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January 26

Specific question help.

Before people start shouting "NO HOMEWORK" at me, I'm aware it's against the rules - but I figure I've nothing to lose by trying :)

The lab this week was reducing benzil to form a diastereoisomeric diol, then determining which form you got (RR, RS, SS.) I've solved all the subsequent problems to do with the formation of a cyclic ketal, and I'm certain that the product I got was meso-, but I can't figure out why it was. I'm guessing there has to be some sort of steric factor, but that alone isn't going to cut it in a write-up, and playing around with my models, I can't see why only the meso-form is produced from the reduction. Any hints from the amazing Wiki-mind? 81.132.176.76 01:18, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Usually there's no problem with homework, it's just in the way you phrase your question. For example: What are the side effects of a pshydoplastic endomiam at room temperature and what will be the moral setbacks to newborn babies? is a badly asked question because it looks like it was taken right out of a textbook. You've obviously TRIED the homework and you're stuck at a relatively minor point, so you're merely asking for help, rather than asking for it to be done. Unfortunately, I have no clue, so wait for someone else : ).   freshgavin TALK    04:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, I figured it out. It's just general stereoselection for reduction of ketones, attacking from the less-hindered side. Not sure why I didnt think of it in the first place, to be honest :)

Yep, you've got it. The incoming "hydride" (δ−ve hydrogen) has a choice between coming in past a δ−ve oxygen or coming in from the other side unhindered: it tends to come in from the other side. Physchim62 (talk) 13:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

head-to head clinical trials

What is a "head to head" clinical trial?

Matching two similar treatments to see which is better. For example, recruiting the next 20 patients with ear infections for a trial. Randomize 10 to receive 10 days of stompicillin, and give the other 10 patients 10 days of homeopathic gopher pellets. Measure all the relevant clinical parameters you can think of, such as fluid remaining in the ear at 10 and 20 days, number of days until pain gone, number of days until fever gone, number of days of school or work missed, and so forth. If this was your idea, you write it up for a medical journal. If this was sponsored by the makers of stompacillin they either publicize the results to every doctor in the US or bury the results (depending on the results of course). alteripse 02:36, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't seem like a very good testing method. First, 10 patients is so small of a sample that wild variations would be expected in results of repeated trials. But even with a reasonably large sample, all you prove is whether stompicillin is better or worse than gopher pellets. If gopher pellets are of no use whatsoever, or even harmful, then being better than gopher pellets isn't showing much. On the other hand, regulatory agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration regularly approve meds which are less effective and have more side effects than existing treatments for the same condition. Perhaps such a test would discourage these approvals. StuRat 04:41, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The necessary size of the trial depends on the magnitude of the difference you want to detect. A head to head trial simply compares two treatments against each other. It is not intended to prove effectiveness of either against no treatment. alteripse 04:54, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Further to Alteripse's point, interpreting the validity and importance of scientific studies is a very complex issue. That's why media reports based on a science journalist flipping through Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine, reading the abstract of some paper or other, and immediately jumping to conclusions, drive scientists batty. --Robert Merkel 08:10, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

And in either event, the sales of gopher pellets will continue... - Nunh-huh 04:25, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Indisputably. alteripse 04:55, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Cricket lifespan

I was just curious how long the average species of cricket lives. Anybody?

Google it   freshgavin TALK    04:13, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Satellite cover

How many satellites do you need to be able to see the whole surface of a planet from at least one of them at any moment? If the size of the planet matters, it's about half earth radius. My first guess was three (in GSO) but I don't think you'd be able to see the poles (esp. if there are valleys, etc. --대조 | Talk 06:10, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

It depends if you're talking 'metaphorically' or if you want a solution for the real world. If you think about it logically, you could see the entire world with only 2 sattelites at a fair distance, although as you said the poles (or the equator, if they were positioned at the poles) wouldn't make out very well. I don't think you'd lose much visibility because of mountains, valleys, but you'd certainly have to deal with quite a bit of distortion if you were hoping for 100% accurate pictures, especially around the edges of vision. With three forming a regular triangle (one at a pole and the other two over the opposite hemisphere) there would be weak visibility at two points on the equator, one on each side. Thus a forth (now two are over each hemisphere) would eliminate those and give you full cover.

It really depends on the technology you're using, how much detail you're hoping to get (probably the most important factor, it could take thousands of sattelites to take high-detail surface imaging of the entire world simultaneously), and what kind of results you're hoping to get. If those factors aren't really important, than I'd say four would work.   freshgavin TALK    06:43, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

In reference to the theoretical rather than the real-world version of the problem, four is the minimum number of points you need to be able to view the whole world from them. Two points opposite each other leave a ring uncovered (since they can't be at infinite distance), and three points in a triangle leave two poles uncovered. But the question asked about satellites, not points in space. A satellite's orbit has to lie in a plane that passes through the center of the Earth, so it's not possible to have 4 satellites maintain a tetrahedral configuration.

There is an easy solution using 6 satellites: just put 3 each in two perpendicular orbits, e.g. an equatorial orbit and a polar orbit, spacing them equally around each orbit. By arranging things more trickily, you can do it with 5. But when this question was asked in the newsgroup rec.puzzles in 1994, Stein Kulseth topped that with this clever solution using 4 satellites in orbits that are nearly, but not quite, circular, and each in a slightly different orbital plane.

For real-world practicality, the 6-satellite solution would probably be best. --Anonymous, 08:10 UTC, January 26, 2006.

The other point to keep in mind is that real spy satellites are, apparently, in polar orbits at relatively low altitudes. --Robert Merkel 08:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yea, geosynchronous orbits are at a height of 22,600 miles, at which distance it's difficult to make out much detail. Lower orbits are better, but reduce the field of view, requiring more satellites to cover everything. Also, a view from nearly straight above is desired, as views at sharp angles increase atmospheric interference and increase the number of details hidden behind vertical buildings and walls. So, a whole slew of spy satellites is far better. Also note that some areas demand our attention far more than others, so more satellites in those areas would make sense. We don't need many spy satellites over Easter Island, unless we think some evil supervillain is using it as a base to develop his evil weapon. Hmm, maybe this could be the next James Bond movie ? We could even have the evil supervillain crushed to death by a falling moai (giant statue). :-) StuRat 12:27, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That's not how it works; as I understand it, a low polar orbit means that the satellites cover the Earth's surface in "stripes". So one satellite can do the lot if you're prepared to wait a week for your pictures. More satellites mean you get pictures more regularly. Of course, I have no idea precisely how often spy satellites can actually image a particular spot (I did know a guy who used to work for USAF intelligence; he probably knew, but telling me or anyone else would have been a good way to end up in prison for a long time). --Robert Merkel 12:36, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but the question was about how many satellites would be needed to see every spot on Earth simultaneously. That would require a great number, if usable level of detail was needed. StuRat 12:40, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I want to get a job where giving away secret information about my corporation can get somebody killed.   freshgavin TALK    00:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks all. --대조 | Talk 13:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

particle accelerators

What would happen if you stood in the path of a high-energy particle accelerator beam (such as the LHC)? Would you feel anything? Would it impact your health? GeorgeStepanek\^talk 09:29, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Depends if you were standing at the end just as they took the cover off - you could experience an Alien: Resurrection type of death... (from the hard vacuum). Tzarius 10:48, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd suppose the question is about the effects of highly accelerated particles hitting your body. I don't think there'd be any noticeable damage or feeling from that. The masses involved are much to small, so at most you'd have a few molecules being disturbed. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 11:17, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That's not necessarily true. If a single proton hits you with 1 TeV, the worst it can do is knock out one atom of your DNA. Not much. But what if more than one per second per sq cm hit you? Go here (pdf) and see the beam parameters for LHC. The projected luminosity is apparently about 10^34 protons per square centimeter per second. That's a lot! That's about a trillion moles per second across every square centimeter. Each with 7 TeV. The only saving feature is that the beam is only 16 microns across. Let's put Kieff in there and see what happens :) -lethe ^talk 11:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Sounds fun! :D

But seriously, I don't think you'd feel anything. A few particles wouldn't cause much damage, alright, but a concentration like those would probably cause some direct effect on a cellular level but still, considering the short duration of the "beam" and how narrow it is, I don't believe it'd have a big effect. Regardless, I don't think our nociceptors would be activated by such form of damage at all. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 12:56, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

They're particles...I wouldn't think it'd make that much difference. It wouldn't be anything like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter where you get stunned and then a splode all over the place...oh, wait, that's a neutron accelerator...mahbad. 12.72.244.198 12:24, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Hi everyone, sorry to rain on your speculation, but I believe the answer is that it would kill you. The reason is the existance of particle showers--one proton will cascade into many particles in your body, and many of them will be able to knock out DNA and otherwise do cell damage. When you get hit by all the protons in the ring (on the order of ten trillion I believe, and it would happen almost instantaneously), you're talking a lot of cell damage. I've heard a story, from a fellow physicist, about a professor at a much lower-energy accelerator who got his head in the path of the beam somehow--his brain along the entire path of the beam died from the radiation damage, although he himself survived. -- SCZenz 23:52, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, "particle showers" or "collision casscades" will mean a lot more damage than one atom per incedent beam proton. If you ignore nuclear reactions that would occur at that sort of energys the damage would still be huge. the simulation software I have doesn't seem to work at those sorts of energies but at arouns 700MeV a single proton could dislodge over 8000 atoms. In our ion implanter a 9MeV gold beam at high enough currents can heat samples up to the point where they are visably glowing from the energy deposited as heat. --Martyman-(talk) 00:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Also hospitals use particle accelerators to accelerate protons at humans to destroy innoperable tumors. --Martyman-(talk) 00:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers. This is fascinating. So you'd have an immensely powerful but very narrow beam. Or would the "exit wound" be wider? Except the particles are moving so fast, just how much would the cascade be able to spread out? It would make an excellent death ray. GeorgeStepanek\^talk 05:35, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

My intuition is that I don't think it would spread out very much at all, because there's so much momentum in the direction it's already going, but I think figuring this out exactly is a rather difficult problem. The more I think about it, the more I expect that all the tissue along the beam itself would die, but the effects on the rest of your body might be very limited with proper medical treatment; I'm not sure though. Anyway, the LHC is a lot of effort for a death ray, when bullets work just as well. -- SCZenz 06:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I've heard (from a person who has actually worked at CERN) that the whole accelerator tunnel (at least at the detectors) is so radioactive after the experiments, that the staff has to wait for at least half a year after the experiments have ended, before entering the tunnel. So the beam would certainly not be good for your health! — Pt _(T) 22:01, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, looks like I was wrong.[1] There is some radioactive waste (from the luminosity monitors next to the detectors), but apparently that's not a big problem. Anyway, doing nuclear physics on/inside your own body wouldn't be a wise idea. — Pt _(T) 02:07, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

R4 Gasses

Hello, Can you please help me out & tell me what R4 gasses are, whether they are harmful & where I can find some information about them. They are I believe not used in new applications anymore due to new regulations & (in the U.K.) have to be incinerated at licenced waste disposal facilities. That's all I've been able to find out though. I'd appreciate any information you can give me. Thanks AllanHainey 09:31, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

You could start at this web page, which says that R4 gases are pyrophoric (that's Greek for 'may blow your head off'). --Heron 23:10, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Much obliged. AllanHainey 11:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Help With Electronic Chips

I am doing a project which requires me to work with 74ls245, 74l373 and 28c256. I have a problem since I am into computers and not into electronics as such. I would like to have the pin descritions of these chips(not the voltage level...).For eg, whether the pin is active low and some more information. I have tried searching for these but to no avail. I would be glad if you could help. (This question was posted at WP:RD/M but I figured you folks would be better equipped to answer this. 12.72.244.198 12:16, 26 January 2006 (UTC))

You seem to be looking for datasheets. Searching for 74LS245 datasheet produced, after following a couple of links, this page from Texas Instruments. The PDF file seems to be what you're looking for -- in particular, check the "Function Table" at the top of page 2. You should be able to find similar datasheets for your other ICs. Hope this helps! —David Wahler (talk) 13:49, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Chemical smell from pot

(Not that kind of pot...)

I recently bought a cheap stainless steel pot from IKEA, and have noticed that when using it to boil water (practically all I've used it for) it gives off quite a harsh, chemical, metallic smell. I've noticed this before with cheap pots in the past (which is why I usually use my much-loved cast iron and copper...).

What is this, and is it dangerous? — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 16:59, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

When I first read this I thought it was the smell of pot (marijuana) which has a somewhat metallic smell. (unsigned comment by User:12.41.204.3)

• I don't know exactly. But it could be residues of polishing chemicals and similar, although I assume you did wash the pot before using it. It could be a reaction with the sulphur on the surface of the metal, sulphur tends to make for smelly compounds, even in small amounts. The stainless used for pots needs to be able to be deep drawn, which usually means a higher sulphur content. Whatever it is, I doubt it is dangerous. It'll probably go away as soon as the pot has been burnt in. --BluePlatypus 17:48, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'm not so confidant it's safe. I think you should wash it thoroughly with a detergent then boil water in it until it stops giving off fumes. Don't use the water you boil in it until then, either. Who knows what nasty chemical residue came on the pot. StuRat 17:50, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• Asbestos, what kind of stove do you use, by the way? Electric or gas? Seeing as it's a metallic smell, it could also be just that: small metal particles left from the polishing. --BluePlatypus 18:39, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• • I'm using a gas stove. Thanks for the comments above, I'll try giving it a good scrubbing and boiling water for an hour or so. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 18:52, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• • • Well, that explains your preference for copper pans and iron skillets. Gas stoves get (locally) much hotter than electric ones, so if it's some metal-surface reaction going on, that could certainly be a factor. --BluePlatypus 21:50, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

If you've ever boiled water and 'forgotten' about the pan that could be your culprit. I've burned at least 1 pan that way and it gives off a horrible smell after that, even to the point that it made my eggs smell bad too. I didn't die but I threw the pan away soon after that; it was only about $2.   freshgavin TALK    23:44, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Radioactivity

Can it be possible to change one stable eliment to another stable eliment by forcing it to undergo radioactivity by bombarding radioactive particles? Or in any possible condition?

Yes. For instance, if you bombard Cobalt-59 (stable) with fast neutrons, neutron capture will occur, forming Cobalt-60 (radioactive) which will eventually decay, emitting a beta particle and giving you stable Nickel-60 as a result. --BluePlatypus 17:18, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes it is possible to change one stable eliment to another. Infact this was done in 1919 itself by Rutherford but he didnt know what happend. He actually changed Nitrogen into an isotope of oxygen.

I think the question is, can it be done without a radioactive intermediary. Actually, I believe it has been done using a nuclear accellerator, back in the days of the cyclotron. They managed to achieve the Alchemists dream of making gold, not out of Lead, but out of Mercury. You did actually specify 'radioactive' particles, so I presume Hydrogen-3 (Tritium) nuclei could be accellerated and made to merge with another elements nuclei, raising the atomic weight by 3 and the number by 1. You would have to choose the element very carefully, but I think Helium-3 would then make Lithium-6, which is stable.

Thank you very much!

Actually, gold has been made from lead (though at a steep price). See Alchemy#Modern 'alchemy'. Superm401 - Talk 07:56, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

How to avoid the Google idiots

We have a constant problem with computer support here. You give a person a website over the phone or through email. They say it doesn't come up. You test it and it works. After going back and forth, you walk over to the next building and watch them type the URL in Google's search box and hit enter. This isn't a one-time issue. This happens over and over and over. I've even asked people, "Are you typing the address into Google or the address bar?" They say they are typing it into the address bar, but when you check, they are typing it into Google. Is this an anomoly of Google idiots here or is this a problem others have? If it is more common, does anyone have a solution other than remote-desktopping everyone's computer so you can tell them "move your cursor up - no up higher - higher - higher - higher - there. Click on that. THAT is the address bar you idiot!" --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

How would that cause problems? Google automatically gives you a link to the URL if you type one in. Are they actually so retarded that they don't follow it before asking for help? Or is there something else happening? Black Carrot 20:00, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I am sorry to say so, but yes, they are that retarded. I tried to get permission to put a sticker on top of the monitors that showed a picture of an address bar with a note saying "This is an address bar", but I was told that it made the employees feel dumb. Apparently it is OK for them to be dumb as long as they don't feel dumb. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:22, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The issue there is that some people are stupid, but does that justify treating everyone as stupid ? I get a bit offended when I call a support line and complain that an appliance isn't working, only to have them ask if I've plugged it in. Then again, some may have that exact problem. I also worked on a support line, so think it's best to assume they are intelligent until they prove otherwise. StuRat 08:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You could try something in reverse. I don't actually think it's reasonable to expect people to know what "Address bar" means. Like "do you see the word Google near the top of the screen by a little box? You need to make sure you don't type in that little box." or even

"do you see the word Google near the top of the screen by a little box? Type the URL in that little box and press Return. What do you see? Good, that part is working. Now you need to type it in the different box, next to the word Address. Try that..." Notinasnaid 21:21, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Fight fire with fire. Instead of starting off with "type this address", start off with "search for ______ in google".   freshgavin TALK    23:38, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I think it may work to ask them to use Google first. Then, they can't hide it when I ask if it says Google on the screen. They always say, "No. It didn't say Google anywhere until you came over." --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, maybe you could just tell them to hit "ALT-D" while the browser is in focus. --Uthbrian (talk) 07:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Both of my parents do the exact thing you describe, have done so for years, and steadfastly refuse to change their habits because the way they do it is "good enough" for them. (Nor are they willing to learn the meaning of the most basic terms such as "address bar". I haven't even been able to get them to understand that they can have more than one browser window open at the same time; I'm afraid to bring up the concept of tabs.) Short of changing the home page in their browsers to a blank screen (which would probably result in them cutting me out of their will), I don't see what can be done about it. All you can do is figure out some way of phrasing your question so you can at least be able to tell whether your given idiot valued employee is actually using the address bar or not and then ordering them to try the address bar if they haven't already. Perhaps something like, "Do you see the line of icons at the top of the window that say 'Back', 'forward', 'reload', and so on? You do? Goooood. Now see that long white box to the right of it? Goooood. Now take your mouse and point it at the pretty long white box ... No, not the actual mouse in your hand ... just use the mouse to make the arrow on your screen move up to the pretty white box..." --Aaron 08:01, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Some people really hate to use the address box because it requires that they type exactly the right thing. One character off and they get nothing, or garbage. A Google search, on the other hand, often pops up a "Do you mean..." prompt if you are at least close to the correct term. Makers of browsers seem to have noticed this and started minimizing the size of the address bar and maximizing the size of the search bar, as a result. They also sometimes have address bar entries that don't find a page automatically go to a search engine. Personally, I think that's a bit much, if I wanted to search, I would have picked "search". So, beware that it may be increasing more difficult for people to avoid doing a search accidentally. StuRat 08:27, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• If there's one thing Wikipedia has thought me, it's that there's a lot of people who fail to follow instructions even if they're staring right at them. Some people just don't want to do what someone else tells them to do and think their way is better. - Mgm|^(talk) 08:58, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

A problem is that different browsers look different, also dependent on whether it's the default appearance. Referring to buttons saying 'back' and 'reload' and such wouldn't work in my case, for example. Probably the only thing all address bars have in common is that it's the highest piece of text against a white background in the browser window (then, of course, they'd have to know what a window is, oh dear). Although Opera doesn't have that either (can't remember now how to bring up the address bar in Opera). DirkvdM 10:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You can also hide the address bar in many browsers, making things even worse. StuRat 12:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Can you not just change the default page on the company's browsers so that it is either blank or the company's website? Also, can you remove the Google toolbar? Then those who understand how to use an addressbar will also understand how to change the default page back, and those who don't won't be typing addresses into Google. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 13:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

When I first started college, I was so computer-illiterate that I tried putting an email address into the website address bar. Now I'm well on my way to complete HTML fluency. If I didn't learn anything else, at least knowing how to use a computer helped. Captain Jackson 15:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

My Spanish teacher last year always used the Google search box as well. At the time, we speculated on what would happen when she found a page they didn't index (thank God I don't live in China). Superm401 - Talk 08:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

doggy medical need devices

i would like to know where i could find pattern or direction for diapers, and any thing that aides a dog,just basic directions that i could adapt for size and need. I have a 17 yr old dog and at times she needs help walking, and use of diapers. i have made other things in the past myself that were cheaper and more comfortable. thankyou

I found this page which has some links that may be useful to you. But, seriously, have you discussed your dog's condition with a vet? While I'm neither a vet nor able to assess your dog's actual condition, I have to wonder - if your dog is so incontinent it needs diapers, and struggles to move, whether another course of action might be in the best interests of the welfare of your dog if rather traumatic for you. I apologise if am misinterpreting your description of your dog's condition. --Robert Merkel 07:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Population

If one were searching for a recent US census report on the populations of major cities (NY, LA, Houston, etc), where would one look? Black Carrot 20:14, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, either in my sock-drawer, or at www.census.gov. --BluePlatypus 21:23, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The census site is probably the safer of the two places to look. Don't go near the sock-drawer. Grutness...wha? 07:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Spicy foods & eyesight

After eating a rather spicy Indian meal, I noticed that colours, which normally look a bit flat to me, appeared very bright and vivid, as if turning up the contrast on a TV. Is this a documented phenomenon and/or are there any possible reasons? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 20:52, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

If this was just one particular meal, I would speculate that someone might have slipped something like magic mushrooms into it, since this is exactly the sort of effect that many people report. If it is all meals... a different story. Notinasnaid 21:38, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

It's always, after all spicy Indian/Chinese/Mexican etc. meals. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 21:57, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I seem to recall that a few people report psychic effects from monosodium glutamate. Of course it would be pure speculation on my part to suggest that that has anything to do with your observations. It might be more fun not to find out; what if people told you you were imagining it, and you believed them, and it went away? --Trovatore 22:04, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Interesting. I remember reading somewhere (but I don't remember where) that your vision actually decreases after eating a large meal. Cybergoth 22:12, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• Are any other senses affected, or just your sight? It's also possible that it might just be waking you up and feel less dull in general. Night Gyr 22:20, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Just sight. It seems to be to do with spiciness (eating a korma has nowhere near the same effect as a jalfrezi and madras). smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 22:33, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I remember reading something about being able to see into the future after eating too much spice. --BluePlatypus 23:27, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it's some form of synaesthesia? —Keenan Pepper 23:38, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

It would be neat to test this scientifically. We could come up with something similar to tests for color-blindness, a series of dots with only a subtle color difference, that, if detected, allows you to see a hidden picture. If you couldn't make out the pic normally, but could after eating spicy foods, that would be proof that it works. Even more exciting would be if nobody else could see the pic, but only you could after eating the spice. This would prove it's not just a perception issue, but that your eyesight really was enhanced over a normal person's eyesight. If that was the case, isolating the chemical(s) causing this effect would be the next step, leading to a new nutritional supplement. StuRat 08:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

See Curry#Curry_addiction. Maybe that's why I like curry powder in my spinach. DirkvdM 10:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

See also Capsaicin#Capsaicin_high.

--Bartosz 04:45, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

methonal water mix

was just wondering if anyone had heard if there was any type of reaction when water and methonal were mixed and then put into a Aluminum tank. We ran into a problem with it eating away at the aluminum.

There's no such thing as "methonal", and methanol wouldn't react with aluminum, as far as I know. —Keenan Pepper 23:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Nope. The pKa of methanol is 15.2, which means that it's far too weak an acid to do something. Neither water, methanol or a mixture of them should have any effect on aluminium. I'd say it would have to be something else. --BluePlatypus 23:24, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

On the other hand, this MSDS says "Do not store in aluminum or lead containers.". I wonder why that is? —Keenan Pepper 23:40, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I'm finding a lot of sites that say methanol is corrosive to aluminum. Maybe it does something to the protective oxide layer? —Keenan Pepper 23:49, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, on the other hand, that is very possible. Naked aluminium is quite reactive. If the oxide layer is too thin, or damaged, then the methanol could probably eat away at it quickly. --BluePlatypus 00:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Methanol can definitely corrode some metals, which can be a pain when running a car on the stuff. My chemistry text book has image of some rods from a methanol engine covered in holes and damage. It might be methanol acting as a solvent or forming methanoic acid. It could also be removing the layer of Aluminium oxide from the aluminium, damaging it that way. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 10:48, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, methanol is corrosive to aluminium, magnesium and lead. The main distinction with water is that the methoxides are soluble in methanol, whereas aluminium oxide is insoluble in water: hence, as soon as corrosion gets started, it continues. Physchim62 (talk) 13:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Cool, that makes sense. I'll add it to the Methanol article. —Keenan Pepper 16:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

January 27

Speaking of GSO, space elevator

Assuming it's gonna be built (a pretty big assumption I'd say) and they decide to build the hub station on land instead of water (another rather large assumption) what (equatorial) country do you think it would be based in? Let's put the time at +50 years from now. I'd vote for Brazil, though it would be in less-than-perfect area in the north away from the Metropolitan centers.   freshgavin TALK    00:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Brad Edwards's NIAC study suggests that Ecuador or Tanzania would be good locations if a land-based anchor was chosen. --Robert Merkel 00:25, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

They make some good points, although it seems they're aiming for international waters, and it's not really a land-based anchor!   freshgavin TALK    03:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Why would you put a space elevator at the Equator? Wouldn't the most obvious place be the North or south pole? That way it would be in generally the same spot.

