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February 24

feelings

Why or how do we feel emotional?

Emotion? What a peculiar concept... So, did you see our article on emotions already? Also, note that the definitions of emotion and feelings are different. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 07:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Transmission and distribution

why do we earth the neutral wire taking all the neutral wires from our homes near the transformer? what will happen if we ground the neutral wire in our home? thank you for your love and support

This is all done for safety. If you do anything wrong, the system will probably keep working, but may be unsafe: you or your family are more likely to die if a fault occurs later. See Ground (electricity): on no account touch anything unless you do understand the difference between the purpose of ground and neutral. Notinasnaid 08:22, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

STretch MArks

i read on the stretch marks article that cocoa butter helps fade & flatten the marks. Does it really work? thks

As the cosmetics makers would say "it reduces the appearance of stretch marks". That is, it doesn't make any permanent change, but does fill in low spots and smooth out rough edges, while it remains on the skin. StuRat 10:57, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The latest wording I've seen reads "can reduce the appearance of", so can is an additional qualifier, and reduce is hopelessly open to interpretation. Imagine if all products were advertised this way - say you were considering buying a Volvo S50, and the advertising tagline read "The New Volvo S50: 8 out of 10 owners who expressed a preference said they thought it might reduce the appearance of you being broken down in a layby on the A66". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:32, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

MP3

A compact disc previously was able to store only about 15 to 20 5-minute-audio files. But these files have been converted to MP3 format to store large amount of information within a limited space? What technique is used for the conversion of ordinary audio files to MP3 files. I heard that something is being eliminated and the audio file is compressed. What is being eliminated? Please explain this process in detail. Thank you.

If you really want a detailed explanation, then you should read Audio_data_compression#Lossy_compression. Basically, yes, some of the information is eliminated. How much information is lost depends on the bitrate used, but it tends to be those bits which you won't notice losing, such as frequencies too high or low for the human ear to pick up. Most people can't tell the difference between a bitrate of 128 (or higher) and the source. Markyour words 11:51, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's safe to say that most (about 90%) of the information is eliminated. The algorithm is very complex, and really built around the human ear, similar to TV (RGB) being built for the human eye. To another species, with a different ear blueprint, MP3 wouldn't necessarily sound nice at all :) dab (ᛏ) 11:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's not quite that much. The file is compressed to about 10% of its original size (assuming CD at about 1400 and mp3 at 128), but a lot of that compression is lossless. IIRC, a 128 bit file has about 2/3 of the original information. Markyour words 13:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Leaving the question of why the original cd specification did not include (lossless) compression.

Because uncompressing the file requires a fair amount of processing power, which your average stereo in 1980something didn't have. (Even today, using lossless files on your iPod uses so much processing power that the battery life is reduced rather drastically). Markyour words 20:57, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I doubt that lossless codecs are necessarily more computationally intensive. It's likely that the drop in battery life is due to the fact that the bitrate is almost always higher with lossless compression; this means that the iPod's hard drive has to spin up more frequently, draining the battery faster. I had an MP3 CD player that lasted about 5 times as long playing MP3s as it did with regular CDs, and MP3 is certainly the harder format to decode.
Not to mention, the higher bitrate means a given storage medium can't hold as much music with a lossless codec. —David Wahler (talk) 03:39, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How does Google do it?

I notice that yesterday Google launched their newest feature, Google Pages, which allows users to have up to 100mb of free webspace. While I haven't been able to trial it yet, it seems like they don't put advertisements on the webpages they are hosting. The same is true with Blogger? Why do they provide these services for free with no advertisements? They are a publically listed company - surely to offer a service like this there must be some way of making money from it? What commercial advantage do they gain from offering these services? --TomPhil 12:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about "Google Pages," but I think most of the Google products have text advertisements based on search results from the page. This is how Gmail operates. Since Google has a ton of hits, I'm sure these small text advertisements are pretty desirable. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 19:19, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where does Google do it? I can't find it. For one it's not listed in http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/. DirkvdM 12:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=pages&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpages.google.com%2F Markyour words 16:03, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
http://www.googlepages.com. But they do the same with Blogger; they removed the text based advertisements of blogs months ago. --TomPhil 16:44, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
They encourage you to make pages, then encourage you to stick the advertisements yourself voluntarily, giving you a cut. This way, the people with the pages gets money, Google gets love and PR status, etc. etc. Elle vécut heureuse à jamais (Be eudaimonic!) 02:56, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

google restrictions

shoudnt there be restrictions in google as it allows anyone(including terrorists)to access the exact location of a place through sattelite images?thanks,

rhinsa

There are several schools of thought on this issue, but concern about terrorism is probably overblown—terrorists don't want to attack out-of-the-way secret military bases or highly secured civilian installations (like nuclear power plants). Terrorists generally prefer to attack soft targets that are visible to lots of people. The goal of terrorism is to instill fear, not necessarily to directly achieve military or strategic goals.
The World Trade Center, for example, was attacked on two separate occasions. Subway systems are a popular target as well. In general, the location of any target likely to be of interest to terrorists is already very well known; Google Maps and Google Satellite don't add anything that can't be found in a tourist guidebook. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:53, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Before Google Earth, there were many just-as-effective ways of finding out where stuff was, such as paper maps and atlases, and these still work just as well today, so 'restricting' Google would have no impact.
Additionally, if someone were to be thinking about attacking a major facility, the exact location would be much less important than the local conditions, design, structural weaknesses, security arrangements etc etc. And these you can't get all from Google - you'd most likely need to go there and 'scout' the area.
Finally, slightly off topic, but it can be argued that terrorists are incredibly ineffective in causing actual damage - the chances of you dying in a terrorist attack is comparable to the chances of you being killed by a meteorite, ie almost nil. Terrorists work by spreading fear and causing a population to become paranoid of future attacks, and instigate measures such as restricting the free flow of information (eg your idea), a reaction that is ultimately pointless and hurts yourself much more than it hurts the terrorists' operations. That hasn't stopped certain paranoid members of the US government reducing the resolution of released satellite images of certain 'important' landmarks in the US, such as the White House. Try looking up central Washington DC on Google Earth - you'll see that certain areas are only available in lower resolution... (see below) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:24, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Which "certain areas" are those? Have you looked lately? —Steve Summit (talk) 18:07, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Huh... you're right! I've just gotten home from work and checked... there isn't a reduction of detail on Google Maps at all. So I take back what I said - I seem to recall that it was once the case, however, I have no evidence at hand to back that up, and it certainly doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Sorry for not checking up before. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 18:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No prob; I was just teasing. You're right, it is strange (and no, you're not crazy). As recently as last December, in Google Maps, the White House had a featureless gray roof and the U.S. Capitol was pixellated. But Google Earth showed both of them unmodified, and at higher resolution, to boot. Then, some time in January I think, Google Maps started hitting the same higher-res dataset that Google Earth uses, and so both of those landmarks became fully visible in Google Maps as well. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:45, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The USNO is one example. --BluePlatypus 20:45, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's odd - I wonder why they blanked that and not the Pentagon or the White House. That seems a bit random. Anyone else find any other places that have been blanked...? — QuantumEleven | (talk) 21:29, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There was a big to-do a month or so ago when it was requested that the neighborhood containing both Dich Cheney's and Donald Rumsfeld's houses be obscured. I don't know where that is, so I can't check. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:45, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, the Vice Pres lives on the USNO grounds. I didn't know he was bunking with Rumsfeld though. :) --BluePlatypus 02:16, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Some governments have complained that the satellite imagery gave away too many structural details about certain government buildings, and Google has occasionally blocked out certain buildings (the White House, for example, used to be colored over with solid pixels, so you couldn't see the details. It no longer seems to be, though, in either Google Earth or Maps). I recall India apparently made a fuss of this not too long ago. But I think most people -- Google included -- agree that these sorts of things would be of limited use to terrorists. And in any event, satellite imagery via computers has been around a lot longer than Google has been (I remember using Microsoft's Terraserver back in the day, and feeling an immense sense of power that I could zoom in on the Pentagon. The power was illusory, of course, but what an illusion!). --Fastfission 17:08, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For a while, Google Maps blanked out the White House and Capitol. Now, the White House and Capitol show up fine, but the vice-presidential mansion on Massachusetts Avenue is pixellated for some reason -- Mwalcoff 01:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

electro-technology s1

can you show me electro-technology mathematical formulars

Maxwell's equations perhaps? Circuit theory? --HappyCamper 20:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've always been fond of - the resistance of an object placed in an electrical socket is proportional to the IQ of the person who put it in. Confusing Manifestation 12:01, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

* Simulation Models

Define with examples:

  • 1-Static Model
  • 2-Dynamic Model
  • 3-Deterministic Model
  • 4-Stochastic Model
  • 5-Discrete Model
  • 6-Continuous Model

Thanks
Yasmeen Hashish

A static model is you sitting at your desk not doing your homework. A dynamic model is you pacing up and down the room not doing your homework. A deterministic model is the large keg of beer which will certainly prevent you doing your homework. A stochastic model is a whole room full of clones of you who, each on their own, decide not to do their homework. A discrete model is your homework cut up into little pieces. A continuous model is the large, blank sheet of paper on which you have failed to do your homework. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:46, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
*clap clap clap* ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 14:08, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm...Perhaps a more earnest response here is warranted. This reads like an introductory homework question, probably in an undergraudate signals and systems course. The point of this question is for you to appreciate the different types of models that are used, how they are related, and the sort of "bipartite partitioning" (my terminology) that is used in the engineering approach to understand and solve these sorts of problems. Note how the systems are interrelated via the groups (1,2) (3,4) (5,6) - In the first group, the contrast is between static (time independent) and dynamic (time dependent). In static models, say, in mechanical engineering, you tend also to work with components which are rigid bodies, which do not change over time. In the second group, the consideration is randomness. Deterministic systems are not random. A stochastic system is random. (A stock market can be modelled as a stochastic system, but it need not be one.) Extremely important for understanding signal processing, cellphones, wireless networks, systems analysis, controls engineering, et cetera. Finaly, in the last group, it is a bit subtle and tricky. A discrete system is something that evolves in steps - the variable of interest (such as time) is not continuous. Anything that involves sampling can be thought of as a discrete system. Computers are discrete. Discrete systems can be approximations to continuous systems - although a discrete system need not be a sampled continuous system. Extremely important to understand much of today's "revolution" in technology. Data compression, security...all in the domain of digital systems. By the way, you will very likely encounter things like Laplace transforms, Fourier transforms, z-transforms, Hilbert transforms, and the like...learn these well the first time around (and extremely well for that matter), because if you don't, it will be very difficult to appreciate any of the really interesting stuff that can be understood with these things. --HappyCamper 19:59, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Electricity

Yes, electricity is a very current topic...

<flame> Which part of "the reference desk is not a search engine?" do you not understand?! </flame> — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:44, 24 February 2006 (UTC) [reply]

Removed pointless insulting - sorry about that, I had a moment of needing to vent. In any case, you can find articles on Wikipedia much more easily by typing into the search box (in the left margin, halfway down the first screen) and clicking "Search". Have fun using Wikipedia! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 14:55, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Best way to deal with static HTML sites

I'm creating a small website for a small, academic client who 1. needs to pages to be static HTML (nothing server-side), 2. needs to be able to update them easily with a minimal of HTML knowledge or technical ability. I'm worried that even WSWG editors are going to be a little on the daunting side for the assistant when they occasionally need to create new pages and edit existing ones. Of course simplifying the design will help to some degree, but beyond that, I'm not complete sure which way to take this.

What's the best way to approach this as a long-term solution? The two ways I've been thinking about this have been to set up some sort of template-driven system in one of the WSIWG editors that they have, though I am not familiar with the options here and how reliable they are. The other is to look into something like CSS/XML which will allow the content to be better separated from the design elements. I'm not very familiar with this, but I could learn it if it was a good solution to problems like this. In an ideal world, I would probably use a server-side content-management system, but getting permissions to run server-side scripts will be more trouble than it is worth in this case (fascist web admins).

Does anybody have any thoughts on the best approach to a problem like this? It has come up before for me, in creating sites for places with very low long-term technical abilities, and I haven't yet come across a great way to deal with it. I'm curious what others do, what I have overlooked. --Fastfission 18:18, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A really good idea -- and please understand I'm not saying this just because we're sitting here on Wikipedia's reference desk, but rather because I think it's a really good idea -- is to have an Edit button on every page. Even for computer-savvy users, the distinction between the-view-of-the-web-pages-that-the-end-user-sees-with-their-browser-over-here versus the-HTML-pages-that-we-edit-using-special-tools-on-the-server-over-there can be a surprisingly taxing distinction. It's remarkably easy to forget where the server is or how to log into it, or to forget where the HTML documents directory is or what's needed to edit the files there, etc.
Obviously you wouldn't want the Edit button to be usable -- or even visible -- by every visitor. You could rig it up with a permission scheme such that only visitors browsing from your own intranet were even presented with the Edit button, and then impose some password scheme beyond that.
I think there are webserver packages that support this sort of thing -- and if there aren't, there should be.
I think there are also wiki-like schemes which can manage to give you WYSIWYG editing, with no markup to learn.
—Steve Summit (talk) 19:32, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As I said earlier, server-side solutions won't work. A wiki is definitely server-side -- it requires PHP, MySQL, etc., all of which are not feasible in our current setup (I don't have control over this). --Fastfission 01:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There are many WYSIWYG web-based editors. It isn't hard to write your own. The catch is that WYSIWYG editors produce tons of garbage code. So, you will need to write an HTML Tidy program to clean it up. --Kainaw (talk) 21:01, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I know there are many such editors -- the question is which of them would do what I want, or the best way to get what I want out of them. Perhaps I haven't been clear enough about this above? --Fastfission 01:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A slightly more user-taxing solution would be (as you already mentioned) put as much of the formatting into CSS files and leave the HTML files themselves as much plain text as possible. The person updating the site only needs to learn very rudimentary HTML (paragraph, heading and link tags, as far as I can see), and you can even put comments into your HTML files to show them what they need to edit and what they should leave alone. That way, you don't need any server-side scripting... but the feasibility depends on how knowledgeable your users are, and how often you think you'll get called in because they managed to delete one tag which messes up all the layout. Good luck - this is not an easy problem to solve if you're not allowed to do any server-side scripting (which means no content management system, which would have been the way I would have suggested). — QuantumEleven | (talk) 21:26, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm, well that's the difficulty I'm dealing with on this. You'd think there would be some sort of intermediate solution between WSIWYG and full server-side content management. Basically, an ideal system would allow me to set up a WSIWYG template and lock all of the design elements to prevent accidental changing of them. Maybe something like Dreamweaver allows for this? I guess I'll just have to tinker a bit. --Fastfission 01:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What makes little-to-no sense is that you claim that you want nothing server-side. So, how are changes supposed to be saved? You can have the coolest WYSIWYG editor embedded into a page, but it is nothing by a fancy pile of crap if you can't save the changes on the server side. You must have a stand-alone website editor that just uploads pages via FTP (or something similar). Even then, they are not dummy-proof. If you want to edit web pages, you have to learn something. Also, be very wary of the WYSIWYG editors. Every time you edit a page, it grows. The more you move text around, the more they grow. This week, I cleaned up two WYSIWYG-edited pages. Both contained nothing but 3 short paragraphs and a couple small pictures. The HTML contained over 6,000 characters (which made their editors appear to lock up - which is why I was called in to check it out). If they'd just learn simple HTML (monkeys can learn HTML), then there wouldn't be a problem. --Kainaw (talk) 01:16, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Listen, as I said, it isn't up to me whether it is server-side or not; it's simply not possible in this case (the net admins don't allow scripts; even if they did, there would be nobody to maintain them if they needed upgrading or suddenly stopped working). This is not a case of what should be done in an ideal world, but what can be done in these circumstances. Yes, it'd be great if there was someone who would learn a little HTML at the place that I'm making the site for, but in reality it's not going to happen. One thing that web designers often lose sight of is that making something which will work correctly in the long-term is just as important as making something which is technically accurate or elegant. Long-term solutions are often about social circumstances as much as they are about technical ones. --Fastfission 04:16, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Macromedia Dreamweaver allows you to create templates that allow you to edit certain regions of the page, while leaving others locked. When you update the template, all the pages based on that template are updated automatically. Dreamweaver also comes with an FTP client with synchronization features, so it's easy to keep the local copy synced with the server copy. Of course, it's not cheap (unless you're a student). enochlau (talk) 00:41, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm, that might work out perfectly. I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure the university I'm at has a site license for Dreamweaver. Thanks! --Fastfission 04:16, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Human Genome released to Private Businesses

What are the reasons for the Human Genome being released for development to the Private Business sector when governments could do it themselves and everyone would have access to it? Especially considering the government used taxpayers money to fund the Human Genome Project initially.

Thanks for any help. 204.72.116.28 18:22, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The question presumes facts that are simply not true. The results of the human genome project are available to anyone. You can go to Project Gutenberg and download text files containing the sequences for all 23 chromosomes. Raul654 21:52, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There is a problem about monopoly. Would you like to have one government use all the results and decide that they are no longer available to public because there are spies or terrorists ? But, granting things to private business may lead to a similar risk. It takes time to create a private monopoly, but some (or plenty) have existed.
You may have the ultimate power to decide if companies do good work and what price you are OK to pay for your health, and also what amount of knowledge about you and your beloved must be guarded from profit. That is, if you are rich enough. --DLL 22:15, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
See our article on the Human Genome Project. The complete sequence of the human genome is available online, for free, from a number of public sources. Ensembl] provides access to a browsable, annotated copy of at least 25 species' genomes. Per Raul654's comment, access to the HGP's results has by no means been restricted to the private sector. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:52, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the poster has the story just about right, if not the facts. 60 Minutes did a segment on this a while back. And I also remember it from the documentary "The Corporation." It seems that major biotech companies have indeed patented almost all, if not all, of the human genetic sequences, including the exons (not the oil company, but parts of the chromosome previoulsy thought not to be functional).

Acording to "The Corporation" a documentary I have on DVD, when a company holds a patent on a genome sequence, only that company may profit from research it. The thought is that no one will work on diseases and cures encoded in that sequence if they think they will have to contend with competion.

In the early 1980s, if I remember correctly, a company wanted to patent a geneticly modified bacteria which would basicly eat crude oil. This was to clean up oil spills. The US patent office said, "No." It was against the rules to patent a living organism. Whoever wanted to patent this little critter had lots of money and lots of lawyers, and they challenged the US patent office repeatedly, until they finally convinced the court that this bacteria had some properties of living things, but that it was also a product of human technology too, and some how didn't fit the definition of unpatentable life.

A really sinister part of this story is that at the time there was a gag order on the whole thing. Almost no one knew, so who could object?

Well, after the patent office lost, they began to have to patent all sorts of biological matter. And companies began to patent more and more complex life forms. At last year, the only living thing that can't be patented in the US is an individual live-born human infant! -Leah

Rarest earth element?

What is the rarest naturally occuring element on earth?

Abundance_of_the_chemical_elements#Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth. Markyour words 19:34, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sodium Potassium Alloy

Where can I purchase a sodium potassium alloy online, that is not on back order?

I am not sure myself off hand, although I have made some of my own in my lab in small quantities for demonstration purposes. May I ask what you need this for? :-) --HappyCamper 20:02, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Triple Point

What does the triple point of water look like? Has anybody ever seen it? Is it even possible to reach?

Yes, it is possible. It just happened in the Olympics. See [1]. --Kainaw (talk) 20:56, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Now that's cool. Tip o' the hat ta ya, Kainaw. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:11, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A minor nitpick—while water ice's unusual structure (the solid phase is less dense than the liquid) results in a somewhat atypical phase diagram that allows pressure to melt ice into liquid water, the triple point of water doesn't have anything to do with ice skating. The high pressure under an ice skate's blade actually takes us further from the triple point of water.
Looking through some of the other pages on the linked site, there appear to be several minor (and a few major) errors; I suspect it was a class project of some sort that hasn't been very thoroughly vetted for accuracy.
In practice, it's certainly possible to reach water's triple point. 6 mbar is a relatively poor vacuum, and 0.01 degrees Celsius isn't hard to maintain. At the triple point, the water won't look like anything special; it will just come to some equilibrium between liquid and solid, surrounded by an invisible, low-pressure water vapour. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:42, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Check out our article on triple point — QuantumEleven | (talk) 21:20, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Note also that temperature units these days are defined in terms of the triple point of water. For example. 0°C is no longer defined as the freezing point of water; instead, the temperature in degrees Celsius is simply defined to be the temperature in kelvins (formerly called degrees Kelvin) minus 273.15 exactly. So 0°C = 273.15 K exactly. And the kelvin is defined so that absolute zero is 0 K and the triple point of water is exactly 273.16 K. The thing is that standards in metrology are chosen to be something that it is practical to reproduce or measure. [Well, almost always; for a while the second was defined as a certain fraction of the year 1900. But one reason this was changed was precisely because the year 1900 was a little :-) difficult to reproduce.] So the choice of the triple point, rather than the freezing point (at some particular pressure), indicates that scientists feel it is practical to produce it exactly. --Anonymous, 23:15 UTC, February 24, 2006.
That's a cool link at the top of this question,(13) but I'm not sure that it's right. It says "It is the closeness of the triple point temp to the freezing temperature of water that allows just a persons weight over the area of the blades to make use of this property." That may be true, but it doesn't mean that the Triple point is actually reached under an ice skate. In fact it doesn't. The Triple point is at a very precise temperature (just over zero degrees) and if we had to reach it in order for skates to work then skates would only work at that temperature, not a degree lower or higher.
Even if the closeness of the Triple Point is part of water's unusual properties in this respect, I don't think the triple point is reached while skating. DJ Clayworth 16:28, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Confusing Chemical Equation

What are the products for this chemical reaction. If someone is able to could they please include a mention of which species is oxidised and which is reduced. If the equation could be balanced as well that would be really good but I really just want to know the products and the oxidised and reduced species: KMnO4 + H2SO4 + FeSO4.7H2O-->?

This sounds like a homework question, so I can't just give you the answer, but I can help. Find the oxidation states of the metals. The sum of all the oxidation states of a complex ion is equal to its charge, and oxygen is almost always −2. (Or you could just look up the answer at Permanganate.)
The easiest way to balance any redox equation is to split it into two half-reactions. One should have electrons (e−) on the left side and the other on the right side. Multiply the half-reactions by constants so they have equal numbers of electrons, then add them together. —Keenan Pepper 04:25, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As far as predicting the products, you'll need to identify the ions in solution first, and then you can use a table of standard reduction potentials to try to figure out what's likely to be reduced, and what's likely to be oxidized, in the reaction. Chuck 20:18, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

download an entire website

are there any plugins to download all files on an entire website?

