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January 26

Opera performances in December 1938 in Paris France.

How can I find if there were any performances in the Paris Opera house in late December of 1938? Also, if there was, how can I find the dates, and the primary performer's names? I am not looking for a specific opera at that time, any will do, as long as it was performed in the Paris Opera House. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

• Looking around the best I could find is the Henri Tomasi ballet Les Santons which premiered there November 18, 1938. If you want any more detail, you should probably just go to your local library and see if it has a history of the Paris Opera.--Pharos 04:37, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

A standard method would be to go to a research library and peruse the microfiche archives of a Paris newspaper, such as Le Figaro. This would of course require you to understand French. Good luck with your novel or script :) --Robert Merkel 04:41, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

vatican

I heard about a conection of the vatican and the masons in the History channel...does anyone know anything? --Cosmic girl 01:56, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• [In 1984], the pope imposed excommunication on Catholics who were Masons. An anti-Mason web site which quotes from the New Catholic Enclyclopedia is vitriolic against them. I warn you that this site represents extreme right-wing political and religious views. Our article on the Vatican doesn't say anything about the Masons, but if you follow up, the links from both places might lead you somewhere. But be careful they don't lead you where you don't want to go :P. Freemasonry is another product of the 18th century Enlightenment. Many Catholics, including Mozart, were members. One of the popes shortly after Mozart's time condemned the... what shall we call it... movement. Halcatalyst 03:48, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
• The Masonic movement has its own religious rites (Scottish rite masonry) and it is a secret society. The Catholic Church has been hostile to both secret religious rites (for obvious reasons) and secret societies (as they purportedly sought to infiltrate the avenues of power). Masons have been under excommunication in Catholic nations for centuries. In the 19th century, the Masonic movement was at its greatest power, probably, with virtually all of the highest politicians in Protestant nations belonging. Any other connection, such as the Masons being inheritors of the Templars and the like, is speculative and fodder for febrile conspiracy theorists. Geogre 13:00, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you :D , but what I actually heard at the end of the documentary which I would've wanted to see, was that this guy ( he was bald and had a mustache and was about in his late 40's) got killed because he knew too much about the nexus of the vatican and the masons that's quite literally what I heard.and it made me really curious haha.(like everything basically :|) --Cosmic girl 15:43, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The show was probably about Roberto Calvi's strange death in 1982. You can read all about Vatican implication in the article and follow up on the Masonic connections all you like. There are plenty, because it's about big money and, supposedly, conspiracies to take over the world. Halcatalyst 17:35, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Also have a look at our article on Lucian Pulvermacher. He masquerades as "Pope Pius XIII", but is considered an anti-pope. He claims that John XXIII (reigned 1958-63) was a freemason, therefore his election was invalid, and therefore all subsequent popes including Benedict XVI are invalidly elected popes. He was reported as having died a few weeks ago, but that claim is disputed. JackofOz 00:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Upcoming elections in nigeria

Dear sir/madam, I need to know exactly when is the date for the upcoming elections in nigeria. And is the PDP going to put candidates to be elected? Please have you answer sent to <email removed> Respectfully Amr Saad --84.18.72.186 06:47, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Elections ae scheduled for 2007. Information about the Politics of Nigeria is easily available. Whether the PDP puts up candidates remains to be seen, of course. Halcatalyst 14:17, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Nato Doctrine

What is the current NATO doctrine since 1991 I believe? It's not in the article, would be good to list the evolution of its doctrines, however. 83.5.226.238 07:27, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think NATO has a clear post-cold war doctrine. Some possible uses are intervetion in countries which have invaded others, are engaging in genocide, or are supporting terrorism. I also think it may need to take action against Iran when the UN refuses to act to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons (due to Russian and/or Chinese vetos in the Security Council). The US is stretched too thin right now to invade Iran on it's own, and bombing alone may not be effective, as Iran is building their uranium and/or plutonium refining capacity deep underground to make it bomb-proof.

In my opinion, a military alliance of the "good countries" is needed. The UN is not effective due to the veto power given to countries which don't much care about genocide, etc. China, for example, has oil interests in Sudan so would veto any attempt to stop the genocide in the Darfur region. Russia has business interests in Iran and might veto any attempt at sanctions against Iran and would almost certainly veto any military action that could be taken against Iran.

I also think NATO should be broadly expanded to go beyond the "North Atlantic" (countries like Turkey are already a stretch under that definition). Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and many new countries in the Americas could be included. I would avoid including any which support terrorism (which pretty much leaves out most of the Middle East) and any ruled by dictators (China, Cuba, many in Africa, etc.). StuRat 15:30, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

You're not trying to imply that there are countries with right of veto on the Security Council that might overlook a country's human rights abuses because it favour them politically, or worse, supply them with oil are you? Horror of horrors! </sarcasm> DJ Clayworth 19:01, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

We shall see soon. I suspect that Iran will be referred to the UN Security Council within a few weeks, at which time it will cut oil production to "punish" the world. The US, England, and France will most likely support sanctions against Iran, despite this, but perhaps not Russia and/or China. Iran certainly has a long record of human rights abuses, but the issue at this time is their nuclear ambitions. StuRat 20:32, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I believe you are referring to an annoucement of policy made by Bill Clinton and supported by NATO at its general meeting in 1993-4 or thereabouts. I believe the policy regarded military interventions in Europe being NATO's sphere of influence and was applied both in the Bosniac and Kosovar conflicts. See our article on Bill Clinton, Foreign Policy section, and see if that helps. Geogre 16:17, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Maps of Counties with City Limits

Can you(or anybody) please give me the links to websites which contains maps of these following counties, WHICH SHOW the borders and limits of the incorporated cities and towns in them:

Harris County, Texas Fairfax County, Virginia Prince Georges County, Maryland Montgomery County, Maryland Loudoun County, Virginia

(Post them on Wikipedia.)

When I was asked about Harris County, Texas I replied by showing you how to do the search yourself using Google. We aren't your slaves here, you know. You should be able to do this type of search for yourself. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities#Harris_County for a reminder on how to do the search. StuRat 11:35, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

The Census Bureau's [factfinder.census.gov FactFinder] is good for this. You can do a reference-map search for the counties, then use the "boundaries" tap to make the map show "places." Unfortunately, the maps won't disciminate between incorporated municipalities and census designated places, so you'll have to look up each "place" mentioned on the map to see whether it has its own government. -- Mwalcoff 22:46, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Townships in the USA

In the USA, what is a civil township?Is the township the same kind of political entity as incorporated cities,town,villages, and boroughs?Are townships political entities that only exist within counties? (Let's just talk about townships in the Midwest and Southeast.)

See civil township. -- AJR | Talk 14:22, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Townships differ among the states. Some states don't have townships. In some states, townships have similar powers to cities and villages. In other states, townships have few powers. States differ as to whether cities and villages are parts of townships (as in Indiana), separate from townships (as in Pennsylvania) or either-or as the case may be (as in Ohio).

I've never heard of a township in any state crossing county lines or existing outside of a county. That's presumably because townships are created as subdivisions of counties.

In Ohio, townships have fewer powers than cities and villages. They generally cannot pass their own ordinances, and they cannot enact an income tax. They can have a police department, but it ranks below the county sheriff's office. They can adopt zoning, but the county must approve any plans or changes. Now, townships can adopt "limited home rule," so some of the above may not be applicable everywhere. -- Mwalcoff 22:44, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

German Casualties in World War II

Dear Wikipedia,

Where can I find information about the distribution of German casualties in the WWII by front: How many people/arms did they loose in Russia, in North Africa, in Europe, etc. ...

Thank you very much, Alex L.

See WWII, and in specific, World War II casualties might be helpful. tiZom_{(the man)} 14:47, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Roman torture and persecution

Is there any historical evidence for the torture and persecution of early Christians by the Romans? I have heard accounts of Nero feeding Christians to lions and other such disturbing acts, but i cannot find any historical proof behind this. Was the feeding of criminals to lions and tigers a common spectacle in roman provinces?

The little information I have found refers to Christians being persecuted because they believed in one God, and that they were fed to lions in the circus, and killed by gladiators for sport. I still cannot find any historical references to these events.

Have a look at our article on martyrdom. Halcatalyst 17:17, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Roman events such as Venatio also detail this topic.

Tertullian wrote (Apology, ch. 40) If the Tiber rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send its waters up over the fields, if the heavens give no rain, if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence, straightway the cry is, "Away with the Christians to the lion!" He was probably exaggerating, but we know that damnatio ad bestias ('condemnation to the beasts') was a Roman method of execution, and Christians were certainly executed often enough. —Charles P._(Mirv) 17:59, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

There is plenty of evidence of actual persecution. See here. As for how often they were killed by wild animals, I don't know if anyone could say. Fighting (or being fought by) wild animals was a common form of gladitorial combat though, called Bestarii.--BluePlatypus 18:08, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Christians were persecuted, tortured, and killed by the Romans. The Romans were, in general, quite tolerant of other religions. They allowed Jews to practice their own monotheistic religion, after all. There were also many other religions and cults throughout the Roman Empire. The Romans even copied their religion from the Greeks. The difference with Christians is they taught that anyone who didn't believe in Jesus would burn in hell, and the Romans took that as quite an insult. So, it was essentially the Christian's intolerance toward the Romans which lead to Roman intolerance towards them.

With all due respect, bullshit. Cite either a Christian or pagan source that even gives that reason, let alone calls it a major reason, for persecution. alteripse 21:34, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

This site supports my statement that Romans were generally tolerant of other beliefs and Christians were not:

http://www.answers.com/topic/fall-of-rome

"Gibbon debunked the myth of Christian martyrdom by deconstructing official Church history that had been perpetuated for centuries. Because the Roman Church had a virtual monopoly on its own history, its own Latin interpretations were considered sacrosanct, and as a result the Church's writings had rarely been questioned before. For Gibbon, however, they were secondary sources: The same Latin documents translated by someone else. Gibbon eschewed these, and never referred to them in his own history. This is why Gibbon is referred to as the "first modern historian", and thus, his interpretations were deemed pagan."

"According to Gibbon, Romans were far more tolerant of Christians than Christians were of one another, especially once Christianity gained the upper hand. Christians inflicted far greater casualties on Christians than were ever inflicted by the Roman Empire. Gibbon extrapolated that the number of Christians executed by other Christian factions far exceeded all the Christian martyrs who died during the three centuries of Christianity under Roman rule. This was in stark contrast to Orthodox Church history, which insisted that Christianity won the hearts and minds of people largely because of the inspirational example set by its martyrs. Gibbon proved that the early Church's custom of bestowing the title of martyr on all confessors of faith grossly inflated the actual numbers."

StuRat 22:13, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Here is another source showing how tolerant the Romans were:

http://abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/christianity.htm

"However, the evidence suggests that the routine policy of the Roman elite and imperial bureacracy was not persecution for the first two centuries of Christianity. In fact, to characterize the Roman response to Christianity far overstates the matter. By and large, members of the Roman elite ignored Christianity. If notice of Christianity was forced upon them, they tolerated it if they could."

And later in the same source is the suggestion that Christians actually wanted to be martyrs:

"This laissez-faire policy, however, might be irrelevant to a committed Christian. We have accounts of Christians who virtually assaulted Roman governors with their assertions of Christian identity."

StuRat 22:34, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

After Christianity became the official religion of Rome, then the Christians went about persecuting others. This perhaps culminated in the Crusades or the Spanish Inquisition, many centuries later. StuRat 19:26, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

"Criminals destined for a fate without hope were nevertheless well fed in order to fatten the animals....A special effort had been made to bring these brave animals from abroad to serve as executioners for those condemned to death." - Apuleius, The Golden Ass (IV.13)

"Christian martyrs often suffered the same fate. Saturus, the priest of Perpetua and Felicitas, who died with them in the Carthage arena (AD 203), first was bound to a wild boar, which turned instead upon the venator, mortally wounding him. He then was tied to a bridge and exposed to a bear, which refused to leave his cell (cavea). Finally, he was exposed to a leopard, whose bite bathed Saturus in so much blood that the crowd, mocking baptism, taunted "Well washed! Well washed!" (Passio, XIX, XXI)."

• • Once more, there has been something rather inaccurate offered. The reason the Romans persecuted the Christians had nothing to do with Hell. It had everything to do with why the 2nd Jewish Revolt occurred. After Augustus, there was an emperor cult. All Romans were required to venerate Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and the rest who had died as gods. The Romans were tolerant of other polytheistic religions. They ignored monotheistic religions, as long as those practitioners admitted the divinity of Caesar. For the Isis cult, this was not a problem. Mithraism had more trouble, and it was persecuted. The Jews would not allow a statue in the Temple. Christians would not sacrifice. The second factor was when noble Roman ladies were commanded to marry and produce little Romans. When these women had made a vow of chastity as nuns, they were put to death. Again, the condemned were always given a choice: sacrifice to the gods and live/marry and live, or don't and die. Geogre 20:02, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• • Correct. The Roman's didnt care about personal beliefs of afterlife such as hell or heaven.. They cared about other monotheism religions getting in the way of Roman religion and affairs.

• • Not quite correct. Judaism was the one monotheistic religion permitted; the Romans respected it because it was ancient. However, the Romans crucified thousands of Jews for insurrection and other offenses. Christianity was a new religion aggressively seeking converts and proclaiming Christ was the savior-god, not Augustus. Christians were considered atheists who challenged the state religion. Like others who have challenged state religions, they were put to death whenever the authorities felt like it. Halcatalyst 19:49, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Painting by Robert Foster

I am trying to gain information on a painting by Robert Foster entitled "Resting by the Wayside". It depcits A horse, sadled, its rider dressed in a sottish kilt sitting on a log with dead game to his right.

Thanking you for your help in this matter.

Jim Walmsley

Is it a Scottish kilt or a sottish kilt ? StuRat 19:06, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe a sottish kilt is what you get when you suitly emphazi a Scottish one. JackofOz 00:39, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

"Why do they call what a Scotsman wears a kilt ?"

"Because anyone who calls it a skirt gets kilt."

StuRat 19:06, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Good one. I like that answer better than the real one, to quote our Kilt article "The word kilt comes from the Scots word kilt meaning to tuck up the clothes around the body. The Scots word derives from the Old Norse kjilt, which means "pleated", from Viking settlers who wore a similar, non-tartan pleated garment." On the painting google tells me that it is a drawing by Thomas Berwick c.1790 & hangs in a gallery in Newcastle. [[1]]. AllanHainey 11:44, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

1940's big band music

Hi tj: I have a good suggestion concerning music of the 1930's & 40's big band revue.With many "ghost" big bands still playing today P B S two or three hour presantation could cover this as follows: (a)much film is available on the open market that could be used. (b)"ghost big bands could be used for the live effect. this could be done in 10 or 15 minutes for bands as Harry James,Tommey Dorsey,Jimmy Dorsey,Guy Lombardo which would give a two or three hour P B S presantation . This would complement & complete your musical presentation of the 50's,60's&70's which you did a fantastic job. Thank you musically John John J Czerwiecki 33 Graham Drive Chicopee Ma 01013-3605 413 594 6265 (Saving you from the spammers) --66.103.2.149 18:03, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

If you have a programming suggestion for the US Public Broadcasting System, might I suggest you send them to PBS at [2] ? StuRat 19:03, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Maryland front passenger seat laws

I've searched www.maryland.gov, and couldn't find the answer to this question. Is there a requirement to ride in the front passenger seat? I think I heard once that you had to be 12, 100 lbs, or 5'2", but that probably wasn't accurate. The only information I can find on google amounts to the child safety laws, which deal with car seats, and fines on children under 16 riding without seatbelts. Any help on this (seemingly impossible) question would be greatly appreciated! 68.49.175.198 18:04, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

• Try Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. Under "About MVA", "Rules of the road" doesn't state anything on such a requirement except the following: Maryland law requires everyone seated in the front seat must have their seat belts fastened. If age 15 or younger, they must always wear a seat belt regardless of where they are seated. Children under 6 and those who weigh less than 40 pounds must be in a child safety seat. Any passenger in a car being driven by a person with a provisional driver’s license must also use a seatbelt or a child safety seat. --BluePlatypus 18:16, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Safety people recommend that children not ride in the front seat because they could be injured by airbags or be thrust into the windshield in a crash. But it might not be a law in the state. -- Mwalcoff 22:36, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I guess what I'd been hearing was a reccomendation by some manufacturer. 68.49.175.198 16:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Berlin History

Where in Berlin was the famous crossing point from east to west from 1961-1989 --195.92.67.75 18:10, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you thinking of Checkpoint Charlie? It was on the Friedrichstraße. —Charles P._(Mirv) 18:15, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

literature

What is the 'foul fiend' mentioned in shakespeares king lear --195.92.67.75 18:12, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That looks like a homework question. Read the passage. Geogre 20:03, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

"Dirty devil"? Halcatalyst 19:34, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• The quote is available here [3]. Capitalistroadster 08:40, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

penguin books

As what have penguin proposed to rename Evelyn Waugh's novel 'vile bodies' --195.92.67.75 18:15, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

It is on Penguin's website as Vile Bodies. [4] --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:42, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Guy Fawkes

What was Guy Fawkes real first name --195.92.67.75 18:17, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Guy. —Charles P._(Mirv) 18:34, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

If Guy isn't really his first name, you can burn me in effigy. See Guy Fawkes. StuRat 21:28, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

According to one of our links, he was born as Guy, but in around 1596 he adopted the name "Guido" and used it for the rest of his life. JackofOz 00:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Which, it must be said, is just another form of "Guy". =P —Keenan Pepper 01:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

True, but GF must have had his reasons to prefer one over the other. I've often wondered why he used an Italian form when he lived in England. Maybe he was like me - I was born John, but I don't like that name so some years ago I adopted Jack. The names may be etymologically related, but to me they have very different connotations. JackofOz 02:58, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Probably because he was baptized as a protestant with the name of Guy and he adopted a more unambiguiosly catholic name of Guido from the staunchly catholic Italy. MeltBanana 14:11, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

A plausible theory. JackofOz 22:07, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

age of marriage in Quebec c. 1980

Does anyone know where I could begin to look for information on the change in the age of marriage following the election of the Parti Quebecois in the late 1970s? My understanding is that before that, it was absurdly young, maybe 12 years old for girls, and the PQ came in with a strong feminist platform and modernising instincts and raised it to 16 with parental consent and 18 without. Am I correct so far? But what I really want to know is how many girls were married after World War II at ages that would be illegally young now. I don't expect anyone to have the data at the tips of their fingers, no matter how wonderful Wikipedia is. But perhaps you can point me towards some named organisations or individuals who might know. Thanks.18:24, 26 January 2006 (UTC)BrainyBabe 18:26, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

civil harassment

There is a difference in the law regarding the usual procedures for a civil matter and those for a criminal matter. That is plain BUT...There is a third form of legal matter that is catagorized as "civil harassment" and apparently the procedures are different from the other two. I am trying to discover how to deal with a civil harassment matter, particularly how one knows what is the time to respond to a request by a plaintiff (complaint) for relief from the court from alleged harassment.(restraining order) I cannot locate anything in the California Code of Civil Procedure to elucidate this third system of law. It seems to be mostly civil but smacks of criminal too in a way. There are special forms by the judicial council with the prefix of CH ( CH-100 etc) but they do not offer many clues to procedures. Is this an emrging syatem with no set rules or is there some special set of rules written somewhere that apply to these types of matters? I think there are many such cases being heard each day. Maybe this is only in California.