• A space elevator has one end attached to the ground (so it is in "generally the same spot") and rises upward to geostationary orbit and beyond. Geostationary orbit is over the equator. Or in the Earth's rotating reference frame, the space elevator is held up by centrifugal force, which is directly upward only at the equator. The thing cannot exist anywhere else. Further, there are asymmetries in the Earth that make some points on the equator are better than others, but I forget the details. --Anonymous, 06:20 UTC, January 27.

At the equator, objects traveling up the elevator will gain the greatest kinetic energy possible by that method, and can easily be placed in geosynchronous orbit. The elevator can also be stabilized with a counterweight in orbit. Achieving a stable polar orbit would be highly impractical. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 04:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Though I'd like to try it just for fun! Screw escape velocity.   freshgavin TALK    05:46, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The kinetic energy reason is also why space agencies launch from as close to the equater as possible (The US launches from the far south, Russia launches from Central Asia, and Europe uses French Guiana). Given that - of those three - French Guana is the closest to the equator (5° N) and already has the technical equipment for space industry close-by. Other viable possibilities would be Gabon, Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia, although the earthquake-prone nature of the latter makes it more problematic. Grutness...wha? 07:09, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm not convinced of the feasibility of a space elevator. Finding materials which can withstand the forces would be quite an issue. Assuming they are found, and the elevator shaft can be built for a mere million dollars per kilometer, at a height of 35,786 km that would still be 36 trillion dollars, which nobody seems to have just lying around. If a world effort was made to build it (over decades), then some political method would be needed to assure access to it by the contributors. This would be similar to issues with the Suez and Panama canals. Nobody would be willing to contribute that much money without knowing they have permanent access to the result. Perhaps an "international zone", similar to Antarctica, could be established around the base to prevent the surrounding country from having veto power over who can use it. StuRat 07:35, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much all equatorial countries are politically unstable. Maybe the Maldives would be willing to give away part of their southern territory on exchange for a rescue plan for their islands (which are going to be swamped by a rising sea). Geologically most stable would be in the Pacific (the biggest plate), but the remoteness might be a problem with construction (getting building material and other resources in) and usage (if it's going to be used for space tourism you'd want population and transportation centres nearby). DirkvdM 11:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Of course, if you're going to build a 35,786 km tall elevator, it wouldn't be much of an addition to build it a km or two longer and place it on the sea floor. StuRat 12:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

In which case the elevator could also have a 'basement' level and we would have a choice between going into space or to the sea floor. DirkvdM 13:18, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Building it to the sea floor is an interesting idea but would definitely increase the engineering complexity. Remember that the pressure difference for every 10 m (33 feet) of ocean depth is equivalent to the entire difference between air pressure at sea level and outer space. Also, underwater structures are a helluvalot harder to access for routine maintenance than those on dry land. Further, as a political solution it could backfire: there might be more countries willing to try to seize the tower by force if there's no country that owns it. --Anonymous, 20:30 UTC, January 28.

failing that, some Pacific nations (like Tuvalu) are in a similar fix to the Maldives. Grutness...wha? 22:37, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

StuRat, have a look at Brad Edwards' proposal. He makes a reasonably convincing case that if carbon nanotubes composites of sufficient strength become available (which I fully agree is a big "if") that a useful space elevator can be constructed for a cost of less than $10 billion dollars. Chicken feed compared to, say, missile defence, the F-22, or ethanol-related pork barelling. --Robert Merkel 09:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Nuclear energy to treat disease

Hello, my name's Kate. I have been searching through the net for a few hours now, possibly more, and can not find much information on how nuclear energy is used to treat diseases. I pretty much understand the side effects, as well as the benifits as well, but i dont really understand how it actually works and how it is used. Could you please help me? Thank You. Kate.

There's an article on Nuclear_medicine concerning radiopharmaceuticals.   freshgavin TALK    00:21, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

See also radiotherapy. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 00:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Radiation is also used for diagnostic purposes in medicine, in things like PET scanners, NMR and Radium is used in some cancer therapies. Radon therapy is also a more left-field treatment still in use. Grutness...wha? 07:17, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There is one example I remember that helped me to understand how nuclear energy could be used to treat disease (hopefully it's simple yet accurate, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong). It is the use of iodine to treat thyroid cancer. The thyroid (in your neck) concentrates any iodine in your body. So, if you absorb some iodine a fair amount will go to the thyroid. If you have thyroid cancer, you can take some radioactive iodine, a lot of which will end up in your thyroid. Although the radioactive iodine will kill many good cells, since it concentrates in the same place as the cancer cells, hopefully many cancer cells will die - and you will live.--Commander Keane 19:30, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

That's correct, and recently metastasized thyroid cancer cells throughout the body also have an affinity for iodine, so will absorb the radioactive iodine and be destroyed, as well. Of course, all this completely destroys the thyroid, so thyroid replacement therapy is needed, say by taking Synthroid for the rest of your life. Not a bad tradeoff for curing cancer. StuRat 20:58, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You might alsolook at Nuclear Magnetic Resonance which is now called Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) because of the public's dislike of things with nuclear in the title. DJ Clayworth 17:46, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Darrieus wind turbines

I was just reading about Darrieus wind turbines and I was somewhat confused by the airfoil diagrams in the article; These diagrams show the lift vector on the airfoil as having a forward component. When I learned aerodynamics I was taught that the lift vector always had a rearwards component and that this is what creates induced drag. So, is there something I'm missing? How is it possible to have an airfoil with a forward-leaning lift vector? -User:Lommer | ^talk 00:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you saying the horizontal component (horizontal as in the illustration) of the lift vector should be reversed, or the entire vector? It's been a while since I took turbomachines, but I might give it a try. deeptrivia (talk) 03:21, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You're almost right, Lommer - except that the lift vector on an aerofoil points slightly more 'backwards' (due to induced drag) than the 'ideal' lift vector (which is always perpendicular to the incoming flow). This is going to be somewhat tricky to explain in words, but I'll try.

Take a look at this aerofoil diagram. To translate this to our windmill case, V_inf is red arrow on the windmill picture. The ideal lift vector is the one indicated in green on that same drawing - it's always perpendicular to the incoming flow. However, the aerofoil, by creating lift also creates downwash (also see induced drag), which alters the direction of the incoming flow by adding to it a component parallel to the 'ideal' lift (labelled V^ind on the aerofoil diagram). This has the effect of altering the 'effective' (as seen from the aerofoil's perspective) angle of attack, which tilts the lift vector 'backwards' (see the arrow labelled Normal Force F on the aerofoil diagram - it's perpendicular to the 'effective' incoming flow). Now, back to the windmill diagram: Change the direction of the incoming flow (red arrow) by adding a component parallel and opposite to the green arrow. This reduces the angle of attack and tilts the lift vector backwards. However, because the angle of attack of this aerofoil is so great, it doesn't tilt the 'new' lift vector back beyond the vertical (towards the centre pivot), therefore, the lift still provides a component in the left direction, turning the windmill.

So, in a way, you were right - induced drag means that the lift vector must always point more 'backwards' than the ideal lift vector (creating a drag component). However, it must always point more backwards than the ideal lift vector which is perpendicular to the incoming flow - hence, for a situation like this, with a large angle of attack, the lift vector can point "forward" with respect to the aerofoil geometry.

I hope that made sense :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 10:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

https

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of this reference desk question. Please do modify it, as much as you like.

diesel Generating Sets

Is it possible to adjust the frequency of diesel Generating sets. --61.0.135.181 01:21, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Theoretically, yes. You can even buy some diesel gensets that are switchable between 50 and 60 Hz output (for instance, this Chinese company sells one. But as to whether this is possible, or easy, with your particular genset is another question entirely. --Robert Merkel 07:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Is the sugar important in the fermentation process of making vinegar??? How?

Greetings!

I am asking the question: "Is the sugar important in the fermentation process of making vinegar??? How?" because we need more information of the function of the sugar in the fermentation process of making vinegar for my group's investigatory project... We have to prove to others that sugar aside from yeast also influences the fast decreasing of the pH value in making vinegar...

Please help me!!!

Your efforts will be very much appreciated... If ever you have useful references for the answer we need, please post them too... Thank you!!!

                                                      Daren

Of course! Sugar is the main ingredient. It's the sugar that's getting fermented. See fermentation, vinegar, Acetic_acid#Fermentation, etc.deeptrivia (talk) 03:11, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Problems reading pictures from CD

I burned some pics on a cd in 2002. Now I can't open the pics. It says that a plug-in is missing or the files are corrupt. When I burnt the cd i could open the pics (on my old pc) even from the cd. What's going wrong and how can I recover the pictures? Thanks! deeptrivia (talk) 03:09, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Without more information the only thing I can assume is that the CD is damaged (scratched, warped by heat, etc.) and your CD drive is having trouble reading the header of the CD (the part at the beginning where it gives information about the rest of the CD).

It may also be that the pictures are in an old format that your PC doesn't recognize, but I can't tell without more information : ).   freshgavin TALK    03:30, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! Assuming a part of the CD, like the header, is damaged, what ways of data recovery exist? What more information would be helpful? deeptrivia (talk) 03:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

By the way, it shows all the files and their correct sizes. But when I open them, it says they are corrupt. deeptrivia (talk) 04:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

What kind of files are they? (What is the file extention?)   freshgavin TALK    04:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

They are all JPG files. deeptrivia (talk) 04:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, it's a little bit odd that it shows the file info correctly but won't display the images. If there's no visual damage to the CD (obviously look for scratches or strange coloring on the data side) then there's a few other possible reasons. Some types of blank CDs don't work so well in some types of CD readers (problems generally come from cheap CDs and cheap CD readers) so you could try it on someone elses computer.   freshgavin TALK    04:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, try a different CD player. Specifically, be sure you are using a CD-only reader. Combo CD/DVD readers sometimes make compromises to support both formats that can cause reading errors. StuRat 07:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I can't say if this will definitely work, but you can try Isobuster. --Uthbrian (talk) 07:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

This does not sound like a broken CD. The message doesn't suggest that at all. "Missing plug-in" is all about software. Make sure you are trying to open the JPEG files in a suitable program. DON'T just double click on them. Notinasnaid 09:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Try to find a copy of the program you saved them with -- it may have idiosyncracies in its format that show up as corruption to whatever you're using now. Night Gyr 12:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for all your messages. The CD is not damaged, i think. There are abt 10 folders on it, just one doenst work. I burnt three sessions on it (almost all photos). The folder i burnt on the last session, doesnt work. I tried to upload one of the pics on wikipedia, to give an idea of the kind of corruption it might be, but it doesn't upload it, giving the error: "The file is corrupt or has an incorrect extension. Please check the file and upload again." What can I do? deeptrivia (talk) 15:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Could you upload a sample onto a public webspace somewhere? Tripod will give you 20MB quick. enochlau (talk) 17:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Here is a sample picture. Could you suggest a good software to recover as much as possible from corrupted JPGs, or some other means to rescue these pictures? Thanks!

Okie dokes. I couldn't get it to open, and I think I have evidence that your CD is borked. I opened up the file in a hex editor, and the JPEG magic number that I found at the start of all my good JPEG files was found in the middle of the file, so the CD is probably indicating where the files start/end wrong. Also, large sections of the file were the same character, which is unusual for a JPEG file, since it's not a bitmap - further suggestions that it's corrupted. :( enochlau (talk) 22:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The file is OK except that it has 4096 bytes of garbage in front of it and presumably an equal amount of data missing from the end. I've uploaded the image without the first 4kb here. This suggests that enochlau's guess about the start/end offsets on the CD is probably correct. There are programs that can recover JPEG files from corrupted or accidentally formatted disks by scanning for the magic numbers — you may want to try one of them. Those programs usually can't handle fragmented files, but since CDs are normally never fragmented you should have no such problems in this case. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:51, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a ton Ilmari and enochlau! You guys rock!! Could you tell me how did you fix this file, and how can I do the same? Can you suggest a good program which does this thing automatically? deeptrivia (talk) 01:55, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

See User_talk:Ilmari_Karonen#The_corrupted_JPEG_file. enochlau (talk) 06:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Human ancestry tree

Are all the Hominids (? ) ( neanderthals, erectus, and all) HUMANS? I mean, they aren't modern humans because they aren't homo sapiens, but can they be called Human? or just hominid?.--Cosmic girl 04:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Not being a native English speaker, you may not know that "homos" is also an insulting slang term for homosexuals. Your meaning here was quite clear, but I just wanted to point that out so you don't get in trouble using the term elsewhere. For example, calling a group of men "homos" instead of "people" would be a very bad thing. StuRat 06:58, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I didn't know that! I'm sorry...this is embarassing, but thank you for telling me! I already fixed the question,I hope it's understandable.--Cosmic girl 16:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

No problem, glad I could teach you a bit of English slang. StuRat 20:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

According to Homo (genus), even Neanderthal should not be called part of the Homo sapiens (human) species. But Neanderthal makes the point that some people suspect that humans and Neanderthal could interbreed. --JWSchmidt 04:21, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

They're probably best called hominids, since human really refers to a specific species. The distinction isn't very large, though, and if we're going to name the genus "same as us", we might as well call the other species "human" too. I think the main reason for using "hominid" instead is the tendency for people to want special status above animals. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 04:24, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. How close to us a species needs to be to be considered "human" is just a matter of opinion. StuRat 06:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Nitpick: The genus name Homo is not from the Greek homos meaning "same", it's from the Latin homo, homin- meaning "man". —Keenan Pepper 06:33, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

A somewhat finer picking: My Dutch 'foreign words' dictionary says that 'homo-' (as a prefix) indeed stems from Greek for 'same' and that 'homo' (as a word) is Latin for human and is related to the word 'humus', for 'earth' (in the sense of ground, soil). DirkvdM 11:25, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm half Neanderthal (my father was one), and I get very upset when people try to suggest that I'm not a human. -lethe ^talk 06:48, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you serious Lethe? or is that a joke? I thought Neanderthals where extinct long ago.--Cosmic girl 16:17, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's a joke, LOL. StuRat 20:32, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The term "human", in common usage, refers specifically to Homo sapiens. However, broadly speaking, it may also refer to any members of the genus Homo. See [2] (click on second definition, "noun"). Or for instance, when Homo floresiensis was discovered, Scientific American called it "The Littlest Human" on its cover. You will often find "modern humans" or "anatomically modern humans" written in texts dealing with human evolution to differentiate us from our close ancestors. — Knowledge Seeker দ 07:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Another nitpick. The name hominid properly refers to a species in the family Hominidae, which is generally considered to include humans and the great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans. Unfortunately there isn't a widely-understood scientific term meaning "modern humans and other hominids more closely related to humans than chimpanzees". In some classifications this group is classified as the subtribe Hominina, so you could try using the term homininan. But few people will understand what you mean. Gdr 12:23, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I asked this because I read the article about Homo Floresiensis and I also read the article in New Scientist and saw that they where called 'humans' so wondered, since what stage in evolution can some ape or great ape be considered human?. --Cosmic girl 16:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, the term "human" is a bit vague. If you mean the same species as us, which is defined as being able to breed with us and produce fertile offspring, then apes are definitely out, but Neanderthals and Homo Floresiensis might be included. Also note that apes are not direct ancestors of humans, as anti-science religious zealots always say is claimed by Evolution. All of our ancestors are extinct. The nearest common descendent isn't even the apes, but rather chimpanzees/bonobos with 98% genetic material in common with us. StuRat 20:32, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

But chimpanzees are apes! (And so, at least biologically, are humans.) Gdr 22:06, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Which suggests that all humans are apes, but not all apes are humans. JackofOz 22:39, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Right, we're not descendants of apes, we are apes. A common misconception, not just among religious zealots. DirkvdM 13:30, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you guys, I understand :D --Cosmic girl 03:40, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

scratching an itch

How do you scratch an itch in side a spacesute? Say like your nose or the bottom of your foot? I have saked this question several time but no answer.

I've heard that they actually have something inside the helmet for that purpose (and I assume it serves some other useful purpose too), like a small protrusion that you can touch to your face by looking down, but as for scratching the bottom of your foot ... we have enough trouble trying to itch down there standing on Earth!   freshgavin TALK    05:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Related question: what does a concert pianist do when he itches? I've had this problem, wanting to scratch but not wanting to stop playing. And then realised that that would be hell if I were to ever perform before an audience. Irrespective of where the itch is, although that can make it even worse (some spots one does not scratch in public). DirkvdM 11:29, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Just switch to one of those pieces for one-handed pianists until you're done scratching, LOL. But seriously, if that was a problem on a regular basis you might want to liberally apply a lotion containing menthol-eucalyptus right before the concert, that should both relieve dry skin and act as a topical anesthetic to prevent itching. Also, avoid itchy clothes like wool. If the itching persists, it may have a psychological basis (a manifestation of anxiety ?). StuRat 12:25, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's hardly ever a problem, it's just that when it happens it's really annoying. But then, during a concert, the anxiety thing might kick in. Especially now that you've pointed that out to me, it is sure to worry me, and therefore happen, whenever I give a concert. Thanks a lot! luckily, I'm not a concert pianist. By the way, I only know of one piano piece for one hand, by Ravel. Are there any more? The one by Ravel is said to be almost impossible to play, so there can't be a big 'market' for it. DirkvdM 16:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star". You can play that with one finger, LOL. StuRat 20:25, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There are lots of pieces for one hand, but they get little commercial notice. Most of them are for left hand, but there are some for right hand too. I have a volume (edited by Raymond Lewenthal) of one-handed pieces by such composers as Alkan, Bartok, Blumenfeld, Godowsky, Liszt, Moszkowski, Reger, Saint-Saens, and Scriabin. It also includes pieces arranged by others for one hand piano, eg. Godowsky arranged Chopin's Etude in E flat minor, Op.10/6, for left hand. Sounds impossible, but that was chicken feed for Leopold. Also see [3] for a discussion of the history and repertoire of music for piano one-hand. Enjoy. JackofOz 22:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

BTW, what's the Ravel piece, Dirk? I don't think I've ever heard of it. JackofOz 05:23, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Ravel). See that little box at the left top of this page, where it says 'search'...? :) DirkvdM 13:43, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Of course! I thought you were talking about pieces for piano solo (that's what "piano piece" normally means). Nothing is considered 'impossible' for pianists these days, just 'challenging'. The Ravel is in the repertoire of a large number of pianists and has had umpteen recordings. Prokofiev, Richard Strauss, Korngold, and others all wrote concertos for left hand too.  :-) JackofOz 14:04, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

BTW, I hope that sort of information was what you were after. I assume "Are there any more?" wasn't a rhetorical question.  :-) Cheers JackofOz 01:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I guess the same question could apply to any performance artist. The answer would be that they are far too involved in what they are doing to be bothered by an itch. This reminds me of the little boy being taught about birth, who was desperate to know what would happen if the woman wanted a pee while she was having a baby. --Shantavira 16:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

And since a sneeze gives an almost orgasmic feeling, I once wondered what would happen if one would sneeze during an orgasm, but I suppose that is not very likely either. Same for a good crap, but that's even less likely. :) DirkvdM 16:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Ewwww ! Either you enjoy defecating way too much or sex way too little, to think they are equivalent, LOL. StuRat 20:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

See Blumpkin Night Gyr 02:18, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh dear me, I've gotten used to others already having come up with weird ideas of mine, but I certainly didn't expect that to be the case here. Turns out there are others as weird as me. That's scary. DirkvdM 13:43, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

white blood cells

Very interesting facts about white blood cells. I was just wondering where white blood cells come from ?

It depends on their production. They most commonly come from either the bone marrow or the thymus, hence the names B cells and T cells. Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 05:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

B and T cells are only a subset of the WBCs in the body. There are other WBCs, including monocytes, neutrophils, and eosinophils. Where they come from depends on how far back you care to look; the most recent ancestors of the WBCs would be the uni- and bipotential stem cells (i.e. CFC-G, CFC-GM, CFC-M, and CFC-EO).

Where blood cells (including WBCs) are formed changes throughout life. WBCs aren't produced until the second fetal month, when they are generated in the liver, spleen, and thymus (during the so-called hepatosplenothymic phase). Later, this shifts to the bone marrow and lymphoid tissue (e.g. spleen, thymus, lymph nodes), where it continues into adulthood. Hope that helps, David Iberri (talk) 06:39, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

though probably the notion that T cells come from the thymus needs correction. "T cells" (in the adult) originate in the bone marrow. They mature in, but don't originate in, the thymus. Under normal circumstance, there shouldn't be any blood-cell production in the adult liver, spleen, or lymph nodes. - Nunh-huh 22:48, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Good point about T cells, which again points to the "how far back you want to look" idea. Regarding extramedullary hematopoiesis, it's my understanding that minimal (i.e. negligible) hematopoiesis occurs in lymphoid tissue even in healthy adults. Also, to nitpick an earlier post, the B in B cell isn't for bone marrow; it's for bursa of Fabricius. --David Iberri (talk) 05:06, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

CV21 - who owns it ?

does anyone know about www.cv21.co.uk......is it a secret advertising/design agency?

i have tryed to contact them but they do not reply.... as i have heard they work for free if you are the right client...

please advise as i would like to know if anyone has had any luck contacting them.

regards

Mr Hall (OBE)

Your question was answered here. User:AlMac|^(talk) 11:49, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Please do not post your questions more than once. We may not know the answer to your question, are still figuring it out, or are refusing to answer for one of the reasons stated at the top of this page. Asking us a second time will not likely get you your answer either, and almost guarantees you we will be ignoring you in the future. Your question may be deleted if you see this notice; you should reformat it to prevent this from happening.

As several people have posted other places that you have posted this question, we have no idea what you are referring to? Who owns it depends on what "it" is. You know a lot more about "it" than anyone who can help advise you. User:AlMac|^(talk) 10:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Water as a fuel

Hi, I read in my sceince text book that it can be possible to use water as a fuel for the cars in near future. Hydrogen and Oxygen is diffused by electrolysis and the produced Hydrogen is combusted for producing energy.After combustion the Hydrogen gets oxydized and again forms water. But there are some problems like its difficult to control the combustion of Hydrogen because its like a blast. and because after combustion it form water in exhaust making it wet and electrolysis of water on large scale to produce enough energy to drive a car. But would it be possible to do this? If yes then it would be very revolutionary step in the world of science. Any explaination would be thankful. --Manasmdk 10:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)manasmdk

See our article on Hydrogen economy, which gives a quite detailed overview of the concept. Note that hydrogen could not serve as a fuel in the sense of directly providing energy (since the whole system would still need energy input for electrolysis), only as a means of transporting/distributing energy after electrolysis has occured at some convenient place -- Ferkelparade π 11:02, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Hydrogen explosions are not difficult to control. Internal combustion engines use explosions all the time. There's also no problem with forming water in exhaust - bear in mind other fuels - gasoline, etc. produce water during combustion as well, as they are carbohydrates...in fact most of the energy in these fuels come from the release of protons (hydrogen) and high energy electrons which had been earlier stored in organic material for decades...when combined with a highly electronegative element like oxygen, energy is produced. Hydrogen doesn't have the high energy bond, but it still remains the primary source of energy in a fuel...so pure hydrogen is a fuel in itself. The problem is in its density - organic molecules tend to have more mass over less space because of intermolecular forces as well as sharing of electron orbital pairs, thereby making lots of fuels a liquid (including ethanol and gasoline)...for example propane or methane are less so (which is why it isn't often an automobile fuel). The difference is that gasoline might contain many impurities and pollutants, nitrites, sulfides, sulphates, etc. making it impure, when hydrogen would have no such mixtures. This is because organic matter such as plants extract minerals from the soil during their life, incorporate sulfur and nitrogen into their amino acids - when the proteins (made up of amino acids) decompose, the sulfur and the nitrogen in them breaks off and forms new compounds in the organic matter and become pollutants when burnt (forming nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, etc.. Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 11:09, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Storing hydrogen is difficult because as a gas it takes up so much room, and it has to be very cold and/or under a lot of pressure to make it a liquid, either of which are dangerous in a car. Internal combustion engines are also quite inefficient due to all the heat energy that is wasted and due to the weight of the engine and other heavy components. Fuel cells have the potential to provide for more efficient combustion of hydrogen and oxygen. One last problem to overcome is the lack of places to fuel up with hydrogen. If there aren't sufficient gas stations, the hydrolysis of water to produce hydrogen could be done in your home, using electricity. Instead of just releasing the oxygen produced, it could be used to increase the efficiency of natural gas burned in the furnace, water heater, and gas stove. This would be especially good if the combustion could be made efficient enough to allow venting of the gases inside the home, which is normally only done for gas stoves. This is due to the toxicity of unburned and partially burned gas and the removal of oxygen from the air, which can eventually lead to the formation of deadly carbon monoxide. The water vapor would still be a problem, however, condensing on windows and cold plumbing fixtures. Perhaps a dehumidifier would be needed. StuRat 12:10, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

One other problem with storing hydrogen is the para/ortho problem. When very cold the ortho converts slowly to para and releases energy, heating up the liquid and eventually causing a container breach. There are catalysts which can convert the ortho to para prior to liquifying.

