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February 9

Which australian city acted as australia's national capital until the founding of canberra in 1927?

Marvellous Melbourne. JackofOz 01:48, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Was Mel borne in Melbourne ? Apparently not. StuRat 21:20, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And neither was he born there. JackofOz 21:48, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Humanities- Law

Hi, I was wondering if you could please possibly explain to me what a statutory authority is. Thank-you for taking the time to read and research this for me.

jade155.143.220.138 03:39, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You'll have to do the reading and research for yourself. A good place to start is Statutory law. --Halcatalyst 03:54, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That article addresses "authority" in the sense of a proof for a particular proposition. ("Section 1411 of the statute is authority for concluding that assumption of risk is not a complete defense to a negligence action.") There's also "authority" in the sense of an entity -- a creation of government that's somewhat similar to a regular agency but also differs in some ways. If, as is often the case, such an authority is set up by a statute, then you could call it a statutory authority. We allude to this concept in the Public Authority article, but it's essentially a stub and won't help you much. JamesMLane t c 07:30, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is the military unit called the Nigrelli Regiment?

I have long tried to find more information on The Nigrelli Regiment as discovered in a search of my Family name" NIGRELLI" . It came up in the following response to a Search "Knötel's Austrian Army of the 18th and 19th Centuries 4 Musicians of Infantry of the 18th Century, Fifer of the Deutschmeister Regiment, Drummer of the Regiment Nigrelli KA- 5 Infantry Regiment Graf Brown ...

http://www.uniformology.com/KnotelsAustrianArmy.html". I have not been able to find out any more info.

I wonder if any of your researchers have access to more detailed historical information than I seem to be able to get my hands on. Thank You so Much for all your future efforts , sincerely Dennis Nigrelli. Good Luck

You've posted the same question three times in the same week. You're not going to get answers faster that way. Either people know or they don't. I'll give you a hint: Count Octavio Nigrelli. --BluePlatypus 07:35, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Occupation Rullyman

What is a rullyman.? This occupation appears from time to time in the 1901 census in England.I have tried all the usual points of reference without success. The term is used on its own or sometimes to specify another occupation more specifically, e.g.grocer's rullyman. It is possible that this might be local to Yorkshire and the East Riding and Hull in particular, as my Google search throws up directory entries from this area. 84.51.157.186 06:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This page gives 'rully' as slang for 'lorry' in Hartlepool, so your guess it's a northeastern term seems correct. In any case a 'rullyman' is thus a lorry driver. --BluePlatypus 06:51, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks this is a great help. Must remember in future to breakdown a word into seperate components when doing a search that is otherwise proving elusive. 84.51.157.186 08:19, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sexual Timeline by pinkyblonde

Can Youpost this under "History by Topc? for me?

Sexual Timeline


 1662 -- Quakers formed in England. US Quakers make significant contributions to abolition and suffrage movements.

 1760 to 1820 – beginning of Industrial Revolution. Prior to this period, birth control methods were condoms, douches and certain herbs.

 1790 -- New Jersey grants the vote “to all free inhabitants”.

 1807 – NJ women lose the vote.

 1838 – Publication of books in opposition to slavery and in support of suffrage.

 1839 – invention of rubber vulcanization. Birth control methods included rubber condoms, IUDs, vaginal sponges, diaphragms and cervical caps. 1930 to 1960, these methods were declared illegal.

 1848 – suffrage convention is Seneca Falls, NY publishes “Declaration of Sentiments”

 1850 -- 1st Women’s Rights Convention held at Worchester, Massachusetts.


 1852 -- ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published.

 1854 -- Massachusetts grants property rights to women.

 1861 – 1865. The Civil War.

 1865 – adoption of the 13th Amendment, prohibiting slavery.

 1866 -- Merger of abolition and suffrage movements.

 1867 – women lose suffrage in Washington and Utah by action of the Supreme Court.

 1868 -- 14th Amendment adopted. Due process and equal protection.

 1869 – territory of Wyoming grants women suffrage.

 1870 – 15th Amendment adopted. Right to vote regardless of sex, color or creed. Woman are continued to be denied the vote.

 1870 – territory of Utah grants women suffrage.

 1873 – Comstock Law declares birth control illegal.

 1883 – territory of Washington grants women suffrage.

 1893 – state of Colorado grants women suffrage.

 1900’s – women’s movement endorses contraception.

 1909 – 20,000 women unionists strike garment industry; unionists merge with suffragists.

 1910 – territory of Washington grants women full enfranchisement.

 1911 – California grants women suffrage.

 1912 – territory/state of Alaska and Kansas grant women suffrage.

 1914 – Nevada & Montana enfranchise women.

 1917 to 1918 -- WW I

 1918 – Condoms become legal.

 1917 -- state of New York enfranchises women.

 1919 – Michigan, Oklahoma and South Dakota grant women suffrage.

 1919 – 18th Amendment adopted; Prohibition.

 1920 – 19th Amendment adopted, granting women suffrage in the US.

 1930 to 1960 -- Birth control methods included rubber condoms, IUDs, vaginal sponges, diaphragms and cervical caps. From 1930 to 1960, these methods were declared illegal.

 1933 – adoption of 21st Amendment; Repeal of Prohibition.

 1960 era – Rhythm Method misconstrues a woman’s fertility, and fails as birth control.

 1960 – approval of first birth control pill.

 1970 – approval of Dalkon Shield IUD.

 1973 – decision of Roe v. Wade, approving abortion as legal.

 1975 – recall of Dalkon Shield due to pregnancy-related deaths.

Thank You.

What? DirkvdM 09:23, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Erm, it seems that pinkyblonde has created a timeline of sexual topics, and wants us to post it to the relevant article.
Pinkyblonde, Wikipedia is a wiki; anyone (even you!) can edit any page by clicking the "Edit this Page" button at the top. If you want to create a new article, you need to create an account first (see Wikipedia:Accounts). — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:32, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Doesn't seem to have much to do with sex. I'd expect a sexual timeline to have things like "capital punishment for homosexual acts abolished in Lithuania" or "Missionary position invented". This timeline may be important, but isn't it more to do with women's and reproductive rights (with bits of slavery) than sex, with a heavy and unstated US bias? Notinasnaid 10:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's not a bias, it's specifically about the US. So as long as that is stated, there's no bias. Weird list, although there are some interresting bits in it. Contraceptives were illegal in the USA from 1930 to 1960? That's even weirder than prohibition. Most things would require an explanation, though (or a link), such as the last one. And indeed it's not about sex/ I'm not sure what it is about. It's a semi-random mix of issues. DirkvdM 18:13, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It is US bias. If an article is specifically about the US, the title should reflect that and not appear as if it is timeline about sex-related events worldwide. - Mgm|(talk) 08:32, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think they meant "sex" as in gender, not as in sexual activities. Perhaps "female issues" timeline would be a better name ? StuRat 19:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
How about United States history of female issues. - Mgm|(talk) 08:32, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"I was all in favor of women's suffrage...until I found out it just meant the right to vote." StuRat 19:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to point out that the start of Qukaerism (the first entry in this list) is, when given a specific year is usually given as 1652, not 62. -- AJR | Talk 23:55, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Just update History of feminism. But its roots can be found as far as you wish, e.g., during the Crusades, women did acquire sustancial rights due to the departing of men to Palestine. --DLL 11:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Moral Decline?

I've heard some Christians say that there is alot more crime,sin, and immorality nowadays in our modern society than in the past.Is that true?

(If you believe in the Bible, read Matthew Chapter 24 and 2 Timothy Chapter 3 in the Bible and tell me if you think it's talking about about our modern world.)Bowei 08:29, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's true that some christians say that. --BluePlatypus 08:46, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No.You've misunderstood what I've asked.I asked "Is it true that there is alot more crime,sin, and immorality..." NOT "Is it true that some Christians say that?"Bowei 09:08, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I gave you the answer I felt you deserve. You've been warned to not use the Reference Desk for your religious proselytizations. You aren't asking straight questions so why give straight answers. Take your religious discussions elsewhere, this page is for questions and answers. --BluePlatypus 10:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Crime is declining in America and the industrialized world in general (though U.S. crime rates remain high relative to peer countries). As of now, crime rates are about as low as they were 30 to 35 years ago. Sin and immorality are concepts generally viewed from the relative standpoint of religion, and I don't think there's a schema that can evaluate whether there's more of them. Marskell 09:20, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Same questions, identical references on Feb. 5 ...
What can we say ? That the Bible does not give answers to all ? That truth is is the eye or the beholder ?
Did Paul imagine our great disasters ? Good luck trying to prove something about the destiny of our world. Keep hope, people told everything was bad centuries ago (it was bad for them too : they died). --DLL 09:25, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Impossible to tell for a large number of reasons. Here are just a couple. 1) crime is probably more reported now than ever, so it appears there's more of it. Also, news is virtually instantaneous and global, so we know more and more about what happens worldwide. Both of these things make us more aware of "crime, sin and immorality". 2) what is defined as crime, sin and immorality varies over time. Some countries have move towards a more puritanical moral stance at times, and as such, to the eyes of many who live there, more things can be regarded as immoral. At other times in history, those same countries become more lax in their moral code, and as such, the list of things that seem immoral drops. At the moment, one or two of the most vocal societies in the world are in a very moralistic part of their history, and as such, "sin" appears to have increased. All in all, I would be tempted to say that immorality, crime, and sin have remained pretty constant throughout human history, and will continue to remain so as long as humans exist. It is only the moral stance of a number of people which have moved towards the rigidly puritanical in recent years that makes it seem like there is an increase. Grutness...wha? 09:32, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, and I forgot to comment on the chapters from Matthew and 2 Timothy. Yes, they do sound like the modern world. And also the early reformation. And the renaissance. And the later years of the Roman Empire. And the Victorian era. It also accurately describes people as they are described in much of the Old Testament. And - people being what they are - probably very much like humans will be in a few hundred years time. Grutness...wha? 12:20, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
After edit conflict:
What constitutes sin and (im)morality is pretty much determined by the culture you're in, so that's circular. What constitutes crime is a bit more objective. Murder, for example, is bad in all societies, but I doubt there has been little change over time in the amount of murders per capita. Just read the Bible you seem to have and see how much murder there was back then. If you believe in that, that is. Or read any other historical or history book. I'm rather inclined to believe the opposite is true. In the Netherlands about 200 murders take place per year. It won't be too long ago that the population was 1/200 of what it is now. Was there just one murder per year then? I doubt it. Alas, I haven't managed to find real info on this, but I'd say the amount of murders is a good indicator. DirkvdM 09:51, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, you say you've heard some christians say that. I hear christians say loads of things, but when I quote them it is genrally not as christians. So they said it as christians. Which instantly, literally, brings us in the realm of belief, not fact. And that is always the end of that, beacuse you can't argue with belief. There are no arguments for or against that. DirkvdM 09:57, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
When it comes to issues of sexual morality, I suggest you might want to have a look at the diary of Samuel Pepys which gives an insight into the sexual escapades of men in the Restoration. What people were actually doing and what they claimed to be doing were two very different things, and it's probably always been so. --Robert Merkel 11:12, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I just want to repeat this so it doesn't get lost as a "hard to tell" point: crime is declining, at least recently, and at least in the United States. It's been declining for a decade and as noted is at the same level (in absolute terms) as it was 30 years ago. Check this from the census bureau [1]. As one example, a drop from 10.2 murders per hundred thousand in 1980 to 5.6 in 2002. Marskell 12:29, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's declining and at the same level as 30 years ago? That sounds like a contradiction, unless the statement is that it had risen in the 1980's (the era of Reagan and Thatcher - sounds credible). But the question is really about a much larger timescale. You're talking about decades, I was talking about centuries. But the reference to the bible suggests we should be thinking about milennea. Which is impossible. How does one compare periods and cultures fso far apart? Even if there were statistics on the old periods, a comparison would be quite impossible. And I'm just talking about murders now. Comparing mortalities is simply a matter of opinion ('belief', like I said). Of course, there were the two world wars, but after that 'peace broke out', as they say; an unprecedented amount of peace in Europe, quite unique in its history. DirkvdM 18:22, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
While I've not checked the source, here's a very quick reconciliation of the two. With the number of crimes unchanged over 30 years, and the population increasing over the same time, the crime rate has decreased. — Lomn Talk 20:22, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You said 'in absolute terms'. I'm sorry, I didn't read carefully enough. DirkvdM 06:04, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I suspect that there was less extramarital sex in biblical times, at least in places where they stoned women to death for getting pregnant out of wedlock. Of course, the same punishment might elicit the same rates now, so you can't really say people are "less moral" now, they just have less to fear. I suppose we can always elect Pat Robertson to be President of the United States, and thus find out exactly how stoning women to death for adultery affects the adultery rate, can't we ? StuRat 18:53, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Other people have done an alright job of answering your question about moral decline; it's a difficult issue at best. I want to remind you that I addressed your point about those Bible passages above when you posted them before. Please don't continue posting the same material. --George 00:31, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
StuRat, Maybe there was so much stoning going on because extramarital sex was unstoppable and they had to increase the punishment ever more. :) But you're now assuming that extramarital sex is immoral. Which is disputable. I'd rather say the stoning is immoral, but then I'm condemning another culture based on the rules of my own culture. Which is the very problem I was trying to point out above. You can't do that. Each culture has its own set of rules, consistent within itself, not with the separate rules of another culture. If only people would understand that a bit more then maybe there would be a little more peace on this Earth. DirkvdM 06:04, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's not me assuming that extramarital sex is immoral, but rather most of the world's major religions. I, on the other hand, find most of the world's major religions immoral for their acceptance of slavery, complicity in genocide, subjugation of women, treatment of children as mere property, and their usage to give power to tyrants. StuRat 10:09, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Totally with you StuRat! What a great summary! Way to stick it to those who suffer from the delusion that religion was at the forefront of the battle against slavery or that alleged atheist tyrants such as Hitler or Stalin or Mao or Kim Jong Il actually existed. ;-) DJ Clayworth 18:50, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Religion was also at the forefront of the battle for slavery, was the reason for the Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and countless other massacres/conflicts. Is it the only source of evil in the world ? No. Is it a major source of evil in the world ? Yes. Also, I believe the NAZI's had a religion of sorts, which was a mix of Christian and Norse mythology themes. StuRat 06:17, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Deutsche Christian group, among others, combined the NAZI party goals with Christianity. See their flag (with a swastika at the center of the cross) here: [2]. I suggest viewing Theologians Under Hitler for thorough coverage of the relationship between the NAZI party and Christianity: [3]. StuRat 19:49, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I notice a flaw in my reasoning. Extramarital sex is by definition immoral because marriage entails a promise to not have sex with anyone else ever again. So one shouldn't get married in the first place. So one could say that marriage is immoral because it means the denial of a natural drive. "Don't lead us into temptation." Well, don't get married then. Similarly, one could reason that religion is immoral. Take that, reli-whatevers. :) DirkvdM 12:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think the rise in questions like this one is kind of a moral decline, or perhaps an intellectual decline. User:AlMac|(talk) 20:54, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm going with the latter. Natgoo 11:59, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
To which you are now contributors. :) DirkvdM 12:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
DirkvdM, please explain how you arrive at the conclusion that marriage means the denial of a natural drive. It is a natural drive to have sex; traditionally, marriage provides virtually unlimited opportunities for that, and without any of the social srictures associated with exra-marital sex but with society's full approval. How is that a denial of the drive? I would have thought it was the very opposite. JackofOz 12:56, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the real drive is to multiply as much as possible and in the case of a man that means mating with as much women as possible because they take so bloody long to produce that offspring (no offence, ladies :) ). And ever wondered why your penis is shaped the way it is and why you do all the pumping? That's to get the sperm left behind by the previous guy out of the vagina. Think if that next time you have sex. :) Promiscuity is natural. DirkvdM 08:17, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

semi-annual white space

This space is provided for anyone to write whatever they please, intelligent or stupid, relevant or not, just to get their jollies. Limit: 100 words per person. Closing date: 10 February 2006.

Let the nonsense begin! --Halcatalyst 15:41, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Seems like the ref desks get their fair share of people writing whatever they please regardless of any specifically declared season. Of course, some do break the 100 word limit. LarryMac 15:56, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If I'm two people, do I get 200 words?  Run!  16:19, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Do you need that many words to describe your schizophrenia? DirkvdM 18:26, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"There are very few problems in this world which can't be solved by a suitable application of high explosives." - Demotion expert StuRat 18:41, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nunc iaculis, massa et porttitor commodo, magna purus dictum justo, id fringilla nulla felis sed orci. Sed pharetra sapien vel mauris tincidunt bibendum. Suspendisse facilisis ante. Phasellus est enim, venenatis posuere, consectetuer et, pharetra ac, tellus. Nunc fringilla ipsum sit amet risus. Fusce consequat. Vivamus tincidunt ultricies nunc. Duis facilisis nisl. Ut suscipit sapien. Cras lectus enim, molestie sed, adipiscing eget, adipiscing vitae, arcu. Etiam nibh lectus, nonummy id, tincidunt a, commodo vitae, felis. In ante ipsum, tempor et, posuere vel, malesuada at, pede. Curabitur ullamcorper neque id lorem. Etiam et tortor. --BluePlatypus 20:06, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bravo! --LarryMac 20:50, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
File:Cowbell2.gif

Ok, lets see how much it's possible to concentrate into a few words.

This Reference Desk has a fever. And the only prescription is...More Cowbell!


Yep, that should do it. Shame the marquee tag is disabled on Wiki :).GeeJo (t) (c) • 20:54, 9 February 2006 (UTC)~[reply]

DirkvdM- schizophrenia isn't mpd. Black Carrot 02:09, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have nothing to say, and I'm saying it. JackofOz 02:32, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm inspired to write a Limerick,
For it's the perfect nonsensical gimmick-ik.
Will it rhyme in the end?
We could all just pretend.
Or we could all say shucks! ...oops, I meant fiddlesticks!
-LambaJan 02:48, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

§§§ Why didn't Hitler invade Switzerland??? --Halcatalyst 03:08, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The answer can clearly be found in the New Testament if you read it carefully enough. Which only goes to show that things are more like they used to be than they are now. Grutness...wha? 04:44, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I laughed out loud. Thank you both. :-) Jwrosenzweig 06:36, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've changed my mind, and I still have 191 words left, so here goes. Slonimsky's definition of sesquipedelian macropolysyllabification is: Quaquaversal lucubration about pervicacious torosity and diverticular prosiliency in diatonic formication and chromatic papulation, engendering carotic carmination and decubital nyctalopia, causing borborygmic susurration, teratological urticulation, macroptic dysmimia, bregmatic obstipation, crassamental quisquiliousness, hircinous olophonia and unflexanimous luxation, often produce volmerine cacumination and mitotic ramuliferousness leading to operculate onagerosity and testaceous favillousness, as well as faucal obsonation, paralellepipedal psellismus, pigritudinous mysophia, cimicidal conspurcation, mollitious deglutition and cephalotripsical stultitiousness, resulting despite Hesychastic omphaloskepsis, in epenetic opisthography, boustrophedonic malacology, lampadodromic evagination, chartulary cadastration, merognostic heautotimerousness, favaginous moliminosity, fatiscent operosity, temulencious libration and otological oscininity, aggravated by tardigrade inturgescence, nucamentacious oliguria, emunctory sternutation, veneficial pediculation, fremescent dyskinesia, hispidinous cynanthropy, torminal opitulation, crapulous vellication, hippuric rhinodynia, dyspneic nimiety and favillous erethism, and culminating in opisthographic inconcinnity, scotophiliac lipothymia, banausic rhinorrhea, dehiscent fasciculation, oncological vomiturition, nevoid paludality, exomphalic invultuation, mysophiliac excrementatiousness, flagitious dysphoria, lipogrammatic bradygraphy, orectic aprosexia, parataxic parorexia, lucubicidal notation, permutational paronomasia, rhonchial fremitus, specular subsaltation, crapulous crepitation, ithyphallic acervation, procephalic dyscrasia, volitional volitation, piscine dermatology, proleptic pistology, verrucous alopecia, hendecaphonic combinatoriality, microaerophilic pandiculation and quasihemidemisemibreviate illation. JackofOz 07:00, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  1. Said Yes To Drugs
  2. Puberty is a Disease State
  3. You Must Be This Tall to Ride the Wikipedia
  4. I'd Rather Be Sleeping
  5. Life Is a Waste of Money
  6. The Pathetic fallacy Wants You.

Geogre 18:45, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I heard in the discovery channel that the bible (especially read : Matthew Chapter 24 and 2 Timothy Chapter 3) predicted a downfall of the world's economy in 2002...has this any truth to it? and what did Gödel think about this? --DLL 20:36, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the world did end in 2002, but it was reconstituted in toto in the time it took light to travel the Planck length. Gödel issued an incomplete statement about the event, but Bertrand Russell agreed with it in principle. Douglas Hofstadter, uncharateristically, was mute. --Halcatalyst 00:10, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Copyrights: Image to be used in ad

I just received an email from someone asking me if they could put my Photo booth image in an ad for their store. Since the guy was nice enough to email, I doubt he would use it without my permission, but I just want to check something: The image is dual-lisenced GFDL and CC-by-sa. Is there any way that I could order someone not to use it in an ad? My initial guess is that if I wanted to stop something like this I ought to have put a non-profit tag on it. Am I right? — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 20:44, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • If you've licensed it as GFDL or CC-BY-SA then no, you can't stop them from using it in an ad (at least not for any reason having to do with copyrights) so long as they abide by the terms in those licenses and technically you're not even supposed to be able to change the licenses after you've released it as such. --Fastfission 21:22, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That said, having a prominent copyright notice in an advertisement is not likely to be popular with advertisers, so I don't expect wide use of Wikipedia images in that way. --Robert Merkel 23:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This copyright shit is driving me nuts. I've licensed my photos as cc-by, assuming that my name would hae to be printed alongside each photo. But then when I saw a site that didn't do that and wrote them, they said that my name would pop up on mouse-over. True, but that's not what I was thinking of. And the photo is embedded in a top bar, not looking like a separate photo. Now who is going to mouse-over over that? DirkvdM 06:26, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the license states that the credit has to "appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit." so it may actually be a license violation. On the other hand, there's nothing stopping you from using a more specific license. This is what lawyers are for: Making sure that what you are thinking of is actually what most people and a court would think of. (So they do have their uses.) --BluePlatypus 17:56, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 10

Finding Movies

I've been having trouble finding a copy of Tales from the Far Side and Tales from the Far Side II. About the best I've found is one on the English amazon.com (I had no idea there even was one) that isn't compatible with my VCR. Does anyone have suggestions? Black Carrot 03:29, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you're in America and hence use the NTSC video system, I can see two options:
  1. Buy a dual NTSC/PAL VCR - they are cheap(ish) over here (the UK), don't know how expensive they are over there!
  2. Get a friend in the UK to transfer it to an electronic copy, (convert to DVD or another digital video format) and mail both two you - I am not sure if that's illegal (IANAL!), but it would be a backup (assuming (s)he doesn't retain the copy), fair use?
Sorry if that's not useful, best I can think of, will reply if I think of anything else! --Lox (t,c) 09:22, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Several camera/video stores can perform a transfer. You have a licensed copy, and you can transfer it. I think this is not considered copying. You should call some and make sure they are able. Beyond that, university libraries will definitely have players that can handle that zone, if you're near a college town. Geogre 11:37, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it's considered copying, but it's not usually considered copyright infringement. In most places making a copy of something you own for personal use is within the doctrine of 'fair use'. I hardly think anyone has ever been fined for copying a CD to cassette for playing in their car. --BluePlatypus 17:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try transferring things around or buying a new VCR if I can't find another way, but I'd rather just find a copy that started out in NTSC format. Does anyone know where I could find one? Black Carrot 20:04, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Playing music over public address system - Copyright infringement?