You are talking about something that is nationwide in USA and also in many western nations. If you have been served by some complaint, then you need to see a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, then ask the court about getting you a public defender. A person who tries to represent him or herself has a fool for a client. Civilians may file a variety of complaints, both civil and criminal. For example in a family dispute, one family member can have a court issue some decree for other family member(s) to stay away from them, and if they violate this, call the police to arrest whoever for violating the stay-away order. It varies from locality to locality how good or bad the police do on responding to these complaints. User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:06, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Dhammapada

To what degree are the stories in the Dhammapada commentary by Buddhaghosa likely to be fictional? [5] ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 18:54, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

According to the Theravada Buddhist view, each verse was originally spoken by Gautama Buddha. Exegesis of the verses are preserved in the classic and voluminous commentary composed by Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa in the fifth century C.E. The bulk of the commentary makes reference to the canonical works in the Tipitaka, especially to the most ancient discourses by Gautama Buddha preserved in the Sutta Pitaka. The commentary is reliable, in my view, and I'd recommend this impressive edition of The Dhammapada by Narada Thera. Usedbook 04:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. The stories at the site I found are rather longer than Narada Thera's translations; might they have been expanded upon by someone notable since Buddhaghosa? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 05:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Daw Mya Tin, "has simply culled the facts of the stories and [has] rewritten them briefly." It is not a word-for-word translation of the commentary. I'm thinking he simply returned to the original utterance of a particular Dhammapada verse in the Nikayas and extracted more context than Buddhaghosa thought was needed. Material of minuscule relevance to the Dharma may have been added to the oral tradition before the suttas were commited to writing. This is my view of all religious texts though, even for the Qur'an and the grandiose claims bestowed upon it. Usedbook 15:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

law

In may 1995 lord chief justice taylor granted whom permission to wear trousers and where --195.92.67.75 18:57, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I presume this is in the U.K.?

• The Lord Chief Justice in question is Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth. There, at least, you can read about his interesting career. Beyond that, you will probably have to go to court records in the UK. --Halcatalyst 01:20, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

bra size

Which letter denotes the largest bra cup size --195.92.67.75 19:00, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

That depends on the manufacturer. DD is the largest size in common use, I think. —Charles P._(Mirv) 19:12, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

While manufacturers have their own designation for sizes above DD (such as DDD or E), the extremely large sizes are commonly falsely named by the adult entertainment industry using whatever sounds interesting. You will often see many D's (as in DDDDD), or random high letters (L, X, and sometimes even ZZZ). It is not baed on a real size just as XXX is not a real movie rating (NC-17 is the "adult only" rating). --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:45, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

http://www.figleaves.com/uk/fitting_room.asp?cat=131&cm_re=fr_lndg-_-sizing-_-textlink seems to suggest that common UK and US sizes run from AA to JJ.

literature

Which is the only shakespeare play that doesnt contain a song --195.92.67.75 19:02, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure there is only one? I don't recall a song in Titus Andronicus. It would have been pretty out of place there. Geogre 20:05, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Ahem. See this.  :) User:Zoe|^(talk) 23:37, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh. :-) I did see that movie. Heck, any film version of Titus Andronicus I wanted to see, since we used to joke that a film version of it would have Titus wearing a hockey mask and the sons saying "Ch-ch-ch-ch! Ha-ha-ha-ha!" It was an interesting film version, but no one sang, except, of course Lavinia. Geogre 01:27, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The questioner may not be referring to song sung by the actors. It was common practice to include directions about songs (by the orchestra or at least a minstrel) in the play along with the stage directions. However, I have no idea if Shakespeare had one, none, or many plays with or without such directions. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Because of the way Shakespeare's works came to be published, authtentic stage directions are far and few between, the classic being "Enter Lavinia, her hands cut off, her tongue cut out, and ravished". - Nunh-huh 02:30, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Right, and "Exit, chased by a bear" from Merry Wives of Windsor and, according to one wag, a stage direction in a later Hamlet that said, simply: "All die." Geogre 12:44, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Exit pursued by a bear is from The Winter's Tale. Been there, done it. DJ Clayworth 19:27, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

D'oh! Sometimes you chase the bear, and sometimes the bear chases you. (I knew it was one of the ones I didn't like.) Geogre 04:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

And don't forget "Enter mariners, wet". Shimgray | talk | 20:05, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Henry IV, Part I has the direction "Here the Lady sings a Welsh song" (III:1), and Julius Caesar has the direction "Music, and a song" (IV:3), so it's not unknown. Gdr 13:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure there's no song in Macbeth, unless you count "A Show of Kings". EamonnPKeane 20:15, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Socialism History

Is this entry from "Socialism" correct?

"During the Enlightenment in the 5th, revolutionary thinkers and druggies such as the Marquis de somewhere in France, a guy, and some1 with too long a name, and him, abbé de Mably, and Morelly provided the intellectual and ideological expression of the discontented social layers in French society.

It doesn't sound correct?

No, it's not. It's vandalism. Looks like it has been fixed, though. Thanks. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 20:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

sociology. four-step change model

can anyone explain the four-step sociological model of change ? (direction of change, rate of change, sources of change, and ability to control change) I do home courses, so i dont have a teacher or anyone to get help from. let me know, thanks =)

Do you have any text books for these home courses? User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:08, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Deaths of the Apostles

Is there any extrabiblical accounts of the deaths and/or murders of the Apostles of Jesus? It is rumor that one died by crucifixion upside down, one beheaded, and another boiled in oil in Egypt. Are there any details about the possible deaths of the Apostles in the earler 1,2,3 centuries?

The Wikipedia articles contain the Biblical information and then goes on to the stories attributed to them (including all their nasty deaths). See Twelve Apostles and click on each Apostle's name. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:39, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Indus Civilization

What are the reasons for the decline/fall of the Indus civilization? And which theory do Historians find most accurate-- 1/26/06~~

Try reading Indus Valley Civilization. Lapinmies 23:28, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, do check this link for other theories, that the article doesn't cover. deeptrivia (talk) 03:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Universals

Is it reasonable to say that if universals 'exist' then reality is subjective? and if 'universals' do not exist and are only mind constructs then reality is objective? and also, I read in the article that universals are concepts like 'doghood' and can be said to have a separate existence, but then I ask myself, are universals only those concepts? or can for example 'love' be a universal? or can each experience and feeling have it's universal? this sounds really crazy, but how is research in that area going? I mean, what does contemporary philosophy say about universals?( I hope I didn't cunfusse you much) --Cosmic girl 22:23, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Cosmic girl, your posts are, uh, cosmically interesting... To briefly tackle this:

First, I think you're setting up counter-intuitive "exclusivity parameters" in the initial sentences: If X, not-X. I don't follow the first two sentences, honestly.

"Universals are concepts like 'doghood' and can be said to have a separate existence." This is broadly Platonic and you should look at Plato and its links (...you're either a Platonist or you're not).

What does X say about Universals? You should read Epistemology as a general suggestion and come to grips with the definition. "Where is the field going in terms of Universals?" is a rather fuzzy question. Specify ("theory of science," say) what you mean and it might be quantified better. Marskell 22:35, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

Well Cosmic, in Plato's view, the universals did exist, in a real, tangible sense. Just not in the sensory world. As for how research is going, it's not really going. Most professors of philosophy I've talked to consider metaphysics to be a rather dead subject. (I remember one praising the Vienna Circle for 'killing' it). I'd say the most metaphysical thing recently is Postmodernism, which when applied as an epistemology is basically Philosophical skepticism in a new, clever, wrapper. While it has some good points, it doesn't really make for good epistemology. (If Derrida truely didn't believe in the metaphysics of communication, why did he bother writing books at all?) --BluePlatypus 23:18, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

haha, very funny BluePlatypus! :D I guess noone is free from being inconsistent. ok, I know Plato thought that universals did exist, and he may have been right, but I am more oriented to think like Ayn Rand,like universals are only constructs of our mind and nothing more. Why do most modern philosophers regard metaphysics as dead? I don't unerstand, I mean, do they have any compelling argument to say this? I mean have they found out some logical problem with metaphysics or whatever? or have they simply realized it's something way to dificult to tackle and given up? how did the Viena Circle 'kill' it?...

Marksell, I couldn't understand your argument because I find it really hard to understand logic statements like 'X is X if and only if X is X' (kind of stupid but still) I can't really understand philosphy like that, I think I do my abstract thinking my own way without crystalizing it that way. I already read about epistemology and I believe I am a skeptical/pragmatist/objectivist of some sort...so I am a hybrid, and I don't know how to define myself, haha. --Cosmic girl 01:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You might be interested in Phenomenon, Noumenon, and Two Truths Doctrine. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 01:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, the Vienna Circle guys were basically just this group of young Austrians in the '20, who were impressed over how the Sciences had been so very successful at describing the world, and quite disappointed that philosophy had done so poorly, despite a head-start of several thousand years. They didn't feel it was going anywhere. So they developed a radical new philosophy called Logical positivism, which held that if a statement isn't verifiable (can't be shown to be true from observation) then it is meaningless. (Although that doesn't mean it can't have artistic and emotional significance.) So in one big swoop they got rid of all of metaphysics, basically saying "Hey, let's focus on the real world, instead of abstractions." They were very influential. Karl Popper later modified the verifiability idea, to be "statements that cannot be disproven", which is more reasonable since a lot of statements are more easily disproven than proven. That philosophy is still pretty much dominant when it comes to Science. But the world isn't populated only by scientists of course. There are artists too. And they didn't really have much inspiration to draw from that philosophy, which is why we've got postmodernism I guess. I think one of the things that the philosophy professors like about the Vienna Circle guys, was that it really broke the tradition of starting with some metaphysic and building up a enormous, single, logically-consistent philosophy (although Wittgenstein's Tractatus has been credited with that too.. it's in that time-period anyway). --BluePlatypus 02:00, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I get it, so the main current philosophy of science tends to be logical positivism? in what aspects are logical positivism and pragmatism different? because I find them much alike... and also, is there any philosophy that believes that:

- for usefull purposes like science and technology we should go with what works best and not be so restrained by ethics and subjective things (even if they are real metaphysically).

-is skeptical about the ultimate truth and the nature of reality (skeptical in the sense not that it doubts it's existence, but in the sense that we are uncapable of knowing it and even if we know it beyond doubtwe have the possibility of being wrong).

-doubts naturalism and mysticism equally if it refers to the nature of reality, but on the real world of everyday, goes more with naturalism because it works best.

-in esscence doubts that anything is 100% confirmed and that there is room for skepticism everywhere and in everything, but still functions in the real world and uses reason eventhough it acknowledges that reality may be irrational.

ok quite complicated but that is somewhat my personal philosophy, and I haven't found many that resemble it, besides pragmatism,do you know of any philosophy that is like this or resembles it?.--Cosmic girl 17:06, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The first sounds like moral relativism or social Darwinism. Do you believe the ends justify the means? The second is transcendental idealism, I think. In the third, what does "if it refers to the nature of reality" mean? ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 17:36, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I tend to think that the ends justify the means. but I didn't ask for separate philosphies,I was more asking for a philosphy that most resembled all of the points I made, if there is any.--Cosmic girl 00:44, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

January 27

education system

hi! i would like to know about canadian education system. i am from other country but recently settled in canada, but i am facing some problems in understanding education system of canada. can u please give me detailed information about its credits system.

You could start with Education in Canada. —Keenan Pepper 01:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Guiliani

is Mayor Giuliani a republican

See Rudy Giuliani. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:12, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

He is now. He didn't used to be. Taiq

He's a Republican though on issues - abortion, gays, gun control - he's like a Democrat. --Blue387 23:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The word 'Dutch'

Greetings from Australia At a recent trivia meeting a questian came up as to why the people of Holland are not called Hollanders or Nederlanders but Dutch Reading on your page the history I understand that Dutch is the English translation of the Nederlands is this correct or have I read it wrong As far as I am aware it is the only large country that does not call it's people as a form of the name ie Australia australian America americians Sweden swedes Germany germans ect Hope you can help

From the article Netherlands:

The English word "Dutch" is akin to the German word Deutsch and has the same etymological origin. Both these terms derive from what in Latin was known as Theodisca, which meant "(Language) of the (common) people". Taiq 08:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

That can't be right. Latin words don't start with "theo" unless they are borrowed from Greek and theo means god, not people. alteripse 18:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

From Greek or German, you mean. It appears that Theodisca (we have a very short article on it) was a medieval Latin spelling of the older Germanic word meaning 'people'. --Heron 22:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

And the Dutch do call themselves 'Nederlander' in their own tongue. Holland is a part of the Netherlands, and for some reason some people call themselves 'Hollander' (again, in Dutch). -- Ec5618 08:56, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, people from the United States call themselves Americans, since United Stator sounds like some kind of motor part, LOL. StuRat 14:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The problem with "American" is well discussed. Frank Lloyd Wright proposed "Usonian." It's the most euphonous suggestion so far, but people of the US have been called "Americans" since the 1680s, so it's hard to change now. Geogre 17:37, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The direct answer to the question is that in the 16th century the Netherlands and Germany were called Low Germany and High Germany and were parts of a single state. The English called them all 'Dutch', as the word 'German' wasn't in use then. When the two parts separated, we kept calling the Low Germans 'Dutch' because we had closer relations with them than with the High Germans. We started calling the High Germans 'Germans' at the same time. (Ref: 'Dutch' and 'German' in OED.) --Heron 22:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Details appearing on British naturalisation certificates

Can you please tell me whether the original surname in their country of origin of the holders of such certificates and the name of the town they came from, appears on the British naturalisation certificates issued in the 1920s. With thanks.

American Revocable Trust Agreements

Is the text of a Revocable Trust Agreement established in 1990 in the County of Sarasota in the State of Florida open to the public and if so, how can a member of the public obtain a copy? Thank you.

Simple answer is most likely no. Revocable living trusts that people set up are generally private documents. There could be some caveats that could make the document a public document so if it is important to you you need to hire an attorney in Fla to look into the issue for you. I'm not an attorney and this is not legal advice. See our trust (law) USA article for background information that until rewritten is pretty confusing, sorry. - Taxman ^Talk 23:35, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

who owns it?

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) 11:47, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I think that link was supposed to be: this. I am assuming that when you say "it" you mean "Wikipedia". - Akamad 20:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Sultan Ahmed I's Blue Mosque

Hello

I was wondering if you could help me by answering some questions that I have about Sultan Ahmed I's Blue Mosque. Could you please tell me what some of the significant architecture representations are or beliefs and values reflecting the Islamic religion of the: • Iwan-Prayer Hall • Qubba-Domes • Minarets-Towers for the Call of Prayer • Sahn-Courtyard • Sebil-Fountain • Mihrab- In the inside of a Wall in the Prayer Hall facing Mecca • Decoration and colour • light

The question im trying to answer and currently working on is: "How does the style of Architecture of the Blue Mosque in Turkey, Reflect the Islamic Religious Beliefs, Ideas and Expression of Feelings?

Or provide me with some references

Thank you, your help is greatly appreciated

See Sultan Ahmed Mosque. Gdr 12:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Popocatepetl - a poem

A long time ago when the earth was young, we were required to anylise a phoem which was either about Popocatépetl or contained a reference to Popocatépetl. I can remember very little about the poem other than the fact that it had a profound impact on me. What is the poem called, who wrote it and where can i get of copy of the text?

Could it be "All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it" [6], attributed (though perhaps wrongly) to Nezahualcoyotl? Gdr 12:49, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

GDR - Thank you. No, I don't think this is it... bit dark for grade school poetry I think. No... the poem I vaguely remember was about being friends (or perhaps lovers???) And there was something about popocatepetl inviting the writer to be his friend... Whew! I know this is terribly vague but as I say it was a long time ago when things like this were less important to me that they are today!

• Well, this isn't it, but it does have the Popo reference! Geographical Fugue --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 23:37, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

SUCCESS!! By chance I found a message from someone on the UK looking for the same poem, but this writer could remember a line from the poem... "Chimbarazo, Cotopaxi Took me by the hand". I put that into the google search engine and it turned up a the poem entitled Romance by WJ Turner.... Thanks for all your help... here is the poem for your interest:

When I was but thirteen or so I went into a golden land, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi Took me by the hand.

My father died, my brother too, They passed like fleeting dreams, I stood where Popocatapetl In the sunlight gleams.

I dimly heard the master's voice And boys far-off at play, --- Chimborazo, Cotopaxi Had stolen me away.

I walked in a great golden dream To and fro from school --- Shining Popocatapetl The dusty streets did rule.

I walked home with a gold dark boy And never a word I'd say, Chimborazo, Cotopaxi Had taken my speech away.

I gazed entranced upon his face Fairer than any flower --- O shining Popocatapetl It was thy magic hour:

The houses, people, traffic seemed Thin fading dreams by day; Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, They had stolen my soul away!

Who was the only president to hold a PhD?