Lithium hydride storage devices have shown promise for storing hydrogen. This would avoid the problems involved in storing hydrogen in high pressure containers. The biggest problem with this whole concept is that it takes energy to electroylse water, lots of energy. So far this comes largely from fossil fuels, so a hydrogen economy would not do much to reduce our fossil fuel consumption.

Yes, a new round of nuclear reactors, this time deep in mines far from populated areas, is needed to replace the aging surface reactors placed near populated areas right now. People will not, and should not, accept the level of risk (especially in this modern age of terrorism) associated with these surface reactors. StuRat 14:46, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• Hydrogen gas can also be very dangerous, too. The most infamous example would be the Hindenburg disaster. ^KILO-_LIMA 15:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• The evidence seems to suggest that a flammable coating on the outside of the Hindenburg is what caused the fire, although the hydrogen inside burnt, too. The bright orange flames described by witnesses are inconsistent with a straight hydrogen fire, which should be blue to clear. So, while hydrogen is flammable, so is gasoline. There is one thing that makes hydrogen worse, though, the need to store it either pressurized or at very low temps to make it liquid. A leak in a pressurized system is likely to leak a lot more than in an unpressurized system, so that's the problem there. The low temp storage will cause hydrogen to boil off as it warms up, so it will need to be vented continuously, which is also a fire hazard. Also, a massive leak of liquid hydrogen could be deadly even if it doesn't catch fire. If the occupants were doused in liquid hydrogen they could die or suffer severe "burns". StuRat 20:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

About your suggestion of nuclear energy. An advantage that has over solar and wind power is that it is a more reliable source (in case there is no sun or wind). But since this is about producing energy storage (in the form of hydrogen) that doesn't matter. Also, a problem with cars is that they are designed to carry their own power supply with them, which is rather inefficient - in order to transport one person you have to lug along a machine that weighs over ten times more than that person. So use wind or sun, store in hydrogen when there is excess energy to burn when there isn't enough (avoids transportation and pressurisation problems), and use the electricity to drive alternating magnets under the roads that magnets in cars can use to propell themselves. Of course this requires a serious change in the infrastructure - all infrastructure. Might there be a better way to propell cars with an external energy source? DirkvdM 14:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The millions of square km that would need be covered with solar panels and/or windmills to supply all the energy currently supplied by gasoline would create quite a "visual blight" as well as environmental damage from plants that would no longer get sunlight, etc. The magnetic fields in the road might also pose a health hazard, especially in "sports cars" where the people ride low to the ground. Also note that a breakdown in the system would leave thousands stranded, which could be deadly in extreme weather (when such a failure is likely). I would suggest some onboard backup system be available that could get cars home, possibly at reduced speeds, when this happens. StuRat 15:06, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[4] sugests we consume about 14000 GW, or 1.4x10¹⁰ W. Solar constant says we get 1.740×10¹⁷ W. So we receive 10 million times what we need. DirkvdM 19:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

This looks familiar. See orders of magnitude (power) for more measures of power consumption. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 19:42, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, that confirms the power recieved form the Sun (under Petawatt) but states that the total power consumption is a factor 1000 higher, namely 1.4x10¹³ W (under Terawatt) (a quarter of which in the US?!). So what we recieve is still 10 000 times more than the consumption, but I want to get this right. What would be a good source for this sort of info? (outside Wikipedia I mean :) ) DirkvdM 10:16, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

The World Energy Council says we consumed about 12 TW in 2001, compared to about 26 PW received in solar radiation over the Earth's land surface (and therefore about 78 PW over the whole globe). This is a ratio of about 6,000:1. These are my conversions from their figures which are in toe (tonnes oil equivalent). And yes, the US is responsible for a quarter of global consumption. (Only a quarter? Call yourselves a hyperpower?) --Heron 13:29, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ok, so if the US wanted to independently produce all it's power with solar cells, that would mean we would need 1/4 of 1/6000 of the Earth covered with solar cells, or 1/24000 of the total surface area of 510 million square km, which is 21,250 square km, or an area 146 km by 146 km. However, this is assuming 100% efficiency in conversion and transmission, which is way beyond current capabilities. If we assume 10% efficiency, we get an area 461 km by 461 km. I suppose it might be doable, but building it would have to be one of the largest projects ever undertaken on the planet. Making it a floating array in the Caribbean would have the advantage of reducing the solar heating there, and would thus reduce hurricanes. Then again, they would need to be very durable cells to survive long there. StuRat 19:48, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Looking at hypertextbook's page, I'm impressed that China could function on only 7.19 W throughout 1980. I wonder what happened to their efficiency, that's better than the RDA for 30 people. It's also interesting there's been no population growth since then. Are you sure that was your source? I don't see how you'd get 1.4x10¹⁰ W from that page.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the world's total energy consumption in 2004 was 420.98 quadrillion Btu (nice, sensible units), an average of 1.4075×10¹³ W throughout the year. The United States used a bit less than a quarter of that (3.287×10¹² W). [5] In case you're curious, China's average power consumption in 1980 was actually 577.96×10⁹ W. [6] ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 14:17, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

My calculation: from the page I concluded about 2000 GW for China, it says China use around 13% of the world's power, so I multiplied the 2000 GW by 7 and got 14000 GW or 1.4x10¹⁰ W. An extremely rough calculation, but that can't be off by a factor 1000. I suppose the site said GW where it should have said TW. DirkvdM 18:31, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Um... 14,000 GW is 1.4×10¹³ W. ^^;

‣ᓛᖁᑐ 19:04, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh dear, I used 10⁶ for Giga. Twice! I must be going soft in the head. DirkvdM 12:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Linux iwconfig

OK, I'm a newcomer to Linux, so try to ignore the stupidity of my questions and to try to give a simple answer. ;)

I'm trying to connect Knoppix on a LiveCD to my wireless router. I've used ndiswrapper to successfully install the Windows drivers for my Netgear WG511v2 PCMCIA wireless adapter card, and modprobed it so it shows up in iwconfig as wlan0. I can use it to scan for wireless networks and I do find my own wireless network in the list. It is WEP-encrypted, and I'm having trouble connecting it. At first, when I execute configuring commands like iwconfig wlan0 essid "SpeedStream9197", the settings in iwconfig are recorded. But as I start to put in more settings, I start losing the old ones, and eventually I find myself unable to set anything in iwconfig anymore. Any suggestions to what is going on, or have I missed something incredibly simple? -- Daverocks (talk) 11:25, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Knoppix has a "networking" control panel which takes care of most of it for you, and it wouldn't surprise me if some of your problems are that you're "undermining" the control panel's work with your attempts at specifying things manually.

When you have multiple networks available to you, listing them and/or specifying which one you want to use under Linux is tricky. Using the essid subfunction of the iwconfig command, as you suggest, seems to help, but you have to do it at the right time. For example, I think I remember going through a routine where I'd type the iwconfig essid command in one window but not hit RETURN, then go to the Knoppix networking control panel and configure everything else and click "Enable", then quick go back to the terminal window and hit RETURN so the iwconfig command would take effect during the control panel's autonegotiation attempts, and then everything would work. Steve Summit (talk) 14:09, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Would kwifimanager be this "control panel"? I tried running that, and it told me it couldn't start some service, and therefore it couldn't work properly? I'm going to have to check what it says again to give you a more detailed error message. But the GUI for it came up anyway, although it did not do anything because of the problem. -- Daverocks (talk) 19:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I dunno. Maybe. I always got to it the WIMPy way, by clicking on "Networking" in a "System Configuration" menu somewhere. Steve Summit (talk) 20:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I found a better way to configure it; wlcardconfig. You enter in everything and it does all the commands for you. Everything is set properly except the essid configuration. That's the only thing that doesn't save. I also found a GUI that has configuration options, probably similar or identical to the one you mention. Again, doesn't seem to have any effect on setting the essid. Do you remember exactly how you did that essid trick? I would be very happy to know. -- Daverocks (talk) 21:51, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Solved the problem! I was setting the WEP key in restricted mode (its default) which might have something to do with stopping me from choosing a specific access point (?) Anwyay, I just put it on "Open" mode and it all works! GO LINUX! :) -- Daverocks (talk) 09:31, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Converting .wma to .mp3

I borrowed some Music CD's from a friend and copied their contents on to my hard-disk.Coz I used Windows Media Player,the tracks are in the .wma format.I need to convert them to the mp3 format.How can I do that?Those CD's are not available now so I cant rip them directly.Some help required. Thnx in advance.

Well, you could decode them to an intermediate format such as uncompressed wav, then re-encode them to MP3, however, as both WMA and MP3 are lossy formats - that is, they degrade sound quality as part of their means of making the files smaller - your files will suffer quality loss from both the WMA encoding and then the MP3 encoding, and will most likely sound abysmal. As for which software to use, many open source and freeware audio players have the ability to convert audio formats to wav - off the top of my head, I believe Winamp can both play WMA and convert it to wav, and CDex can encode wav to MP3 --Noodhoog 13:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Thnx for the reply but it doesn't help me because Winamp can only convert to .wav from CD's directly.Just like Music Match JukeBox,which can rip only CD's,not tracks from the hard-drive. Thus this isn't a solution. Thnx anyway.

[7] It's for an older version, but the instructions are similar for version 5. enochlau (talk) 17:10, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• Under the Microsoft EAUL license, which you accepted (because you use Windows Media Player) you cannot—repeat cannot—change a .wma file to a .mp3 file. You can convert a mp3 file to a wma file, but not the other way around. ^KILO-_LIMA 15:44, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
  • That's funny, I can't seem to find the EULA for WMP 10. Do you know where I can get a hold of it? enochlau (talk) 17:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The fundamental problem is that WMA format is not designed to let you do what you want to do here. Moreover, it is specifically designed not to let you do what you want to do here. Microsoft doesn't want you converting those WMA files into any other format at all (let alone the popular but unprotected mp3 format), because in this case, it is more interested in keeping the record companies happy than it is in keeping you happy.

• Um, you know you can tell media player to save the files it copies as high quality mp3 files, negating the need to convert them--64.12.116.74 22:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There are probably programs out there that can convert from WMA to mp3, but they are not going to be easy to find, because if they were easy to find, Microsoft would have found them and gotten them suppressed under the DMCA. There are probably people (here) who could tell you about those programs, but they're reluctant to, because telling people how to defeat copy protection can get you in almost as much trouble as defeating copy protection, which can get you in almost as much trouble (more trouble, really) than actually violating copyright.

Steve Summit (talk) 16:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Why so hush hush? dBpowerAMP has always done the trick for me. Of course, if the content is protected by DRM, nothing's going to conver them, but if they're unprotected, this should do. enochlau (talk) 17:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well since you ripped them yourself using WMP, then there should be no protection actually (unless you chose to apply it yourself, and then you only have yourself to blame!) enochlau (talk) 17:10, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I use GoldWave to open WMA files and save them as WAV. Then it's just convert to MP3. It's not very wise, but I don't really have WMAs of files I want in high quality, so to hell with quality when I do this. WMA sucks. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 18:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

A quick and easy (though somewhat unrefined and inefficient) method is to get WMP to burn the files to disc, if that's possible, and then rip the CDs with another program that makes MP3s. Sum0 22:31, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• Um, you know you can tell media player to save the files it copies as high quality mp3 files, negating the need to convert them--64.12.116.74 22:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
  • S/he's already converted them, and presumably doesn't have the original CD? But even if so, it's a good question. Don't put people off like that. enochlau (talk) 22:51, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
    • I didn't really think I was putting anyone off, it's just all the responses so far seem to imply that microsoft doesn't let you copy content in mp3, when that is actually a false statement--64.12.116.74 22:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
      • Oh right, fair enough. I guess it's something s/he can remember to do for next time ;) enochlau (talk) 22:55, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You're spot on there,enochlau.That's exactly my situation and that's exactly what I'm not going to do in the future.

carcinogens

What common foods contain carcinogens ? ie: tea , coffee, bacon etc

I believe when you burn foods you create carcinogens (I mean burn as in fire, not as is metabolize). StuRat 14:37, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well-done steak (which I like) is known to be much more likely to give one cancer than medium steak. With my luck, however, I'd be suprised to live long enough to get cancer. Captain Jackson 15:32, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Answer here. (Also here, here, and here.) Steve Summit (talk) 16:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I read somewhere that table salt caused stomach cancer, but that made no sense to me. Your body is full of sodium and chloride ions. —Keenan Pepper 18:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I hadn't heard that. Iodine is also added to table salt to prevent goiters, but that isn't carcinogenic either, as far as I know. StuRat 20:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Researchers in Japan [8] and Poland [9] have linked table salt to stomach cancer. According to the American Cancer Society:

There is some evidence that diets containing large amounts of food preserved by salting and pickling are related to increased risk of cancers of the stomach, nose, and throat. Little evidence suggests that moderate amounts of salt or salt-preserved foods in the diet affect cancer risk. [10]

‣ᓛᖁᑐ 20:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I smell a (horrendously large) List of suspected carcinogens article coming on... --PeruvianLlama^(spit) 04:02, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

We already have those! See List of IARC Group 2A carcinogens and List of IARC Group 2B carcinogens. ^_^

‣ᓛᖁᑐ 06:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Many years ago, a magazine ran a competition for spurious scientific principles. My favourite was "if a rat is experimented upon, it will develop cancer". Notinasnaid 08:11, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The answer would be: most of them. Even without eating carcinogens, you'll still develop cancer now and then. It's normal to get cancer a few times a day. The vast majority of the time your immune system will take care of it. Now the relevant question is: How many common food products contain carcinogens to the extent that they significantly increase the risk of cancer? Now that is a hard question to answer, but in most cases you can rest assured that the risk is not great. The greater the risk, the easier it is to discern from statistical error. --BluePlatypus 17:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Counter-Strike and Weapons Copyrights

The computer-game Counter-Strike:Source contains a variety of computer models of real weapons. All of the weapons except the Mac-60 have fake names in the actual game because of copyright restrictions. However, if you go to the console screen it says that player X killed player Y using the real name of the weapon. Why do they have sneak around with the naming in the main game, but not the console? Plus they do alter a lot of the weapons' accuracy and damage abilities, making them less realistic, so why is it ok to use the weapon but not the name? Captain Jackson 15:30, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Back when Counter-Strike was a free, user-made mod of Half-Life 1, it used the real names of weapons both on screen and in the console. Technically speaking, this was a breach of the trademarks on the names of the weapons, but a free mod was unlikely to catch the attention of the weapon manufacturers. After the mod was bought-out by Valve, the on-screen names changed to non-trademarked versions (since a real company with actual assets is more likely to be sued). Apparently, games such as Rainbow Six that use real weapon names actually have a licence agreement with, e.g., Heckler & Koch, to use the real names.

For some reason, Valve didn't bother changing the CS console messages, perhaps because that would have meant re-writing the code (the names are actually C++ functions in the source code, e.g. weapon_famas) and it would also have broken things like buy scripts that lots of people used. Perhaps Valve figured that changing the on-screen name was a sufficient change to avoid trademark trouble, even though the appearance and console names still matched.

The Source version of CS uses a similar weapon-naming scheme as the original CS. You can download a small file that tweaks the weapon names back to the original "real" names, should you want to. --Bob Mellish 16:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

How do I create public read-only variables (properties) in a PHP class?

I know how to create a public variable that's readable and writeable both inside and outside the class (public $varName;), however I want it to be read-only from outside the class while still readable and writeable from inside the class, without having to write a wrapper function for each variable. I’m not sure if PHP can even do this, so if anyone has any idea other than a wrapper class, please post them.

I think you just have to make the variable private and write an accessor method. Alternatively you could make it public, and specify in the documentation of your class that changing it may cause undefined behavior. —Keenan Pepper 17:55, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Buying Electricity

Discussions about electric bills often come up where I work, and the issue of power factor relating to what you use and what you're billed for is often raised. Many suggest that the utility company charges for the uncorrected power you use, using peak current. This would mean that they are actually charging for KVA/H instead of KW/H, which would be deceptive at best. Does anyone know the metering method of typical house KW/H boxes that the util co's use to charge for power in the US? I didn't find much specific info in our Electricity Distribution category. --Jmeden2000 17:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Isn't the kilovolt-ampere-hour exactly the same unit as the kilowatt-hour? I don't understand what you mean by "charging for KVA/H instead of KW/H". —Keenan Pepper 17:50, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Incidentally, its quite different. This is why the issue is so often raised around my workplace, being a power systems company. See our article on Power factor for a detailed explanation. Essentially the issue is that in AC power supplies for modern things like TVs and computers, the draw from the line is non-sinusodial. Calculating the power based on peak amperage converted to RMS is inaccurate (resulting in a VA rating that is higher than W). Calculating power based on amperage at a higher resolution, ignoring the sine wave, results in a more accurate measure of consumption (meaning W reflects *actual* power usage over time). Power factor of devices is typically .7 (this is the defacto industry standard that my company uses), meaning that if you look at the metered VA draw it is 30% higher than the metered W. --Jmeden2000 18:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Not to stop anyone from pondering this... but I found a fairly good answer after more reading in the Electric Power category's article on Electricity meter (should that article be attached to Category:Electricity_distribution?), which explains that most common meters use a method that does not account for reactive power and hence would meter true wattage. Although, it's not terribly specific so if anyone has more info I would love to hear it. --Jmeden2000 18:43, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

My understanding is that for a power company to charge for KVA/H isn't really quite so evil. (Nor would I call it particularly deceptive, since everyone knows about it -- everyone who knows about power factor, that is.) True, you didn't get any useful work out of those off-phase amps, and the power company didn't have to pay for fuel to generate them, but they did have to pay for copper in the transmission system to carry them. Those off-phase amps contribute to the current load (i.e. take their share of a cable's current capacity or "ampacity") just as much as the real, work-performing amps do.

Now, my understanding was also that, traditionally, small residential users are typically billed for KW/H (i.e. "fairly" from the work/energy perspective), and that the power company "eats" the power factor losses, or pays out of its own pocket for capacitor banks at substations to correct for them. However, large, high-current industrial users are typically billed for KVA/H, which gives them an incentive to install their own capacitors (if necessary) to keep their power factor near 100%. (But it wouldn't surprise me if, over time, more and more customers, even individual residential customers, are being billed for KVA/H. I just checked, and my electric meter is very clearly labeled "Watthour meter" and its display as indicating "kilowatthours", and so is the new, fancy-schmancy, electronic electric meter my neighbor has. If I had a big inductive load I'd perform an empirical test, but I don't.) Steve Summit (talk) 19:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that, as long as all power companies do it the same way, it doesn't matter, since they charge whatever either competition or the state governments will let them get away with. For example, if a utility sells one billion tweebles of power each year and it costs them a billion dollars, the state government may allow them to charge $1.10 per tweeble for a fair profit of 10%. On the other hand, if they claim they sell two billion tweebles a year at a cost of a billion dollars, the state would allow them to charge $0.55 per tweeble for a fair profit of 10%. So, the cost to the consumers will be $1.1 billion, either way you do it. In areas where different power companies compete, the forces of competition would dictate a similar outcome. StuRat 19:54, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, it matters at least a little bit, because a KVA/H is not merely some constant fraction of a KWH. Consumers have some if not complete control over the power factor of their loads, and since low power factor loads are wasteful to the system, it's worthwhile to give people an economic incentive to raise their power factor. Steve Summit (talk) 23:55, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

How to put out a fire

How do water and carbon dioxide put out fires, especially when their individual atomic components (hydrogen-great fire fuel, oxygen-essential for fire, carbon-will burn, such as coal) would each support a fire by themselves? I am aware this has something to do with electrons and oxidation/reducation. Captain Jackson 18:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, sounds a little like a homework question to me. =P Just keep in mind that a compound (NaCl is table salt) may share none of the properties of its component elements (Na bursts into flame on contact with water; Cl₂ is a poisonous gas). —Keenan Pepper 18:02, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Exactly. If water tossed onto fire could burst into flame because of its hydrogen content, we would have to expect table salt to be terribly toxic due to its chlorine content. (Though wasn't someone just asking about NaCl as a suspected carcinogen? Also, thinking about water bursting into flame, I can't help but be reminded of Beaker's disastrous experience in Muppet Labs with "flammable water".)

In effect, the hydrogen in water is already "burned". You can pull the two components of water apart to create hydrogen and oxygen gas (in fact I think we were just talking about that here, too), but it takes exactly as much energy as you'd get back if you burned the hydrogen, so it doesn't tend to happen by itself.

With that said, though, I've heard that you can't put out an aluminum fire with water, and that aluminum will burn underwater, because it's so electronegative that it rips the oxygen out of the water itself, leaving hydrogen that will burn. (Come to think of it, the standard labratory demonstration of dropping lithium or sodium into water does the same thing.) Steve Summit (talk) 19:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Never heard of this happening with Aluminum, Magnesium will do this, though.

This is just out of curiosity, I'm a senior in college who will never take another science class as long as I live. I've actually completed an organic chemistry course. Captain Jackson 18:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe a better question would be how matter can put out fire, a form of energy. Captain Jackson 18:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh, my apologies. Fire fighting has some useful information about this. The goals are simply to separate the fuel from the oxygen, and absorb heat. Water does both. It boils into water vapor which pushes the oxygen away, and it absorbs heat because of its heat capacity. Also see fire triangle. —Keenan Pepper 18:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Carbon dioxide is heavier than air, so sits on top of the fire, depriving it of free oxygen, and cools as it expands out of the extinguisher, then cools off the fire as well. Water evaporates as it hits the fire. If you've boiled water, you know how much energy it takes to boil it all off. And the main advantage of water is that it's so cheap you can pour huge quantities on the fire. Never use water on a grease fire or an electrical fire, though, as it will splatter flaming grease and conduct electricity. StuRat 19:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

It is true that CO2 is heavier than air, but that's not going to matter much with the fierce air currents that a fire makes. If you blow a stream of CO2 at a fire from an extinguisher, it's directed into a jet by the nozzle and it's its own momentum that keeps it moving toward the fire, just like when you play water on the fire from a hose. As stated above, its action is to cool the fire and deprive it of oxygen. --Anonymous, 09:50 UTC, January 28.