At our high school in Canada, it has been a custom to play popular music over the PA system shorty before the school day begins- mainly as a cue to tell students to get to class. Recently the school board has stopped this practice, claiming it is copyright infringement. The music is generally played off of purchased CDs and normally only about 5 minutes of music is played. I suppose they have merit to the argument, but is this really copyright infringement? Thanks for any input :) Mrtea (talk) 05:53, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but I think that technically it might be copyright infringement if your school does not have a license for public performance (it should have one if your school has a drama or musical society, film club or disco). However, I think it's very unlikely that your school will be prosecuted for playing five minutes of music once a day. Someone with more knowledge of performance laws might be able to give you a better answer. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:01, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
yes, it is. The license on the CD only qualifies you to use it for personal use, it doesn't qualify you to play it in a club, or in a school, or mix it into your hot new dance single. My college was recently threatened by Swank Motion Pictures, a company that you've probably never heard of but plays a rather important role of licensing virtually all public performances of films from major studios outside of theaters. That warning at the beginning of a movie that says it is licensed only for private, in-home performance means exactly that, you're not licensed to play it in public, and CDs are no different. They could be exposing themselves to legal liabilty if they violated the license in that way. Night Gyr 09:15, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you are a department store, for example, I believe you have to have a license for the 'music' that you play to keep your customers happy. This is why most department stores play cheesy covers of popular songs (rather than the originals) which they can license cheaply. DJ Clayworth 18:45, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the late "thank you." The responses are appreciated :) Mrtea (talk) 18:05, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

the title of a song

this song i heard has almost the same tune as that of "Uninvited" by Alanis Morisette for the first few beats. yet this is not a rock but a pop (maybe a ballad) and has a bit slower rhythm. from the sound of the tunes, it can't be anything that came out recently or even in the late 90's. can anyone figure out what this song is? oh, i heard this song featured in a TV commercial (don't remember which one, tho). please let me know. Thanks! --hoodbuster

Can you remember any of the lyrics? Click "edit" on the right handside of the heading to answer. - Akamad 14:00, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Prohibition+Constitutional Law

why was it necessary to make prohibition an amendment to the constitution? (as opposed to just a law)

e.g., was there something in the constitution to prevent congress from passing laws on alcohol? and what's the difference with today's laws and regulations that make all kinds of drugs "probited" even worse: the alcohol prohibition was only manufacture, sale, and transportation. we now outlaw possession,too. how can we do this, but not be able to prohibit alcohol? hmmm... --70.181.177.72 06:35, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know the answer, but just want to add that you are presumably talking about the United States. StuRat 08:43, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The subjects on which Congress is allowed to legislate are listed in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, and the 10th Amendment made it explicit that all other powers fall under state jurisdiction. You can certainly find people willing to argue that U.S. laws such as Controlled Substances Act are unconstitutional and that the need for an 18th Amendment for alcohol prohibition demonstrates the point. Evidently the U.S. Supreme Court disagrees. --Anonymous, 09:02 UTC, February 10.

Congress is limited by the commerce clause, which says that all domestic legislation must relate some how to "interstate commerce" because a complete ban on alchohol might not be considered as relating to interstate commerce, a new amendment had to be passed.

Once a big fan of the "Arthur" cartoons, what if a real 3rd grader stays the same age like him?

The first "Arthur" book (for more info, see Arthur (TV Series)) was made in 1976, eventually made its way onto the air, and is still going strong to this day. Arthur never grows up.

So (and I've been wondering this for a while), if a 3rd grader, in real life, somehow got a disease which ONLY caused him to never physically grow beyond an 8-9 year-old's body, what could/would happen after the doctor concludes that he'll stay this way for life, and how could he cope with it for the rest of his days? (Although his life could be theoretically infinite in this case, as he'll never reach the frailty and medical vulnerability of old age...) --Shultz 07:14, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think there are conditions that cause delayed puberty. Presumably if this happened forever, with no other problems, he would finish his schooling, get a job, learn to drive, etc., and otherwise lead a normal life. Finding a g/f or wife might be a problem, since not many women would want to date someone who looks like a kid. He would also need to carry a doctor's note for policemen who pull him over to hassle him. I don't think his life span would be all that much longer. First, a delay in the onset of puberty does not seem to mean a delay in the onset of old age, as those two things use different timing mechanisms (see this telomere articles for one old age timing mechanism [4]). And, old age is also due to accumulated poisons (like trans-fatty acids) and cell damage (like ultra-violet light damage). StuRat 07:57, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Interestingly, most cartoons feature non-aging characters. Aging characters present a challenge to the illustrator, as they need to periodically revise the appearance, and can lose their fan base, who tend to like characters that never change. There are a few exceptions. The newspaper cartoon Luanne's [5] characters appear to have aged at a very slow rate, then stopped, while the newspaper cartoon For Better of For Worse [6] has characters aging at the normal rate. StuRat 08:36, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, those sorts of issues can lead to a whole other set of problems. The longer you have your baby teeth, the more they will wear down, and eventually will become painful. Joint problems are also more likely, as well as a higher likelihood of repetitive stress injuries. Other injuries are also likely, as the world in general is not really designed for a person who's still physically a child, just as one's body isn't meant to remain a child forever. There are also certain cognitive changes that happen at puberty; even an extremely intelligent child may get confused around adults, although a kid may not be less capable on the whole, the actual results with the same mental hardware will differ. A child that outlives his parents and still remains a child (though legally an adult) might also face other problems.. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 08:50, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What other problems, Rhymeless?
By the way, whoever said about accumulated poisons and UV lights, assume this diseases renders the child impervious to it. Maybe this disease was concocted by an eccentric scientist. About children's teeth, assume this disease makes them automatically grow back each time. --Shultz 22:28, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, if you are interested in a fictional case of boys who stay young forever, try reading Peter Pan. As I recall, they enjoyed being kids, but, at the same time, there was a certain sadness at never knowing what it's like to grow up. StuRat 05:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There was a documentary on the Beeb about this recently. A man with some sort of genetic disorder didn't produce testosterone, which meant that he looked/sounded/developed as though he was ~12 when he was 30, had a course of testosterone injections, with startling results. smurrayinchester(User), (Talk) 16:21, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Whoa, I'd like to read more about that documentary! Where can I find more info about it?? --Shultz 05:14, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Blasphemy

I saw something on NIGHTLINE two nights ago on blasphemy and they quoted some SCOTUS case from 1952 or something. Can someone look this up for me at the ABC site? I can't access it for some reason. --Blue387 09:11, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • This might be the 1952 case you looking for ... is it Ok to urinate on the image of Christ? http://www.aclu.org/scotus/1997/22767lgl19980206.html
  • http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/
  • ABC on the Danish Cartoons that have a microscopic portion of the Islamic world in an uproar, being treated by the news media like Armageddon is at hand from the Muslim street protestor gangs. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1569192
  • ABC on other news media of Europe reprinting the cartoons because freedom of the press is more important than respecting the sensibilities of people who see nothing wrong with doing the same kind of stuff when the topic is Jews. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1565688
  • My personal opinion is that everywhere in the world there are people who have nothing better to do that cause mischef.
    • There are people who know that attacks on religion are asking for trouble from true believers, but they do it anyway.
    • There are people who know some true believers can easily be fomented to get into these riots, so they publicize what was done in another country, make up some cartoons that are worse than the ones originally printed, and pass them off as part of the same collection. They are trying to recruit people to serve the cause of anti-Western sentiment.
    • The answer here is to teach the religious fundamentalism about secular freedoms, and at the same time review the laws on libel and hate, to see if any adjustments are needed to block this parallel to shouting fire in a crowded theatre, or hi (to my friend) Jack, on an airplane.
  • Also I think that people who burn the Christian Cross are in some way also attacking the Church, because the cross is kind of sacred, although they act like the attack is only racial.

User:AlMac|(talk) 09:50, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • There doesn't seem to be anything about the SCOTUS case in those articles though, although I'm pretty sure it's Burstyn v. Wilson. --BluePlatypus 09:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • Yes, it turned out to be Burstyn v. Wilson: "It is not the business of government in our nation to suppress real or imagined attacks upon a particular religious doctrine, whether they appear in publications, speeches, or motion pictures." --Blue387 17:13, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese energy security

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I can find some information on China's search for energy resources abroad, specifically on its increasing ties with the developing world? It is a homework question, sort of, since I am asking for sources for a short paper, but the help would be appreciated. --Impaciente 09:16, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know if this is the sort of thing you are looking for, but I happen to have recently read a few partially related online news articles:
I hope this helps. Pissant 13:39, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Research in Mayan culture

What is the status of current resaerch in Mayan culture? --HappyCamper 13:02, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is a lot and its ongoing. Is there a specific question? (The oldest copy of the Popol Vuh is being digitized at the Newberry Library[7], the oldest known writing in Mayan was recently discovered[8], dated to 3rd century BC, the oldest known Mayan mural has recently been uncovered[9], etc.) Rmhermen 17:50, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not only that but, contrary to popular belief, Mayan culture never totally disappeared. You can read about the ~six million living Maya peoples. --Halcatalyst 23:59, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding eye-strain while using a computer

Is there any eyeglass available specifically used when seeing a computer? (Is there any special glass which can be used while using a computer?)

What is the name of that glass?

Can we use sunglass while using a computer? Or would a Anti-reflective coating glass be of any use?

Please don't post your question in more than one board (see the rules at the top of the page) - it only irritates the volunteers who dedicate their free time to answering it. For answers to your question, check the Science Desk. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:28, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Becoming irritated but not yet biting newcomers we desk jedi are (did you try just using your eye on something else than a comp screen). --DLL 19:36, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Tell your supplier of eye glasses what is the normal distance you sit from the computer screen. You can get prescription optimized for that distance.
  • Place your overhead lighting so as to minimize glare and interference.
  • Clean the monitor regularly (no dust there).
  • When buying replacement monitor, very carefuly self-educate yourselv about resolution, and seek one in which there is as little flicker as practical. The bigger the better, and go beyond SVGA.
  • There's other stuff that can be done, but it is generally too expensive for the average consumer.

User:AlMac|(talk) 21:00, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Liking Songs

Why is it that with some songs, you can listen to them once and like them almost immediately, but with other songs you have to listen multiple times before liking them? --Reperire 16:52, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes it's because other people said they liked it. See new research. Rmhermen 17:37, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also simpler songs have choruses that are picked up on right away, whereas other songs have maybe no chorus (or discernible melody) at first, because they are more complex --PopUpPirate 21:19, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There are certain cadences that have been found to be likable, and thus transmitted over several generations in the form of folk songs and other shared music. It's precisely a level of simplicity that keeps it accessable. This is also something that's pretty universal. Most cultures have a body of music that's transmitted from one generation to the next, to youth, that is often found to be pleasant, if foreign, to the uninitiated. Songs you instantly like are most likely ones that have these qualities, or ones that have similar qualities to less accessable songs that you already brought yourself to like. -LambaJan 17:27, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

sociology( education and develoment)

currently i am working on a research paper for my sociology major and i need your help. my hypothesis is " Education is the most critical factor in the shift from underdevelopment" and the topic is "Education and Development" this paper must have a sociological foundation ofcourse and requires insite on the plight of third world countries. particularly the caribbean (west Indies) could u be of any assistance and forward whatever infomation that is relavant to this topic i would greatly appreciate that.

thank you and may god bless u richly for ur knowledge

Start with our page on Critical pedagogy, and then go and get yourself a copy of Paulo Friere's seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I'm a bit out of touch with recent theoretical developments in the field, but a search through your uni library's catalogue for 'education and underdevelopment', 'sociology of development', 'caribbean underdevelopment' etc would be a good start. Google might even be of assistance! Natgoo 20:14, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tobacco smoke as product placement in films

Dispite their promises not to, tobacco and film production companies are showing more and more sceenes with popular actors smoking. Now, I'm not surprised at their attempts, but what I can't figure out is why they are not being forced to comply with new legislation and the contracts they signed.

Especially, they are increasingly targeting minors. Something like 75% of movies made for the 13 to 18 year old age group have casual smoking sceenes. Even recently produced Disney movies! It makes artistic sense to have smoking in a gangster film, sure. But I have seen many very obviously contrived sceenes, very obvious tobacco advertising, inserted into kids movies. That's patently illegal. It is strictly illegal for tobacco companies to use paid product placement in any movie.

But if it is truly uncompensated, how are the tobacco companies convincing the production companies to do it? And if it is compensated, how could they possibly get so many people to to shut up?

There is not much mention of this in the general media. Some, yes, but not much at all. We hear lots about the health effects of smoking from non-profit organizations like the American Heart Association, but hardly a whisper about tobacco advertising in movies. Why? Do any of the tobacco giants own any of the major media companies. I'm not being facetious, here, or even simply rhetorical. Honestly could that be part of it?

More - how do these corporations con otherwise socially responsible actors like Julia Roberts and Sean Penn to perform as such incredibly damaging role models? Directors can tell minor or suporting actors to smoke for the camera, but a star can easily refuse the script. Don't very famous celebrities care abgout their millions of fans? Since they smoke so publicly, so normally, in movies, why are they so quiet about tobacco use in interviews and other situations outside of the studio? Even as smokers in their private lives, full well knowing what they are doing, why would they voluntarily assist in this enormous scheme unless they are actually being somehow rewarded?

Now I know this doesn't sound much like a question anymore. But honestly, it is more than just my rant. I genuinely can't figure out how all these people are able to so blatantly get away with this. I'm amazed. Any theories, anyone? --- Leah

I don't really understand your question - some people smoke in real life, so in order for films to realistically portray people, some of them will be smoking. This is particularly true given the types of characterisations we tend to see in films - social misfits, bad guys, gangsters, etc. Smoking is still accepted in all other major arenas of film production, why should Hollywood have to limit the ways it portrays life? Kids see people smoking in real life, too - I'm sure some of them even smoke themselves. If you have a specific complaint to make about a breach of the law, can you report it to someone at the MPAA (or does the US have some sort of communications ombudsman-type office)? Natgoo 20:23, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My clarification of my question is this: Is it plausible that the tobacco companies are playing absolutely NO role in the undeniable, yet dramatic increase in on screen smoking, particularly in movies made for teanagers? What you are refering to is, I think, artistic license, which I've addressed in the original question. What I'm really asking about is the suspicious look of paid advertising. Most kids do know what smoking is of course, but unless a parent smokes, the image is not frequently displayed by a role model. How often does a kid actually see their school teacher smoking? Also, actors smoking in movies, impress tens of thousands of people with each exhalation. A stranger seen in smoking public outside the 7-11, is not any where near as influential as a Hollywood star, and certainly not seen, in each instance, by thousands of people.

It is against the law for US tobacco companies to pay US production companies to show smoking on screen. If the tobacco companies are not compensating the film makers, then why do the film makers include so many tobacco usage images, in unappropriate contexts in films (not plausably explainable as "artistic license")?

Again, I'm not really understanding - has there been an undeniable, dramatic increase in on-screen smoking? If so, it's not at all evident to me (but I haven't sat down and counted each instance of smoking in Hollywood films - perhaps you have? Or do you have some verifiable evidence to support your claim?). I just don't think it's as insidious/ conspiratorial as what you make it out to be - most instances of smoking on film most likely occur when the director/scriptwriter/actor feels it suits the scene (or when the actor wants a cigarette :). As I said in my response above, if you have a specific complaint about a breach of the law, report it. Otherwise, product placement in general is only going to increase in films and visual broadcast media as people restrict their access to advertising through the more traditional means - it's just something else we'll become inured to over time (if we're not already). Natgoo 22:11, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you are not understanding my question. Yes, some people, but not me, count smoking sceenes in all sorts of movies, and even count how many of each age group watch the movie when it is first realeased. Yes there are think tanks that boil these things down in statistical analyses. Yes, there is loads of verifiable evidence to support the claim. I don't know how to make hyperlinks, but if you type "smoking in movies," or "smoking in films," in your browser, you will be provided with a substantial number of credible links. But, I also know that some people, once commited to an opinion will not allow themselves to reconsider.

I didn't write my initial question to generate a debate. I didn't write it to lecture anyone on the dangers of smoking. (there are still people who think smoking is not an unhealthy habit, but I know that these are people who are commited to opinion and will not allow themselves to reconsider). I certainly didn't write it to convince anyone that the film industry promotes smoking. I believe that the film industry intentionally promotes smoking, but I didn't write the question to convince anyone of that.

My question takes it as an axiom, that the film industry is intentionally showing smoking in movies for some reason other than simple artistic license. If you don't start with the belief that I have then, there is no doubt that you will be unable to answer the question which is generated from my my belief. You are arguing about the validity of my premisis. I am posing a question, based on a phenomenon I believe to be true. If you and I disagree about what color the sky is at night, I'm certainly not going to expect you to explain why it is mostly black. As I said before I didn't come here to convince anyone of anything. I came here to get a rational explaination for a social phenomenon. Some people just thrive on controversy. ---Leah

I can think of some possible innocent reasons:
  • They use smoking to identify a bad guy, or at least a controversial or mysterious one. The "smoking man" in The X-Files might be a good example of this.
  • They need the character to have something to do with their hands.
  • They need the character to have some reason to take a "dramatic pause". Lighting a cigarette, taking a puff, or putting it out can all provide such a pause. The movie Giant used this.
  • They need a source of ignition for a fire. The movie Damnation Alley is a good accidental example of this, and the Clint Eastwood western where he lit dynamite with his cig is an intentional example.
  • They need a source of conflict. Fighting over where smoking is allowed, etc., can provide that conflict.
StuRat 01:19, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First, let me emphasise that I never wanted a debate about this.

Yes, there are alternative reasons. All listed above are examples of artistic license, as previously mentioned, and previously excepted from the question. But only so much of this can reasonably be attributed to artistic license. (By the way, its not only the "bad guy" or social misfit who's smoking; The protagonist smokes more often than the antagonist)

Anyway, Natgoo has, unintentionally I'm sure, provided me with a solution. People are gullable. People simply don't realize or care that they're being dangerously manipulated. Especially, they are unaware that they are being advertised to, and are therefore more subjected to it. Adults, who have largely decided whether to smoke or not, are not thinking - are not protecting their kids. I guess I was wrong about actors. They don't realize what's going on.

Since 2002, more teenagers (from non-smoking homes) have started smoking because they saw it in movies, than for any other reason. It really doesn't matter to me - it matters to them, whether they ever even know it or not. They are being taught to smoke before they are mature enough to form an adult decision. I didn't mean for this discussion to turn this way, I was only, genuinely looking for an explanation.

I'm only sorry that it came from you, Natgoo, subjectively instead of someone else objectively. I realized from you, by example. You don't see it, and you can't be convinced that your missing something.

As you said, you don't understand the question. Sad --- Leah

I'm sorry that you didn't receive the affirmation you were seeking when you made your post. I don't think gullibility has much to do with it at all - people (including children) are far more critical media consumers than you seem to give them credit for. The one literature review study I found (abstract here) (which, contrary to your statement above, seems to have received decent media coverage if all the google links referring to it are anything to go by - it just missed me) draws specious conclusions (as you quote above), and doesn't consider a wide range of variables contributing to the uptake of smoking by kids. Placing the blame on movies is a simplistic response, and one that contributes well to an emotional, simplistic argument. If I were to posit the major contributing factor to the uptake of smoking by kids it would be that their parents/society told them not to (I'm sure there would be a correlation between the population of kids who always do what you tell them not to and the population of kids smoking, if the first could be measured).
I think StuRat has given you some good answers to (what seems to be) your question, but overall I think the reason that actors, governments and people in general just don't care is because it's really not that high a priority given everything else going on in the world today. Calling people gullible and sad because they don't see the world in exactly the same way as you is disingenuous and again, simplistic. Natgoo 10:52, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've read only part of the above but would nevertheless like to contribute the observation that in (specifically) US movies almost every time someone smokes some (indirect) statement is made. And that statement is always negative. And that may very well have something to do with the US government sponsoring that. It's almost always the bad guys who smoke, for example. DirkvdM 12:57, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had just done a lot of work; I had found many sites and studies which supported what i was saying. I was trying to put hypertexts in. When I clicked on save, I saw a message that said someone else had edited this, since I began. I think my comment has been lost in Wikiland. I have not been a Wikipedia reader long enough to know how to get my work back.

Why are there smoking sceenes in Disney movies? I don't think children are stupid. But I do think they are innocent. That is why they should be protected from this (smoking in movies directed at their ages) until they are adults. I think someone has to be very clever to be able to actually get smoking sceenes into Disney movies, even though it is against the law and against plain good ethics and common child welfare sense! I was not looking for affirmation. I re-explained the question several times, yet the person who could not understand the question called me "simplistic." The actual question has since been answered.

One reason it works so well for the tobacco industry is that people don't even realize its advertising, so they are less apt to notice and think about it. ---Its all artistic expression!

Anyone can google: smoking in movies and find a great many websites that generally concur that all this smoking in movies must be much more than "artistic expression" as well as the several studies that show kids are being manipulated. More kids start smoking because they see it in film than for any other reason.