See President of the United States. Gdr 15:38, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

And Jack Ryan, of course. Proteus (Talk) 15:42, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

And President Bartlett. (I wish they Wood row over to our articles, where they Wil soon find their answers.) Geogre 15:57, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you telling me an intelligent man like the current President Bush doesn't have a PhD ? The only way I can explain that is that his military draft was deferred by intermittent service in the National Guard, otherwise I'm sure he would have stayed in college indefinitely to avoid the draft. Eventually they would have had to give him a PhD just to get rid of him. StuRat 17:28, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

You must be ignoring all his honorary degrees from small conservative colleges! Don't those impress you? alteripse 18:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

But the question is, can he spend those honorary degrees? Did they come with honoraria? Are they part of his political capital? Halcatalyst 19:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

• Sorry, the link to political capital above is a wrong number. To get the point, you'll just have to know what Bush said about "political capital" the day after the 2004 election. Halcatalyst 19:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll bet Bill Clinton held a PhD. At least one of his interns must have been one. DJ Clayworth 19:22, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Geogre is surpassingly subtle. The answer is Woodrow Wilson. Halcatalyst 19:31, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There have been many: Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Dr. Zakir Hussain, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, Dr. K. R. Narayanan, and the current president Dr. Abdul Kalam. What a waste! deeptrivia (talk) 20:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, if we're including India, don't even bus drivers have PhD's there ? StuRat 21:04, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but they're not President. Not yet anyway. JackofOz 21:59, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I've heard of bus drivers with masters degrees in India, but not yet with PhDs :) The question was "Who was the only president to hold a PhD?" deeptrivia (talk) 22:06, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like they need to upgrade their educational system. I wouldn't feel safe with a bus driver who only has a masters degree. :-) StuRat 22:26, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There is another way to look at it - if the bus drivers have masters degrees, then the unemployed must have at least a BS or BA. So, everyone in India is either highly educated or the schools are extremely relaxed. I wonder which one it could possibly be? --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:55, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

The not-so-funny reality is that some people in India are highly educated and some have never been to school. Halcatalyst 03:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Competition for jobs is so tough that even highly educated end up being drivers. Despite 35% population being illiterate, there are far too many educated people compared to the number of jobs. By the way, for the same reason (tough competition), getting into college is real hard too. deeptrivia (talk) 15:00, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Don't forget Presidents of Corporations and Non-Profits. They are all over the economic landscape, and many of them have advanced degrees. User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:37, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Can someone born in Puerto Rico become President of the United States?

The President has to be a natural-born citizen. If you are born in Puerto Rico (or anywhere else outside the US), and one or more of your parents is a US citizen, you may also be deemed a natural-born US Citizen. See United States citizenship#Through birth abroad to two United States citizens and United States citizenship#Through birth abroad to one United States citizen. Halcatalyst 19:16, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Note that at least two people considered candidates for President have been born in US territories - John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona before statehood. No issues were raised over either Shimgray | talk | 20:10, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

When the Governator, born in Austria, first assumed office as governor of California, there was a lot of talk about changing the Constitution so he could run for President. That talk has died down as problems in the state continue to accumulate and solutions are not so easy to find as some imagined. Halcatalyst 21:40, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I understood that "a natural born citizen" meant passing 2 tests: (a) being born in the USA or in US territory, and (b) being born a US citizen. It would not be enough to pass only one test. A person like John McEnroe, for example, who was born a US citizen but in Germany would be ineligible for election to the presidency. JackofOz 21:55, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

But I think anyone born in the US or a US territory is automatically a US citizen. StuRat 22:20, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I think you're right. Those people would have no worries. It's only the US citizens born on foreign soil that seem to be excluded (through no fault of their own). JackofOz 23:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that's right -- I think meaning (b) is the entire meaning of the phrase. Do you have a reference saying otherwise? --Anonymous, 01:01 UTC, January 28, 2006.

The writers of our article on Henry Kissinger seem to agree with me: "There was even discussion of ending the requirement that a U.S. president be born in America so that Kissinger could have a chance to run." I guess you're saying that the real reason Kissinger is ineligible is that he was not born a US citizen (I assume he was German at birth), not that he was born outside the USA per se. Is that so? Then the Kissinger article needs amendment. I've never contributed to that one, so it seems others have the same wrong idea as I've had for as long as I can remember. Maybe it's something I should add to "the greatest furphy of all time". Of course, you realise what this means? John McEnroe could become US President after all. You can't be serious!! Cheers JackofOz 01:46, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

FWIW, the Kissenger article eventually gets around to telling us he became a naturalized citizen after fleeing Germany. I suppose "There was even discussion of ending the requirement that a U.S. president be born in America so that Kissinger could have a chance to run." should be changed to "There was even discussion of ending the requirement that a U.S. president be a natural-born citizen so that Kissinger could have a chance to run." since that's the actual language of the requirement. - Nunh-huh 04:15, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

George Romney was considered a legitimate Presidential candidate, even though he was born in Mexico to US citizen parents. User:Zoe|^(talk) 04:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

In short... Is there a lawyer in the house? Halcatalyst 03:04, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure a lawyer would be useful. We need a Supreme Court Justice. It's in the Constitution, and so we don't know what it means until the Supreme Court rules on it (and even then we only know that until they rule on it again). I don't know that it's ever come up, but I think it's clear that Ahnold doesn't qualify. The wording was discussed when John McCain first ran for president, as he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, under American control at the time but not American territory; as he was born to American parents no one considered the "natural-born" language a real impediment. - Nunh-huh 04:09, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Orrin Hatch seems to have a different point of view. He discusses his proposed constitutional amendment here, and makes the point that it is far from certain that people outside US territory are eligible for election to the presidency, not even if they were born US citizens. This and this are not authoritative, but they illustrate the American community's lack of agreement about this question. This article ("Allow foreigners to run for president?") gives some background, but also confuses the terminology. Henry Kissinger himself talks about the issue here, saying: "And I think foreign-born should have a possibility of running for president" (my emphasis). Maybe he was using imprecise wording, but that's the concept that seems to have gained a foothold in the minds of many. JackofOz 07:53, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Historically, a person born in country X is usually automatically a citizen of nation X. However, there is currently an Immigration Reform movement in the USA to try to deny US citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. In fact, some children were apparently not told by their parents that the parents were illegals, then when the children tried to do what is Ok for US children, such as apply for jobs, attend education, or visit neighboring nation, they got arrested by immigration authorities. User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:14, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

How many other countries have requirements for high office based on place of birth rather than simply citizenship or length of residence, etc.? It seems a rather artificial requirement — someone born in the US but who spent his entire childhood in another country is eligible whereas someone born abroad but who has lived in the US since the age of 2 months is ineligible, which seems rather strange. Proteus (Talk) 12:07, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I believe, at the time those rules were made, it was the fashion to form "blood alliances" by marrying royals from two countries. The Founding Fathers wanted to avoid anything like that happening to the US. Since the US wouldn't have hereditary rule (except perhaps for the Adams, Roosevelt, and Bush dynasties), they weren't concerned with cross marriage but did have another fear, that a "foreigner" would be elected President and would have dual loyalties, thus getting the US into an "entangling alliance", as Washington warned us. Much of this fear seemed justified when the family links of Europe (descendants of Queen Victoria) seemed to cause WW1 to spread from a small conflict to global war as a result of such alliances. To this date we haven't had any of those type of "blood alliances", so it seems to have worked. StuRat 12:41, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Inhabitants of the Philippines

What amount of people over the ages have inhabited the Philippines? Gelo3 22:09, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

See History of the Philippines. Gdr 22:21, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

It was the time before we fir

--64.12.116.72 23:08, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

What is the question ? StuRat 23:31, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Nobody knows; he didn't suitly emphazi his question. Perhaps he needs to think about questions before he fir asks them. Cernen Xanthine Katrena 02:11, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe he was typing and he was shot before he finished the question.

No. He wouldn't have hit the submit button if he was shot.

Maybe he was dictating and the typist thought that was the complete question.

Maybe you need to watch less Python.

--Kainaw ^(talk) 19:44, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I often think one thing, but type another, then submit, then see it is not quite right, and I fix it. Perhaps something went wrong so he could not come back to fix it. User:AlMac|^(talk) 22:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

that IP address account is an Aol's, and has been banned to Elfland. --DLL 19:53, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Miscellaneous?

Where/when did the word miscellaneous first come into use and what was its function compared to its modern meaning?--64.12.116.72 23:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC) <--could somebody please put this question on the RD:Miscellaneous page for me, it seems I'm the victem of an AOL based sharedip autoblock, so sadly i cannot edit that page myself--64.12.116.72 23:14, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Miscellaneous comes from Latin: "miscellus" (mixed) or "miscre" (to mix). As for where to put this, perhaps the RD:Language page would be better. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:18, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

It's miscere, not *miscre (2nd conjugation verb). —Keenan Pepper 07:20, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

As per Merriam-Webster Collegiate, the first attested use of "miscellaneous" in English was in 1637. - Nunh-huh 01:20, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The Oxford English Dictionary gives a citation from 1615 by Thomas Roe. Ardric47 06:32, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Is renaming a ship bad luck?

I was reading about the accidents aboard the Upholder/Victoria class submarine HMCS Chicoutimi (SSK 879) and I read somewhere that renaming a ship was bad luck. Is it? --Blue387 23:41, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

There are two answers here. First, luck is a matter of debate all its own. Second, there are many superstitions around boats. Renaming them is considered bad luck. There are psychics (and other con artists) who will gladly accept payment to help your boat accept a new name without too much bad luck. Try this Google search [7]. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:52, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much everything has been considered good or bad luck at some point. As for whether it actually is bad luck, no. Superm401 - Talk 02:20, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The two commonest superstitions regarding ship names are: 1) renaming a ship is bad luck; 2) giving a ship a name starting with T is bad luck. I doubt whether either is in any way less lucky, though it's difficult to tell, even with a statistical analysis, since a re-named ship will logically be older than one still with its original name, and therefore more prone to needing repair or other similar problems. Grutness...wha? 02:46, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

You could still control for age. There's no shortage of data out there. Superm401 - Talk 07:46, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

January 28

Poems that glorify war

Could anyone point me to some poems or verse that paint a rosy picture of war or conflict, perhaps single combat? --Impaciente 02:56, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The Charge of the Light Brigade? —Charles P._(Mirv) 03:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Pace Charles (supra), I am not certain that The Charge of the Light Brigade would generally be seen as painting a rosy picture of war; at the very least, there is a good deal of scholarship that would militate against one's citing the poem as an example of a verse painting a rosy picture of war. Joe 03:24, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

"The Battle of Maldon" [8]; ""Our hearts must grow resolute, our courage more valiant, our spirits must be greater, though our strength grows less. Here lies our Lord hewn down in the dust. ... I am advanced in years. I do not desire to be taken away, but I by my liege Lord intend to lie."; "Le Chanson de Roland" and probably a few more fairly ancient writs. - Nunh-huh 04:05, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

The greatest of all goes back near the start of western civilization: the Iliad. War is the subject, on and on and on. alteripse 04:06, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

And if you really want to psych the troops up for battle, check out the pre-battle speech in Henry V (play). alteripse 04:09, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses. --Impaciente 04:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Horace had a few. There was a whole industry of Tudor poetry on the soldier going to war, where he would say, effectively, "I loves ya', Babe, but I loves my country more." The list is quite long, actually, and I've been trying to remember which Horace Ode it is that has the "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" that Wilfred Owen took such exception to. Also, Kipling does have some glorymongering stuff (and some anti-war stuff). Basically, there are too many to pick one. Iliad isn't really one to glorify war, exactly, although the war is glorified. Geogre 04:28, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Try this one by Edna St. Vincent Millay. User:Zoe|^(talk) 05:22, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

How about a war poem set to music ? The Star Spangled Banner, national anthem of the US, is one of those:

http://www.bcpl.net/~etowner/anthem.html

Note that there are some who wish to change the US national anthem to a non-militaristic song, namely America the Beautiful.

StuRat 06:27, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

There's also "War song" by John Davidson, Michael Drayton's "Ballad of Agincourt", John Pierpoint's "Warren's address"... Grutness...wha? 06:42, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I'd say the people who want to glorify war don't write poems about it. They just do it; glory is a major motivator for warmakers. The depictions of violence are usually left to the novelists and filmmakers. The poets generally have something else in mind: patriotism, courage, camaraderie, etc. --Halcatalyst 15:38, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Maybe not strictly a poem, but the song referred to in Jingoism might qualify. Also the Lays of Ancient Rome by Lord Macaulay. DJ Clayworth 16:57, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Though containing the Gita, the Mahabharata is sometimes warlike. --DLL 19:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Stars and Stripes Forever Opus #

What is the opus number for John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 05:11, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

interesting question... this site only numbers his earlier works - most of those numbered are below 40 but also from the 1870s. Opus 131 was in 1881 (President Garfield's Inauguration March), but that's the highest number there is. Stars and Stripes forever is considerably later (1896), so it would theoretically have a considerably higher number. That is, of course, if the numbering was conntinued. It could be that his work was becoming considered "popular" rather than "classical" (always tenuous terms at best), and the numbering may simply not have continued. Grutness...wha? 06:57, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Employees in the People's Democratic Party Of Nigeria

Is John Oscar a National Secretary in The People's Democratic Party of Nigeria --84.18.71.131 07:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

No. Do not respond to any of "his" emails requesting help with fund transfers. They are 419 scams. See Snopes and a listing of false identities (including John Oscar). Superm401 - Talk 07:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

(Link edited above) --Anon, 09:45 UTC.

civilization

Why people learn about civilization?

Do you mean the video game Civ? I learned about it so I'd have an appropriate means of wasting my undergraduate years.

As for civilizations in general, they've given us the Pyramids, the moon landing, and African slavery amongst a few billion other things of some import. Marskell 08:50, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought that people avoid learning about civilizations so they can believe that everything happening is new and nobody has ever experienced it before. For example, the stock "correction" after the tech bubble was the very first time that anyone has ever lost a lot of money in the stock market. Hurricane Katrina is the very first time a whole city was flooded out by a natural disaster. Bush is the first world leader in history to invade another country to preempt them from taking military action themselves. I am the first person ever to be skeptical of all these "firsts" that the media blabs on about all day. (Please, if you cannot see the humor, do not waste your time responding. I know I'm a (fill in your insult here).) --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:01, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

"I did not know that." Johnny Carson --Halcatalyst 15:18, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

The first to speculate on markets believed that the summer would be hot and the olive crops would be plentiful. He reserved for his own usage all the olive mills around. His name : Thales.

The first flood is in the Bible. Noah did anticipate.

No one could anticipate such a disaster.

Every philosopher believes he is the first person to think. But Stu, your contribution was first quality. --DLL 19:39, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Carriage Clock presented to Earl Haig early 1900's

Dear sir, Whilst surfing, I came across your site regarding Earl Haig. It reminded me of a brass carriage clock that I was told had been presented to Earl Haig in the early 1900's. As I remember, it was an 8 day clock with a repeater chime. There was no engraving or reference to the manufacturer of the clock or to Earl Haig. When asked, the dealer said that the top of the clock had been skimmed to remove the engraving. Sounded 'Fishy'. I am interested to know is there any truth to this story? Look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, Gordon.

Sounds rather fishy to me, too. I would ask how he knows these facts. Does he have any documentation of them ? Can he provide contact info for whoever told him these facts ? Is he willing to let you take it to an appraiser for an opinion ? I think you should stay away from this dealer. StuRat 11:48, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your input. I was interested to find out if anyone knew of a site that may have details or references of presentations to Earl Haig. Thanks again, Gordon.

That's good, too. If you do find such a clock was given, then you can approach the problem from both ends, starting at the date it was given, going forward in time, and from the present clock, going backwards, to possibly establish a link. This is called provenance, a clear chain of custody from origin to present. StuRat 12:53, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Nigeria

Is the name (FRANCIS OGBO the owner of ASHLAND RESOURCES LTD) REGISTER : 1765460 EAN / BAR : 5765490 INTERNAL REVENUE REGISTER CLEARANCE No. : 3031

Does this company realy exists in:

1. 85 RANDLE AVU,S/LERE,LAGOS .BRANCH; 58B OMUOBA

OGBOR HILL-ABA -ABIA STATE NIGERIA

Or is this person a scammer. --212.38.148.226 14:04, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

• The person and company probably exists, but if they ask you to share contact details or money in an email they're most likely part of a scam as discussed in a question a few posts above this one. I recommend you do not respond. - Mgm|^(talk) 15:38, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

See the question just above on the Humanities reference desk. The same old scam started out years ago and now has "evolved" to the Web. What they want is your bank account number. --Halcatalyst 17:18, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

All-male rock bands with female vocalists

Can anyone name some very well-known rock (or any subgenre thereof) bands which are completely male except for the vocalist? Reperire 15:53, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Ummm... Blondie (band), No Doubt, Gladys Knight & the Pips. If you want more, I'll have to turn my brain on and start thinking. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:04, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Evanescence! --Cosmic girl 19:36, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

And Garbage (band). GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 21:53, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Morningwood. Belly, although Tanya Donnelly also played guitar. Big Brother and the Holding Company. User:Zoe|^(talk) 22:55, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Skunk Anansie, Catatonia, The Distillers ... Proto t c 23:28, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

Though it's not listed on the article, Joan Jett's backing band, the Blackhearts, were all men IIRC. --Robert Merkel 00:29, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Patti Smith Group, Curve, early line-ups of Fairport Convention (more folk than rock), Jefferson Airplane, PJ Harvey (the band - the vocalist is Polly), Katrina & The Waves, Dead Can Dance, Siouxsie & The Banshees... This could develop into a very long list! Grutness...wha? 00:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Cowboy Junkies. Sixpence None the Richer. X-Ray Spex after Lora Logic left to form Essential Logic, which also qualifies. —Chowbok 01:11, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Len if you want to consider them rock, The Cranberries, Heart though they had two women they both took lead, 10,000 Maniacs, shall we go on? Dismas|^(talk) 14:40, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Australian bands (just off the top of my head): The Superjesus, Killing Heidi, Little Birdy, Magic Dirt and Baby Animals. Also George, although Tyrone Noonan did vocals on some tracks. -- Chuq 11:59, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I swore at myself that I wouldn't enter this discussion, as it's already on the edge of becoming List of male bands with a female vocalist, but if you're going to mention the Australian acts, don't you have to include Devinyls? Also, my favorite band from my youth was Pylon (band). Geogre 14:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Funny you should mention that. I was considering suggesting the creation of just such an article.  :) User:Zoe|^(talk) 16:59, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Hm. mentioning Aussie bands that qualify but not mentioning Clouds? And across the ditch in NZ we had The Crocodiles, Fur Patrol, Tadpole.... Grutness...wha? 02:04, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The Clouds is an interesting one, they had two females - but both did vocals. They both also played guitar. Does that count? :) -- Chuq 02:37, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Steeleye Span (again folk rather than rock), Nightwish (metal, not rock though)... Thryduulf 17:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The Thatcher cabinet ? --DLL 19:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Architecture

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right place to ask this question but I will try anyways. My question is where can I find good pictures or drawings of St. Giles area of London from the period of the late 1800's and find some good descriptions of the streets and building, it's architecture, etc.?