Mind and Brain

im doing a bit of coursework which includes a certain area of psychology and the mind, the question being, does the mind use the brain or does the brain use the mind? anyone who could answer would be great User:Alice cf83

From our article, the Mind: "The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain"

To clarify this, the human brain is the physical organ contained within the skull with many functions, divided into "lower" and "higher" orders. The "lower" orders include involuntary activities, such as respiration, while the "higher" orders include mental activity, such as thought. As previously stated, the "mind" describes a collection of these "higher" functions. I would personally conclude therefore, that the mind uses the brain. For further reading, aside from our articles on the human brain and the mind, I would suggest this external link: Dualism: The Mind-Brain Problem. Hope this helps! --Lox (t,c) 22:15, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

We also have an article on the mind-body problem. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 06:11, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I generally second Lox's answer. Suffice to say that you've asked an ancient and intractable problem of Western philosophy. There are people who are famous in no small part for their amusing ideas about this topic. --George 05:56, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, philosophy probably is relevant to this question, but strictly speaking psychology doesn't... do the mind-body problem, does it? --Sum0 10:46, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Does the book use the story it tells or does the story use the book it's in? Some claim there are no stupid questions. Such people obviously haven't studied philosophy. :) DirkvdM 14:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Nice analogy DirkvdM, I actually am an agnostic regarding that but I tend to think that it is most likely that the mind is a by-product of the brain, given that we have a bunch of data about the brain and it's functions that seem to point that way.--Cosmic girl 00:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

computer files

I was wondering why it's important to back up files? Thank you, Funk Posse

See backup. Gdr 22:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

My computer crashed last week (I'm currently using a loan machine). My last backup was in August. So everything I've done on the computer since then may have been lost: My diary, my writing, my financial records, my music, my art... next question, please? Grutness...wha? 22:39, 27 January 2006 (UTC) (still in shock)

I'd be happy to tell you why it's important, but unfortuately I stored that answer on my ZIP disk, which is now unreadable. So I don't know anymore. - Nunh-huh 22:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Lol, who still uses zip disks?--64.12.116.74 22:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

That's sort of the point. - Nunh-huh 08:03, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

What's a zip disk? Asking this makes me feel young for a change. :)

More seriously, especially make a point of regularly backing up texts you've written. I keep them together in a separate directory, which is very small because texts hardly take up any space. That way you can easily backup the whole lot regularly and have dozens of backups in the long run, without it really costing much. The chances of all backups of a file becoming unusable are then negligent. Unless you keep them all in the same room, which then burns down. So put them on some website as well. There are free ones for that, though I can't remember any right now. DirkvdM 14:16, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

It's important also to realise (and some people don't) that to be a backup there must be at least two copies. For instance, if you copy your photos to a CDROM from your hard drive, you have a backup. If you now remove them from the hard drive, you do not have a backup, even though the CDROM was originally a backup. On the other hand, if you made two CDROMs you do have a backup. This may not help if you keep them both together and the same disaster strikes. To plan backups you should consider all of the following possibilities: (a) computer failure loses files (hard disk wears out, nasty virus); (b) you, a friend or visting child deletes files, or destroys them (e.g. accidentally deleting a chapter of your novel without noticing, then saving); (c) computer is stolen; (d) computer is damaged by file, flood or other disaster. Remember that in cases (c) and (d) backups kept with or near the computer may be gone too (thieves tend to grab all sorts of stuff, and fire isn't picky). So called "backups" to files on the same disk are quick and easy, but only protect against case (b). Notinasnaid 17:34, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

BitTorrent

Do torrents work at all from behind a router?--64.12.116.74 22:56, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I have a router and mine work fine. Perhaps you are thinking of a firewall. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

If you are behind a home broadband router which is doing NAT, you may need to do some setup to direct incoming BitTorrent connections to the correct computer. How you'd do this depends on your router; for details of what ports you should open, Google is your friend. -- AJR | Talk 01:47, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

In fact, BitTorrent works fine behind a NAT without any setup; you'll just not be able to connect to other peers which are also behind a NAT or a firewall (this sometimes can be a problem on less popular torrents, and you will get slower downloads). --cesarb 02:52, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Depending on your specific situation, Port forwarding and Port triggering might also have relevant info. For a non-Wiki source, check out the BitTorrent.com FAQ. --PeruvianLlama^(spit) 03:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

January 28

Early film technology questions

Hey, I'm working on a big table comparing film formats by specs and I'm still looking for a few pieces of information with little luck. Here are some:

1. What are the projector aperture dimensions for Pathe Kok format?
2. What is the pulldown for Cineorama (not Cinerama)?
3. What are the gate aperture and projector aperture dimensions for Movietone?
4. What is the first Movietone film with optical sound down the side?
5. What is the first film shot in Academy ratio?
6. What was the first film matted down to 1.75?
7. What was the first film matted down to 1.85?

I may have more in the future, but that's plenty for now. Any answers with references most greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance. Girolamo Savonarola 01:41, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Perhaps you didn't realize this, but this is actually an on-line encyclopedia where you can answer most questions yourself using the handy search bar along the left side of your screen. Type in "film", press "Go", and marvel at the wonder that is modern technology. In your case, you will need to use the box with the "Go" button several times, for several key words, and also explore links you find on those articles to related articles.

• Cinerama
• Film
• Movietone

Many articles are grouped into categories (see links at bottom of pages) You might like to explore some of the articles in categories such as the following.

• Category:Film production
• Category:Film techniques

User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:23, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Re:5. According to this link Thomas Edison already shot his films in 1.37:1, but of course at the time it wasn't called Academy ratio. It was made into a standard by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1932. David Sneek 09:26, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Just wanted to point out that User:Girolamo Savonarola is a major editor of Wikipedia's film technology articles. --Shantavira 18:13, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks Shantavira for educating me. I found some sites via google which may be helpful.

• History of Cinema (watch out for lots of pop-up ads) http://www.filmsite.org/filmh.html 100 years of the history of film and movies
  • such as http://www.filmsite.org/pre20sintro.html film history prior to the 1920's
• Film History Magazine http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/film_history/ E-ISSN: 1553-3905 Print ISSN: 0892-2160
• Buckey's Film History Conservation http://members.tripod.com/~cinefan/home.html

There's also Yahoo but I think Teoma is good for general research that google might not be best for.

• Chronological history leading to the development of Cinematography www.precinemahistory.net/
• 100 years of film sizes www.xs4all.nl/~wichm/filmsize.html
• History of Cinema to 1914 http://www.filmsound.org/film-sound-history/silentfilmlinks.htm
• US Film history thru 1945 http://www.wzip.uakron.edu/schlcomm/Caplan/film.htm

Lots more there User:AlMac|^(talk) 01:02, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Hey all, thanks for the links! Unfortunately, couldn't find answers to those questions there. David, the 1.37 ratio didn't come about until 1931-1932 at AMPAS's instigation, so that site is wrong. Girolamo Savonarola 13:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

how do I become a reference desk volunteer?

I'm good with science in particular, but know a bit about a lot. I'd love to help answering people's questions.

Thank you, Jon Boro

Just like everything else on Wikipedia, just go in and do it! I love doing this now that I've found it! -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 09:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Note the "edit" button on the right of each heading. To answer that question, simply click "edit" and go nuts. - Akamad 09:33, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, be sure to put a colon before each response, and if it is a reply to a response, then put two colons. And link words you may want to with the great four brackets. [[]] -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 09:58, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Get an account too if you haven't already, and you can sign your contributions with ~~~~. For more info on contributing generally, see Wikipedia:Introduction. Enjoy! enochlau (talk)

Also, at the top of the screen there's some instructions for answering questions properly. Black Carrot 00:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Dermathology,Biology and Chemistry question

Hi, I was wondering if the slime of a snail has good properties for the skin, because I don't know if buying a cream that 'everyone' here is buying because it's supposed to be so good, so I have my doubts, is it actually regenerative and all? or all they say is just part of the publicity.--Cosmic girl 14:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I, from personal experience, don't think it would be a good idea. What exactly do you want the slime to do to his/her/your skin? Age-reduction et al? A biologist and a dermatologist would have a much better answer than this. I suppose it doesn't really come under Chemistry. ^KILO-_LIMA 16:16, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

If it is made from the slime of multiple snails, it might signal "lots of food this way." If made from the slime of one snail, it might prolaim to other snails that this one owns you. alteripse 16:44, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

LOL! very funny alteripse, well I don't think it's supposed to be for anything in particular, it's just said to be a good moisturizer since it's natural and it's supposed to improve the overall skin condition,no matter what you have or don't have...and well I saw an advertisement on tv and it's such a persistent advertisement that everyone where I live is aware of this product and so once I made fun of it with one of my nicknames on MSN and a guy friend of mine told me that his mom had bought him the cream and that it's actually good because he had a scar and it began to dissapear, but whatever, I'm such a skeptic that I want to know if that thing has chemical properties that could actually be beneficial for the skin or if it's just a fraud like a lot of stuff that's sold on tv.--Cosmic girl 16:55, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

What's the name of this product? I suggest you Google it and see whether there has been any tests or critical research. Lots of things are "natural", but that doesn't necessarily mean they're good for your skin, or anything else. --Shantavira 18:19, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Is this it? As so often happens, the write-up contains vague phrases like "laboratory studies have shown" without actually citing the studies. Your doctor should know whether this stuff is any good. Alternatively it looks as though you could just go find some snails to crawl on you. --Shantavira 18:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

hahaha! yeah I'd rather have snails crawl on me than use some dubious cream on my skin...I'll stay with my skepticism and not expose my skin to any risk.--Cosmic girl 19:40, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Are snails noted for having particularly lovely skin? I think not. Conversely, would one describe a flawless complexion as "peaches and slime"? And cow poo is "natural", but I won't knowingly be applying any to my epidermis... - Nunh-huh 20:37, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

hahaha! :D ( if I ever know of anyone who got results I'll tell you though ;) ) --Cosmic girl 23:27, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Ever hear of Penn and Teller's Bulls**t? They did that as a prank at the mall. M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 01:51, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

The snail-cream is vaguely reminiscent of "Slurm" cola, as well. - Nunh-huh 01:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• First, due to the obvious conflict of interest, any studies commissioned by the manufacturer are worthless, you need independent studies.

• Second, the lack of any specific claim is suspicious. Quacks typically don't want to be pinned down to a specific claim, as that would make it easier to disprove. If it's only supposed to be a moisturizer, any plant oil will do that, and also reduce "the appearance" of scars by filling in the low spots, at least until it evaporates.

• Finally, even if it was a valuable ingredient, cosmetics are notorious for angel dusting, which is adding a minuscule amount of good ingredients, which is insufficient to have any noticeable effect.

StuRat 06:18, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Cotton swabs and ear damage

While the cotton swabs article doesn't mention it, the Q-tips article indicates that swabs should not be used to clean ear wax from a person's ear canal. Why is this? What is the possible damage that could result? -User:Lommer | ^talk 18:42, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Our article on earwax has an extensive section on the subject. It says:

It is generally advised not to use cotton swabs (Q-Tips or cotton buds) as these will likely push the wax further down the ear canal and, if used carelessly, perforate the eardrum or worse. Cotton swabs should be used only to clean the external ear.

That should answer your question. See the article for more info on cleaning the ear canal. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 18:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Of course, others say that these warnings are just a case of a manufacturer producing a product obviously designed for a specific purpose -- i.e. cleaning inside the ear canal -- and then attempting to avoiding lawsuit by claiming that it is intended for another purpose. Draw your own conclusions. --Anonymous, 20:40 UTC, January 28.

Yes, this is the case. The only reason to place cotton swabs on the end of a long stick is so they will fit in the ear canal. Plain cotton balls could be used for any other purpose. Since idiots who jam a Q-tip into their ear and puncture the eardrum could sue for millions, and possibly win, the manufacturers add such silly disclaimers in an attempt to reduce their liability. StuRat 05:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

If one can be sued for millions for producing something that people could misuse to damage their ears, then what sort of fines might weapons manufacturers face? Or do they also come with warnings that it may be dangerous to actually use them? Actually, I wouldn't be surprised. I suppose the preceding bit was about the US. My box of cotton buds says "don't stick into the ear too deep". What does it say in the US?

By the way, I used to use them, but then I changed to using a strong shower ray (is 'ray' the right word here?) until we got a new shower head that isn't fit for that. And now I notice that after half a year of not clearing my ears they don't get dirty anymore. So I suppose it's an addiction. When you regularly remove the earwax the body compensates by making more of the stuff, etc. If you stop cleaning, the wax will stop 'overflowing'. DirkvdM 11:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• How is one supposed to clean one's ear, then? ^KILO-_LIMA 22:19, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

That's what I want to know. I was 60% deaf for a month last year because of wax buildup and Q-tips certainly didn't help much. When I was younger I remember my doctor used to shine a light into my ear and the heat softened the earwax which would then simply drip out. I tried to follow his example by pouring hot water into my ear and it might have worked a little bit, at least at loosening the wax, but I don't think the water was hot enough. I'm not suggesting you do the same thing either : ).   freshgavin TALK    01:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• • You will find you'll have more success by using luke warm salt water. Keep adding salt to a beaker of cold water until it doesn't all dissolve, stirring all the time, add hot water slowly whilst stirring until the salt has all dissolved. Pour a bit in your ear, until you feel it has filled up (may need to wiggle your head around to get it in there. Leave it in there for a couple of minute or so, with your heard tilted to stop it slopping out, then tilt your head back upwards (holding a tissue etc loosely to your ear to catch the salty, waxy, watery gunk. Proto t c 11:53, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Or use my shower method if you have the right head for it (showerhead, I mean :) ). Or maybe use a syringe. DirkvdM 12:10, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

You can buy ear wax solvents that are safe to put in your ears to dissolve wax (if you don't have holes in your ear drums, like tubes). Two US brands are Ceruminex and Debrox. alteripse 12:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

My brother-in-law always uses a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide. He swears by it. I'm not sure if this has any adverse effects, but he seems to be fine. My sister, on the other hand, always says to use an ear lavage kit or something like that. Good luck! --Dimblethum 03:25, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Battery Discharge

I need all the information I can get about battery discharge. I am participating in my local science fair and I need info to write the essay. I have been searching on the internet but all of the info is not quite right. I need to know about battery discharge in AA Alkaline batteries. Just the common household ones like Duracell and Energizer. I really Appreciate it, Thanks!

I once looked all this up to compare rechargeables, and see if Alkaline recharging really worked. There's a lot of information from the battery companies. If you are going to be successful in a science fair, you're going to have to become a pro at Google. --Zeizmic 20:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but I have already searched exstensively there, and have not found the info I was looking for. I need to answer a few questions: What is battery discharge? WHat does storing a battery in a cold temperature do? What does storing a battery at room temperature do? and What is the best way to store a battery? If you could answer these questions that would be great. Thanks! P.S.: I am looking for answers about non-rechargable batteries

Those are decent questions. They all boil down to one question though: What causes batteries to self-discharge? We should really have an article on self-discharging. -- Ec5618 21:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, but my questions still haven't been answered. I would appreciate an answer, Thanks! Helen

Again, Google Aptitude is important. You should be able to find this [[11]] in 2 minutes. It answers all your questions. --Zeizmic 22:29, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the link, but it did not answer my questions. I am not looking for the numbers, but rather the basic information so I can do the experiment myself. Helen

These might be difficult experiments to do yourself. What you need is a way to measure total energy across a resistor at different discharge rates. Basically, an alkaline cell delivers it's maximum total energy at low discharge rates, such as a digital clock. You do bad things to the electrodes at high rates. Alkalines are fairly good at lower temps. You could run different motor loads (a bunny rabbit!) and see how long it takes to run down. You would need a multi-meter to measure voltage and current. Again, you would see a better total output at lower rates. You might want to compare it to carbon-cell (cheap) batteries. --Zeizmic 00:06, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

BC pot laced with meth

I've tried going to UBC's web site to locate Dr. Bill MacEwen's statement that BC pot is laced with meth to get people addicted to pot. Nothing seems available. Can you suggest a starting point? Thanks, 198.166.18.60 21:59, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I doubt that the Union Bank of California is likely to know much about methyl alcohol in cookware from Ensenada. How about giving a little more context? --Trovatore 22:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

University of British Columbia Canada. Crystal methamphetimine laced marijuana to make people more addicted to cannabis. First read about Dr. B. MacEwen at UBC in local newspaper. 198.166.18.60 22:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

• Doesn't make a lot of sense -- it perhaps might get people addicted to meth, but who in the hell wants speedy pot? --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 22:59, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't seem to be much in the general Internet. You should read Methamphetamine which gives a lot of info. There may have been some confusion with Bush linking meth with cannabis, but they do silly things. Cannabis is usually shipped as an unlabelled commodity, there would be no economic advantage in lacing it at double the price. There might be a market for 'methed pot', but that would be impossible to label with a brand name. --Zeizmic 00:28, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Do you think it is possible? Someone once told me that meth turns to a liquid when heated. Would it not make the pot difficult to light or keep lit? 198.166.18.60 00:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Serious mistake in the question. The purpose might be to get people addicted to methamphetamine, not the weed. And weed isn't addictive anyway. So maybe that's what you meant; Get people addicted to the meth in that specific weed from that specific supplier. So that he can then start to sell meth once they're hooked. If I understand Zeizmic correctly and the price of meth is double that of weed, then that is the only thing that would make sense. Then again, this would only work for people who have never used weed before (so a very, very small market) because others would notice immediately.

In general it is safer to mistrust anything that is said about certain subjects that have strongly opposing camps. These camps often dominate discussions so much that rational statements simply get swamped. Or rather the media pick out the most 'exciting' stories, which are generally the least correct ones. DirkvdM 11:59, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• Methamphetamines are considerably more expensive than marijuana is, and you'd have to do it pretty regularly to get "addicted" (it isn't a one-shot thing). As for what happens to methamphetamines when heated, methamphetamine (as sold on the streets) has a very low boiling point, low enough that it turns into a liquid and then a gas pretty quickly when heated with a flame. It would not pose a problem in keeping the marijuana lit, I don't think. But it would still be a stupid economic move. Additionally it would be a major undercutting of trust between the dealer and the buyer, which is generally bad for repeat business. Also, if the pot was laced with enough methamphetamines to get someone "addicted", it would be highly noticeable both in the pot itself and in the effects, which are completely different from that of pot. --Fastfission 03:33, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

No addiction is ever a 'one shot thing' (by definition even I'd say). Just one more of those bits of nonsense that are spread around by sensationalists. DirkvdM 12:13, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Eyesight Damage From Optical Mice Light?

Is it possible? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 12.27.185.151 (talk • contribs) .

I'm not sure why you'd think it might. It may be red, but it's a light-emitting diode, not a laser. - Nunh-huh 23:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Some optical mice do use laser LEDs. I'd expect them to be class I, however (see laser safety). --cesarb 23:20, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

My own Logitech MX1000 Laser mouse is indeed a class I device. --GraemeL ^(talk) 23:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

It would probably be very hard to damage your eyesight by holding the bottom of a mouse over your eye. You would probably have more success holding a live mouse's back end over your eye.

As far as I know, most optical mice work by using red LEDs, as opposed to lasers. But if the light bothers you, I have heard of some optical mice that use infrared light so humans can't see it. -- Daverocks (talk) 06:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, but couldn't infrared light still damage the eye? Sum0 23:01, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I heard that ultrared and infraviolet light can damage your eyes, too. KWH 05:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

All the more reason not to look into the Sun, which emits large amounts of infrared and ultraviolet light. The Sun would be far, far more likely to damage your eyes than an optical mouse. Mind you, the Sun powers those infrared optical mice nicely :) -- Daverocks (talk) 11:21, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

How can I free up RAM?

What are some ways that I can free up some of my computer's RAM? I'm running a Dell Dimension 4100 with a Pentium III, 128 MB of RAM, and Windows ME. I'm trying to improve performance, because as it stands, I only have a tiny fraction of my RAM available... Javguerre

As I understand it, Windows views unused physical memory as a wasted resource, and will deliberately grab it, to reduce disk swapping. If you try to keep Windows from doing this, you'll probably worsen overall performance rather than improve it. If you're interested in the performance of one specific program, that's different: Then you could try rewriting it to manage its own memory allocation, and there's even an API call to lock pages in memory so they won't be swapped to disk. --Trovatore 23:39, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm interested in doing whatever I can to better overall performance. I know defragmenting will help, but I'm curious as to whether or not there's anything else that can be done. Javguerre 23:41, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, you could always buy some more RAM and install it. --Robert Merkel 00:23, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• Try to minimize how many things you run at once.

• Reboot periodically, to deal with former programs which left chunks of memory reserved after they terminated. They shouldn't do this, but many programs seem to do so anyway.

StuRat 05:33, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry if I misunderstand this, but I get a feeling that you've got a wrong notion of what RAM is. It's a form of volatile memory. You can't defragment it. Each time you start the computer, it's initially all free. Programs then start using any still free memory. In my experience the only program that causes performance loss is Photoshop (or any other graphical application) when it's got several really big images open. Then again, I have 1 GB of RAM. And the reason for that is that (1) I use graphical stuff fairly often and that needs is (2) much RAM is one of the best ways to increase performance of a computer, unless it only uses very 'small footprint' programs and that is hardly ever the case anymore. Especially something monstrous like WinXP needs loads of RAM (at least a few hundred MB for it to feel comfortable). Linux, in contrast, was initially designed to work on very small systems. At today's prices it's also the most cost-efficient way to improve performance. Except of course for defragging, whcih costs nothing. But that is only needed for certain file systems andm where msWindows is concerned, FAT needs it more than NTFS. And Linux's journaling file systems don't need defragging at all because there is no fragmenting, to put it simply. DirkvdM 12:24, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Do you have to use windows ME? Some linux distributions are designed to run on systems with only a small amount of memory. Damn small linux for example is available as a live cd so you can try it out without affecting your windows system. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 17:26, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Rambooster. chocolateboy 22:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

First, you should probably do a thorough scan for adware and spyware, using free programs such as AdAware and Spybot. Evil malware may be running on your system and stealing precious RAM. After making sure that's been taken care of, you can run MSCONFIG to see what other processes may be running at startup, and eliminate thost that you don't really need. There is a decent write-up on using MSCONFIG here: http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/. And yes, RAM is relatively cheap, so putting in whatever the max is for your Dell can't hurt. LarryMac 16:29, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Lyapunov stability for state space models

Question moved to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics. deeptrivia (talk) 01:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

End of math

Has all the <math> markup on this page overloaded Mediawiki? In the above section I see what must be uniquely generated strings that aren't being replaced, such as "UNIQ319e40072d2f771e-math95ccddc359b6a170000000B". ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 23:53, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Apparently it's stopped now. How strange. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 23:59, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Take a look at Wikipedia_talk:Reference desk#Gobbledegook in Instructions. Black Carrot 00:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Picture of insect

What insect is this?: http://img52.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard016op.jpg --172.160.178.216 04:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

It looks like a grasshopper. -- Ec5618 23:51, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

No, I think it's something else. Black Carrot 00:10, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

May I ask, in what country was this picture taken? It still looks like a grasshopper to me. -- Ec5618 00:16, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Not a grasshopper, closer to a giant tropical cockroach. Probably taken in a warm place. --Zeizmic 00:18, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I've seen one those on one or more occasions where I live, which is in the southeast US. --Shanedidona 01:28, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

It looks to me like a katydid. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, katydid [12] --Zeizmic 02:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

What did Katy do? DirkvdM 12:28, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

You all are missing the point ... katydid is a subgroup of grasshopper, so you're all right. --Cyde Weys 22:10, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

This is me (the asker of the question) thanks. BTW, it was taken in southern ontario. --172.160.178.216 04:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

January 29

Attention span

How does average attention span vary by age, and to what extent does it depend on context and mode of attention? I find that the 3M Meeting Network has measured the average attention span of adult audiences to be 18 minutes, [13] but Google returns very little about how attention spans are measured. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 02:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I recall reading an article on this, but, unfortunately, I lost interest midway through ... :-) But seriously, the attention span isn't a fixed thing, but depends on how much the topic interests you, how well the material is presented, the presence of visual aides, etc. The fact that different people have a different attention span for different things makes it quite difficult to quantify. For example, most people would find the movie, The Ten Commandments, interesting all the way through, but would have their eyes glaze over after reading a few minutes of the "begats" in the Bible. A few people, however, might be just the reverse. Those people might be inspired by the "begats" to create a biblical genealogy chart. StuRat 05:23, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Certain chemicals into your brain can help, such as caffeen. It helps if you are wide awake, interested in the topic, and have no great urgency to be somewhere else, such as running errands, or running to the bathroom. User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

operating system

How do I install dual operating systems on my computer? I already have Windows XP but I also need Windows 98. Please explain in detail.

You'll probably need either two different disks or two partitions on the same disk. It's possible to repartition your disk while preserving the data on it, but it's very easy to screw up and lose all your data if you don't know what you're doing.

