Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

EM wave with highest frequency

What is the highest frequency of a electromagnetic wave ever reported?

What is the upper bound for the frequency of any EM wave, and what properties would such wave have? — Kieff | Talk 08:36, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

To my knowledge, there's no upper bound on frequency. You just get gamma rays with higher and higher energies. A source I don't entirely trust to be accurate says the highest frequency ever measured is 10³⁰Hz. -- Cyrius|✎ 14:05, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I found some more online discussions that we might be able to condense into an answer. There are "Ask a High-Energy Astronomer" from NASA (no theoretical limit, observed up to 10^27 Hz, expected up to 10^30 Hz), and "Ask a Scientist" from the US Dept. of Energy (points out that photon has to get its energy from some finite source), and this discussion group, which kicks the subject around a bit more. --Heron 14:43, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I was thinking about it because of this: if the Planck time, t_p = 5.391 × 10^-44 s, is the smallest unit of time, then the highest frequency possible would be given by f = 1 / 5.391 × 10^-44 wich is 1,855 × 10⁴³ Hz. Now, I was wondering what this implies. If such wave exists, how would it behave? If highest frequencies mean highest penetrations, then this wave would be able to go through anything, quite similar to what gravity does. So, I thought that could mean something. :P — Kieff | Talk 02:37, Nov 3, 2004 (UTC)

I'm out of my depth here, and I'll be grateful if somebody sets me right, but I thought that the Planck units were based on the size at which quantum effects and classical effects have equal validity. In other words, they are not hard limits, merely mathematical waypoints in a fuzzy cloud of measurement where results are 50% likely to be correct. Is this true? In which case, it would not be impossible for a frequency to exceed 1/(Planck time), but it would be impossible to be certain about what we had measured. --Heron 11:19, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I heard that cosmic rays are higher than gamma rays. [[User:Nichalp|¶ ɳȉčḩåḽṗ | ✉]] 19:38, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

Cosmic rays are particles, not electromagnetic waves — Kieff | Talk 00:04, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

Mind your Own Business

A popular French saying I'm told that literally means "mind your onions" but I can't seem to trace it! Can you help?

I think you may be better off asking that at wiktionary.org... [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 12:43, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

You want "Occupe-toi de tes oignons". It's the third result in the Google search for "mind your onions". --Heron 14:49, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You can say both "Occupe-toi de tes oignons" or "Occupe-toi de tes affaires". There is also another nice one, somewhat related: "A chacun son métier (et les vaches seront bien gardées)" which means basically: "Everyone to his trade" or something like that. --Edcolins 19:29, Nov 2, 2004 (UTC)

"To each his or her trade (and the cows will be well guarded.)" --Gelu Ignisque

Reminds me of the Dutch "schoenmaker, blijf bij je leest" -- "let the cobbler stick to his last", but unlike English, it's a common proverb in Dutch. From Latin "ne sutor ultra crepidam", see Apelles#Legacy. Probably occurs in other languages as well. JRM 23:11, 2004 Nov 6 (UTC)

Us British folk sometimes say "he really knows his onions" when referring to someone who appears knowledgeable in a certain area. Haven't heard that used for some time though. [1] --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 10:28, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Count of teeth

I asked this question at Talk:Tooth but got no response :

In humans, does the first set have 20 teeth and the second set 12, or does the second set have 32 ? Do all the 20 teeth of the first set fall off ? Jay 04:23, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Tooth answers this pretty well, but perhaps you might recommend improvements to the language? It says, "The second, permanent set is formed between the ages of six and twelve years. A new tooth forms underneath the old one, pushing it out of the jaw. " In other words, the 20 "baby teeth" are replaced with permanent teeth, and 8-12 more come in. --jpgordon{gab} 22:18, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks, I've tried to incorporate this in the tooth article. Jay 16:20, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

How many teeth do you have, Jay? --User:Juuitchan

Emigration/Credit question

Okay, here's the situation. The wife and I are tossing around the idea of moving to Canada. Before you draw out the guns though, I'd just like to point out that A) she's a Canadian already, B) I married her in 1998, before it was fashionable for lefty Americans to love Canada and C) we've been tossing around the idea of moving there since 1998. That said, our credit here in the US is pretty good, and her credit from 1998 in Canada is, shall we say, not so fantastic. Would credit translate across borders? If it doesn't usually, is there a way to get credit for our good credit? Thanks much.