Yep, I use it a lot and it's very tweakable. Actually, as they point out, you can download the entire internet with it. You'd need a hefty hd, though. :) DirkvdM 15:02, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Is there a generic term for utilities like this? If so, we should have an article on them. I've seen a couple uses of the term "webgrabber", and there's at least one tool by that name, but a google search for "define:webgrabber" gives no hits, and www.webgrabber.com is for something completely different. —Steve Summit (talk) 16:00, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Answered my own question again. A google search for "website copier" gives lots and lots of relevant hits. —Steve Summit (talk) 16:05, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

:An easy way to download the Internet. Or [here] --DLL 20:26, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The first one has the right presentation to actually make people think something is going on. If they use msWindows, that is. I use Linux and the msWindows download box sort of gives it away. :) DirkvdM 10:54, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

what constellation is the Solar System in?

If one were near Sagittarius, near the centre of the Milky Way looking out, what constellation would the Solar System be in? WOuld we recognise the constellation at all? Adambrowne666 23:28, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If we were near the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, virtually all of the stars we currently see on Earth would be far too faint to see. In addition, stars near the centre of the Milky Way that are too faint to see from Earth - would be visible. The constellation wouldn't resemble any we see on Earth today. If, instead of travelling all the way to the centre of the galaxy, moved a few light years - the Sun would appear in the area close to the constellations of Taurus, Gemini, Orion and Auriga. Richard B 23:35, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If we were in a different part of the galaxy, wouldn't the constellations as we know them from earth not exist? After all, they are only grouped into constellations because the stars are in a similar part of the sky; the distance between the stars (depth-wise) is huge, and from another angle the stars would be in completely different parts of the night sky. I don't know about the specifics of the stars that make up Sagitarrius, but I would have thought it would be impossible to be "near Sagitarrius" ? -- Chuq 23:40, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Which leads one to ask, how far from Earth is a typical "visible" star? (I know visibility is difficult to define, but we can use the conventional threshold of magnitude 6.) --Smack (talk) 23:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Depends probably more on the definition of "typical". A red dwarf star (by far the most common type of star in the galaxy) - becomes invisible before you're even 1 light year away from it. The Sun becomes invisible (mag 6) at just over 50 light-years distant. Sirius (brightest star in the night sky as we see from Earth) would become invisible at a distance of around 260 light-years away. Most of the stars in the sky that we can see are actually giant stars - Rigel can be seen up to about 20,000 light-years away. As Chuq says, the constellations as we know them would not exist. It is impossible to be near Saggitarius - but you can certainly move in the direction of Saggitarius - at least until you start going past its brighter stars that make up the general shape of the constellation as we see it. Richard B 00:49, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, getting back to the original question, there's a fun way to answer it:

  1. Download Celestia.
  2. Run it.
  3. In the Display menu, turn on all constellation and star features.
  4. Using the Location and Direction menus, Go To the Milky Way and then Center Selection on Sol.
  5. All the constellations will appear as an unrecognizable sea urchin centered around the solar system. I don't know if you can say the Solar System is in any of them.
  6. Accelerate if you want a closer view.

Melchoir 00:08, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

    • Hah! I was just about to suggest downloading Celestia—it's free and excellent! If you name a specific star or point, I can tell you what the sky would look like. Randomly picking a star in Sagittarius (Lambda Sagittarius), we're 77 light years from Earth. Sol's apparent magnitude would be 6.70; if you could see it, would be in Gemini, probably. The constellations are significantly distorted, but the ones directly opposite Sol are distorted the least. — Knowledge Seeker দ 02:15, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Excellent - thanks all of you - I'll download Celestia at the beginning of March, when my broadband kicks in again. Adambrowne666 07:08, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • (after edit conflict) FWIW, it's relatively easy to calculate what constellation the solar System would be in from other stars, just by taking that star's RA and declination and calculating from that. From distant stars, though, many of the constellations we recognise would be thoroughly distorted because of the varying distances to different parts of them. From our nearest (non-Sun) star system, that of Alpha and Proxima Centauri, the Sun would be in Cassiopeia. Grutness...wha? 07:08, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • Er, Grutness, while your method works for closer stars, I don't think it works necessarily for more distant stars. How exactly would you go about calculating? As you point out, the constellations get distorted. The standard boundaries between constellations of course gets lost instantly, although one could still attempt to determine which groups of stars were closest. For the example I gave before, with Lambda Sagittarius, my visual inspection shows the sun to be in Gemini, although parts of the Centaurus, Canis Major, and Canis Minor constellations significantly overlap Gemini and come very close. At the other extreme, from Mu Sagittarius, the sun is not visible (apparent magnitude of 16.82), but even if it were, the constellations are all crammed together over the region of Sol; it would be impossible to assign it to a single constellation. From the brightest star in Sagittarius, the alpha star, the sun's apparent magnitude is 8.41 and does not appear to fall within any constellation. — Knowledge Seeker দ 08:20, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • good points - I had incorrectly parsed what I wrote. The constellation stuff should be referring to close neighbour stars (I did qualify that in the second sentence, but not as well as I should have). Once you get beyond our nearest neighbours, there is a lot of "noise" due to closer stars in (from our view) the same constellation as the star being looked from. If you look back at the sun from Beta Centauri, then it will have Alpha Centrauri in roughly the same general direction, as well as Cassiopeia. From far more distant stars, the picture becomes increasingly messy. But for close stars out to a couple of dozen light years, say, the distortion shouldn't affect the view so much. From the centre of the galaxy, though, the picture would be too confused to be able to pinpoint any one constellation, since they would all be jumbled together. Grutness...wha? 01:18, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • The first view I mentioned: Sol does appear to be in Gemini, although its nearest neighbors are getting "pulled" in from various constellations
    The first view I mentioned: Sol does appear to be in Gemini, although its nearest neighbors are getting "pulled" in from various constellations
  • From the second scenario, and Sol doesn't appear to really fall within any specific constellation.
    From the second scenario, and Sol doesn't appear to really fall within any specific constellation.
  • From the vicinity of the center of the Milky Way: all the stars in all the constellations are crammed together in an "unrecognizable sea urchin" as described by Melchoir above.
    From the vicinity of the center of the Milky Way: all the stars in all the constellations are crammed together in an "unrecognizable sea urchin" as described by Melchoir above.

Reviving dead humans

I was wondering what stops someone from reviving a dead human, i am not talking about someone whose heart stops for a while but a confirmed dead patient whose brain activity and heart have both stopped. Is it in any way possible in modern technology or future or simply in theory to revive a dead body which is fullt intact and simply died of system failure or suffocation or something that would not affect the vital organs? 86.129.82.87 23:42, 24 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Most of what stops them is that very shortly after death, a tremendous amount of permanent cell damage occurs from decay, lack of oxygen, and so forth. Individual organs can, if recovered after death, be "revived", in a sense — this is why post-mortem organ donation works. But the brain is not one of those organs — the damage it suffers from being without oxygen for only a few minutes is enough to have permanent changes, much less if it has been completely "dead" for any amount of time. --Fastfission 00:52, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Hoping to create zombies? Sounds like fun. I assume death usually affects or is affected by something related to the vital organs. Of course, I haven't done any research on the subject. :) --Optichan 15:53, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Just save a person's brain data every hour. Then when he dies, throw out the decayed brain and connect a perfect silicium model with the latest data. The model should be functional and evolvable. That will soon be easy. --DLL 19:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As long as it has a firewire port you should be able to connect it to any recent mac and boot it in target disk more. Oh, wait...
Scientists at the Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research in Pittsburgh have been able to revive dogs that had been brain dead for several hours. They replaced their blood with an extremely cold saline solution. The dogs were reported not to have suffered any ill effects (paralysis, brain-eating, etc.). They hope to use the method in extreme trauma cases (war injuries, car accidents) to prevent death by shock before the person can be transported to a hospital and treated. Google "zombie dogs." Seriously. These are some of the same people who invented CPR, so it's conceivable that they could apply it someday.

65.96.184.208 19:45, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia competitors

Where can I get a list of other general-reference wikis? I would like to contribute to a project like this, but the political agenda of the Wikimedia Foundation directly opposes my political and religious views, and I can't find a site comparing them. 67.76.161.92 01:47, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The WMF has an agenda? Or perhaps the policy? I mean, there are things like Wikinfo, but that hasn't taken off too much. Elle vécut heureuse à jamais (Be eudaimonic!) 02:50, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 25

Temperature differences in the earth's atmosphere

If heat rises why is it colder upwards (higher) and warmer down below (lower)?

It's tough for air to absorb light from the Sun (light just passes through it, since it's invisible transparent), so the surface gets warmed up faster and then the heat is conducted into the air. After the air near the surface gets warm, then convection causes the warm air to rise a bit.
Just in case: "Heat" doesn't really rise, warm less-dense things are pushed upwards by the sinking of more-dense things. Also, warmer air rises against cooler air and warmer oil rises against cooler oil (lava lamps), but warm water won't rise against cold air due to the density difference, for example.
Important distinction in thermohaline circulation. Water is less dense when frozen than liquid water below 4 degrees. Elle vécut heureuse à jamais (Be eudaimonic!) 02:52, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The article troposphere says: "The reason for the temperature variations in the troposphere is because the temperature is determined by the radiation from the land back into the air. As we move away from the earth's surface, convective heating has a smaller effect and the air cools." It goes on to say that "For every 1000 metre increase in altitude, the temperature goes down by approximately 6.4°C. This is because the higher the altitude, the less atmospheric particles there are to trap the heat, therefore resulting in the heat escaping." (Probably talking about how the Earth loses heat in the nighttime.) --AySz88^-^ 02:03, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Special Relativity

Dear all, when I read books on Special Relativity, they usually inform the facts briefly, but never go deep into the postulates.

Can anyone explain to me why is their length contraction when things are moving at the speed of light?

Thanks very much!

The length doesn't contract, it just appears to. It's time that gets dilated in special relativity. Length appears to contract because of the time dilation. Since distance = velocity x time. Suppose you measure the length of a train by measuring the time it takes to pass a person. A person on the train will not measure the same amount of time as the person standing next to the tracks, because they're at different speeds. But they'll agree on the relative speed, so by the equation above, they'll get different lengths. But it's not a postulate (see the article). If you want a guide to S.R., perhaps I can recommend A Brief History of Time? It explains the subject and its consequences at quite a bit of length. --BluePlatypus 02:38, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
"Length appears to contract because of the time dilation." Heh. You might as well say that time appears to dilate because of length contraction. =P Only proper length and proper time are real quantities you can depend on. —Keenan Pepper 04:09, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, it's a little misleading to say even that lengths "appear" to contract. You can hypothetically measure the length contraction of a moving object with an array of clocks, or you can infer it with a formula like BluePlatypus says, but a single distant observer will not visually observe any contraction at all; rather, all you can see is a rotation. Melchoir 09:58, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Looking at time dilation and length contraction seperately is misleading. Look at the Lorentz transformation of a distance in spacetime. The Infidel 18:26, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Most numerous particle

What is the most numerous particle in the universe? (neutron, photon, neutrino, etc?) Bubba73 (talk), 04:45, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not counting Dark Matter and Dark Energy, I am told most of the universe is hydrogen, therefore proton and electron equally. NOt counting photons, they are not conserved. However, I'm no expert. GangofOne 04:54, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
My guess would be neutrinos (electron neutrinos, if you want to pick one kind). There are a heck of a lot of those. —Keenan Pepper 05:13, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I wondered about that. THere are alot near a star, like where we are, but they thin out as you go further out. Once again I disclaim exact knowledge. GangofOne 05:17, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Photons are conserved in a dilute universe; I think most of them date from the CMB anyway, and they outnumber protons by a factor of at least a billion. I don't know about neutrinos, though. Melchoir 10:11, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Quarks! Tzarius 11:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not quarks! Melchoir 12:07, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Very important detail: are you counting virtual particles in this count or not? —Keenan Pepper 17:32, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you try to define the number of virtual particles, don't you run up against infrared divergences anyway? Melchoir 19:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think we need some rules to keep things interesting/meaningful - restrict to known, massive particles, probably? Photons are too weird to count. In that case, and if we assume some conservation laws, we note that protons = electrons = electron anti-neutrinos. (Ok, my nuclear physics is a little fuzzy, but I think that's right.) Neutrons don't seem to be included in this equation, but are probably less numerous. (A lotta hydrogen out there...) The addition of muons etc may skew things, so my vote is for protons.--Fangz 00:28, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was not intending to count virtual particles. A friend guess photons, I guessed neutrinos. Bubba73 (talk), 00:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Photons are not too weird to count. There are some 10^88 of them in the observable universe. The ratio of photons to baryons is an important parameter in cosmology. Melchoir 01:05, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This is more like what I was looking far. What are figures for other particles? Bubba73 (talk), 01:06, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
From memory, there are about 10^79 baryons. You might want to find a cosmology text for the real numbers; I don't know them. I have no idea about neutrinos; if electron number is conserved well enough, you'd expect the same number of electron antineutrinos as electrons (assuming not too many positrons), which in turn would be pretty close to the number of protons. But I'm really speculating at this point. Melchoir 01:21, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I seem to recall that 10^79 figure somewhere. So photons are probably the most numerous. Bubba73 (talk), 01:25, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"cutting the pic"?

If you look under this heading, Packets/Bytes interconversion (juz scroll up) there is a screenshot. I'm wondering how do you do "cut & paste" it? I'm not asking how to paste the screenshot on this website. thks

Under Windows, press the "print screen" button on your keyboard (in the top-right area, near the "home" and "end" keys), which will copy the current contents of the screen to the clipboard. Go into Microsoft Paint, and press Ctrl-V to paste it in. Then save the screenshot as whatever you want (*.png is good for screenshots). Under Linux, the process is different. I can't remember exactly but I think there's an app in KDE which takes a screenshot, named something like "KCapture" or "KScreenshot". And just in case you want to display the image on Wikipedia for a particular reason, you need to upload it. -- Daverocks (talk) 08:06, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Under MacOS, use ⌘-shift-3 (that's command-shift-3) to capture the entire screen, ⌘-shift-4 to capture a region you specify by dragging a rectangle, and ⌘-shift-4-capslock or ⌘-shift-4-spacebar to capture a window. Or, under MacOS X, you can also run the "Grab" utility, which is also available in the "Services" submenu. —Steve Summit (talk) 16:33, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the question isn't how to take a screenshot. If you want to use a picture you find on a web page somewhere else, right click on the picture and choose a menu option that says something like "Save Image As..." Then, your word processor or whatever you want to insert the image into will have a menu option somewhere to insert an image from a file. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 15:31, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Carbon dioxide poisoning

Suppose because of this cold winter, I insulate my bedroom (of typical size) so much that it is perfectly airtight. How long can I stay inside the room, doing normal activity or even sleeping etc., before I get carbon dioxide poisoning or other health problem? -Browni 14:02, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on how many times you open your door to go to the bathroom or eat. Assuming you do that several times a day, you will have no problem maintaining high enough oxygen and low enough carbon dioxide to survive quite well. If you are really asking what would happen if someone sealed you in a room-sized bottle with some food and water but no plants or other oxygen source, you would die of oxygen depletion in a few days, without having anywhere near enough CO2 build-up to hurt you. alteripse 16:10, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, in the sealed room, it is the CO2 that gets you first. Anyone in normal health can visit altitudes of 10,000-15,000 feet above sea level (3,000 - 4,500 m) without special precautions. According to this table, that corresponds to a reduction in air pressure of 31% to over 43%. In other words, the partial pressure of oxygen is reduced by 6.5 to 9 percentage points at these altitudes and it won't kill you. However, if 9% of the air at normal pressure was changed from O2 to CO2, that would be in the lethal range: see carbon dioxide.
So how long would that take? Some web sites say that a resting adult produces CO2 at the rate of 200 ml/minute. That's a bit under 300 liters/day; 300 is a reasonable number with a bit of activity. Say your bedroom is 10x12x8 feet, that's about 1,000 cubic feet or 28,000 liters; you'd produce about 1% of CO2 per day. You'd have a headache within a day or less, and you'd be dead in something like 5-10 days. Well, it's a reasonable approximation, anyway.
--Anonymous, 20:40 UTC, February 25, 2006.

Note that this won't just sneak up on you, the air will seem very stale first and you will find it impossible to stay in there with the door shut. StuRat 21:33, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it's not a choice between too much CO2 or lack of O2. It's both, or rather the two mean the same thing (although I think that's what the anon meant to say). At one point there will still be enough O2, but the high CO2 concentration prevents your body from getting that out of the air. So if you'd somehow manage to remove the CO2 (not replace it with O2 like a plant does, but simply remove it) you'd be able to survive a lot longer. I believe there are fairly simple filters for that. And you could probably build one yourself. What material would bind CO2? DirkvdM 11:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You need a scrubber, sir, that contains soda lime. --Heron 13:19, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about transparencies, film negatives etc for printing/copiers/scrapboooking

The information I am looking for relates to the use in craft and scrapbooking projects:

What is the generic/common name for transparencies? I believe they are made from polyester or polyethylene terephthalate but that's not what people commonly recognize or say...

I have heard that matte side of transparencies for ink jet printers are generally made in an acid bath so they are not acid free (important for archival use). So unless Ink Jet Transparencies specify "ACID FREE", they are not. Is this true and are the ones made for copier acid free even if they don't say?

What is the composition of film negatives --not the film coating but the plastic sheet? Does it go by a common/recognizable name? Is it acid free?

Mylar is a trademarked name but is that the common copier stuff? Can I refer to the copier sheets as Mylar like people say Kleenex for tissues or is it entirely different? (If it's different, what is Mylar?)

Is acetate acid free and is that the copier stuff? (Or what is acetate?)

Are there other places this acid free material is used? (Like soda bottles or the clear plastic covers of fruit take out containers?

I actually call transparencies by that name, but I have heard others call them "flimsies". Incidentally, always store them with blank paper between them to prevent them from sticking together. Ink transfer from transparencies to whatever they touch seems to get worse with time and pressure. I therefore recommend storing a paper copy so you can recreate the transparencies if the old ones are damaged. StuRat 21:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Celluloid used to be what was primarily used. Now, many plastics are used. In film, the sticky problem is solved by encasing the image between two clear layers of celluloid. --Kainaw (talk) 23:31, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

HTML Index

Dear all,

I need to create an ePortfolio that stores all of my documents. How can I make a searchable index? (i mean a search bar, when i type in "hello", it goes to a page containing the document "hello")

Also, is it possible to integrate flash into Microsoft Powerepoint? I mean i got hold of a nice flash script and wanna put it in microsoft powerpoint (when i click "slideshow", the flash runs automatically on its own and when it ends it would go to slide 1). Is it possible?

Thanks for all the time!

You can add google seach to your website [2]. As for flash in a powerpoint presentation, Macromedia has info on that [3]. --Kainaw (talk) 00:56, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yahoo Messenger problems

I had installed Yahoo Messenger version 7, minor version 437 (the latest from their website) and am facing a lot of problems since the last few days. Is there is a list of known bugs somewhere ? Is there is a discussion forum where people can post and discuss the bugs with this version ? Is anyone else using this version and facing problems ? Jay 15:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What font size?

Iam using opera browser. I mostly use the desktop for reading. What font size should I use in pixels to read comfortably? I use 15 inch LCD in 1024x768 resolution.

Your own eyes are probably the best judge of that. You should experiment with different sizes until you find one that works best. --Optichan 19:57, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And don't forget font type also makes a difference. Serif vs. sans-serif? Some argue, for instance, that a sans-serif font is better for web browsing (although I don't think the text "flows" nicely in sans-serif). As said above your eyes are the best judge. -- Rune Welsh | ταλκ 22:17, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that it is best for Arial, size 14 or 12. It suits my eyes perfectly, but Optichan is right. The Ronin 00:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Homogenised fats

I saw a "Tonight" programme on Uk Tv on 24.2.06 about the undesirability of homogenised fats in processed foods. Can anyone tell me what other terminology to look for on food packaging as not many products include the term "homogenised ( or partially homogenised) fats". Are "emulsifiers" the same thing?

Are you sure they weren't talking about hydrogenated fats? I've never heard of "homogenized" fats, but hydrogenated fats contain trans fat which is widely believed to be bad for you. —Keenan Pepper 17:37, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If I remember correctly, "homogenised fat" is another (marketing?) term for a saturated fat. Thus "partially homogenised" would conform to Keenan's explanation above. Emulsifiers in this context are compounds that stabilize fats in water, and sometimes vegetable oils are used for this purpose, but that depends on the specifics of the product you're looking at. -- Rune Welsh | ταλκ 20:10, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Partially hydrogenated soybean oil" is one little nasty to watch out for. StuRat 21:20, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Any kind of partially hydrogenated oil is a nasty one. (The word saturated means essentially the same as hydrogenated, unless you want to nit pik. It means the carbons are "saturated" with chemical bonds to hydrogens) When I lived in America I could always tell the difference when looking at the junk food packages between snacks that contained "plain" vegetable oils, verses those that had hydrogenated vegetable oils, because the law requires specification on the ingredients list there, in America.

Now I live in Australia and I suspect the law allows hydrogenated vegetable oils to be listed simply as whatever kind of vegetable oil it was before hydrogenation. I never see any indication on the ingredients list here if the oil has been hydrogenated or not. If my suspicions are right, then there is sure to be huge heath consequences for the Australian public, as there is a world of difference health-wise between.

To hydrogenate, or partially hydrogenate an oil, it has hydrogen added to the carbons of the fatty acid chains of the triglycerides. The more hydrogen that is added, the firmer the the resulting product is, and the higher the melting point. This is why it is almost always partially-hydrogenated for food. Partially hydrogenated fats are softer than fully hydrogenated stuff. They use very hot nickel catalyst for this process. The result is a solidification of the oil so that it is no longer liquid at room temperature.

