) 04:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Ebay says the term "Shabby Chic" is owned and cannot be used

To whom it may concern.

Please help me here as my head is spinning with frustration.

I have always known the term "Shabby Chic" to mean a style of furnishing i.e. painted, distressed type of finish to give an item an appearance of elegance or an aged look.

The problem which is frustrating me, is that I tried to list an item on Ebay with Shabby Chic within the title.

Ebay removed the item and wrote;

---

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding your listing. My name is Ethan and I am glad to help.

We understand that you may not be aware that Shabby Chic is a registered company which produces their own line of products and has a page about their trademark:

http://www.shabbychic.com/corporate/sc_trademarkinfo.html

When members search using the words "Shabby Chic", they will be looking for the branded Shabby Chic items but they will find all the listings that contain the words "shabby" and "chic" regardless of where the words are located in the title. Looking through a large number of unwanted listings is very frustrating for the members and creates a poor shopping experience.

The good news is that you can use Shabby Chic once in your item description to compare the style of the product. However you may not use the words shabby and chic in the title of the item unless it is actually branded Shabby Chic.

I appreciate you bringing this situation to our attention, and thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Ethan B. Trust & Safety Team

---

Can anyone help me understand how a term can be bought thus not able to be used with infinging on copyright laws.

I may not be able to repond to this post as I only found this opprtunity to ask a question here by searching on google etc.

Therefore, please copy any reply to me directly at roger.edwards (e-mail removed for safety)

Kindest Regards, Roger. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.167.229.124 (talk) 10:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Roger, I removed you e-mail because it is the policy here on the Reference Desk not to display such addresses to avoid misuse and spam. "Shabby Chic" is different from "shabby chic" and I can't see how they can constrain you from using the words in lower case.

There's certainly no copyright law involved here. The legal issue is that Shabby Chic is a trademark of the company. I do not know to what extent this trademark would prevent you selling things advertised as 'shabby chic'. However, the legal situation is a non-issue since eBay is running its own website and is free to do so as it wishes. Even if your lawyer advises you that you can use the term without violating the trademark, you would still need eBay's consent to do so on their website. Algebraist 11:13, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - I agree. There is nothing illegal in using those words in situations where you aren't mis-representing yourself as a company called "Shabby Chic" - companies can't take words out of the English language and own them. You could even start (say) an electronics company called "Shabby Chic" because trademark law only prevents people using the name in ways that would confuse a potential customer. You can also legally say "This dresser is so shabby, it's almost chic!" - because you aren't using the terms as the name of a company.

However, eBay have their own internal rules about what listings they allow on their site. Their rules are more stringent than the law requires. As they carefully explained to you - they want to allow people to search for "Shabby Chic" and get listings that ONLY relate to products from that company - and NOT to a bunch of random items that merely happen to be shabby and chic. So (within limits) they don't allow trademarked names to appear in the title of an auction item - even when it would be perfectly lawful to do so.

That's their call. When you make a website, you get to set the rules. It's the same here at Wikipedia - you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk...it's not illegal to do so - but it is in violation of our internal rules. So - you have no reason to complain - they are at liberty to toss out your auction item for any reason whatever and there really isn't anything you can do about it...except maybe set up your own auction site!

SteveBaker (talk) 12:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

There's a nice irony here Steve. You quite rightly point out that "you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk", but that also applies to legal questions, of which this original question is a prime example. If one or two of our more pedantic colleagues had passed by recently I doubt the discussion would have got this far ;-)) Richard Avery (talk) 14:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Pedantic? Can do! I'd like to just point out that medical or legal questions are not a problem. That's not the same thing as medical or legal advice. For example, in this instance the original poster wasn't asking for legal advice, he was merely asking how this works. Not the same thing. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The whole point about this question is that this ISN'T a legal matter - it's a matter of eBay policy and nothing more. SteveBaker (talk) 15:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

And one reason that it's an issue to eBay is that the company holding the Shabby Chic trademark must defend it. Trademark law in the U.S. is different from copyright law; you can lose trademark protection ("cellophane" was once a trademarked term, for example). On the other hand, trademark protection is limited -- you might be able to get away with a restaurant chain called Shabby Chic; you most likely could not get away with a line of clothing.

eBay is shifting its emphasis away from auctions and becoming more of a straightforward online retail site; no doubt it hopes to maintain good relationships with large vendors. --- OtherDave (talk) 16:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Health

Any information on the health service in Ireland? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.1.82.216 (talk) 12:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