Try the Royal Historical Society [9] or the sites on this list: [10].StuRat 12:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

January 29

Brave New World characters

I was just wondering about two characters in the book by Aldous Huxley. Henry Foster and Benito Hoover. I know that the other characters in the book all have their names from historical figures.. who are these two characters' names based on? gelo 01:06, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Brave New World says "Benito Hoover joins fascist Benito Mussolini and Herbert Hoover, early 20th-century President of the USA." I'd imagine the Henry is from Henry Ford. I don't know who Foster is (see List_of_people_by_name:_Fo#Fost for some possibilities) - perhaps Michael Foster (physiologist). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I doubt if it would be Stephen Foster, but perhaps John Foster Dulles ? StuRat 12:20, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! gelo 02:13, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Mt. Rushmore

There is a worker's path that goes to the top of Mt. Rushmore. It is normally restricted. Does anyone know if it is ever open to the public (even by guided tour)? I'd like to ensure I visit when I can go to the top. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

According to the National Park Service, "The Presidential Trail takes visitors near the memorial (length 1/2 mile)." If you wanted to go to the top, you'd probably have to volunteer to do some work up there. However, you could inquire about a special permit at the park headquarters. --Halcatalyst 14:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Films dealing with loneliness.

What are some films or artistic pieces or literature that deal with the theme of loneliness? gelo 02:12, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

There are scads of them. Some that come to mind right now: Taxi Driver is well-known, Tokyo Story is my favorite movie ever, and Requiem for a Dream is more recent. As for literature, it's hard to beat the poems and short stories of Dorothy Parker; it's one of her most consistent themes. --George 02:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Separate Tables is a great film that deals with this theme. It's one of my 2 favourite movies of all time. JackofOz 03:06, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Come to think of it, almost any movie based on a Terrence Rattigan play will have a strong element of this. JackofOz 10:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Just for chuckles, I'll mention one of the lesser known short stories that deals with loneliness, "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" by Conrad Aiken: a child sees snow falling and obscurring the world. (He probably nicked it from the closing image of Joyce's The Dead, but everyone steals from Joyce.) Loneliness is, simply put, one of the most prevalent themes in literature. For some hard core loneliness, though, try The Seafarer, The Wanderer, and Deor in Anglo-Saxon poetry. It's hard to get lonelier than those. If you want something you can read without translation, try Elegy Written in a Country Church-yard by Thomas Gray. Still, though, you can't put your thumb into any Norton Anthology without hitting something about loneliness, whether loneliness because of tragedy (the second section of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury) or just being a solitary person. Geogre 03:05, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

For a poem leading from lonliness to terror to insanity, try Edgar Allen Poe's, The Raven. StuRat 12:14, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks everyone! gelo 03:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

If you want a recent film dealing with loneliness, Lost In Translation comes to mind. --Robert Merkel 08:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'm sure they deal with other issues, but the films "Blue bird" and "Nobody Knows" probably deal with it on some level. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

A good classic film about loneliness is Umberto D. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 10:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Seconded! Umberto D is absolutely explosive. It's one of the saddest films on loneliness ever. Much, much, much less high quality would be Silent Running and My Side of the Mountain, which both deal with happy solitary individuals. (Lost in Translation is another good nomination.) (I wish there were a way I could recomment The Last Laugh here somehow, but it hasn't anything to do with loneliness.) Geogre 11:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The Beatles produced artistic pieces of literature : songs! Try Nowhere man. --DLL 19:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Another one I've just remembered is the obvious one "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner". JackofOz 21:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought about mentioning that one, but I didn't think it was really about classic loneliness. It's more about disaffection and alienation, which are pretty lonely things, alright. Hmmm. The Anxiety of the Goalie at the Penalty Kick by Fassbinder? Geogre 03:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Investigative, analytical, creative?

Sorry for my many queries...but I wanted to know what the difference was between investigative, analytical and creative pieces of work? gelo 02:30, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

• An investigative work tries to discover the answer to a question.
• An analytical work tries to display, explain, or explore the relationship between two or more things.
• A creative piece of work is the vaguest term, and instead of having a specific purpose, is characterized by some degree of novelty. In a narrower sense, a creative work may be said to bring into existence something new as the purposive product of the creator's imagination.
• From some perspectives, there would be the expectation that the structure and results of an investigative or analytical work would be constrained to a greater degree by a pre-existing, objective truth about the subject matter of investigation or analysis, while a creative work would be less constrained by reality. These characterizations have been challenged and in some perspectives (especially literary theory) may be rejected. alteripse 02:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! gelo 03:15, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Executive Order W199I-WF-213589

Conspiracy theorists keep talking about a Presidential order named W199I-WF-213589 (or simply W199I) supposedly signed by George W. Bush in July 2001 - but looking for information, it appears to be widespread among conspiracy sites...but none of them can quote it. The best anybody provides is a "partial scan of documents released to the BBC", and a transcript to a BBC interview that references the documents...yet surely they must be online somewhere? Is this whole thing fictitious? Surely Executive Orders are somewhat recorded? http://www.gaianxaos.com/SpecialReports_files/199I-WF.htm and http://propagandamatrix.com/newsnight_greg_palast_report.html (BBC transcript) are the two closest things I can find to "reputable" sources Sherurcij ^{(talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject)} 03:27, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

According to the official White House website, the only executive orders issued in July 2001 were ones about trade with Belarus and energy efficiency in government operations. The document number "W199I-WF-213589" at the websites you mention appears to be some kind of internal FBI case number, not an executive order number. -- Mwalcoff 05:51, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

You may be interested in this GIF file [11], also from propagandamatrix.com, which purports to be a copy of an FBI printout with that number. Of course, the "printout" is of the sort that anyone with a PC could churn out in about three minutes, so I certainly wouldn't give it much credibility, no matter what the conspiracy theorists are trying to claim it "proves". In any event, it most certainly is not an executive order. That fact alone should be enough to make any rational person question just how much conspiracy theorists care about accuracy. (As an aside, Mr. Palast is quite a character in his own right, to put it mildly.) --Aaron 06:04, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Note that the GIF file mentioned above is also so low resolution that you can only make out parts of the heading, not any of the actual content. StuRat 12:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

You ain't gonna get this information. Executive orders are issued purely at the pleasure of the President, and he can attach to them any degree of security he likes; he can certainly claim executive privilege. If the President wanted to withhold the information, it would take a Supreme Court decision to wrest it from him. That's what happened in the case of Nixon tapes in 1974. The Watergate scandal article states, "This issue of access to the tapes went all the way to the Supreme Court. On July 24, 1974, in United States v. Nixon, the Court (which did not include the recused Justice Rehnquist) ruled unanimously that Nixon's claims of executive privilege over the tapes were void and they further ordered him to surrender them to Jaworski. On July 30 he complied with the order and released the subpoenaed tapes." --Halcatalyst 06:06, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Tie in the House of Representatives

In the Senate, the vice president casts a tie-breaking vote should there be a tie. I was doing some thinking. There are 435 members in the House. Let's assume that every congressman and representative is in the House chamber to vote on an important bill and it is tied with one representative out sick. In the House, who cast the tie-breaking vote should something like that occur? Has something like this ever occured? --Blue387 03:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution specifies that Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member. According to current House rules, If a vote is tied, the presiding officer does not have a casting vote (unless he or she has not yet cast his or her vote). Instead, motions are decided in the negative when ties arise. --Halcatalyst 05:41, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Hatcatalyst is technically right. However, the speaker of the House generally only votes to break ties. So if the vote comes up a tie, the Speaker breaks it. If the vote is a margin of one, the Speaker doesn't bother voting, because, as Hatcatalyst points out, making the vote even would not pass the bill. So the House never has a situation in which a vote ends in a tie the way it does in the Senate -- Mwalcoff 05:46, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I admit I made my comment after only a few minutes of research on Wikipedia, and I was quoting Wikipedia in my last statement. However, of course, the quotation from the Constitution stands. The House, like the Senate, is the sole arbiter of its rules. --Halcatalyst 06:12, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, I wasn't criticizing. You were correct, I was just pointing out how it works in practice -- Mwalcoff 07:31, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Not a problem, I wasn't offended :o) --Halcatalyst 15:15, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

N KOREA NUCLEAR

We know that America does not do anything without any reason and his campaign against Iran nuclear program dipicts its intention to capture monopoly over oil resources and above that he does not want EURO to overpower DOLLAR if Iran's opens its oil market for the rest of the world. In the similar manner I want to know the reality behind US opposition for Nkorea nuclear program and what are the gains US can get by doing so? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.95.154.3 (talk • contribs) 01:06, January 29, 2006 (UTC)

Please see the articles on U.S.-North Korea relations, North Korea and weapons of mass destruction and Foreign relations of North Korea for some background info on the subject. Dismas|^(talk) 06:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

The assumption in your question, that "the US opposes Iran's nuclear program so it can have a monopoly over the world's oil supply and keep the EURO low relative to the US dollar" is quite absurd, for several reasons:

• England and France also oppose Iran's nuclear program.

• Preventing Iran's nuclear ambitions would not give the US any more control over the world oil supply. If anything, the predicted UN boycott on Iran would reduce Iran's contribution to the world oil market and that would increase world oil prices, which is quite bad for the US. Specifically, high oil prices drive the US inflation rate, and make the US dollar worth less relative to other currencies.

• The US is very far from having a monopoly over world oil production, as many oil producing nations are historically and/or currently unfriendly to the US, including Venezuela, Russia, and many nations in the Middle East.

Why is the US opposed to Iran's nuclear ambitions then ? For exactly the reasons stated:

• Iran has repeatedly cheated and tried to develop nuclear weapons while pretending to develop peaceful nuclear energy. The UN has caught them doing this. As a result, the US, as well as most of the world, no longer trusts Iran when it says it's not going to build nuclear weapons.

• Iran, being oil rich, doesn't appear to need nuclear energy.

• Iran has even rejected Russia's proposal to provide them with nuclear fuel, provided Iran does not develop any capacity to refine the fuel further into nuclear weapons. The only way to explain this rejection is that Iran wants to build nuclear weapons.

• The US, and many other nations, consider Iran to be an unstable, fundamentalist, anti-democratic government which supports terrorism (Hezbollah) and is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Allowing such a nation to have nuclear weapons would be very destabilizing, possibly resulting in nuclear war with Israel.

StuRat 11:28, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

As for North Korea, the US opposes it having nuclear weapons because:

• It promised not to, but cheated, on several occasions.

• By spending it's money on weapons instead of their people, North Korea's population is in a nearly perpetual state of starvation and it's economy is near collapse.

• North Korea is a totalitarian nation which has been aggressive toward it's neighbors, South Korea (they are still officially at war) and Japan (they have kidnapped Japanese citizens then killed them OR forced them to work as translators).

• Traditional enemies, like South Korea and Japan, may very well want to develop nuclear weapons to defend themselves from North Korea. This nuclear proliferation could then spread to Taiwan. With all these traditional enemies armed with nuclear weapons, a nuclear war is quite likely.

StuRat 11:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Iran wishes to have nuclear weapons so it can protect itself (threatening MAD) from the nuclear arsenals of Israel (and the United States), and also have them on hand to use offensively if they feel like it. Defense/offense is the motivation of every nation which possesses nuclear devices and other weapons of mass destruction. Oh, and there's a little national glory and pride involved, too. --Halcatalyst 19:21, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

North Korea, enthralled in the cult of Kim Jong-il, has had for many years a million-man army which could flood into South Korea at a moment's notice. South Korea, however, is protected by the American nuclear umbrella. Under the communist rule, the people of North Korea have suffered some of the worst social disasters (especially starvation) in recent decades. They have few or no resources to pull themselves up. Having nuclear weapons and threatening to use them is one way of getting the world's attention and humanitarian help. In addition, the government is ideologically opposed to the West, with which it considers itself in a life-or-death struggle. --Halcatalyst 19:35, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Video Law lectures on the Internet

Where on the Internet can I find video law lectures? With my best thanks.

How about Law School Video Lectures -- the first site that came up when I put video law lectures in the Google search box. --Halcatalyst 19:09, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

What Kept Hitler

What kept Hitler from invading Switzerland and Sweden?"

It was useful to have neutral nations nearby for the exchange of prisoners, hiding stolen assets, negotiations, and an escape route once the war was lost. StuRat 10:13, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Re Switzerland: Mountainous + fully mobilized citizen army = awful drain on manpower. Switzerland is not an easy country to invade and given the terrible time the Nazis had in occupying the Balkans another open sore would have been a bad idea. But the water is murky here, because the Swiss carried on trade, currency exchange, and general relations with Belin; Swiss banks were used to hide assets of Holocaust victims; and the Swiss closed their borders to potential refugees from the Reich. Marskell 10:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

See our articles Switzerland during the World Wars (also Operation Tannenbaum) and Sweden during World War II. Gdr 13:52, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I guess I'm the only one who gets that this is a joke reference, to the fact the question is our very example of questions to ask on this page :P Sherurcij ^{(talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject)} 14:00, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Haha, this is great! We should change the example question every month or week or something, and see how many people ask it. —Keenan Pepper 16:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

OK, I'm completely out to lunch I guess but where is the sample question on this page? Marskell 16:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Where to ask a question says For general questions, ask our volunteers at the Reference Desk. e.g."What kept Hitler from invading Switzerland and Sweden?" Sherurcij ^{(talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject)} 17:15, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ah good, now I feel like less of a dunce for answering. If I've ever looked at the page, it was months ago at least... Sneaky little devil, whoever asked. Marskell 17:19, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I think it was the same one who asked about "foul fiend" above... you know, little devil (dang, I hate to explain my own jokes). --Halcatalyst 14:36, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cover of Radiohead's Creep by "Abigail"

A while back I heard a cover on Radio 2 of Radiohead's song Creep by a female vocalist. All I've managed to find about about her is that she is called "Abigail". I am pretty sure that it isn't this Abigail as it was a slow, very emotional vocal rendition not a clubbing-type version. It isn't listed in the cover versions in our article on the song.

I know this is a long shot, but can anyone help me find a copy of it! Thryduulf 12:43, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

This is the All Music Guide page, if you haven't checked it, on the song. There are several possibilities. BTW, the "Richard Cheese" version is absolutely hilarious and intolerable (lounge singer parody). Geogre 13:31, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

not nearly as hilarious as his cover of NIN's "Closer"! Grutness...wha? 00:21, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The Beating Five

Dear sir, miss,

I have an old single with the record label 'Lion Tops'. The artists are Lennon and Mccartney ( i think John Lennon and Paul Mccartney ) and the title of the song is 'I wanna hold your hand'. The name of the band is 'The Beating Five'.

On the other side of the single the title of the song is 'Think', and there are two names : P. Phitington and dee dee fern.

I've searched on the internet but couldn't find any information. Maybe professionals can give me more information of the originin of this record, thats the reason i wrote this email.

Kindly

Bertus van Soeren

The Beatles did originally have five members, then Stuart Sutcliffe suggested the name The Beatles, so perhaps that was their name for the band at the time. See this page for details: [12] StuRat 18:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I heard the name "Lion Tops" before. I did a Google search, but couldn't find anything definative. What I remember is that it produced singles out of Germany. Though, I may be remembering Germany and it was actually Sweden or Austria. They did a lot of knock-off singles and tried to make them look like they came from England (printing the labels in English, regardless of typos). From that memory, I do not think it is much of a stretch that they took an English hit by the Beatles, stamped it on a single and mistyped the band's name as "The Beating Five" - especially since the Beatles were a 5-member group that was rather popular in Germany at the time. As for P. Phitington - that is probably another typo. Is it Wittington, which would become Phitington with a German accent? --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, to start with, it's definitely not the Beatles. They never called themselves the Beating five (The Quarrymen, Johnny & the Moondogs, The Silver Beetle band, but not the Beating Five). They also never recored a song called "Think". The early Beatles recordings were released by a number of labels (Lingasong, AFE, Pickwick), but never Lion Tops. What often happened in the early 60s (and since, come to think of it), is that because it wasn't always easy to get recordings of original artists doing particular songs, other bands would be deliberately employed to cover those songs in the style of the original artists, and release the music on local labels. Lion Tops seems to have been a label that went in for this sort of thing - another of their early releases was a cover of "Have I the right?" - a big hit from the early 60s - recorded by Ton Theyn & the Young Ones. The label was based in Utrecht, Netherlands. You can find out a bit more about the label here. Grutness...wha? 00:18, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Medieval kings of England

Can anyone tell me more about the French king Louis who apparently ruled England briefly during the mediaeval period, possibly around the 12th/13th century. I remember the reference from simon Scama's TV history, incidentally, and know all about Blackadder's Richard IV.

You're thinking of Louis VIII of France - who invaded (but was never crowned King of) England after the First Barons' War in 1216. He ruled as king de facto if not de jure. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 17:45, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

"Cory" as in Chilean or Polish "Cory"

I'm a Political Science student and can't find the meaning of this term in "The Third Wave," Samuel P. Huntington, U of Oklahoma Press, 1991. p. 158.

Appreciate your help.

Janet Hudgins Vancouver Canada

for those without the book in question, could you give some idea of the context? GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 18:57, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

"The second wave was an expression of machine muscle, the Industrial ... The “Second Wave” was the shift from agricultural societies to industrial societies. Toffler contrasts industrial ways of organizing societies to new social ...". Source : google books!

So, the book about waves must be Alvin Toffler ; first is agriculture, second industry, third is information. --DLL 18:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Anglicans

Assess the problems faced by the Anglican Church during the 16th century?

I've no idea where to start with this essay, any ideas?