Once you have the multiple disks or partitions set up, the Windows installation CD should give you a choice of which one to install to. —Keenan Pepper 03:11, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this is still the case with WinXP, but in order to install older versions of msWindows, you had to protect the already present installation to keep it from being overwritten and the only way to do that is to disconnect that drive. So you'd need two drives. That is also why it is always better to install msWindows before Linux because Linux can handle that (it leaves the old installation alone unless you tell it otherwise). Or is that different with XP? DirkvdM 12:33, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

There are a couple of difficulties with installing Windows 98 after Windows XP. Windows 98 will need to be installed on the first partition of the drive, which is typically taken by Windows XP. So unless you do some trickery with the partitioning (note that you can't partition during Win98 setup like you can with WinXP), that's not going to work. I've tried installing 98 then XP, and that'll work just fine. enochlau (talk) 13:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, so ms has solved that problem with XP? DirkvdM 18:33, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity - why do you need Window 98? XP has a "compatibility mode" so you can run older programs on it and make them think they're running under (for instance) Windows 98. Right-click on the shortcut and select "Windows 98 compatibility".

Other than running older programs, I can't think of a good reason to have both WIndos 98 and Windows XP running on the same machine (and, as the comments above indicate, it's likely to be rather tricky to set up). If you really need to have both, you can always buy a very cheap older computer (compared to today's machines, you don't need much to run Windows 98) and install 98 on it... Either way, good luck! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Compatibility mode is good but not always effective. For example, PageMaker 6.5 doesn't run perfectly in Windows XP, and compatibility mode doesn't fix it; I believe this is partly due to changes in the behaviour of the PostScript printer driver, which is still the same. One more possibility for the original poster: buy Virtual PC or VMWare, which allow you to run a "system within a system", boot Windows 98 there. Notinasnaid 10:34, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

upload

Is there a way to store important files in the Internet by uploading them just like we download from the Internet? If yes please explain how to do this in detail. Also tell me what amount of data I will be able to upload.

Uploading and downloading both refer to file transfer, just different directions. If you're uploading something to someone then they're downloading it from you. It's just like emigration and immigration.

How much data just depends on how much storage is on the machine you want to upload to. Many sites will allow you to upload things via FTP and they'll usually give you a disk quota which says how much space you're allowed to use. —Keenan Pepper 03:05, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

There are methods you can find to use a Google email account for free storage of files. It doesn't have to be difficult though. Just email the files you need as an attachment to your gmail account. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ask your Internet service provider if they provide you with webspace. Most ISPs give you some webspace which you can upload to with FTP (mine offers me 10 MB of space to store data). -- Daverocks (talk) 07:04, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

penis?

Any thoughts? normal part of the body? or satanic imagery that must never see the light of day?--—The preceding signed comment was added by Bob Sagat (talk • contribs) {{SUBST:{2|}}}. 04:25, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Nice try - the reference desk is probably the one place on Wikipedia that is most immune to trolling :-) --HappyCamper 04:08, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

See our article on penis. Personally, along with wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings, penises are among my favorite things. That and whiskey. So I'm in favor. --George 04:43, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Bwahaha, that cheered me up. =) That's from My Favorite Things (song), right? —Keenan Pepper 07:34, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Let's see, how does that song go again ?

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Weiners that wiggle and dildos that come in...

Brown paper packages tied up with string

These are a few of my favorite things

StuRat 13:50, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Bimbos with breasts like two Rocks of Gibraltar

Priests who seduce me in front of the altar

Corsets that tie in the back with two strings

These are a few of my favorite things.

Women who yield up a plump Mount of Venus

Men who deliver a fifteen inch penis

Talk so explicit it virtually sings

These are a few of my favorite things.

When I'm horny

Needing porn, I

Have to scratch that itch....

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't need you, bitch.

Zotz 15:51, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Nicely done ! Is that all you or did you find it somewhere ? StuRat 16:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, yes, that was me, with you as inspiration. In some way sadly, I suppose! - Zotz 00:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Proving once again that, truly, the pen is mightier than the sword. Steve Summit (talk) 05:03, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

*Drinks to counteract spicy foods?

I love spicy food, but like most people I sometimes bite off more than I can chew. I was curious if anyone knew the best drinks to have handy while eating spicy food. Water? Milk? I realize this may be a matter of personal preference, but I thought maybe there was a scientific reason one drink might be superior to another (pH?). EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 06:11, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Fresh tomato helps. The redder the better. Slice one up and have it handy. JackofOz 06:15, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I think milk is the best that would be readily at hand. But it seems it depends on what spicy food you are eating, try different drinks to see which works best for you with what food. This link [14] tells a few answers to why. Also, see what Wikipedia says under "Food" at Capsaicin -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 06:30, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

See Capsaicin. -- Rick Block (talk) 06:25, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Make up some lassi, which is basically yoghurt and water mixed 50/50. You can also add sweetners or spices depending on your taste. --Shantavira 09:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Mmmmm... lassi! I agree. Cybergoth 17:12, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Lassi is the time tested companion of spicy foods! deeptrivia (talk) 01:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

A trick I learned from my mother is that when you've put too much spice in food is to add milk to it. Works quite well. I think it's something about the fat in the milk that envelops the spicy bits so they can't 'sting' anymore. Or something.... DirkvdM 12:38, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I find lemonade or orange juice to be good; anything with citrus fruits in. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 15:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with those who said milk. Specifically, milk with a high fat content. The reason is that many of the chemicals in foods which cause chemical burns are oil-soluable instead of water-soluble. So, mixing them with water does not dilute them, you are left with small drops of oils containing high concentrations of these chemicals. If fats are consumed with the spicy food, then the chemicals can be diluted among all the fats. StuRat 15:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Fat-soluble, that's it! "envelops the spicy bits", oh dear me. Well, at least I sort of got the idea right. Next time I'll try to get the words sort of right too. DirkvdM 18:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks to everyone for their responses. :o) I'll be sure to consult this conversation the next time I'm trying a new hot sauce or pepper of unknown potency. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 01:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Differences in polymers

I am new to the industry and was wondering what the difference between polypropylene, polyethelene, and polystyrene? Also, what does it mean in low density and high density? Explain in regular terms please so I can understand this situation a little better.

Thank you

See polypropylene, polyethylene, and polystyrene. Polyethylene in particular has a good discussion of the different densities. Usually HDPE is a stiff material, used in milk jugs, and LDPE is a thin flexible film, used in plastic bags. —Keenan Pepper 07:40, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Check out Wikipedia:WikiProject Polymers too. We have listed some terms which might be useful for you. To answer your question, the critical difference between a "low density" and "high density" polymer is the amount of branching that is present in the polymer chains. If the polymer chains have more branching, they can't line up quite so good, which lowers their overall density, and also their stiffness. The terms "low density" and "high density" are just general classes of names; there really is no strict cutoff which separates the two. --HappyCamper 17:19, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

power electronics

Hi, I would like to know about power diodes. How they differ from conventional diode, basic structure of power diode&also it's I-V characteristics.

Thanks, 61.1.81.71 13:24, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

RADAR building

hello sir i am studying in 10th grade and i wanted to make a aircraft detecting RADAR for my project work so please if you give me some information about RADAR like how to make i'll be glad so please try to help me or else i'll loose my marks

                    thanking u

Are you sure ? That's a fairly ambitious project, and yet, there is nothing novel about it. To me that means lots of work with little reward. But, if you are going to do RADAR, which type did you have in mind ?

• Passive RADAR detects signals emitted or reflected off the plane from other sources. Apparently this can even be done with cell phone signals. This has the advantage of not requiring a transmitter, but only a receiver, on the ground. This makes the RADAR site more difficult to target in combat and also makes it easier to do as a project. The simplest version would be where the plane broadcasts a transponder signal at a given frequency. In this case, you would only need a model plane or helicopter with a transmitter and a receiver set for that frequency. Transponder signals also send other information, but you wouldn't need to read that for this project.

• Active RADAR sends out radio waves and detects their return.

• Doppler RADAR also records the speed at which the object is moving towards or away from the RADAR installation by detecting minute differences in the frequency of the returned signal, as predicted by the Doppler effect.

A typical RADAR would have a rotating parabolic radio antenna to provide 360 degree coverage, but I think a fixed RADAR would be a lot easier to implement. You'll have to build, or buy, some electronic components to take the signal and convert it to an oscilloscope signal, in any case. I suppose you could skip the oscilloscope and just light a bulb or sound a buzzer when the plane is in front of the RADAR, if you want to simplify the project further.

StuRat 16:24, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Radar sources are easy to find actually, just grab a magnetron from an old microwave oven. 82.26.171.28 20:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Attempting to operate a magnetron outside its designed cavity is VERY dangerous and will not only decrease its useful life, but will also pose a serious threat to the operator of the device. Microwaves can cause cataracts, deep thermal burns and internal burns. Any electronic equipment within range of the magnetron will be instantly destroyed. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 04:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

You should be aware that there are laws about radio transmitters, and if your radar station is not in compliance, you could get in trouble. In the US, for example, the relevant government agency is the FCC. --Anonymous, 21:50 UTC, January 29.

There used to be a hobby called aircraft spotting, or something like that, which was like bird watching, except after 9/11, the authorities in many nations have become extremely suspicious of activities the participants thought were totally innocent. These people could be in cahoots with terrorists, helping plot how to bring a plane down. Other people get lasers for innocent purposes, but are outside waving them around, and not realize the beam goes all the way up into the sky to interfere with aircraft navigation. So you better check with law enforcement, or homeland defense, to make sure your plans are not going to send you to the prison where they put suspected terrorists. User:AlMac|^(talk) 01:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

vicodin

Hi could someone tell me how long it takes vicodin to clear ones system , so it would not be detected in a urine test? Thanks Carl

Hmm. Well, the half-life of hydrocodone is four to eight hours, but the metabolites might be worth considering too. The maximum serum level following a 10 mg dose is reached after 1.3 ± 0.3 hours, with a mean peak concentration of 23.6 ± 5.2 ng/mL. [15] I'm not sure what the minimum detectable concentration would be, but .05 ng/mL seems like it might be reasonable. [16] Given that, it may take 36 to 72 hours for a 10 mg dose to become undetectable (probably longer; apparently 26% of the original dose can be found in urine after 72 hours [17]). Drinking fluids and taking diuretics such as caffeine or water pills will help (though the latter may cause dehydration or electrolyte imbalances).

As far as I can tell, Vicodin typically contains at least half a gram of acetaminophen regardless of the hydrocodone content, so taking it regularly or in large doses would be a very bad idea. Hydrocodone also causes physical dependence, but at least should be less destructive to health than alcohol or nicotine. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 16:16, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

...Accounting for a threefold increase in urine concentration extends the detection duration to 42-84 hours, but this doesn't seem right if 26% remains in urine after 72 hours. Does someone else know how this should be calculated? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 17:02, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I think there is another way of understanding what the 72 hour urine sample means. The recovery of 26% [18] during 72 hours is part of the analysis of total drug disposition (e.g., about 26% is excreted unchanged in the urine as opposed to being metabolized to other substances in the body). It almost certainly does not mean "...leaving 74% of the drug to be excreted over the next few days."

Unfortunately that figure does not give us the info to answer the question, which appears to be "how many days after ingestion of some vicodin will it no longer be detectable by a standard commercial urine drug screen?" I do not know the answer, but it would almost certainly depend on the amount ingested in the 2-3 days prior to stopping. The best answer might be found by googling for websites that coach people on beating drug tests, or the commercial sites of companies that make drug screening tests for employers and law enforcement. This is not a topic I have expertise in so I don't know what is readily available online. alteripse 17:27, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Acorn Computers

My school has, in some of the older classrooms, strange black circular power/network/telephone/something sockets with the Acorn Computers logo printed on them. They look completely different to any plugs I've seen and no-one seems to be able to identify them. The article on Acorn doesn't help. Any ideas? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 15:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• Could they be Econet sockets? They were used for networking BBC micros and the like, and used what looked like a type of DIN connectors. --Bob Mellish 16:17, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

That looks right. I'm guessing the school never bothered removing them after they got rid of most of the Micros. Thanks! smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 16:39, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

History on Stain Remover

Please help- I have looked everywhere. My 11 yr old son is doing a science project on stain removers and needs some history facts. He provided history facts on detergent to his teacher.. and she is requiring that he re-do the paper. He needs the history on Stain removers.. Who made it ? When was it invented/created? Why ? How.. details details :-) Please Please help. Thank You so much

This website might be of some help. David Sneek 19:48, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is making it too easy for kids to do elementary school science projects. Now they've gotta make up silly themes like 'stain remover' and RADAR.   freshgavin TALK    01:17, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

(added "radar" wikilink to show what he's talking about, because I couldn't tell :p ) --AySz88^-^ 02:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Discovery channel documentary

I once saw a documentary in the discovery channel about how we 'react half a second or more (I don't remember exaclty since it was long ago) BEFORE a stimulus is presented'...how can this be? is there any research about this?.--Cosmic girl 20:50, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure they were not talking about experiments that detect delay between the brain reacting to a stimulus and a person being conscious of the stimulus? --JWSchmidt 20:54, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

It is not abnormal for a person to expect and prepare for a stimulus. For example, dictating has always conflicted with science. According to science, a human can only dictate at something like 60 words/minute. There is a minium amount of time it takes for speach to hit the ear, get processed, and then tell the fingers which key to hit. But, humans use simple pattern matching to predict what is coming next and, usually, type things that are expected at the same time (or before) they are said. So, it is not truly reacting before a stimulus occurs, it is really reacting to a previous stimulus. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:59, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I think what was meant was probably that we react before we are conscious of a stimulus. David 21:27, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

thank you :D --Cosmic girl 01:37, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Don't be thankful before you've had all the answers. :) I'm thinking of something related to the above, but somewhat different. Tests have shown that people start to act (on an impuls, possibly) before they are aware that they have reached a decision. It was something to do with pushing a button (or not) depending on some stimulus. I think that what was done was to measure a certain activity in the motoric parts of the brain, indicating that the test person was already getting ready to push the button. But somehow (I can't remember how now) the figured out that that happened before they were aware that they had already reached a decision. This fits in nicely with the view I have 'always' had that awareness is just the top level of the decision making processes that go on in the brain. These start at a very basic level, with most ideas that come up quickly dismissed for reasons of inconsistency with other views that are held by the brain (if I may put it that way - I mean the brain's 'world view'). Some, however, pass those tests and go on to the next level, where they are scrutinised (checked for consistency) in more detail. Etc, until finally there aren't too many inconsistencies and the top level is reached. This all happens very fast (split second), but the pointis that there are already fairly acceptable reasons for deciding before the final decision is made. And in a dangerous environment it can be a lifesaver to already start 'acting on an impuls' even before you're aware of what decision you'll reach. Computers do this too - the cpu anticipates waht will probably be the next move andstarts executing that. If it's right its won time. If it's wrong, it's as slow as it would have been without that process. Called 'piping', I believe. DirkvdM 12:33, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The Superior Storage Medium

There's been a lot of hype concerning the whole future hydrogen society. But I was sort of wondering why I would be so great...

A vehicle needs X energy to travel from point A to point B. It's irrelevant whether this energy comes from oil, gas, ethanol or hydrogen - X remains constant. So, you can collect solar energy in mechanical solar cells and "store" it in hydrogen or you can collect solar energy in organic solar cells (crops) and "store" it in ethanol.

So the question is - if the basic principles are so similar - why would hydrogen be better than ethanol...?

Celcius 21:22, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Methanol economy has a short buillet-pointed list - while it's referring to methanol specifically, the same points are relevant to ethanol. For a more in-depth look, see Ethanol fuel and Hydrogen economy GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 22:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ultrasound

I'm going in for an ultrasound scan for a trivial problem soonish. Pregnant mothers can get photos of their baby, but as I am the curious and fascinated-by-grisly-things type, would I be likely to be able to get one of my internal organs? Sum0 23:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

You can always ask. I don't see why they would refuse you but you're going to be dissapointed. Ultrasounds don't look grisly they look crap. It takes a trained professional to see anything. All you will see are grey blobs. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 23:23, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ask and they will probably be glad to print you a couple pics in a few seconds (very easy nowadays), but Theresa is right, the shadows of an ultrasound are unintelligible shadows of shadows. alteripse 00:33, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe you could manage a much more grisly MRI scan.   freshgavin TALK   

getting off lithium

Has anyone to your knowledge been able to get o off lithium without going to other medication? My psychiatrist believes I was misdiagnosed my original diagnosis: Bi-polar. New diagnosis: PTSD. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.

Lots of people have been on and off lithium or any other psychotropic drug. The problem with psychotropics is that there is no blood test that tells a psychiatrist exactly what disease a person with a mood problem has, and how much benefit can be expected from a given psychotropic drug. Therefore many people try more than one over a period of months or years before finding one that helps or finding other resolutions. Persevere and good luck. alteripse 00:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Remyelination

Hi i am wondering if there is a way for humans or even animals to be remyelinated after they have suffered from diseases such as ALD.

I know that Dr. Goldman at University of Rochester Medical Center has had some successful experiments with either mice or rats. Perhaps a Google search will turn up some research papers he has written. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Have you seen the movie Lorenzo's Oil? In the end, the parents' next goal is to find a way to remyelinate their son who suffered from ALD. They talk about the case of the shaking puppies which were born without myelin. They were supposedly successfully remyelinated. You could check out this site: The Myelin Project Hope this helps! --Dimblethum 01:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

January 30

Sound card

Does anyone know if it's possible to fry a sound card or other computer audio equipment by connecting powerful speakers to the computer through the head phone jack? Mine seems to have stopped working after doing just that, and that might be worth including in the sound card article. --Spangineer (háblame) 03:04, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Electricity does not come from the speakers, how can the speakers fry the card? This is why people buy stereos, to amplify the signal to the speakers. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 04:23, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I fried one by plugging powered speakers into the microphone jack though... enochlau (talk) 04:33, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

normally there's optical isolation to prevent any such thing happening. deeptrivia (talk) 04:50, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I believe you can also 'fry' an amplifier by connecting speakers to them with too low an electric resistance, forcing the amp to give off more power than it can handle. I'm no good at electricity stuff, but you might have a look at Loudspeaker#Electrical_characteristics_of_a_dynamic_loudspeaker and Amplifier#Output_range. DirkvdM 12:43, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Interesting... well, I guess maybe that's what happened to it... now I just need to find out how to install a new one =). Thanks for the help everyone. --Spangineer (háblame) 22:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Ohio Lakes

Are there any natural lakes (not manmade) in Ohio besides Lake Erie?

24.26.169.175

It seems that there aren't very many, but at least a few, including Crystal Lake and Portage lakes, which were formed by Glaciers. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 05:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Moon Idea

I got this idea to make a system to protect the earth from asteroids.

1)A giant pipe 30kms long, 500m wide with 60cm thick walls would be built out of some metal (steel)

2)It would be put into an isolated part of the southern ocean.

3)A giant empty spherical durable metal foil bag 1/4 the size of the moon would be loaded into the pipe.

4)Ocean water would be pumped into the bag (ocean wildlife issues would be taken care of beforehand)

5)When the bag is full it would be pushed with rockets higher so that the water would freeze

6)The new moon would be in earth's orbit until needed, then it would be blasted towards the asteroid to deflect it.

!!!!!!!!!The new moon could also just be to look nice!!!!!!!!!!

>>>How much do you reckon this would cost? (I'm planning to make this as a weekend project)

PROS: asteroid sheild, all the water taken off earth would expose extra land, the tube could be remelted and used.

CON: cost

--Anonymous~Thinker `.............................................................

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these! As they say, better safe than sorry when the next asteroid comes along to destroy the Earth ;) -- Daverocks (talk) 09:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Anyone have the figures for the volume of the Earth's oceans versus the volume of a moon sized sphere handy? Dismas|^(talk) 09:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• For one, the ice moon would need to get out of the earth's atmosphere, which causes a lot of heat which in turn melts the ice. Then there's the problem we probably don't have enough water to make such a projectile (so it's hard if not impossible to handle environmental issues) and I'm pretty sure building a 30 km pipe of any material would need welds somewhere along the middle and is impossible to remain upright. A foil bag the size of a quarter of the moon is probably impossible to make as well. And I don't get the pros either. How would a big ice ball protect us from asteroids? What if it's in orbit on the other side of the earth when an asteroid comes calling? - Mgm|^(talk) 10:01, 30 January 2006 (UTC)
  • Well, the solution to the last problem is clearly to build more ice moons until the whole sky is covered with the things -- Ferkelparade π 10:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Does the Earth contain enough iron, accessible to current technology, to make this tube? It seems an awful lot! Notinasnaid 10:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Ok, math time! The volume of the pipe would be about $2.824\times 10^{7}m^{3}$. Considering ferrite stainless steel (maybe not the best kind, but it must have good anti-corrosive properties) with a density of $8.060\times 10^{3}kg/m^{3}$, you'll have a total mass of $2.276\times 10^{11}kg$. According to orders of magnitude (mass), that's between the mass of water stored in London storage reservoirs and the total mass of the human world population. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 10:33, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Now let's consider the artificial moon is a perfect sphere of the same radius of the caliber of the tube. That'd be a radius of $250m-0.6m=249.4m$. The volume of a sphere is ${\frac {4\pi r^{3}}{3}}$, se we have a volume of $6.498\times 10^{7}m^{3}$. According to our article on sea water, the average density is $1.025\times 10^{3}kg/m^{3}$. That means our water moon has a mass of $6.661\times 10^{10}kg$, a little more than the amount of concrete in the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest concrete structure. According to our article on oceans, the total mass of the hydrosphere is about $1.4\times 10^{21}kg$. It wouldn't be all that much numerically, but that's a whole bloody lot anyway. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 10:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

To elaborate on your "Cons: Cost" list, some back-of-the-envelope estimates. An object a quarter the size of the Moon would have a volume of 5.49 x 10^18 m3, and if it's made of ice (approximate density 1000 kg/m3), that's about 5.5 x 10^21 kg. We don't have a rocket that can lift anything of that size into orbit all at once - the biggest rockets we have can launch about 120 tons to low Earth orbit. Assuming we could, though, let's take a very optimistic cost of $1000 (US) per kg (not entirely realistic, current costs run about $10000/kg, but this is economies of scale... :) ), launching your ice moon would cost around 5 yottadollars, which is 5 septillion dollars, or 5 trillion trillion dollars. Just some spare change, for a moon which will probably happen to be on the wrong side of the Earth when the asteroid hits, or, if it does manage to get in the way of the asteroid, be shattered into five sextillion tons of ice shards which will come raining down on Earth... — QuantumEleven | (talk) 10:59, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I expect the ice shards will vaporize when hitting the atmosphere.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. Read Lucifer's Hammer, for example. Remember, water has a very high heat capacity. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 15:20, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

And vaporising or not makes no difference - you still have the same (enormous) amount of mass hitting the Earth, no matter what form it's in. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 16:23, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't a big Orion drive be able to handle something this size? Maybe several in a ring underneath the ice ball? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 14:46, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I suggest large asteroid(s) from the asteroid belt be 'boosted' using a robot probe of some kind. Put them into high orbit around the earth and have one of them smash into any meteor, deflecting it. It presumes we have are able to detect any collision course meteor in time to boost the defensive asteriod in time.

...Coming back to this, it looks like the ball could realistically be put into orbit using 3 to 14 billion kilograms of atomic bombs. If Nuclear pulse propulsion is correct about the theoretical maximum specific impulse, the reaction mass could be improved to 700 million kilograms. What's the cost of producing that much plutonium? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 23:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Except, these figures are for the 500 meter ball, not the 500 mile ball. So the amount of plutonium will need to be about five billion times greater. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 23:49, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Here is what will happen if the ice ball gets knocked out of orbit. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 15:38, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Am I the only one who read this and though... So, we make rockets capable of moving a fake moon around to block an asteroid. Why not attach them to the real Moon and save the money. We can worry about replacing it after we use it. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:13, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• Wouldn't the tidal stress of having a second moon arbitrarily plopped into orbit like, rip apart the planet or something?--152.163.100.74 21:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I'm pretty sure Earth's tidal force would rip apart any object this size at sea level. I'm sort of curious what would happen to the ice ball assuming it could be constructed in the first place: would the center melt under the pressure; would the ball stretch vertically; would it start rolling west? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 22:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

+(BTW, I'm the guy who made this question) The ice moon would be smaller and easier to move then the real moon. ALSO: the moon isn't meant to be a 'sheild' per se, it would simply be boosted with rockets towards the asteroid long before the asteroid would actually reach earth, to deflect it (the asteroid). I originally thought that the ice moon could be covered with giant screens on one side and solar cells on the other. The screens would play comercials 24/7. Or they could be used to display the current time (the time would change, and display the times of different time zones). +Now, the cost would be 5yottadollars...so how much money exists on all of earth at this time?