See Healthcare in the Republic of Ireland. Algebraist 12:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Technically - I presume you're talking about the Republic of Ireland - Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and has the same health care service as the rest of the UK. We have an article Department of Health and Children (Ireland) - but it only tells you about the structure of the government department - not about what the current policy is. I guess the first place to look is at the web site of The Department of Health and Children. SteveBaker (talk) 12:36, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Another useful website is The Health Service Executive. Fribbler (talk) 14:35, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you know

... that early claims by European mountaineers to have set world altitude records in the Himalayas have been disproven by the discovery of Inca artefacts on the summit of Llullaillaco

this is taken from the front page, now maybe I am missing something but Llullaillaco is in South America, while the Himalayas are in Asia, this caused a bit of confusion for me as I wondered hoe the Incas got to Asia. Please explain. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 13:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

European moutaineers reached a certain point on a certain peak in the Himalayas. Believing this to be the highest anyone had ever climbed on any mountain on Earth, they claimed the world altitude record. Later, some Inca artifacts were discovered on the summit of Llullaillaco, which is higher than the point in the Himalayas previously referred to. Therefore the European mountaineers' claim to the world altitude record has been disproven. That's how I read it. -- JackofOz (talk) 14:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought Everest, in the Himalayas, was the biggest mountain (with some people saying that K2 is bigger, but anyway, it's in the Himalayas)?--ChokinBako (talk) 14:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - but the period of history we're talking about was before Everest had been climbed. K2 has periodically been claimed to be taller than Everest - but I believe that the NASA shuttle radar altimetery survey disproved that theory once and for all. SteveBaker (talk) 14:12, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

K2 is often described as being taller than Everest because it starts lower down, the peak is most definitely at a lower altitude, though. --Tango (talk) 16:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This may be part of where the questioner's confusion came from. Think Himalayas, think Everest, and there's nothing higher than Everest. But the statement never mentioned Everest, just the Himalayas. And there are places in the Andes that are higher than places in the Himalayas. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

.PDF vs. .JPG

My new printer allows me to scan images and save them to either .pdf or .jpg format. I want to scan my old snapshots (mostly 4" x 6") and correspondence; most likely they will never be altered after I do so. Is there a quality difference between the formats? If I standardize on one format will I regret it later (because I will have to rescan them again in the other format)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.120.95.34 (talk) 15:01, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Normally you would use jpg for the photos and pdf for the documents. I have no idea how it's developed in this way, but that's what most people do and I'm happy to follow the herd :-) --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:10, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Neither format is particularly attractive - but PDF is more useful for multi-page documents. JPG is the better of the two for photos. If it'll do PNG - use that. SteveBaker (talk) 15:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

PDF is a container format that can hold images in a lot of different formats. If the "PDF" option just puts the JPEG file inside a PDF, which is likely, then there won't be any quality difference. But the only way to be sure is to save the same scan in both formats and look at them carefully. Comparing the file sizes might also give a hint. -- BenRG (talk) 16:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

As long as you don't use lossy compression on the image files, you should be able to easily change from one format to the other using readily available software. (You can convert them even if you used lossy compression. However, you'll lose image quality.) PDF (.pdf - "Portable Document Format") files aren't intended for editing once created, so you may have difficulty extracting the images later. The PDF format is a good choice for "documents", but is not intended to be an image format, but rather intended to be the equivalent to an electronic "printout". On the up side, it does allow you to store multipage items in a single file, which most "image" formats won't do easily. JPEG (.jpg) is a good picture format (the name stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group"), especially for photographs of realistic scenes, however it can employ either lossy or lossless compression, and you may not be able to change the settings. PNG (.png) is a format where you know you'll get lossless compression. It does about as well as JPEG for photographs, and it's much better for line drawings and cartoon-like figures (see article for details). Another option is a TIFF (.tif) file. It's the "classic" image archive format, however like JPEG it has both lossy and lossless modes. I'll concur with the others - PDF will probably be best for the (multipage) correspondence, and for the snapshots I'd recommend PNG, or JPEG with lossless compression, if you can do that. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 16:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Although the JPEG standard defined a lossless mode, hardly any software supports reading it and as a result it's essentially never found in the wild. If your software offers to save as JPEG you can be sure it's lossy. JPEG does do a very bad job on black-and-white images. PNG doesn't compress photographs nearly as well as JPEG in my experience (even at high JPEG quality settings). TIFF, like PDF, is a container format which can hold practically anything; if you've got a TIFF there's no telling how it's been compressed (although most commonly it's uncompressed or compressed with LZW, which is lossless). For black-and-white (not grayscale) images JBIG2 will compress much better than PNG, and can be contained in PDF or TIFF (though not all software will support reading it). PNG will do in a pinch for black-and-white images. All this is probably academic, though, unless you can switch to different scanning software. -- BenRG (talk) 17:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Snapshots- .jpg . Correspondence- .pdf . Boomshanka (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 01:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC).