Like Natgoo, tens of thousands of teanagers are thinking Oh so what? well, this is "what."

I would appreciate it if someone knows how to get my lost wikiedit back. Thanks ---Leah

All of the websites/media reports that google returns that 'generally concur' cite the same information produced by the study I linked to above, a study (by a single issue research centre) that draws the same specious conclusion that you insist on repeating (by the way, it helps your readers if you indicate a direct quote with quotation marks, otherwise it reads as if it's your personal opinion). Leah, this is obviously something you feel very strongly about, but if you didn't want your assertions discussed then you shouldn't have posted in such a public space.
I'm not sure how your edit was lost - did you get a screen saying 'edit conflict'? If so, and if you didn't copy your additions before trying to save, then they're lost for good I'm afraid. If you'd like more information on contributing to Wikipedia there are lots of resources available at the WP:Help and Community portal pages. Natgoo 17:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Why, it's already banned in movies and also in public places. Which country were you talking about?

I can't say whether or not there is more smoking in movies or not, or whether Hollywood is being paid off by tobacco companies...but I can say that in my own attempts to quit smoking (which I started as a kid primarily because my mother smokes), I have gone so far as to take actual courses to educate myself about smoking. Now, as I said already, I can't say what is happening in the movies - I have become incredibly more aware of smoking around me, but I haven't noticed an increase in the amount of smoking I see in movies - but I can say that the tobacco companies do hire psychological specialists to aid with their marketing (as many companies do) - or at least they did while they were still allowed to advertise - and they have conclusively found that women are much more likely to start smoking than men, and that if a person does not start smoking by the time they are 18 they are highly unlikely to ever smoke...as a result, when it was legal to advertise cigarettes in mainstream media (magazines, billboards, etc) the ads were designed to be attractive to girls between the ages of 9 and 13. bcatt 04:33, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Manuscript of Astorga 1624, Spain.

Good afternoon to the readership of Wikipedia.

I am a Spanish young man to the sports fishing of the trout with fly and my sleep it is to be able to contemplate in alive the Manuscript of Astorga written by Juan de Bergara in 1624, in Spain. This Manuscript treats of the manufacture of artificial flies for the fishing of the trout of the epoch.

According to informative sources in the year 1970 more or less this Manuscript was sold to a private English collector.

My sleep is to meet the owner of this Manuscript since I have intention of travelling this summer to the United Kingdom and like that to be able to admire the original one of the Manuscript of Astorga in my hands.

If some of you knows something about this Manuscript he would be grateful very much to whom was finding out about his whereabouts or other informations that should guide me even.

Receive an affectionate greeting.

Adriano Álvarez

I think you mean you "dream" of those things, not "sleep" of them. StuRat 19:56, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
See Lost work. --DLL 22:14, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your responses.

Sturat, you are right, I wanted to say " that I dream of these things "

DLL, thanks for your indication, but unfortunately there does not say to me * who is the English owner of the Manuscript of Astorga*

Affectionate greetings to the two.

Adriano

The book was either burned (and the owner is the ozone layer) or sold. --DLL 13:24, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And Adriano please try editing with the edit put at the right of your question title, not the one below the last answer ... Ta! --DLL 13:27, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello DLL.

Really that believed in a beginning, which had been burned but apparently another version has more force: that of which it was sold to a private English collector: do you know anything of that? In what public or private organisms might they to inform me?


Forgive me DLL, when you say that " he should try to correct position to the right of his question and not under the last response: " what do you want to say? I do not manage to answer of another form.

Affectionate greetings.

Adriano

Let's assume it was sold. It does seem to have an amount of reputability, so it seems likely the owner would let him- or herself be known, had he/she wanted to be known. You can buy things anonymously at most finer auction houses, so there's little hope if the owner doesn't want publicity. However, if it was sold, you'd expect that fact at least, to be well-established, because the auctions themselves are public. The experts at the auction house would also need to verify the authenticity. While most reputable antiquarian auctioneers do not guarantee authenticity, they are bound by a code to buy things back if they turn out to be forgeries. What I'd like to know is: What makes you think that it was sold, and what makes you think it was an English collector? If you follow those leads, then maybe you can find it. The two statements don't provide much evidence in themselves. --BluePlatypus 09:40, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello BluePlatypus.

Really there are no many proofs, the only one that it was sold, it was much mentioned in his epoch precisely by numerous newspapers of then especially French and many comments of the same in different Spanish Universities, that thing about is burned was discarded since the supposed selling was realized 4 years before the Library was burned in question, since in United Kingdom there was and there keeps on being a lot of interest in everything relative to the sports fishing, with that there was very much I contact with the owners of this manuscript.

Anyway, if you know some track of shops of auctions or another place for this end would be grateful to you.

Thank you very much for your collaboration. Greetings.

Adriano

I don't know whether you'll be able to find it or not, but you can find the original scanned online here (and there is a transcription here.) I wish you luck in finding it! СПУТНИКССС Р 18:23, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As for BluePlatypus' questions (What makes you think that it was sold, and what makes you think it was an English collector?), fishing.co.uk says:
While some claim the original handwritten manuscript was burned along with many other volumes contained in Franco's library, Pariente believes it was sold by the general's son-in-law, the Marquis of Villaverde, in a London auction. In any event, Pariente's photographs were the only thing that kept the Astorga Manuscript from total oblivion. СПУТНИКССС Р 18:28, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello СПУТНИКСССР.

Really, it was Jesús Pariente Díez who rescued of the oblivion to the Manuscript of Astorga and also there was mentioned very much the friendship that Franco's relatives had with some Englishmen very keen of the fishing.

You are informed well about this manuscript: are you Spanish?

I what desire is to find some track of to where I can ask about the whereabouts of the owner of the Manuscript of Astorga, if it cannot be, about bad luck.

Cordial greetings. 

      Adriano

Hedda Hopper

Can you please tell me who the name of the artist was that created Hedda Hoppers hats?

I don't think she had any one designer. This says there were 103 (although only 3 are named). Benjamin Green-Field was another. JackofOz 23:03, 10 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Some help needed in interpreting UK school legislation

I'm doing some research into the laws of school discipline in England. The legislation surrounding this branch is here in two parts http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/97044--b.htm#end and part 2 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1997/97044--c.htm. I just have a few questions on interpreting the legislation:

Is it possible to give a student detention who is 18 or over? Judging from the document, it seems that it is not. Also can you advise on how to cite legal documents e.g. the section which I think answers my question is 550b, part 2, of the education act 1997.

Am I right in thinking that the European Human Rights Act of 2002 has not been accepted in England yet? I'm aware that it is an integral part of Scottish law at the moment.

Regarding your last question, the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into UK law (i.e. covering England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) by the Human Rights Act 1998, which came into force fully on 2 October 2000. I'n not sure what legislation you're refering to, there's no UK or Scottish law called the "European Human Rights Act", and the HRA has been applied in a number of English court cases.-- AJR | Talk 13:48, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 11

philosophy

write an article on philosophy and life

That's a good idea. Why don't you try it. Might be fun. JackofOz 00:29, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Life is. -24.131.204.139 18:45, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oldest piece of music known to man?

Anyone knows which is?

Years ago my sister got this encyclopedia on a CD (Encarta, I think) and it had a buttload of MIDIs embedded on this huge file. The file also had the title of each MIDI encoded in a certain way. So, I wrote a program to extract and properly name such MIDI files, and one of them was entitled "The World's Oldest Known Music". By the time, I looked the article on that encyclopedia with such song, and it said it was for a crude sort of harp. I still have that MIDI right here (but not the CD), so I was wondering if it is indeed the oldest and etc. I can upload it if necessary (because afterall, if it claimed it's the oldest, I doubt it's copyrighted) ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 01:56, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A particular performance of a song may be copyrighted even though the song itself is not. StuRat 03:08, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it's a MIDI file, and the song is somewhat trivial. I doubt it'd be an issue. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 03:28, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Samaveda (1200 BCE - 900 BCE) contains verses to be sung in specifically indicated melodies using the seven swaras or notes. You can get the MP3s here, though I am sure by "Oldest piece of music known to man", Encarta would mean "oldest music created by Europeans" or something like that. deeptrivia (talk) 13:17, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Number of unemployed persons, just prior to Katrina?

I would like to know what the population of New Orleans was like before the hurricane.

I would like to find out the percentage or number of unemployed prior to the storm.

It appears to me that many persons were not employed prior to the hurricane and this would have a bearing as to how many were not paying attention to their daily life.

Are you trying to imply that if a person is unemployed, they aren't paying attention to what is going on in their lives, or are not concerned with what is happening around them? Captain Jackson 03:54, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Have you studied any of the Hurricane Katrina articles here on Wikipedia and/or the associated talk pages, and their archives with respect to what the contributors there felt was appropriate to include?
    • Did you see the bit about where New Orleans population was among the poorest in the nation, with something like 1/3 of the public dependent on public transportation, unable to afford gasoline for personal car to evacuate? Do you understand the bit about how people with public assistance get paid at beginning of month, do not really get enough to live on, so towards the end of the month they have to eat out of other people's garbage because they have run out of money, so money for gas to evacuate is totally out of the question.
      • Did you know that many people on forms of public assistance, such as food stamps are also employed? Their income is not enough to live on, so they need additional financial help.
    • Did you see the statistics published right after the prior Hurricane season, where the general public was asked if there is another mandatory evacuation, will you be able to evacuate, and can you do so? There were a bunch of well to do people whose property had been stolen when they left in prior evacuations, and they did not want to leave. ** So there were three groups of population that heard the evacuation alert, but did not leave.
      • Those who wanted to leave, but were too poor to drive, or take a plane or whatever. Many of those people ended up in the Superdome and Convention Center.
      • Those who had had bad experiences in prior evacuations, returning to find their property trashed, not by the storm, but by looters.
      • Those who heard the warnings, but did not understand how bad it was going to be. They thought they could ride out the storm. Many people do ride out storms you know. They nail boards to windows, they stock up on several days worth of food. They just do not expect to be woken up by rising waters, driven up to their foof to live, unable to get at their food stocks, then be "rescued" by helicopters and boats, only to be abandoned for many days on bridges and overpasses that are above the flood waters.
  • Have you visited any of the government web sites that have labor statistics, and noted the vintage "these statistics are AS OF some date or time frame, before or after when Katrina hit?"

User:AlMac|(talk) 10:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Olympics

I was just watching the opening ceremony in the Winter Olympics. During the parade of countries, the names are announced over the loud speaker, well, if the countries are just a name, known worldwide, why do they pronounce the country names in different langauges?

The names of the various countries are not pronounced the same worldwide. The delegations parade in alphabetical order according to the language of the host country, except for Greece, which leads the parade, and for the host country, which brings up the rear. The pronunciations are in the language of (1) the host country and (2) the country's own pronunciation. hydnjo talk 04:22, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Furthermore, they read out the names of the countries in the official languages of the Olympics (French and English) plus the language of the host nation (Italian). And as to the names being the same worldwide and pronounced the same, consider that th United States is also the Etats-Unis, Vereinigten Staaten, Stati Uniti, Estados Unidos, Förenta Staterna, Te Honongo o Amerika, Amerika Serikat, Al Wilayet Al Mottahide, Soedinyonninye Shtati Ameriki, Fenua Marite, or even Amerika Birlesik Cumhuriyeti, depending on where you are. Grutness...wha? 05:32, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Was the same in Athens two years ago with delegations in greek alphabetical order, it took me time to realize, e.g. : Virgin islands at "P" (Parthenai), Vanuatu at "B" (no "V"'s), &c. --DLL 08:44, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This tradition is now 100 years old. It commenced with the 1906 intercalated Olympics in Athens. JackofOz 10:58, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As someone from a country that is pronounced exactly the same in English, French and Italian I also found the three-fold repetition of the name a little odd, but I imagine it is too complicated to sort out exactly which countries are considered pronounced the same. Plus some countries might feel slighted that they were only announced once. Besides, I liked the way the Italian announcer give the name a little extra ring. DJ Clayworth 18:10, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe you can answer this one, DJ. Canada has 2 official languages which I understand have equal official status. Which language was used for the order of countries at the Montreal 1976 Opening Ceremony? and why? JackofOz 10:55, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
IIRC, it was in French, since Montreal is in Quebec, and official Quebec provincial policy is to promote French. User:Zoe|(talk) 19:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Name of this piece of music

Intro of the unknown songⓘ. Can anyone recognize it? I did this crappy MIDI just now.

I had a MIDI of it before, it was on a piano and etc. Tried musipedia and didn't get anything. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 04:12, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It reminds me a little of Primus's Electric Grapevine, but I don't think that's it. —Keenan Pepper 20:18, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Was it very short - say, one minute long? If so, it reminds me of...um... "Easter Woman", I think - certainly one of the "commercial songs" by The Residents. Were there any lyrics, or was it instrumental? Grutness...wha? 05:42, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, all I had of it was a MIDI, and it was some classical (or so) piece on the piano. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 06:18, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List of Keepers of the Kings Swans

Hello, Is a list of the above from beginning to end, available? Thank You Malcolm

hm. I was going to suggest the Swan upping article - but we haven't got one :/ Grutness...wha? 23:20, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, we do. See Swan Upping. СПУТНИКССС Р 18:02, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Swans keep themselves quite nicely. You might like to read the article; it's very entertaining. --Halcatalyst 01:49, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Alicia Keys - Karma (on the radio)

Out of all the versions of Karma I've listened to by Alicia Keys, the version I prefer is played on the radio, but I can't seem to find it anywhere else. It's a faster version of the original, with more percussion. Is there a specific title for it, maybe found on a particular album? --Silvaran 07:30, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may need to purchase the single for the radio edit. -LambaJan 02:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Who is "The Great Elmyra"?

Popular British band, The Stranglers, released a song in 1977 called "No More Heroes"

The song starts with these lyrics

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick
That made his ears burn
Whatever happened to dear old Lenny?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?

Lenny is sometimes quoted as Lenin, but I'm not too worried about this.

I have searched the web extensively and have not yet come across a character, in real life or fiction, in politics or any other walk of life, that seems to represent this character.

My guess is that this is a reference to a character in some old piece of literature or early 20th Century film, but this is only a guess.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Regards,

Danny --84.203.2.51 12:40, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

My intuitive hunch is that Lenny is a second reference to Leon Trotsky, although I've never heard of him being called Lenny (but then, artistic licence being what it is ...). The only well-known Lennies around at that time that I can think of were Lenny Bruce and Leonard Bernstein. Bruce was dead by then, but Lenny Bernstein had a way to go so it's unlikely to be him. I can't find anything about any Elmyra either, so maybe they're both made up names. JackofOz 13:20, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Elmyr de Hory according to [10] it also suggests Lenny is Lenin as I have always interpreted it but he may morph into Lenny Bruce in the live version. MeltBanana 21:44, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How has Tort overcome the restrictions involved in the law of Contract

Q:"because contract was traditionall seen a method for resolving disputes involving pure economic loss, it was originally thought that where two parties had made a contract a negligence action could not e used to fill in any gaps in that contract"


The above was quoted in a journal while i was reading about Tort law and contract law. I would like to know how has Tort overcome the restrictions involved in law of Contract? Can any law guru suggest anything? Regards Rich

The old idea was that if two people are in a contractual relationship, then that contract defines the entire relationship. So if the contract dosn't include a particular right or remedy, then you don't get it. Unfortunately that often led to unfair results. Therefore two things happened: firstly the courts implied contractual terms that weren't actually stated, and secondly they allowed people to make tort claims against each other even though they were in contractual relationships. Obviously the extent to which they went down each track varies in each jurisdiction.

Markyour words 18:33, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mark, Thanks for your kind reply. I really aprreciate it, however I would need a bit more of explanation. Would you be able to explain a bit more or would you be able to suggest an article or a website where I can read through relevant cases and explanations please. thanks - Rich

Well, what material is relevant will depend entirely on which jurisdiction you're interested in. If you search any legal source for 'concurrent liability' then you should find everything you need. Markyour words 17:12, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Mark im interested in the jursdiction in the law of contract.Can you help please. Thanks Rich

Every jurisdiction (UK, Germany, Australia etc.) has a different relationship between contract and tort. Markyour words 23:12, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mark mine is UK...thanks

In that case take a look at this and the cases cited there. Halsbury's Laws of England will have the most comprehensive summary. Markyour words 23:55, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Mark thanks...But Halsbury's laws of England, is that a book or can you send me a URL for the website/article ?

Thanks man. Been a great help. Rich

It's an enormous encyclopedia in about 30 volumes. Any law library will have it. Markyour words 22:22, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can you give me another example like the one you gave above abt construction industry...but this tim i would request a general example but not specified to any area like construction etc. Thanks Rich

Despite the title, the legal outline given there is not construction-specific. Markyour words 01:20, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Hi Mark Thanks again. However, the example are mostly cases, but I would request you to send some theoritical explanatinos rather than cases. Thanks man. Rich

free markets-pro or con

What kinds of freedoms do markets provide? Are the proponents, Friedman, Hayek and Gray, correct? What are their best points? Or, are the critics, Marx, Keynes and Galbraith, the ones to side with? What good points do they make? I can't seem to find a clear understanding of what's what. Thanks for the help.-Brett M.

Unfortunately, our NPOV policy prevents us from doing your homew... giving an opinion, but there are articles here you might want to read about Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, John Kenneth Galbraith, Milton Friedman, Free markets and many related topics. David Sneek 14:27, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
NPOV goes for the encyclopedia, not for the ref desks, so here's my 2 bit.
Real Communism would be brilliant if it could work (if everyone would be nice to each other). State Socialism tries to create a preliminary stage to achieve such a heavenly state, but genreally fails on the idea that a few guys at the top can figure out how to control this economic mess at their feet. Economic liberals concluded from this that one should accept the way things are, throw in the towel and just leave people to it. Which of course also fails on the basis that people aren't nice to each other. Luckily most governments have realised this and provided some socialist cushioning, some more than others. How much cushioning is needed where and when, however, leaves loads of room for debate.
So I might as well propose my ideal. A guaranteed minimum income for everyone, no questions asked, of, say 500 € (or $) per month, a guaranteed means to raise that to about 1000 € (either for free for age or disability or a guaranteed job, if needs be employed by the government), the next few thousand taxfree, and all that paid for by the highest incomes (possibly even an upper limit to income of, say, half a million a year and a maximum personal capital of a few million - all the rest has to be invested, not spent on personal stuff). DirkvdM 08:50, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The London Euromarket

What do you think of the London euromarket? Would you best describe it as offshore finance or a money launderers haven? Thank you-Jonh Douglas

Congratulations, your question is both meaningless and pseudo-inflammatory. Which means: no answer, no flame. --Halcatalyst 01:41, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

if you don't want to answer the question, don't answer it jerkoff

has there ever been anybody with 3 arms?

If 3 arms are better than 2 then shouldn't "evoultion" have made us all have 3 arms?

What makes you think that three arms are better than two? David Sneek 16:37, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This should be analyzed using a cost/benefit analysis. Having an extra arm would have a benefit in that more things could be held at once. However, it would require extra food to grow and supply another arm with energy and nutrients, so there is also a cost. Assuming the arm was on one side, this would also introduce an imbalance during walking. For this reason, all animals have an even number of arms. Apparently the cost/benefit ratio must work out differently for insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and other similar animals with exoskeletons, as they frequently have far more appendages. StuRat 17:48, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, there are a handful of creatures with an odd number of arms, sea stars spring to mind. GeeJo (t) (c) • 17:40, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. Those simple animals have a completely different type of symmetry, rotational symmetry, instead of the planar symmetry common in higher animals, like humans. This means balance is not an issue. StuRat 17:48, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Note that many animals do have one additional appendage which serves as an arm, however. An elephant's trunk and an opposum's prehensile tail are examples. StuRat 17:48, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, a deformed individual might have 3 arms. This could happen with an incomplete conjoined twin, for example, with only the arm formed. This would not be likely to be a trait which would be passed on, however. StuRat 17:31, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Damn, I can't find a copy online of that old Charles Addams cartoon of the harried woman ironing a shirt, frying an egg, and feeding a baby all at the same time while her bum husband grumbles at her... "Wait a minute, can't you? I've only got three hands." CDC (talk) 18:52, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Frank Lentini had 3 legs. JackofOz 21:51, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'll avoid the obvious jokes which could be made about which fellows have had three legs! --Fastfission 21:59, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another approach might be the prehensile tails of a number of primates, which is probably as close as one gets evolutionary to a third arm. --Fastfission 21:59, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I wish I'd thought of that...like maybe 5 comments ago ? StuRat 03:43, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. I recommend an excellent book by Armand Leroi named Mutants. Stranger things than you can imagine. ISBN 0-670-03110-0. alteripse

Even assuming the three-arms-better scenario as described above, the question is based on a common misunderstanding of natural selection and evolutionary processes. Evolution is not a process based on constantly becoming better and better, closer to perfection, but merely a process by which organisms which are more likely to survive and pass on their traits to their offspring... survive and pass on their traits to their offspring. We would all have three arms:

  • if mutations leading toward having a third limb happened,
  • and did so in healthy organisms without causing other detrimental side-effects or being physiologically tied to detrimental conditions,
  • and increased the likelihood that those with the mutation survived and reproduced more frequently, rapidly, or other way successfully than those without the mutation

This leads to lots of detrimental local maxima. Carriers of Tay-Sachs, for example, are highly resistant to tuberculosis and therefore more likely to survive and pass of their genes in heavily tubercular areas. Of course, 1/4 of those offspring won't survive to adulthood, because they will have full-blown Tay-Sachs. One of many many examples in which natural selection has led to something other than increased tendency toward perfection. (ObDisclaimer: I know this is a massive oversimplification, but it's less of one that "evolution makes us better".) Deborah-jl Talk 03:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bill Gates

Is Bill Gates a 'communist'? I know this sounds like a joke, but I read stuff like this on google, just headdings of articles but the articles didn't make anything clear...I think they used those titles just to call the attention...or is there any truth to this?--Cosmic girl 17:00, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He seems like a straight capitalist to me. I think you should ignore any such outrageous claims unless some reasonable proof is supplied. And remember, the more outrageous the claim, the better the proof had better be. StuRat 17:22, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

haha, thnx! :D I'll try to keep that piece of advice in mind.--Cosmic girl 18:45, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The heavily flawed argument goes like this: Gates does not want competition. In a communist society, there is no competition. Therefore, Gates is a communist. The truth is that Gates wants to compete in new areas and beat the competition. He wants Microsoft to come out on top in every business venture they pursue. He wants Microsoft to be able to choose new avenues of business and compete in those. All in all, it is pure capitalism. In fact, he is such a capitalist that he has spoken out against monopoly laws that force Microsoft to be less competitive in areas with little or no competition. --Kainaw (talk) 01:16, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, Gates is not a pure "capitalist." Anti-monopoly laws (which Gates opposes) force Microsoft to refrain from market predation, to which Gates and Microsoft are prone. If the field is wide open, Microsoft just charges in; there's no question of invoking any laws. Gates has a history of seeking to crush his competition, which places him in the exact opposite vein from classical captitalism, as first enunciated by Adam Smith. --Halcatalyst 01:37, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There is an irony that unrestricted capitalism will eventually lead to one company that owns everything, in which case capitalism is defeated. Only by regulating and limiting capitalism can it be preserved. StuRat 03:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What a coincidence again. I've just proposed a way to do that 3 threads up (free market - pro or con). DirkvdM 08:59, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, OTOH, some people claim that capitalism is self-regulating, and that monopolies like that will eventually fail. I don't believe that personally, though. --BluePlatypus 09:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Gates definitely believes in market intervention, philanthropy, and high tax rates for the rich. That would make him a slightly pink capitalist, maybe on line with FDR. See Gates Foundation. --M@rēino 21:45, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I do believe that capitalism is self-regulating... my country isn't so much of a pioneer compared to the united states...but it has recieved a lot of benefits from capitalism...so I'm thankful for it. besides, the basic ideas of capitalism go hand in hand with the basic psychology of the human being...saying we aren't competitive is plain lying.--Cosmic girl 21:54, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. So much so that it's sort of odd to thank capitalism because it's not something that is implemented. It's the normal way things are. Put people together and they'll trade (the competition bit already comes in here). Add money and you get capitalism (the accumulation of wealth by some). Socialism is an implementation of an ideology, so that's something you can thank (or not, depending). But capitalism is the natural state of affairs with money added. And for that you only need a strong government to guarantee the value of the money (or maybe not even that?). But there's always some socialism thrown in to keep things from going out of hand (see three threads up), so one could say that a bit of socialism is also part of the natural state of affairs for humans. DirkvdM 08:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agree.--Cosmic girl 12:35, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rape status

If I narcotize a girl with chloroform and then rape her will it be any criminal proceeding, e.g. without witnesses? (I'm just curious) Alitus, 18:55, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Yes, it is a serious crime which can and will be prosecuted if there is enough evidence. Semen, condom residue, people who saw you drug her, and such would be used against you in court. It's called date rape, and what you are talking about is using a rufe. Captain Jackson 19:23, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually I think roofie refers specifically to flunitrazepam. —Keenan Pepper 20:12, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Captain Jackson meant to type ruse, I would say. --Halcatalyst 21:37, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
err, I meant to say roofie. Captain Jackson 00:32, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I guess you guys are more experienced at this stuff than I am <g>. --Halcatalyst 01:23, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Their could be a criminal proceding. If the chloriform killed her you would be up for death penalty, because murder associated with rape is felony murder. I say this as a lawyer.