Well, the gross world product is $50.4 trillion, so the project will take a while. You can find other measures of world production at World economy. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 05:30, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

1. i have tried to responsibly contribute to the Wiki article on Human extinction avoidance.
2. I suggest you try to do likewise, and be careful not to focus on original research but instead focus on what the science experts have proposed, and what the pros and cons are about the practicality of the various strategies.

User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:56, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

+Elaborating on what was said, the ice moon wouldn't be made, and then lifted. It would be filled while 30kms about earth, so it would just need to be boosted. Incase someone doesn't get it, I'm including a picture. File:Earthplan.JPG

That's an even worse scenario. The amount of weight the tube would have to hold would be excessively large, not to mention the amazing pressure that'd build on the floor base. Additionally, the amount of energy to pump all that water 30 km high over a 500 m wide tube would be equally monstrous. The best idea would just create a stationary space station and drop a very, very long hose all the way down on the ocean. From there on you could just pump tiny amouts of water up, avoiding all this huge tube thing... ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 12:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Lol, the pipe would buckle right away! deeptrivia (talk) 14:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

An added pro would be: to adjust the sea level if(when?) the polar ice caps melt! If you are making a water sphere of that size it would undoubtedly lower the mean sea level significantly, which will be convenient for when the greenhouse gases caused by smelting all that iron for the giant pipe cause the ice caps to completely melt and the ocean temp to rise enough to expand the water noticeably. A good idea indeed! --66.195.232.121 19:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

ZIP shell integration

Is there a reason why the ZIP archive format has become so widespread it's even being integrated into the shell of several modern OSs (Windows XP certainly has it, and according to ZIP (file format), so does KDE, Mac OS X, and others)? Versus, say, RAR or 7-zip? Is it due to licensing, or just historical reasons? (even if RAR often gives better compression ratios than ZIP)? — QuantumEleven | (talk) 10:32, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion: PKZIP was already doing well. WINZIP came along and provided for perhaps the first time a human understandable interface to a compression format. ZIP therefore came to dominate the PC arena. So this was the obvious choice for Windows to have shell support. You can argue that the other systems with shell support are simply keeping partity with Microsoft (since, even if they offered shell support for some OTHER format, not supporting ZIP would be a hole in a comparison chart). ZIP combines compression AND archiving, while many others have only done one, leading to more user confusion. SIT - directly comparable to ZIP - never seemed to get far outside Macintosh, not sure if this is due to secrets in the format; its inventors didn't help their case by introducing new versions of the SIT format which older software just ignored, typically with not even a message. Notinasnaid 12:10, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Additionally, the RAR format is heavly proprietary and full of restrictions. See the article for more info. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 15:56, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:02, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Signal. noise

Is it possible to detect a signal with signal-to-noise ratio < 0 dB? (i.e. S < N after bandpass filtering) Ojw 10:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

As long as there is any signal at all, it's possible to get a message through with enough error correction. —Keenan Pepper 23:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

If you add error-correction, surely you wouldn't be able to detect the original signal because you don't have enough bandwidth left? Or to put it another way, the additional bandwidth for the error-correction codes will introduce additional noise into the system. (Also, some sources might be uncooperative enough to not send error-correcting codes, e.g. if it's a sensor rather than a communications link) Ojw 13:44, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

All right, first of all, are we talking about digital or analog signals? —Keenan Pepper 18:19, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll say analog (since I've discovered enough on Shannon–Hartley theorem to see what you mean about error-correction in low SNR conditions, though that needs to be easier to find from the SNR article)

As an example, I'm looking at the radar equation and wondering how small a returned signal can be before you start "detecting" every bit of background radiation. Ojw 23:16, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I should have mentioned Shannon's theorem. I don't know much about radar though, sorry. =/ —Keenan Pepper 03:57, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

If you keep pinging the radar in the same direction and average all the returns, the background noise will average to zero and the signal, assuming the target doesn't move, will eventually get bigger than the noise, no matter how weak each return is. There is nothing magical about a SNR of 0 dB. --Heron 20:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

about the spinal cord

please can anyone tell me why the spinal cord(not the spinal column) is only 42-45 cms in lenght?

i have a biology teacher who says that there is a particular reason.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

203.115.67.81 13:05, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

It's always hazardous to pose "why" questions about biological traits, but I suspect your teacher might be satisfied with the answer, "so there is plenty of room for it within the spinal canal". alteripse 15:40, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

A question about CDMA2000

I read that CDMA2000, the technology used by Verizon, allows always-on Internet connectivity. Does that means that

1. The number of hours a customer is connected to Internet does not matter and only the data transfered matters? or simply
2. Imagine two users using Internet using CDMA2000 network and if one uses the net for 1 hour and nother uses Internet for 2 hours. But if both use only 20 MB data transtfer, does that mean that the cost to the Telecom operator will be the same irrespective of time used?

CDMA (you might also check howcdmaworks.com) allowing Internet connectivitity doesn't have a direct relationship to Verizon's pricing. As I recall, Verizon charges by bandwidth used. However, that's not the entire cost per se to Verizon; each currently active connection cuts the remaining available network capacity, which can lead to "no circuits available" messages and service cancellations by dissatisfied users, etc. However, just because one company charges a certain way doesn't mandate that all companies use the same pricing system. — Lomn Talk 15:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Direct X

I keep geting the error

c:\Documents and Settings\Gerard Foley\My Documents\Visual Studio Projects\Direct X\Main.cpp fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'd3d9.h': No such file or directory

How do I fix this. I'm using VC++ .NET 2003, Win 32 Empty Project. Thanks, Gerard Foley 15:57, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Uh... Have you checked if the file exists? ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 21:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

It the direct 3D include file, it should be there right? You don't have to go looking for windows.h or string. I have the Direct X 9 SDK if that helps. Gerard Foley 00:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I checked and (tears of joy) there was no Gerard Foley viruses in My Documents. How do you do ? --DLL 11:21, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

So, did you add the folder containing the Direct X headers into the Visual Studio settings for where to search for headers? Or are you counting on installing the SDK copying this file into the system headers? Either way, the message is pretty unambiguous: it can't find the file, so see at least where it is, and where Visual Studio is looking for it. Notinasnaid 11:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Bin or toilet?

In the month of January I find myself blowing my nose more often than I do the rest of the year put together. Question: Is it better for the environment to put my used tissue in the bin or in the toilet (flushing only when I would usually flush, of course)?

• More likely the bin, I would say. It's really only toilet tissue that breaks up if you were to flush it. However, it would really all depend on the brand of tissue you use. For example, Greenpeace complained that Kleenex used natural forests' paper, so I would think they would take longer to decompose. Recycled tissue, on the other hand, has already been mashed to a pulp, so I would think that would take less time to decompose. I wonder if you recycle your hankie after you've blown your nose? Hmmm. ^KILO-_LIMA 17:03, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I understand from your question you use paper hankies. I assume cloth ones are more environmentally friendly because you can re-use them a zillion times. I'm just not sure, though, how bad the effect of washing is. Which of course also depends on how often you 'recycle' your hanky before you wash it. DirkvdM 18:01, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

If you put it in the bin, you will increase the trash that will be picked up and transported to your local waste facility. It will likely be taken to a landfill and dumped.

If you put it in the toilet, it will travel with the water to your local water sanitation facility, where it will be caught in the solid waste filter. From there, it will likely be sent to the local landfill and dumped.

So, the only real difference is how you want to get it to the landfill - by truck or through the sewage pipes. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:07, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

If it goes in the bin, depending on how environmentally conscious one is, it might be inside a plastic bag, so even after it gets to the landfill it will be isolated from the surrounding environment for a long time (perhaps a very long time). Whereas if it goes down the toilet, once it gets to the landfill it is added to the existing soil and starts interacting with it immediately. JackofOz 21:43, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm wodering if we're tackling this question the right way. The question as posed has quite a number of variables, and we've been neglecting one of them. If the hanky is left in the bin, then the germs will still be in the household environment until the bin is emptied. A cloth handkerchief, while better environmentally than a paper hanky, will compound the problem, since you'll be carrying the germs in your pocket. Toilets usually contain anti-germ treatments in the "cistern blue" fresheners, so from that point of view at least toilet disposal has advantages. Grutness...wha? 02:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I know some cultures find it quite disgusting that westerners carry dirty hankies around in their pockets, but is there really a health problem? The most important thing to do is to catch the snot in stead of spraying it around. After that there is little to no risk of infection to anyone (certainly not to yourself because you already carry the germs in your hanky) unless people use hankies recently used by others. And even then I think the risk is minimal. And then only of disease that spread through the nose (ie through sneezing) and that's just the comon cold, right? (Right?) DirkvdM 10:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Omega block

Does wikipedia have any articles about omega blocks in meteorology? Do omega blocks have anything to do with global warming? 129.186.52.90 17:40, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't believe Wikipedia has anything about Omega Blocks (perhaps I should add some... :o) ). Omega blocks don't have anything to do with global warming. Omega blocks are large scale patterns in the pressure/geopotential height field that are nearly stationary and resemble the Greek letter omega. These blocks can remain in place for several days or even weeks, causing the areas effected by it to have the same kind of weather for an extended period of time (precipitation for some areas, clear skies for others). The typical pattern for this is low-high-low, arranged in the west-east direction. Good examples are shown at these three links: [19], [20], and [21]. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 19:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

P.S.- Omega blocks CAN be responsible for many of the same things that are typical of global warming. For example, in the first link above, you can see that the middle United States is getting hot temperatures; this is due to a relatively short-term weather pattern (the Omega block) and is not a long-time climate change (global warming). Also, one of the characteristics of global warming is increased severe weather; Omega blocks can also cause this by contributing to droughts or floods, but once again this is a relatively short time scale as compared to the long time scale of global warming/climate change. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 19:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a lot. Is Omega block always written with a capital 'O'? Why, if so? PS The link is there so you can start the article ; ) 129.186.52.90 20:46, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it's only typically capitalized because we typically capitalize the English versions of the Greek letters. Other than that, I don't think anyone would yell at you if you called it an "omega block." You might also be interested in a "Rex block," which is the other common type of block. This involves a high over a low. A (decent) example can be seen here: [22], but this can actually look much nicer, with a fully closed high over a fully closed low. Both the Rex and Omega block are stable patterns and can dictate the flow for a good period of time. Best of luck with future explorations! EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 22:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

HTML/CSS layout

I'm trying to achieve what I thought would be a very straightforward effect -- a header with several items spaced evenly across the top of the page. It's trivial to do with tables, but I've spent the better part of a day struggling with a solution based on div elements and CSS, with no success.

In particular, I would like to set the widths of the items as percentages of the width of an enclosing div element. I thought that using percentages with the width attribute would do this, but the results I observe do not seem to follow this rule.

This is a stripped down version of the HTML:

<html>
  <head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="index.css">
  </head>
  <body>

    <!-- This works -->
    <table class="header">
      <tr>
        <td class="header_left">
          Logo
        </td>
        <td class="header_middle">
          Welcome to my site.
        </td>
        <td class="header_right">
          <a href="contactus">Contact us</a>
        </td>
      </tr>
    </div>

    <!-- This doesn't work -->
    <div class="header">
      <div class="header_left">
        Logo
      </div>
      <div class="header_middle">
        Welcome to my site.
      </div>
      <div class="header_right">
        <a href="contactus">Contact us</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

and the stylesheet:

body { background: gray; }
.header { background: white; width: 100%; }
.header_left, .header_middle, .header_right { display: table-cell; background: lightgray; text-align: center; }
.header_left { width: 25%; }
.header_middle { width: 50%; }
.header_right { width: 25%; }

I've tried many variations on this, with no luck. I've been testing with recent versions of Firefox and Opera, and would like the page to work in IE as well.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 128.220.220.95 20:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

That's not how div's work. In order to make the display: table-cell; work, you'd have to set the first div (.header) as display: table-row;, and in order to make this work, you'd need another div with display: table;. An easier way is use float: left; instead of display: table-cell;. The rest you adjust with margins. Btw, you forgot to close the <table>. Edit: Took the liberty to reduce your CSS a bit to save space on the page. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 20:49, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Wonderful! I swear on my mother that I tried a million variations on using float: left before I even figured out that there was such a thing as display: table-cell, and nothing worked. Now that I try it with the stripped down stylesheet, it works like a charm. I'll have to go figure out what in my full stylesheet is interfering with this.

Thank you so much. 128.220.220.95 21:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

If I've told you once, I've told you a billion times, don't exaggerate. Yours hyperbolically JackofOz 11:24, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

What is the wave/particle relation?

Does the wave/particle duality in quantum mechanics, mean charges (mass, electric, nuclear) traveling around in spacetime as a wave and interacting as point particles?

See Wave-particle duality. —Keenan Pepper 23:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The answer "yes" to your question is a more correct answer than the answer "no" to your question. WAS 4.250 16:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

January 31

Flamethrower

Hey, i'm sure you all know that when you light spraypaint on fire it turns into a flamethrower. But I'm looking for something with a little more kick. Any Ideas?

Google is your friend. I suggest the following searches to get you started: "DIY flamethrower", "fire extinguishers", "burns treatment in YourLocation". -- AJR | Talk 00:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

This guy lit a barbecue with liquid oxygen. See if you can get your hands on some of that. —Keenan Pepper 01:38, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Ask these folks. I'm sure they'll have some suggestions. hydnjo talk 01:58, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

There are fairly powerful flamethrowers sold for home use (e.g. clearing brush). They run on propane, will shoot a flame up to six feet, and are perfectly legal throughout most of the U.S. They'll set you back $100–300, not including the propane, but they're safer and more reliable than most homemade incendiaries. —Charles P._(Mirv) 02:11, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

gasoline in a watergun should work. make sure the flame is a good distance away--de_matthew 05:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Science

Other than ice what solid can turn into a liquid and then a gas and then back?

I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but as far as I know, given the right circumstances (i.e. temperature, pressure, etc.), you can change the state of matter of most any substance. Dimblethum 01:12, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Some solids will go through a chemical reaction before turning into either a liquid or gas. So, they won't turn back into the same solid again. But, most solids can go through the three phases. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Others sublime straight from solid to gas (dry ice, for instance). Perhaps the original questioner wanted to know what ones can in the range of temperatures we regard as "normal" - say from -50C to +50C (-58F to 122F) and at standard atmospheric pressure. There are a handful of fairly common chemical compounds that fall in that range, and - IIRC - one element comes fairly close (Bromine). You might like to check out phases of matter, boiling point, freezing point. We really should have a list of boiling points and freezing points of chemicals here somewhere, but such an article may not yet exist here. Grutness...wha? 02:24, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

As a simple example, wood would not turn to liquid, is would decompose. The same is true for many organic substances. We do have List of elements by boiling point, but nothing about compounds. -- Ec5618 10:47, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, what is dry ice ? I once found a pack, it read "just add water and stir" ... never tried. --DLL 11:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Dry ice = frozen carbondioxide. 62.119.184.141 13:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Windows Movie Editing Software

I have a Windows computer and i'm not about the spend hundreds of dollars on a Apple computer just for Final Cut Pro. Any Good Alternatives?

You can download Windows Movie Maker for free. It's a pretty small download too (11mb I think for version 2.0)--172.168.117.94 05:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Freshmeat has a number of non-linear video editors listed, all of which are free and some of which run on Windows. See http://freshmeat.net/browse/256/ -- AJR | Talk 00:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Terraformation

I wonder, what is the minimum time it would take to terraform a planet like Mars?A few hundered years?A few thousand years?Hundreds of thousands of years?(Let's suppose we spend a minimum of ten billion US dollars on the project every year.)

Terraforming the whole Mars would take thousands of years using the technology available now. Of course, better technology would be available in the future, and these could be added to help the project. ---- Bowlhover 02:30, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

See Terraforming#Mars. All we really have is speculation for now. I think the main issue will be thickening the atmosphere and getting the oxygen out of all that Martian dust. We'll also need water, which we might be able to get by guiding comets down to the surface, or from mining 1 Ceres. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 03:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cost estimation is also made very difficult by the fact that technology will necessarily have advanced quite a lot by the time we can begin to seriously consider doing so. But it's very difficult to predict *what* technologies will have advanced. Will terawatt-sized fusion reactors be routine? Self-replicating nanobots? Artificial genes so we can custom engineer plants that can grow on the Martian surface? Artificially-intelligent robots that can operate with minimal supervision on complex tasks? Advanced propulsion systems such as Orion drives for pushing comet-sized chunks of matter round the solar system at will? Ultra-thin mirrors? What mix of these, and other technologies, available will determine the specific strategies used for terraforming, how much it might cost, and how long it might ultimately take. And, finally, keep in mind the possibility of "The Reds" - Martian environmental groups advocating keeping Mars in its present state.

If you're interested in this kind of thing, you might consider reading Robert Zubrin's The Case For Mars (though keep in mind that it is a forceful work of advocacy, not a disinterested examination of the facts) and the fictional but well thought out Mars Trilogy of Kim Stanley Robinson. --Robert Merkel 03:31, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

In [23], Robert M. Zubrin of Pioneer Astronautics and Christopher P. McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center suggest nuclear thermal propulsion to maneuver asteroids using volatile substances on the asteroids (such as ammonia) as fuel. With gravity assists, they estimate rockets would need to produce only 300 m/s of delta-v, with ten years of burn time for a ten billion tonne asteroid. As few as four of these could produce a significant greenhouse effect.

An alternative is to manufacture sulfur hexafluoride or perfluorocarbons. [24] According to Zubrin and McKay, this method would require about 2×10¹⁸ J and fifty years of patience.

The purpose of warming the planet is to release carbon dioxide from the ice caps and oxygen from peroxides in the regolith. Plants could eventually be grown in the warmer regions, increasing the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere to breathable levels. [25] ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 05:04, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Isn't there an issue of increasing the gravity, or inventing some alternative way of keeping the breatheable atmosphere there. I mean Mars is like Earth's Moon, and some asterioids, in that it is one thing to add a breathable atmosphere, it is another thing for it to stay there. User:AlMac|^(talk) 10:05, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The gravity is sufficient to keep the atmosphere. I believe the thinking was that the previous atmosphere was blown away in a period of atypical solar activity. While Earth was able to rebuild, thanks in part to volcanic activity, Mars was unable to retain heat without its atmosphere, which meant little would actually evaporate. This is evidenced by the frozen C0₂ on Mars. Heating the planet would cause gases to form a protective atmosphere, which in turn would prevent the planet from freezing again. -- Ec5618 10:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

In terms of the finished result, a terraformed Venus would be a more attractive prospect than a terraformed Mars. However, it would be a far more difficult task to achieve and would take tens of thousands of years with our current technology level, if it were possible at all. The planet's atmosphere is deadly, and cleaning it would be extremely difficult, although some forms of terrestrial lichens and mosses could probably just about survive it the way it is now and might be utilised to improve it a little. Mars is probably the easier bet if we wanted to try any terraforming, and has the added advantage that we know that several useful chemicals are available on or just below the planet's surface that could be used in the process. Grutness...wha? 14:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

If we're so smart at changing atmospheric make-up why can't we just reduce the greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere by a few percent? Sounds like we may soon want to terraform the Earth... Notinasnaid 20:15, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Did you note the kind of technologies proposed for terraforming? While they are certainly plausible in our long-term future, they don't currently exist. Nor are they particularly suitable for use on an existing planet. That said, there have been proposals for active greenhouse-mitigation measures; see Mitigation of global warming and especially the section "other"; one of the more unconventional measures proposed is the placement of huge mirrors in orbit to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth. --Robert Merkel 01:34, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Venus is going to be exceptionally challenging to terraform. There's no water, and it rotates very slowly. To overcome both of these factors will require smashing a whole bunch of comets into it and installing planet-sized mirror systems to simulate a terrestrial day. --Robert Merkel 01:34, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Integrated med school program?

What are some medical schools that offer simultaneous integrated undergrad and med school curricula in English-speaking countries? -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 02:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Most Australian universities teach most of their medical students as an undergraduate degree, though postgrad med is becoming more popular. --Robert Merkel 03:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The College of Charleston (undergrad) and Medical University of South Carolina (grad) have integrated programs and are within walking distance of each other. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm looking more at colleges along the Pacific Coast or Mid-West or New England. I have... Dixiephobia. :D -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 03:30, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, then it doesn't matter much, but Charleston is part of the "Southern culture". It is more like a misplaced borough or New York. --Kainaw ^(talk) 04:46, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The situation in New Zealand sounds similar to that in Australia - and the med schools are all close to the Pacific Coast :) Grutness...wha? 14:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Most top tier colleges have that I think. I specifically know Stanford, Michigan, and Harvard have it. They are typically very competitive to gain acceptance to though. You'd probably be better off first deciding what schools you're considering and asking them if they have it. Or your counselor should be able to find you a list of schools that do. Or you could contact some of the med school supervisory type bodies to see if they have a list. - Taxman ^Talk 19:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

AP Physics C Final Project

I'm trying to decide what to do for the final (group) project in my AP Physics C class. I was thinking about recreating Millikan's Oil-drop experiment, though the article says that it is costly and hard to do. Any other ideas of that sort that would be easier to implement? -JianLi

You can make your own hologram. There are lots of kits, but you could do it yourself. You might want to do something with a computer data hologram, which is the next big thing. --Zeizmic 13:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

science vs Arts

How can u say science is greater than arts?

Just... No. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 10:30, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

One could say that science is an art, so art is the superset. But I doubt that's what you mean by 'greater'. So let me ask the obvious question: What do you mean? By 'great' and by 'art' ('science' is fairly well defined (but don't ask me for a definition :) )). And if yo don't answer this, then can we assume you were just trying to stir things up a bit? :) DirkvdM 11:18, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Ok, let's go into this. On one side, the Eötvös Lóránd University of sciences has eight faculties and is clearly the greatest university in the whole country. Add to this some faculties of the Technical university, and the Corvinus university which are also concerned with science, and all four faculties of the Semmelweis University (medicine is a science). Now on the otehr side, compare this to the four small universities of arts in Budapest: the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, the University of Art and Design, the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem, consisting of a single faculty each. Clearly the science universities are much greater. I think this is not only a speciality of Budapest either, but the whole world is like this. (Don't take this reply too seriously please.) – b_jonas 14:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

It has been said that any science with more than seven variables becomes an art (can't remember who said it, unfortunately...). I don't think there's any practical way of comparing science and art in terms of greatness - any comparison will be subjective. It's like saying "which is greater - basketball or chocolate?" Then again, as the hymn says, "How great Thou art" :) Grutness...wha? 14:23, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

It's not at all the same thing: Your question is perfectly easy to answer. Chocolate, of course. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 16:49, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

You're all wrong, the correct answer is actually chocolate basketballs--205.188.116.74 16:58, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was 42. deeptrivia (talk) 03:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

No, that's the answer to everything and the question is about about only two things. DirkvdM 11:09, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Orbit of pluto

Why the orbit of pluto is different than the orbits of other planets?

Please search to find your answer on your own. The reference desk is not a search engine. See Pluto#Orbit. It is presumed Pluto did not form as the 'other' planets did. When it was found, its size was found to be remarkably small. Years later it was found that the size that had been measured actually included a small moon (including the distance between the two), meaning the actual planet was ridiculously small. As such, Pluto may not be a planet, and may not have formed in the same plane around the sun as the 'other' planets. -- Ec5618 10:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• It's sometimes difficult to anwer your question as it may depend on your grade level. Although the Wikipedia Reference desk is not a search engine, some of the responses here will try to be tailored to your particular need. I hope that we have been able to structure our comments in a constructive way. If you wish to do so, please post your comments here as to the usefulness of this resource, Thanks, hydnjo talk 07:51, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

If it were exactly the same as that of another planet it would be that other planet. :)

The orbits of planets can differ in various ways. Which one do you mean? Distance to the Sun, eccentricity or inclination? Kepler's laws of planetary motion might also be an interresting read. From these, just follow the interreting links and learn. DirkvdM 11:28, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Because Pluto is not a planet...though I'm not sure I want to open up that debate here. :o) EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 16:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

It all comes down to an arbitrary definition of planet, which is currently under review. The jury is still out. JackofOz 19:32, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The statement "Years later it was found that the size that had been measured actually included a small moon (including the distance between the two)" is wrong. Pluto's size was originally estimated based on its brightness (which meant guessing at its albedo, i.e. how light-colored its surface is) and on the gravitational effects it was thought to have had on Uranus's orbit. Later it was realized that no such effects had been detected (I think the orbit of Neptune had originally been miscalculated and Neptune was actually responsible for them) and so Pluto had to be much smaller than originally believed. The relevance of the discovery of Charon is not that it revealed an error in the earlier estimates, but that for the first time a measurement that was better than an estimate was possible. --Anonymous, 17:37 UTC, January 31.

power electronics

what is the career scope for power electronics engineering graduation?What dose make difference between electronics and power elctronics?