Sure. Latter 1500s. Henry viii forced separation from Rome: problem-- conflicted loyalties among clergy, king vs pope. Reformation is spreading in Europe: problem-- probably a wide range of receptiveness to the Reformation ideas among the clergy and consequently great potential for conflict. Scotland was more receptive to Reformation than England and Presbyterian church becomes dominant: problem-- church conflicts become aligned with the poltical conflicts in the relations of England and Scotland. Kings confiscate monastery property wholesale: problem-- loss of revenue and social power base. Now you are off and running. alteripse 19:26, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Go rent A Man for All Seasons, essay done! Sherurcij ^{(talk) (Terrorist Wikiproject)} 20:58, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Wow, that's too big an essay you've got there. I'd never give that as an assignment. Essentially, the Church of England faced the Scylla and Charibdis of the Roman Catholic Church and Counter-reformation on the one hand and the emerging "Geneva Church" (John Calvin) on the other. It faced these dangers theologically with Richard Hooker's Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, politically with increasing absolutism of the monarch and decreasing civil rights, militarily with the great naval expansion, economically with a series of alliances with protestant nations, internationally by alliance in several entanglements designed to ensure protestant succession. Nothing was settled in the 16th century. It wouldn't be settled for good and all until 1745. Geogre 22:23, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Doonesbury Quote

There was a Doonesbury comic a while ago involving someone (I believe Mark Slackmeyer's dad) shouting "Death, be not proud!" while being wheeled into the emergency room. This wasn't actually shown, it was described secondhand by his wife to his son. Another phrase I remember from it was, "It was just so tacky." Does anyone know how I could find this particular cartoon online, or which of the book collections it showed up in? Time's a factor. Black Carrot 19:19, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know, but it was fun browsing Doonesbury and List of published collections of Doonesbury. You could start there and wish for luck. --Halcatalyst 21:02, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Who influenced Hitler?

Since Adolf Hitler had moved to Linz after his parents death and his history teacher Professor Leopold Poetsch had influenced him about the ideas to reunite the German-speaking people under one government. Who else has influenced Hitler in terms of his thoughts, ideas and concepts?

_S.M_

Thank You.

See Hitler. It has a quick, but well written rundown on his early years. --Kainaw ^(talk) 21:12, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

You might also consider looking through some of the articles on early 20th century German history - such as Kapp Putsch. They may give you more clues. Grutness...wha? 00:03, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• Reunite? I don't think they've ever been united, really. That'd be only if you interpret the Holy Roman Empire as a German nation-state like the nationalist romantics at that time did, although with little basis in reality. Anyway.. Most of Hitler's ideas weren't his own. See for instance Lebensraum, an idea which predates the Nazis. During the 20's and 30's, there was a general idea that Germans needed more land to come to terms with unemployment. A more peaceful (but hopelessly utopic) contemporary idea was Hermann Sörgel's "Atlantropa" project, which suggested getting new land by lowering the level of the Mediterranian, with huge dams at Gibraltar, the Nile and the Bosphorus. The idea that they should grab land in East Europe came from von Bernhardi, who was no doubt a major influence in many ways, not least his militarism. Then there's of course the whole 19th century thinkers. Guys like Heinrich Schliemann who promoted the swastika was an old aryan symbol. Indeed, the entire "aryan" idea and the 19th century theories of race were in the mix. In general though, I don't think there was really that much original thought in the Nazi ideology, it was mostly an extreme expression of ideas that were already in circulation. (It's not like they had a deep and well-argumented philosophy, it was more a largely emotional and irrational movement) So the history of the Nazi ideology is by necessity a history of many of the prevailing ideas in Germany at that time. Hitler himself didn't seem to have much consistency in his thought, it's known that he considered "Mein Kampf" to be 'outdated' by the mid-30's. --BluePlatypus 21:22, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Composer

The 1976 Summer Olympics were held in Montreal and I believe the closing ceremonies were a tribute to the Five Nationsm in which the music featured was that of a young man whose first name was Maurice. Does anyone know his last name and any information about him. Roland

Maurice Forget gave the official oath. --Kainaw ^(talk) 22:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

See 1976 Summer Olympics. Gdr 22:49, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

I did look at the Wikipedia article and then at the official olympic.org website. They disagree, so went with the Olympic's site and spelled it "Forget". I then Googled for both names and turned up many unrelated hits. (also - do not edit other's comments. Simply comment for yourself.) --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:22, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Seems I touched a nerve there. Sorry. Gdr 23:44, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Meta-God

ok... I hope this doesn't sound too heretical ( well it will but I hope I don't offend noone since I'm only a silly annoying speculating psychology student). What if God turns out to exist and by this I mean a complicated notion of god resembling mysticism and not monotheism the way it's understood by children. (meaning a human-like god).

I mean for example, the way Meister Eckhart saw God...ok, let's say I take skepticism to it's extreme and say that not even God can be sure he is the ultimate? since he (it or whatever) can always have the doubt that He can be being fooled into believing he is the ulitmate and be given apparent control over the multiverse or universe or maybe HAVE that control, but be no more than a simulation or something of that sort controlled by outside forces (whatever they may be) .

ok so what I'm saying is that there can ALWAYS be a possibility of being 'fooled' by something outside,no matter how accurate scientifically, or compellingly mystical or Godly a notion, reason can always make us doubt. even if a mystic thinks he/she reaches union with God or a buddhist thinks he/she reaches nirvana, even then, that can only be make believe...because if there where no room for doubt, mysticism would already be the dominationg philosphy and be regarded as the truth...but it is not and I suppose that is because there is room for: A) an irrational truth -or- B)a make believe 'ultimate', maybe only make believe for us, and maybe make believe for 'the ultimate' also.

is there any philosopher that postulated this? are there faults in my reasoning that I haven't noticed?.- I'm sorry if this question is really crazy and stupid...-Cosmic girl 23:02, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Delusion, especially self-delusion, by definition can't be recognized by the deludee. So we can easily imagine a deluded, self-deluded god. However, Doubt is not merely, or even mostly, rationalistic. In Analytic philosophy, doubt about God isn't on the table for discussion. Such topics are "bracketed," meaning excluded from discussion.

The Mystics don't necessarily exclude or derogate reason. They simply claim experience which can't be proven or disproven by reason and empricist approaches. As Pascal put it in his Pensées, Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connait pas: "The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing." --Halcatalyst 02:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I think Woody Allen ruined that quote for at least a generation... alteripse 02:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

That can be, but what if the heart (as a metaphor for mysticism as opposed to the brain representing reason and skepticism)is deluded?...what I mean here is that 100% absolute knowledge isn't possible and maybe it's so for God too (the most probable thing is that it isn't and He knows everything) but there is a posibility for him to doubt he is the ultimate...even if He is, He can still have doubts about it...he can for example, I don't know, sometimes believe that he is a celular automata controlled by an outside environment.--Cosmic girl 02:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

This is the type of question that Thomas Aquinas would have thought reasonable, but Ludwig Wittgenstein would have pointed out is simply a meaningless linguistic generation without any relation to anything real. So make sure you arrange a seance with the right dead European philosopher. alteripse 02:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

hahahaha!!! :D :D :D I'm glad my question wasn't taken as if I was heretical or delusional :S !! how and which kind of reasoning would wittgenstein have used to say what I asked was meaningless? maybe meaningless for our immediate reality but I'm talking about metaphysics. and also, how could a Theologian and religious person like Aquinas find reasonable a doubt about God's omniscience? since what I know of Aquinas was that he loooved to prove God existed and so I'm quite sure he would've come up with a rationalization that refutes my question hehe. --Cosmic girl 03:04, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I didn't say Tom would have agreed with you, just that he would have considered it a meaningful proposition, even if provably false. On the other hand, Ludwig would have dismissed it as an artefact of language: just because you can generate a proposition or a question by applying standard language rules to an abstract noun like God, it doesn't necessarily represent a model of reality, and logical manipulation of it doesn't yield any more knowledge of the world than you started with. alteripse 03:24, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

After a mystic experience, Aquinas set aside forever his academic, intellectual, theological work. He never finished his Summa. You might judge by that how powerful a mystic experience can be. Or you can simply dismiss it as delusional. Actually, you'll never know unless you experience it yourself. And then you won't "know." You'll be in The Cloud of Unknowing. --Halcatalyst 03:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, me and the Eckmeister. I am still waiting for mine. alteripse 04:14, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

hahahhaa!! :D same here...--Cosmic girl 17:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, there is no God, so all your discussions here are merely playing with language. If you believe there is a God then He is unknown and all the discussions are still meaningless - Adrian Pingstone 09:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

hmmm... well when I say God I mean truth... I outgrew the human-like God when I was 14. and also, if we are merely playing with language, and reality allows us to do that, doesn't that mean that reality (truth) is weirder than we can imagine? since I know math is 'stuck' because we can know things but we can't know why they are so...but I can be so wrong since I'm not a philosopher, and I can be sooo crazy, but can you explain me on what basis can you dismiss my question with such confidence? please, because I need to understand.--Cosmic girl 17:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Cosmic, see Omnipotence paradox. Marskell 09:29, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

About that paradox, I think that God CAN act irrationally,(since existence doesn't seem that rational to me when I question it)...if God can, then there's no hope that we understand 'it' 'him' because we are logical mentally.--Cosmic girl 17:30, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Is God in self-delusion ? Are we logical mentally ? For us, it seems that there is some unconscious mind driving us. This "Das ?" is not logical.

As for God, first thing, does He believe in you, in us ? Is there reciprocity : some admit a forceful Yes, I don't.

Let's say that few psychology students really try to think, and they are the ones who should. Let's not leave this to theologians. --DLL 17:45, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

...Reading again : I do not mean that you are of the many who do not think. Go on! --DLL 17:48, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

thank you, yeah well first of all I hope the admins don't get upset over the length of this question...:S since it says up there that further discussion should be moved to another place like a talk page. also...well thank you DLL, I think that way too, psychology needs theology even more than maybe theologians need it since our job here is to point people in the right direction but I myself have a very vage idea of what is right and we can't know what is right until we know what is the truth since our notions of right and wrong may be even backwards...and there are a lot of psychologists (specially my teachers) that pretend to know the truth, I sympathise more with the ones with naturalistic world views but there are those with a mystical blend to them, which I cannot grasp and they may be right...so in conclusion, I guess we can't know what is 'mental health' since we don't know what truth is, so a shizophrenic person may be more sane that we are just because the truth is weird and resembles his thought pattern more than it does ours. (it's obviously not that way in the 'real' world since it apears to be rational, but I'm talking about the bassis of it)--Cosmic girl 20:12, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm hesitent adding to this because it's so long, but I think I have a point that hasn't been brought up yet. It's that, if you accept a common assertion that God created creation, then it could logically follow that He created its rules and would therefore know exactly how omnipotent He is because He knows all the rules. So, by this line of reasoning, applying the psychology of a human perspective to Him is meaningless because His perspective is different. -LambaJan 20:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Exactly right. --Halcatalyst 00:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC) I was going to make a joke of this by saying, "Why should God worry about His omnipotence? EYE don't." --Halcatalyst 00:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC) But then I figured, who wants to listen to my jokes? --Halcatalyst 00:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

What I meant LambaJan was not that he wouldn't know all the rules of his creation, he would, but picture a super computer for example, or super consciousness that created it all in whom we move and have our being ok? then that would be God, whether it's conscious or not, but if He is conscious, then He can always have a little skepticism and leave open the possibility that outside of him the 'operator of the computer' could fool him into believing he is omnipotent, thus God would be subject to philosophical skepticism also... maybe it isn't like this at all, but I can't see why. --Cosmic girl 01:24, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, He would still know everything that He created. And about that His omnipotence would be unquestionable. The argument you just presented added another level. Think of it like this. We are a violin, and God is the violin maker. He's omnipotent about the violin, but when He goes home he wonders if God exists. So it's really the same argument from before, you just added another level. Personally I think God is everything, but what would you expect from a violin? lol. -LambaJan 21:56, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

umm.. I mean a speck of varnish on a violin. I think Halcat's joke was better. -LambaJan 22:00, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you :#) Halcatalyst 00:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

January 30

Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth

We are trying to find out the age of Noah and his sons Ham, Shem and Japheth when they died. --"""

Noah was 950 (Gen. 9:29). I don't think the ages of Ham, Shem, and Japheth are given, but you can search through Genesis chapters 6-9. --Halcatalyst 02:25, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

950 years! How many people in the world believe this? deeptrivia (talk) 05:00, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

there are suggestions that the incredible ages in the Old testament are a mistranslation or misunderstanding - a confusion with an old method of calculating time by lunar cycles. 950 lunar months would work out at about 73 years. Grutness...wha? 09:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, reportedly, many literalists believe that the amount of inbreeding that had to occur chopped human life expectancy right, right down. smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 18:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I've also heard the explanation ('justification' would perhaps be a better word) that it is due to the degeneration of mankind since the Fall of Man, a degeneration which will continue until and culminate in the apocalypse. Which seems very Platonic/Aristotelian to me. I wonder how the large increase in lifespan in the last century fits into that framework though. (Especially since it was brought about through knowledge, which is what supposedly caused the fall in the first place) --BluePlatypus 00:16, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

To answer deeptrivia's question directly, yes there are a significant number of people that believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Primarily fundamental Christians. We have articles on it, try reading from Bible and go from there. I think it's not majorly different from people tht believe literally in the Koran, Gita, etc. There are statements in the Bible that could directly lead one to conclude that the age and time numbers given in the Bible are meant not to be taken literally, but many people refuse to let the facts get in the way of a good story. - Taxman ^Talk 23:18, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Shem was 600 years old when he died (see Genesis chapter 11 verses 10-11)

Grutness is probably right. Not only did the Torah Hebrews count years differently, but they counted differently in general (with a base-12 system). However, the mistranslation has consequences for folks in the west. James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, infamously set the date of the creation of the world at October 23, 4004 BC. He did this by going with known history and then counting the ages of the patriarchs in the Bible. Furthermore, the various Chronicles in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle began with the Creation, and they did this by also counting the ages of the patriarchs (although none of them came up with 4004 BC). The reason this is more than a joke, though, is that there are people out there now using Ussher's dating to deny evolution and geology, and the mistake in calculating the ages of patriarchs means that, had Ussher known about the lunar ages, he's have put the creation at more nearly 2800 BC. Geogre 11:55, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

At last the catholic church glose tells us that the years may be taken as a metaphore of a long life ; Or a symbol, see also Gematria. --DLL 17:35, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Youth center

What is a Youth center? I've heard about them, but I haven't found a formal definition yet. --Oskilian

don't know whether there is a "formal description" as such, but they tend to be clubs where teenagers can congregate to meet, often with recreational equipment like pool tables, etc, and often with things like counselling services available onsite. I'm amazed we don't have an article on the subject... Grutness...wha? 09:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

The concept behind it is that teenagers will congregate there, in a safe environment, as opposed to, for example, the streets. - Akamad 09:11, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Also, according to some gay guys in funny costumes, they have "everything for you men to enjoy." You can "hang out with all the boys", "do whatever you feel", "put your pride on the shelf", and "the world was so tight."

I see. Thanks a lot. (LOL on the VP) --Oskilian

Canadian women

62% of canadian women have done what the rest haven't done--Ronny 64.152.195.34 06:22, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I always suspected the world was divided into 2 kinds of people, and now I know for sure. Thanks. JackofOz 06:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

• Actually, the world is divided into three kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't. --Halcatalyst 22:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I thought it was: The world is divided into 10 kinds of the people: those who know binary and those who don't. --Kainaw ^(talk) 22:36, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm quite sure it's two: those who go around dividing the world into 2 kinds of people, and those who don't. JackofOz 22:39, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Had a pedicure? Visited the United States? Had maple syrup on their pancakes? --Robert Merkel 08:09, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

38% have yet to do it. Grutness...wha? 09:06, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Written potty non-questions to Wikipedia? Adrian Pingstone 09:23, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I feel this proves your either with us or your against us. Marskell 09:26, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Of the 62%, a good 43% didn't know they were doing it, and 15% said that they didn't plan it in advance, so that leaves only 4% of 62% who really were committed to it. Also, of the 38%, 80% said that they approved of it and would do it if they ever collected enough coupons. 10% said that they wouldn't judge the 62% harshly and would join them in a bridge club, if asked. I think these are important facts to keep in mind. Geogre 11:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Well guys am not messing you up but thought I would get a good answer here.This is a serious question The question is 62% of Canadian women have done it what's that......Anybody has an idea webwalkers

I'm sure we've had this question before... smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 18:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

We did. It was a few months back but it's been here before. I don't think there was a serious answer that time either since it could be so many things and the questioner doesn't even narrow down a context to maybe help out with a google search. Dismas|^(talk) 22:47, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Not only here. It has been asked on many reference sites on the Internet. It apparently was a quiz show question a while back and now people keep asking it over and over. The closest answers I've seen on any site (ones that had references to new articles) were: 62% of women were found attractive by men and 62% of young women put money in savings. Neither were accepted as the correct answer because they didn't fit the "62% of women have done" criteria. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Can we narrow down what quiz show it was on? --Robert Merkel 11:56, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Consulted a physician regarding migranes. [13] -LambaJan 21:10, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Good answer. Though personally I find it hard to categorize anything asked on a quiz show as a "serious question"... Notinasnaid 18:01, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hundreds of surveys are done per year. Logic says that for about one in a hundred questions asked, 62% will answer in a given way (probably more, since hardly anyone asks questions likely to have answers of 1% or 100%). So there must be hundreds of correct answers to this question. DJ Clayworth 16:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Biography of the late Rabbi Dr. Kopul Rosen

Has anyone written a biography of the late Rabbi Dr. Kopul Rosen, who was Principal of Carmel College, Wallingford Oxfordshire in England? With thanks

A google search for "Kopul Rosen" turned up a book entitled Memories of Kopul Rosen, ISBN 0950137200. If you click on the ISBN link it will take you to a book source metasearch page. The Google search I did turned up lots of other interesting links which you may wish to peruse. --Robert Merkel 11:56, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

How about turning them into an article? Start with this: Kopul Rosen alteripse 12:16, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

You guys did the research, not I, but are we comfortable that the person will pass the notability bar and be worthy of a biography? I.e. has the figure had an effect upon the world in some context other than merely one doing his job? I only say this because I hate to see new users write an article, get on AfD, and then get frustrated or turn bad, and, if this biography doesn't establish his wider importance, that may happen. Geogre 14:08, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

This guy founded a private school, had a book written about him which you can order on Amazon, and is pretty easily Googleable 35 years after his death. That's a prima facie case for notability. --Robert Merkel 11:49, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Britain france and poland during the 1930s

Why did britain and france go to war against germany over poland?