Guh, forgot to sign it. The above question is mine. --I. Neschek 16:28, 3 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In fact it's been trendy for lefty Americans to fetishize Canada (if not, alas, Canadians) since at least the '60s. But to answer your questions, it has been the experience of some friends of mine that Canadian banks can, indeed, reference U.S. credit reports, at least when it comes to assessing overall debt load; so if you've got a pocketful of high-limit cards, they will count against you. For the most part, if you're looking for a loan or a mortgage, the question will be "What are your current jobs, and how long have you been in them?".

In general, the black cloud of credit seems not to hang over Canadians the way it does Americans. For example, I believe it remains very rare for Canadian landlords or employers to look at credit reports as indicators of trustworthiness. Landlords may want a letter from your employer confirming your pay.

There is a newsgroup, misc.immigration.canada, from which you may be able to glean specific anecdotal info.

Sharkford 19:10, 2004 Nov 3 (UTC)

Real answer: no, but you can fake it. Use your US credit cards as a credit reference when you open your bank account in Canada. It worked brilliantly for me when I went the other way - the bank gave me a $2000 credit card on the strength of my Canadian cards. If you intend to apply for a mortgage or something, I'd advise bringing a copy of your US credit report. But for commerical credit, use your US cards as credit references and you'll be fine. Diderot 06:58, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Chemical Dependency classes

I'm trying to find classes for my CEU. Can you help me

Statistics and Probability

sigh.... The reference desk is not a search engine. func(talk) 03:02, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Maths Methods assignment

Hi, this is a Maths Methods assignment for me. I have done sme planning, etc. But I'd just like to ask for some other people's opinions. Thank you!! =)

topics: data variance (statistics) & probabilty

A game shop decides to have a "sale with a difference"

To determine your percentage discount, you toss three six-sided dice and your discount is the sum of the uppermost faces. The faces of each of the dice are: 0, 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15.

The accountant is concerned about how much this might cost the business.

Prepare a report setting out the expected overall discount from the sale if the games shop goes ahead with the idea...

Now, some of the things i will consider is, how much profit does each game make? assuming $100 to $250 per transaction.

The problem is, how do I assume what numbers will be rolled? Because each combination or each sum will have the same possibility as one another. Or perhaps i will make assumptions based on the AVERAGE percentage discount.

ohh....This is so stressful!

• My advice for getting started: make a list or a table showing each possible outcome on the dice. 0 and 0, 0 and 3, 0 and 6 and so on. You can't "assume" what numbers will be rolled; you can only predict with what chance they will be rolled. That's why it's called probability :-) Once you know all the possible outcomes and the chance that each outcome will occur, you can figure out the discount that will be rolled on average. -- Wapcaplet 01:54, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• If the teacher just wanted an answer (as a manager probably would in real life), then I'd just as soon write a program. (This is untested--do not rely on it.)

  // {{PD}}
  #include <cstdlib>
  #include <iostream>
  #include <iomanip>

  using namespace std;
  const double min = 100, max = 250; // Range of purchase amounts

  double percent_discount() {
    const int faces[6] = { 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 };
    int percent = faces[rand() % 6] + faces[rand() % 6] +
                  faces[rand() % 6];

    return double(percent) * 0.01;
  }

  struct {
    double sale_price;
    double discounted_price;
    double percent_discount;
  } total;

  int main() {

    const int trials = 100000;
    total.sale_price = total.discounted_price = total.percent_discount = 0;

    for (int trial = 0; trial < trials; ++trial) {
      double current_price = min + double(rand() / RAND_MAX) * (max - min);
      double current_discount = percent_discount();
      double current_discounted_price = current_price -
             (current_price * percent_discount);

      total.sale_price += current_price;
      total.discounted_price += current_discounted_price;
      total.percent_discount += current_percent_discount;
    }

    cout << "Simulated " << trials << " purchases\n";
    cout.precision(2);
    cout << "Total sales were $" << total.sale_price << "\n";
    cout << "Total sales with discounts were $"
         << total.discounted_price << "\n";
    cout << "Average percent discount was "
         << total.percent_discount / double(trials) << "%\n";
    cout << "Expected revenue loss: $"
         << total.sale_price - total_discounted_price << "\n";
    cout << "END OF REPORT" << endl;
  }

• But this being Math Methods, the teacher will likely want you to use the principle of expected value to determine the answer. It's sort of elegant to be able to come up with, by hand, what a chunk of hot silicon needs a hundred thousand trials to determine. (Of course, we can teach computers to use expected value, too.) --Ardonik.talk()^* 04:58, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