Some are naturally more hydrogenated, such as all animal fats (think lard) and a few from vegetable sources. That is one of the reasons animal fat is worse for you than most vegetable oils, because it is naturally more "partially-hydrogenated." If they are liquid at room temperatured then they are called oils, and that is the best way you can tell the difference. It would be interesting to know if your country requires any kind of designation on the package, but you will get a good indication if you see what it looks like at room temp. Maybe another person will tell us about labeling requiremnts in the UK ---Leah

Vertebral process

One of the processes of a lumbar vertebra was described to me as looking like a "scotty dog", and I understand that a particular deformity in this process, where it is either incomplete or so thin as to likely break before birth, leads to some danger of the vertebrae moving relative to each other and endangering the spinal column. Which process is this, is there a name for the deformity, how great is the risk, and what implications might it have for the owner of the vertebra, for example in choosing safe physical activities? Thank you. Pissant 16:55, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can find a bunch of useful links if you Google lumbar vertebra scotty dog.
The 'Scotty dog' appears in an oblique radiograph of the lumbar vertebrae. In an oblique view (shown here) the 'legs' of the Scotty dog are inferior articular processes; the 'ears' are one of the superior articular processes; the 'neck' is the pars interarticularis. If the pars is fractured, the Scotty dog will appear to be wearing a collar. The condition is called lumbar spondylolysis—a topic on which someone here ought to write an article.
There's are excellent sketches of a vertebra in various orientations here, there is also a description of the common radiographic projections.
This site has a number of useful diagrams and describes various treatment options. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:04, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your very helpful and informative response. I have started a stub article at spondylolysis, with various redirects. Another editor suggested merging the article with spondylosis, but I believe this to be an error. Opinions? Thank you again. Pissant 21:13, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good call. Spondylosis is a type of osteoarthritis of the spine, whereas spondylolysis is a vertebral fracture. The similarity of the names can certainly cause confusion, but they're quite distinct problems. I'll remove the merge tags. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:48, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Types of servers

Is a proxy server a type of file server? I sort of have an idea that it is but I'm just not sure. Please respond ASAP because it's a course work that i'm currently working(on networking) on and I need to be precise. Thank you!

No, a file server stores files and sends them to someone who asks. A proxy server is a network protocol relay. Now there are cacheing proxies, which do store some of the content they forward for a period of time, but this is a performance optimisation, and they're still logically quite distinct from a file server. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:50, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Organic Compounds

Are plastics part of organic compounds? Shahid Hamid.

Yes, the vast majority of them. But silicone for example, is not organic. --BluePlatypus 20:04, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
To add that here organic is like in Organic chemistry. That does not necessarily imply that the atoms of that substance have ever been part of a living beeing. The Infidel 21:30, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Is carbon monoxide organic? Tzarius 00:00, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Organic compound says no. Melchoir 00:24, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ditto the Cyanide group, though it's considered inorganic mostly by convention. GeeJo (t) (c) • 09:21, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
From one infidel to another, plastics are made from oil and oil is a a residue of rotting plants, so that would make them organic in the other sense as well. DirkvdM 11:15, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
"Organic" in chemistry isn't the same as the general use of the term. Specifically, it doesn't matter whether something comes from a living organism or is synthesized in a lab. For example, iron extracted from hemoglobin is no more organic than iron extracted from mines. StuRat 07:35, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

February 26

Plant identification

Can someone identify this plant ? Thanks. -- Ze miguel 00:20, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... pretty tough being B&W, and with all the silhouetting, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's an "Areca Palm" (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens).[4] — TheKMantalk 00:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think it looks like a spider plant, even although tha is kinda big. KILO-LIMA 12:43, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm fairly certain that it isn't a spider plant, since those have long, hanging leaves in clumps of rosettes, while the plant pictured has feathered, upright leaves. It does appear to be a palm of some sort. Another possibility could be the Kentia palm (Howea forsteriana).[5] — TheKMantalk 19:38, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Microscope question

What structures can be more easily seen in stained/dyed cells? If onion cells are plants, why can't chloroplasts be seen?

Sounds kinda like a homework question...so I'll just be giving a few hints: Organelle size could be a factor; think of the part of the onion the observed cells come from. — TheKMantalk 01:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you refer to the bulb part of the onion the fact that it is underground should give you a hint of why you don't see chloroplasts. -- Rune Welsh | ταλκ 14:18, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In video games, there's the matter of passengers in a 2-door car with back seats...

In various driving games where passengers can enter your car, if there are four doors and four seats, they can use all the four seats just fine (even though in the real-world, the back seat could oftentimes sit three instead of just two.)

However, in those same driving games, if I drive a coupe or otherwise a two-door vehicle with back seats, why don't the AI players ever pull the front seat forward so they can get into the back? In a few games, even the player character can get into the back seat, but also only when there are four doors.

The games I talk about so far are Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Mafia: City of Lost Heaven.

So,

1. Why can't the game devs make back seats accessible in two-door vehicles?

2. Are there any games in which two-door vehicles have accessible back seats?

--Shultz III 01:29, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

1: The devs were too lazy to create chair-seat-bending-forward animations and extra character animations (after all, if they wanted characters to sit in the back seat, it was simpler to just bring up a 4-door car.)
2: I imagine that there are a few non-lazy game developers out there somewhere, but I can't name any games. — TheKMantalk 01:36, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to change the speed of a motor

I am trying to adapt a fan motor for another purpose, but it turns much to fast. I want it to turn a set of pullies. Is there a way to monkey around with the electricity supply to make it turn slower? I also have the option of modifying a toy car, the wheels of which turn more slowly. But the problem with the car is that it is battery powered. Is there a way to connect it to house current? Now I know that you're probably just itching to toss a few links at me, but before you do that please just check that they won't bury me in maths and physics. "How to" is what I really need. ---Thanks, Leah

General rule: The more electricity you put into an electric motor, the faster it goes. The less you put in, the slower it goes. For the battery powered motor, you'll have to get an AC to DC adapter (Radio Shack has a wide variety). See how many volts/amps the battery is (it is printed on the battery) and get an adapter that is close. For the fan motor, you'll need to put something inline to limit the voltage. A dimmer switch for a regular light will do. Try not to electrocute yourself. Feel free to trip a circuit or two - that's how you learn. --Kainaw (talk) 02:20, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A lower-tech, but possibly more difficult solution might be to install two different sized gears between the motor and the pulleys. ×Meegs 03:32, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Gearing would be more efficient, as fan motors are not particularly powerful. But if you're using pulleys anyway, just run a belt from the fan spindle round a larger diameter shaft in order to step down the speed. --Shantavira 10:10, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, y'all. I went with the fan motor and the dimmer switch. didn't even trip a breaker! However, as Shantavira thought, the fan motor is not very powerful. it either runs too fast or stops completely. Its going to take a lot of tinkering to get it to run a constant, slow speed. I'll experiment more with pulley size and so forth as you suggest.Hmmm...about gears? you might see a similar question in a few days. thanks a ton, Leah

Non-Newtonian fluids

What's the difference between a dilatant fluid and a rheopectic fluid? Which one is oobleck? —Keenan Pepper 03:50, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, now that I actually read Rheopecty it says oobleck is dilatant. So, what is an example of a rheopectic fluid? —Keenan Pepper 03:54, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I have to say that that not knowing much about the subject, that statement seemed very Jabberwocky to me. GeeJo (t) (c) • 09:16, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As an actual answer, this page gives gypsum paste and printers ink as examples of rheopectic fluids, and yoghurt and paint as examples of theopectic fluids. GeeJo (t) (c) • 10:04, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No, theopectic fluids are what they put in religious statues to make them appear to bleed on saints' days. --Heron 13:09, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Bah, I meant thixotropic. GeeJo (t) (c) • 17:17, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

CRT Glass for LCDs

We use a glass in front of CRT monitors. Can the same glass be used in front of LCD monitors? Is there any special glass especially for LCDs?

A glass? You're talking about those "screen protectors"? Technically, you don't need those at all on LCD displays. I even have my doubts they're any use on CRTs. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 06:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Not quite sure what the question is, but the glass for a CRT monitor has to be much stronger (and is therefore much heavier) in order to withstand atmospheric pressure. On an LCD monitor the glass or plastic face can be quite thin and light. --Shantavira 10:17, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe the questioneer means anti-glare screens. These are especially useful for CRT's with a curved surface. LCD's use a flat screen, so any glare will come from a light source in one specific spot (right behind the user if he sits straight opposite the screen). Make sure there is no light source at that specific spot (or, rather, smaller area than with a curved screen) and you won't have any glare, so you won't need the screen. DirkvdM 11:24, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The glass in CRT monitors also contains lead, to protect against the X-rays. kmccoy (talk) 03:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

what is a skelton?

question from Wikipedia:Newcomers help page

Take a look at our article on the topic:Skeleton - cohesion★talk 05:52, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you really meant Skelton then that would be the best place to look - Adrian Pingstone 09:31, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hypovolemic Shock

I was giving a lecture on treating bleeding to a first aid club at my school. I was trying to figure out how much blood you can lose into each leg. Most sources seem to agree that there are about 6 liters of blood in the average adult. I think you can lose 1 or 2 liters into each leg, and since 1 liter alone is considered significant blood loss, the amount of blood that can be lost into each leg is an important consideration with respect to hypovolemia (hence leg elevation is taught as an easy intervention in treating shock).

I've already taught the lecture, but I'm still frustrated that I couldn't find this info, even from an EMT textbook (maybe I needed BTLS). If anyone has a figure for me, I'd apreciate it. And please, update my talk page if you reply. Thanks. Shaggorama 05:55, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Our article on hypovolemia says that blood loss of 10–20% may be tolerated without clinical symptoms. This site roughly agrees, putting the threashold at 15% for Type I hemorraging. Another complication is that the symptoms will depend on the health of the individual: shock will be worse in an individual who has not eaten recently, for example. Physchim62 (talk) 12:36, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The only way you lose blood into a leg in rapidly dangerous quantities is by severing of the femoral artery. Bleeding from severing the femoral vein or severe fracture of the femur is slower. In first aid for bleeding, the highest priority is to stop the blood loss by reducing the flow into the severed vessel (tourniquet) or by direct pressure on the bleeding site. The position of the legs does not have a major effect on bleeding. The reason for the practice of elevating the legs is to reduce pooling of blood there if blood pressure and venous return from the legs are becoming ineffective-- this is mainly worth doing in shock that does not involve injury to the femoral artery, vein, or femur. If a person is bleeding from an injury to the femoral artery, he needs an effective tourniquet (or compression) quickly, not elevation of the legs. If all you do is elevate the legs he will die almost as quickly as if you have done nothing. On the other hand, if the hypovolemic shock is not due to an injury to the legs, elevation may be of temporary first aid value (though not much). Elevation of the legs may buy a little time, but is mainly one of those measures that gives people something to do while waiting for more effective help (like smelling salts); by itself it isn't likely to save a life. alteripse 17:53, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hey thanks for responding...just came back to point out that A) neither of these replies actually answered my question, although B) alteripse came closest by acknowledging it. To reiterate: I don't care about what defines a severe blood loss. I don't care how blood is lost in the leg. I just want to know how much blood the legs can hold. Obviously, in refering to leg elevation as a treatment for shock I'm assuming pooling from internal bleeding. I WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH BLOOD CAN POOL IN AN AVERAGE ADULTS LEG. Not that complicated, but apparently the question meritted rephrasing.

PS: a tourniquet should be the last consideration in treating a hemorhage of any kind, and therefore shold not be raised in any meniton of "first priority" in treatments. Furthermore, elevating the legs is "worth doing" on any patient where any type of hypovolemic shock is even a suspected complication. Moreover, I never said that elevating the legs should be the only intervention (are you implying that a tourniquet should be?), but considering how effective it can be and what an easy intervention it is, it certainly deserves more credit than I feel you are giving it. From your user page, you seem to have a strong background in medicine; but I wonder what your experience in emergency medicine has been. Shaggorama 10:39, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What surface is (theoretically) survivable to land on from a high fall?

Say you fall off of an airplane and your parachute (+ reserve) somehow doesn't work (or you simply don't have one when and wherever you fall.)

A fall over water will still kill you because of its surface tension. Therefore, what surface can theoretically save you after a long fall? For example, would it be an ocean or lake of whipped cream? How about Jello?

In case anyone thinks about it- no, it wouldn't be a mattress factory because Serta and other bedding manufacturers hadn't bothered to line their roofs with mattress foam. --Shultz III 11:41, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to our terminal velocity article, a human can slow their speed in free-fall from 200 to 120 Mph (320 to 195 Km/h) by correctly positioning their limbs. The key to avoiding damage is to minimize your deceleration, the amount of time it takes you to slow from 120 Mph to 0 once you contact the ground. I don't know the properties of whipped cream, but if it were soft enough to slow you down gradually over a significant portion of a second, you'd probably be ok. ×Meegs 11:54, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A fall over water is not necessarily fatal in itself: see, for example, La Quebrada Cliff Divers. Physchim62 (talk) 12:25, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You might want to read Unplanned Freefall?. It mentions a few successful unplanned descents, and is amusing, too. Deep snow seems to be one of the best surfaces to land on. --Heron 13:03, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There have been several instances of people parachuting, having their chute fail to deploy, and surviving impact. The three cases that I remember were a person falling into a marsh, into snow, and the third fell onto the roof of a car. Raul654 13:07, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Many of those cases featured a partially deployed parachute, so some slowing still occurred. StuRat 07:19, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also, in the first two cases (the marsh and snow) the people were uninjured; they got up and walked away. In the third case, the guy broke both legs but was otherwise uninjured. They key to survival is to distribute the impact throughout your body - e.g, fall flat on your back. Raul654 14:34, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Also suitable trees, as mentioned on the page cited above. I've read elsewhere that Nick Alkemade came through his fall without so much as a broken bone, and when he was taken prisoner the Germans didn't believe his story until he pointed out that the clips where his parachute would have been attached had obviously not been used. --Anonymous, 20:00 UTC, February 26, 2006.
Incidental question: Have those life jackets we are all taught to put over our heads ever saved any lives, or are they just there to make us feel a bit safer? --Shantavira 13:12, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, there have certainly been crashes of airliners into water where many people survived. Here are details of three from http://www.planecrashinfo.com: one from 1968, one from 1970, and one from 1996. I don't know specifically whether any passengers survived by using lifejackets, but it seems likely enough. --Anonymous, 20:00 UTC, February 26, 2006.

Are you the kind of person who sits on an airplane ride and ponders uselessly about what you would do if you fell out? I know I am, and its a lousy way to spend 2 hours. Anyhow, I thought i would raise a few points. One, its not the surface tension of the water that would make it painful (surface tension is apparently often confused with substance viscousity). The reason a water landing is not as desireable as you think is that the decelerative force of the water once you hit it is still substantial enough to break your bones and/or rip the flesh from them, caused by water's friction and its density vs viscousity. Best case terminal velocity, as someone mentioned, is still well over 100 mph and whatever you land on will decide how far of a distance that is spread out over (mathematically, the distance related to the deceleration is measured in G force). The key is to find something that will greatly spread the deceleration out, resulting in the lowest max G force on your body. A single mattress will only be marginally better than hitting bare ground, you only gain a few inches of deceleration time. Falling into whipped cream or jello may slow you down gradually, but by the time you had enough of it (i would hope for at least 4 feet worth) falling into it would result in you being stuck at the bottom, at which point you have a new problem, namely there wont be much to breathe in there so you will need a quick exit plan.

It's been mentioned already, but trees are supposed to be the best thing to fall in. I believe most people who survived something like this fell into a tree. Also, irrespective of the material, a slope would be helpful. In both cases you don't get one big blow but several smaller ones.
Another factor is how one falls. With any fall or similar crash (car crash for example), being relaxed makes a big difference. (Alcohol might help there, but you won't have enough time to let that take effect :) ). Broken limbs are partly a result of having them tensed up. About falling on your back - that seems logical from the reasoning that one should spread the force exerted on the body. But the spinal cord is also a rather vital organ. If you land on your feet (literally) you might smash your legs, but still survive. Unless you fall on a car, I suppose, because there, with the weak material but a big air pocket below it, you need the spreading of the force more. If you landed on your feet, you'd just crash through the roof and hardly get slowed down. Oh, and speaking of roofs, those inflated sports halls would constitute a wonderful pillow. And what about the millennium dome? Which Bond film was that again? DirkvdM 11:25, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The World Is Not Enough. --Anon, 07:35 UTC, February 28, 2006.

Vacuum

Hi all, Can someone help me understand the "Vacuum" concept because i couldnt understand if i have a bottle for example and suck out all the air in it , how can it simply contain nothing and y doesnt it crash or something? Thanks Yasmeen

Yasmeen - normally, when you have that bottle (filled with air), there are air molecules bouncing around inside of it and outside of it. Every time an air molecule bounces off the side of the bottle, it pushes it a little bit. So the air molocules inside the bottle bounce off the inside and push out, and the air molecules on the outside bounce off the outside and push in. As a whole, the air tends to exert a pressure across the side of the bottle - we call this air pressure. In most cases, you have the same density of air inside the bottle and out, so the air pressure is equal.
If you were to pump out all of the air from the bottle, there would be no molecules on the inside pushing it out. However, the air molecules on the outside would still be pushing in. If the material wasn't strong enough, the bottle would implode. (For the exact same reason a submarine implodes if it dives too deep) Raul654 11:52, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's all true. An evacuated bottle is subject to the force of air pressure outside, which is not infinite: at sea level it is about one kilogram force per square centimetre or 15 pounds force per square inch. As long as the bottle can withstand this pressure, it will survive. Bottles are particularly strong because of their round shape, which resists compression like a Roman arch. If you put the same pressure on a flat-sided glass box made of bottle glass or window glass, it would be crushed.
You have to remember that a vacuum is not a magic substance that "sucks" with infinite force. It is just a lack of pressure in one place compared with a higher pressure somewhere else. --Heron 12:49, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Just to add to the above, atmospheric pressure is really not very strong. I would guess that squeezing the bottle in one hand has about the same effect as emptying it of air. --Shantavira 13:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
An good experiment to give you a feel for atmospheric pressure is to take a plastic syringe about one inch in diameter (one without a hypodermic needle), push in the plunger, seal the nozzle with your thumb, then pull the plunger out. You will need a force of about 12 pounds. That is what atmospheric pressure feels like. --Heron 13:26, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The strength of the material itself is another factor to consider. That's the reason why normal light bulbs are often made of glass and not plastic. -- Rune Welsh | ταλκ 14:29, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Plastic light bulbs? The problem there would be heat resistance rather than strength. Polycarbonates are plenty strong enough. --Shantavira 16:03, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
How about light emitting diodes? They are made of plastic. --HappyCamper 18:45, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
They're not hollow. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 19:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another good experiment: take an empty soda can and heat it over a flame. This will expel a good deal of air fromt he can, while the remaining air continues to exert atmospheric pressure on the can due to the high temperature. Once the can has gotten good and hot, stick it open-end down into cold water. Because the temperature of the air kept the pressure of the interior of the can equal to atmospheric, rapidly changing this temperature while isolating the interior of the can rapidly reduces the pressure in the can. This drop in pressure is observed as an imlosion. In short, heat the can, dunk it head down into cold water, and it will implode in a big crunch. Shaggorama 11:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bird Anatomy

I want to know the name of the thing (gland?) that exists in a hollow of a chicken's hip-bone (pelvic bone) right next to the spine (backbone). They (two per chicken) taste delicious, but I don't know what to call them (good eats?). WAS 4.250 13:46, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would guess they're its kidneys. --Shantavira 16:40, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I tasted a cooked mammal kidney once and it had a slight odor/taste of urine. Never tasted one again. The organ/gland pair in chickens I am refering to tastes nothing like that and looks nothing like a mammal kidney. They look more like a pair of pancreases, an inch long and a quarter inch in width, space filling in shape, nestled tight in the pelvic bone hollow. Internally they are such that I have wondered if they are lung tissue. I suspect they produce digestive juices. Every fourth or fifth whole chicken I buy has a pair of smaller than pea sized kidney shaped organs with smooth surfaces like mammal kidneys dangling near the spine more in the abdomen than the hips- I bet those are the chicken kidneys. WAS 4.250 19:02, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I hate to gross you out, but if they are in the pelvis, they may very well be reproductive organs, analogous to the mammalian ovaries or testes. StuRat 07:09, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I've considered that. That is a good guess also it seems to me. It doesn't gross me out. They taste good. Once, years ago, I was eating a vegetarian sandwhich and bit my check very badly; the blood flowed. After a minute of bad pain, and not spitting it out as I was in public, I noticed my mouthful of vegy food was far far far better tasting now that it was mixed with my blood. Now knowing that on a desert island with only plants to eat I would add flavor even using my own blood if I had to, I know I was born to not be a vegetarian. I was born to be a meat eater as surely as I was born to be an oxygen breather. WAS 4.250 01:02, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm pretty sure I've observed the organ you are talking about, and I'm fairly convinced it's a lung. If I'm right, despite how nice it tastes, you may want to reconsider eating it before investigating the conditions chickens are raised in (unless you don't mind eating aspirated fecal matter). Shaggorama 11:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
No one else seems to mind. Proto||type 14:19, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lung tissue is indeed a good guess (avian lungs are very different from mammal lung). But microscopic insect parts and droppings are everywhere. We breathe in mite shit. Do you eat sausage that uses animal casing (pig intestine)? Being squeemish is just silly. Why should I care if microscopic shit is in it? I do cook it first! And if there were enough shit in it to matter, I could taste it. WAS 4.250 19:09, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is difference between De-interlacing and Inverse telecine?

I think they are similar thing, but they do have some subtle difference, would somebody kindly tell me what is/are that/those?203.186.238.180 12:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See deinterlacing and telecine. --Heron 12:53, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Basically, inverse telecine is much better. With inverse telecine, you get back the perfect individual frames of the original, whereas with deinterlacing you get blurred averages of the interlaced fields. —Keenan Pepper 16:48, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As the headline said... (unsigned)

It depends on things you haven't told us. Provide more details, or read fair use. WAS 4.250 13:51, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're copying your CD for a friend, it's almost certainly a violation. Superm401 - Talk 22:17, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

IANAL, but it will depend on a number of things. Giving the number, in the abstract, is not against copyright law, since the number itself is not copyrighted, but there is a possibility that the act of giving the number is part of a crime if it is a part of a copyright infringement. If your friend has a legal copy of the software, and you give a number as part of some kind of technical support, it is liekly legal, if you are giving the number in order to allow them to run software that they don't hold a license for, it is likely not.

IANAL either, but in the US, just giving the number could violate the DMCA anti-circumvention provision. That basically says (the law is vague) that you can't deliberately circumvent a copy-protection system (even if this would otherwise be fair use). Superm401 - Talk 03:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Accounting by WPP and google

Two questions here-

1) How do Advertising agencies like WPP and O&M do accounting? If an ad costs $100 in a newspaper, and $15 goes to WPP as commission, then will $100 add to the revenues of WPP or will only $15 add to the revenues of WPP?