You should check out our article family on World War II, specifically sections relating to the origins of the war. As an immediate answer, though, Britain and France had signed a mutual-defense pact with Poland in hopes of deterring Hitler's desire to annex the Polish Corridor. The subsequent declaration itself, while upholding the terms of the pact, was also probably intended as further deterrent in hopes of forcing Hitler to back down; certainly neither nation was interested in immediately and aggressively prosecuting the war effort (see Phony War). — Lomn Talk 21:08, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

Joe-Max Moore

The Joe-Max Moore says he is third in US history in goals scored. An email to the Help Desk mailing list, alleging to be from Joe-Max Moore, claims that he is second in US history. Can somebody verify this and correct as appropriate? User:Zoe|^(talk) 22:18, 30 January 2006 (UTC)

I'm really not a football (soccer) fan, but according to US Soccer Players, Joe-Max Moore has scored 24 goals, less than Brian McBride (29 goals) and Eric Wynalda (34 goals). I'd say our article is right, but as I said, I'm not really a football fan! --Lox (t,c) 19:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

January 31

Niña, Pinta and the Santa Maria

How many trips from Europe to the American continent did each of these three ships make. What was the name of the ship that brought the first settelers to America?

The Santa Maria: One. It was grounded on Christmas Eve of 1492.

The Nina: Three - Columbus' first three voyages (I don't know if he had more).

The Pinta: One - unless it was renamed. After the return trip from the first voyage, it drops from history (likely scrapped for building materials).

On the first voyage, Columbus left behind something like 39 men. However, the Mayflower is commonly called the first ship of settlers. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually it's La Niña :P I fixed it for you. --Cosmic girl 01:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

If you want to get technical, it was the Santa Clara. But, who wants to learn about the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and the Santa Clara? --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Did you mean Santa Claus ? --DLL 11:04, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Somehow, I think I'd get arrested if I went into an elementary school and taught, "In 1492, Columbus rode Santa Claus all the way to the Bahamas." --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:12, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The Mayflower isn't the first ship in reality though. That's only if you discount previous failures like the Roanoke colony, and also Spanish colonies like St Augustine. It's the first ship that formed a New England colony which survived. And if you want to talk of the new world as a whole, the Spanish were far ahead. Almost every major city in the Caribbean was founded long before Jamestown. (Havana, Cartagena, Caracas, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Santo Domingo, and so on.) --BluePlatypus 17:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Why was that incidentally? A lot of South American cities were founded in the 1500's, even including inland cities. Why was the colonisation of North America so slow to get going? Jameswilson 02:44, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Partly it was slowed because Spain had lots of ship with lots of cannons and didn't encourage visitors to their land. Rmhermen 02:56, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The Mayflower wasn't even the first ship to bring English colonists to what is now the United States. As was mentioned, the Roanoke colony was established in 1585. The ships which brought colonists were, accoriding to this site, the Dorothy, Elizabeth, Lyon, Roebuck and Tyger. The second Roanoke colony in 1587 was brought by the Commander, Gabriel and Swallow. The first permanent settlement of Englishmen was at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607, 13 years before the arrival of the Mayflower. According to this, the first ships at Jamestown were Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. I'm sure there were several more ships to bring colonists to Jamestown in the 13 years before the Mayflower. User:Zoe|^(talk) 02:51, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The Truth,The Theory of Intelligent Design, & The Separation of Church & State

I've heard that some people say that we shouldn't teach intelligent design(or creation-science of any kind) in public schools because, even if it's taught alongside evolution, it violates the First Admendment of the US Constitution's principle of the separation of church & state.

But what if that's the truth?If the theory of evolution is scientifically proven to be wrong, intelligent design is proven right, or both happens, then are we still going ban teaching creation in schools just because of this stupid little separation-of-church-and-state thing?

This is commonly referred to as a "What if worms carried guns?" argument. In other words, you are taking something that is currently expected to never happen and claiming that we should change our practice based on the nearly impossible occurence.

As for separation of Church and State - do you want your kids to have to sit through Buddhist creationism class, Muslim creationism class, Hindu creationism class, Aztec creationism class... just to make sure everyone is included? Of course not. This is America where we have freedom of religion as long as you are a Christian. We'll accept a few Jews if they lay low and pay for some good entertainment in Hollywood. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:31, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

We seem to be getting more of these provocative ID posts lately. You have more patience than I do. I think we ought to have a new page entitled Wikipedia:Reference desk/Troll arena, where we immediately move this sort of thing so that anybody who feels like it can kick it around, but it doesnt waste anymore time and space here. What think? alteripse 03:33, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Hey, that's an interesting idea. I'm not sure it sits well with Don't bite the newcomers, though, and there's a lot of potential for abuse. The people asking these questions seem to be seriously underinformed; someone should make an effort to broaden their knowledge. I think it would be better for those who don't want to go into all the details to try to ignore these questions. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 17:23, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The separation clause of the US constitution says that the government will not establish any religion. It's true that this was originally designed to prevent the establishment of a state church, a la the Church of England, but it's also true that any time the state endorses a religious position, it is, in fact, creating an official church. It's a church that might not look like the Church of Ireland or the Church of Norway, but it's still a church in that it is an officially requisite set of religious principles. Now, I am a Christian, but I am also a Christian who does not endorse the narrow, ultra-Protestant view of my holy text fostered by "creation science." I take it as a deeply important tenet of my belief that the Bible is true but that truth is not limited to the literal and that, as Paul said, the letter kills and the spirit gives life. I do not want my Christian beliefs or those of my children impinged and distorted by this radical sect of a division of Christian thought, so the rulings against creation science are to protect my Christianity, as well as another's atheism and another's other religion. It is to prevent a State Church from clobbering the individual church or lack of one that the separation of church and state exists for. As for intelligent design, I don't think that what people are talking about now even deserves the title, and, in any case, it is a philosophical question rather than a scientific one. Geogre 03:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with everything you say, but do you want to post it every 2-3 days when one of these bozos drops by? Maybe we could put your standard response in the Troll Arena (TM) (see my proposal just above your note here), and the trolls could kind of "practice joust" at it, and every day or so we could wash the blood off the sand and post a fresh copy. Whaddaya say? alteripse 03:59, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Somewhat of a meta-response, but IMO this wasn't trolling - it was a legitimate (if, from my perspective, somewhat under-informed) question, and I applaud Kainaw and Geogre for being patient, cool and methodical when discussing a somewhat controversial subject. Of course, if we wanted to avoid the extra work, we can always redirect questions of this nature to Creation-evolution controversy and Creation and evolution in public education, as well as to Creationism, Intelligent design and Evolution for more in-depth background - but, again, hats off to those who take the time to write up personalised answers. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:43, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• I'm with Geogre and QuantumEleven. It's a serious subject, one worthy of asking about and discussing. Here is a good place to do so. Trolls are people who disrupt and destroy things, not those who bring up controversial subjects, not even those who ask about what has been asked before. Around here, trolls get ridiculed, not deported. Even if it's a dumb question, or intended as a joke, usually somebody says something intelligent about it. --Halcatalyst 14:31, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion, this question is usually not trolling. The person who asks is most likely raised to believe strictly in literal translations of an English translation of a French translation of a Latin translation of a Greek translation of a Hebrew translation of an Aramaic translation of an oral tradition. They are taught that if they do not immediately reject all science, they will burn forever in hell. So, it is not reasonable to assume that they are trying to troll by asking why the thing they have been taught all their life is not being taught to everyone else. Unfortunately, they are not allowed to consider the answer received without burning forever in hell. I wish I could find a good way to open up a discussion with some of these people and explain that science and religion can live together in harmony and nobody has to burn in hell for it. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cool! That question appears everywhere, it was also in the Misc. RD. Let us give links to the relevant articles stop. --DLL 11:15, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

About the allegations of trolling: there is a type of troll known as the "evil clown" troll whose mission is to pick fights and be contrarian. Then there is the oldest type of troll, and this may be what we're looking at. Originally, "trolling" was a corruption of "trawling," I believe. There were people, usually inexpert if not uneducated, who would go to controversialist discussion areas and ask basic and antagonistic questions. Their mission wasn't as much to start a fight as to get someone to talk to them. They were lonely or batty. They typically brought discussion areas to a standstill as they kept asking about first principles, axiomatics, and irrelevancies, and when the controllers of the discussion areas punished them, the whole thing blew up as people of conscience and people of irritability fought it out over whether the area itself was being governed well. Thus, the trawler and the evil clown had the same effect: stopping all business and forcing the area to discuss itself, instead of whatever people were there to talk about. I thought this was just a trawler until I saw the follow up, below, about how all nations are Christian, and then I figured this was just an evil clown. I attempted to answer, at first, to try to satisfy the questioner in such a way that progress was cut off. I now see that the hunger is too great and the mission is probably not legitimate. Geogre 16:22, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

We shall not be the keepers of the good speech against other keepers. We are trying to help people use a neutral encyclopedia.

Let us give charitable links to relevant articles to people asking questions and showing by their tone that they are trying to go farther than some inculcated faith.

For those who really try : sign in, do not use anonymous AOL's IPs. Thanks. --DLL 20:15, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

In answer to the original question, you say "what if inteeligent design was to be proved right..." If that happened it would be taught in schools of course because it would have stopped being a religious thing. But the important thing is that it would have to have been 'proved right in the opinion of most scientists in the field first. They are the ones who are best qualified to judge what goes on the science curriculum, not priests or politicians or public opinion.

Incidentally, in the UK we dont have church/state separation. I think some of the American religious right would hate it if their children went to school in Britain where they would end up learning a bit about all the major religions, not just their parents' particular version of Christianity. Jameswilson 03:31, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

British MP's

What percentage of british MP's hold a university degree?

Which MP's where born before 1930 (I know their is at least two)?
Whichn MP's are WII veterans I believe their is at least one?
In terms of military service what is the highest rank achieved by a sitting member?
Who most politcally right MP?
Who is the most pollically left MP?
Does Gordon Brown face serious challenge in his own party?
What is the Anglo Indian representation?

What are the odds of the Lib dems gaining stregnth?

I can't answer your quantitative questions but I'll try some of the others:

Who is the most right & left - frankly these are subjective terms usually applied by the media (eg Euro-scepticism is viewed as 'right-wing' but one of the most 'left wing' (former) MP's Tony Benn was incredibly eurosceptic, similarly support for the NHS is 'left wing' but almost no MP would oppose this). You can't really categorise MPs like this, at least not accurately in most cases.

Gordon Brown - Serious challenge at what? If you mean in succeeding Tony Blair then probably not, those most perceived as his rivals have been either discredited (David Blunkett)or unlikely to achieve support (John Prescott),(John Reid). If you mean challenge to his position as Chancellor - only by events.

Anglo-Indian no idea, never heard of this but it could be something from back when we used to govern India, though even then there were no Indian representatives. AllanHainey 13:38, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I think the questioner means "How many current British MPs are of Indian/South Asian descent?" As for the Lib-Dems, sadly I suspect they reached a peak shortly before the last election, and are now busy shooting themselves in both feet with a variety of scandals. History and politics are strange beasts, though, and it wouldn't take much for opinion polls to swing back the other way. Grutness...wha? 14:05, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

For the most left-wing/most right-wing, although it is as AllanHainey says above hard to judge because it depends on what issues you look at, I would think it's fairly safe to say that George Galloway is the most left-wing MP. For the stats questions (i.e. all except Brown facing challenges within the Labour Party) you could find answers by trawling through a list of British MPs, although going through all 645 of them would be a rather tedious task, IMHO. -- AJR | Talk 00:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

From this article, I make it that there are currently 10 MP's of Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi origin - Marsha Singh, Piara Khabra, Mohammad Sarwar, Parmjit Dhanda, Keith Vaz, Dr Ashok Kumar, Khalid Mahmood, Sadiq Khan, Shahid Malik and Shailesh Vara. Jameswilson 03:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

No, Anglo-Indian is a completely different term. deeptrivia (talk) 05:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Oh, if you mean that sort of Anglo-Indian, I really dont know. I have never heard of anybody being described as Anglo-Indian in that sense in the UK nowadays. Maybe some of their descendants do privately keep a sense of their identity but, as far as the rest of us are concerned, they have just merged into the general society. I imagine one or two MP's do have an Anglo-Indian grandfather (just by the law of averages) but its never mentioned. Jameswilson 01:51, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What contries are hating eachother, and what people are hating another race of people

Are there any example in our world today, of countries HATING each other. Also, are there any organizations, posing threats to the world, which hate a certain group of people. Also, it would be great if you could give an example where in the world peolpe let themselves be taken over by a foreign or different power, just because they want to live.

Short answer = Yes.

Longer ... look at the world press. You don't even have to leave many nations. In the USA there is a political divide that is getting steadily worse, that could end up in a second Civil War, if this keeps up. There is hatred across ideological grounds, and there is hatred stemming from fear of what other nations and peoples might do, to abuse power, control of WMD, carry out threats, etc. User:AlMac|^(talk) 08:51, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

A good starting point might be the List of wars and (linked from there) the List of invasions. An example of a nation that didn't resist invasion was Austria in WWII, but that was because they wanted to be united with Germany. I don't think any people who do not want to be invaded will not put up any fight at all. The only reason might be that they can't possibly win (I suppose that's what you mean), but even then there will be some opposition by some people. The chances of resistance will decline with the difference in power, but the strongest differences I can think of were during the Roman empire and the colonisation by European nations, but even then there was resistance. Just think of the resistance of the Indians in America against all odds. The resistance can be very limited, though. In the Netherlands after the invasion by Germany, the first few years there was hardly any resistance at all, first by the military, who were too weak, and then by the people, who noticed not much had changed and just wanted to get on with their lives. But that was because the Germans saw potential allies in the Dutch (fellow 'aryans' as we were). So no resistance could be inspired by a will to live, Im imagine (though I can't think of an example), but that will only happen when the invader isn't too oppressive. DirkvdM 09:56, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

My Reply- I was looking at modern exapmles, like today, and on going, thanks.

"Hate" is subjective, so that's not a possible question to answer. Obviously there's a whole spectrum of foreign relations and emotions. Yet there are very few places where it is anywhere near the level of armed conflict. Indeed, the number of conflicts between states has decreased dramatically in the past century. It seems that conflict between nation-states is becoming something of the past. As for organizations, there are no organizations of any kind threatening the world as a whole. As for countries who 'let' themselves be taken over, I've never heard of such a thing. People tend to really, really, hate foreign rule. Few Russians I know liked the Soviet system, but I've yet to meet a single one who'd have wanted a foreign invasion to rid them of it. I think the only cases where that works is when the people have been to tired of war and fed up with their rulers to provide resistance. The threat of being invaded by someone else helps too, in WWII the German people were much happier to surrender to the Allies than the Soviets. --BluePlatypus 17:00, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Did they 'know' what was going to happen in either case? I think it was more a matter of the Germans having been indoctrinated to be afraid of both Slavs and Commies - and the Russians were both. Just like westerners like myself have been indoctrinated to believe the Soviet system didn't work and the USSR citizens to believe western society was rotten. I once spoke to a Ukranian guy who was taught to hate the Russians for ruling over his country and fear the western world for it's strive for world dominance - sound familiar? DirkvdM 08:09, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Well of course it's due to indoctrination. Be it love or hate, most inter-people relations like that are based on prejudice and group psychology, not an open-minded evaluation based on personal experience. --BluePlatypus 21:35, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Are there palm trees in Florence, Italy?

It's kind of a trivial question, but I was curious if there were any palm trees in Florence? I would imagine there were, but are they as abundant as, say, mid or southern Italy? Un sogno modesto 09:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I've seen them there. I've even seen palms in Cornwall, England. Although in both cases, I think they've been planted. (They're certainly not indiginous to England!) There's certainly more of them in southern Italy and Sicily. --BluePlatypus 17:03, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The ones in England probably aren't true palms - they're more likely to be "Torquay Palms", also known as Cabbage trees (Cordyline australis, IIRC), which are actually more closely related to lilies than palms. Grutness...wha? 03:28, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, that made me uncertain, but Google turned up a couple pictures of true palms around Falmouth, so it seems my memory has served me correctly. --BluePlatypus 19:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Sainte Estelle

Who was Sainte Estelle? She appears to have been an early French martyr but does not feature in any online dictionary of saints. Nor for that matter do Saint Stella or Saint Ethel - two possible English spellings of the same name. Did she ever really exist?