See power electronics. DJ Clayworth 17:03, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The worlds most prominant religion?

Just wondering, why is it that everyone is up in arms about religious persecution, and seperation of church and state? I mean christianity is fast becoming one of the most practiced religions on the face of the earth! If every day, more and more people are seeing the error of their ways, and converting to the true christian faith, then why is it nessesary to appease the tiny, shrinking, portion of the earth's population who keep making such a big stink about it? Can't we just accept that secularists, athiests, religion haters, and the whole middle eastern mess, are going to eventually all see the light, and convert to a true faith? Why must governments be bullied into supporting alternate religions? and tolerance of aithiests and other hate mongers? Can't we just accpet that the United States in a Christian Nation? That in reality all modern societies are in fact Christian Nations? That in effect every civilized society is Christian? Why are people who are suppsoedly scientific, rational, and tolerant, so unable to show compassion to Christianity?--64.12.116.74 16:11, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Do you have a science-related question? --JWSchmidt 16:29, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Should we delete this, or leave it as an example of deliberate scummery? I tend to lean towards destruction. --Zeizmic 16:31, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

This is being cross-posted to all the RD sections. Just another nut on a rant. Leave it here. People need a good laugh now and then. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:27, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I think we should try not to pass comment on this, despite its countless flaws, simply because we don't want to feed him... smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 19:28, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Ehmm, I assumed this was meant as a joke. If there are people in the US who honestly think like this we should be really scared because that country owns by far the biggest military weapons assortment (and proven willing to use it often enough). Then again, we've got the SGP in the Netherlands, who want to get rid of anyone who doesn't follow their religion, including christians (despite the fact that they are themselves a christian sect) and they get a few percent of the political votes. Anyway, if this should be ignored or removed, then why do the creationist questions get so many replies?

By the way, this makes me think of this missionary who said "They're already good christians, they just don't know it yet" :). DirkvdM 20:42, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cheap shot, Dirk. There may be people in the US who think this, but they aren't threatening you with death for criticizing or ridiculing them. Look around you in Europe and see what the real religious threat to civilization and rational discourse is: [26] [27] Dalembert 01:16, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I think yo umisread. The Netherlands is in Europe. And Theo van Gogh is no longer a threat because he's dead. :) DirkvdM 11:15, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It is no joke. I have met real people like this in the real world, where most of us try to be civilized in dealing with people of differeing belief systems, including some who unfortunately do not share the concept of being civilized and understanding their fellow mankind. Here we are working on an encyclopaedia about science and human knowledge. This question is about religious fantasy and how to correlate people beliefs and actions. The person who placed this question belongs in either a mental institution, or perhaps a psychiatric office, but the scary thing is that there are so many people just like them, in high public office, voted there by other people who have same kind of ideology. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:11, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Agreed; clearly his idea of developed nations doesn't cover Japan or many other developed nations, just the Christianosphere (is that a word?). To paraphase the poster; Why are people who are suppsoedly scientific, rational, and tolerant, so unable to show compassion to non-Christians? Sorry for snapping... smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 21:50, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Anyone following Jason Gastrich (talk · contribs) on wikipedia would be aware that there are people who think this way. David D. (Talk) 01:21, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Many people have beliefs that other people find strange. That doesn't mean they belong in a mental institution or a psychiatrist's office. How does that comment square with trying to be civilized in dealing with people of differing belief systems? JackofOz 08:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The Brain

How is the brain able to interpret sound?

The stony silence is because this is homework. But why am I wasting my Carpal juice? Most homework-seekers never come back. --Zeizmic 23:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

You could say: "It doesn't interpret sound. You just imagine that it does." --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It's not necessarily homework.--172.131.187.70 04:46, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree, I didn't get the feeling that this was a homework question. --AySz88^-^ 05:41, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Robert Jourdain's book "Music, the Brain and Ecstasy" is a fascinating and revealing study of just what sound and music are, and what it means to "hear" anything. There's a review of it here. JackofOz 06:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• Read sound and ear and take things from there. - Mgm|^(talk) 10:18, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Electronic glass/windows

I was wondering how those electronic windows works. Its kinda smart. You just push a butten, and then the window will be nontransparent (like frosted) And if you push again, it will turn back to transparency. I have also seen examples where the window just tints into black. how? and where to buy maybee?

There is a stub article at smart windows; check out the links from there for an overview of the technology. Not sure where you'd buy them though. LarryMac 20:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah, the electrochromic windows! I nearly got a job at one of the outfits that make them! They contain either polytungstates ("heteropolyblue") that look quite like molybdenum blue or viologens. Pilatus 05:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Clean Rocks

might be the wrong place to ask this but i will anyways....

Are there any rocks that keep water cleaner over other rocks? or all rocks the same and it doesn't matter what type are in the water?

Do you mean rocks that clean the water (such as pebbles the water passes through) or rocks that don't make the water dirty? And are you talking about running or standing water? I suppose you mean an artificial garden pond, but that's not obvious. DirkvdM 20:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

At last a rock question! But I have no idea what you are talking about, sorry. --Zeizmic 20:57, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Have you been hanging around here just waiting for a rock question? :) In that case you must be very disappointed not to understand it. DirkvdM 11:18, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Charcoal is one of the best water cleaners there is, but I realize it isn't quite a full-fledged member of the Lithic Brotherhood (maybe more like an immigrant from the vegetable kingdom). alteripse 01:38, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I guess i wasn't clear enough..... very sorry about that. What i am looking for are rocks that don't make the water dirty.... making a pond for fish, there will be a water filter attached to the pond, i guess you could say it is semi standing water....what would the benifit of running water over standing water? ..... would different types of rocks do something different to the water?

low energy lamps

hi!!! my name is jennifer. Im writing to you hoping you can help me!!! I have searched and searched for answers to my questions but it is useless... please help me... I want to know what a LOW ENERGY LAMP (THE ROUND ONES) contents!! I mean,¿What CHEMICALS are inside of these lamps?, ALL OF THEM! THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME. goodbye J.

That's a good question. You look at Fluorescent lamp, and come back later if you have to. --Zeizmic 20:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Could she be talking about LEDs? ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 20:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hello Jennifer. Come back to us! I chose Fluorescents because they are a chemical soup, the other guy chose LEDS because they are rounder. You pick the winner! --Zeizmic 22:46, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

She probably mean fluroresence. They contain Mercury, and Phosphorus.

February 1

What about February 1st? This question no verb--152.163.100.74 02:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The date header is added (as a level 1 header) to provide a navigational convenience by date. Please don't change it (and it is not a question). -- Rick Block (talk) 02:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

But if February 1st 'was' a question, what question would it be? Hmmmmm??? --Anonymous and silly, 04:05 UTC

"What is one half of the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?" - 21! EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 04:42, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I've never understood why we call our article that. What do we mean by "the answer to life" (etc)? Douglas Adams wrote about "The Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything". JackofOz 08:00, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I suppose you could suggest a pagename change to The Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, which might be more correct. I'm not sure if a decision was made long ago to shorten the actual title, considering the bolding at the top of the page is identical to what you just quoted. Perhaps they decided to go with the shorter name and figured it didn't matter as long as all the redirects work properly. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 17:47, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It seems more likely that the page was originally created with that title, and no-one ever got around to changing it. You could post a move request at WP:RM for it; I can think of no reason to oppose such a move. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 21:34, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll do that. Cheers JackofOz 00:57, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

As usual my memory doesn't serve me well, but thinking in the context of the story I'm pretty sure that the first mention of The Answer was just as The Ultimate Answer to Life.... It wasn't until they had the answer that they started looking for the question, and then they started talking about the answer not just as The Answer, but as The Answer to the Ultimate Question... (to emphasise the fact that the question was almost as important as the answer). That being said, the article is strange though, with the article space and the title different as it is.   freshgavin TALK    01:16, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Birth Control Pills

What would happen if a man took birth control pills for women? Would there be any kind of disruption of hormones?

• he might be able to get pregnant, for reference, please see the featured article Male Pregnancy, for more details--152.163.100.74 03:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Taking oral contraceptives would cause a disruption in hormones, particularly estrogen and progestin. While probably not identical to the doses used in oral contraceptives, the article on [Hormone Replacement Therapy for transgender-transsexual male-to-female] may be a good starting point for learning about the potential effects of a man taking BC pills on a long-term basis. --Uthbrian (talk) 04:03, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Of course it would "disrupt hormones". Birth control pills would suppress your gonadotropins, lower your testosterone level, raise your estrogen level, shrink your 'nads and grow you some mammaries. But it's your bod. alteripse 05:09, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I do remember this case report where some dude was drinking his girlfriends' urine (they all took the pill) and eventually presented at the hospital with gynecomastia. H. Vierhapper, P. Novotny, Lancet 1999, 353, 640. Pilatus 05:16, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Apparently many kg of excreted OCPs enter the water system of every major city each day. OCPs are the most pervasively detectable pharmaceutical agent in the environment. alteripse 05:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Splenda/Equal/Sweet+Low and Tooth Decay

Do Splenda, Equal, or Sweet and Low cause tooth decay like sugar?

Splenda = sucralose; Equal = aspartame; Sweet and Low = saccharine. So no, no, and no. - Nunh-huh 05:38, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Are you suggesting that they're not bad for the teeth because they're not sugars? That's a rather wild assumption. Anything synthetic (assuming that they are) is something that the body hasn't adapted to in evolution and is therefre likely to have some negative effect (possibly in the long run). Whether the teeth will be affected is a different matter, but assuming they won't is a bit of a stretch. DirkvdM 11:51, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm stating that they don't "cause tooth decay like sugar". You (the one who doesn't know whether or not they are synthetic), are the one making wild inappropriate logical leaps here, not I. In the case of sucralose, there were a series of actual studies demonstrating it didn't cause tooth decay, which is the reason the FDA approved it. - Nunh-huh 13:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Dental caries has a nice gross picture. The synthetic sugars could rot other parts of your body, but the little bugs that chew on your teeth need natural sugars. --Zeizmic 13:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Decay-causing oral bacteria require sugars for their nutrition. Non-nutritive sweeteners such as Splenda do not provide nutrition-- either to humans or to oral bacteria; they do not promote tooth decay. Equal (aspartame) is, technically speaking, a nutritive sweetener-- but oral bacteria do not have the capability of metabolizing it, and it does not cause tooth decay. And Sweet 'N Low, while predominantly composed of sodium saccharin, also contains lactose, which is nutritive, but in such low amounts as to make it for all practical purposes non-nutritive and non-cariogenic (does not promote tooth decay).--Mark Bornfeld DDS 14:52, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

why eye focus changes light colour

When looking at certain light sources and changing the varying the focus of one's eyes, it is possible to notice a change in the percieved colour of the light. For example, a white light will appear yellow if underfocused (focal point behind source). What causes this phenomenon? -nshty mcnshterson 88.144.34.107 06:56, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not an opthalmologist or any sort of eye expert whatsoever, so I can't give a good answer to your question. However, I just tried this myself, and I didn't notice any yellow at all. My experiment involved holding a small black plastic object close to my eye, focusing on it, with a white piece of paper behind it, unfocused. To me, the white paper remained white. The best answer I can give is that the yellow you are seeing is an afterimage of something else you may have looked at previously. However, I might be wrong. -- Daverocks (talk) 11:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I tried it too and didn't notice anything. I used a lightbulb as a source because you say 'certain light sources'. Which ones? I thought that maybe the soure has a yellow hue, but when the background is dark the contrast will make it appear as white. But of course that has nothing to do with fodus (has it?). Could you be more specific (also known here as "suitly emphazi") so we can reproduce the experiment more precisely? DirkvdM 11:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

There is something called spherical aberration which causes the outer edge of a lens to act like a prism. This might have something to do with it.

Astronomy

I am studying in 10th class in India and want to have a carreer in Astronomy. So please suggest want I should do next year.

Physics and maths, and make sure your English is good? enochlau (talk) 08:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

You can check the criteria for admissions into Indian Institute of Astrophysics from its official website. Also the Indian Space Research Organisation has several centres, you can go to the official ISRO site. Jay 09:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

See also, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Indian Institute of Science. They would all have good Astronomy departments. But right now, focus on Physics and Maths. deeptrivia (talk) 14:14, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

In India, you cant specialize in Astronomy at this early stage. It would be a good idea to do your 11th and 12ths with Physics, Chemistry and Maths. That way you'll be eligible for all Engineering and Physics courses for the undergrads. I'm a final year Physics Undergrad from India, I'll specialize in Condensed Matter Physics. But, as far as I can see, I still have the option of going into Astronomy open. So, doing a B.Sc. with a Physics major might be an option for you? Where are you from?--Sayanchak 16:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Remember that while popular consumer astronomy is all the pretty visual pictures of the heavens, real astronomy includes radar and other non-visual aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many nations are active in space. Is India one of them? User:AlMac|^(talk) 01:20, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is. See Indian space program. That said, they are different fields with only a certain degree of overlap. --Robert Merkel 11:23, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Keyframes in video

Q :What is importance of keyframe in video encoding? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.138.120.37 (talk • contribs) .

(heading inserted) enochlau (talk) 08:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

According to the article Key frame: in video compression, a key frame is a frame encoded without reference to any images in another frame.

So, one advantage of key frame is that it prevents encoding errors from accummulating over time. It kinda has a "refresh" effect in terms of video quality. The trade-off is that more data bits are required to encode that frame. I'm not sure if there are any other advantages. --Vsion 11:29, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Keyframes also make seeking faster, since the player doesn't need to process all frames before the current frame to find out the state of it. With keyframes evenly spaced, you'd just need to start seeking from last keyframe up. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 12:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

A little clarification to help you understand the above answers. Most frames (in mpeg, anyway) are defined in terms of other frames. Oversimplified, if a piece of the image doesn't change from one frame to the next, you don't need to record it twice but just say 'do that again'. But since video is real-time, keeping up with the tempo is more important than getting the image exactly right. So errors are allowed. If you wouldn't 'reset' every now and then you'd get an ever increasingly garbled image. By the way, lossless compression like mjpeg is better for video editing because it has all the frames complete (it's a sequence of complete jpeg images), so you can create a cut at any frame, not just a key frame. The big drawback is that it requires much bigger files. DirkvdM 12:41, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Doctor advice

Okay, let's say your a doctor and a teenage girl is having seisures, what sort of stuff would you do to find out what is wrong? Blood tests? X Rays?

Take her to a doctor who doesn't need to ask the Wikipedia reference desk for advice :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 12:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It depends. If you are seeing her have a seizure in front of you, you can see what kind of seizure it is, and treat it if needed. On the other hand, if she comes into your office and tells you she has been having seizures, you discuss what kind of seizures they were, with her and with anyone who may have seen her having an actual seizure; you discuss her medical history, and perhaps her family history. A physical and neurological examination is in order. Blood tests might be useful, but in the absence of a severe electrolyte abnormality, they are not likely to determine a cause for seizures. A CT-scan or MRI of the brain might be of use; an EEG might be of use, but the first step is a good history of the illness: determining if the illness is actually seizures or something else, and if so, what type of seizure (e.g. generalized or partial) they may be. - Nunh-huh 12:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your help Nunh huh, but QuantumEleven, I'm not a doctor, I'm just very interested, I'm 13, might be more careful how you answer

I apologise - my remark was flippant and didn't really help to answer your question. Next time, I'll keep my mouth shut, or at least say something constructive... — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Take a look at our article on seizures. There are several possible causes that must be analyzed. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 12:36, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I tend to agree with the flippant advice, if this is one of those 'my friend has this' situations. If you have witnessed a seizure of a young friend (or yourself), it is not 'ratting' to talk to an adult, or to see a doctor. --Zeizmic 13:18, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

And talking to an adult might be especially important if you think she might be using drugs or unprescribed medicine, as that is certainly a potential cause of seizures in a young adult. - Nunh-huh 14:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I think QuantumEleven was just making a joke, maybe not in very good taste, but i thought it was mildly amusing when I saw the :) at the end.

Woah, woah woah, I don't have a friend or anything with this problem, I'm just interested because I'm a teenager and I'm doing RPGs on doctor stuff and I'm interested in what would help recover or find out what is wrong

I don't believe the first priority would be blood tests or x-rays, though a doctor might do some of that too. You'd probably suspect that the subject became epileptic due to some sort of trauma (like smashing your head on a sink) and so you'd want to look into the brain (like a brain MRI or EEG) to see if you can find something wrong, as well as asking if the patient had smashed her head into a sink in the last white (or something like that). I'm not sure but I don't think a doctor can be 100% sure of their analysis unless they actually scan a seizure event. There are other causes but that's by far the most common, I'd say.   freshgavin TALK    01:09, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Did you look up seizure and epilepsy? You will find most of your answers there. First of all, the doctor would need to determine that the "seizure" was in fact an actual seizure (and not syncope or a pseudoseizure for example). An EEG could help confirm that there had been a recent seizure. Blood tests would be useful to determine if there was a metabolic disorder causing the seizures (for example, renal failure, hypoglycemia, etc.). A CT scan or MRI could determine if there was a structural cause (eg. a brain tumor) for the seizure. Cybergoth 03:30, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Statistics on Computer Science degrees

Where's the best place to start looking for statistics about how many people have received degrees in computer science (BSc, MSc, PhD, etc.) per year since, say, the 1980s? --Fastfission 12:55, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• Actually... nevermind! I found this page just after posting this. --Fastfission 12:57, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Sneeze

Why do adults sneeze so much louder compared to children, or compared to when they were younger? It seems to get louder as one gets older. Thanks. 69.234.27.124 13:59, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Possibly because the average size of the lungs, sinuses, etc. is larger would be my guess.... Dismas|^(talk) 14:10, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Though this counts as original research, I think that since adults tend to try to 'hold in' sneezes it actually amplifies the effect of the sneeze; holding it in can build up the 'explosive force' of the sneeze. Me on the other hand, I rarely ever lose control of my sneezes and I can hold them in quite easily, and it still feels almost as good as an orgasm!   freshgavin TALK    23:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Alternative to organ donation?

Am I right in saying that the biotechnology of cloning is now advanced far enough to be able to take an individual's cell sample and grow up a new organ, eg heart, liver, lung etc. If so, both donor and recipient would be histocompatible. This therefore potentially solves the problem of looking for donor organs, and the drudgery of renal dialysis for kidney failure patients etc. Or, is this type of human organ cloning currently illegal in the UK ?

You can grow cell samples in culture but that's a long way from growing complete organs. I think the only way to get a complex organ like a heart or lung is to grow a whole human being in a woman's womb. —Keenan Pepper 15:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The chances are that people are working hard on this and that it will one day be possible. The rewards (both financial and medical) are enormous, so billions will be spent on research. I wouldn't count on much in less than 10-20 years, except for skin (a really important organ: think of burn victims). I suspect livers will come among the first. Other internal organs later; limbs after that. Brain cells are the really interesting one. Even if illegal, that isn't really relevant: if research is legal anywhere it will take place, then there would be huge public pressure to make it legal so people can get their new bits. Notinasnaid 17:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

You might be interested in this recent article from the Washington Post. Among other things, it mentions the possibility of growing entire human organs inside other animals. However, this (and almost everything that is in that article) has at least some sort of moral debate attached to it that might slow down research, especially in the United States. - EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 17:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

This is one of the reasons that research into stem cells is so popular at the moment, because they are the undifferentiated cells that, given the right signals in the embryo, turn themselves into the various organs. Of course, there are ethical dimensions that send certain parts of the population into a tizzy. --Robert Merkel 00:09, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, given the right signals in the embryo. That's what I wanted to say. How the cells differentiate is determined by their biological surroundings and for that you'd need almost a complete human (or animal as EWS23 says - didn't know that). Well, almost complete. I've heard about the solution of growing a human clone without a brain, which thereofore has no conscience and there wouldn't be any moral problems (...) with 'harvesting organs. But I see one big problem here (correct me if I'm wrong - I am by no means an expert). To avoid rejection you'd want to have as close a relative as possible, in other words, preferably a clone of yourself. But then, when some accident happens and you need an organ you can't usually wait for that to grow. And cloning everyone at birth, just in case, would be a bit too much (for now, anyway). So it might only be used for people with some medical problem that will probably require a transplant later in life. DirkvdM 13:06, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Starting PHP

Hi,

I want to start learning PHP, but I have a couple of questions that I have not been able to find answers to:

• Can I use PHP as a stand-alone programming language on my computer? That is, do I need a server and database and stuff, or can I first program something on my computer (windows and mac) and then move it online?
• (Related) Would I have to change my program if I moved it to a different type of server or database program?

Thanks! --Mary

PHP is a pretty good interpretted language in itself. You can run PHP scripts, just the way you run any other script. And they wont need to be changed, when you decide to switch to GNU/Linux for example.--Sayanchak 16:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• Wikibooks has a book on PHP. --JWSchmidt 17:47, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. What if I want to develop a website which will eventually need a server, database and all that. Can I still just program it right in my computer, without access to an online database? --Mary

You can program it, but you can't test it locally if you don't have a database. Of course, you could always install a database (such as MySQL) locally along with Apache. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 18:53, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Running PHP locally can be done by installing a web server like Apache, which is free. If you are using a Mac with OSX, it already is installed. Basically.. install Apache; install PHP; install MySQL (or whatever database you want). All are free and all can be run from your home computer.

As for portability: it depends on the setup of the server. Each installation of PHP can have different settings. If the settings are the same, programs can be transferred without any difficulty. If they aren't, then you will have problems. An easy way to see the settings is to install PHP and then create a file called "info.php" which contains just the following line: <?php phpinfo(); ?>

It will output a page like this: http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/test.php

The most important settings are to make sure that any libraries you need (i.e., the GD library for image processing, or the PDF library for PDF-related functions) are installed. There are some other issues too (i.e. whether variables passed to a script through a GET protocol are immediately available or whether they have to be assigned from $GET) but at this point you shouldn't worry about them. Long story short: it can be portable, but it might need some tweaking. If the project you are working on requires a specific optional function library, make sure the server you are intending it for will support that.

Hope that helps a bit. --Fastfission 20:04, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

the size of a disk

please i would like to know how much disk space a 5000 × 5000 × 16 bit image require. thanks

Assuming that means 16 bits per pixel, and 5000 pixels in height and width, then if the image is a bitmap image, simple arithmetic comes out to 400,000,000 bits. At 8 bits per byte, that's 50,000,000 bytes, so roughly 50 megabytes. Of course a megabyte isn't really one million bytes, it's 1,048,576, so more arithmetic is needed. The size of a disk cluster might come into play as well.