2) I also would be interested in how Google does accounting. If Google acts as an advertising agency by way of placing ads in other websites through their adsense program, then- Please assume I am a blog site owner and an ad is placed in my site, and the advertiser pays $1 for 100 inpressions. I get 50 cents. Now, will Google's revenues increase by $1 or will it increase by 50 cents?

Thank you

These are related questions, both of which concern who gets the money. In both cases, a company (the one the ad is for) contacts an ad agency (WPP Group or Google), who places an ad with a media company (a newspaper or your blog). The media company charges for access ($85 for the newspaper ad, assuming $100 total cost and $15 commission; 50 cents for your blog), and the ad agency collects a fee ($15 or 50 cents). The question is, does the company pay these two costs seperately, or with one cheque?
If they cut one cheque, then, using the WPP example, WPP gets an income of $100, and immediately spends $85 on buying newspaper ads, which they list as an expense. If the company cuts two cheques, the newspaper gets $85 directly, and WPP gets $15 which is income, and then has no cost of sales expense (except labour).
Look at one ad agency's financial records [6]; click 2004 financial statements, go to the income statement, page 134. (I'm rounding the numbers here:) They bill $35.9, with cost of sales at $28.0 and revenue of $7.9. It seems that cost of sales eats up the majority of their revenue. So most of their billing is cost of sales, which I would expect if they had to pay for the newspaper ads and whatever. This makes sense - if I'm running Pepsi, I want to write one cheque to WPP and have them take out ads in the hundreds of media companies for me. I don't want to be bothered buying space in 5000 newspapers individually. So it seems that this is the first case; WPP gets $100 income, and spends $85 on the newspaper ad, leaving $15 in net revenue.
With Google, it seems pretty apparent that they handle the billing as part of the AdSense program; you don't put a Google ad on your website and then start sending out bills for 0.5 cents to whoever advertises. (You don't even know who's advertising.) So Google would get revenue of $1, and then have an expense of 50 cents, which is their cost of media exposure.
So, in both cases, the same accounting. They get the full cost of the ad campaign as income, but they also spend a big part of their income on buying media exposure. Which is the same as any company, really. If you buy a $1500 computer from a computer store, they get $1500 income, but they had to spend $1300 or whatver to buy that computer from the manufacturer. ByeByeBaby 21:49, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
 Your answer was in-depth & useful. Thankyou-Poster of the question

Sleeping with head northwards

Is there any scientific reason behind the popular belief that it is not good to sleep with head towards north?

This is a total guess, but it could be related to the old christian burial custom of always placing a body with the head to the west and feet to the east. Raul654 16:27, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
How is this a scientific reason? ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 17:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's a scientific explanation, just not a scientific basis. Markyour words 21:42, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well I thought it was supposed to be good for you. More research needed obviously, but I would have thought it was nonsense. --Shantavira 16:44, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
My guess is: there is none. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 17:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I remember reading years ago about a belief that aligning the body with the directionality of the magnetic field of the Earth was supposedly beneficial. JackofOz 20:00, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Keyword: supposedly. If that was true, we could always walk facing north then. Wouldn't that be a thing? ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 22:26, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I thought I'd seen something about this. I searched our journal catalog and couldn't find anything. The conclusion of the study is that people either find it easier to fall asleep when switching their direction 180 degrees, or they find it more difficult. The rarely find it the same. While it did have a true result (sleeping in the opposite direction does affect how easily people fall asleep), I remember it because it was worded in a funny way: either they find it easier or harder. It sounded to me like saying either it will rain tomorrow or it won't. --Kainaw (talk) 01:48, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hypnotizing animals

It seems that chickens and trout can be hypnotized, though not snakes (at least according to Wikipedia). Can this really be hypnotism? Or is something else going on? What about other animals? --Shantavira 16:53, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing we don't have a particularly good understanding of how hypnotism in humans actually works, it's rather hard to say. --Robert Merkel 09:21, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Phlogiston Theory!

I do not understand this part of the Phlogiston Theory and i would be very grateful if you could help me:

"Charcoal leaves hardly any ash when it burns because it is almost pure phlogiston."

What reasons prove this theory is wrong and what proves it right?

Thank You Very Much!!

See Phlogiston theory. (Smells like homework). - Cybergoth 17:52, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Homework questions of phlogiston? Good grief! They'll be asking homework questions on intelligent design next. (Oops!) --Shantavira 18:43, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Since phlogiston doesn't exist, there are no reasons which prove the theory right. Markyour words 21:44, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I disagree, many incorrect theories still have some evidence to support them, just less than the evidence against them. StuRat 07:04, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Evidence in support of a theory is not proof of a theory. Markyour words 21:24, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
He may have meant, "For what reasons did scientists used to think it was right?" Black Carrot 01:34, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
One of the findings cited to disprove the theory was that burning of metals actually increased their mass (oxidation = rusting), and therefore could not be indicative of any type of loss, as phlogiston theory required. Shaggorama 11:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

32-bit vs. 64-bit CPU's

I'm looking at buying a new motherboard and CPU for my Linux system, and I'm utterly confused about the 32-bit vs. 64-bit thing. The Pentium D article doesn't say whether they're 64-bit or 32-bit; is that even a question that makes sense? If you buy a 64-bit processor, do you necessarily have to run a 64-bit operating system on it, or do you simply have the *option* of switching? Will current versions of Linux (i.e. Gentoo) work on a Pentium D without major rejiggering? -- Creidieki 18:24, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A complete answer would require several paragraphs. Take a look at the intel 64 bit tech in the EM64T article, and the AMD version in the AMD64 article. After that, maybe a look at the windows XP x64 article would sum things up. --24.210.26.146 19:37, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you buy a 64-bit system, you can still run a 32-bit OS. A 64-bit OS requires a 64-bit processor, but can generally run 32-bit applications alongside 64-bit applications. Device drivers on the other hand can be a problem, because a 64-bit OS requires 64-bit device drivers, and some peripherals may not necessarily have any available. Then your only choice may be to run a 32-bit OS. 84.239.128.9 21:21, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hopefully i can give a consise answer thats still useable. The 64 bit processors classed EM64T and AMD64 are very similar to our current 32 bit processors, but naturally with native 64 bit memory ability and some advanced instructions to take advantage of it. This similarity makes them 'hybrid' processors in that if you dont want the full 64 bits and new features, you dont have to use them. So, a 32 bit OS can still run fine. This also means that when you choose a 64 bit operating system, it is still very possible to run 32 bit applications 'near-native' for no perceiveable performance loss. To the person not wanting any deeper of an understanding than this, here is the point: If youre buying a desktop you should get a 64 bit offering. You wont lose functionality and you wont pay much more for it, and down the road (read: windows vista) you will see a sharp benefit from having it. --24.210.26.146 21:47, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • So the difference between the Pentium D and the Itanium is that the Pentium D is kind of "optionally" 64-bit? Will I suffer a major performance problem 3 years from now when I'm trying to run a 64-bit OS? I assume from what you're said above that the Pentium D implements IA-32 in addition to the EM64T instruction set, so it can run operating systems designed for either platform? -- Creidieki 22:02, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Bingo. EM64T and AMD64 are hybrid technologies that will run traditional 32 bit (x86 insruction set) operating systems just fine, along with the upcoming 64 bit (x64 instruction set). The Itanium and I-2 is based on a whole new 64 bit EPIC instruction set, and is really beyond the scope of this discussion (its 64 bit just like x64, but the instruction set is different, and that's what breaks compatibility). Honestly, if you are using the same CPU 3 years from now as you are today, you will be suffering a performance problem but it won't have anything to do with bits or instructions. A x64 dual core system presents the strongest upgrade path at this time, but in 3 years who knows what will be around.
  • Re: "You wont lose functionality" -- actually you might lose the ability to use important hardware or software compared to running a 32-bit system. As noted all device drivers must be rewritten, and device drivers can turn up in unexpected placed. For example Adobe Acrobat Professional 7.0 does not fully work in 64-bit Windows XP. The bottom line is to carefully check for an explicit compatibility notice for everything you want or need to run. Nobody is saying "everything will run" but unfortunately many people go around with this message in their heads and later get hurt... Notinasnaid 04:49, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
See, I said it would get complicated. You won't lose any functionality with the type of *cpu* you choose, whether it be 32 bit x86 or 64 bit x64. You can still run your choice of 100% 32 bit OS or 50/50 64 bit os, which is where your loss of functionality may possibly come from. As an implementer of these CPUs, I can say i have had success running all typical hardware and software on windows and linux in x64 mode.

If the present 64 bit processors are hybrids, then might future ones be pure 64 bit and will it then no longer be possible to use 32 bit OS's? Such as Win98 (yes, I still use that for various reasons). DirkvdM 12:10, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unlikely—even the Itanium provides an ability to run regular 32-bit x86 code through emulation (even though in the Itanium's case, this is incredibly slow). I would assume that any consumer-class processor (Athlon, Pentium) released in the foreseeable future will include the ability to natively execute 32-bit code, though. Even after 28 years, all of today's processors are still able to run 16-bit x86 code, so I don't foresee an "64-bit only" processor being a problem. Bloodshedder 00:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

monkey?

no question

Yes, monkey. GeeJo (t) (c) • 19:42, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Note that gorillas, chimpanzees, humans, orangutans, and gibbons are apes, not monkeys. — Knowledge Seeker দ 19:53, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Monkeys have tails, but apes seldom recant anecdotes.
Slumgum 19:59, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That's their story and they're sticking to it? --Trovatore 20:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
William Shatner. Melchoir 21:30, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Mon key? EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 22:26, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This would be the perfect place for the Balloon Monkey joke from Kingdom of Loathing, cept their wiki is down. :( --AySz88^-^ 22:59, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Mon...key! Mon...key! Sum0 15:55, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Monkees. User:Zoe|(talk) 03:05, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mon clé? Shaggorama 11:33, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't rhyme with donkey. For some stupid reason. Proto||type 14:15, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Commercial Nanocarbons

Hi,

I am wondering if there are companies out there actually making parts out of nanocarbons!? If you know of any, could you kindly name them here?

Thank you.

I'm not sure if these count as "parts" but check out the Applications and External links at Carbon nanotube. Melchoir 21:28, 26 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How do I change the media player in Firefox?

I don't really like quicktime that much, I was wondering how do i change it to Windows Media Player?

The problem here is the Firefox QuickTime plugin you most likely have. Assuming you're using Windows (since you want to use Windows Media Player), go into C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugins (or whatever your install directory was). There should be some dlls there. Find the ones that start with "npqtplugin". You may have several; I had npqtplugin.dll, npqtplugin2.dll, npqtplugin3.dll, npqtplugin4.dll and npqtplugin5.dll. You can delete them all, as well as another file there named "QuickTimePlugin.class". Now restart Firefox, and what should happen now when you try going to a *.mp3 or *.mpg on the web is Firefox will ask you whether you want to open or save it, which is obviously where you select Windows Media Player to open. -- Daverocks (talk) 07:56, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Instead of deleting the plug-in file, you can also tell Firefox what to do with particular files. Go to the Tools menu, click Options, click Downloads, then click the View & Edit Actions button. Find the filetype you wish to change the action for (it may be listed several times, so change them all), select it, and click Change Action. You might want "Save them to my computer" instead of "Use this plug-in" or opening them with an external application. Also, as an alternative to both Quicktime and Windows Media Player, VLC media player offers a browser plug-in with its media player installation. Bloodshedder 00:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Control+Enter IE shortcut

In Microsoft IE, pressing Control+Enter while in the URL box adds "http://" and ".com" to the text currently in the box. I somehow lost the ability to do this in my old computer. I just got a new computer, and after a few days, I lost the ability to do this on my new computer too. So I suspect this might be because of iTunes or iPodAgent, because these are the only two programs I remember downloading on my new computer. Has anyone else had this problem, and how do I fix it? --JianLi 01:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try Control+Alt+Enter? I'm not sure, but the solve-all solution is to dump IE and use Firefox instead, which, by the way, has that shortcut too. -- Daverocks (talk) 07:46, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Go to Tools, then Options, then the Advanced tab. Turn on the Use inline AutoComplete setting in the Browsing section and the shortcut should work again. --jh51681 19:52, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, thanks Jh51681, that worked perfectly. I had no idea it was actually an option. How did you find out about it? The weird thing is, the help description of "inline AutoComplete" doesn't even mention the control+enter shortcut.

February 27

roms, where do i find them

where would i find a good site to download roms for gameboy advanced or other emulators?

99.99% of console roms breach copyright laws. Stay away from them! If you are looking for good, free, downloadable games, try Home of the Underdogs, or make your way over to indie gaming and follow the links from there. --Sam Pointon 04:16, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Romhustler. Nuff said.

Why is China all in one time zone?

Anyone know the answer? Is it political?

Is the border between China and Tajikistan the only political border you can cross and gain/lose 3 hours (like you just flew from New York to LA)?

-Quasipalm 04:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

China does border Afganistan for a bit less than 100km, so crossing that border means a 3.5hr time change. — TheKMantalk 05:05, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting topic. I dunno the historic reason, but I suppose that they all follow the Beijing time, hallmark of a centralised controlling government. An incidental question is why does United States have different timezones. For one thing, it's quite confusing when connecting flights. --Vsion 07:29, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Time zones are a strange bag of physics and politics. Ideally, each time zone should be exactly 15° wide to compensate for longitude (and even then, your watch could still be off by half an hour compared to local solar time, but this is judged acceptable). Of course, national borders and politics twist this, all the way to aberrations like China, which spans enough longitude for three-and-a-bit timezones but only has one - so, at the eastern end of China, the sun rises a full three hours earlier than at the western end, even though the clocks in both places show the same time. Vsion, if the US was only one timezone, it would be even worse - assuming it was centered somewhere in the midwest, noon would be at 10am in New York and at 3pm in Hawaii, which would be very silly. Europe is another example of politics prevailing over physics - save the British Isles and Portugal, all of Europe west of about 25°E is in one time zone, when it spans more than 30° of longitude. If done 'properly', France, Spain and the Benelux should be at GMT+0, together with the UK, Ireland and Portugal. See our article on time zone, it's rather good. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:59, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The half-hour zones are even weirder. In the case of Iran it makes some sense because a 'solar zone' border runs straight through the country. But India is bang in the middle of the +5 hour zone, yet they're at +5,30 hours. And the Central Australian zone is weirder still. It looks designed to be coincide with the +9 hour zone, yet it's at 9,5 hours. DirkvdM 12:10, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's a good point - could any Aussies on the Ref Desk (yes, JackofOz, that means you :)) enlighten us as to why in the world your central time zone is at UTC+9.5? It seems very random. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've searched in vain for info about the reason it was done that way. Originally the local mean time of Adelaide was used (138E35). On 1 February 1895, the time zone was based on 135E00, and on 1 May 1899 it changed to 142E30, and it's stayed there ever since despite at least 3 attempts (1986, 1994, 2000) to change it. I can only assume it had something to do with the population of the state being concentrated in the eastern half. Or maybe it was a metaphor for South Australia's forward looking vision of the world (eg. South Australia had the first Parliament in the world to allow women to be elected as members). JackofOz 09:32, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may consult Time zones of China for more information in depth. In fact, zh:中國時區 (Time zones of China) was on Chinese Wikipedia's DYK section last week. -- Toytoy 14:16, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Time zone changes can be confusing, and daylight savings too. Each time anyone proposes any changes in the UK, people appear out of the woodwork to complain about the loss of daylight at one end of the day or the other. Perhaps the Chinese are smart enough to realise that changing the clocks doesn't actually affect how much daylight there is, and (shock) adjust outdoor work to match. Notinasnaid 14:21, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think this is a nice idea. You can travel from Singapore to Shanghai to Hong Kong to Taipei to Manila to Perth without adjusting your watch. It's lazy man's heaven! However, you still suffer from mild jet lag because you can't cheat the sun. You can't cheat Skype either. ... Well, latest Skype can display a user's local time so you know if it's proper to call. ...
Taiwan had observed day light saving time several times in history (1945-1961, 1974-1975, 1980; start and end dates varied). People hated it. The government had to call it off. Some Chinese cities, Macau and Hong Kong had observed day light saving time too. -- Toytoy 14:49, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'm also wondering why can't we all follow the Beijing-style system, everyone fixed the time at say the UTC, but start work at different time depending on local sunrise: Singapore start work at 0000hr, UK at 0800hr, california at 1600hr, etc.. I wake up at 11am everyday anyway, no problem. Wouldn't this system be better and less confusing? Daylight saving is another archaic thing, but I shouldn't complain, the worse victims are the diary cattles: for one particular day each year, the cows are forced to wake up one hour earlier than usual for milking, totally confused and irritable. Then half a year later, they have to hold the milk in their systems for one more excruciating hour; thanks to this human-invented daylight saving scheme. --Vsion 15:16, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's worth noting that cows don't read clocks; their schedules only change if the farmers in question don't adjust to the time change to compensate. — Lomn Talk 18:27, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may want to see Image:ROC-TimeZones.png. This picture shows the time zones of China from 1912 to 1945 (Taiwan was under Japanese occupation then but was also GMT+8; but Hong Kong was GMT+9 during the 1942-1945 Japanese occupation). The GMT+8 provinces (pink area) consistutes more than 80% of China's population and an even larger pie of economics (the rest of China are mostly mountains and deserts). I think it is quite reasonable for China to adopt a single time zone policy because it helps people to do business. -- Toytoy 15:28, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I totally agree with Vsion.It is ridiculous to change the clocks time.It is more easy to follow the UTC everywhere with particular schedule for each palce.amrahs 15:40, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Does anyone remember Swatch Internet Time? Thought not. —Blotwell 10:37, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Personally, I think it's a good idea to adopt the time zone after your nearby economic partners. It's an even better idea that we all adopt GMT or UTC whatever you call it. I sent a package from Taipei to Washington D.C. last week, the DHL tracking system is really doing a bad job by displaying only local time. My package travelled from Taiwan (GMT+8) to California (GMT-8) to Ohio (GMT-5) to Maryland (GMT-5). It could be even more complex if it's summer in the USA. I hate daylight saving time. -- Toytoy 15:48, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, that's what Singapore did when Malaysia switched the whole country to UTC+8 (previously both Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore had been under UTC+7, but to accomodate East Malaysia which is in UTC+8, the whole country set its clocks an hour ahead, forcing Singapore to follow suit). Johnleemk | Talk 16:06, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There is also a tendency for time zones to be slanted towards longer evenings and shorter mornings. Central European Time is the equivalent of solar time in Berlin, but is used in many areas to the West: Galicia (Spain) is two and a half hours ahead of local solar time in summer. Physchim62 (talk) 04:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In The United States, in the State of Indiana, the dividing line between Central Time zone and Eastern Standard Time zone runs in between the east bound and west bound traffic of Interstate 64.

Comment: 

The half-hour zones are even weirder. In the case of Iran it makes some sense because a 'solar zone' border runs straight through
the country. But India is bang in the middle of the +5 hour zone, yet they're at +5,30 hours. And the Central Australian zone is
weirder still. It looks designed to be coincide with the +9 hour zone, yet it's at 9,5 hours. DirkvdM 12:10, 27
February 2006 (UTC)
I believe the IST is based on the meridian (82° 30' E ) which is roughly halfway between India's two extremes, so it's a perfectly logical choice. Note that Historically, Indians were using Ujjain (75° 47' E) as the reference prime meridian (in place of Greenwich), and astrologers still use the same. deeptrivia (talk) 04:24, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Erosion and Weathering

Why don't the continents disappear as they are continually worn down by weathering and erosion?

There are several processes involved. A major one is this - the Earth's surface rocks basically float on the molten rock underneath. The surface is heavy - not heavy enough to sink, but heavy enough to sink into the molten layer to some extent (much like an iceberg floats on the surface of the ocean, with most of its contents below the surface. As the land is eroded, it floats up a little more, since it now weights a little less. Another major process is the land-building which comes from the movement of the earth's plates. In some parts of the world, one plate is passing under another, and this causes the land to rise. In other places (Iceland, for instance), volcanic activity is building the land up., Elsewhere, notably the Himalayas and Alps, plates are colliding, and buckling where the collision occurs (look at the shape of the mountains in southern Asia - they were caused by the collision of India into the Asian mainland. So yes, erosion wears the rocks down, but there are enough other activities going on which are building them up again. Grutness...wha? 06:09, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another (quite minor) contribution is from dust and occasionally visible meteors from space. StuRat 06:51, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Plate tectonics --Zeizmic 13:12, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree, they are in equilibrium, with the processes listed above building them up at the same rate erosion wears them down. StuRat 05:51, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Puberty

After a teenager develops puberty, hair appears in areas of the body such as around the penis or vagina, below the armpits, and on the face. But why? I mean, what is the purpose of all this hair appearing in different parts of the body?

No one knows. People guess. Trap smell? WAS 4.250 01:24, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's compliated. Basically, it's neotony. The adult form of our species, being descended from ape-like creatures, is supposed to have hair all over its body. Hair doesn't develop until after birth, however. But as a result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution-driven neotony, human young tend to look juvenile longer (e.g, live later without hair in areas adults have it). Raul654 06:57, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Humans grow hair while still in the womb. Neotony is part of why we have hair that looks small/thin/short compared to the other apes (the numbers of hairs in humans are the same as in the other apes, ours are just small/thin/short). Sexual choice (people prefering to mate with less hairly other humans) is a prime guess for why this is so. WAS 4.250 01:24, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Agreeing with Raul, I would just like to add that in the future, mankind may lose the need for hair, and evolution will possibly get rid of it.

The Ronin00:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is that why I'm balding? That's comforting... --Vsion 00:41, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
This is purely science fiction. A more fact based look into the future would note the increase in human ability to look any way they want; technological evolution replacing genetic evolution. WAS 4.250 01:24, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As a matter of fact, there is already a magical gizmo that allows us to change this aspect of ourselves at will. Black Carrot 01:44, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
WAS 4.250 is in teh ball park, but not exactly right. Natural selection for humans has virtually ceased. How many people die of natural causes before hitting puberty? A vanishingly small number compared to the past.
My uncorrected vision is (roughly) 20/800 -- basically blind. if I lived 50,000 years ago, I wouldn't have survived very long (you can't hunt if you can't see). However, with LASIK, I can live a normal, happy life. This is NOT "technological evolution" - any child I have will also get my genes for severe nearsightedness. So it's not "evolution" of any kind, as the frequency of allelles does not change (which is the definition of evolution).
However, while natural selection has almost ceased, there is another driving force - social selection. Social selection has always been present, but as natural selection became less important, social selection became more important. Think about it this way - if someone is (for example) genetically smelly, no one is gonna want to marry him and have kids with him. Thus, he is weeded out. Social characteristics have become far more important with technology. Raul654 01:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Technological evolution is not any kind of biological evolution. Biologists don't have a copyright on the english language word "evolution". Look it up in a dictionary or even in wikipedia (pay attention to the first thing you read, it directs you to a disambig page where other articles using the word "evolution" with other meanings are described and linked to. WAS 4.250 17:58, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Text and Image copyright confusion

The following was posted at Wikipedia:Clueless newbies:

What a great place. I just created an account. Did quite a bit of reading, but don't understand in simple terms if my problem is solved here.