Estelle ou Stella (étoile) honorée à Saintes comme ayant subi le martyre au troisième siècle. Elle fut surtout rendue célèbre grâce au poète Mistral.Son nom était en fait Eustelle (du grec "eu"= beau, bien et "stello"= parer, orner). La forme latinisée Estelle a été donnée par Frédéric Mistral. Gouverneur de la région de Saintes, son père était un Romain de naissance illustre; sa mère descendait d'une antique et puissante famille de druides. La curiosité de son esprit cultivé la plaça sur le chemin de saint Eutrope, premier évêque de la région. Après avoir entendu ses enseignements, elle demanda le baptême : elle fut baptisée par lui et consacrée à Dieu. Comme elle se refusait à tous les prétendants et qu'elle s'obstinait dans sa Foi, son père la fit mettre à mort dans les arènes de Saintes. Son corps fut enterré dans le tombeau même de saint Eutrope, à qui elle avait donné, peu de temps auparavant la sépulture. Le nom de sainte Eustelle était si populaire dans la région charentaise que les évêques de La Rochelle et Saintes la choisirent pour patronne de la jeunesse chrétienne.(Sources : Les Jeunes Saintes, par l'Abbé J. KNELL, 1896 / Notice sur Sainte Eustelle, vierge et martyre de l'église de Saintes, par M. l'Abbé BRIAND, 1837 / Le mystère de sainte Eustelle, drame en trois actes, par le chanoine honoraire L.-M. DUBOIS, imprimatur de 1922)

The above was found at [14]. It basically says Estelle was a third century martyr in Gaul, daughter of an illustrious Roman and descended from a powerful family of Druids. She was attracted to the group of Saint Eutrope, first bishop of the area, and asked to be baptized. When she refused to abjure, her father condemned her to death in the arena. She has been popular in the charentaise region and was considered a patron saint of young christian girls. Now see our article Saint Estelle. alteripse 12:22, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Yay! More saint articles! (Just did Monan, myself.) There are over 10,000 saints on the calendar. There are many that have been demoted but are of historical interest. Anyone who wants a quick article to her or his credit need merely grab some serious reference works and start poking around for saints without articles. There are plenty. Geogre 12:52, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

I see that St. Elsewhere is aleady taken. --Halcatalyst 05:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, Feb 1 is fairly well covered, but look at Saint Ursus. What a disappointment! Predicate nominatives are not articles. If I can find an hagiography and write an article, I'll start by deleting what's there now. "Nuclear fission is when atoms split" is not an article on nuclear fission, and "Saint Ursus was a martyr" is not an article on a saint. Grrrrr. (Must kill substubs!) Geogre 14:20, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

But at least it's a start. "From small acorns, mighty oaks grow". JackofOz 19:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

See, not to me, or at least I don't consider that an acorn. I consider it a sign saying, "Coming soon: acorns!" Or, put another way, I don't believe that walking around naked in the belief that someone will eventually put clothes on you is a good idea. While you wait for that eventually, you're still parading around showing your a*se. 2-3 sentences is a stub. A predicate nominative ("Adolf Hitler was a German dictator") is not a scaffolding upon which anything could be built. Geogre 03:42, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Gotcha on Godwin's Law here. Argument over. alteripse 03:53, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Everyone knows that invoking Godwin's law is just like the Nazis! Geogre 16:29, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's just amazing what you can learn on Wikipedia. JackofOz 07:48, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

european union

what are the 12 original eu members?

See European Union - and there weren't twelve original members, there were six (Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Italy, (West) Germany, France). The "twelve" member states (from 1986 to 1995) were the original six plus the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Denmark and Ireland. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 15:37, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

It wasn't called the European Union until 1992, though (again, see the article), so there were 12 members at that time. --Anonymous, 17:30 UTC, January 31.

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?--64.12.116.72 16:14, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• Hungry trolls, apparently. A deafening silence is the only logical answer. Geogre 16:16, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
  • LOL Marskell 16:25, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you have to laugh. It is bad enough to feel sorry for someone like that, but it is worse when you realize they were taught to be that way by a large number of people in their home, church, and probably in their public school. Didn't I read something in the news this morning about how Iran is evil because they force a strict religious believe on everyone in their home, school, and business... --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:26, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Same question in RD:Misc. More, the IP address is blocked. More, thanks god, you don't have wikipedias in that horrible mid eastern mess to ask such questions, have you ? --DLL 20:04, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

What planet are you living in? Perhaps a fantasy world of home schooling? Christianity is a minority religion on this planet Earth. The USA is about the only nation with freedom of religion, and this is accomplished through constitutional separation of church and state. In most nations, if you caught with a cross, a bible, other overt signs of Christianity, the penalty is: major fines; serious jail time; even death. Be thankful you live in USA where you have the mental freedom to spout the fantasies expressed in your question. User:AlMac|^(talk) 20:54, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

• To Render Our Lives Laughter(-filled)... we should tip this person. It probably took, oh, 10 minutes to write the statement above. At minimum wage (in the US), that's 86 cents. I'm passing the hat. How much will YOU contribute? --Halcatalyst 23:58, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

AlMac, considering the original posting you should make it a little clearer that you're joking (which I suppose is the case :) ). DirkvdM 08:15, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I very much hop that's a joke, AlMac. EamonnPKeane 19:32, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

establishing the future value of music copyrights

I'm looking to find out how to establish the value of copyrights on music created 25-30 years ago. As the rights to income from copyrights were transferred to record companies in the 1970s, those rights are now expiring and some artists are seeking to recover back the rights they transferred to those record companies while under contract. I'm looking for a formula or method for analyzing individualized and market-wide data on these rights that are reverting to the original artists and composers. Further, I can't seem to find out how record companies evalate the financial strength of an artist's work - when they advance an artist money prior to sales occuring - they must have some formula to determine how much they can advance and the relative risk associated with that advance payment.

First, about the advance: don't calculate it. The artist owes the advance, and it is recouped from the artist royalties, so it doesn't enter into the calculations of value of copyrights. Second, I can't answer directly. There is a lawyer in the US who has been doing yoeman work in getting old blues musicians, in particular, their royalties. I suspect that if you enter an antique, living bluesman's name plus "lawyer" into Google, you'll find the fellow's name. I know Paul Lambden is at Ryko Disk, and they deal with a great deal of lapsed catalog and try to do the right thing. A formula must be in use, but I'm sure it's set by court precedent in your particular nation and cannot be international or universal. Geogre 21:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Cro-magnon humans

What happened to the cro-magnon humans? We read that they lived between 50000 and 10000 years ago, I am curious, any lignt on the subject would be appreciated.

Not to imply you have the intelligence of a cro-magnon, but if you type "Cro-Magnon" into the little search box and click the "go" button, you will see this page. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:09, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

We all have the intelligence of a Cro-Magnon, as they are basically us. --Ornil 20:48, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

We discussed something analagous the other day ("all humans are apes, but not all apes are humans"). I think saying the words "Not to imply you have the intelligence of a cro-magnon" might (however fleetingly) create that very suggestion in their mind, where none existed previously. JackofOz 01:15, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Clapping rhymes

I just stumbled on our article about Jump-rope rhymes. I then tried to find a similar article about hand-clapping rhymes, but to no avail. I'm talking about those schoolyard songs and chants that kids do as they clap hands in intricate ways. An example is "Miss Susie [or Lucy] had a steamboat, / The steamboat had a bell" etc. So what are these things called? And do we have an article on them? I didn't find anything at Pat-a-cake or Clapping. (This was borderline Humanities/Miscellaneous, so apologies if anyone thinks it should have been there rather than here.) — BrianSmithson 18:27, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Are you're looking for Clapping game? --Lox (t,c) 19:17, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

That's it, thanks. I've built the web a bit, adding appropriate cross links to the articles mentioned above. — BrianSmithson 20:53, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Progress of reform over the transition from communism

Hello,

I've studied all pages relating to 'communism', but have only found small sections regarding the economics of transition economies. Essentially, i'm wishing to find out how ex-communist countries, moving from planned to market economies, are faring?

I'd be ever so greatful if you could help,

James.

Well, if you've read the articles you should know that they're supposed to be called ex-'socialist states' :) . Which would be the former Soviet Union (or did I blink and miss one? :) ). And in this case one should distinguish between how the country as a whole is doing and how the individual people are doing. This is just what I've learned from tv (a BBC documentary on the Russian oligarchs), but in Russia, the biggest of those countries, the transition was done in a pretty lousy way. These people were raised with the idea that capitalism is theft, so when they were fully emerged in capitalism (more so even than in other capitalist states) the thieves got rich. Filthy rich. Leaving nothing for the poor. Shares in companies were divided equally amongst the people, but most didn't know what to do with them. Just a few did. They bought the shares for next to nothing, combined them with foreign money and got filthy rich. Also because the managers of factories didn't have a clue how to operate in a free market and thus left that to the few who did - the aforementioned few. So now all the power is still in the hands of a few, except that these don't care at all about the poor, who now have nothing in stead of little - the safety net that the state was has disappeared. But now their power is being curtailed by Putin, who seems to be trying to become a new Tsar. Which of course will lead to a revolution, bringing Russia back to square one, except that the Communist Party will have refreshed its legitimacy. Which would realise the prediction I made in the early 1990's.

How the economy as a whole is doing (in an international comparison), I don't know really, and would also like to know. DirkvdM 08:31, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

February 1

Garage Again

I have another garage question. Before there were cars, were there a such thing as putting your horse carriage or wagon in something that is called a garage today, but wasn't called garage in those days? I mean a special room connected to the house for horse carriages or wagons, were they around?

Carriage house? —WAvegetarian•_{CONTRIBUTIONS}^TALK• ^EMAIL•00:43, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• This has already been asked several times recently, and been answered several times. See here. --BluePlatypus 01:19, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

State of the Union Designated survivor

Concerning President Bush's State of the Union address this evening, has anyone seen details concerning who is tonight's designated survivor? Or, is this information covered until the address is over and everyone's home tucked safe in their beds? :-) — Scm83x ^talk 01:20, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I just saw the report on C-SPAN that the DS isn't known until everyone gets into the chamber and reporters count heads to see who is missing. Smart money says Condoleezza Rice, though, as she's in London. — Scm83x ^talk 01:38, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It was James Nicholson, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Also interestingly, there were only four Supreme Court justices there (that I saw): Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Breyer. --zenohockey 04:08, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

ancient rituals

I have a question I am having a difficult time finding and answer to hopefully you can help. The ancient inhabitants of Asia filled a suspect's mouth with this item. If the suspect had trouble spitting this item out, it was beleived he was lying and was judged guilty. What was the item? This is for a research project I have to do for a CJ class. Thank you so much for taking the time to help out.

Jody

Rice. [15] -LambaJan 05:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

O. Henry recursive story

I am searching for the name of a short story by O. Henry that I once read. It involved a person telling a story whose main "plot" was something to the effect of "[When I was little, my father told me, 'Years ago, when I was but a boy, my father took me out by the lake and said, "Let me tell you an important story ... "']". Besides its recursive structure, the story also used nested quotation marks, at least ten (?) levels deep. Thanks, Ardric47 02:17, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I don't know it exactly but you may want to check out Wikisource:Author:O. Henry and see if any of the titles bring it to mind. 68.39.174.238 21:21, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

The Truth,The Theory of Intelligent Design & The Separation of Church & State (cont.)

You said that teaching intelligent design in public schools violates the separation of church and state because it is advancing religious viewpoints.

But what if we don't teach the beliefs and teachings of creation of one or a particular religion?I mean, what if we don't mention anything about the God of a particular religion and say that the intelligent designer could be the God of any religion?

Please continue the discussion on the same thread and don't start a new one (see the top of the page). And please sign your questions with four tildes (like this: ~~~~), then we can keep track of who is asking what question.

To attempt an answer: No matter how you slice it, Intelligent Design still has no place in science class because it is not, by any stretch of the definition, science. Every advance the field of biology and ecology in the last two centuries is based on the theory of evolution - if it was so far wrong, so you think we would have GM crops now? Deciphered DNA? If microorganisms didn't evolve, then the drugs we used against them fifty years ago would still be effective - but they do evolve (into more resistant forms), so we have to develop new ways to fight them. Check out a whale skeleton - see those little bones halfway down its spine, those that look like the remains of... legs?

The scientific consensus on evolution is about as strong as you can get with fundamental theories, arguably stronger than, for instance, the consensus on gravity - where we still have a number of unanswered questions - but you're not going to start saying that gravity is an illusion and that all things fall because a diety wants them to, right? (see intelligent falling). To put it bluntly, Intelligent Design is scientific nonsense - sorry, but it's true. Even the judge asked to arbitrate the case in Dover, PA, said clearly what the vast majority of scientists and non-US laypeople were thinking, that ID is an attempt to introduce Christian religious teachings into the science classroom, where I am sure you agree it doesn't belong. The purpose of ID is not to "teach the controversy" (because there is none), it is not to "open students' minds to alternatives" (because, in that case, we should be teaching students other 'alternative' theories, such as a flat Earth, or the four humours). The purpose of ID is to disguise religion as science, and therefore should not be taught in the science classroom.

However, if you do want to teach ID in schools, it can well be discussed in Ethics or Philosophy class, along with the (in that context) other equally valid explanations for Creation of the the Navaho, the Sumerians and the Australian Aborigines. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 10:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm not going to feed the troll, so I'll only pass on a cute story from the news. A physician said that he will ask a patient if he believes in evolution or not before prescribing antibiotics. If yes, he will give only sulfa drugs. If no, he will give Cipro. After all, antibiotic resistant bacteria are evolved. If there is no evolution, then sulfa ought to work on all of them. Geogre 14:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

History

Can anyone name a key turning point in the British Home Front wars. This can cover any date or event between 1914 and 1945. Thanks

I'm sure the articles on World War I and World War II, and those linked off of them, can help you with your homework. Dismas|^(talk) 13:58, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Tenzing Norgay's nationality

Which country did Tenzing Norgay belong to ? Was he Nepalese, Chinese (Tibetan) or Indian ? Did he ever change his citizenship officially ? What was his nationality during the time when he scaled the Everest ? Jay 11:48, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

The article you link says it all, really - he was Nepalese, although there were occasional rumours that he may have actually been Chinese. He lives some of his life in India. To the best of my knowledge, he was a Nepalese citizen at all times, and certainly he was during the 1953 ascent. Grutness...wha? 12:06, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

I guess so too, but several General Knowledge and text books say he was the first 'Indian' to scale Everest. Jay 03:58, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Oposition Leaders

Does anyone know where to find a list of worldwide oposition leaders (goverments) and links to them?

Thanks,

I suppose that depends on your perspective. When groups oppose, they oppose. Some see Osama Bin Laden as an opposition leader, while others see George W. Bush as one. Whatever your definition, your best resource is the news. Opposers love to publicly oppose, so consquently, all of the major names are repetedly mentioned. -LambaJan 20:51, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Presumably he's talking about Opposition (parliamentary) leaders. That would be a reasonably well-defined set. I have not looked for a list, though. --Anonymous, 2006-02-02 02:02 UTC!!

the olympic games of 1936

Which ones, the 1936 Summer Olympics or the 1936 Winter Olympics? Also, please read the top - this is not a search engine! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:03, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

What is your question? -LambaJan 16:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Whatever it is, the answer is either Jesse Owens or Leni Riefenstahl. :) --BluePlatypus 18:57, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Meissonier 1876

I purchased what looks like a print from a yard sale. I have researched all over the books and internet about this and have come up empty handed. I have been trying on and off for the past four or five years. So with falling upon zippo I was wondering if you could help? This etching, print, is signed in the lower right hand corner MEISSONIER 1876, and in the lower left corner (which is torn off) is a small picture of a man. The picture itself is two musketeers on a horse outside a house or tavern drinking out of glasses, and three people, one a lady petting the horse and two men. I am curious about the small picture in the lower left corner. Can you give me some insight to this as I have not been able to find anyhting on it at all. Thank You, Sincerely Donna

Is this your print? LarryMac 16:25, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Cartoon love music

What is the name of this classical piece often played in cartoons when one character falls in love with another character? It goes (probably wrong key): f#' g', b c' d' a g c', a a b g#... —Keenan Pepper 15:35, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried this link? http://www.thomasbending.co.uk/torus/ Maid Marion 16:01, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Wow, that's such a bad system. Why can't I tell it the intervals if I know them? I ended up with stuff like "Camptown Races", which sounds nothing like the piece I'm looking for. —Keenan Pepper 16:14, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

How about this one? http://www.musipedia.org/ I just Googled 'identifying tunes', which threw up lots of possibilities that you might want to explore. Maid Marion 16:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

This one's much better. Turns out it's from Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. Thanks! —Keenan Pepper 16:50, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

AHH!! I knew it was by Tchaikovski! I couldn't answer it because I couldn't find it. I thought it mighta been from Swan Lake. -LambaJan 20:33, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden

Bruce said something about Metallica in Metal Hammer. I read it in an interview. Heres the question -

E - I read in Metal Hammer that you made a very bold statement about Metallica. Bruce - Yea, it's true. E - I agree with it but this is something that you haven't walked that fine line in a long time. B - No, but it's true. I thought should I go ahead and say this and I thought f**k it.

Anyone knows what it was? I couldnt find it on Metal Hammer archive.

Name for pre-modern warfare

Hi, I'm trying to translate an article from Chinese and I'm stuck on a word. You shouldn't have to know Chinese to know the answer, though. The author describes U.S. tactics in Afghanistan as "fei xian shi" or "non-line-style", in the sense (I believe) of not having two armies lined up against each other. Is there a better word for this in English?

Thanks. 150.174.234.101 19:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

It's possible that the author is being more precise than that. One type of attack in classic warfare is the "attack in echelon." That tactic was best used by Napoleon, but it certainly existed before. (You have your troops lined up and they charge one after the other, moving across the field. When your opponent shifts to meet the first attack, he's weaker for the second rank, then weaker still on the third, and the result is that he is flanked.) It may be simply "non-echelon" that you're looking for. You have to go to non-professional armies altogether before you find them attacking and defending in a mob. Every army that we know of as an army had formation (lines). Geogre 19:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

• It sounds to me like asymmetric warfare, which would make more sense in this context. --Fastfission 19:44, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

What is the time period? If this is after the Sino-Japanese War, then you should not translate Feixian. It is referring to the county of Feixian, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. It is therefore comparing the American's tactics to those of general Zhu De. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:49, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

In terms of just looking for a generic term, I think fastfission is right with asymmetric warfare. You might also look at guerilla warfare. Marskell 08:13, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

But, if this is referring to the Feixian County style of combat, it is not guerilla or asymmetric warfare. The questioner translated the name of the county as "non-line". That would be like saying South Carolina style combat is attacking from the south with some ladies named Caroline.

Feixian County became famous because of the Eighth Route Army. They would infiltrate attacking forces. By the time an attacking force was at the border of Feixian County, it would be facing opponents in the county, opponents who snuck through their lines and were now behind them, as well as many who infiltrated and became part of their own ranks. So, claiming the Americans used Feixian tactics means that they used people who could infiltrate the opponents ranks, spy on them, and surround them before they could attack. It has little to do with how troops line up. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:58, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Successful crimes

Are there any lists on wikipedia, showing the most successful crimes throughout history? (Henningklevjer 20:36, 1 February 2006 (UTC))

I was unable to find such an article on the Wikipedia. Perhaps you can write it. -LambaJan 21:23, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Not that I know, but there's this list which is pretty close: list of famous bank robbers and robberies ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 21:37, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

By definition, the most successful crimes are the ones that nobody knows about. What are you actually asking about? What do you mean by "successful"? JackofOz 09:32, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Of those who got away with their crime, Jack the Ripper is probably the most notorious. I believe nobody has yet been convicted for the Northern Bank robbery when so much cash (£26.5 million) was stolen that the Northern Irish currency had to be reprinted. --Shantavira 13:44, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Murders in the millions, and embezzlement in the billions, have been attributed to heads of state (typically after they are deposed, and most often conveniently dead). Of course, they may have had the power to make their acts legal, but they typically didn't bother, perhaps because it would be bad PR. Anyway, they take some beating. Notinasnaid 15:21, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Those crimes you know about but dont have the slightest clue how it was done can be considered most successful. It doesnt have to necessarily be something undiscovered. I may find out my brothers passowrd somehow and read his emails. He'd never know that. Its not something brilliant. So its a valid question.