I'd question your status as a (competent) lawyer, given the generalised remark you just made. The death penalty is not universal, and in a large number of countries, as well as a fair number of states within the U.S., the attacker wouldn't have to worry about being executed. GeeJo (t) (c) • 02:50, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Fox News has been railing abainst some New England Judge who only does a slap on the wrist for men who like to rape little girls. What happens depends a lot on what can be proven, whether the judge really approves of this activity, whether the children make good witnesses, whether the accused agrees to a lesser charge in plea bargaining. User:AlMac|(talk) 11:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar

I know there's been a fair amount of debate over the Chinese yuan being pegged to the dollar; what exactly does that mean? I've seen it mentioned in regards to trade deficits (specifically with the U.S.). --Impaciente 21:11, 11 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It just means the the exchange rate betwen the two curencies is always the same. In this case a Chinese government decision which the US govt doesnt much like. Since the 1970's most of the major currencies have been floating - ie the financial markets decide the exchange rate according to supply and demand so they vary every day (minute). Jameswilson 00:54, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As an odd example of a non-floating, or pegged currency, the Bermuda dollar is always equivalent to the U.S. dollar. --Kainaw (talk) 01:03, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I should have also pointed out the problem with the yuan. The Chinese have purchased more and more crude oil. Worldwide, when they refer to "dollars per barrel", they mean "U.S. dollars per barrel". So, if you are dealing in oil, you are dealing need U.S. dollars to ensure you don't pay more due to currency exchange rates. The Chinese would obviously like to fix their rate so they pay they don't get in trouble if the value of the yuan falls. The U.S. doesn't like it because it will mean that the world could easily switch to "yans per barrel". Then, all those U.S. dollars will suddenly show up in our banks and flood the U.S. economy. That will cause a deflation, which will mean it is financially better for you to keep your money in a box under your bed than in a savings account or stock investment. That would be very bad for the economy in many ways. So, to avoid that possible chain of events, the U.S. is firmly against allowing any other major currency to be pegged to the U.S. dollar. Of note: Iraq repeatedly tried to replace the U.S. dollar as the currency for oil trade. That ended with the last Iraq war. Iran has taken the fight and is getting the backing of many who want to switch to the Euro. --Kainaw (talk) 01:10, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for such a detailed response. But just how does a country suddenly decide "our currency will be worth this much?" Is that really up to them? I imagine there must be some mechanism at work for that to happen. --Impaciente 01:16, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
They do it the same way we do - quantity of currency and interest rates. By increasing or decreasing the amount of currency available, the value of the currency changes. By adjusting interest rates, you increase/reduce the usage of the currency (what good is a valuable dollar if nobody wants to spend it). That is very simplistic. Even though he had more experience with macroeconomics than anyone else, there are still many people who claim Greenspan has no clue how to control the value of currency. --Kainaw (talk) 01:35, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks again. I thought it had to do something with quantity, but forgot to consider the interest rates. --Impaciente 01:39, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The other factor which Ive never quite grasped is to do with the big US deficits. The fact that every other nation has to buy dollars to pay for their oil. This somehow means that the US has been able to continually have deficits which would be unsustainable in any other country. European observers often moan about this but I dont understand quite how it works. Jameswilson 02:06, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
We are getting into a whole different topic, but this is a brief nugget of fact that you will rarely hear: The U.S. government always operates in a deficit. It always has and always will. Never once in history has it ever been out of a deficit - not matter how many anti-Republicans tell you that Clinton got us out of a deficit. Why does it work that way? The founding fathers didn't go into much recorded detail. They took out loans to pay for the Revolutionary War, so they were in debt to start with. After that, politicians have continually made comments along the lines of a government with a profit will become corrupt - as though one that operates in a deficit is not corrupt. I don't have it bookmarked, but the U.S. Treasury (www.treasury.gov) has a link somewhere that shows the deficit down to the penny. --Kainaw (talk) 02:39, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note that the US national debt is smaller, as a percentage of GDP, than many other nations. As far as pegging one currency to another, it can be done, for a while. After a time, though, the subsidy needed to keep the two currencies equivalent will be too expensive to maintain. This will result in the peg rate being set more in line with the current values. This will happen every few years. So, effectively, this will give a stepped exchange rate that parallels what a floating exchange rate would look like. However, the real issue isn't the pegging of the exchange rates, per se, but that the yuan is consistently undervalued relative to the US dollar. This is effectively a Chinese government subsidy on exports and should be considered a violation of WTO rules. The US hasn't yet made an issue of it, yet, perhaps in an attempt to gain political favor with China (which is needed in dealing with North Korea and the UN Security Council votes on Iran's nuclear proliferation). StuRat 03:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Im not sure we are on the same wavelength here. Are we taking about the budget deficit/national debt or the trade deficit or both? Does the fact that oil is traded in dollars give the US more freedom to allow either deficit to run on without adverse consequences than would otherwise be the case? Jameswilson 03:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the artificially low peg rate for the yuan to the US dollar increases the US trade deficit with China. This can indirectly add to the US national debt, by reducing the amount of taxes brought in from companies doing US exports to China. It also increases Chinese national debt directly by having them supply cash to keep the exchange rate low. I don't really see how having oil traded in US dollars has much effect on anything. Since US dollars are readily converted to and from almost every other major currency, it's just like oil is traded in all of those currencies. Now if oil was traded in some weird currency, like that of North Korea, which isn't part of the global currency exchange, that would have a major impact. StuRat 05:35, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The various states in the USA have their currencies pegged to each other by being the same one - the US$, just like it is done in the EU with the €, making the EU one big market, effectively spreading the wealth more evenly to the benefit of all. God forbid that more poor countries should also acquire our level of wealth. DirkvdM 09:10, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pegging two currencies together is not the same as using a common currency. The big difference is that you can force one of the two currencies to be overvalued or undervalued when pegging, but not when using a common currency, which is the real issue with the Chinese yuan and the US dollar, not the pegging per se. That said, the best way to keep the Chinese from undervaluing the yuan is to allow it to float freely. StuRat 23:30, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You are using the common definition of "pegged" very loosely. To be able to peg two currencies, the two currencies should have separate backing capital. States do not have their own capital to back currency. The Federal gov has a small lump of gold and silver and a lot of loans. China does not share in this capital. They have their own.
As for the EU, it has caused problems by initially forcing open markets between the countries sharing the currency. It is almost like NAFTA depressing the U.S. currency while inflating the Mexican currency.
As for the earlier comment about what oil has to do with anything. The Euro article has a brief note on the use of U.S. currency for oil. If you want to buy oil, you use U.S. dollars. You do not want to risk money conversion loss, so oil purchasers have a stockpile of U.S. dollars. They do not convert the day of purchase. There is a danger of the stockpiles suddenly showing up in the U.S. if oil suddenly gets converted to euros/barrel. I think the U.S. would get through it, but it would be rather nasty. --Kainaw (talk) 19:56, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ta Jameswilson 00:11, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Garry O'Connor

What did Garry O'Connor, the author that wrote Universal Father: A Life of Pope John Paul II, major in?

See his résumé. --Halcatalyst 01:17, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That mentions where, but not what. (Not original poster, but now I'm curious.) GeeJo (t) (c) • 02:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
From the above source I have the impresson that his focus at King's College, Cambridge was on drama; the École Jacques Lecoq he attended was certainly theatrical, and he had a distiguished career in the theatre before becoming a writer. --Halcatalyst 05:13, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I would wager good money that O'Connor read English, given his subsequent career (British students don't have 'majors' like US ones). History might also be possible. DJ Clayworth 17:54, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

French and German army tanks in the 50's

Does anyone know any? There's not much info here I can find on European tanks in the 50's (besides the UK).

West Germany was not able to re-arm until 1955, and I'm certain that there were serious restrictions on what they could and could not have. Both nations would have been in the process of serious rebuilding until at least 1955, so I don't think they'd have factories to build these tanks, if tanks were even a serious concern for their armed forces. I would bet that they were simply given military surplus tanks from the USA, or possibly out of date Shermans.
Here is one link I found that might be useful.
http://experts.about.com/q/Military-History-669/German-Tanks-WW2.htm
Captain Jackson 00:42, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Plus, if you haven't seen it, our extensive article on Tanks. --Halcatalyst 01:03, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
My link really wasn't revelant to the question. Due to treaties ending World War II, Germany is not allowed to send troops outside of Germany, not even today. This was sort of a difficulty during the Iraq and Serbian crises of the 1990's. Also note that with the huge US/British presence in Germany, there wouldn't have been a need for Germany to have too many tanks. Captain Jackson 02:52, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
According to it's article the Leopard tank was designed originally for both the German and French armed forces in 1956, "to replace the Bundeswehr's United States-built M-47 & M-48 tanks". DJ Clayworth 17:42, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 12

is the population control affect the economy?

Do you mean, "Does the control of population affect the economy?" Population always affects the economy, and population control (as a political measure) also affects the economy, if only because it costs money to do it. Now, have you learned anything by asking the question? --Halcatalyst 00:31, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

China is an interesting example. Their "one child" policy had immense benefits early on, by allowing them to focus the countries meager resources on the few children that were born. This allowed for an increased level of education leading to a rapidly improving economy. Now for the negatives. The preference for males meant that many females were aborted or placed in orphanages to allow the "one child" to be male. The abortions led to a gender split in the 0-14 year age range of males 148,134,928 to females 131,045,415. An excess of males is likely to cause social disruption (as millions of males with no hope for marriage in any society tends to cause trouble). Also, the small population of workers will at some point be unable to support the large number of elderly Chinese. These severe demographic problems are likely to limit growth of the Chinese economy in the future. StuRat 03:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, there's some thought that the prevalence of Hepatitis B is also a contributor to the problem of China's "missing women". - Nunh-huh 06:21, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You speak of the lobsided division between age groups, with more elderly than working people as something in the future. But the one child policy started in the 1950, so there should be a similar effect as that of the western post-war baby boom in the late 1940's, just a bit earlier (ten years or so?). So China has been pretty much in the middle of it for a decade or so now? All those kids that were 'supposed to' have been born in the 50's, 60's and 70's and who would now have been in their 30's to 50's (the ideal working ages) are now missing. And that must have had a serious effect on the economy. DirkvdM 09:22, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The first attempts to limit family size in China do go back to the 1950's, but the actual limit of one child per family was only put in place in 1979. Hence, the most severe problems will happen once those born before 1979 have all retired, say around 2040 or 2050. StuRat 23:02, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Further to what StuRat wrote, the problem that China is facing is called "the 4-2-1 problem", which means that 4 grandparents are being supported by 2 adults with only one child. As those 4 grandparents stop contributing to the economy, the 2 adults have to support them (either directly or via the economy or via the state through taxation). — PhilHibbs | talk 11:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why was Booker T. Washington's face removed from the half dollar?

You're misinformed. See Half dollar (U.S. coin). --Halcatalyst 00:28, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Booker T. Washington was featured only on a commemorative half-dollar coin, issued from 1946 through 1951. His face was never on half-dollars intended for mass circulation. About 3 million of them were minted. They featured his portrait on the face, and the cabin where he was born on the obverse. In 1951, the coin was changed to feature both George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington's portraits on the face, with a map of the U.S. on the obverse. These were issued through 1954. Conress had passed a law forbidding commemorative coins in 1939, but passed special legislation in 1946 for the issuance of the Iowa Centennial and Booker T. Washington half dollars, amending the legislation in 1951 for the Carver-Washington coin. These were the last commemorative coins issued before the modern commemorative coin program started in 1982 with the George Washington 250th Anniversary half dollar. [11] - Nunh-huh 00:40, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Booker T? Is that the one who hangs out with the MG's, playing cool music? (Or is that 'hot music'?) DirkvdM 09:24, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kim Jong IL Questions

  1. Where is kim Jong Ills residence.
    He probably has several, but he'd have to have at least one in Pyongyang itself. --Robert Merkel 02:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  2. How can he justify the lifestyle he lives in the face of such privation?
    Dunno. Nobody's ever had the chance to ask him. More generally, dictators have pretty much always lavished an extravagant lifestyle on themselves and their families, so you might find an answer through reading about them (some examples you might look into are Mobutu Sese Seko, Caligula,Ferdinand Marcos and Suharto). --Robert Merkel 02:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Is it true that he only got through kim ill Sung University because his proffesors helped him cheat?
    Trying to get any reliable information out of North Korea is pretty much impossible. As our article says, he is said to have attended Kim Il Sung University. --Robert Merkel 02:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Is it true that he has armies of conscripted sex workers?
    There are stories filtered through a few Westerners that spent time close to the regime claiming that Kim Jong Il and the other high officials engaged in all manner of debauchery on occasion. The accuracy of these stories is however open to question. Our article notes that he is reported to have fathered as many as nine additional illegitimate children. Typically, powerful men the world over get more sexual opportunity than others, and Kim Jong Il is the most powerful man in North Korea.
Pardon my limited command of the English language, but what are 'conscripted sex workers'? Is that a horribly complex way of saying 'whores' (well, allright then, 'prostitutes')? DirkvdM 09:36, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry if my answers are vague, but the level of reliable information about North Korea related topics is minimal. Read our Kim Jong Il article, along with the articles linked from it, to get an idea of the level of supposition required. One interesting book on North Korea Another Country by Bruce Cumings (Amazon link). However, Cumings books need to be interpreted through his anti-Americanism and his bizarre affection for the North Korean regime. --Robert Merkel 02:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As far as justification, since he has total control over the press, there is no possibility he will ever be asked those questions. StuRat 02:47, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Offical residences

  • Q: Where is fidel castro's offical residence.
  • Q: Who held title to Berchesgarden, Hitlers mountain retreat, Hitler personally, the German Governmemt, of the Nazi Party.
  • Q: What was the point of building a house as oppulent as the white house, prior to the Civil war it was the larest residence in the country. Would it not have been cheaper to build a less oppulent mansion for the President?

White house

The White House was designed to impress foreign dignitaries and dispel the European perception, at the time, of Americans as "just illiterate farmers". StuRat 02:51, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's probably part of it - the rebels needed a response to Buckingham Palace. In fairness, though, most of the White House is just an office building (albeit a rather opulent one). The president's private quarters, while I'm sure they're very nice, befitting the rich and powerful guys that have occupied them, are only a small part of the building. CDC (talk) 03:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Castro

Fidel Castro's residence: I don't know Havana, but his residence/offices apparently face on the Plaza de Revolución, in central Havana.this A 1994 Associated Press story I read on LexisNexis described this place as his official residence. Does it have a name? Anyone? CDC (talk) 03:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Given the many murder attempts by the US he will probably move around a lot, in which case he would not have a residence in the literal sense of the word. DirkvdM 09:44, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Berchtesgaden

According to this site dedicated to the history of Obersalzberg, it was owned by Hitler personally. "In 1933 Hitler acquired ownership of the Wachenfeld House, which he had been renting since 1928. In the following years the modest country house was converted into the pompous Berghof." David Sneek 14:19, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sale of American public lands

Noticed an article on the possible sale of public lands here. Anybody know where I could find out the areas in question? -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 03:38, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The article here says The Forest Service will publish a notice in the Federal Register around Feb. 28 requesting public comment. At that time, more detailed maps will be available for all potentially eligible lands. There's a map accompanying the article that gives amounts proposed by state. CDC (talk) 03:55, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

VERY Interesting - Please Read

http://www.1335.com/normyth.html

In that little article it claims that the "races" we know as the Celts (modern day Irish and Scottish people), Norse (Scandinavians, who gave "birth" to Germans), and ALL Germanic peoples/tribes (this includes of course the English, Germans, and the French) are of ancient Jewish origin. Please read for yourself- i'm not sure if all og it is accurate or not, but I think this theory is a load of excrement- the only credible "proof" is connection between the gods and religious practices of the "heathen" Jews, Canaanites, and Babylonians and such- Everything else, like when he, the author, says "The Angles, Saxons, Celts, and Goths, who overspread Europe, are said to have originated in the region of Medo-Persia, about 700 B.C., the very time and place in which the nation of Israel was lost to history." The 'are said' means he has no credible proof.

Does this seem credible or possible to anyone?

Ten Lost Tribes has a lot of background to this. Without being insensitive to anyone's religious beliefs, I think that "a load of excrement" is a very apt phrase. JackofOz 05:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. The most obvious flaw is that the ancient Jews, being a Semitic people, were generally short, olive skinned, with dark, curly hair (modern Jews are a more diverse group). Does this sound like a Viking to you ? StuRat 05:19, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To refute this, I shall say yet one more thing; Let's assume everything was true in the Bible- this theory I mentioned (of which the Bible is the primary resource) would probably be wrong: the prophecy of Jews returning to Israel wouldn't haven't happened the way it did- the way I took the prophecy, most of the Jews would return to Israel in/after 1948. There are far more people living (both alone and collectively) in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Scandinavia.

ALSO: Please leave your religous views out of the "picture" when you reply to this, as JackofOz did; this is sort of a cultural theory, not really a religious one.

Also, in a comparison of religions, the most basic concept of Judaism is that there is only one God, while all of those pre-Christian Northern European religions were polytheistic. The Norse, for example, had the gods Odin, Thor, Freya, etc. StuRat 05:44, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Back in the middle-ages, when the Old Testament was considered a completely valid source document, quite a few (if not most) Christian peoples decided to reinvent their history to fit with it. Huns and Hungarians were supposedly the decendents of Ménrót, who Simon of Kéza identified with the biblical Nimrod. (in reality, there's no evidence of that of course. Or that Huns and Hungarians actually had much to do with each other, for that matter). The Swedes were supposedly decendants of the biblical giant Magog, according to Johannes Magnus. He'd probably be proud of that article. The Russians missed a great opportunity for revisionism, given that there's a name "Ros"/"Rosh" in the Septuagint (most other translations treat it as a word, not a proper name). Though they'd have a hard time reconciling that with what Nestor wrote. Of course, no historians regard these stories as anything other than fiction created to reconcile the Bible with pagan history. --BluePlatypus 09:11, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you look at the Celts article, recent research on genetics shows that the ancient inhabitants of Ireland, Scotland, etc, looked the same as they do today. Before the arrival of a few Celts who took over the country. In fact thats generally true for all of Europe. People in Scandinavia were blond before Vikings, Danes, etc. Jameswilson 00:20, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have a question

Was Oprah Winfrey a teacher in Mississippi before she hit it big?

  • Unlikely, our article on her mentions a lot on her early life, but nothing about being a teacher. = Mgm|(talk) 12:29, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • According to this source, and confirmed here, Oprah wanted "for many years" to become a fourth-grade teacher. The temperament gurus at Kiersey.com call her a "teacher/idealist." She may never have been employed as a teacher, but she is regarded as a great teacher by many. --Halcatalyst 15:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Describe the Economic situation of Asia.

Vague question, vague answer. See Economy of Asia. DirkvdM 09:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Financial Crisis in Asia in 1997

What trigget the Financial Crisis in Asia in 1997? What countries were affected?

Our article on Asian financial crisis has the answers. Jay 11:20, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tracing a Parachutist in the Free French Armed Forces during World War 2

Can anyone please tell me how can one trace a parachutist in the Free French Armed forces during World War 2. He was stationed in Glasgow Scotland, very possibly, about the end of 1943 and 1944. He was still in the French Armed Forces in August 1945. Enquiries to the Archives Militaires and the Archives Armee de l'Air have not yielded any results. Thank you.