I'm creating my first web site in XHTML and am writing a family photojournal as my learning tool. It has tons of photos that I prefer to protect with copyright on the web site. We may SOMEDAY (no time soon) use the site commercially to sell bonsais and arts & crafts products.

(1) Does not our copyright exlamation at the bottom of the site protect the images even though there are no tags? Do PhotoShop watermarks carry any weight?

(2) Is it possible to use articles verbatim about bonsai from Wikipedia and create a copyright that explains that the use of text is GNU-free-licensed, but the graphics, indeed, remain copyrighted solely to us on our web site if we follow the example page that references GNU and Wikipedia? Thanks for the help.

--InMyWords

— QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:44, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(1) Yes, and technically they would be protected even if you didn't specifically say so on your site (though it is always best to make it clear). Whether or not people on the internet will respect those copyrights is a different matter. Photoshop watermarks or otherwise marking the copyright on the image itself might help protect against that, if you're worried.
(2) Read Wikipedia:Copyrights for a detailed response. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 21:30, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes. Our interpretation is that images can be licensed (or not) separately from GFDL text; in other words, "mere aggregation". Superm401 - Talk 03:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

X-Ray and Dental Problems

Another question from Wikipedia:Clueless newbies:

Ten year back I was working some electricity work during my working one copper wire inserted in my gum, I immediate went to the doctor and told him the entire thing doctor diagnose but did not take x-ray and told there is nothing, Time to time I went to the different doctor and told them the entire story doctor did not believe me and said if there is wire in your gum there must be some swelling and infection in the gum but there was nothing, but there is a continuously feeling that wire is in my gum

Recently one month back I went to doctor and he took two X-Ray but he did not find any thing in my gum he operate my gum and saw through high resolution Camera but result was zero, but to day as on date 27/2/2006 my tongue feeling that wire get loose and displaced Doctor say nothing is their every thing is all right it is all physiological but I feel that wire is in my gum

Pl. Answer the following

1) Can a metal wire dissolved automatically after this long period 2) If metal wire is exact behind the teeth it can be seen through X-Ray 3) In what condition Metal wire does not show image through X-Ray

Pl. suggest me the right direction and right test

— QuantumEleven | (talk) 09:49, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I once had a really terrible dentist, who caught a nerve while giving me an injection of novocaine prior to dental work, and to this day I can still occasionally feel swelling around the area, that almost feels like there's still a needle in my gum, however I'm quite sure I'd notice if there was actually a hypodermic needle sticking out of my face, so I'm fairly certian there's another explanation, maybe extremely trivial nerve damage, or just swelling along the tissue split by the needle, I know something similar happens after certian surgeries, where scar tissue forms along the inside of a incision, and after it heals there's a slight clump of dense tissue around where the openning used to be, resulting in one being able to "feel" someting that isn't there anymore, I know there's a better word for this--64.12.116.74 21:46, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And if it helps anyone figure out what the hell I'm talking about, I know it's a big problem after most heart surgeries in which the patient develops an arrhythmia as a result of irregular fiberous growth near the incision, but for some reason I just can't remember what this is called,
but presumably you could experiance the same thing if your skin or some other tissue were pierced by a long, thin, irregular piece of metal, and then rehealed along that line, leaving a long, thin, fiberous cyst in it's place--64.12.116.74 21:54, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
1-A copper wire could conceivably dissolve completely over 10 years; copper is not chemically inert, and would corrode and be absorbed. Whether it would be completely absorbed would depend on the gauge of the wire.
2-Depending on the metal composition and the thickness of the wire, it may or may not be visible behind a tooth on x-ray.
3-A metal wire would not be visible on x-ray if its composition and thickness caused it to have the same radio-opacity as the environment in which it is situated. It would also not be visible if it was behind or in front of a more radio-opaque object, such as a metallic filling or denture prosthesis.
Although it is possible that you do have an embedded wire in your gum, it is unlikely that it would fully embed itself; copper is ductile, and it is reasonable to assume that it would not break off within the wound, and that at least part of it would protrude and be visible. In any event, your dentist is correct-- an embedded wire would most likely provoke a foreign body reaction, with pain, swelling, redness, or overt infection. Absence of these obvious signs would argue that your doctors are correct. Whether your perception of a wire is psychological is something else-- you could be experiencing a paresthesia from local afferent nerve injury or other neurological pathology. If your dentist is unable to determine the basis for your complaint, you might consider a consultation with your physician or a neurologist.--Mark Bornfeld DDS 15:55, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Forget what you think it is. Forget the past. Focus solely on what it feels like now and if it is a problem, what exactly do you want. Tell a doctor (regular or dentist - your choice) what you feel and why that's a problem without talking about the past. (If how it feels is not a problem, you don't have a problem.) Let the doctor deal with the why and so forth. Assume there is no wire inyour gums. Maybe its nerve damage. Maybe its a super-sentitivity in your brain to nerve signals from a part of your gums. I had tooth pices migrate out of my gums, after a wisdom tooth extraction. Any piece of foreign matter in your gums would have migrated out after 5 years (I think). WAS 4.250 01:41, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

anti-virus backups on different file systems

Suppose I'd have a computer with both Linux and msWindowsXP installed. These can both use fat. But Linux without special tools (which I will therefore not install) cannot alter anything on ntfs partitions (XP's native fs) and WinXP can not access Linux partitions at all (hell, it doesn't even acknowledge their existence). So if I'd have all my files on a fat partition for normal use (where they can both access it) and regularly make backups on both an ntfs and a native Linux partition (reiser, ext, or whatever). Would my backups then be safe from viral attacks? Assuming a virus is specific to one OS (which is always the case, right?) then it won't be able to alter anything on the non-native file system, right? Or are they accessible, just not in a consumer-friendly way? DirkvdM 11:44, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Viruses can always write to the physical hard disk, or "PHYSICALDRIVE" as it is called on MS Windows. I forgot its name but I remember reading about a virus which overwrote random 65KB portions at a raw level to the HDD. This tended to destroy filesystems and, if it got the right place, partitions. So your data on any type of partition isn't completely safe. Mind you, most Windows virus writers are relatively ignorant, so they're only likely to try do anything to the XP NTFS partitions. By the way, are you sure you don't want to install linux-ntfs? It's a good tool. -- Daverocks (talk) 12:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't tried either myself (I need to get around to backing up my system and reinstalling XP so that searching for files doesn't crash explorer first...) but Captive NTFS looks good as well (external links in the article). Thryduulf 14:11, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, so it's a matter of at which level the virus (or whatever) operates. So I do get some protection, but only against the ones that only work at the level of the OS (provided I don't install something like linux-ntfs or Captive ntfs) and not against the ones that bypass that and work at the most basic level. How many are there of each type and which tend to be the most dangerous ones? By the way, the scheme would also protect backups against my own stupidity, as long as I don't work at too elementary a level (which is usually the case). DirkvdM 12:39, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You seem really worked up about viruses :) I don't know about others, but I've only ever had about 5 infected files ever walk into my computers, and they've all been zapped by my antivirus... enochlau (talk) 15:11, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A warning: we all think we're 1337 Windows geeks and that with two firewalls and an up-to-date virus scanner and a bit of common sense we're immune to virus infection. I learnt the hard way a few days ago when I assumed AVG would take care of this virus that appeared on my hard drive. One almost-wiped-out Windows installation later (which I could only fix by installing a second copy of Windows and using that to clean the first one) and I learnt never to take my geekiness for granted. Sum0 21:01, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And that was just an OS, which you can re-install. The loss of essential data would be a much bigger pain, to put it mildly. This is indeed one of those things that hardly ever go wrong so we're lulled into a sense of security. But when it goes wrong it can go wrong big time. Same with car accidents (30 million dead and counting). I'm sure my computer is infested woth all sorts of malware and is a time bomb that might never go off. But then ....
But there's still my question how many (malicious) viruses and such there are that this scheme would not protect against. DirkvdM 09:03, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Obviously, it's impossible to give a number of viruses that you are not protected against. I can say that your data is not fully protected as viruses do exist which write physically to the hard drive. Despite this, it would be difficult to get one of these viruses if you have the right protection. Sum0's experience shows us that we are never fully protected even though we think we are, but you should be fine. -- Daverocks (talk) 11:52, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Those crystallization hand warmer thingies

Our article explains quite well how they work, but can anybody tell me when and where they were invented? I'm just curious... -- Ferkelparade π 14:41, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had no hope on finding the inventor, but got this really interesting link [[7]] --Zeizmic 17:47, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Low Density Solids

Is water the only common molecule that becomes less dense as a solid than it is as a liquid? I'm not interested in freaky lab-produced molecules. --Kainaw (talk) 15:28, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not. See Water#Density of water and ice for a few other substances that are less dense in their solid form than in their liquid form. Acetic acid, the substance that gives vinegar its awful smell and sour taste, is one example. The (non-artificial) elements silicon, antimony, bismuth, and gallium, are also examples. --Bowlhover 23:43, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Water's maximum density is at about 4C. Lower than that, it becomes less dense as a liquid. This is important for us up in Canada, because lakes completely 'turn over' as it gets cold (and warm again). There is no common fluid that does this. --Zeizmic 16:30, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hair

Hi, I'd like to ask about sthg 1-Whats the function of the hair on our bodies? 2-y is it thicker in some places? 3-If it is usefull, y do we remove it?

Thanks Yasmeen

I just read the article on Hair. It has everything anybody needs to know. :) --Zeizmic 17:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kinetic energy in relativity

Is it correct to say that: kinetic energy = (mv^2)/(2*sqrt(1-(v/c)^2))

Re-arranged: 1/2 γm v^2

That is, using the formula for mass being: mass = γm where m is the rest mass

and substituting it into the formula kinetic energy = 1/2 m v ^2

This gives: 1\2 γm v^2

or: (mv^2)/(2*sqrt(1-(v/c)^2))

I have checked the articles on special relativity and kinetic energy and can't find what i'm looking for.

If this is not true, WHY NOT?

It isn't true. Generally speaking, you can't just insert a factor of gamma in front of the mass in a Newtonian formula and get a relativistic formula. Sometimes you need a factor of gamma^3, or gamma^-1, and it can be hard to tell which. Sometimes you need something more complex altogether.
As for your specific formula, 1/2 γm v^2, try comparing it to a known formula for the kinetic energy, (γ - 1)m c^2. With a little algebra, you'll find that the two are equal only if v = 0. Melchoir 08:40, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The formula isn't true because of the way Newton's formula for kinetic energy, KE=(1/2)mv^2, was derived. Kinetic energy is basically the work needed to accelerate a mass up to a certain speed. If a constant force is applied to an object, causing the object to accelerate at a, the object will reach a final speed of v=at after time t. The average speed of the object during acceleration is 1/2 v (where v is the final speed), which means the object traveled a distance of 1/2*v*t during acceleration. Work is equal to force multiplied by distance, so W=F*(1/2)*vt. Since F=ma, W=ma*(1/2)*vt. Acceleration (a) is measured in d/t^2, but d/t^2 times t is d/t. Substituding d/t for a and getting rid of t, we get W=m(d/t)*1/2*v, but d/t is the average speed and can be replaced by v. That is how we get the final equation: W=(1/2)*m*v*v = (1/2)*m*v^2
As you can see, the equation (1/2)*m*v^2 assumes that, if a constant force is applied to an object, the object will accelerate at exactly the same rate for as long as the force is applied. This assumption cannot be fulfilled. According to the theory of relativity, it will become harder and harder to accelerate an object as its velocity approaches the speed of light. For example, more force is needed to accelerate an object from 299 792 400 m/s to 299 792 450 m/s in one second, than from 10 m/s to 60 m/s in one second. --Bowlhover 17:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Water Droplet formation

Why does a water droplet when suspended in freespace form a perfect sphere before losing its shape on coming into contact with a surface? Bob Pollard18:53, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

Surface tension makes it energetically beneficial to minimize the surface area. Less area means less energy, and a sphere has the smallest area-to-volume ratio. On coming into contact with a surface, what happens depends on the surface. If the surface is hydrophilic (water-attracting), then the attraction of the surface will cause the water to disperse, because it'll have even lower energy on the surface, even if it means higher area. If the surface is hydrophobic (water-repelling) then the drop won't disperse, and you'll be left with a bead of water resting on the surface. --BluePlatypus 19:25, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A bead of non-spherical water, to be sure.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:36, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Losing neurons due to a weak hit

There's a belief (likely a myth) that if you hit somebody in the head he loses a number of neurons, no matter how strong the hit was, even if it almost didn't hurt the "victim". Is that true?

This is not true. Your brain is protected by a thick skull and is suspended in Cerebrospinal fluid, both of which act as protection for your brain in the case of mild hits — even those hard enough to raise a bruise or a bump on your head. Harder hits, however, which might cause loss of consciousness or concussion, can indeed damage neurons. This damage may or may not be permanent. See also our article head injury for more information. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 21:17, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much ;)
For what its worth, adults lose some thousands (figures quoted on the web run as high as a hundred thousand, and I can't be bothered to find something more reliable and precise) of neurons each and every day. It's natural cell death; there's little you can do about it, and there's really little need to worry about it.
Very mild traumas may push a few neurons 'over the edge', but they get lost in the noise. Still, it's generally better to avoid getting hit altogether. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:43, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki GUI in PHP?

I'd like to make a wiki-like web page where users could add text and click on words to do things like add links. Would PHP be the best language to do this in? What would you recommend? Thanks!

I just did this for our water polo club, but I can't figure out what to do with this new baby. Basically, your hosting site (ours is myhosting.com) gives you a Linux account. They tell you how to load up MediaWiki (which is what runs Wikipedia). It's all php, etc. --Zeizmic 22:15, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, but I don't want to use media wiki. I'd like to try to create a gui-based system, where users clicked on words to add media or links. Do you think PHP would be good for this?
PHP isn't a client-side language. For what you're talking about, JavaScript is what you want on the client side; there is more freedom on the server side. PHP would work, but so would Ruby + Rails, or Python + a decent framework, or practically any language/framework combo. --Sam Pointon 00:40, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

conscious sleep

Our article notes that "sleep is the regular state of natural rest observed in all mammals, birds and fish. Sleep is not actually 'unconsciousness,' but rather, it is a natural state of rest characterized by a reduction in voluntary body movement and decreased awareness of the surroundings. Therefore, since consciousness is literally the awareness of the surroundings, being asleep is just an altered state of consciousness, as opposed to being unconscious."

Over the past few weeks I've experienced a few episodes of wakeful, conscious sleep. They seem to be 30-45 minutes in duration. I'm aware of my body sleeping and can observe my breathing, heartbeat, and other bodily sensations, including very minute twitches, as well as the myoclonic jerks I've experienced since the time of the first conscious sleep experience. I'm bipolar, and for the past few months have been experiencing the high side. The week during which the sleep experience and the myoclus began was very stimulating (a cruise) and my own perception of the highest point of my current mania is a few days before the sleep experience began.

The experience is definitely not associated with drowsiness. Nor is it at all like lying awake.

I'm receiving treatment from a psychiatrist (long-term) and a neurologist (since the jerks began). But I wonder: what is this conscious sleep? How is it related to the sleep cycle? Could it be a part of stage 1? Have you ever heard of a similar case? --Halcatalyst 23:20, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Look at our articles on lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis, if you haven't already. Is that what you're looking for? — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 23:24, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
That article on sleep paralysis is fascinating, and seems to fit the description. I'm semi-bipolar (unipolar with cycles), and I just get along with lucid dreams, and intense thought dreams when I was more uncontrolled. --Zeizmic 23:32, 27 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for the references. I've known of lucid dreaming for some time; it's not that. There's nothing dreamlike about the state -- the sense I have is that I'm just there observing. The observation persists through waking, and then I behave as I would during normal wakeup, except that I'm aware of what's going on instead of coming out of unconsciousness. On one occasion, my wife said I appeared to be in deep sleep when she woke me up. Other times, I've awakened on my own. I don't think it's sleep paralysis; it's not at all like what's described there, although "I" do have the sense that my body has to do the waking up, not "me." That doesn't bother "me"; in fact, it makes me feel very happy and relaxed. I can perceive, or I can think about anything I like. Occasionally I've noticed my eyes flicking open, and if there's any light I can see something. But it's not something willed. Another observation: I remember many of my dreams. They're definitely dreams. Lately, they seem to consist of sequences of frustration and are not particularly related to my waking life. --Halcatalyst 00:18, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Write down details. And try to get a witness to verify stuff. Misremembering and self deception are big problems in dealing with conciousness. When I have lucid dreaming, thinking too much wakes me up, making me think that's not what you are experiencing. Do experiments to get data, and write it down. you might have some special gifts and be able to provide insight into human conciousness during sleep states. Be aware that conciousness is mostly about laying down memory tracks in the brain where they can be recovered later. WAS 4.250 01:52, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all who responded. --Halcatalyst 14:40, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Teen Pregnancy

A few weeks ago, Stephen Colbert (the Colbert Report) reported an interesting story that I haven't been able to find direct reference to anywhere. According to him, teen pregnancy rates are decreasing, and it's because teens are starting to go for oral sex instead of actual intercourse. Is any part of that true? Black Carrot 02:04, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"A major analysis by the Alan Guttermacher Institute attributes about a fourth in the decline to delayed intercourse but three-quarters to improved contraceptive use among sexually experienced teenagers." (Harmful to Minors, 112) Raul654 03:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There has been a drastic increase in oral sexually transmitted diseases among teenage girls because of this.

February 28

I want Wikipedia e-mail addres please , then I send my article to you .

Please see Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Superm401 - Talk 03:56, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I expect Help:Starting a new page would be a more useful link. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 23:15, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ant Farm

Hi. Just wondering a few things concerning an ant farm I am constructing:

  1. Can ants stand to live in perpetual darkness? My farm will likely be in a locker.
  2. The only entrance to the farm is a hole I drilled in the top. I am thinking about cutting a long strip of sponge to plug the hole and reach down to the dirt floor. Will a suitable amount of fresh air come through the sponge? Will the ants be able to extract water from the wet sponge or will over-saturating it be necessary (where water drips onto the dirt)?
  3. I recieved a small packet of "ant food". It looks like little bits of green stuff, bird seed and misc. stuff. Will any and all types of human food suffice when I run out of "ant food"?

Thank you. Ross Uber - Talk - Contributions - 04:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You are planning to turn your school locker into an ant farm? Cool. But how will you watch them burrow and do ant stuff? And they are likely to generate some social opprobrium on your behalf if they go foraging, don't you think? alteripse 04:29, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I bought two wooden picture frames, took out the backs and glass, put in unbreakable clear plastic and wood-glued them together. Then I drilled a hole in the top. I got a picture frame mount and some nails. It worked out nicely. I have made it impossible for them to escape the farm. Ross Uber - Talk - Contributions - 04:51, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
1 probably. they live underground. 2. Not sure. 3. They seem to love sugar in my ant farm/kitchen. GangofOne 05:05, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I see a disaster in the works here. The ants will climb to the top of the sponge, chew through it, and escape. When people put their jackets on they will be full of ants and you will go home black and blue that day. I suggest you buy a proper ant farm from a pet store, they are cheap enough and will be built such that no ants can escape. I don't think total darkness is good for them, either. StuRat 10:57, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Just keep them out of my kitchen, that's all I care about. JackofOz 11:26, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I see a genious at work here. But if you tell too many people at school you'll get shut down before the ants escape. Even one person maybe too many. If you're careful you can keep the ants contained by making sure they can't escape even if it some how tips over. Don't let your locker get stinky. Rubber bands are great in so many ways. A small strip of screening will ensure they have enough air IF your drill hole is large enough. But make sure the screen is very securely attached. God bless duct tape. Have a good look at the commercial ant farms at a store. They've been designed with these kind of questions in mind. My ants died because they didn't get enough water, even though I tried to keep the dirt wet. You might try jamming a medicine dropper with water through another drill hole; but that might present a high escape risk. They love fruit, and it has lots of water, but I don't know if they will need more water than that. They will also eat most other human foods. Remember, ants don't live very long anyway; you'll just need to get more. I don't know if they can live permanently in the dark. I hope you will tell us the end of the story and what you find out. --Leah


This should be in an Archie comic! --Zeizmic 12:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Need to verify an answer on a TMSCA test

Map of Ice Thickness at Last Glacial Maximum

Hello, I need a topo map of the ice depth above what is now the UK (or European or even global map if available) during the Last Glacial Maximum 20,000 years ago. Thanks, - Halidecyphon 10:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Global Warming

Dear all,

Are there any actual evidences of human causing or enhancing Global Warming?

If not, what are the natural causes? Can it be prevented?

Thanks!

The article on global warming does a pretty good job at answering some of your questions. Have you had a look at it? Dismas|(talk) 11:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chemical Reactions and the Atom

Dear all,

As you see, in Chemistry lessons, what they teach you are just equations. Can anyone tell me, microscopically speaking, what is actually happening to a reaction? For example, a neutralization reaction, what is actually happening to the HCl and the NaOH? Are the bonds broken and "re-bonded" together? Where do they get this energy?

Secondly, why does electrons revolve around the nucleus? I mean, if you put a negatively-charged metal beside a positively-charged (with the distance of 0 - 5 cm), I mean, the negatively-charged metal won't just go revolving around the positively-charged metal, so why is that?