Hatha Yoga

Hello. I looked under Hatha Yoga which was very infromative but my main question is, how would one describe the difference between Hatha Yoga and other yogic paths such as, raja or bhakti yoga for example?

Thank you so much for your time!

Leigh

Religious beliefs

I need to know the names of all religions recognized by the department of corrections, in the United States. Not all the little ones, but the top 30 most recognized. I know everyone is going to consider theirs a big deal but I need this to be serious.

There is a Department of Corrections for each US state. It is not a federal department. —Keenan Pepper 23:22, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Don't forget about the federal Bureau of Prisons. The BOP website doesn't mention any official recognition of particular religions. It just says, "Inmates can observe religious holy days and wear and use religious items consistent with their faith as long as this is consistent with policy and with the security, safety, and good order of the institution." -- Mwalcoff 00:28, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Beside a Sikh's knife, what religious items would be inconsistent with security? Rmhermen 16:33, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Articles of clothing related to Hijab (Burqas, niqabs and dupattas) can cause problems at security checkpoints as well, since they prevent identification. Other obscuring clothing (turbans, Nun's habits and loose robes may have to be removed if there's a problem at the metal detector. The FAA Guidelines detail how theyre dealt with. GeeJo _{(t) (c)} • 17:18, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Also, a couple of years ago there was a set of lawsuits by prison practitioners of minority religions like Wicca and Asatru. IIRC, some of the (printed) materials of the particular branch of Asatru were considered to exacerbate racial tensions in the prison facility. Open flames are another potentially problematic part of worship. FreplySpang (talk) 21:14, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Asperger Syndrome, Dating, and Marriage

I'm the only son (2 sisters won't help any, in terms of passing the lineage), and not only that, but I'm the only male 1st AND 2nd cousin with my last name. Therefore, I must pass on my lineage. It's no less than mandatory.

However, if I ever successfully pull off having a relationship with a possible girlfriend, when would be the right time to tell her about my disorder?

Not only do I have that, but I don't have a job either. The only way I'm not homeless is by having Supplemental Security Income i.e. a government paycheck. What the heck do I tell her when she asks,

"So, where do you work?"

"I'm a student; I don't work anywhere."

She may understand that, as it's more ideal to study w/o a job, so I can have more time to do my studies. However, she'll still be curious:

"So then, what do you do to have a roof over your head?" (i.e. to have an apartment)

I do NOT want to answer this: "Due to my Asperger disorder, it's a whole lot harder for me to land a job, even jobs below a living wage, so I told this to the government, and they've been sending me disability checks ever since."

She'd leave me if I did. What am I supposed to say or do instead? How else should I answer her?

For those of you who are about to suggest that I pursue girls with Asperger's, I don't think that's a good idea because I want to raise normal, mentally healthy children. Both parents w/ Asperger's will bring the probability of traiting offspring with it to 100%! (not unless Gene editing gains momentum to the point that it effectively deals with autistic genes, which I think won't happen for quite a while.)

--Shultz 23:25, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

There are a number of editors on Wikipedia with AS. I suggest you check out this link and ask others how they are dealing with it. —WAvegetarian•_{CONTRIBUTIONS}^TALK• ^EMAIL•00:09, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Eh? You talk of Asperger as if it was a horrible, disabilitating mental disease that must be controlled. It is not like that. Also, it is not yet fully understood what causes autism, so your fears are unfounded on our current scientific knowledge. I have a bad case of Asperger and I don't see it as a direct obstacle in my professional life. In fact, I think it gives me a lot more insight and grasp on reality than most, "normal" people. A good deal of the greatest humans that ever lived had, or are suspected to have had, Asperger's syndrome, and these people changed the world we live on forever. I think what you really need is to change the way you deal with your condition. (And, on a personal note, I don't find your reasons to raise a family valid at all. Have children if you really want to, not because you think you must, or you're likely to fail as a parent.) ☢ Ҡieff⌇↯ 00:12, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Well, I find your attitude of passing on lineage as slightly weird. Are you nobility or something? (and if you are, it still strikes me as rather pre-20th-century). But enough of that. I'd say: Don't lie. There's no point in lying. If the girl isn't going to want you because of these things, then it's not going to make much difference if you tell her up front or later. The fact that you lied would be worse. A person who will want a serious relationship with you isn't going to care too much about these things anyway. Having an impressive job or money or whatever may make someone interested in you, but it doesn't make them fall in love. That's up to your personality, and your personality is not your disorder. However, some people might need help to better understand the disorder as to better be able to see you for you, and not the aspberger part. So there's everything to gain to be upfront about it. Although it wouldn't be the first thing I'd tell people, "Hi! I've got aspberger!", but certainly once you get to the level of talking about personal things. --BluePlatypus 00:43, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

You know, there is no test for Asperger syndrome, and the diagnosis is often simply the opinion of one person judging another (or himself). I often remind families to accept a diagnosis like that only if it is clearly advantageous (like qualifying for extra resources at school), because such a diagnosis has its downside, by limiting others' expectation or your own expectation of what you can do and not do. When I first read your question, "should I tell her", my first impulse was to say, "if you really have it you won't have to tell her, she'll figure it out". However, on reflection, only you can decide how much of your social behavior you are willing to own and control and how much you get to blame on AS. If you don't like this answer you can be relieved that I am not the kind of doctor who makes the final diagnosis about this, just the kind of doctor who gets asked what it means or whether it is right, and the kind of doctor who realizes when 50 editors here claim the diagnosis that the diagnostic criteria and social significance of the disease have changed enormously in twenty-five years. Labels have consequences and it sounds like you are examining that. Good luck. alteripse 01:12, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Shultz: If you think the fireworks would be bad if you tell her now, what do you think they'll be like if you delay, and tell her later? If you actually think she would leave you if you tell her about your condition, then look at it for a moment from her point of view: It is cruelty to not tell her. You're just wasting her time. If, however, you're incorrect and she doesn't care, then you've got it out of the way and can enjoy life again. Just tell her and get it over with; one way or another, you can move on.

By the way, this question indicates you need a lot more relationship experience before you decide to get married. I recommend at least two serious girlfriends in exclusive relationships for a minimum of 1 year each. This will give you the needed experience in communication and trust. Then you have my permission to marry. Junkboat 04:08, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

ONE YEAR? Wow, I've never lasted that long. Ever. How would I ever pull it off? (I'm still in college so I'm sure something could be done.)

I wouldn't fret so much - after all, these are just one person's idea of a guideline :) Also, don't forget that as you're still in college, you have many, many years ahead of you in which to meet people, so take things at your own pace. Whilst personally I would agree with Junkboat, that several long-term relationships (I would even put the figure at two years) are very important before making even more long-lasting committments such as marriage, I know quite a few people who have gone a different path and seem to be doing fine. In the end, it's your life and your decisions - but a point to think about, if you can't manage to maintain a relationship for a year, how do you think you will maintain a marriage for (possibly) several decades? This is not meant to put you off, far from it, I would more see it as an indication that you still need some more time to find out what you want in a relationship and how to make it work over long time spans. Practice makes perfect :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:33, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

February 2

Hubert H. Humphrey speech

I would love to read the entire transcript of Hubert Horatio Humphrey's 1948 address to the Democratic National Convention. Better yet, I would love to view or purchase a video of his actual address to the convention. Does anyone know where this could be obtained? --71.145.191.15

Your wish is our command: [16] for the text. I could find recordings of later speeches available inexpensively by googling, but not this one. alteripse 02:46, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Thanks a million for your wonderful help. --71.145.191.15 15:01, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Poem

While browsing through poetry, I came upon this piece by Gertrude Stein.

"Chain boats are merry, are merry blew, blew west, carpet."

I have a few questions about this poem.

1. What on earth is a chain-boat? 2. What on earth does a carpet have to do with a chain boat? 3. What's significant about a chain-boat to write a poem about it? 4. Am I missing something?

--Fight The Right 03:11, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

You might want to read the whole poem. It's all rather strange: http://www.bartleby.com/140/2.html User:Zoe|^(talk) 03:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

A chain boat is a like a ferry that uses a chain (as opposed to a rope) attached to both destinations to drag itself back and forth across the water. They are used where it is too far to have a rope extended above the water. A chain can safely be submerged. It goes up and over a wheel on the boat. When the wheel is turned, the boat moves along the chain. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

After reading the poem, Gertrude is apparently thinking of "gravy boats" and using the phrase "chain boats". Is there a type of gravy boat normally called a chain boat? --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:39, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

"Chain boats/chin boats are merry/very are very blue, bluest, carpet": As is often the case with Stein, it's elaborate wordplay with a suggestion of vertical signification. (Imagine that words have two meanings. Now, instead of one moving forward, semantically, while the other is rejected as an ornament or a supplement, both meanings move forward semantically to the next double word/double signification, and when one line of signification is cut off, it may become dominant again in a few words.) As for what you may or may not be missing, that's a question of whether or not you want to understand her the way her fans do. Personally, I don't. I don't like, enjoy, or appreciate her poetry. I'm fussy, though. Her most credible fan made the case to me that the feminine language is fundamentally non-linear and that, at least as Stein would have understood things, the female language is non-Oedipal and defined by Freud's "polymorphus perversity," where the whole body is involved in ego and language definition. She, therefore, speaks a feminine language by speaking a language that refuses to eliminate one meaning as it opens up another. <shrug> I'm pretty phallocentric in my poetry preference, I guess. Geogre 03:51, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Still, where does carpet come in from? Rmhermen 16:25, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

I seriously hesitate to answer. All I'll say is that I think I know, but I don't know I know, so I'll leave it as carpet, and not car-pet, and say that perhaps, as in "Lifting Belly," the subject of domesticity and the subject of sexuality and sensuality are all tied together in a way that a "masculine" poet would not do. Geogre 19:27, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

What was the first US Supreme Court ruling to overturn a previous USSC ruling?

Inspired by an anon's question over at Talk:Brown v. Board of Education#another random question: What was the first US Supreme Court ruling to overturn a previous ruling of the US Supreme Court? Tempshill 03:57, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Certainly, you have no need to be told there are many articles in Wikipedia on the US Supreme Court. I poked around a little and found List of United States Supreme Court cases, which might be a good jumping-off point. In the end, though, if you really want to know, you may need to go to a law library and ask the reference librarian. --Halcatalyst 19:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

You know, I never saw that list article before. Thanks. I figure you're probably right on the reference librarian. Tempshill 21:06, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

BRIC SHARES

is there any value to the 1979 BRIC shares or any news on the court case outcome?

Doesn't look good. See [17] under the question about BRIC shares. Tempshill 07:26, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Music technology use in the transition of musical theaatre to film

Hi I'm looking for information on how music and the technology of music is used differently in theatre and film productions of the same show. I want to know what benefits making a musical theatre production into a film has through use of technology and how films have been adapted through their music from their theatre production. Thanks

What is the GDP per capita for Zimbabwe over the past 10 years?

I am having trouble finding this data over the internet, can anyone help me please?

Try an almanac. Hmm, I guess there's no such thing as a "wikimanac", is there? We have just about every other reference book... =P —Keenan Pepper 16:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Here's the GDP for the latest 6 years http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=zi&v=65 User:Αchille

Your tax dollars at work (if you're an American): the CIA World Factbook. There you can find tons of information on any country you're interested in, including Zimbabwe. There it says the GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) in Zimbabwe is $1,900 (2005 est.) You'll need to do a little more research to get the 10-yr average. --Halcatalyst 19:41, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

If the reports on the recent policies of Mugabe, the GDP has probably taken a hit in the last few years. And given the increasing amount of hostility between Zimbabwe and the rest of the world, there's fewer outsiders there to report about it. So the numbers are probably increasingly uncertain. That said, the CIA's guess is probably as good as any. --BluePlatypus 20:38, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Iran / Security Council

What are the legal ramifications of Iran being referred to the Security Council? Why is it being so hotly contested? Is it possible that China and Russia will oppose any sanctions on Iran? Is there a list of Securty Council Resolutions? Thanks, User:Αchille

• The Security Council has a wide variety of diplomatic approaches that it can utilize, one after another, from talking about the issue, to a a mild public rebuke, to sanctions of various sorts, to, in the most extreme and unlikely case, a request that UN member nations use military action to invade the country; see Korean War. Any permanent member of the Security Council can block any of this with the veto power, including China and Russia. For the list, see List of UN Security Council Resolutions. It's divided into subpages to contain the hundreds of resolutions. Iran is hotly contesting this because under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it has signed, most of the developing nations of the world agreed with the superpowers not to pursue research on nuclear weapons, and in exchange the superpowers promised to help the developing nations build nuclear power reactors and infrastructure. Iran says that it is merely pursuing nuclear power per the terms of the NPT, but the US has been saying that the actual reason for Iran's nuclear research and procurement has been in order to build a bomb. Tempshill 19:12, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

3 categories of money- M1, M2, M3

What is included in each of the 3 categories of money? Why is one item categorized in M1 for example and not in M3? How are these classifications helpful to the Federal Reserve Board?

Did the money supply article answer your questions? Tempshill 19:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, PA

How many times has the dome been opened in the history of the arena?

Means for breaking "the fourth wall" in plays

Hi! I am writing an essay on "The Skin Of Our Teeth" and "The Glass Menagerie." I have chosen the topic of breaking the fourth wall in each play. I have said that the authors have broken the wall by directly addressing the audience in their plays, by changing the scenary, by projection of screen images, by reminding the viewers that they are seeing a play.

My question is if I can say that symbolism is also a mean that the authors use to break the fourth wall, because sometimes symbolism helps the playwright better convey the central aims of his play.

I would appreciate it if you can help me.

Thank you!

P.S.: From reading the rules I did not fully understand how you would respond to my question, that is why I am giving you my e-mail.

mariayten -at- yahoo.com

Once again, thank you!

username: Mariayten

• Elena *

Symbolism has been used as such many times. It can be something as simple as the line, "All the world is a stage and all the men and women are merely players." This is funny only because it is said by a player on a stage - which reminds the audience that it is a play. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Question regarding Henry VIII

Karl Marx, in The German Ideology, states: "These vagabonds, who were so numerous that, for instance, Henry VIII of England had 72,000 of them hanged..." Is this true? Where can I find more information? --Tothebarricades 19:42, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

PATRIOT expiration

According to the articel here on the PATRIOT Act, the sunsetting parts expire tomorrow. Is that true, or does an update need to be made? I'm wondering because I've heard nothing about this act expiring or efforts to renew it past it's current extention from other people, media sources, etc. 68.39.174.238 20:37, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

It was true, however the US House of Representatives voted today to extend it until March 10th to allow further time for negotiating the terms of a renewed act. As of right now, the extension still has to be approved by the Senate. LarryMac 21:08, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Yearrgh! SOO close! It looks like it goes by a month and some @ a time... 68.39.174.238 22:41, 2 February 2006 (UTC) PS. I wonder what the final version'll be ;)

The final version will not be much different than it is now. The primary problem with the Patriot Act is that nearly everything ever reported or told about it is untrue. For example, CNN ran a story this morning that the Patriot Act was going to expire. It made no mention of the Sunset Provisions. So, the story was untrue. There are also many stories about the "Terrorism Law" (aka the USA PATRIOT Act) being used for non-terrorism investigations. It is untrue that it is a terrorism law. It frustrates me because there is so much to dislike about the Patriot Act, but what most people dislike about it are things that are not true - such as the common claim that it allows ANYONE in the government to snoop your library records at ANY time for ANY reason without any court oversight of any kind. There isn't a bit of truth to that, but I hear it over and over and over. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:44, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Medieval Hierarchy

Hello, Wikipedia People!

Sorry if I'm not doing this right, but I just want to ask; What was the medieval hierarchy of lords and counts and everything (Is a duke more powerful than a count, or vice versa)? Was the queen even on the hierarchy? Really, really sorry if I have stuffed this up somehow, and I'm pretty sure I have. P.S. Great website. --210.86.106.100 20:58, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Check British_peerage#Ranks, which seems to have the list (Starting with the duke, who'se the highest). The Queen's the "Font of honor", but that may or may not answer your question. 68.39.174.238 21:07, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

It's actually fount of honour. JackofOz 21:51, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

It's not quite pertinent for the Medieval time period, as it concerns only British titles in a peerage system that has been considerably changed and codified since then. As always, power came from having a big army and productive territories. Sometimes titles corresponded to that reality, and sometimes not. - Nunh-huh 21:25, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Crap, missed that one. 68.39.174.238 22:40, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

• Seems Nunh-huh was faster at conveying the gist of what I was going to say, but I'll go ahead anyway. See Feudalism. 'lord' is any noble. In Britain it can also be someone who is the owner of a stately home. In general you can't really say "This is what the feudal heirarchy was" because it varied quite a lot from country to country. Most European monarchies had systems of peerage similar to England's after the middle ages, but they were not always rooted in a feodal system like England's. The same title could also mean quite different things, see for instance the shifting meanings of Earl, Voivod and Ban. --BluePlatypus 21:45, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Apollo's hooker girlfriend in Battlestar Galatica

I am watching season 2 episode 14 right now and I am wondering if I missed an episode because Apollo's hooker girlfriend seem to have came out of no where with a long back story attached. Was this just poor writing?

Are there any good news websites which can tell me indepth about something

I'm looking for a good news website which will tell me about something, and describe it in detail. Like tell me what is happeneing in Iraq right now, and tell me what the political parties in iraq are, and who is doing what, and will give me a primer, or an overview. If it's brief, it would be even better. Also, are there any websites, which give brief news, like really, really brief? Thanks Wikipedians!

If you want background context to the news, Wikipedia itself is a pretty good place to start. --Robert Merkel 23:46, 2 February 2006 (UTC)