I would imagine the kind of answer your teacher is expecting is dependent on your current educational level. If this question is intended for an audience more advanced than a university Freshmen (and maybe not even that) then I have no idea. Otherwise, I would say that your assumption is correct and the expected value of each (presumably fair) die is (0 + 3 + 6 + 9 + 12 + 15)/6 or 7.5, and since they are all independent events, the expected sum of the three dice should be 22.5 Of course, maybe there's something strange going on with the variance there that has some adverse impact that I'm not aware of, and you should listen to someone who took more than a sememester of statistics in university. --Cvaneg 20:34, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, I've set up an excell worksheet with all the possible combinations of 3 uppermost faces. Since there are 3 dice, 6 sides, there should be 6x6x6=216 different combinations. I'm not sure if this is necessary. I worked out the average of the data, created a frequency table, made a histogram & polygon on it. From this graph, I can see that the most common score is 21% dicount and 24% discount. Do you think I'm on the right track? Now, I have worked out the central tendency and will go into details in terms of probability. ~from cindy. thanks heaps!

The origin of "Itsy Bitsy Spider"

I was wondering about the origins of Itsy Bitsy Spider, a popular nursery rhyme which exist in many languages. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 07:09, 2004 Nov 4 (UTC)

• According to http://www.rhymes.org.uk/itsy_bitsy_spider.htm, the history and origin cannot be traced. --jpgordon{gab} 01:54, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

islamic history

Hmmm, and what is your question? [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 08:59, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

We have an article on the history of Islam. tl;dr version: Timeline of Islam. Garrett Albright 05:47, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

PARCHMENT - MEDIUM AND TOOL USED TO WRITE

What was the medium (ink) and tool (stylus) used in ancient Pergamon on parchment after the invention of parchment by the shepherds as a result of the embargo of papyrus by the Egyptians?

I hope my understanding of the fact and assumptions above are correct.

Thanking you in advance.

David G. Puckett, AIA --64.12.116.137 21:24, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Hm, perhaps this question should not be posted here, if the licensing requirements of the question are incompatible with the GNU FDL. -- Wapcaplet 23:06, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. Well, by submitting it, he released it under the FDL, right? So shouldn't the confidentiality notice be interpreted in light of it. If the "intended recipient(s)" are the general public, then there's no problem. :) -- कुक्कुरोवाच|Talk‽

Completely off-topic, but isn't it ridiculous to voluntarily send a message to someone with an obnoxious note that it's your "property?" If you want to retain full control of your words beyond that inherently granted to you by law, don't send me anything. These warnings have been popping up more and more on e-mails and faxes. Knee-jerk lawyerism, and it'd get laughed out of court if you sued someone for violating one of these warnings. Rhobite 21:29, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

The ink in question is known as Indian ink. The parchment, noted in the Pergamon article, was made of calf skin and referred to as pergamum. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:14, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Valparaiso University

I wrote the article on Lowell Thomas and the sources I used say he graduated from the University of Northern Indiana in 1911. That institution is now known as Valparaiso University and the article there says it was called Valparaiso College in 1900. Can anyone clarify when it changed its name? PedanticallySpeaking 22:54, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

Just six years later in 1906[2] --Cvaneg 22:58, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

But my books say he graduated in 1911 from the University of Northern Indiana. Was UNI perhaps absorbed by Valparaiso? Or is this an entirely different institution? PedanticallySpeaking 18:12, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

Well according to Britannica he attended Valparaiso. So I imagine that he did attend the university now referred to as Valparaiso, but one source or another has their timeline mixed up in regards to the exact name of that institution at the time of his graduation --Cvaneg 19:39, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There never was a University of Northern Indiana. There was a Northern Indiana Normal School, which was rechartered as Valparaiso College in 1900. Thus students who graduated before 1900 are somtimes incorrectly cited as graduates of Northern Indiana University. "University of Northern Indiana" appears to be an error in at least one widely cited biography of Lowell Thomas. Britannica says he graduated from Valparaiso in 1911. Diderot 21:23, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Lowell Thomas's memoir Good Evening, Everybody (New York: Morrow, 1976) states, page 64, that "officially it was the University of Northern Indiana at Valparaiso." PedanticallySpeaking 17:59, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

The French Revolution

I need some pictures of events that happened during the French Revolution. How do I go about to getting them???