Thanks for all the time! - Just love science

The Na and OH in NaOH aren't really bonded to each other, just electrostatically attracted to each other. In water the two separate, since both are attracted to the polar water molecules almost as strongly as to each other.
The H and Cl in HCl are covalently bonded, but the bond breaks when the HCl dissolves in water. This happens more or less for the same reason: both halves of the HCl molecule are so strongly attracted to the nearby water molecules that they get easily pulled apart.
In any case, in aqueous solution both NaOH and HCl do not exist as whole molecules, but as ions (Na+ and OH-, or H+ and Cl-, respectively). When you mix the two solutions, the OH- and H+ ions combine to form H2O, leaving you with water containing Na+ and Cl- ions.
If you evaporate the water, the Na+ and Cl- ions will stay behind. Being oppositely charged, they will be attracted to each other (just like the Na+ and OH- in NaOH) and will stick together to form NaCl. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:23, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
For the second question, hm...how to best answer this? See quantum mechanics. I have to run, but hopefully some more Wikipedians will come and elaborate. --HappyCamper 14:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think the revolution of electrons around the nucleus of an atom is similar to that of a satelite (e.g. the moon) around a planet (e.g. the earth). At a certain speed of revolution, the satelite (moon/electron) is able to constantly fall towards a specific point, which is what causes it to go around and around.
Your charged metal idea would work if you took it far into space where there is "no gravity" and moved one of the objects at just the right speed. See Orbit - this is about planetary orbit, which is what I learned in Physics but I think it's applicable in this situation too. It's just the graviational forces in the case of planets are electrostatic forces in the case of electrons. The article might be a bit heavy for you though (it's a bit heavy for me anyways).
Ask your physics teacher if they can explain electron oribtals to you --Username132 16:22, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chemistry lessons don't teach what is actually happening in a chemical reaction because that is physics, the behavior of electrons ("psychology of electrons"). Electrons do not revolve around the nucleus. An "electron orbital" is a word meaning a 3-d shape describing the electrons probability of interacting due to its wave nature (its position is not in one point spot, like a wave washing up on the beach is not in one point spot). WAS 4.250 18:51, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chemistry does teach that, once you get past the level of high-school chemistry education. --BluePlatypus 08:23, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

isotopes

I want to know about some important applications of isotopes cobalt-60, iodine-131, sodium-24 and uranium-235. Thank you.

Well, I searched for the term "cobalt-60" and found a page for it at, cobalt-60. You might want to try searching for the others as well. Hint: It will narrow down how many you need to look for more info on. Dismas|(talk) 13:25, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can cows read clocks?

In the question about Chinese time zones lomn put forth the proposition that cows can not read clocks. I dare challenge this. Of course, it there is no clock in the stable (which will usually be the case) they can't, but what if there were? Say, one with just one big clear hour hand? Surely they'd figure out that the hand moves over time (they've got little else to do). And then they'd figure out that it's near the bottom around daybreak. And then they might figure out that the milking starts at a certain position of the hand. In the case of daylight savings, the hand could be slowed down or speeded up over a period of, say, a week, giving them the feeling nothing much has changed. Pavlov's dogs reacted to a bell. Why couldn't cows react to a clock? DirkvdM 13:41, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, of all the things in the barn that move on a day to day basis, why would a cow even know to look at a clock. Secondly, animals just seem to know what time it is. I'm not saying that a cow is smarter than any of my dogs although my dogs are able to tell me within 5 minutes +/- when their dinner time is. So why would a cow need a clock? Dismas|(talk) 13:51, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, but that's their biological clock. Suppose you erased all other indications of time (particularly sunlight) would the cows then start to use the clock and could you make them believe that over their biological clock and thus manipulate them? Of course artificial light would do that too, but that would be too obvious. I'm just curious if one could teach cows to read the clock. Most people would agree that they can't but I'm sure they can, so that would be an interresting experiment. Of course that would be easier with, say, rabbits, but cows start lactating at a certain time of day. Or do other (small) animals do that too? I suppose they do. DirkvdM 20:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You may not consider this relevant to the original question but your comment of "cows start lactating at a certain time of day" set off bells and whistles in my head. Cows don't care what time it is. The idea that cows can only get milked at dawn or some other set time is wrong. A great number of dairy farms, in the U.S. at least, milk their cows twice a day. It is because of the production of milk by the cow throughout the day and the size of their udder that it's essentially required that the cow get milked at least every 12 hours. Otherwise the cow starts to become uncomfortable with the heavy weight of all the milk in its udder. Afterall, in the wild a calf would be drinking from this supply throughout the day and not letting it get too full.
There are also a number of farmers that milk their cows three times a day. There are advantages to this but most farmers simply don't have the man-power to be in the barn three times a day milking while other things on the farm need to be done as well.
And as far as the times at which the cows are milked, while it's true that many farmers will milk their herd near daybreak, it's not a biological necessity. I know of a few farmers who milk their cows starting between 1 and 3 a.m. They do this because that schedule happens to just work for them.
Then there are the robotic farms. Some farms have robots that open a gate to let cows in one at a time, milk them, then release them back into the herd. The cows go in when they feel like it and the RFID tag around their neck lets the robot know which cow is in the machine. A laser guided milker attaches to the teats and milks the cow. While this is taking place the cow is fed a little grain to keep it busy. So at these farms, the cows and not the farmer establish their own schedules of when they get milked. And again, it's not always at dawn. (On a sidenote, I don't see an article right off the bat about robotic milkers... I may just write one)
So, anyway, that's probably more than you wanted to know or maybe you already knew some of that and I just took the comment you made the wrong way. But it at least adds a bit of info to the experiment of teaching a cow to read a clock. Dismas|(talk) 01:43, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ding Ding! This wins the silliest thing of the week award! Collect your Suitly Emphazi medal at the door. --Zeizmic 22:37, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I have covered this in multiple research papers on AI. It is a minor topic in my studies, but I think it is a very important one. When asked if computers will ever have true intelligence, I reply that we must teach them to understand time first. So, going back to the question here... I continually pester animal experts about an animal's concept of time. What actions do they perform that show they recognize a past, present, and future? Can those actions be explained without a requirement to understand past, present, and future? For the most part, animals show no comprehension of anything but the present. They know cause and effect, but they don't understand something like "I'll give you some food tomorrow if you work extra hard today." It has to be rather immediate cause and effect.
There are some things that show some understanding of a future. Squirrels bury nuts in the fall to prepare for the winter. So, they must understand that the winter is coming, right? I easily found many studies on squirrels and their nuts. It is a biological thing. One study went so far as to determine the chemical released in their body that made the brain have a sudden OCD thing about hoarding nuts. Then, I spent a long time begging for info on apes. They are similar to us, so they must understand time. Even the ones who learn sign language show no understanding of anything but the present. You can't tell them you will give them something tomorrow because they don't understand it.
So, cows are rather low on the IQ scale. If some attention getting event happened at a certain time every day, they would learn that the event happens at that time every day. However, a moving hour hand is not very attention getting. So, it is very doubtful that they would ever relate a position of the hand to an event.
An anecdote on animal behavior and time. A study used a bird in a box. Every 5 minutes, the bird would get food. So, the bird should learn to wait 5 minutes and the food will come out. After a few days, the lid was taken off the box and the bird was watched. It would turn three times to the left. Bounce twice. Turn four times to the right. Bounce three times. Back up. Step forward. And then chirp. After doing this pattern slowly over a 5 minute period, food came out. Then, the bird did it all again exactly as before. The bird didn't learn time. It learned that it had to do this funky series of movements to force the food to appear. --Kainaw (talk) 01:30, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I didn't say cows would understand the concept of time the way we do (!), just that it could use a device we use and thus understand that. Make it a small animal (mice are popular for that reason) and make the clock really simple and big and the only thing they get to see. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to say you taught an animal to read the clock?
Btw, in your comment I taste something that I often encounter, namely that the intelligence of an animal should be measured by human means. Like we're the summum of anything to do with intelligence and other animals can only hope to achieve our level. A favourite experiment of mine was when a pigeon was given food when it pressed the right button. First it was presented with two paintings with different types of painting styles and it had to pick the expressionist painting (or whatever). At the same time a class of university students were presented with the same problem. Both the pigeon and the students got this one. Then came a series of paired graphs, one going up and one down. The students got this, the pigeon didn't. Ah yes, of course, pigeons don't get such an abstract thing. Then came another series of graphs. Which the pigeon got. But the students didn't. The difference was simply the surface below the graph. Also an abstract thing, but still the pigeon beat the humans. (Actually, the pigeons reacted to how much red (or whatever) was visible in the images, but still pigeons beat humans in a human test. How would we do in a pigeon test? And who would then have to devise that? Can we ever know?)
Tricky follow-up question. Are there humans who can't read clocks? (IQ 50 perhaps?) DirkvdM 09:29, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, behaviour like nut burrying does not proove a concept of the future. I bite my nails, but I don't do it out of an understanding that if I don't, in the future they will get so long that I will poke my eye out - nut burrying is an instinctive (or perhaps learned) behavior that tells us nothing about the animal's ideas about time. We could, of course, train a cow to respond to a clock being at a certain time, as long as it could distinguish the two stimuli (clock a and clockb).

google mail

I would like to know how gmail manages to increase the memory space every day. How is that posible. Any information provided will be appreciated.

While not "every day" our article on Gmail states the following:

On 1 April 2005, exactly one year after the initial release, Gmail increased the mailbox size to 2 GB (advertising it as 2GB plus) and introduced some other new features, including formatted editing (giving users the option of sending messages in HTML or plain text). As of February 2006, the mailbox size is 2.63 GB, and is increasing continuously at a rate of approximately 10 MB per month.

My guess as to how it's possible would be money. They see a need to stay ahead of Yahoo and others so they keep throwing money into newer and bigger servers. Dismas|(talk) 14:35, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
A more direct analogy would be network providers selling service like 5/1 mbit when there's no way the total pool of subscribers has access to that if they all tried at the same time. It's called oversubscribing or overselling and its a very common practice as part of 'Economy of Scale'. On this network comparison, it dates back to the days of dialup where there were typically 10 users to every 1 modem (or maybe 8:1 or lower if you had a real good service). Sure, there would be a huge problem if every single user wanted on, but they rarely did. It probably existed in some form for the better part of written history, as your banking example shows, it is a tenet of our capital economy. I couldn't find any relevant articles on this, which I am suprised at since it's a very common and (imho) interesting subject.
Back on to the subject, what would happen if everyone tried to fill their inboxes. I think that one of two things would happen, google would rescind their offer of 2+GB and say 'oops sorry you only get 75MB' which they are entitled to do, its a FREE service after all. The other option is that the clever lads they are, they figure out what everyone is up to and come up with a way to aggregate the data (for ex. if you tried to fill it by sending huge attachment mails around, they would simply soft link the email so that 100000 copies in different inboxes only cost 1 worth of disk space). As far as your lawsuit goes, good luck with it, hopefully you get all your subscription fees back!
I have a feeling that the actual amount of available memory would be less - not all mailboxes use up their allotted memory - they just need to provide a service which gives the illusion that the particular amount of space posted is available. As long as they can do this, it is not necessary to actually have that amount of memory available. Think of it this way as an analogy: banks do not have enough money available for every one of their customers to spontaneously take out their money. However, as long as they can provide the money every time it's requested, there's no problem with that. --HappyCamper 14:42, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thats a really interesting thought. What would happen if everyone tried to use all their memory. Could we sue google for it? I would like a gmail account, but its still in beta. Does anyone know when it starts properly, and will anyone invite me?--Bjwebb (talk) 15:48, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sure, I have 100 invites. Ask on my talk page. And I think you're right, we could sue Google if that was the case. Even more interesting is if everyone decided to get their money in cash at the same time. The system would collapse! ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 18:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And so it did. What resulted was the great depression. DirkvdM 20:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Good idea. Do you want me to send you the Wikimedia database dumps? ;) --Optichan 17:16, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, just me wouldn't be enough. Why not send them to every single G-mail user :)--Bjwebb (talk) 17:23, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A good way to insulate aluminium

Hi, I have gotten my A-level coursework today for physics, and I need to find the specific heat capacity of aluminium. The problem is that I need a suitable material to insulate it from the air, otherwise I will end up supplying more energy to the metal than the true value. What is a suitable way of insulating an aluminium cylnder from the air? It needs to be something available in a secondary school science lab. Thanks. --Krackpipe 18:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, you made it up to A levels! (Whatever that means.). Having got this far, it is good to learn how to research. There's some stuff in this encyclopedia, but for real A-level pros, there's Google. I put in 'determine specific heat' and this is the very first hit [[8]] It's for copper, but a little bit of paint could change it to an aluminum colour. --Zeizmic 18:38, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Like you said, for people without A levels there is Wikipedia, which can tell you just what an A level is. Apparently there may also be something like a B level. But a C level only seems to exist with a hyphen. No D levels, sorry. DirkvdM 20:27, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Nope, but there are O levels, which are related to A-levels. --BluePlatypus 06:40, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, this page is useful, and I will do some more digging around on google--Krackpipe 19:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If going to a home supply superstore (Home Depot, Lowe's) and buying pipe insulation is not an option, and assuming you don't want to pilfer the insulation around the hot water pipes in your lab, you might be able to cobble together a few styrofoam hot drink cups for this purpose...--Mark Bornfeld DDS 18:40, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, I was considering using the stuff that goes around the pipes in my loft, I guess that is what I will end up using for the investigation. --Krackpipe 19:19, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you steal the pipe insulation in your loft, the best thing to do is to take it from the cold-water pipe right above your bed. --Zeizmic 22:30, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about insulating it from the air. I don't think you're expected to set any records for precision. Just note it as a source of error, and you could perhaps do an estimate of the effect of not insulating from the air. Even in a vacuum you'll be losing energy by radiative heat. --BluePlatypus 06:43, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

March 1

Plants and their production of oxygen

I was wondering if it was possible for future moon colonization for the colony's oxygen supply to be totally relient on plants? Could the colonists provide the plants with their carbon dioxide while the plants supplied them with oxygen?

Yes, so long as the whole thing is in air tight containers. The Earth's moon can not be teraformed because its gravity is too low to maintain an atmosphere. WAS 4.250 02:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Closed ecological system --Zeizmic 00:30, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In order for a planet/moon to have an atmosphere it has to generate enough gravity to hold the gases to the surface of the planet. Our moon has a very thin atmosphere because of its relatively small mass. There is also the question of sustaining the plants. At the very minimum, plants need water, sugar, and carbon dioxide to live. If the moon cannot provide this, in the right quanities, then plants cannot survive. In actuallity, what you want to do is put plants on the moon to generate oxygen. Though it sounds like a good idea, if it were possible, the moon would be as green as our planet. It would have already gone through this process, which is an interesting read. --Chris 01:03, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have another question the moon may not have the gravitational pull strong enough for this process but does Mars? If the temperture could be raised then could plants be grown on the surface, of course this would require the discovery of a water source, but could it be done? The carbon dioxide is already there.

I think there's already a lot of water (frozen) on Mars. The problem comes in "raising the temperature". I don't think it would be possible to live on Mars in the same way we use Earth because the amount of energy required would be difficult to generate so far from the Sun. Not to mention the lower intensity of natural light required for photosynthesis. Unless there are high quantities of quality radioactive materials available, forget it. --Username132 01:37, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mars can be teraformed by crashing into it a large object that has a lot of frozen water. Objects like this are plentiful. There are a lot of interesting details involved, but Mars is do-able, Earth's moon isn't. You do realize we are talking huge amounts of time, right? WAS 4.250 02:04, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If the caps were melted would the amount of carbon dioxide released be enough to raise the temperture any? Also if the caps were melted then water would be released.

It's difficult to tell, since to this day we still don't know just how much CO2 there is in the martian polar caps. Modelling planetwide climate change is something we can't even do well on our own planet, let alone on a planet we have never been to.
Aside: we have a pretty good article on terraforming. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 11:20, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Degree symbols on Computers

Anybody know why there is not a key for a "degree symbol" on computer keyboards? I frquently have need of one and I'm sure many other people do too.

If you need to use the degree symbol "°" regularly, you may be able to configure your word processing program to assign the degree symbol to a keyboard shortcut. --Robert Merkel 03:41, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've got it in my GNOME Character Palette. —Keenan Pepper 04:52, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There's two things here: 1) computer keyboards evolved from Typewriter keyboards. There was no need for a degree sign with typewriters, because you could simply manually move the platen half a row down and type "o" (in otherwords, put a lower case O in superscript), which is all that was needed given the rudimentary font capabilities of typewriters. 2) most computers use a simple key combination to get a degree symbol. I can't recall offhand what it is with PCs, but with Macs "option-shift-8" gives you "°" in most editing and word-processing programs. Grutness...wha? 05:56, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you are using an Apple Computer, just press option and K. K for Kelvin.
There is no degree symbol on a standard US QWERTY keyboard. The (IMO much improved, but very rare) US-International layout has the ° accessible by SHIFT-ALTGR-: . The German QWERTZ and French AZERTY layouts also have a ° key (either SHIFT-) or SHIFT-^ ). See keyboard layout - the standard US keyboard is one of the least functional of them all, and useless for languages which use diacritic marks, or for inputting all but the most common of symbols.
(first answer written which doesn't even answer the question!) If you're using a French keyboard (probably not, but just in case :)), the ° is on a key just to the right of 0 (press shift + that key). If not, you can get it by using it's ASCII key combination, press and hold down ALT, type 0176 on your numerical keypad, and release ALT. (you can use this method to type pretty much any character, find out the different codes by using the Character Map utility, usually in your start menu under Accessories -> System Tools). — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Planet spinning

Can someone tell me why every thing in the Universe spins? Do all stars, planets etc. spin in the same direction? I can understand that a baseball spins because of the friction between the ball and the throwers hand but I'm not sure this would explain why a star spins. Thanks WSC

Something started them spinning a long time ago, and they can't stop because angular momentum is conserved. It would be amazing if the angular momentum randomly happened to be exactly zero. —Keenan Pepper 04:49, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
More specifically, something started them moving a while ago. Then all kinds of gravity happened. Venus and some other orbiting bodies, mainly comets, have retrograde rotations. -LambaJan 07:44, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Take a simple analogy - water flowing down a drain. In theory, the water could flow straight down the drain without any sort of spin (all that about the draining water spinning the other way in the southern hemisphere is rubbish). But in practice it almost never does, because any slight imbalance (a bit more water on one side, the bowl not being perfectly symmetrical...) will cause the draining water to start spinning.
With stars and other objects it works in a similar way - they are formed when clouds of gas and dusk contract under their own gravity. In theory, the cloud could be perfectly uniform in every direction, and contract perfectly symmetrically. In practice, that's never the case, any small variation will cause the resulting object to start spinning, and in space, as there's no friction, something which starts spinning won't stop.
Because of this, no, not all stars and planets spin the same way, far from it! Their axis and velocity of spin is dependent on how they were formed, and so can be every which way. We have a decent article on axial tilt if you're interested. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:27, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Consider a good-sized chunk of plasticine hanging from a string attached to the ceiling. This is going to be our model of a planet being formed. Assume that it starts out stationary. If you give the lump a little kick–say, by throwing another little chunk of plasticine at it–our lump will start moving. If you hit it dead center, the lump moves sideways: no rotation. If you're even a little bit off center, there will be some movement sideways and some rotation. If you just graze the edge of the lump with a tangential hit, you'll get essentially pure rotation.
When any astronomical body forms, billions of little particles smack into it, and very few strike dead center. It's also very unlikely that the off-center impacts will cancel out perfectly. Consequently, everything spins.
Gravity makes it worse. Like the classic example of a figure skater pulling in her arms, as stars and planets pack their material more densely they spin faster. (Conservation of angular momentum.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:51, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It may be that the off-centre hits will not cancel each other out perfectly, but with a large number of relatively small hits they will effectively. And they will in time be small because the surviving celestial bodies will be much much bigger than the stuff that hits them. The amount of energy needed to make a planet spin at the speed at which they do would require either a lot of small ones going off-centre on the same side, which would be statistically impossible or a big one, which would either destroy it or knock it so far out of orbit that it will get destroyed in some other way (or flung out into deep space).
I have thought about this too and haven't come up with an answer. It makes me think a bit about the question where structure in the Universe comes from. It can not have formed without already being present before the Big Bang. But we can't explain structure there, so we simply have to accept its existence. Jus like matter and time 'just are' and structure 'just is', maybe rotation is something that simply is. Asking about its origin would be like asking why there is matter.
Now that sounds like a lame answer, so let me try a different one. Maybe it's a matter of starting conditions. Maybe the very first momentum caused by chance will amplify. Chaos theory would probably come in here because we've got am instable system the outcome of which is determined by minute variations in the starting conditions. And I've got a feeling relativity might come in here too, with the initial rotation determining how attracted matter will approach it, but that's no more than a hunch.
I wonder. If one would add up all the rotations in the Universe, would they cancel each other out? DirkvdM 09:08, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

False Embryo Sketchings?

I've heard some Christians and creationists say that Ernst Haeckel's drawings of embryoes, which he claimed to be scientific evidence for evolution, are fake or flawed.Is that true?Bowei 06:50, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That can be dismissed without addressing the main question. It's a straw man argument, since a drawing isn't scientific evidence of anything, ever. (at least in the context of biology/medicine) --BluePlatypus 07:38, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, Haeckel's sketches are flawed—he gets a bit fanciful with his third row of sketches in the figure at right. Haeckel's Theory of Recapitulation stated that the development of an embryo would follow the evolutionary development of a species. (Often this is condensed down to the catchy slogan 'Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny'.)
While Haeckel's theory fails in the strictest sense and his drawings sometimes strayed into wishful thinking, it does provide a useful rule of thumb. In the human embryo, features that evolved early (a backbone, for instance) are formed early in embryogenesis, whereas features that evolved recently (the cerebrum) form last. In whales (which evolved from land mammals) the embryo grows and then loses hair during the course of its development.
Certainly if Haeckel's sketches were the only evidence in support of evolution, they would be poor proof indeed. However, there is a wealth of other evidence that supports evolutionary theory quite well; an error made by a zoologist in 1866 doesn't render the theory any less reliable. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:33, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, they are flawed in many ways. Embryos aren't two dimensional, to begin with. deeptrivia (talk) 04:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

porn site

Can anyone give me the best porn site in the world?