Assuming you need a specific French parachutist it might be helpful if you could provide a name, age, physical description, unit designation, place of birth etc. However, what you are asking can't be answered without a lot of work. Celcius (Talk) Wiki be With us! 15:02, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Issue-Riot

Hello i was just wondering if any one can help me, i have tried researching but have been unsuccessful about Riots. I am trying to apply international law to domestic (Australia) in my report, to present changes in the current law which will help achieve greater justice for the society and prevent riots from occuring. If anyone can help it would be very helpful Thank You

We have a good article on Riots, including a section on Australian riots, with a link there to the Sydney Riot of 1879. This overall view and history might be useful to you. There is also an extensive article on International law. You've taken on a big topic. Good luck. --Halcatalyst 17:37, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think riots should be viewed merely as a symptom. The underlying causes of riots can vary widely, and therefore the solutions will vary, too. StuRat 20:51, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

9 Souls song.

Hi guys. This for those who've seen the film "9 Souls".

The song at the beginning which also plays in many other parts -- the acoustic guitar song. What is it called? I know is by "Dip", by I can't find the name, is it "Nowhere I'd like to be"?

If so, i would really love to have it. does anyone know where i can get the song or does anyone have it?

thanks. gelo 11:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Comic strips on computers

Can you suggest some comic strips (at least 5) available on the internet which relate to Computers or the office life in Software/Information Technology companies. I know of only Dilbert. I remember reading an interesting comic strip set in an office where all the characters are animals. If only there was a category on "Comic strips by genre". Jay 12:58, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, one relatively famous one is User Friendly. --Robert Merkel 13:50, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ya thats a good one. I've just created a "Category:Workplace webcomics" and added user friendly to it. Jay 16:39, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You'll be interested in Comixpedia. It's like Wikipedia (as in, a wiki encyclopedia), but dedicated entirely to webcomics. Take a look, you'll probably find everything you want there ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 14:29, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks I found the Category:Workplace (but no Category:Computers) at comixpedia [12]. However could get only 2 comics called Cortland [13] and Boot Error [14]. Jay 16:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting that Dilbert is viewed as being set in a software/IT company. I don't think this has ever been established. I think one property Dilbert has is that everyone believes it to be about their own company (sometimes based on secret inside information). Notinasnaid 17:33, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to change from time to time, but always stay in the high-tech area. Most of the time it's a software company, but at other times they make hardware. StuRat 20:46, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another strip in this genre is Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet. --Metropolitan90 09:02, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

two sociological definitions of poverty

You could read the poverty article, but the answer you really want is probably in your text book. David Sneek 14:08, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A sociologocial explanation, as opposed to other types, would view poverty as the result of marginalized minorities who are denied equal access to education and jobs due to discrimination. The effect of having parents who are themselves "victims" (say a welfare mother and an absentee father) would also diminish the chances for success of the child. I don't think the sociological explanations should be used in a vacuum, as each individual also has a substantial impact on how their life turns out due to their own decisions, like whether or not to drop out of school. StuRat 20:42, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Picasso and Cubism

I'm doing research on Picasso's contribution to the history of cubism and was interested to hear the viewpoints of others on the matter. I'm being vague purposefully.

Well, you could start with the Wikipedia's collective view on Cubism and Picasso at Cubism and Pablo Picasso. Then you might try going to your local research library, which Wikipedia is not a substitute for. --Robert Merkel 13:48, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vital Records for Belz in Bessarabia, Moldova

Where can I please find the vital records (Birth, Marriage and Death certificates) for the city of Belz (Beltz, Beltsy) in Bessarabia, Moldova, for the 19th century? With thanks.

Belz is in the Ukraine nowadays, not in Moldova (which was called Bessarabia as a Russian province). As for which archives would have records, my guess is that you'd have to look in the local archives. There might be centrally archived copies in Kiev or Chişinău, but that's guessing. Personally I'd watch out for going anywhere near Transdniestr. --BluePlatypus 15:02, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Whoops, I doubt very much that that is the same Belz. Guess it's either locally or in Chişinău then. Which still isn't very hopeful given the state Moldova is in. --BluePlatypus 15:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Its probably this one - Bălţi. The mayors website is quoted so probably theyd know where the old records are archived. Jameswilson 00:25, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Buddhist councils

Why were there no Buddhist councils between 100 and 1871? Did people forget about the concept, or was it because of the decline of Buddhism in India? deeptrivia (talk) 15:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest that this happened because, firstly, as you point out, Buddhism had become rather fragmented after it died out in India, and also because, like other religions, it became steeped, not to say stuck, within its customs and traditions, and there was little need to change it until it encountered increasing western influence in the nineteenth century. However, I am only guessing. That article could do with some NPOVing, by the way. --Shantavira 18:31, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Rommel and Hitler

Did General Rommel ever had any remarks about Hitler,I mean did he ever talked about Hitler? Also,was General Rommel member of Nazi party? Thank you

Field Marshal Rommel expressed his opinion in an even better way; he was involved in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler. David Sneek 17:18, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, our article rather less than forthright on that one. Markyour words 19:12, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well,i red that,and Im not convinced that Rommel was part of that plot at all,thats why I asked if he ever said anything about Hitler???

Any particular reasons for your opinion? To respond to your question, of course Rommel talked about Hitler, as did everybody at that time. A book by David Fraser, Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel ISBN 0060182229, perhaps among others, states that Rommel was not a Nazi. -Halcatalyst 23:07, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Yes,because I live in Germany and I never heard that Rommel hated Hitler or was his enemy, dont get me wrong, I highly respecst both of them,thats why I cant see why would Rommel be against Hitler,it makes no sense,Rommel was a hero,not a treitor,and I learned that he was a big friend of Hitler

If, as you say, Rommel was a "hero, not a treitor" (sic), then he would have been against Hitler, since Hitler all but destroyed Germany. Had he been a real hero, he would have never have served Hitler in the first place. -- Mwalcoff 01:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UN financial crisis.

Hi,

I am writing a foreign policy statement for a model united nations conference. One of my topics is the UN financial crisis. I'm representing Thailand and so i have to write about what thailand's stance is on the UN financial crisis and what thailand has done to resolve this and what future measures are being taken by Thailand. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me with this task by providing some info and also some references to UN resolutions regarding this topic, which thailand has supported.

Thank you, Safraz.

Google returned 14 million references, and Yahoo 6 million, to the search words un financial crisis. Try some of these to get a handle on your topic. You can also get a start at United_nations#Financing. --Halcatalyst 22:59, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Here's Google on the Model UN. I am happy to hear it is still going well. I was in it in the 1960's. My class represented Ghana. About 2 days before we were to show up at the MUN, Ghana had a revolution, changing to a new form of government. We had to scramble. Were we going to represent the old government in exile, and try to win international intervention, were we going to represent the new government with a whole new agenda, were we going to have some of our members secretly be agents for the other faction side ... we chose maximimum fun. The history of our nation had had a change in flag, when move from colonial to independent. The dias of MUN had the wrong flag. We wore black armbands in silent protest against the hosts refusing to fix this. User:AlMac|(talk) 11:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Creation of efficient financial management responses to natural disasters

I am writing a foreign policy statement for a model united nations conference. One of my topics is "The creation of efficient financial management responses to natural disasters", (especially the tsunami). I'm representing Thailand and so i have to write about what thailand's stance is on this topic and what thailand has done to resolve this and what future measures are being taken by Thailand. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me with this task by providing some info and also some references to UN resolutions regarding this topic, which thailand has supported.

Thank you, Safraz.

  • The best thing to do about natural disasters is to prepare in advance. An efficient, competitive insurance industry can acheive the financial management part of that equation, but it is important for the national government to include disaster-risk assessment as part of its method of evaluating new projects. --M@rēino 21:56, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • You might want to limit your topic to Thailand's response to the 2004 tsunami. For the context, see the Thailand article. Googling thailand tsumani brought up 33,000 references; Yahoo produceed about 17,000. So there's no lack of material; you just have to sift through it all with a purpose in mind and try to find the gold amidst the gravel. --Halcatalyst 22:53, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The effect created on global economies by the lack of quota system and the world oil crisis.

I am writing a foreign policy statement for a model united nations conference. "The effect created on global economies by the lack of quota system and the world oil crisis". I'm representing Thailand and so i have to write about what thailand's stance is on this topic and what thailand has done to resolve this and what future measures are being taken by Thailand. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could help me with this task by providing some info and also some references to UN resolutions regarding this topic, which thailand has supported.

Thank you, Safraz.

(Sorry i have asked 3 questions in the same format. I seperated the questions so that it'll be easier to understand.)

Though Wikipedia has a List of UN Security Council Resolutions, it's "in progress," but you might have a look at it just to get an idea of the scope of your topic. I just Googled thailand un resolutions and got 471,000 references, so it's not like there's no information out there! Of course, the first thing to do is to visit the UN web site. If you poke around there, you can find relevant information; for example, a few clicks led me to this research guide for Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly at its 60th session. --Halcatalyst 22:40, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

who caught abramoff?

I have heard alot in the news about the Abramoff scandal, i was just wondering who was it that caught him?

Thanks

I doubt there was one person at one moment who "caught" him. He had a lot of balls in the air and ultimately couldn't keep them all up there. See Jack Abramoff. --Halcatalyst 22:24, 12 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Information: Basket Ball League Miami Chapel Champs 1920-21?

I am hoping that I can find some information on a Basketball League that dates back to 1920-21. My father has a silver trophy cup that has the engraving: Basket Ball League Miami Chapel Champs 1920-21

The cup was made by a company called Poole Silver Co. and has the date 1835 engraved on the bottom of it. Also the word Guarenteed is engraved on the bottom of it. My father found the trophy cup while doing some cleanup for a neighbor. Could this basketball team have been from Flordia or another state? I did some research and the coach at that time was M.R. Schwartz 1920-21 and then the coach became J.W. Tasker in 1921-22.

I would like to know if it could be an antique and what state it belongs to. I really think it would be a great piece of history for the school that it belongs to.

If you can help me find some information on this it would be much appreciated.

Thank You, SouthernAlabama

  • Well, there's a Miami Chapel Elementary School in Dayton, Ohio; it might have come from there if it wasn't from Florida. But if you found who the coach was, wouldn't the source for your research indicate where the team was located? --Metropolitan90 09:07, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 13

Movie with a fight scene in a public toilet?

I've seen a movie (maybe a TV one) last year (winter 2004-2005) in France where a guy with a sabre fight a guy with some clubs or tonfas in what seemed like public toilet (airport kind). Does it ring a bell to anyone? 83.214.23.85 00:46, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I picture a dual between a fighter with a toilet brush and another with a toilet plunger. StuRat 03:52, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It was Jet Li. I believe it was Unleashed, but it could have been another one of his movies. The point was that he was fighting a very tall guy. In the tiny stall, the guy didn't have room to move around, but Jet Li (being smaller) could easily fight against him. --Kainaw (talk) 04:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If your talking about "Danny the Dog", it's absolutely not that.
First it was a wide public toilet like this washroom(not a closet).
Second I don't remember Jet Li and the guy using anything like a sabre/katana or batons (not a baseball bat). But thanks anyway for you contribution. 83.214.23.85 12:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Gun laws

Q: Is it legal to own a shot gun in England, for purposes of hunting?

A: Yes, although you need a firearms licence. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:52, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, you need a shotgun license. A firearms license does not cover shotguns. This is only issued if you can demonstrate "good reason" and after police checks. You would also need a game license, and somewhere to hunt (there is no public hunting, with the possible exception of wildfowl on the foreshore). Note also that in England the term "hunting" mostly refers to hunting (e.g. foxes) on horseback; other kinds of hunting would be called "shooting". Notinasnaid 15:35, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There's also the term lamping: see Spotlighting#UK and Ireland: lamping for details. The BASC webpage linked off that page has guidelines which cover the legalities of this and which refers to the use of shotguns as well as rifles. We have an article Gun politics in the United Kingdom but it seems to be in some disarray at the moment. --Telsa (talk) 18:12, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Prostitutes and pregnency

why is that long before the widespread use of contraceptives their are few stories of prostitutes bearing children?

Prostitutes had plenty of children (if there are "few stories" about that, it's probably because stories about prostitutes having children don't sell well). They also procured abortions; you don't get stories about that much either - the market for back-alley medieval abortion stories is even poorer. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:55, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I saw a TV program a year ago about an archaeological dig of what was concluded to be a Roman brothel. The sewer underneath was packed with the bodies of male infants. Presumably the females were kept to perpetuate the trade, and the males were dangerous to keep around as the bastard of a nobleman is a political hot potato. — PhilHibbs | talk 11:29, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
PhilHibbs, do you have any more information on that? Really interesting, in a morbid way. Henriksdal 11:58, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I don't. It might even have been a radio program, because I don't have any vivid visual memories, and you'd expect that sort of thing to stay with you. — PhilHibbs | talk 13:58, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Luthansa Heist

I am looking for information on the Luthansa heist and its participants. Q: What ever happened to Jimmey Burkes bar "Roberts lounge" is it still functioning? Q: Was Jimmey Burke ever the formal owner of Roberts Lounge? Q: Regarding his associate Martin Krugman, what are his life dates? Q: Does anyone know anything about his life, or his family? What where his wig commercials like? Q: Does anyone have any documents related to Jimmey Burkes early crimminal career, or early like?

Read all about it here. --Halcatalyst 01:38, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I assume that you are just going by the film Goodfellas, I believe the names of those involved in real life is different from in the film. I think Jimmy Burke was Jimmy Connelly or something else beginning with a C, can't remember fully though. AllanHainey 08:14, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Jimmy Conway, which Jimmy Burke already redirects to. Also Martin Krugman, although I suspect the person asking the question may have already looked at these, as his questions are not answered in these articles. Chuck 22:21, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mafia

Is it true that in order to become a made member of mafia you must have been involved in a homicide? Or is that just ledgend? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.112.242.121 (talk • contribs) So, now we know where you live.

Hey you, listen to this and fuggeta bout it. hydnjo talk 02:06, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Mafia in the real world was primarily involved in racketeering. In the movies, it was involved in everything else. However, it is primarily a gang, like any other gang. One way to ensure gang unity is to have some leverage against each member. By forcing a member to commit a crime and keeping evidence of the crime, you have leverage over that member. --Kainaw (talk) 04:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
"Was"? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:28, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Napoleon?

Q: Because Napoleon kidnapped the Pope because of the Popes use of his temporal authority in the papal states, is not the popes attempt to ex communicate him against papal law?

You can read all about it in the Italian campaign section of the Napoleon article. The Pope's power to excommunicate is part of his office. --Halcatalyst 01:34, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

elevated art

what is elevated art? is it historic art that has to do with biblical themes? or is it a genre of art that's thought to be superior? Whenever I search for it it just says it's elevated art, and gives no definition or on the net it just talks about subject matter but not specifically elevated subject matter. --thanks

Well, there's Elevator music, which is pretty much the opposite of what the Highbrow population would consider good taste. "Elevated art" is pretty much what those with breeding, education, and money declare it is. It can be literature, music, painting, sculture, dance.... --Halcatalyst 05:07, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • Ok, what would elevated subject matter be when Reynolds and Gainsborough were painting?
      • Well, (1) it isn't the subject matter that makes the art elevated, but (2) if you think that's important for these two painters, I suppose the most elevated part would be the wigs. --Halcatalyst 04:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"three alarm fire"

When reporting on fires, US media often uses a term like "three alarm fire", where the number of alarms seems to be roughly correlated with the fire's severity. What, actually, does the number represent? Fron context, I've not been able to distinguish between it being:

  1. the number of times people call the fire department
  2. the number of premises affected
  3. the number of different fire stations which send appliances to the fire
  4. the number of fire appliances which are needed to tackle the blaze

Which, if any, of these is right? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:13, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

the third and fourth. more stations = more appliances, and vice versa. —Charles P._(Mirv) 02:27, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Each fire district defines they're own specific meaning. In most districts the "number" refers to the type and number of equipment that responds. There is no universal or standard meaning to the number(#) alarm fire. In general, the higher the number then the more equipment is dispatched in response. hydnjo talk 03:07, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Agreed. They convey the severity of the fire to the firefighters by sounding the alarm that many times, so a three alarm fire has them ring the alarm at the fire station 3 times. The firefighters respond with a specific level of staff and equipment. StuRat 03:48, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Weapons legality

Do we have an article on legality of various sorts of weapons, in various jurisdictions, etc? I am specifically interested in if we have a n article on legality of martial (i.e. non-firearm) weapons. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 09:32, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Which raises the question what constitutes a weapon. I have several machetes and someone once told me that is illegal (in the Netherlands). But they aren't any more dangerous than a kitchen knife. Or several 'normal' tools in an ordinary toolbox. 80.126.178.133 08:42, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I know what you mean. I was recently told that the thermonuclear devices I keep in my basement are even considered by some to be weapons. StuRat 09:02, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Which are just as utilitarian as home heating appliances as my long bladed hedge trimmers. Seriously though, machetes are great for coconuts, not that it's easy to get fresh coconuts in the continental U.S.—WAvegetarian•CONTRIBUTIONSTALK• EMAIL•22:11, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stressed out

I am totally stressed out. i have so much homework and i can't seem to get any done. Japan is pretty coo. It's hard to speak Japanese though. I think we should all learn English.

Is there any question here ? StuRat 17:53, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

yeah I'm kinda stressed out too, and I think Japan is cool too, though I've never been there...but... what is the question? --Cosmic girl 21:55, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He said Japan is coo, not cool. He's too coo to use lame words like cool. --Kainaw (talk) 04:07, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, but of course. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 08:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The question is, what to do when you're stressed out? The answer is, find some way to rest or relax. -- (Dr.) Halcatalyst 00:04, 14 February 2006 (UTC) Expect a bill at the end of the month[reply]

I go hang out at the store with my friends and bug the ppls there. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 08:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

should law follow social change within a society or should it create social change?

After we write your essay for you, should we deliver it directly to your teacher, too ? StuRat 17:55, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I believe the answer is "yes". Deltabeignet 23:02, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
How many words does the essay have to be? Can the answer be, "Law should follow social change within a society when the social change is created by a law that is following the change within the society." --Kainaw (talk) 04:06, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Joan Didion, "The Year of Magical Thinking"

To what do you think the last sentence in this novel refers: "No eye is on the sparrow but he told me that."

Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (ISBN 140004314X) is not a novel but rather a meditation on her year of grief following the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Though I don't have the book at hand, the sentence you refer to is clearly a complex allusion to the traditional gospel spiritual, "His Eye is on the Sparrow," which was also the title of a well-known book (ISBN 0306804778) by blues singer Ethel Waters. The idea in the titles is that God cares for even the least of his creatures (see Matt. 6:25-34). Didion and Dunne were not religious. Hence, Didion writes, "No eye is on the sparrow"; but what she means by "he told me that" must be understood from the sentences which precede this final sentence. --Halcatalyst 04:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
P.S. For proper citation, refer to MLA style manual. The model and example given there are as follows:
  • A website: Author of webpage."Article Title." Title of webpage. Date of publication. Institution associated with. Date of retrieval <url>.
  • "Plagiarism." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Jul. 2004, 10:55 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation. 10 Aug. 2004 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism>.
--Halcatalyst 04:41, 14 February 2006 (UTC) If the advice was not needed by you, it's needed by others.[reply]

Retaliation towards Germany post World War 2

After WWII finished, were there acts of retaliation towards Germany from citizens of nearby countries? Is there a list anywhere? When was the last act committed? Thanks. 218.101.92.204 22:21, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Football hooligans tried to murder a Russian in England at Euro 96 because they mistook him for a German. The last act of retaliation is certainly yet to be committed. Markyour words 22:26, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
When I was stationed in Germany in the 1970s, a friend of a friend (so it might be an urban legend) got out of the Air Force and decided he wasn't ready to return to the United States yet, so he got a house in a German town near to the base, but he had to replace his US Forces license plate with a German plate. He decided to take a driving tour of parts of Europe, and he claimed that when he was driving in Yugoslavia, people threw rocks at his car because of the German plates. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:32, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For a start, have a look at the following articel, where you will find some links to other related articels.: Expulsion of Germans after World War II--nodutschke 15:36, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Prime Ministers of the UK.

Primary occupations of UK Prime Minister: Does any one have any comments? Tony Blair: Lawyer. John Major: Banker Margret Thatcher: Lawyer Jim Callahan: Union offical. Edward Heath: Civil Servant Harold Wilson: Academic Douglas Home: Polititian, Aristocrat Anthony Eden: Politition. Clement Attlee: Lawyer Winston Churchill: Writer, politition.

Nevil Chamberlain: Planter Stanley Baldwin: Industrialist Ramsey MacDonald: Polititian David Lloyd George: Lawyer

Comments about what? That they had jobs? A lot of people have jobs... Do you have a more specific question? Dismas|(talk) 23:13, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
ISTR they were all politicians at some stage, which seems like an unlikely coincidence to me. Grutness...wha? 06:01, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'd say their primary occupation was as politicians as they all got to be PM. By the way you've got the beginnings of a nice list, perhaps List of British prime Ministers by occupation, why don't you make a start on it & no doubt others will fill in the blanks over time. AllanHainey 08:24, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Somewhat related; I've tallied the studies done by members of parliament in the Netherlands in 1995 and these were the most common ones:
law 33
politicology 22
economics 21
social studies 16
education 14
agrarian (incl biology) 10
languages 7
math/physics/chemistry 7
technical studies 5
The ones at the top make sense, but note the lack of hard sciences. Isn't it about time things were balanced out a bit more? Do we need a new party for this? How is this in other contries? DirkvdM 09:12, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've no hard data on this, but I think that in New Zealand at least, there are a handful of "hard science" people in our 125-member parliament. Our current Minister of Transport was formerly a veterinarian, for instance. Strangely, my local M.P. (also a cabinet minister) taught German at High School. Mind you, our Prime Minister was a Political Studies lecturer, her Deputy was an Economics lecturer, and the leader of the Opposition was a senior civil servant (Manager of the Reserve Bank, no less). Other prominent NZ MPs include a Red Cross spokesperson, an electrician and technical science teacher, a carpenter, a zoologist and oil-rig worker, a lecturer on environmental studies, any number of lawyers, political scientists and economists, and - believe it or not - a transsexual prostitute and stripper. Grutness...wha? 11:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You should check those facts. For example Margaret Thatcher was never a lawyer - she had a degree in Chemistry and worked as a research chemist before becoming a politician. Also Churchill was a soldier as well as a writer.
I don't find the figures odd at all. People skills are generally not highly valued in the 'hard sciences', and so people with those skills don't tend to favour them as careers. On the other hand people skills are extremely valuable in politics. The people who manage to make a success of both must be pretty exceptional. DJ Clayworth 18:13, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What is politicology? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
DJ, you seem to focus on the rhetorical side of politics, the presentation to the public and the building up of a social network, whereas I was thinking of the jobs at hand, which are often technical. Such knowledge and insight are important for the members of parliament (and the people behind them). The ministers can't do and think of everything. That's one thing parliament is for. The party members (whether in parliament or not) to help them work things out and members of other parties to check on them. And if the job at hand is some construction thing (which it often is) then some technical knowledge would be very handy. In several fields. So you need a broad orientation in parliament, not a focus on a few studies that happen to all sit in the same little corner. True, technicians and 'hard scientists' don't usually have the best social skills, but of course some do, and I think it's time they went into politics. However, if Margaret Thatcher is the only example, one might wonder if that is such a good idea after all. :) DirkvdM 08:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

why did japan want to go war with the usa in both major wars ww1 and ww2?