true to life pictures

what camera's out there take the best real life photo's (better focus, light, exposure..etc),im getting a new one soon and i currently have a digital kodak easy share one but it's not good for the type of pictures i want to take —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.50.53 (talk) 16:02, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The website http://www.dpreview.com/ is extremely good for indepth reviews of digital SLR cameras. If what you want is a point & shoot they do do reviews of those too. As for which one - well 'real life' is subjective. If you want something that photographs exactly what you see infront of you then it seems to be common to suggest that 50mm is around about what the 'eye' sees (i.e. 28mm is wider than our own vision, 100mm is more zoomed than our own vision). There is no simple answer unfortunately - suffice to say that the vast majority of cameras are capable of taking good photographs, but some make it easier than others - some offer more control than others. Personally I have a Pentax K100d (recently replaced with the K200d) and my parent's have a Fujifilm F110 (or F100 I forget) both of these are - in my opinion - excellent cameras for their price range. ny156uk (talk) 17:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

According to what I have learned, it is impossible to make a photograph of something exactly as we see it. The reason is that the brain is constantly adjusting the visual information it receives from the eye and correcting the balance between different lighting. Cameras aren't smart enough to do that, they capture the image exactly as it is - not exactly as it should be. The resulting photograph lacks the brightness differences, because it's a static object viewed under uniform light, and thus the brain can't automatically adjust it as it does the real world. JIP | Talk 17:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

For the reasons JIP notes, the most important thing for making a "true to life" photo is the skill of the photographer, not the quality of the camera. A shoddy camera can prevent you from making good photos, and an expensive one will let you work under more difficult conditions, but it's the photographer that's most important. --Carnildo (talk) 21:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Though I will point out that a good camera can make a lot of difference over a crappy camera even with a mediocre photographer. I have a pretty crappy camera and no matter what I do with it, the quality is always pretty poor in terms of lighting, colors, etc. (Which is fine. I got it primarily to take pictures of documents, and it does that well. Everything else, it does pretty lousy.) I've seen other cameras though (sorry, don't know brand names, models) that no matter what the photographer aimed at the colors, lighting, etc. were all wonderfully vivid and balanced, effects that you could never get out of my camera (even if you did have very fancy external lighting apparatus, etc.). I suspect that the tradeoff between quality and price plateaus fairly early on, but there is certainly a tradeoff. I've definitely had cameras that took way better pictures than others, no matter what your skill level is. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree, at least partially. I recently got a "Powershot A720IS". It is by far the "smartest" camera I've ever owned. It somehow intelligently determines the focus point and exposure far better than any other automatic camera I've ever used. However, I still take a lot of photos that "don't come out" in situations where a skilled photographer with a manual camera could have produced great photographs. Photography is an art form and handing over part of the artistic process to computer software is never going to be 100%.

All that said, If you're getting a new camera I strongly recommend you get a camera with "Optical Image Stabilization"(not digital stabilization. That's better than nothing, but not as good.). I also recommend "facial recognition" if you take a lot of snap-shots of people. (That causes the camera to focus on the nearest human face, even if they're not in the center of the frame.) APL (talk) 01:26, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Swidnik Poland

There is a square in Swidnik, Poland on the highsteet, just outside the Solidarity ofices. I wish to know more about this, as my friend says it translates roughly and is named after comedy characters, like Tom and Jerry. Who is it acctually named after? What is it called and any other relatvant info thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:16, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Polish Wikipedia states that it is officially named after the Constitution of May 3, 1791, but it is named "plac Bolka i Lolka" after two comedy characters. (I live in Poland, but I haven't heard about Świdnik before.) MTM (talk) 18:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Highlander II The quickening

Does any one know where I can watch this movie online? I have tried www.watch-movies.net, but they say there are no videos available. It MUST be online some where though Plaese help me I will let you cut off my head if you do help.(after Ive watched it) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:25, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This question might be better suited to the Entertainment reference desk, but I'll offer one answer anyway: Why not just buy the DVD? This is one of those movies that can usually be found in the $1.99 bin so it isn't worth much effort to download it.