What are your criteria? JackofOz 12:21, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Because there is no reputable ranking site, I don't think you can say. It all boils down to personal preference. For example, you might like http://mary-kateandashley.com or http://www.hairybearmen.com. Proto||type 14:09, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
As of a couple of years ago Usenet literally contained more FREE porn of EVERY category (including illegal) than you could view in a lifetime. I haven't been there in years, so I don't know its current status. WAS 4.250 18:12, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Our article onit says in one place it currently has a daily volume of "2.00 TB" and in another place says " Commonly omitted from such a newsfeed are foreign-language newsgroups and the alt.binaries hierarchy which largely carries software and erotica and, in the 21st century, accounts for over 99 percent of the article data." So does 2 TB of free porn a day qualify as "best"? WAS 4.250 18:22, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Sure, but only if you can tell me correctly what the best book ever written and the best movie ever made were (and have *everybody* agree on it). --Robert Merkel 00:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
There is only one book that stands out from all others and that is The Bible. There is no moving picture that stands out above all others so the "best" movie that everyone can agree is the "best" is yet to be made. That's not exactly what you asked, but that's what's available in terms of books and movies. What's available in reality-land is fresh bread with cheese and tomato and sausage topping (pizza) with wine (or beer), and an opposite-sex friend (ask around, find a real life babe, beats anything on the internet); or as someone once put it a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou. WAS 4.250 03:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
To be fair, the question was the best site, not the best porn, it's more like asking what is the best library than what is the best book. I think it's fair to say that the site containing the largest amount and largest range would be most likely to be agreed on by the most people as the best site. Your milage may vary.
No no no no no! You're saying that 'best' is defined by quantity. That should be quality. Wikipedia is the best site on the Internet because it's structured (and free). The Internet is a huge collection of info, but what was lacking was an easy way to get the right information. Search engines were one solution, but you still usually have to wade through a lot of stuff you're not interrested in. Even though Wikipedia doesn't quite come near the quantity of what these search engines can access (the whole Internet) it is already an equal competitor (I already often search on Wikipedia before I Google a term). When Wikipedia encompasses all information of some importance (a decade from now?) search engines will be out the window. So the best porn site would have all sorts of types of porn, but it would stand out by making it easy to find what you are looking for. And it would be free. That probably doesn't exist yet. So maybe we should start this? Wikiporn anyone? Of course we'd need to have images under gpl, so we'd have to make them ourselves. I suggest you start asking pretty girls (and guys) in your neighbourhood if they'd want to have their photos taken. All in the name of the open source movement of course. It's for a good cause. :) DirkvdM 09:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
It's been suggested already. :) I even proposed the "This page is currently softcore. You can help Wikiporn by hardcoring it" template. ;) ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 15:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
So the best porn site would have all sorts of types of porn, but it would stand out by making it easy to find what you are looking for. And it would be free. That probably doesn't exist yet. Obviously you haven't bothered to look at either usenet nor any of the myriad ways of accessing it. Usenet is free, volumous, contains high quality by any standards mixed in with high quality by every standard (meaning whatever you want is in there somewhere), AND it is divided up into categories as precise as "alt.binaries.pictures.olsen-twins" (see [9]). To search and sort more thoroughly, you have to find an accessing method (tool, site, provider) that suits your desires/needs whatever that may be. Just cause you don't check something out doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Ever hear about the economist who said there is no such thing as a quarter on the ground because someone would have picked it up according to economic theory? By any standard except trying to get you to pay money for what you can get elsewhere for free, usenet is the best. Usenet has been for a decade well known as the best web porn site period. On slashdot it's been compared to trying to get a drink of water from a firehose. Porn sites flood the place with free pics trying to get customers to come to their specialized sites. Enthusiasts share entire collections with one another. It's also spam city. examples of tame usenet from[10]:
  1. alt.binaries.videos.tv.shaggable-babes (sources, sample of binaries)
  2. alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese (sources, FAQ, sample of binaries)
  3. finet.binaries.keskustelu (sources, sample of binaries)
  4. alt.binaries.pictures.autos (sources, sample of binaries)
  5. alt.binaries.pictures.hannigan (sources, sample of binaries)
  6. alt.binaries.pictures.ba (sources, sample of binaries)
  7. alt.binaries.pictures.rail (sources, FAQ, sample of binaries)
  8. alt.multimedia.mpeg (sources)
  9. alt.binaries.e-book.flood (sources, sample of binaries)
  10. alt.binaries.pictures.child.starlets (sources, sample of binaries)
  11. alt.binaries.pictures.kid (sources)
  12. alt.binaries.pictures.suntan (sources, sample of binaries)
  13. alt.binaries.webstars (sources)
  14. alt.binaries.pictures.chelda (sources)
  15. alt.binaries.slack (sources, sample of binaries)
  16. alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking (sources, sample of binaries)
  17. alt.binaries.pictures.animated.gifs (sources, sample of binaries)
  18. alt.binaries.sheet-music (sources, sample of binaries)
  19. alt.binaries.pictures.anime (sources, FAQ, sample of binaries)
  20. alt.binaries.cracks (sources, sample of binaries)
  21. alt.binaries.e-book.fantasy (sources, sample of binaries)WAS 4.250 10:32, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Examples of untame usenet from [11]: alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.boys alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.breasts 

   Pictures of mammalian protruberances

...pictures.erotica.breasts.large ...pictures.erotica.breasts.natural ...pictures.erotica.breasts.saggy ...pictures.erotica.breasts.small 

   More than a handful is too much

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.british 

   A binaries group devoted to British glamour girls

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.brunette 

   Erotic pictures of brunettes

...erotica.brunettes-short-hair.reposts 

   Reposts of erotic photos of brunettes with short hair (on their head!), corrected

...pictures.erotica.bulgarians.female 

   Erotic pictures of women of fractional or full Bulgarian ancestry or close enough

...pictures.erotica.buttnuggets alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.butts 

   Erotic butts come into view

alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.cancel alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.cartoons WAS 4.250 10:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

energy change

what is the energy change in a pendulum?

Just take the energy change outside the pendulum and subtract! Seriously, check out pendulum, and work it from there.  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  13:48, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where does the EM energy go when the Poynting vector is zero?

I hope you've guessed that I'm talking about an electromagnetic wave. According to the electromagnetic wave equation, the phase difference between the E and B fields is zero, so the Poynting vector, which is their cross-product, is a cos-squared function of time. This means that the energy in a wavefront oscillates between zero and some value. Where does nature put the energy while the Poynting vector is zero, so that it can magically produce it a quarter-cycle later? I'm not trying to be controversial: I just want to know how I have misunderstood the equations. This stems from a question that someone asked me on my Talk page about why the E and M components in the light-wave.png image are in-phase. --Heron 14:53, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It means that the energy of the EM wave is zero at that particular point of the wave - however, the wave must have some spatial extent in the longitudinal direction, and the E & H fields are not zero as you move away from the crossing point. So the answer is, the energy is stored in other parts of the wave, and as it propogates, the zero-energy points move along with the rest of it. If you integrate the energy for the whole wave-packet, you'll see that it is conserved as you expect.
Note that this isn't just a mathematical fiction - if you create an EM standing wave, you get no effect from the wave at the nodes (since there is no E or H field there), which can cause unwanted effects in lasers. --Bob Mellish 16:27, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Bob, that makes sense. --Heron 18:50, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

telephone usage

Excluding mobiles which country has the most telphones per head of population? 15:48, 1 March 2006 (UTC)~

You will want an anomoly - extremely small population with high telephone usage. My best guess would be Palau. They have 6,600 wired telephones and 20,000 people. That is 30% of the population with a wired telephone (assuming 1 phone per person and not one person with 6,000 phones). So, look at the micro-nations and look for high telephone use and low population. The Vatican may be a good one. --Kainaw (talk) 16:08, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you :) much appreciated 19:23, 1 March 2006 (UTC)~

I'd be willing to bet it's the Vatican City - population about 900, but employing a couple of thousand non-resident workers, and in the heart of Western Europe. I can't see them having less than the 300 phones needed to beat Palau's 30%. Grutness...wha? 01:20, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The Netherlands had 8 million connections in 1995 (if that figure includes mobiles it won't be too many). In 1997 that was 8,8 million (different source). Mobiles will have slowed the increase of wired connections, but if we assume 10 million now, on a population of 16 million that would be 60%. That said, the Netherlands is said to be the most 'connected' country in the world in different respects (highest Internet usage, for one). The main causes for that are probably high GDP combined with socialism (everyone gets to share in the wealth) and a high population density (there is no 'outback' in the Netherlands). Scandinavian countries have the former but not the latter (except maybe Denmark). But indeed smaller countries may score better. Maybe Luxemburg, Hong Kong or Singapore? DirkvdM 09:42, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well it's for a radio quiz & it's been going for 8 days now & it's not Vatican City because someone tried that last night - before I got chance to ring in. Hong Kong, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, England, Luxemburg, Malta, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Andorra, Afghanistan, New Zealand, Australia, US, Canada, Vatican City, Falkland Islands, Taiwan, Holland, Japan & Korea are the answers given so far. It's just driving me nuts now! Tonight I'm hoping to get on there & try Palua which was Kainaw's guess. Failing that it's back to banging the head on the desk! Will keep eveyone informed 82.46.54.254

If it is a radio contest, the answer they want is most likely wrong. They read obscure news articles that they don't understand, grab a fact that uses words they don't understand, and then turn it into a questions loosely based on the fact. Your best bet is searching Google News for articles about telephone usage as that is where the question came from. --Kainaw (talk) 14:30, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Searched Google News... A recent new article claims Monaco has the most telephones per capita (199.4%). --Kainaw (talk) 01:20, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Have you tried using the CIA The World Factbook? However, it doesn't seem to have per capital figure, and you may have to divide the list of number of telephones with population. The Monaco's figure given above seems difficult to beat. Interestingly, the Pitcairn Islands has only one telephone, i wonder if they complain about long-distance charges. --Vsion 09:13, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why haven't I ever even SEEN a B Battery?

I've seen and used AAA, AA, A, C, D, 9V, and other sizes of batteries, but why haven't I even seen a "B" battery? Why aren't they made? --Shultz III 18:12, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... it appears that they are made: [12] [13]. Put the second one appears to be "hand-made". KILO-LIMA 18:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You just weren't looking in the right place. --LarryMac 18:32, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Obviously, however, C battery (vacuum tubes) is not the same as the consumer C battery originally referenced, so I wouldn't call B battery (vacuum tubes) "the right place". Duracell only lists yours above as "common" (though I've also seen AAAA), so Bs certainly appear to be long gone. I'll keep poking around. — Lomn Talk 19:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I did show him a B battery, even if it came from the wrong family. There is amazingly little to be found on the web about the consumer style. The ANSI standard (referenced below) is C18.1, but NEMA wants $79 to see it. --LarryMac 19:49, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Here's a quick note on A and B being part of the 1920s ANSI standard for battery sizes (noting simply that those extant today are the ones that caught on commercially) and a chart of standard battery sizes (A is included, but B appears not to be). — Lomn Talk 19:06, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A related question - is it just my imagination, or did Britain used to have the same betteries but with completely different names? ISTR U-11 batteries as a young kid. Grutness...wha? 01:21, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They did used to. I can't remember the names either though. I remember figuring out what the equivalents were. 67.40.249.122 03:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

websites

What is the estimation of current number of WWW. sites?

By www site, do you mean a unique site or a domain name. Many sites have multiple names all pointing to the same site. Also, some sites have many subsites (like aol.com and all the user pages under the aol.com domain). So, using "site" is very vague. But, an estimate can be made. Assume 5% of the computers in the world are web servers hosting a web site. If you think that is low, then consider that some web servers host multiple sites. If you think that is high, then use a different percentage. Now, take into account that there are currently around 4 billion IP Addresses in use - meaning there are around 4 billions computers connected to the Internet. Many are printers, switches, and the like. But, we only consider 5% of them to be web servers. So, 5% of 4 billion is... 200 million. That may sound high, but I think it is rather low. Google claims to have indexed well over 9 billion pages. They don't even touch all the "Hi. I learned to make my own webpage!" pages. So, either a lot more of the computers on the Internet are web servers or the web servers are hosting a lot more than one site on average. --Kainaw (talk) 01:38, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The February 2006 Netcraft survey received responses from 76 184 000 sites, so there are at least 76 million websites out there. --Bowlhover 13:33, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DRUG HAIR TEST

WHAT WILL CAUSE HAIR TO TEST POSITIVE FOR COCAINE, IF A PERSON NEVER USED DRUGS BEFORE.

Little bit of trivia, the mass spectrometers they use for those tests are so sensitive that if you've used cocaine any time in the last 6 months you'll test positive, so if you've haven't done anything recently it doesn't mean that it's a false positive, just a very sensitive spectrometer--205.188.116.74 22:15, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Please stop yelling. Turn off your caps lock. The logic of your dillemma there is obviously flawwed. If a person has never used drugs, then the person should pass the test, assuming the test was done correctly. Is there a specific person involved? Is it yourself? Did this actually happen or is it a theoretical question? More information is needed. In the mean time, you can take a look at our article on hair drug testing. It might help you out. --Chris 20:07, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Few tests are so good that they have NO false positives - what is the accuracy of this test?

It occurs to me that if you were to use an herbal shampoo containing coca leaf, it could mess you up this way. I've never heard of any such shampoo, but you never know. --Trovatore 03:20, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The short answer is, it depends. If you have been in the presence of other individuals using cocaine (smoking large amounts of crack, in particular), then it is possible for some cocaine to become attached to your hair. Hair testing protocols call for fairly extensive washing of the hair sample to remove drug that may have been absorbed from the air, but there are studies which suggest that this process may not be 100% effective. Dark-haired individuals may be particularly vulnerable, as there is evidence to suggest that melanin (a pigment in dark hair) can effectively bind cocaine. Modern hair-testing labs should be testing the hair for both cocaine and for its metabolites: compounds like benzoylecgonine. The presence of such compounds is usually taken to be indicative that the drug was ingested, since they are produced as the body processes the drug. (If a lab cuts corners or offers cheap tests, they may not be testing for metabolites.) There is also an off chance that someone screwed up sample handling or labelling somewhere along the line; if someone else's hair was tested in place of yours, then you're going to get incorrect results. I am operating under the assumption that the lab is using a GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) system to run these tests. Such equipment–used properly–is pretty much the gold standard. Other testing protocols may be more prone to false positives. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 05:45, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am actually pretty sure I saw in Scientific American that it is possible to detect certain drug usage, and how much a person has been using after they've had enough time to grow their hair out. I don't remember any details, maybe it was crack they talked about. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 10:18, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You might get a positive result if the lab is sloppy. If they have cocaine around, the dust can contaminate the room so that test samples could pick up cocaine from air or surfaces. The FBI whistleblowers made just that claim about the FBI labs. They had a lot of cocaine around. I have read that money counted out near drugs will pick up particles of drug. As that money gets passed around, it rubs off on other money in the money drawer. Thus I read that a large percentage of money has detectable drug residue, and could be confiscated under USA forfeiture laws, if the police decide to test YOUR money. GangofOne 08:12, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why is Schrondinger's Equation The Way It Is?

This question might be asking something that isn't very answerable by anyone, or at least answerable without recourse to talking about 11 dimensions and Hilbert Spaces, but why is Schrodinger's Equation what it is? I'm in Intro QM at Uni, and was talking to a friend, trying to describe what wave functions are. I was explaining the infinite-square well potential, and she asked why it was that the stationary states were all sinusoidal. The answer, of course, is that time-independent equation becomes a differential equation for a simple harmonic oscillator in the infinite-square well case, and the rest is boundary conditions. But she wanted to know why the time-independent eq. (and by extension the general eq.) worked out to a harmonic oscillator. I had no answer, was wondering if one existed. A simpler question might be, how did Schrodinger come up with the equation in the first place? It hardly seems as intuitive as f=ma and the like.

  • A particle in an infinite square potential well wouldn't be a harmonic oscillator, you're confusing two entirely different models, so I'm not sure quite what you're asking, and certianly the number of dimensions is irrelevant, if you're asking why is the Schrondinger Equation sinusoidal then the answer is simple, the linear, or in your case angular momentum can be defined as the sum of two exponential functions (in 1 space), representing momentum in both the positive and negative directions, euler allows us to summarize this as a harmonic function, and as far as where the expoential terms come from, you simply apply your Ĥamiltonian over your wavefunction, which gives you a second order differential equation, which in turn gives you your exponential term, it's not only more intuitive than F=ma, it's more accurate as well, although if you replaced your a term for an expression involving an expression of momentum, and your m term for your reduced mass, you could probably construct some sort of rudimentary Fx operator ;)--205.188.116.74 22:03, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Are you asking why the Schrödinger equation is the way it is, or are you asking why the solutions to it are the way they are? The former is physics, the latter is a purely mathematical issue. As for the former, you can't really go by how Schrödinger derived it, because his way was rather ad-hoc. A ground-up approach from basic postulates is given in, for instance, the first three chapters of Landau & Lifschitz book on QM. It's not string theory, but it's not introductory-level stuff either. --BluePlatypus 04:03, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • This is – approx – how Schrödinger came by his equation (or how we've been told he did): It was at the time that people had quite agreed that particles are waves, and someone asked Schrödinger: "Now, we have waves, shouldn't we have wave equations?" So Schrödinger went searching. In time before QM, fysicians had constructed Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms (you may know them, though you may not) and there's a formula, saying: energy = kinetic energy + potential energy (though it's stated in a slightly more different way, so as to be so general it can be applied to cases that have nothing to do with energy at all; the "real" formula is in fact: H = pq۟ + V). Now he needed waves, and these go like sin(kx - ωt) or cos(kx - ωt). If you derive them with respect to x, you get k (≈impulse) in front of them, and if you derive them to t, you get ω (≈energy). So you add some constants where needed and you get an equation that certainly looks pretty smart and cool, and it even works. Greetings. David Da Vit 15:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Scientific Journals - where does the money go?

$20 to download a single article from some journal publishers seems a bit steep (especially for a student). Why do they have to charge so much? Are some of the publishing executives struggling to pay for their second homes? Some day us scientists will raise our conical flasks and petri dishes and revolt! --Username132 16:09, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on the journal. Some are published by professional societies; in those cases the money ges back into the cost of production of the journals (which are usually subsidised by members dues). In the case of journals that are published by publishers like Elsevier and others - it's all about profit. You charge a library $1000 for a subscription to a journal, charge authors page charges and get peer reviewers to work for free. Guettarda 16:22, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Do you know how the peer review process works? If peer review is free, would it be possible to set up a free/cheap/donation-based online journal? --Username132 20:24, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The money certainly isn't paid to the editors: I once applied for a job at a journal produced by a commercial publisher (not a scientific society), but the salary they offered was almost exactly half what I was earning as a university researcher! Physchim62 (talk) 20:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Is an editor the same as a peer-reviewer? If not, how do they differ? --Username132 23:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
An editor will edit the content for the journal (spell-check, grammar check, introduce incorrect grammar when they simply don't understand the scientific wording...). A peer-reviewer reads and rates submissions. For example, I primarily work in research on hypertension. When we submit articles to journals, the editor most likely knows nothing about hypertension. So, they send it to peers who know a lot about it. Then, they read it and tell the journal if the article is worth publishing. If you are very lucky, you get the article back with suggestions. You fix it up and resubmit it. Sometimes it can be something rather silly. We had to resubmit one because we used "underpriveleged" to mean "lacking in access to healthcare". In this particular journal, "underpriveleged" is a reserved synonym for "African-American". We changed it to "deprived" and everyone was happy. --Kainaw (talk) 01:36, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the insight. What do peer-reviewers get for their work? Free journal access?
Gratitude --pom 00:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Depends on ethics. Some peer reviewers get into it just to steal ideas. Others are really trying to help. --Kainaw (talk) 01:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You would be better stealing ideas from reviewing grants not papers. Most people (99%) review papers because others have done it for their own papers. David D. (Talk) 08:34, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Most universities have subscriptions to most journals, including the online versions. If you're a university student, you can inquire with your library for what journal subscriptions they have and how to access them. At my university, merely by being on a university machine (or logging in through a proxy server), I can get free copies of articles from any journals I've ever looked for. I don't know if that helps you or not, but it might be something to check into. -- SCZenz 23:51, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah we have subscriptions to the most relevant ones. Occasionaly though, I find an article I'd like but can't access. I know people writing some dissertatations are even less well served by the available subscriptions. My main concern is how I keep up between leaving university and getting a research position. --Username132 08:41, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The scientific journal business has made a large number of scientists rather unhappy; see open access (which is not the most neutral of articles, but anyway) for an alternative approach. --Robert Merkel 22:17, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, this is great! I'm actually a representative for my university course to our university library. Is there any way our university library can do more to support open access? I'd like to make the most of my position for the remaining couple of months that I still have it.
Also is research funded by a corporation such GlaxoSmithKline more likely to be published in a traditional journal? When they're close to something, they stop publishing at all so they can patent it first, don't they?
Supposing I had really good eye-site and looked through a GSK window as I passed by and saw the notes jotted by some scientist and then ran to the internet and published "the cure" for HIV before it had been patented... apart from being on GSKs hitlist, would I have comitted a crime, and would people be allowed to use the information published? --Username132 22:56, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Patenting depends on where you are. If memory serves me, in Europe, you can publish after the application has been sent in, in the US you have to wait for the patent to be approved. And assuming you weren't trespassing, then no, you haven't done anything illegal. This is all kind of moot though, because in reality Pharma companies patent stuff at a very early stage (pretty much as soon as the idea presents itself), far before the years of development and clinical testing (from candidate to approved drug is a process that takes over a decade). So even if you managed to get hold of a not-yet-patented idea, you wouldn't have the resources to turn it into a drug. And even if you did, less than 1 in 1000 candidates make it through all the way to an approved drug. --BluePlatypus 08:20, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What can an individual library do to help support open access? --Username132 08:29, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Kinetic Energy and Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity

Firstly, can someone please verify that the equation for kinetic energy, taking into account Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity is:

Secondly, can someone explain how we get that equation from I think I get it now, although it would still be handy if someone could explain it just in case...

Thirdly, can someone please tell me of a computer program/language that will enable me to perform calculations with this with absolute accuracy. All the software I have at the moment doesn't seem to be able to cope with numbers such 299792458 squared (which isn't surprising I suppose). P.S. I think I'll stick to the Key Stage 3 stuff I'm supposed to be doing... 80.229.152.246 21:29, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Once you subtract the rest energy from the total energy , you get the energy of motion .
As for your software, have you looked for a scientific mode? The speed of light should not be stored as an exact integer, but as a floating point value, which usually has a lot more range. —Keenan Pepper 21:41, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the answer Keenan. As for the software, it doesn't have a scientific mode, although I think I will try it with something else I have found. Thanks. 80.229.152.246 17:30, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Drug Hair Test

What causes hair to test positive for cocaine, if one never used it.

You asked that question already. Scroll up a bit. Optichan 22:03, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Ever get really tweaked on some coke, ask a question, and then, just a few minutes later, forget if you asked it or not already? --Kainaw (talk) 01:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
And then the darn test results come in, and you forgot you even took it... --Zeizmic 13:34, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Drug store?