Of course, if the image is being stored as a JPEG or with some other encoding method, then it's hard to determine the actual file size, since it is dependent on the properties of the image being stored. LarryMac 17:00, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

16-bit per pixel is uncommon in images - it's likely 16-bit per channel, which works out to 150 million bytes, or 143.0511474609375 megabytes. But as you said, compression will decrease that value. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 18:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The size of a disk? $\pi r^{2}$ - Sorry, coudn't resist --GraemeL ^(talk) 19:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Considering raw image

Pixel in total: 5000 x 5000 pixels = 25 000 000 pixels

color depth: 16 = 2 x 8 bits/pixel = 2 bytes/pixel

total filesize: 25 000 000 bytes * 2 bytes/pixel = 50 000 000 = approx. 47.68 MB

Note that the W x H x B notation usually has B as overall bit-depth, not bits/channel. Using 16 bits/channel you'd have three times the value I just gave you. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 19:44, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

That's pretty big. A standard digital photo is about 5 megapixel at 24 bits (8 bits per colour channel, of which there are 3). That's 15 MB, which is usually slightly compressed (meaning with barely visible artefacts) to about 2 MB. You're talking about 25 megapixel at (probably) 16 bits per channel. Uncompressed that would be 75 MB. Are you sure you need it to be that big? Generally, it's better to decrease the file size with compression than with a lower image size (pixel count). But an image size of 25 megapixel seems a bit over the top unless you want to do some very special stuff. What is it for? Especially a bitdepth of 16 bits per channel is way over the top. Even Photoshop can't handle that for a lot of operations because it's unnecessarily precise. DirkvdM 13:17, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

New scientific article

I'm in the process of hammering out a new article - Remotely triggered earthquakes. Does anybody have the same writer's block that I do? It takes me forever to start. I hammer things out directly on-line, then I format, and wikify, add outside sources, and then add links from other articles. Once I do it, it's fine, but it's just getting in to it that is so difficult. --Zeizmic 17:20, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

A little help ... same for me!

(Note to Firefox users: There is a useful toolbar just for editing wiki pages.)

I open as many pages as I need for references + the Help:Editing page. I save once or twice to have the idea and read again (misspellings appear easily in a different font!)

What I suggest is a search feature in the edit forms! Good luck! Take care! --DLL 20:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It's very common for writers and composers to shrink from the act of sitting down and committing their ideas to paper. Having great ideas is one thing, but the spectre of having to write all those words/notes is most unattractive. So just getting started is often a huge challenge (it is for me). That first word is often the hardest of all. The good news is that this barrier can be overcome by writing - one word. JackofOz 20:33, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I periodically print out the pages I am working on. I circle words and phrases in different colored pens to indicate links found, what should be linked but not yet found article that matches that phraseology, right topic different naming, etc. User:AlMac|^(talk) 21:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

SKIN DISEASE

There's a skin disease that makes a person's skin lihter. It literally can change a black skin into a white skin. It perhaps also makes the skin extremely sensitive to the sun light. What is this disease called? Scientific name and other please.

Vitiligo? —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Exactly what I was going to post. Michael Jackson claims that's why his skin is lighter than it used to be. User:Zoe|^(talk) 17:34, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

He also claims that it's not so strange that he's white (and his kids are white) because African-americans are sometimes called colored people because that they come in many different colors, and by his reckoning, white!   freshgavin TALK    05:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Albinism is another condition you might be interested in. It's a lack of pigmentation in the eyes, skin and hair. However, it's much more of a genetic thing and a lot rarer than vitiligo, but still worth a look at. -- Daverocks (talk) 09:47, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

And it doesn't start developing when you become famous either!   freshgavin TALK    10:05, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Brain and Food

When you are getting ready to eat a piece of pizza describe in detail what parts of the brain are involved and why?

"Do your own homework - if you need help with a specific part or concept of your homework, feel free to ask, but please do not post entire homework questions and expect us to give you the answers." Please review the instructions at the top of the page. To start on answering your question, I'd suggest reviewing our article on the human brain and following links from there. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 18:51, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Sorry for the inconvience,this does not pertain to homework. I am a late thirty's, father of four and this was the topic at our dinner table while eating pizza last night. I was trying to get some insite in order to discuss this further with my inquisitive eight year old son whom asked the question.

Lol. There's a lot of these homework accusations flying around, although I must say it did smack of a homework question! Sorry I can't help... --Username132 23:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Let's see. In order to pick up the pizza and get it to your mouth, you have to process the image from your eyes and recognize it as pizza, which involves the visual cortex. Then you have to actually pick it up, which involves using your motor cortex to send signals to your muscles.

When you smell the pizza, the amazingly complex olfactory system sends a signal, perhaps through the amygdala and the parasympathetic nervous system, which eventually gets to your salivary glands and tells them to start making saliva. The parasympathetic nervous system also tells your stomach to start making acid and the smooth muscles of your intestines to get ready to digest the pizza.

After you've used your motor cortex to tell your jaw muscles to chew the pizza, your medulla oblongata kicks in with the swallowing reflex. I'm sure I've missed quite a lot of things, but you get the picture. —Keenan Pepper 00:01, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Apart from the obvious motor activity involved in eating, there is the complex interplay between endocrine and neural function that is behaviorally expressed as hunger and satiety. Various sensory and endocrine parameters (e.g., visual and olfactory input, blood glucose and insulin levels, degree of stomach distension, levels of hormonal peptides such as gastrin, and cholecystekinin) are translated by the hypothalamus into either a sensation of hunger (attributed to the lateral hypothalamus) or satiety (the ventromedial hypothalamus). Of course, all the sensory input is also conveyed through its own pathways, which include the thalamus and the sensory cortex as well.--Mark Bornfeld DDS 00:55, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Providing Oxygen To Domestic Boilers

How is it ensured that enough air gets into a domestic boiler for gas to burn with a blue flame, whilst at the same time heat loss is minimised? --Username132 19:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi 132 - I'd guess the important factor is to have a good heat exchanger on the exit flue, so that all the heat produced is transferred to the water pipes - MPF 20:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Ok, for sure this is homework! I actually love it when the originator comes back and denies it. Shows that we have reached out and touched someone. That said, this is really the most classic combustion engineering problem, and is a major engineering challenge in designing clean EPA wood stoves. I looked it up because I want to buy one... --Zeizmic 21:55, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, sure enough here I am, and you're right, I deny it! I'm a student at Durham University reading Biomedical Science and we don't actually do much combustion engineering, at least not in the third year! (just curious) Thanks, though! --Username132 23:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

CSS/JS table hiding

I am exporting a database to an HTML file in the form of tables. The basic structure will be something like this:

 
 <table>
 <tr><td>Entry 1 title</td></tr> 
 <tr><td> <table><tr><td>Entry 1 data</td></tr></table></td></tr>
 <tr><td>Entry 2 title</td></tr>
 <tr><td> <table><tr><td>Entry 2 data</td></tr></table></td></tr>
 ...
 </table>
 

and so forth. What I want is to create a little button or something which will cause the data to be shown or hidden via Javascript. I assume this will involve setting some sort of DIV tag or something on the fly. I once knew how to do this but now I'm not so sure.

Any tips as to where to start? If you give me a basic area to pursue I'm happy to do the research on my own. I don't think this should be too difficult but the details elude me. --Fastfission 20:48, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I use this stock code:

var ie4 = false; if(document.all) { ie4 = true; }
function getObject(id) { if (ie4) { return document.all[id]; } else { return document.getElementById(id); } }
function DisplayTable() {
  var d = getObject("table");
  if (d.style.display == 'none') { d.style.display = 'block'; }
  else { d.style.display = 'none'; }
}

Then you just make your table id="table" and use the js function DisplayTable() to hide/show. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 20:57, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Bar of Tungsten

Where could i get a free sample of Tungsten? Or even one for a very low price as it would be very helpful for my A Level physics project in which i am investigating Tungsten.

The guy who created this website has acquired a number of samples of tungsten over the years. They vary quite a bit in terms of size, shape, purity, and cost, but might give you some ideas—he's listed his sources for most of them. Depending on what you're planning to do, you might be able to beg or borrow a sample from a local university materials science or metallurgy department. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

A metal dealer should be able to supply that for you, and quite possibly for free, if it's a small enough amount. Given that they usually trade in rather large amounts, it'd may not be worth their while to bill you for it. On the other hand, it's a rather expensive element, currently running $260 per MTU, (Metric Ton Unit) which is a mere 10 kg of WO₃, and even less in terms of pure tungsten. --BluePlatypus 22:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Could you explain what an MTU is? We don't seem to have an article on it. —Keenan Pepper 22:50, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It's here, and it's 1000kg.   freshgavin TALK    23:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

That doesn't make sense. How can a metric ton be 10 kilograms? —Keenan Pepper 00:11, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I think what Blueplatypus is trying to say is that you can buy some industrial product (I'm not sure what) for $260 per 1000kg, and from that you can extract 10kg of WO₃, and less than 10kg of tungsten. You wouldn't really be paying $260 just for the tungsten... though I'm not sure why he mentioned that figure. I don't know how easily tungsten can be obtained in a pure form though.   freshgavin TALK    00:56, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Tungsten is measured in Metric Ton Units of tungsten trioxide. In this context is actually 1% of a metric ton (quite misleading!), that is 10 kg of WO₃. So only 7.93 kg of actual tungsten. Google for "Metric Ton Unit tungsten" or similar. --BluePlatypus 02:09, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Edit confliect! I was just going to say that. In particular I suggest looking at Russ Rowlett's excellent dictionary of units of measurement. A "metric ton unit" is simply 10 kg, and it has that name because it's the amount of metal you can extract from a metric ton of ore if the ore contains 1% metal! (I am not making this up.) --Anonymous, February 2, 2006, 02:13 UTC

If you want a (very small) free sample of tungsten, smash a domestic light bulb—the filament is made out of tungsten. Physchim62 (talk) 02:27, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What the hell : (. What could the benifit be of using such a unit? (And giving it such a confusing name.) Why don't they just admit that if you have a metric ton/tonne of ore, and the metal content is 1%, you can extract 1% of 1 ton/tonne of metal (e.g. 0.01 tons/tonnes)?   freshgavin TALK    05:33, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

• The straightforward way is to order from a fine chemical supplier. Aldrich and Strem are the best known; depending on which country you live in there may be others. They sell the material in all shapes (powder, wire, sheet and bar). Be warned, though that the stuff is expensive. It's also brittle and highly refractory and thus difficult to work. Pilatus 05:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Myspace Music Help

For some reason, my settings on firefox will not allow me to access MySpace Music (http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music). It also won;t allow me to access it on Internet Explorer. Can anyone help? I will be able to provide answers to any questions that could help solve this. Thanks M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 21:47, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I can access it ok. If it's both browsers, it might be some ad blocker, or a firewall somewhere along the line. You accessing it from work or home? enochlau (talk) 23:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

From home, and I don't think it's an ad blocker issue, because I keep a pretty tight watch on that. I'm wondering if my browser's security settings might be to blame, because once I turned off SSL 2.0, TLS 1.0, and SSL 3.0 (all of which are currently ON), and I was able to see a banner, but not the main page. Much thanks if that helps you figure out my problem. M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 23:38, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

If you're unable to access it properly with either browser, I'd say it's probably a problem outside of the browser settings. But I don't really know what it could be. If you can access other websites successfully, then there's no reason why MySpace Music shouldn't work, unless it tried connecting through a different port which might be blocked, which is unlikely to be possible unless some plugin is doing it... I'm rambling now, ignore me. :) By the way, SSL and TLS aren't firewalls or anything like that, they just encrypt the data you send on secure websites (like online banking), and MySpace Music clearly is not a secure (HTTPS) site, like most websites. -- Daverocks (talk) 09:59, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What is a feeling of apprehinsion tension or uneasiness that stems from antcipation of danger, the source of which largely unknown or unrecongnized

Paranoia? —Keenan Pepper 23:31, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Spider-sense!   freshgavin TALK    23:36, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Anxiety. Frencheigh 23:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The word is dread, folks. alteripse 00:30, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I'd say that 'dread' is usually associated with a known fear, e.g. I dread the day I have to leave home. As an unknown sense I think plain anxiety or paranoia makes more sense.   freshgavin TALK    00:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What about "foreboding" or "disquiet"? JackofOz 00:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

According to admittedly hoary information from my behavior pathology class 33 years ago, the distinction between fear and anxiety is that fear is attached to a particular idea or object, while anxiety was a generalized, free-floating state of arousal/agitation unattached to any specific object. It is a sensation that is described as ego-alien, or something that is perceived as unpleasant and acknowledged as abnormal by the subject. As for paranoia, that is a completely different situation-- an ego-syntonic (perceived by the subject as factual and real) delusional perception of persecution, and a symptom of psychosis.--Mark Bornfeld DDS 01:13, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

• Howabout 'forboding? M-W.com: "to have an inward conviction of (as coming ill or misfortune)".--Fastfission 01:21, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

(already suggested - see above)

Speaking existentially, anguish or angst? Or existential despair? Sum0 15:23, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

English Convention for Titling Subjects

I was wondering what the reasoning is behind using uppercase for the first letters of most words, and lowercase for words like of, the, and...? --Username132 23:52, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

This question really belongs on the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language page. JackofOz 23:54, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I find that the more uppercase there is, the harder it is to read quickly. So why capitalize totally unimportant words and just make the title harder to read? It doesn't draw attention to anything important to capitalize Of. — Laura Scudder ☎ 00:01, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

For those of us whose eyesight had a hard time distinguishing between a period and a comma, the capital letter at the start of a sentence is a good backup. User:AlMac|^(talk) 01:25, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Check out Capitalization#How to capitalise - there are many different styles of capitalising headings and titles, and which one you use depends on your personal preference, house style, country and more. On Wikipedia, we set up a 'house style' for capitalising headings and titles, read all about it in Wikipedia:Capitalization#Headings and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings). — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:50, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What do you mean by 'capitalisation of most words'. Just read the prose here and you'll see that only one in about 20 words or so are capitalised. DirkvdM 13:30, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Although it wasn't stated in the posted question, the section heading for this question mentions that this question refers to Titles. Johntex\^talk 18:13, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

extacation of caffeine from coffee

the chemistry experiment extraction of caffeine from coffee. after using the separating funnel for extraction why do we discard the dark brown aqeous layer in the funnel

From the Caffeine article:

Caffeine will migrate to the solvent in which it is most soluble, and it is more soluble in chloroform than water. —Keenan Pepper 00:05, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

• Damn, we just used benzoic acid when our lab did it, removing caffeine from coffee should be considered a federal crime, decaf... *shudders*--64.12.116.74 00:07, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

February 2

Music of the Spheres

Do planets like earth make different sound vibrations,like harmonic sound?

Have a look at our article Musica universalis. JackofOz 00:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Johannes Kepler used to believe in this stuff. He actually published it in 1619, in the same book in which he postulated his third law. Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 01:19, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Sound is vibration of air. Lack of air around planets means there is no sound. Audible sound has frequencies between 20 and 20.000 Hz. Planetary movements are much slower. Of course you could take the various cyclic planetary motions, speed them up to our audible range and play that on a synth. I've once heard the sound of trees in a BBC documentary, which was recorded and then speeded up to make it audible. It was almost rhythmical (except there was no regular beat). DirkvdM 13:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

The earth does vibrate, at frequencies too low to hear [28]. Sadly though, "this sound is not particularly pleasant or enlightening - in fact it sounds like a bored person banging a garbage bin lid very loudly." Mark¹ 15:47, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Avian Influenza genus and species

After researching for the genus and species of Avian Influenza, I am not sure if I have found the correct answer. The information I have found does not list the genus and species together. I have found that the genus is Influenza A, but not the species. Avian Influenza I have found is commonly referred to as H5N1 and is considered a sub type of Influenza A. Would the correct list of genus and species for Avian Influenza be Influenza A H5N1?

00:46, 2 February 2006 (UTC) 24.15.160.72 00:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

See H5N1 and Influenzavirus A. Try using the search box on the left of the page next time, you'll get an answer much quicker. --Robert Merkel 01:35, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

.rar

Just wondering, I just downloaded a .rar file of just under 15 MB in size, unzipped it only to find that it contained a 400 MB file! I've never heard of any compression system that works quite 15 MB!">that well on rar archives, does anyone know how that might work?--Rar-contributer 02:27, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

RAR uses a very good (but slow) compression algorithm. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:40, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Also, there are certain types of data that can be compressed rather well. Additionally, if the RAR contains several slightly different versions of the same file, and they're all compressed in a solid format (that is, they're all compressed as a single chunk of data), then the extra redundancy can be cut off tremendously. The extracted files, however, will be pretty big anyway. ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 02:47, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Imagine that you have to compress a photo taken with the lens cap on. It might be 8 MB, but many compression systems could reduce it to a few KB, because it is all a repetition of the same, black, colour. This is an extreme case, but graphics with repetition are good candidates for astonishing amounts of compression. Notinasnaid 11:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Some data compress really well. For instance, a megabyte worth of binary zeroes compresses to only 1051 bytes using gzip, or 45 bytes using bzip2. Ten megabytes worth of binary zeroes compress to 49 bytes using bzip2; a hundred megabytes, to 113 bytes. Obviously, your data doesn't compress as well as pure binary zeroes. --cesarb 14:22, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

bluetooth

ooth

Please suitly emphazi your question. —Keenan Pepper 04:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

You might be interested in our article on Bluetooth, or our article on the Dreamlands, a fictional location from H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, where the valley of Ooth-Nargai is located. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 04:51, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

the ooth is out there. Grutness...wha? 06:32, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

penis?

Why does a penis rise while having sex? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 210.211.225.56 (talk • contribs) .

Um... try our article on erection? Titoxd^{(?!? - help us)} 07:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

You should answer questions with statements, not more questions.   freshgavin TALK    10:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Even if using the socratic method? Notinasnaid 11:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

No? DirkvdM 13:40, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

While having sex? How do you start without an erection? Or don't you mean coitus specifically? Enough counterquestions for you? DirkvdM 13:40, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, how do you define sex? EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 17:57, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Avoiding pacemaker rejection

What is done to avoid the body's immune system treating an artificial pacemaker as a foreign body and creating anti-bodies to reject it ? Jay 08:03, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Immunosuppressive drugs are the most common technique. -- Daverocks (talk) 10:05, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I actually had checked out the Immunosuppressive drug article. It talked of natural organ translpants, but there was no mention of artificial organ transplants. Will the case with artifical be a lot different ? Jay 12:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

The chemical makeup of the casing is so designed that it will rarely cause problems. The whole thing will not be rejected, and will be encapsulated by scar tissue, in the same way a piercing is. -- Ec5618 11:21, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Can you give some link to this ? I would like to add all this to the article. Jay 12:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Petroleum rock deposits

With what rock type(s) are petroleum deposits generally associated?--67.173.252.120 08:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Shale is a major one - have a look at oil shale. Grutness...wha? 10:15, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Data Recovery

I desperately need to format all the drives of my computer but I have some important data(occupying a space of about more than 1.5 GB) stored in my computer. I need to start over again with a new installation of the operating system after completely formatting all the drives. I do not have a CD writer hardware so copying the data to a CD is impossible and the data is VERY IMPORTANT and I do not have a backup.Is it possible to upload the data to the Internet or is there any other way I can create a backup? I do not exactly know what is uploading. Please explain the term and whether it can be a solution to my problem. Please explain in detail the solution to my problem. Please help me! Please help me! Thank you!

Probably the safest option is to buy a new disk and install the system to that. Once it is done, you can (with some juggling of hardware settings) add the old disk and read the data from that. Better still, buy an external CD drive that plugs into your computer. Backups are very important, and disks can fail at any time, without warning. Happens here all the time. Notinasnaid 12:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, he says 'all hard drives', which is plural, so I'd say put it all on one drive, format the rest, install your new OS, copy to a formatted drive and format the remaining drive. If you don't use backups it's especially important to physically unhook the drive with the data on it in case you make a mistake specifying the drives to be formatted (maybe that's what you were asking for). It is also advisable to unhook all other drives when installing the OS, especially when it's msWindows, because that can give a lot of headaches in my experience. Of course, backups are a very good idea and a cd or dvd writer doesn't cost too much. DirkvdM 13:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I would also recommend you buy an external CD- or DVD-writer - they're not that expensive, you can easily hook them up to your computer (usually through a USB port), and the case of a DVD drive, you can fit all your data on a single disk. Echoing Notinasnaid and DirkvdM, if your data is as important as you say, it is very strongly recommended to make backups somewhere that is not your PC. Imagine what would happen if, for instance, you spilled coffee all over your PC. Or a water pipe broke and flooded the room. Or a fire broke out - these things can and do happen. CD or DVD backups are relatively cheap and easy.

In case this solution is not possible / not practical for you, you could get a friend with a laptop to help you, connect the two computers up with a network cable, and back your data up on your friend's computer. Then, when you've reformatted your PC, you can move the data back by the same way.

Backups over the internet work in a similar way, except you are copying your data to a computer which is connected to yours through the internet. The problem is finding one which will offer to host your data - your ISP (the company you connect to the internet through) might be able to help you. Many of them offer "web hosting" (which is basically a bit of space on their server where you can upload your files), but most only offer several tens of megabytes, too small for your purposes - but ask. Sure, you can get more space, but it will probably cost you and is unlikely to be worth the hassle if you're just backing up your data once. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:01, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Software program for creating "20 questions" game

I'm looking for a program where young students (5th-7th grade) could easily and inutitively program a 20-questions-like game. Basically, once they've written it, it should produce an output such as "Vehicles: Does it have wheels? 'Yes.' Is it big and yellow? 'Yes.' It's a school bus!", or whatever.

If such a program could be created by drawing a decision tree this would be ten-times better, but either way, is there anything out there like this? — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 12:23, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

IMO it might be borderline for the age group, but you could teach them a very simple programming language like BASIC, which supports decision trees (by means of IF-THEN statements as well as the dreaded GOTO).

Something I'm not entirely clear about - do you want the computer do the guessing ("does it have wheels?", "is it big and yellow?"), or do you want the computer to reply to the guesses made by the students? In the former case, the decision tree would have to be gargantuan (possibly covering every known object), or the student's "unknown word" would have to be limited to a known, small set. In the case of the latter, you would have to restrict the questions the students can ask it, otherwise it will get confused very quickly. I'm just wondering... — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

There's a commercial version of the "computer guesses" variant - see http://www.radicagames.com/20q-cb.php. According to http://www.radicauk.com/20q_howitworks.htm, it uses a neural network approach, likely to be far beyond the capabilities of 5th-7th grade students. -- Rick Block (talk)

cutting the umbilical cord

Is cutting the umbilical cord painful to the newborn and/or mother ? Does it result in blood loss ? How do all other mammals cut the cord and how do they manage to control the blood loss ? Jay 12:57, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

See parturition. The umbilical cord is made of Wharton's jelly, not ordinary skin and connective tissue. There are no nerves, so cutting it is not painful. There is ordinarily no significant loss of either infant or maternal blood unless something goes wrong. I am not certain of the range of variations of placental and cord structure in most other mammals, but suspect that it either shrivels and falls off (like the stump of umbilical cord of a human baby) or is consumed by the mother (which recycles the protein, and reduces tissue that would attract scavengers or predators). alteripse 15:19, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

For animals: the mother bites the cord apart, and it dies and falls off after a short while.

Albert Einstein and an article inconsistency?

An anonymous user posted a comment on Talk:Albert Einstein stating that there is a factual inaccuracy in the article.

Wikipedia's own articles point out that Henri Poincare discovered Relativity, and David Hilbert first published on Novemer 20, 1915 the famous Field Equations of general relativity which completed that theory. Reference See Einstein-Hilbert action. Also, the so called theory of general relativity is only a theory of gravity, which should be pointed out. Thus, Einstein's Introduction on Wikipedia must be re-written. User:69.22.98.162

I'm not familiar with the detailed history of the theory. Could someone knowledgeable in the area go take a look? Thank you very much! By the way, is there a good book on the history of relativity out there? --HappyCamper 13:05, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

PEPPER

Please give me a brief history of Pepper and its effects on humans who consume a lot of it ie its side effects if any.

Have you read our article on black pepper (or, for other kinds of pepper, pepper)? In fact, it's such a good article that it was a featured article! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:14, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Spam

Two years ago Bill Gates said he would kill spam within two years. Apart from a few laws and a handful of prosecutions, have there been any significant advances towards this end? --Shantavira 14:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Bill Gates' ideas for a "postage cost" for e-mail has met with stiff resistance and is very unlikely to be implemented. We have made, however, significant progress in e-mail filters (see mail filter), to a point where a good filter can screen out about 60% of incoming spam. Also, people are slowly learning the rules of the net, such as not posting your e-mail address on public forums, or using several addresses for different purposes. However, all this is receiver-side stuff, very little has been accomplished on stopping the miscreants sending spam in the first place (save for a few arrests and trials, such as Jeremy Jaynes). Spam continues to be a large problem for the e-mail backbone, as something like 88% of all e-mail sent is spam, and while it may not reach its intended destination, it still clogs up the networks to a huge extent. I'm not completely up to date on the latest findings, but I don't see any breakthroughs in the fight against spam happening anytime soon. Which is a depressing thought. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 15:06, 2 February 2006 (UTC)