  • Japan's participation in World War I was on the same side as the US, see the Triple Entente article. In World War II, Japan signed an alliance with Germany and the attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the US into the war was part of an Imperial expansionist drive on the part of Japan in the Asia-Pacific region. --Canley 03:01, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Initially, the public was taught that Japan was evil and joined the evil Germans against the US. But, at some point, the Zimmerman Telegram was made public. It showed a slightly different scenario. To be brief and skip over all the facts (because it is late and my brain isn't functioning)... Germany sank the RMS Lusitania with a uboat. The US threatened to join against Germany if it ever used a uboat to sink ANY ship without surfacing first. Germany cut a deal with Japan and Mexico. If they attack the US on the same day (Japan from the west and Mexico from the south), then Germany will help from the east and the US will be defeated right away. Then, Germany can sink all the ships it wants without surfacing. The US intercepted the telegram to Mexico, found out about the deal, and talked Mexico out of the deal. Then, the US prepared to defend against a German attack from the east that never materialized - but Japan did attack from the west. They didn't attack Los Angeles as expected. They attacked Pearl Harbor. So, the US public, that was dead set against the war all along, suddenly wanted blood. The US joined the war and the rest is history.
Now, I want to point out that, for all we know, the Zimmerman Telegram could all be a hoax set up by the US government. But, it does make the whole story a bit more interesting. --Kainaw (talk) 04:02, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Note that the Zimmermann Telegram incident took place during World War I, and the attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. The Mexican decision not to participate in this alliance seems to indicate that Japan was not even informed by Mexico (or Germany) of the proposal. Japan was also subject to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with Britain, and hence entered the war on the side of the Allied Entente Forces. --Canley 05:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also, Germany did attack the US by sinking ships in harbours (New York harbour I believe, but I'm not sure), in other words in US territory. And Germany did officially declare war on the US (after Japan had done so), which gave the US the perfect excuse to fully enter the war. Before that, they had their own Monroe doctrine stopping them. It is generally believed that Hitler's biggest mistake (apart from starting the war in the first place) was the attack on the USSR. But he might just have pulled that off if he hadn't pulled the US into the war as well. But that's mere speculation. DirkvdM 09:20, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Do we really think that the US would have fought a one-front war with Japan if Germany hadn't declared war? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:35, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For a time, yes. The US would have preferred to focus it's military on Japan until it was defeated (maybe by 1944 in the case of a one-front war) and then declare war on Germany. StuRat 21:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note that both Japan and Germany had reasons to declare war on the US during WW2:

  • The US and other nations had placed an embargo on Japan after the invasion of Manchuria and other aggressive acts by Japan. Since Japan is an island with limited resources, this embargo was starting to hurt. This left them the options of withdrawing troops or attacking those nations (including the US) which were blocking their access to the resources they needed. StuRat 21:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • In the case of Germany, the US's Lend-Lease program with England was supplying their enemy with the war matériel needed to hold out against the German military. StuRat 21:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Also, why did not Japan invade Switzerland or Sweden ??? --DLL 22:09, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I assume you mean Germany...
They didn't have to. Sweden was a tempting target though due to the essential iron ore exports to the German war machine. However, Germany needed Norway for strategic reasons and on the road to Norway Germany needed to use the airbase in Aalborg in northern part of Jutland (Denmark) to ensure efficient Luftwaffe operations. Almost as an afterfought Hitler decided to take all of Denmark. So now Sweden is sorrounded by German occupied territories to the west and south while the Soviet Union is harassing Finland to the east. Germany could negotiate pretty much any deal with Sweden including iron ore shipments and transportation of German troops across Swedish territory to Finland - which they did. Attacking Sweden was needless as they already had everything they needed.
In the case of Switzerland - Hitler wasn't really interrested in a war with the western powers. He wanted Chechoslovakia, Poland and pretty much most of Russia. The French and British declarations of war wasn't Hitlers real agenda - Hitler wanted peace with France and England and was extremely frustrated concerning the British determination. Hitler had assumed that when France surrendered he could starve Britain to surrender so he could focus on the real objective - the Sovjet - and Lebensraum.
An attack on Switzerland was 1) Not Hitlers agenda. 2) Would further complicate matters if peace were to be negotiated with France and England. 3) Switzerland wasn't of any strategic importance to Germany as the German ally Italy lay to the south, the French Vichy government lay to the west and Germany lay to the East, in now Austria.
In hindsight - France and England declared war on Germany to protect Poland and Eastern Europe from German assimilation. The end result became Sovjet occupation instead... Celcius (Talk) Wiki be With us! 15:37, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Movie title

I need help recalling the title of a movie (comedy, perhaps 1980s). The premise was that two youngish guys, not wanting to have their vacation (or something) spoiled by the death of their host/benefactor, pretend that he is still alive by proping him into a wheelchair (with sunglasses) and bringing him along to various events. Groaning allowed. Thanks, --hydnjo talk 23:26, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds a bit like Jeremy Bentham. JackofOz 23:41, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Nah, this one was set in contemporary times.  ;-) hydnjo talk 23:44, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Was it this? 69.142.89.10 00:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We should at least provide a Wikipedia link — PhilHibbs | talk 11:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There was even a sequel. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is their there a hell?

  • If you mean a physical place with lots of fire and a guy called Satan. There's no scientific proof that place exists, but that doesn't mean anything. If you take it a less literal and use hell to describe a place where people have to relive bad experiences for the rest of eternity, earth could easily be hell. It also depends a lot on your religion and what your personal beliefs are. - Mgm|(talk) 23:45, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, here, and here, and here, and well as here. --Halcatalyst 23:46, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not to mention here, and I've been to Hull and back! СПУТНИКССС Р 23:50, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, not unless you count Dundee. Markyour words 01:23, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Working at Mc Do's ? see below --DLL 22:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why would God want someone to work at McDonald's?

A long time ago (back in '04), when I told a friend about how I wished for a better job, he told me something like (can't remember exactly), "Good luck. You'll find a better job. Or maybe God thinks you're better off working at McDonald's."

Well gee, how does working at such a menial place serve God in any way? How does that make my life better, how does it make me tithe more, and how does it further God's cause? I don't know why God would want for anyone to work over there. In fact, I think all humans deserve better than to work there. Androids should replace the employees, while the employees work at better places. --Shultz 23:43, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • "God works in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform". JackofOz 23:49, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • God works in mysterious ways. It may not directly make your life better, but by serving people in a friendly manner, you may affect their lives in ways you can't possibly imagine. Knowing first aid when a customer drops to the floor during your shift could save their life. Your friendly service (despite your working conditions) may make customers reflect on themselves and decide they don't have it so bad and shelf their suicide ideas. You working there could influence a lot of people in a good way. - Mgm|(talk) 23:49, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • No need to see God as a placement counselor, but you could take the attitude that no honest work is demeaning and that all work can be sanctifying. --Halcatalyst 23:54, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well you see, I was the lobby person, the most mindless job there ever was. McDonald's wasn't my bag, so I resigned in a hurry and left on 2-2-2005. I understand that lobby people could save the lives of those who have heart attacks, but it's not customer service, and when androids replace employees of menial jobs, they could still be programed to save lives, and much, much more. (Again, human employees deserve better.)
I hope to design and program androids once I'm out of college. I could make a MUCH bigger impact this way. What majors do you suggest that I take, that fits what I want to do? --Shultz 23:57, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Engineering. --User:68.112.242.121
There are several engineering majors at my university, K-State. Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and the list goes on and on. Therefore, which majors are appropriate for a future android designer & programmer? --Shultz 00:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Android construction would span several disciplines, but mechanical engineering or computer science would be the best choices. GeeJo (t) (c) • 09:06, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Every life serves a purpose. It may just be that yours is to serve as an example to others. — PhilHibbs | talk 11:14, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You could start with artificial intelligence and follow all the links. That'll take you to just about all the articles and sources we have in that area. The majors would be harder, but like they said above, start with basic mechanics, electronics and computer science and see if you can handle it. Also go for job shadowing if you get the chance, to see what it's like. As for the religion - If you really trust the big G to make you happy, you shouldn't keep questioning him. That can only lead to eternal damnation and teenage pregnancy. Black Carrot 12:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Engaging in honest work, learning to serve others, understanding humility; I can think of many reasons why God might want people to work in McDonalds. However I can't think of any reason why he would want people to eat there. DJ Clayworth 18:05, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
My understanding of Christianity is that God gave man free will to work wherever he was able to get employment. In other words, God doesn't give you bad jobs, you get them all by yourself. (If I was Christian, this is what I would probably think, anyway. I don't think God cares where every person gets a job, in the same way He really shouldn't care who wins the Superbowl.) --Fastfission 00:12, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No God, christian or non-christian, does such menial works as choosing a job for you. We are born free and grow slaves of caricatural Gods. Just do your best. --DLL 22:02, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Saddams Step Father

What ever happened to saddams abusive step father? Did he live to see his step son come to power? Did he gain an office? did Sadam take retribution on him? The article on Saddam mentions little about Saddams step father.

According to this source, "Even after Saddam became the strongman in Iraq, and all the family lived in tremendous affluence, Saddam's stepfather was still living in a mud hut in the tiny old dusty village of Uja." Saddam got away from his step-father as early as he could, at age 17. There's no evidence I could find that indicates he ever did more than scorn and ignore him. --Halcatalyst 14:26, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

World leaders

World leaders ages. Are their any siting heads of state/ government born before 1918? Are their any sitting heads of State/ government born after 1980?

Confusing question. There's only one head of government in the British parliament, Tony Blair. Is he a "world leader"? That's a matter of opinion. JackofOz 23:57, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think the question is "Are there any leaders (heads of state or government) in the world aged over 88 or under 26?" In the case of heads of state there might well be some oldies, since that can include kings and queens, who don't need to do much beside be present at occasions and one can do that at an age. Other than that, I doubt it. DirkvdM 09:26, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
DirkvdM, maybe next time you can strike the original title through, rather than replacing it entirely. The way it reads now, one would be as confused by my answer as I was about the original question/title. (The original title was "British parliment" [sic]). JackofOz 10:58, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The question was posted twice and I merged them. Don't recall replacing the title. DirkvdM 08:27, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The software seems to be having a tough time. The "show changes" and the updated page show different things. Very confusing. Sorry if I defamed you. JackofOz 10:59, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Nah, I'm not easily defamed. DirkvdM 08:18, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As far as monarchs are concerned, Malietoa Tanumafili II of Samoa is the only one who is older than 88 - he's in his mid 90s. Of the others, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of neighbouring Tonga was born in 1918, and Abdullah_of_Saudi_Arabia is 80, just ahead of 79-year-old Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and 78-year-old Pope Benedict XVI. Most of the current reigning monarchs were born in the 1950s. As for the youngest none are nearly as young as your question, with Mswati III of Swaziland the youngest at 37. There may be younger elected or military leaders, but I don't know. BTW, I was surprised to notice that there are currently two ruling Albert IIs, one in Belgium and one in Monaco, and that the heads of state of Kuwait and Qatar have almost identical names! Grutness...wha? 11:24, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There was a Final Jeopardy question on Jeopardy! last week about which two currently ruling European monarchs have the same name.  :) User:Zoe|(talk) 22:42, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Bet you wished you had had the Wikipedia ref desk at hand then. :) DirkvdM 08:27, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Famous woman who have had abortions.

Their are many famous woman known for their permiscuity. Such was case before birth control became widespread, yet many never bore children. Is their any evidence famous promiscuious woman who aquired back ally abortions?

  • It might help if you could narrow your question down to identify the women who didn't have children that you are thinking of, and the time period. I assume you mean pre-20th century? My understanding is that in ancient Greece & Rome, rather than practicing abortion people practiced infanticide. (Note, however that the Greek hetaira Aspasia kept her child. But the hetaira weren't necessarily "promiscuious" in the sense you are probably thinking of.) Abortion methods were known, but in ancient times were very dangerous. Even until the early modern period, even though we know the techniques that were used, I doubt there is any record of specific women who used them. It is much easier to figure out if someone had a child 500 years ago than it is to figure out that she didn't have one. As a side note, birth-control methods were known in ancient times (the ancient Eqyptians did something with a cervical cap made from dried aligator dung among other things), they just weren't as effective as the ones we have today and were comparatively more expensive. Crypticfirefly 06:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kim Jong IL

Would society not be better off if somone would kill Kim Jong ILL?

Let's see. leaving aside the question of whether killing a person is ethical or "good", we have several scenarios, incuding among them:
  1. Kim dies, communism collapses, Korea is reunified, everyone lives happily ever after
  2. Kim dies, someone even more despotic takes his place, claims that "the west" was responsible for the killing of his predecessor, and unveils that yes, they really do have nuclear weapons.
  3. Kim dies, there is a power vacuum, civil war erupts in North Korea, spilling over into both South Korea and China. South Korea calls on its allies in the U.S., and we end up with American and Chinese troops eyeballing each other across the no-longer-demilitarized zone.
I suppose your answer depends on whether you feel lucky. Well do ya, punk? Grutness...wha? 05:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Good reasoning. But then why do (or did) the US try to kill Castro? That would certainly make him a martyr. Then again, the US have made a similar misjudgement in the Bay of Pigs, so I suppose hatred, like love, blinds people. DirkvdM 09:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Easiness

Who is easier French woman or Latin woman?

I would say that it depends very much on the woman in question and not her ethnicity... But why don't you do some field tests and let us know of your results.  ;-) Dismas|(talk) 05:34, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Original research is frowned upon in Wikipedia. David Sneek 07:53, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A) It was a joke, see the smilie. B) I didn't say they should write an article about it. C) It was a joke. Dismas|(talk) 09:34, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Heh, I think David Sneek meant his statement as a joke as well. :) (It was funny, too!) zafiroblue05 | Talk 10:45, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
So, what's the answer? I need to make travel plans. --Halcatalyst 13:26, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For me, French. I don't speak Latin. DJ Clayworth 18:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Definitely French women. I don't speak much French, but Latin is a dead language anyway. :) - Mgm|(talk) 18:45, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder why people keep saying that. It might not be lingua franca anywhere, or any country's official language, but it is far from dead. JackofOz 20:27, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It would be considerably easier to have sex with a French woman, since all of the Latin women are dead. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:44, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

femme vs. femina—I think the one syllable of the French is slightly easier than the three of the Latin, especially because you don't have to remember which vowels are short and which are long, or where the stress goes. —Charles P._(Mirv) 04:49, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If by Latin, however, you mean Spanish - then the answer is French women. Not only are French women easier, Spanish women are also uglier, all look the same, and have the worst dress sense in Western Europe. This isn't a personal attack, but it is original research. Proto||type 14:02, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

UFO abduction

How do extrateresials abduct people from cities and other densely populated places? Would they not be witnessed?

Your question assumes that the abductions themselves are real and the stories about them true when in fact they have not been even remotely proven. See Alien abduction for more info. Dismas|(talk) 05:32, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You're talking about creatures that are (probably) totally and utterly different and of whom we know nothing apart from some wild stories and you expect us to be able to tell you how they do things? Thanks for giving us so much credit. You're too kind. :) DirkvdM 09:34, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's easy. They use an application of Clarke's Third Law. Notinasnaid 11:21, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If abductions were conducted by people from our own world and same technology available as we have, then in big city it is easier to hide after the abduction. Just have a get away vehicle (like an auto or van) that a few blocks away will drive up a famp into a semi, so that the get away vehicle as witnessed by people at site of abduction, is no longer visible to any police looking for it. This is called a successful kidnapping plot, and there is plenty of evidence that people know how to do it. Actually sneaking up on people in a sparsely populated rural area is more difficult, because strangers are more likely to be spotted.
When abductions are to be done by visitors from another time (time travelers collecting samples from our time, because when history gets changed, they no longer have reliable evidence for science analysis), dimension, or wherever, they have the technology that lets them move between wherever and us reality, so obviously real easy for them to take passengers back with them. Their motivations must be quite different from present day humanity, because if our people had this technology, the bad people among us would be busy removing all the gold from Fort Knox, the crown jewels, emptying the Smithsonian, raping starlets, you name it, but they are not, which tends to imply that either there are no such visitors, or if they are, their value systems are totally alien to us. User:AlMac|(talk) 11:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 14

British Museum

I think my question didn't get saved so I'll ask again. In the Victorian Era around the late 1800's does anyone know what the floor layout was, did it include an egyptian exhibit, if so on what floor and what was included, and if anyone knows what other exhibits this would include? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.188.255.2 (talk • contribs)

Perhaps read British_Museum#History. Markyour words 01:27, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I can't give any details, but given that Ancient Egypt was very popular in the late 1800s (hence mummy unwrappings) it's only logical for the British museum to exhibit Egyptian artefacts, although a lot less mummies (the famous ones still had to be discovered). - Mgm|(talk) 18:48, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Religion in Sri Lanka

Is the Multi-religious Federation [15] a specific organization in Sri Lanka? What is its local name? ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ 00:31, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Monotheism/Religion

Was polytheism the first type of religion or was there also monotheism during the same time period?

71.98.96.188 02:03, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • See the article History of religions, which ties the growth of "city states" to the development of monotheistic religions. --Canley 03:07, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's history. But religion goes back way beyond (written) history. Probably at least tens of thousands of years. So the question is impossible to answer. DirkvdM 09:36, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Abrahamic religions are generally thought to have been the first monotheistic religions. But see the article on Monotheism for a somewhat different view. Polytheism is mostly ancient but can still be found today. --Halcatalyst 13:17, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

People worship whatever seems powerful to them. Early on, that's mostly animals. Then, once animals have been tamed, comes the Sun, Moon, etc. as in the Egyptian gods. Next, come people, so you get gods that are a lot like people, such as the Greek and Roman gods. Finally come the fundamental forces of nature, like gravity, and one omnipotent god is sufficent to explain those. StuRat 22:34, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

classical music piece

I am trying to find the name of a piece of classical music I know only as "Fire Engines". Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.15.123.8 (talk • contribs)

Can you give us some representation of the melody? —Keenan Pepper 04:56, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Uh... Perhaps he means Chariots of Fire theme by Vangelis? It is a classical in a way, but not "classical" ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 09:29, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Name The House Wreckers

This was on British TV but I believe the incident is American and would have been shown there too.

Two or more teenagers videoed themselves causing massive vandalism to a residence. I don't believe any of the teens lived there. It was a large house. Much of the vandalism was done with baseball bats.

The video footage includes shots of; a celing fan, with a light in the centre of it, being smashed down; the toilet seat being kicked off and the bowl being hit with a bat; filmed from below, one of them kicking through the ceiling from above; many, many windows being smashed; there is an outside shot of the house from some distance away revealing that all the windows that can be seen from the view had been smashed. I understand they were punished for this with their video, of course, making their case impossible to defend.

Anyone able to name the kids or add any details I could plug into a search engine? --bodnotbod 04:25, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I saw the footage, it was quite a while back, over a year ago, I think. I also recall that it was a new housing development under construction at the time. StuRat 22:23, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it is at least a year old, I'd say. Hmmm, from what you say then, perhaps the house was a show-home rather than owned by anyone at that time. --bodnotbod 03:52, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
In the US it is common for developers to build houses in a subdivision ahead of time, in the hopes that they can sell them once built. I believe it was one of those, under construction (nearly finished). StuRat 04:39, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Could this be it ? It's from 11 years ago: [16] StuRat 05:00, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Musical charts

Why do some music recordings feature on charts for more than one style of music? For instance a musical release may feature on both the pop and country charts etc?

As I understand it, this is because of the radio stations that a track is played on. Sometimes the pop stations might play a country song, for example. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 08:37, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Killed By Trousers

I see statements like "more people are killed by trousers than by aeroplanes", but how do I find out the statistics for the number of people killed by trousers? I have done a few web and wikipedia searches but all I can find are uncited quotes like this. — PhilHibbs | talk 09:47, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Uh-oh. I can see the TV reality show now: "When good trousers attack" Grutness...wha? 10:45, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
87.2% of statistics are just made up on the spot. Notinasnaid 11:01, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
73.2% of people making that claim have watched The Wrong Trousers. —WAvegetarian•CONTRIBUTIONSTALK• EMAIL•14:11, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You know, it's interesting. My psychology and statistics textbooks claim people who make up statistics make up round numbers, like 10% of people being gay, but it seems to me pseudo-random numbers are much more popular. They sound like you know exactly what you're talking about. Black Carrot 20:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Realistically we will never know the number of trouser-related deaths, because the countries where most people live (India, China etc.) have bigger worries than keeping those statistics. In the UK, however, RoSPA publishes amusing statistics on accidents (presumably most are not fatal) involving various items. In 2002 these included 9,410 accidents involving trousers, 17,159 involving cats, and 656 for 'sex or marital aid e.g. condom or vibrator'. You can laugh at other people's misery here, though the interface is a tad cumbersome. Markyour words 20:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have a hard time picturing how people are killed by pants, but there are an amazing number of tree related deaths each year, including the following:

  • Cars that run into trees.
  • Trees that fall on people or houses, usually during storms.
  • People who fall out of trees while climbing them.
  • Objects that fall out of trees on people, like coconuts and treehouses.
  • Lightning that hits trees and kills people hiding under them from the rain.
  • Trees can spread a fire that kills people.
  • Trees, once cut down to form houses, can kill peeople by collapsing, catching fire, etc.