Why is a drug store called a drug store instead of a medicine store? (Aidan Age 8)

I don't know, but my guess is that the word "drug" has less syllables than "medicine". --HappyCamper 23:16, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Aidan. The meaning of words changes over time. When the phrase "drug stores" was invented the word "drugs" was a word that people associated with relief from pain and other good things so it was a good name for a type of store. Today "medicine" means something that you won't go to jail for and make you better; while "drugs" means things people say are bad for you. The words mean the same thing, but the connotation is different. You are trained to feel one way about one word and you are trained to feel a different way about the other word even though the two words mean the same thing. WAS 4.250 23:34, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
When a police officer ask "Are you on medication", such as [14], he is refering to general substance abuse including non-medicinal drug, isn't it? --Vsion 15:05, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is a store near me, owned by a person of Middle Eastern descent, whose English leaves quite a bit to be desired. The name of the store ? "The Drug and Party Fair". LOL StuRat 23:55, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Out on a limb here, but the Dutch word for 'drug store' is 'drogist', which refers to the word 'drogen', which means 'to dry'. And indeed most medicines have in the past been dried plants. Considering the overlap between the Dutch and English languages there is a good chance the English word has a similar origin. And indeed over time the usage has changed when the word is used by itself, but (possibly) retained its original meaning in the term 'drug store'. DirkvdM 09:56, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The OED says drug-store is originally U.S. The archaic English word druggist has the same meaning as drogist in Dutch, and is also usually traced back to a root meaning 'dry'. --Heron 20:56, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note that, at least in American English, "drug" still retains the meaning of "pharmaceutical", as well as "recreational substance". (For that matter, the line between the two is not always entirely clear.) --Trovatore 03:30, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the definition of the line between the two is in general quite simple; whether it's legal or not. Which, of course, is an upside down way of reasoning; "It is illegal, therefore any use must be recreational". But some drugs are used both pharmaceutically (legally) and recreationally (illegally), such as opium (laudanum) in the past and marihuana (which is literally a dried plant) recently. Interrestingly, heroin was originally devised as a wonder drug against opium addiction (so as a medicinal drug). Now, such a wonder drug is methadon. I wonder how long it will take until that becomes a 'street drug' like heroin. DirkvdM 08:51, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

March 2

Is it true that the earth wobbles while it spins?

Yes. --Kainaw (talk) 01:12, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
How much does it wobble? And at what frequency? --HappyCamper 01:13, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Well, he didn't ask that. Anyway, according to axial tilt, "The Earth's axial tilt varies between 21.5° and 24.5° with a 41,000 year periodicity". --Kainaw (talk) 01:41, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, I didn't know that was what it was called. Thank you :-) --HappyCamper 01:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The actual wobble is called a precession, the kind of motion you get if you deliver a sideways prod to a spinning top. --BluePlatypus 03:50, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
To be clear, there are two overlapping 'wobbles' at work. The axial tilt changes on a 41,000 year cycle, and the axis precesses on a 26,000 year cycle.
The geophysicist Milutin Milanković looked at the combined effect of these wobbles (as well as a number of other factors) on Earth's climate. He proposed that there would by cyclical variations in climate (resulting in periodic ice ages and the like) on a roughly 100,000 year time scale; these are called Milankovitch cycles. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 05:24, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I also found something interesting while searching for this. There's another (much) smaller wobble called the Chandler wobble, which has a period of only 435 days. Interesting read; you learn something new every day. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 05:35, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

iTunes and storage

I have MUCH more music than I want to store on my G4 Powerbook. I have some of it on the PB, and a lot, lot more on an external drive that is accessable when the PB is 'docked' on my desk, but not on the road. I want to have a way to easily choose which music stays and which goes, much as I can with my iPod. Anything?

Well, it looks like you've actually got three hard drives: the Powerbook's drive, the external drive and the iPod. So how about you store all the music on the external drive, but manage it using iTunes (make sure iTunes on the PB isn't copying the files to the local drive). Set up a playlist in iTunes of the songs you want to take on the road which you can easily alter. Sync the iPod to that playlist only, and then when you go on the road, plug the iPod into the Powerbook and play the music straight off the iPod through the Powerbook speakers. --Canley 05:02, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea - thanks. The problem is the iPod is tiny, and the PB has a pretty large drive. I'd really like to have a boat load on the PB. Any other ideas?

I don't understand why you wouldn't just put all the music on the Powerbook. If its too much, just choose what songs go. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 10:07, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The reason that I don't put it all on the PB is that the harddrive is too small for the whole collection. What I am looking for is a way to easily manage what songs go on it, and what stays at home. I want to be able to change what is on the PB and what is not on a fairly regular basis.

  1. . iPod - 1 gig. Good for jogging, and other small outings.
  2. . PB - 80 gig. About 20 gig I am willing to use for music. Good for trips out of town.
  3. . External drive - 300 gig. All my music, about 100 gig filled.

So I want to keep everything on the external. I want to put pretty much a random and changing selection on the iPod. I can do this already. I want to put pretty much a random and changing (but bigger) selection on the PB. I can't figure out how to do that.

Nature red in tooth and claw

What exactly does the phrase "Nature red in tooth and claw" (from Tennyson's "In Memoriam") mean, particularly as used in evolutionary biology? Dawkins makes a reference in it in The Selfish Gene [15], though he doesn't explain it. --JianLi 04:10, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It is a reminder that animals eat each other without mercy. It is the reality to which "the lion shall lie down with the lamb" is the imaginary antithesis. alteripse 04:15, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Earthquakes

Is it true that earthquakes often occur after a heavy rain during a hot day? --ct

If you find out, why don't you clean up the article earthquake weather? --Trovatore 06:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I can assure you there is absolutely no scientific basis behind that. Geothermal mantle currents have nothing to do with how sunny it is or how wet it is. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 10:09, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


That would be a handy indication of wheather or not an earthquake is coming. (Ok, that was lame even by my standards). DirkvdM 10:08, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The phoney concept of 'earthquake weather' was reinforced by Mark Twain. Here is a hilarious quote. [[16]] --Zeizmic 13:29, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you meant that avalanches or landslides often occur after hot days or heavy rains. --Leah

Perhaps this is part of where the misconception comes from, as I imagine earthquakes can cause landslides and avalanches as well. EWS23 | (Leave me a message!) 01:46, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chewing gum versus bubblegum

What exactly is it about bubblegum that allows you to blow larger bubbles than is possible with the same amount of regular chewing gum? Is there some chemical that facilitates bubble blowing? —Keenan Pepper 06:00, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

More gum base (so it holds together better), and softer gum (so it's easier to blow bubbles). It's softened by adding glycerine or vegetable oil. --BluePlatypus 06:28, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Now that that is answered, if you wish to kick the habit of chewing gum, you might go to a gum producing area. I followed chiclero tracks in Guatemala and saw how the gum is handled. I never touched a chewing gum since (then again I hardly ever did before, so there was no cold turkey :) . DirkvdM 10:15, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought nowadays it's all made of petroleum products. —Keenan Pepper 14:58, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
So you're chewing oil. Which is rotten plant material. You know, that stinking black fluid that drips from a garbage bag if you leave it out too long. That sounds a lot tastier. :) DirkvdM 08:59, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

cure for wet bed

(question moved from Wikipedia:Newcomers help page)

clothes line?
clothes dryer?
Someone makes a diaper with an attached alarm that goes off when it gets wet. This is used to train a person to wake up when they have a full bladder. --Kainaw (talk) 16:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Or, at least, moments after having a full bladder. :) kmccoy (talk) 03:27, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

old or used systems

how to use old or used computers as a firewall

What computers? How old? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.40.249.122 (talk • contribs) .
A firewall can be software or hardware. You can use an old computer as a demilitarized zone, but I'm not sure if that's what you want to do.--Commander Keane 09:48, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe the user was trying to turn the old computer into a router, presumably with a firewall software running on it. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 11:23, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you have enough old computers, you could weld them together and make a pretty good firewall. It would probably take a good two hours to burn through a wall of old computers. --Kainaw (talk) 16:48, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Read this for clues. WAS 4.250 11:07, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

if you perform the test for starch and the iodine remains yellow, what does this indicate?

That the raison bread wasn't pregnant!  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:15, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

bacteria in our ears!!

i have heard that listening to music with headphones for over an hour multiplies the bacteria present in our ears.is this true?? thanks 59.92.36.216 10:03, 2 March 2006 (UTC)sciencefreak!!59.92.36.216 10:03, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think so, it increases the humidity and temperature slightly in our ears. But theoretically, every second bacteria are multiplying, or you could look at it like at all times there are bacteria in your ear being born and dying. Don't worry, the bacteria aren't the bad kind either. They won't make you sick. As gross as bacteria's connotation might seem, don't worry about it when you pump up Green Day on your headphones. -- Mac Davis ☢ ญƛ. 10:16, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
What music do they prefer then? Wet warm music? DirkvdM 10:18, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I've no idea, but I bet if you did a study on it you'd have a good shot for an Ig Nobel prize. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 10:39, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you're wearing your earbuds for too long I could see a potential risk of it, they'll improve the conditions for bactera substantially (less light, moist, dark, not to mention dirty - earbuds are never washed). Obli (Talk)? 16:13, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I read somewhere that bacteria are multiplied in there 700 times! Something to do with anaerobic environments being a major breeding ground. However, your feet are subjected to anaerobic environments for far longer, usually daily, so it multiplies who knows how many times more! I apply Germ-X to my feet at the end of the day to take care of the bacterial build-up. And speaking of ears and bacterial growth, I feel compelled to apply it right now. --Shultz III 00:16, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
You could also regularly ventilate your feet (and then swap socks) like I do. My feet used to give off a horrible stink. This, plus no more soap, solved the problem. A solution by using less is always preferable to one that uses more, I'd say. DirkvdM 09:03, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Head-on auto crash.

If two autos of equal weight, and each going 50 miles an hour, crash head on, will the impact be 100 miles an hour or just 50 miles an hour? Thank you. Paul Weiss

Assuming both cars are travelling forward, and the earth isn't spinning at a crazy rate, then yes. Err... I mean 100 miles per hour. It's a 2-dimensional collision so you simply subtract the vectors: .  freshgavinΓΛĿЌ  11:17, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
If you're standing on the road watching the crash, you'll see both autos travelling at 50 mph but in opposite directions. If you're sitting in either auto, you'll see the other as approaching at 100 mph. --Bowlhover 16:57, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The question is what you mean by "will the impact by 100 miles an hour". If you imagine an extremely solid wall of heavy steel or something that you could crash a car into without damaging the wall, then the 50+50 mph collision will damage the cars in the same way that a 50 mph collision into this wall would be, because all of the kinetic energy goes into damaging the cars, and colliding with an identical car will stop a car in the same way that the very solid wall would.
On the other hand, if you imagine the damage from crashing the car into a stationary car of the same kind, then the 50+50 mph collision would be like a crash at 71 mph into a stationary car. Here 71 is 50 times the square root of 2, and that arises because the energy will be distributed equally between the two cars and energy varies as the square of speed.
For some calculations involving collisions you want to consider momentum rather than kinetic energy, but energy is the right measure when you're thinking about the amount of damage.
--Anonymous, 00:57 UTC, March 3, 2006.

Cocaine

A friend of mine claims that rubbing cocaine on one's penis before intercourse makes the sex more pleasurable for the woman, but this doesn't sound right. Is it true?

Cocaine, when applied topically, acts as an anesthetic and intense vasoconstrictor. I'd say it has the opposite effect... — TheKMantalk 13:21, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Rub it on your hair, and you fail the drug test. --Zeizmic 13:36, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Because of the extensive processing it undergoes during preparation and its highly addictive nature, cocaine is generally treated as a hard drug, with severe penalties for possession and trafficking." [17]

"After the US helped the Colombian military dismantle the Medellín and Cali cocaine cartels in the '90s, the guerrillas moved in and took over much of the drug trade. By the late '90s, rebels controlled more than a third of the country and had the financial clout to intensify the [civil] war and protect their newfound position as narcotraffickers. It's an extremely lucrative business. The coke habit in the US alone was worth $35 billion in 2000 - about $10 billion more than Microsoft brought in that year." [18]

Sorry, I couldn't help it. -LambaJan 20:39, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I guess an anasthetic, applied to the male, is likely to reduce his stimulation, so things go on longer than the regulation three minutes. This in turn may appeal to the female, if her tastes run that way. Notinasnaid 21:11, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I doubt she would appreciate the effect the cocaine would have on her bits =P. — TheKMantalk 21:55, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Try powdered ginger mixed with honey. She will never look at another man. (Never use chilli powder!) --Anon.

Usenet

The concept of "Usenet" has confused me (and yes, I read the article). Is it basically just a huge group of "bins" (like alt.binaries.videos, etc) and people post any message or file they want into the suitable "bin", and when you read it with a client it shows everything posted in that "bin" with the most recent first? - unsigned

Usenet is essentially a newsgroup or forum, however you want to look at it. Its a resource whereby messages very similar to emails are sent into the system and then processed and stored in order, and someone with a reader can come along and read all the stored messages in order. Many people have adapted it for use with files, but its essentially the same strategy as sending files attached to emails. The only thing to remember is that someone has to host those groups, and many places only host the non-space-hogging kind since server disk space isnt exactly cheap. -unsigned
So what's the deal with the readers? I mean, google groups doesn't let you download files AFAIK, or look very far back. Is there some free way to look at and download usenet files and look atp osts from way back (like months ago?) - unsigned
Since its a service that is rather resource-intensive, its access is often subscriber based. Most ISPs will run some form of USEnet relay for their customers, although this is going by the wayside as it's use has shifted from the legitimate, to grey filesharing and piracy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.195.232.121 (talk • contribs) 15:44, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Google doesn't carry binaries groups, but it does archive old posts (pretty much for ever - the oldest usenet post in Google's archive is from 1981.) Binaries groups are not generally achived and are not carried by as many servers as text groups. -- AJR | Talk 16:50, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Go here and try out a temporary free reader called Agent. It's highly recommended. Permanent free versions of Agent exist if you look hard enough. To connect the usenet reader to the usenet, ask your ISP for the net address to type into the reader. Its generally not an additional ISP charge so far as I know. (mine isn't - EarthLink) WAS 4.250 16:53, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First a terminology correction: the original poster referred to "bins", and those are the newsgroups. Each newsgroup is a forum. Usenet is all of the newsgroups taken collectively. Some newsgroups are intended for messages in text form (that was the original idea, back when most of Usenet was carried on 300 or 1200 baud telephone connections); others are intended for binaries, which are encoded in text form. Most newsgroups are "unmoderated" and anyone can post anything, just as they can here; others have a moderator who screens all postings, or variations on this.

The original poster referred to seeing messages "newest first". The order that you see articles in depends on what newsreader (software ) you use. Historically, the original presentation was oldest first; then came oldest first but grouped by subject line; then came threading, which allows people to read a sequence of followups in a sensible tree-traversal order. Good newsreaders allow you a lot of control over what they see and how they see it, and they keep track of what you've already read, which is essential when you're reading oldest-first. Frankly, it's a much more congenial presentation of messages than the massive concatenation of everything into a single web page that we see in Wikipedia talk pages like this.

If you read newsgroups via Google Groups, then in effect you're using Google's newsreader running on their site (which you access via your web browser), where it accesses the postings locally. This contrasts with the traditional newsreader, which runs on your machine (so you can run whichever one you want to install) and accesses the postings you choose from a remote news server. Historically there was a third approach: all postings in all newsgroups you might want to read were stored on your machine, and your newsreader accessed them as local files. ("Your machine" in that case would likely be a big corporate or institutional one, rather than a personal computer. Postings would stay online for a few days or weeks, depending on disk capacity.) --Anonymous, 01:15 UTC, March 3, 2006.

Gagging, vomiting daily through stress

My girlfriend has recently started teaching at a public school. Over the first couple months the stress was extremely intense and she thought she was going to quit. Recently, the stress has dies down somewhat, but she is still experiencing stomach problems: each morning she dry heaves or vomits, and can't keep any food down until about lunch.

Obviously the problem is mainly psychological, and ought to go away once the stress starts becoming managable. However, is there anything she can take to help the symptoms? Would antacid tablets help? Any other over-the-counter stomach medicine? What is the physical response that is turning stress into an upset stomach?

Thanks in advance.

She should probably consult her physician to be sure that there isn't something physically wrong. If necessary, her doctor can also refer her to an appropriate specialist for help in managing her response to stress.
Whether physical or psychological at its root, cranking out gobs of stomach acid and vomiting every morning isn't a good thing, and warrants medical attention. Depending on the precise cause, antacid tablets (calcium carbonate, e.g. TUMS) may provide some relief. More potent blockers of acid production are also available over the counter (ranitidine, sold under the brand name Zantac in North America). TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:51, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds like extreme anxiety. Get the doctor to refer to a specialist. I just read about a drug for extreme stage fright. I just get along with common meds, for my anxiety. --Zeizmic 18:00, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

She needs to go to the doctor (is she pregnant?), but I have noticed ginger and ginger ale help me with nausea. -Ravedave 06:22, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

great pyramids

It is claimed that even with todays technology the great pyramids could not be built -is this true?

Since most people agree that they were build even without today's technology, I think one could say with great certainty that they could be built with today's technology. See our Great Pyramid of Giza and Egyptian pyramid construction techniques articles for information on how they were built. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 20:20, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, it is impossible, with today's technology, to stack rocks. That is why all those buildings and monuments that look like stacked marble, stone, or steel girders are just illusions. It is a four-inch model that appears big based on your frame of reference. In fact, I think Manhattan is only about three feet wide. --Kainaw (talk) 20:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

We couldn't build it the way they did, with today's technology. Just the life insurance on 10,000 expendable slaves would break the bank. --Zeizmic 22:25, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Whoever is claiming this is trying to prove something; from the way the assertion is worded I suspect that the intent is to demonstrate that extraterrestrials did it. It is of course nonsense; when one considers what can be built with modern construction technology, one realizes that reproducing the Great Pyramid would not be impossible. (Whether anyone today would want to build it is a different question.) —Charles P._(Mirv) 23:47, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, it could be done. Just need a nice large quarry, the right machinery, a large dedicated workforce, and plenty of cash and time. And would anyone want to do it? Unlikely, when instead you could make a neat looking hollow one made of glass and put a casino inside. — TheKMantalk 03:17, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Asbestos, you basically say that if something could be done in the past of course we can do it too. You seem to assume that all new knowledge is simply added to the old knowledge. But it can also replace it. A simple example is survival skills of hunters/gatherers as they learn western ways and stop hunting and gathering. Or knowledge of old western trades that has been lost because the need has disappeared. Or take cement. The Romans knew about it. Almost 2000 years later it was re-invented. It is quite possible that a technique was used to build the pyramids that we don't need because we have different solutions. Sure, we could build something similar, but with our technology it would be different in many ways. To make an exacts copy would probably be prohibitively expensive, because we would have to first invent the techniques or adapt ours to get the desired effect. Sorry I said this a bit messy, but the thought behind it is not less valid for it. :) DirkvdM 10:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another good example of this is Damascus steel (or more specifically Wootz steel.) Reports of weapons made using the technique date back to 30AD, but up until 1980, noone could reproduce the effect. GeeJo (t) (c) • 11:06, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

March 3

Dual core CPU questions

I have an athlon 64 4400 (dual core). I use windows xp.

1) Is there some kind of update that I should get for windows to optimize it for using a dual core cpu? If so, what exact update(s) should I get and where?
2) I've noticed that when running certain games, it goes extremely fast (not at all playable). Is this because I have a dual core?
3) I've also noticed that when playing music and movies and such in windows media player it periodically skips (it sounds similar to how it is when cds skip in old portable cd players) Is this because I have a dual core?
4) Is there some program out there that can make my dual core cpu temporarily run on only one core? Flea110 01:16, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

astronomy

In an elliptical orbit,what happens to the distance between the planet and the sun?

As compared to? When what happens? Your question is a bit unclear. --Obli (Talk)? 11:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I think the questioner means how it changes over the course of one orbital period. But since it sounds suspiciously like homework (apols if I am just being hyper-cynical), I'm just going to point 'em at Planetary orbit. --Bth 11:29, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Cells

Why are cells usually small? Ana

Diffusion is slow. A large spherical cell would not be able to use diffusion to get small molecules into all parts of the cell. Look up Fick's Law of diffusion for more details on the math. David D. (Talk) 08:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wanted to say "Define small. Compared to what?" But are you now saying that they couldn't be any bigger because diffusion places a limit? In that case, I'd change the question to "Why are cells so big?" If being smaller makes diffusion easier and still they are as big as that permits, then they must have a reason for being so big. DirkvdM 10:44, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I'd like to rephrase the question to "why aren't cells much larger than they are?"
It's a question of surface area, David D. touched the subject by talking about diffusion. Osmosis (diffusion through a plasma membrane) is not instant, and only a certain amount of osmosis can take place at a give point at the plasma membrane, therefore the area of the plasma membrane limits the volume of the cell, usually to something really small by our standards. Think of the membrane as transport routes in and out of a city, a cell the size of your fist would then be like New York city, with one dirt road connecting it, it just won't work. This problem is remedied in some cells, such as the inner lining of the small intestine by the use of Microvilli.
I hope I answered your questions, you are welcome to drop me a note on my talk page if you need further clarification. --Obli (Talk)? 11:10, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

URGENT! - AutoText in MS Word

Hey I was using MS Word and would like to insert automatic pagenumber, and that never seems to work. I used "Insert", then "AutoText", "Headers and Footers", and selected "-PAGE-", and the only thing that appeared on the screen is "-1-", and never continued (on the second page, there is no "-2-"). How can that be accomplished?

Also, I accidentally deleted the "-PAGE-" AutoText, how can I restore it? I added one in AutoText Settings "-PAGE-", and when I insert it, it is firstly cannot be found in the headers and footers category, and also, turns out to be "-PAGE-" instead of the expected "-1-". Very urgent! Thanks!

Just Love Science

I've just had a play with my copy of Word and I think you need to make sure you're in the Header/Footer view. (View->Header and Footer) before you do the insert. The "Header/Footer" section under the Autotext menu is just a collection of things that are useful in headers and footers, it doesn't automatically put it into the footer -- when I followed your description of what you'd done I just got a "-1-" at the location of the cursor. It's only when the cursor is in the footer that it'll propagate properly. HTH. HAND. --Bth 11:18, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sharp weapons vs. blunt weapons

Regarding wounds in pre-modern times, I have two conflicting sources. One tells me that sharp weapons are more lethal because while a broken bone could be set, a cut from a sword might lead to infection, which was a major headache before people learnt to disinfect things. The other source says that broken bones from blunt weapons are more dangerous, because they were difficult at best to treat. Which is correct? 219.93.29.135 11:51, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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