Atlant (talk) 18:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't seen it online anywhere. I'll second Atlant's notion that it's not particularly worthwhile. Watch it, but don't have your expectations high. Further off topic, I somehow managed to end up with 2 copies of it, and I haven't been able to give the other one away. Steewi (talk) 04:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Where did the term change management originate?

Can you please tell me where the term 'change management' originated from and provide me a reference for this, along with the exact definition that was used at the time? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.107.60 (talk) 16:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

you fire one bloke 'cause hes doing a shitty job and hire some one else to replace him, thats a change management. or. you cutyou finger nails from really long to short, but plan it first on a piece of paper, thats change management. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:40, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

We do have an article on Change management (engineering), but unfortunately it's weak in terms of history. You may find that its references have helpful information. You may also be interested in the related topic of Configuration management. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Interesting question. I've just played with Google Book Search, doing searches by decade for "change management". According to the sample of books google has scanned, the term originated after 1950 - it appears to be absent in books from 1940-50 (in the sense in which we're using it), present in all decades after. You can play the game too, with this sort of query. The first two books google threw up in the query I've linked to are from a Sociological Abstracts book, and an Instrument Society of America proceedings, so I'd hazard a guess that the phrase emerged from academia. So now I'm guessing that much the same advanced search game could be played from google scholar or another academic paper search engine to find the first instance of use. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Factual error in the caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture

The caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture says the street name is Main Street. The street is named State Street. 165.138.201.1 (talk) 19:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I have changed it, though you could have even done this yourself! That's the idea behind Wikipedia. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:15, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Royal Lines

Who would be the most rightful heir to be King or Queen of Poland especially, but also of most other European countries, notably eastern europe, do we have such a list? I have seen a list of most likely people to be the rightful heir to the Romanov throne so that one is done, any others? Poland Particually. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.18.32.117 (talk) 21:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The Polish monarchy was, unusually, elected, so I don't think there's any way to know who would be King now if the monarchy still existed. --Tango (talk) 22:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Keeping surgically removed objects

Suppose if I went to a North American hospital to get kidney stones or a bullet removed; do I get to keep the kidney stones or bullet after the surgery? If not, does the hospital just depose of it? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 22:11, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

If you ask the surgeon he/she can save if for you. The norm is to dispose of it, but as you will likely be paying many thousands of dollars for the surgery they will probably honour your request. Plasticup ^T/C 03:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Kidney stones they'll sometimes keep (or at least break up, examine, culture, etc) for diagnostic reasons. Same goes for a tumor, of course. A bullet is less of a diagnostic challenge. --Scray (talk) 04:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

A bullet? I think the police might be interested in that. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

And depending on what's known about how you got shot, bullets may be confiscated as evidence. (Of course this is neither legal nor medical advice, but I do watch a lot of Law & Order...) --Anonymous, 04:06 UTC, September 18, 2008.

Some bullets are removed many years after the injury. --Scray (talk) 04:14, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

September 18

Dating and sex

How long should you date someone before sleeping with them? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 00:55, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

That's up to you and your boy/girlfriend/partner/whatever. Dismas|^(talk) 00:57, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

However long it takes you to feel comfortable. -mattbuck (Talk) 01:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends on your own situation, feelings, beliefs, etc. There's no "right" answer to this. There are plenty of "wrong" answers. ;-) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:41, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I know oodles of people who waited over a year, but there is no hard-and-fast rule. I also know plenty of people who had sex first and relationships later, and are very happy with the result. It is 100% up to you and your significant other. Plasticup ^T/C 03:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Or your religion. Your parents might also have something to say about it, if you're not an adult, at least. --Anonymous, 04:10 UTC, September 18, 2008.

Injured Rat

Hey

I believe my pet rat has been bitten by my large dog. Although he did not peirce her flesh she was very still and not moving after the attack. I began to notice her eye was unusually red and it began to bleed. Unresponsive to food, i lay her in her cage and kept her warm, the next morning she was walking around, cleaning herself and strecthing in her cage, although still moving veryy slowly and prefering to be still. Is it possible she has inturnal bleeding and is there anything else i should be doing ?

Thanks QueeniePen (talk) 03:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

As I see it, you have two options. Either take her to a vet or just hope for the best. If she is walking around a little more and generally showing signs of improvement, things might just be okay. Why do you suspect that she was bitten by the dog? Could her lethargy be caused by some unrelated incident? Plasticup ^T/C 03:28, 18 September 2008 (UTC)