StuRat 22:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget that time a guy had sex with a tree, cut himself, got an infection and died.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  06:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Greatest Sitting world leader

Who is the greatest sitting (current) world leader

The Buddha is generally depicted as sitting. --Halcatalyst

Yes, he is the greatest, sitting idol. David Sneek 14:16, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Abraham Lincoln is also sitting, and pretty great. Seriously though, entirely subjective questions are not going to get a sensible answer here. DJ Clayworth 17:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I nominate: Tony Blair.

  • How about the Dalai Lama. Who is the greatest depends on your interpretation of great. - Mgm|(talk) 18:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I nominate Maddox Black Carrot 20:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lonest serving legislators?

Who is the longest serving current member of the French National assembly? Who is the longest serving current member of the Japanese Diet?

Because I want to write a wikipedia article listing longest, currently serving legislators.

Jews in power

Outside of Isreal are their any jews who currently serve as president or Prime minister of a nation?

Well, this admittedly non-authoritative link states that Job Cohen would have been the first Jewish PM outside of Israel had he won election in the Netherlands two years ago. Alas, he did not. Michael Howard former leader of the Conservative Party (UK) is Jewish, but of course he never made it to power either. Finally, there's Joe Lieberman who almost became American Vice President in 2000. I think it quite possible that the answer is no at the moment.
Benjamin Disraeli is probably the best known person of Jewish descent to hold Prime Ministerial office outside of Israel (though that's going back more than a century). Marskell 13:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Léon Blum who was prime minister of France was jewish. Béla Kun, the communist leader of Hungary (for a short while) was somewhat jewish (as a hard-line communist he was of course against all religion). On that note, Samuel Aba, a medieval king of Hungary, was likely jewish. (Which is rather remarkable). --BluePlatypus 14:22, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
New Zealand's 19th century prime minister Sir Julius Vogel was also Jewish. ISTR that there has been another Jewish PM in New Zealand, but his name eludes me. Not that that answers the "currently" part of the question. Grutness...wha? 21:49, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Julius Vogel also wrote the first New Zealand science fiction novel. Lisiate 21:52, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
and the NZ science fiction awards (of which I am a past recipient :) are named in his honour. He may not have been the first NZ sf novelist though... the case is still out on that one. Oh, and as far as Jewish heads of state are concerned, though he's not a national head, Michael Bloomberg is the next best thing. Grutness...wha? 22:14, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Janet Jagan, president of Guyana from 1997 to 1999, was of Jewish descent, although nonpracticing. Bruno Kreisky, chancellor of Austria from 1970 to 1983, was also Jewish by birth, but I don't know if he practiced the religion. According to the World Jewish Congress, five presidents in the Central America-Caribbean region have been Jewish, including two practicing presidents of Panama -- Mwalcoff 04:51, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The first Australian-born Governor-General, Sir Isaac Isaacs was Jewish. He wasn't the head of state in my opinion or that of Wikipedia, but a large number of Australians do consider the G-G the head of state. JackofOz 07:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Lawyer Chenny shot

Is it just me or does this guy look like president Bush? Could he possibly be his (President Bushes) biological father?

I don't know the lawyer you're talking about, but the Bush family has been around in the Texas oil biz for a long time. Gee Dub is most certainly Aitch's son.

I suggest you have a close look at —WAvegetarian•CONTRIBUTIONSTALK• EMAIL•14:08, 14 February 2006 (UTC) [reply]

  • I've got no idea who this Chenny is. Perhaps you're referring to Dick Cheney. - Mgm|(talk) 18:54, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's Harry Whittington. See Dick Cheney#Hunting accident. StuRat 21:58, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"I always said that US Vice President Dick Cheney was evil (Halliburton, the Iraq war, US energy policy, the Valerie Plame incident, etc.). But, at least he used to be subtle about it. Now he's apparently decided to just go out and start shooting people." 21:58, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Dubya sure looks like his father's (George H. W. Bush) son to me, though I think he does choose slightly nicer ties:

  • Dubya
    Dubya
  • Dad
    Dad

Frankly, if we're going to be throwing nasty aspersions round, the favourite one going round the lefty blogs at the moment is: what were Cheney and Whittington going out shooting with two women who weren't their wives...;) --Robert Merkel 22:52, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

KFA

Is their any credible evidence that KFA members have, used conscripted sex workers, in North Korea?

See Korean Friendship Association. Given the tight control on the media in North Korea, it would be difficult to confirm or deny any such allegations. --Halcatalyst 13:23, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Blair's politics

Is Tony Blair right of center, or left of center?

  • It's kind of a matter of opinion: as a Labour Party (UK) politician, he'd usually be considered left of centre. However, as the article Tony Blair attests, he has come under considerable criticism from left-wingers in his own party for being too right-wing, and forsaking the party's traditional priorities. --Canley 13:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • He is right of centre. In some aspects of policy he has gone further than Thatcher, especially with regard to introducing private sector involvement in public services. Of course, if the two main parties drift right you could argue that the centre drifts right with them. Have a look at this: Political compass. --bodnotbod 17:05, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Left, right and centre are attempts to apply simple labels to complex, ambiguous things like political positions. Worse, their interpretations are entirely subjective, with different people understanding them in different ways. Deciding what label to apply to his policies is very unlikely to be helpful. To take one simple example if Tony were a US politician his policies (public healthcare support, gun control, same-sex civil unions) would put him on the extreme left wing. DJ Clayworth 17:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Not forgetting the fact someone can have extreme left views on one subject and an extreme right one on others. The first three answers here, should give you an idea how useless those labels really are. - Mgm|(talk) 18:57, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's also the case that the "left/right" business varies according to where you are, since "centrist" tends to refer to the accepted middle-ground in whatever country you're in. To use an example - traditionally in US politics the Democrats are to the left and the Republicans are to the right, but the Democrats would be considered well to the right of centre compared with politics where I am in New Zealand. Britain's politics lie somewhere between the US's and NZ's so from a US viewpoint, Blair would be considerably to the left, whereas he's far closer to the centre or over towards the right by British or New Zealand standards. Grutness...wha? 21:56, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
See Left-Right politics. Frankly, the terms are near-useless in trying to place politicians in a historic or global perspective; they are useful only in a gross approximation of their views within a country's political debate at a particular time. --Robert Merkel 22:43, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As an illustration of some difficulties with the left/right classification in an international context, here are my impressions of the political compass bodnotbod linked to. That test seems designed to push me into a left wing corner. I'm left-wing with respect to the questions asked. But there is no nuance on the left wing side. Just like IQ tests come in different forms depending on the intelligence measured, there should be different versions for different countries here. Simply put, the questionnaire states that if you're Dutch, you're a commie. ::Take this one: "Although the electronic age makes official surveillance easier, only wrongdoers need to be worried." I disagree only with the word 'only' and therefore with the whole statement. Had that been 'mostly' I would have agreed. Or this one: "The businessperson and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist." I disagree. But had it been asked in reverse I would ahve disagreed as well. But that sort of question is never asked.
And I found this one interresting: "A significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system." I agreed with that, but wonder if that is taken as a right-wing or a left-wing thing. It could refer to Lenin or Hitler. Or this one: "Some people are naturally unlucky." I don't see any link with left/right-wing (I disagreed because I don't see a scientific basis for it). Finally, I often missed the option 'haven't a clue'.
Oh, and then there's this one: "Sex outside marriage is usually immoral." As I explained in a previous thread, I disagree because I consider it by definition immoral (but interpreted the intention and filled in 'agree').
And the result? Apparently, I'm a mild left wing libertarian, putting me right next to Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama (I can live with that) and opposite George Bush (phew, that's a relief :) ). DirkvdM 09:36, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Whee! Interesting test. It put me out beyond Gandhi on both axes...and currectly predicted my Green Party vote at last year's NZ election. Grutness...wha? 04:49, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sex

Do female wikipedian's between the age of 18 and 28 like to have sex?

Some do, some don't. Why don't you ask in your favorite Wikipedian bar? --Halcatalyst 13:19, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Something wrong with 29+? Marskell 13:48, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I imagine quite a few of those female Wikipedians like to have sex depending on who they're with. Kinsey found out sex is a hard area to research reliably. If you're looking for a sex partner as your earlier questions make it appear, I suggest you check out your local bar/cinema/disco/club etc. - Mgm|(talk) 18:40, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Meet women at the cinema? Some bugger starts prowling around my local fleapit trying to draw random women into conversation whilst I'm trying to watch the film, they'll end up with a jumbo hot dog wrapped 'round their neck. --bodnotbod 18:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • How about break time, or in the foyer before the film? - Mgm|(talk) 18:58, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What are these "females" of which you speak? Angmering 22:29, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Why are you limiting the ages? User:Zoe|(talk) 22:48, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Because I am 24, and do am not a gerophile. Seriously I am a 24 year old law student, is their woman in my age bracket living in the north east who wants to have sex?

I'm sure there is. At least one. User:Zoe|(talk) 03:05, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
But, there probably aren't any women who read this page who have the least desire to have sex with a random man who posts such a question here. StuRat 04:34, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sex: "The pleasure momentary, the posture ridiculous, and the expense damnable" -- Evelyn Waugh. Personally, I don't have any objection to the posture or the expense. Geogre 18:47, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

British supporting actors 1950s

where can I get a list detailing which actors - e.g. Victor Maddern, Sam Kydd - made the MOST films in the 1950s. I have been commissioned to write a book about the top ten but don't know how to find the top ten! help. Dee Gordon

Presumably, since you've been comissioned to write this book, you must have some idea who they are likely to be - say narrowing it down to the top hundred or so. It should be no more than a couple of days work to go through IMDB and find out which ones were in the most films. DJ Clayworth 17:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • It seems a strange commission, in a way. One is tempted to ask "who cares who made the most?" A book might more entertainingly cover those actors who had the most interesting life stories or individual anecdotes. But I'd second the recommendation of wading, rather laboriously probably, through the IMDB which will give you a good at a glance view of likely contenders. Asking on the IMDB forums is liable to get you more knowledgeable answers than here.
You could also try asking on the Guardian newspaper talk boards which I recommend because it has an older, British, clientelle than many other forums out there, many of them interested in film and media. Try the Notes and Queries folder there (linked to on the left of that page) --bodnotbod 18:38, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • How did you get commissioned to write a book about which you don't know the basic outline/facts? - Mgm|(talk) 19:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First Amendment Protections

Were sit-in's during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's protected by the first amendment (freedom of speech)? It's always said that they were, but I thought that the Constitution only protected people against the government - sit-ins occurred in private restaurants who could choose to accomodate whoever they want? What am I missing? Thank you. Mickey 16:55, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you mean in the US, then sit-ins, which are typically designed to cause a disruption, are not protected, whether on private or public land. Then again, being arrested may actually be the goal, for maximum press coverage. A sit-in in a government office might be such an example.StuRat 04:31, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Racial discrimination by businesses that serve interstate commerce was prohibited in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The constitution had nothing to do with it. -- Mwalcoff 04:41, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The fact that restaurants can't legally discriminate based on race doesn't make it legal for those who accuse them of violating this law to sit-in and disrupt their restaurant. StuRat 06:59, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
In the early 1960's the protestors merely sat down in all available tables/seats and waited to be served, which didn't happen. Is that disruptive? Rmhermen 20:04, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stalins almamater

What ever happened to the Tiflis Theological Seminary, where stalin studied? Is it still in operation?

The building that housed it is now the Georgian State Art Museum [17]. The seminary apparently was closed down at some point. This page says that the only seminary open in Georgia in the 1960s was at Mtskheta. The Mtskheta seminary became the current Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary [18] in 1988 [19]. --Cam 05:27, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Images of Flags of Countries Projected by NBC on the ice at the Olympics

I've been watching the Speed Skating coverage by the NBC network in the United States. It seems like NBC is somehow projecting the flag of the country the competitor is from on the ice during some speed skating races. How are they doing this? Is it happening within the stadium at the Olympics or is it being done by NBC?

It's a video effect, not something you'd see if you were actually present. [20] - Nunh-huh 20:53, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The same way that ads are projected onto the background behind a catcher during televised baseball games. If you were in the stadium, all you'd see would be a green background, but at home you see the ad. Sometimes, if you watch really closely, you can see that, as the camera switches from some other shot back to the catcher, the ad takes a fraction of a second to be redisplayed. User:Zoe|(talk) 22:50, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Law Concurrent Liability

hi all, can someone give me an idea on concurrent liability...detailed explanation is required....not cases... I would like to relate it with Tort and Law of contract... please help.

Matt

You need to specify what jurisdiction you want to know about. Oh, and your almost certainly going to have to get to grips with the cases - they're the primary sources.Lisiate 21:56, 14 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Hi, I wanted to know Concurrent Liability in Tort and Contract law in UK. i would appreciate if you could give me a lot of theoritical explanation rather than cases. Thanks

British Politics

Can a king or prince or queen or any of the royalty become prime minister?

No. But the nobility can now they are no longer allowed to sit automatically in the House of Lords.
Technically, I'm not sure that members of the royal family are even allowed to vote. As to the House of lords rule, there have been instances (before the modernisation of the UK Upper House) where hereditary peers have renounced their titles (i.e., "become commoners") in order to become MPs - most famously Tony Benn. It also gives a cluse as to the reason for the name of the "House of Commons". Grutness...wha? 00:41, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Except for the reigning monarch legally yes. However, it would considered a violation of tradition for a member of the royal family to run for political office, or even vote.

I agree with that. Some members of the Royal Family are peers and entitled to sit in the House of Lords, eg. the Prince of Wales has done so. They would not be able to stand for the House of Commons unless they disclaimed their peerage (whether this would also entail somehow renouncing their royal status is something I'm not competent to say). If they were eligible to stand for office, they could be elected, and could ultimately become PM. Grutness, whether a member of the Royal Family is allowed to vote or not has nothing to do with whether they could, technically, stand for election. Voting is non-compulsory in the UK, so for all I know Tony Blair might never have voted in his life. (Actually, I'm sure he has, but he's not forced to.) JackofOz 07:41, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I don't remember saying that it did - although I suspect if someone is legally barred from voting then they would be unable to stand for office. Whether the royals are actually barred or simply don't vote is another matter entirely. Traditionally, though, members of the royal family never even indicate their support of any particular political viewpoint, let alone a particular party, and similarly never launch legal proceedings against anyone - although Prince Charles in particular has bent these unwritten guidelines considerably with his views on environmentalism. Grutness...wha? 10:52, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A monarch in a parliamentary democracy that has any dealings with politics (usually in an advisory function) is (or else should be) supposed to be politically neutral, something one cannot be when in parliament. I don't know how this is in practise, but by this reason it should be illegal (by constitution). And of course the same goes for anyone who might somehow become the monarch and that might include a lot of members of the royal family, though that may vary a lot between countries. DirkvdM 10:00, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Note also that the idea that the Prime Minister must be a member of the Commons, like so much of British constitutional practice, is only a matter of tradition and not law; and in fact it is a tradition no more than 100 years old, arising after Lord Salisbury's terms as PM. See Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for discussion of how the office and its traditions have gradually evolved. So theoretically I don't think there's anything stopping a monarch from breaking tradition appointing himself or another royal as PM; however, the conditions for that to happen and for the Commons to give him the necessary vote of confidence are hard to imagine. It would certainly be viewed as undemocratic in any normal circumstance. --Anonymous, 10:10 UTC, February 15, 2006.
NB that reform of the House of Lords means that only 92(?) peers (one in ten) now sit in the Lords. They can however now stand for election to the House of Commons instead without having to disclaim their title. Viscount Thurso became the first to take advantage of this change, winning Caithness for the Lib Dems in 2001. Jameswilson 23:53, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 15

Russia

Is Russia a democracy or a dictatorship?

Is this a homework question? If so, have you read democracy, dictatorship, Politics of Russia (though that article pulls its punches), and Vladimir Putin? Hint: it's not a simple question, and neither "democracy" nor "dictatorship" are unambiguous or rigidly defined. --Robert Merkel 03:31, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Doesn't seem too much like a homework question to me. GeeJo (t) (c) • 10:06, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Are we talking now or historically? - Mgm|(talk) 09:18, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The question is in present tense, so it refers to now. In stead of burning my fingers on this specific case let me point out that a dictator can assume power through a democratic process. Hitler is a prime example. And Saddam Hussein also claims to have been democratically elected. DirkvdM 10:03, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Soccer Hooligans

Is it true that many European soccor hooligans have links to radical right, Nazi, and neo fascist groups.

See our article Hooliganism. --Halcatalyst 04:55, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Define hooligan. An illustrating anecdote: I've been a football supporter with the 'Angel Side' (MVV) for a few years, and when in Mexico I went to a football game. At the counter I asked where the home supporters were located (usually the most lively part of the stadium). The guy didn't understand, so I explained, after which he indignantly exclaimed "We don't have any hooligans here." Which was quite an understatement. The entire stadium was totally dead, with the response to a goal being a friendly applause. DirkvdM 10:09, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm sure if you ask politely they will arrange a violent riot so you will feel right at home. StuRat 04:53, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Nah, I'm a pacifist hooligan. At least if one is to believe that test I referred to above, which put me in league with Gandhi and the Dalai Lama. DirkvdM 08:26, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

David Cammeron

From the U.S. prospective who would be easier to work with, David Cameron or Gordon Brown?

Is this a homework question? Have you read David Cameron and Gordon Brown? Furthermore, you might read Conservative Party (UK) and Labour Party (UK) for some more hints, particularly the mention of Atlanticism in the Tory article. Think also about what you mean by the question - do you mean the US generally or the current White House, which are not one and the same thing (as Australia may well discover in February 2009). --Robert Merkel 03:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hereditary peers

Why did britan give them so much power until very recently? How could a modernist justify giving so much power to someome, just because of what their great grandpa did? Is it true a member was caught selling drugs at Westmister, in the late 90's?

See Conservatism. See also Tourism and the thought of what getting rid of the biggest hereditary office in the land would do to the UK's inbound tourist trade... --Robert Merkel 03:42, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's likely that all countries have constitutional leftovers that seem unfair nowadays. In the U.S., residents of DC have no representation in Congress, California has 62 times more people per senator than Wyoming does and you can be elected president even if someone else gets more votes than you. And Canadian senators are appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister. -- Mwalcoff 04:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Which is ironic considering the US want to 'bring democracy to the world'. Maybe they should start with getting a proper one themselves. :) Irritatingly, some people here in the Netherlands now say we should also get ourselves a district system. Oh horror. DirkvdM 10:16, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, I doubt if the EU government is elected based strictly on population, either, but rather by "districts" (countries). StuRat 04:50, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, but the EU is not a country. I used to be all in favour of giving all power to a parliament with equal representation because that is more democratic. But if the constitution referendum did one thing for me it was make me think about what the EU really should be. And I'm now convinced it shouldn't be a country, little more than a collection of (trade) agreements (which may spread as far as it wishes - Turkey - Iraq - Russia - India - Brazil - wherever). That's why I voted against the constitution - there should be no constitution at all. DirkvdM 08:34, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Britain didn't give peers their power, the peers took their power from the king, starting with the Magna Carta. "Modernists" didn't "give so much power" to them, modernists took it away. - Nunh-huh 13:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There are a number of good reasons for having a non-elected revising legislative chamber, briefly summarrised they are that
  1. It allows the ability to appoint people of real merit/knowledge on particular subjects.
  2. It allows experienced politicians to continue to play an active (& beneficial) part in public life, even (or especially) in areas where they have particular interest/experience.
  3. There is an in-built conservative (with a small c) majority which ensures that no temporarily elected party can do away with long held rights & liberties (though this has broken down since the 'reform' of HoL & the large number of Labour peers now in place).
  4. Generally it ensures that well educated people have the opportunity to debate the issues, & the fact that they didn't need to sit in the HoL except when they wanted to usually meant that only those who actually were well educated & concerned about the issues did speak or vote.
  5. It allows the government of the day to reward old politicians & make room for new ones in the HoC (more so nowadays since life peerages became common).
  6. It prevents both houses of the legislature being controlled by the same party, in the sense that members of the HoL, while some nominally belonged to a party, tend to be far more independent than members of the HoC as they're not afraid of deselection from their seats/the party machine not booking them paying speaking engagements/not getting appointed to Cabinet or other career benefit.
  7. Members of the HoL don't need to worry about getting voted out so they could discuss politically unpopular issues which will inevitably offend/upset some people/vested interests in a way which elected political parties & members are reluctant to do.
On the guy caught dealing drugs I believe it was the son of a peer & frankly thats not uncommon as Jack Straw's son was also caught for dealing drugs, as have a number of other people. Even if it was a peer it wouldn't matter as you can't use this as an argument against a whole group. AllanHainey 12:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Augustine of Hippo...Just War

Please help.I have been hunting for the specific text(s) in which Augustine puts forward the idea of 'just war.'Could someone help me to locate it/them? Thanks. Paul Delaney

This segment on war from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas cites Augustine by chapter and verse. --Halcatalyst 04:53, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Minoan food and clothing

What did the ancient Minoans eat? I can't seem to find it anywhere in wikipedia... gelo 05:55, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Minoan civilization#Agriculture has the information you want. To that I would add that, being island-dwellers and noted seafarers, they probably ate a fair amount of seafood. What about clothing? —Charles P._(Mirv) 06:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC) 06:17, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Based on the images I've seen, they didn't wear much.  :) User:Zoe|(talk) 19:27, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

philosophy of man>phenomenology of love

man is a social being and therefore he is capable of loving and being loved. They say that the experience of loving starts in the experience of loneliness, how did it happen? Explain.

Unfortunately, we can't do your homework for you. - Akamad 06:56, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Have you read our article on Love? GeeJo (t) (c) • 10:01, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The greeks(plato and aristotle), the scholastics, and the mercantilists each built their analysis around a specific economic objective(or goal) for society. Describe these objectives

When is your homework due? Notinasnaid 08:15, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • These objectives are probably in the course material you had to read/watch before answering this question. - Mgm|(talk) 09:19, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You seem to have forgotten at least one Greek philosopher, Socrates.StuRat 21:28, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Damn fine soccer player, too... Grutness...wha? 10:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And he is particularly missed:

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable,
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table,
David Hume could out-consume
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist,
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill,
Plato, they say, could stick it away,
Half a crate of whisky every day.
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle,
Hobbes was fond of his dram,
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart,
"I drink, therefore I am."
Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed.

JackofOz 12:03, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

17 century painting styles

Please advise me on how to find the most popular painting styles during the 17 century. Thank you. Rachel

The rather poor article History of painting suggests Baroque which is a better article. This only discusses Europe, scattered articles may give wider details e.g Japanese_art#Art_of_the_Edo_period. Unfortunately fine art is rather a black hole here on the wiki so if you learn anything more it would be great if you can come back and contribute it. MeltBanana 16:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"I had a beautiful Rennaisance vase, but then I dropped it, and now it's Baroque." StuRat 21:23, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hume

Hume said we can't be certain of any kind of knowledge besides mathematical knowledge...but can we be 100% certain even of that? if yes, what explanation did he give?.--Cosmic girl 15:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When mathematicians talk of a "proof" they do mean something absolute, and this is something not available in other forms of study (unless it follows the same principles, see below). But what do mathematicians really mean? Mathematics is built on axioms. These are things we have to take for granted, things we assume. A "proof" is actually a proof using axioms as the original assumptions, and using axioms in the steps of the proof, and nothing else added. You can therefore say that if the axioms are valid, then the proofs are valid. Most maths is built on axioms that make sense in the real world such as x = x, but mathematicians can have funs by using illogical, made up, or plain wrong axioms. The proofs using these axioms are still proofs. And you can prove other things outside maths, if you start with a different set of axioms. Some theologians have done this, starting with truths that they hold to be self evident. I guess you could use axiomatic proofs in physics too: if s = u + a . t is an axiom, then we can probably prove things about distance travelled as related to time passed. Doesn't mean that what is proved is right. Does that make sense? Notinasnaid 16:46, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As a quick interjection, non-numerical proofs are possible as well and (I think...) Hume would accord them the same designation as "knowledge" as he would anything else, so long as you do not attempt to induct on the basis of the proof. Sure, "this is true" insofar as the top of the page is consistent with the bottom--and beyond the page nothing can be said. He wouldn't accord any veracity to an applied proof (numerical or otherwise) as justifying a future certainty. Math says: "Venus' orbit will do X." Hume says: "I don't know that." He's not declaiming math as untrue; he's refusing to draw an inference where the proof says he should. Marskell 22:20, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
From another perspective, this is explained in critical thinking as the difference between a fact and a truth. It is a factual statement to say that there is intelligent life on Mars. It is factual because it can be proven to be true or false. We know it to be false because we have explored enough of Mars to know that there is no intelligent life there. Now, claiming that there is intelligent life on some other planet is also a factual statement. We don't know if it is true or false, but it could be proven by inspecting every single planet. Math works with factual statements, as explained above. So does everything else. The Declaration of Independence is based on the factual statement that all people are born with inalienable rights. It assumes this to be true because it is self evident. That is not a proof that it is true. It is assumed to be true and then all factual statements based on it are assumed to be true as well. Should you disagree about the self evidence of inalienable rights, the rest of the Declaration of Independence is a flawed proof. --Kainaw (talk) 18:16, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ok I see. I knew that math is based on axioms, but they are axioms acording to US humans...let's imagine that 'God' exists, maybe he can make irrational things (for us) happen and be 'true metaphysically'...so, what I'm saying here is that we would be really rational to accept even what we take to be axioms have a posibility, however slight, of being wrong 'metaphysically', thus, not 'absolutely true', am I making a point? or is there an argument that inmunizes math to the irrationality of metaphysics and so called 'ultimate truth'. oh and also, that comment notinasnaid said about math making proofs out of irrational and untrue axioms for 'fun'..is it just for fun? or has anything useful ever been developed (like technology or an important theory) using 'false axioms'? my guess is it hasnt but...what do I know?. :P --Cosmic girl 22:26, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First, the easy answer... There are areas in logic where an expected false fact is used as a true axiom in a sort of reverse proof.
Now, the harder answer... When we, as humans, state something as 'true', we imply that it is true within the confines of time and space as we know it. It is a well accepted truth that all laws of math and physics as we know it cease to exist at the big bang. Most feel that they cease to exist in the middle of a black hole. So, it is perfectly reasonable to claim that beyond our existence, there is one in which our math is completely wrong. But, who cares? We use math and physics to understand the universe that we live in - not one that we have no connection or comprehension of. --Kainaw (talk) 23:54, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Totally agree, who cares? science is a great tool (I repeat,tool), and I also 'know' that there is the possibility that our math isn't absolute for 'everything' even things 'outside' our existence...and now you said it too, so I'm not the only one...I thought I was crazy for reasoning this way actually, but now that you say that our math and physics break down soon after the BB...I know maybe I'm not that crazy.--Cosmic girl 02:53, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The meaning of "Cory" as in Chilean or Polish Cory

This is in political science text: "The Third Wave, Democratization in the Late Twenthieth Century," Samuel P. Huntington, U of Oklahoma Press. It reads: "There is no Chilean Cory." "Lech Walesa was a Polish Cory." p. 158.

Thanks Janet

Maybe Corazon Aquino AnonMoos 19:50, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mona Lisa

Why were panels at both sides of the Mona Lisa removed?

A mystery. The sides of the panel were cut not long after Leonardo's death, but that's about all that is known. David Sneek 23:11, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tattoo and military tattoo

The word tattoo is unusual and I see it came from Tahiti and generally means an inked image on a person's body. How did the word tattoo then become associated with "military tattoo" or Scottish tattoo?

Although it's not clearly described in Military Tattoo article, it would seem that the military type of tattoo came from a Dutch phrase "doe den tap toe." --LarryMac 19:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And the military meaning appeared first in English. The "skin decoration" meaning is about 100 years after that. - Nunh-huh 04:38, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's one of those rare English words that are really two different words. Same spelling, but two completely different etymologies. "Compound" is another word like that; yet another is "wake". Grutness...wha? 11:02, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

early christian letters

Can you tell me the name of the early christian letters that are read at mass?--70.251.111.227 19:25, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean epistles? AnonMoos 19:48, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How many car accidents happen a day in the USA?

Question in title only

by a remarkable coincidence, this question was just answered over on the Miscellaneous desk. GeeJo (t) (c) • 19:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also Here. Have they put this as a sample question somewhere or something? GeeJo (t) (c) • 21:01, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Humanities (I think) People with same birth and death dates

I can't seem to find an article that lists people who have the same birth and death dates...surely there must be some prominent people with this unusual occurrance? Is there already an article and I'm just not finding it? If there isn't an article on this already, can anyone suggest what might be the easiest way to find out who had the same birth and death dates? Thanks in advance. bcatt 19:35, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try List of people who died on their birthdays. By the way, it's not all that uncommon. It happens to one in every 365 people. GeeJo (t) (c) • 19:38, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I admit that for somebody with a degree in math, I am horrible at probability and statistics; so kindly indulge me and explain how it can happen to 1 in every 365 people. I can sort of understand that any individual person has a 1 in 365 chance of dying on his birthday (excepting those born on 29 Feb, but let's ignore them for now). --LarryMac 20:19, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I don't understand your question. Since any individual person has a 1 in 365 chance of dying on his birthday, then 1 in 365 people will do so. Markyour words 20:37, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, I said I was horrible at this stuff. There is some kind of brick wall in my head that prevents me from seeing those as the same thing. I always preferred the easy stuff, like differential equations, although most everything is lost in the haze of 20 some years of disuse :-) --LarryMac 20:57, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe think of it this way: 1 in 365 people will die on 21st June, Christmas Day, or any other particular day of which there is one every year. That 'particular day' can be defined in any way you want, as long as there is only one each year. Since each person has one birthday per year, 1 in 365 people will also die on his birthday. Markyour words 21:28, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The number of people who die on their birthday might even be higher than 1/365, if you consider surprise parties given to elderly people with heart conditions. :-) StuRat 21:31, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I appreciate the help, and I will try to get my mind to suitly emphazi the explanation. --LarryMac 01:54, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hehe...thanks for the point in the right direction...and for the laughs. bcatt 23:18, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I've seen it said that a person is statistically more likely to die in the months just after their birthday than those just before. This is claimed to be for psychological reasons: wanting to reach one more birthday promotes the will to live. I don't know if it's an accepted theory today, though, or how it would relate to deaths actually on one's birthday. --Anonymous, 00:30 UTC, February 16, 2006, not my birthday.

Diaspora?

Could the peopling of Oceania/Polynesia be called a diaspora? 64.198.112.210 21:07, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is more of a scattered settling. They did ultimately split up and migrated into new territories on their own. I thought of diaspora as it pertains to the Jewish scattering across Europe as teh result of persecution. When the American west was settled, it wasn't called a diaspora; they settled and migrated on their accord.--192.160.130.12 21:28, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The defining characteristic of a diaspora is not persecution, it's spreading out from a specific place. The settling of America included several diasporas, such as the Irish diaspora, but since the settlers came from many different places, it was not itself a diaspora. The peopling of Polynesia is not really a diaspora because we don't know where they started out from. In a trivial sense, of course, they must have started from somewhere in Africa, which leads some people to include them in the African diaspora. But that's just silly. Markyour words 23:24, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Could it be? It is! It's usually referred to as the Pacific Diaspora. Grutness...wha? 00:31, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Most of the Google hits for that seem to refer to Pacific islanders moving away from the islands, to NZ or the US. Which would be in line with the usual terminology of naming the diaspora after the place left, not the place gone to. Markyour words 00:55, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Let me re-word my reply: The Pacific Diaspora is the name used by anthropologists studying the spread of the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian races across the Pacific from about 100 BC to 1200 AD. Or at least it is here in the Pacific. Grutness...wha? 05:02, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Who said it?

Questioning authority is like a gangreous toe about to kill the whole body.

I can't find this through google, help would be appreciated.

Do you mean "cutting off a gangrenous toe" ? StuRat 00:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mentalism

I need to learn some basic techniques of mentalism before monday (It's a private issue...meant for nothing harmful though) is there any website I can get any tips from? please, I really need this for monday.I've searched in google but haven't found any useful site, or if anyone wants to give me some advide on this, please post it on my talk page,I'd be so thankful.--Cosmic girl 22:16, 15 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try doing a search on cold reading. StuRat 00:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thanx :)...but I'm trying more to actually influence someone to my favour than to guess his life... because...well it's a long story, but I'm the victim and I need to gain this key person to 'my cause' or else I'm doomed.--Cosmic girl 04:20, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We need the specifics to help. Who are you trying to influence to do what ? StuRat 04:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Short answer - as far as science has been able to tell, it doesn't work. Whatever it is you want from this person, you'd be better off learning a bit more about "conventional" persuasion techniques than pinning your hopes on the supernatural. That said, if you have a religious bent, some religious friends claim that prayer helps them find answers to difficult problems, though not necessarily in the way that they anticipate. --Robert Merkel 05:50, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Mentalism is not supernatural perse. It's also the name for the use of psychology in magic type mind reading performances. I would recommend reading the section on Derren Brown on the website of the British Channel 4 for some useful techniques. - Mgm|(talk) 08:44, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lift Out Quotes

Could you please tell me what a lift out quote is? It relates to the packaging of news in media. Thanks

I think the idea is that it's a line that can be quoted and make sense alone, hopefully without distorting the original meaning. Take the following paragraph, for example:
Many people spend their lives trying to find the
secret of happiness.  I believe the secret of
happiness lies in setting achievable goals,
working hard to realize those goals - then, once
they have been achieved, defining a new set of
attainable goals.  Unhappiness comes from failing
to set any goals, setting impossible goals,
setting overly simple goals, or failing to define
new goals once the first set has been attained.
The "lift out quote" here, is the only sentence which can stand alone to summarize the paragraph:
"I believe the secret of
 happiness lies in setting achievable goals,
 working hard to realize those goals - then, once
 they have been achieved, defining a new set of
 attainable goals." StuRat 00:10, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Recent bills in congress

Can anyone please tell me a few bills that have been proposed by congress? More specifically, bills that have been proposed recently by the house or the senate.

Assuming you mean the US Congress, that's not any more specific, since the Senate and the House of Representatives, together, are the exact same thing as Congress. For recent bills, how about the proposed extensions of the Homeland Security Act ? StuRat 00:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Go to http://thomas.loc.gov. The House bill to be introduced was H.R. 4753, so if you search for, say, H.R. 4650, H.R. 4651, etc., you'll see what members of the House have been proposing. For the Senate, they're now on S. 2286, so you can search for S. 2200, S. 2201, etc. -- Mwalcoff 01:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 16

Early Scopes For Weapons?!

Where can I get information on the first and early scopes for guns!?

Early guns weren't accurate enough to benefit from a telescopic sight, so, if anything, probably only had a simple sight such as a vertical bar above the end of the barrel. StuRat 00:28, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Scopes were not required until rifles were accurate beyond at least 500 yards (the minimum distance required for Marines with plain iron sights). That was just before WWI. So, it is a 20th century invention. Previously, scopes were literally telescopes or binoculars attached by the user himself. For snipers, scopes are not well-liked. Yes, they can help increase the distance you can aim, but they attract a lot of attention to the sniper. Night scopes are a completely different entity. They aren't used specifically for distance. They provide ability to see targets with very little light. --Kainaw (talk) 02:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You'd neeed more support for the statement that snipers don't like rifles with scopes. Military snipers generally are attached to a regular unit and fire from considerable distances, not solo from trees or the tops of buildings, as the movies might picture it. At least, so I gathered from Anthony Swofford's Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles (ISBN 0743287215). --Halcatalyst 04:51, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Scopes existed long before WWI. Some of the earliest scopes were long thin tubes aligned with the barrel. See [21] for U.S. civil war era reproductions. Telescopic scopes date back at least to the 1880's. Rmhermen 06:34, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry for not being clear. I meant that the "rifle with a scope attached from the factory" did not become popular until shortly before WWI. Before that, the user took a scope and put it on his own rifle. As for snipers, there are two problems with scopes. They reflect light and they are awkward to use from a prone position. Keep in mind that a sniper does not want to be detected in any way and you can see why snipers are wary of using a device that makes them more detectable and is not necessary. They will use scopes, GPS devices, laser tracking, and all that stuff if required, but not if it isn't required. --Kainaw (talk) 14:25, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actors/actresses who were never nominated for an Oscar

I'm wanting to compile a list of film actors/actresses who were never nominated for an Academy Award despite being considered serious contenders. Any suggestions for (a) names and (b) particular performances? JackofOz 01:11, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Being considered serious contenders by who? - Mgm|(talk) 08:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Nitpickers are excused from answering. Anybody else? JackofOz 08:48, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • That doesn't sound like nitpicking. Behind every nominee stand tens of thousands of actors who were never nominated. To be encyclopedic, exactly what criteria would the article define and enforce for "being considered a serious contender"? Without a rigorous definition, the article isn't likely to survive. Notinasnaid 08:52, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • It wasn't intended for a Wikipedia article (although now that you mention it, that's not a bad idea). The 'serious contenders' was my shorthand way of eliminating most of the tens of thousands, and I was really hoping not to have to get into an exhaustive definition of my terms before I even got to the first name. (No such luck apparently). Most of the tens of thousands would be in nobody's list of potential Oscar nominees, so they're not even considered to begin with. A lot of others would be names that are well-known to the movie-going public, but they never managed an "Oscar-standard" performance (or maybe were never given a sufficiently meaty role). That leaves a fairly small number of people who put in at least one "Oscar-standard" screen performance, but for whatever reason never had an Oscar nomination. Don't ask me to define "Oscar-standard", it's inherently subjective. I don't want discussion, I want names. JackofOz 09:19, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Would your list include actors/actresses who did or do not usually appear in English language films? If they are accepted, I nominate Isabelle Huppert and Monica Vitti. David Sneek 09:20, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes indeed, and thank you. Actors in any film eligible for Oscar consideration would be acceptable.
Joseph Cotten is another. If his roles in Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Portrait of Jennie and Shadow of a Doubt weren't good enough for the Academy, what would be! JackofOz 11:11, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And Cary Grant! But what about actors whose careers were in their latter years when the academy awards were started up? Charlie Chaplin, for example? And do you simply mean for best actor/actress, or are you including supporting roles (several top names, such as Sean Connery, have only won for supporting roles)? A few names that spring to mind include Samuel L. Jackson, Lauren Bacall, and Sigourney Weaver, to name but three (and Ralph Fiennes has been overlooked yet again this year...). It's also worth noting that Henry Fonda had to wait until his last role for his only acting Oscar. Grutness...wha? 11:21, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Cary Grant was nominated twice, for Penny Serenade and None But the Lonely Heart, plus they gave him an honorary award. How about Sterling Hayden - The Killing, Dr. Strangelove, Johnny Guitar, The Asphalt Jungle... David Sneek 11:27, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I like Sterling Hayden. He's on the list. That makes 4 now.
A nomination in any acting category means they're off the list. Sorry, Grutness, but none of your names qualify. Henry Fonda did win for On Golden Pond, but he had also been nominated in 1944 for The Grapes of Wrath. Sigourney Weaver was nominated for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl - in the same year. Chaplin was nominated for Best Actor for The Great Dictator. Samuel L Jackson was nominated for Pulp Fiction. Ralph Fiennes was nominated for Schindler's List. JackofOz 11:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Lon Chaney, Sr.; His incredible performance in The Unknown would have been eligible in the first year of the Academy Awards. David Sneek 11:53, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Jeanne Moreau. David Sneek 11:56, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, and Lon Chaney Jr would qualify (Man of a Thousand Faces). Most of Jeanne Moreau's movies were French-language films made when only English-language films were accepted for acting awards. The rules are different these days. She's pencilled in. Thanks for these great names. I want more. JackofOz 12:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's difficult, because "Awards & Nominations" loads very slowly at the IMDb right now. But let's not forget Marilyn Monroe (I'm not really a fan, but she deserved at least a nomination for The Misfits). David Sneek 12:58, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
John Barrymore. When did they first allow foreign language films for acting awards, btw? I'm afraid I might have to withdraw Monica Vitti's nomination. David Sneek 13:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Monroe and Barrymore, great. It wasn't that long ago, perhaps 20 years tops. I'll have to check it out. 3 more: Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Errol Flynn. JackofOz 13:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If I founded a new city named "Hoeryong" in Pennsylvania or North Carolina, how would people react?

Every so often, new cities are built. Therefore, if I were to build a city in Pennsylvania or North Carolina and name it "Hoeryong", how would people react? What would they say about my naming decision? --Shultz 05:10, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Depends on how good their Dutch is, I suppose. Or wasn't I supposed to give this away? DirkvdM 08:47, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The wikilink will give a hint. It's not Dutch. --Shultz 13:42, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
He means the wikilink of Hoeryong, that he added above. It appears that you didn't notice. --129.130.117.8 16:41, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is George W. Bush's IQ?

What it said.

Real intelligence quotient, or faulty intelligence quotient? Grutness...wha? 11:25, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A closely guarded secret? AllanHainey 12:32, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not applicable :) deeptrivia (talk) 12:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, one way of making a guess is to assume that his SAT scores correlate with his IQ (not an uncontroversial assumption, but we'll make it for the purpose of argument). According to this article, he was in the 88th percentile on verbal scores, and 86th percentile on mathematics. So, very roughly, if we assume he has an IQ greater than 87% of people, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15 that works out to an IQ of about 117 (assuming I've done my calculations correctly).
What conclusions should be drawn from this information are of course open to the reader; even assuming that rough guesstimate is accurate, IQ is by no means the only thing that determines one's suitability for the presidency. Aside from having political convictions acceptable to enough of the American populace, there are qualities such as personal integrity, appropriate education and life experience, the concept amphormously described as emotional intelligence, and the quality of advice they receive (some of which is under the President's control, some of which ultimately comes down to luck). You may also draw your own conclusions on these aspects of Bush's presidency so far. --Robert Merkel 13:32, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Greek Historical Period 500-440

Hello i was just wondering if any one can help me in explaining the significance of the battles of Thermopylae and Artemisium Thank You

Have you looked at the articles on the Battle of Thermopylae and the Battle of Artemisium? David Sneek 11:08, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Women becoming porn star

How rich can one get by becoming a porn star or some sort of posing nude in magazines? Once decided that I am going to get into it, which area should I try to get maximum rich? That is should one try porn movies or should one try porn TVs or simply which would give me more fame and money How rich are people who are pornstars? Have anyone earned more than 100 million dollars?

what are the main reasons that business' carry out market research? --82.37.56.231 14:03, 16 February 2006 (UTC)--82.37.56.231 14:03, 16 February 2006 (UTC)--82.37.56.231 14:03, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thanks

I know not much of this industry but it seems basic principles can applied. However, additional information is required to adequately answer your question.
  • The quality of the product you are selling.
    • Do you feel your product is of high or low quality?
    • Is the product heavily used or barely used?
  • The consumer base for the product you are seeling.
    • Can significant consumer demand be established for the product?
    • Do you think the product can be sold universally or only in few specialized communities?
    • Does your product support a multi-user interface?
  • The possible applications of the product you are selling.
    • Is the product versatile or can it only be used for very specific purposes?
    • Can the product be applied to previously uncharted areas of commerce in the relevant industry?
    • Can the product be bundled with similar products?
  • Time frame in which the product can be sold.
    • For how long is it feasible to sell the product?
    • Does the product have en expiration date?
  • Your investments in and maintenance of the product.
    • Does your product correspond to modern standards and needs?
    • Do you maintain your product well or do you sell it "as is"?

Celcius (Talk) Wiki be With us! 16:01, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • The people making the most money in porn (as well as any media) aren't the actors, it's the producers. (some of which have backgrounds as actors). I think it's safe to say no porno actor has ever come anywhere near $100 million on acting alone. They'd probably do well to reach $1 million. --BluePlatypus 16:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Furthermore, their average careers are about 12 months. They might make $5,000 - $10,000 per film, if starring and getting certain types of penetration, and the women might work in 3 films a week. That's a lot of ripping and tearing and infecting (normal infections, not AIDS). Careers are short, drug use high, savings minimal, so no, it's not a great career for getting rich. On the other hand, the producers and distributors can make $250,000 on a $20,000 "film" investment. If they, too, make 3 films a week, they get exceptionally wealthy in the same year. Geogre 16:50, 16 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
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