Ronnie --207.62.11.21 00:18, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, you probably won't get too many high quality digital photographs but, depending on the quality and content of the images you need, you may want to just look in GIS --Cvaneg 00:53, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You can visit the Carnavalet Museum in Paris. David.Monniaux 21:03, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

House of Reps vacancy locations

Wikipedia-

I have noticed that there are two seats vacant in the House of Representatives. One in Nebraska and one in Florida. However, I can not seem to find the areas that these seats represent. Any chance I could be pointed to a map or description of the areas not represented.

                                    Thank You
                                         -Chad

P.S. GREAT site, thank's again

Well technically with this past election, since all of the seats in the United States House of Representatives are up for grabs every two years, after Tuesday there were no longer any vacant seats,(assuming that no one died in the past couple of days). However, the vacated seats for the 2003-2004 house were Nebraska CD1 and Florida CD14[3] you can look at CNN's map of congressional districts to figure out exactly where those districts are. (The Nebraska one is towards the eastern end of Nebraska and the Florida one is on the southwest coast of Florida.) --Cvaneg 02:05, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I should also point out, that there were actually other vacated seats during that congressional session, however they ocurred early enough that a special election was held to fill the empty seat with a new representative, while these past two were so recent (Aug/Sep 2004) that there was no time or need to do so. --Cvaneg 02:12, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The Nebraska 1st Congressional District seat is vacant due to Doug Bereuter's retirement at the end of August 2004 (see [4]). It will presently be filled by the newly elected Jeff Fortenberry. See [5] for an map of the state color-coded by district. [[User:Rdsmith4|User:Rdsmith4/sig]] 02:38, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sandhills Region of North Carolina

What major towns and cities are located in the North Carolina Sandhill region and is Sanford, NC located in the Sandhills region?

We have a page for Sanford, North Carolina, and it mentions nothing of any Sandhills. Some quick Google searching shows that the Sandhills region seems to be in/around Moore County, North Carolina. The map on this page shows the general area. Garrett Albright 05:41, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

carbon dioxide

Could you please provide me with information on the effects of co2 on bananas during storage and or transportation. Also what effect it has on the ripening process.

In a controlled environment with high co2 buildup over a period of days will it cause cell damage to the peel which would compromise normal ripening or yellowing of the product.

If you can help me or lead me to someone that can I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance,

Mike Digioia Mdigioia77{ a t }verizon.net

More info can be found in our articles on bananas, ripening and carbon dioxide. Apparently ethylene is used to make fruits ripen. And carbondioxide can promote plant growth in live plants. Since live plants use carbon dioxide for respiration, I don't expect it to cause to much damage to the banana. I'd have to do some more research to find out whether CO₂ helps bananas ripen, but I don't really expect it to. [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 22:32, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

US population distribution by religion and age

I would like to inquire if someone has a cross-distribution of US population by religion and age. Any input will be highly appreciated. Please, send your reply to tanyapolyak{ a t }yahoo.com

The US Census Bureau has excellent web-based and machine-readable data at http://census.gov/ however, they are limited by law in their ability to ask Americans about their religion: [6]. Some third-party statistics can be found in tables 79-82 in the Census Bureau's 2003 abstract. CUNY's ARIS 2001 is one of the surveys used by the Census Bureau. I didn't look closely, so I don't know if they cross-reference by age. Rhobite 21:19, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

Sun over the yardarm? When exactly is that?

Does this saying refer to late in the afternoon or early in the morning? I searched under "yardarm" but only found specific sailing info. Thanks Marie

Hint for next time: search for the whole phrase in double quotes, like this: "sun over the yardarm". I used that technique for a quick Google search, which turned up this:

"The drunken sailor stereotype may be fading away, but the rich tradition of drinking and sailing live on in our lexicon. You still hear sailors talking about splicing the main brace. For those not up on their seafaring lore, this is not an act of marlinespike seamanship. It’s old sailor talk for having a drink. Then there’s the business of looking for the sun over the yardarm, the idea being that when the orb is just over the foreyard when viewed by the quarterdeck, it’s time for a drink. Yardarms have gone the way of the drunken sailor, so a spreader is usually substituted. One authority says that in the high latitudes in the days of yardarms, the position of the sun indicated it was time for a drink at about 11 a.m." from Sailing Magazine

Hope that helps, [[User:CatherineMunro|Catherine\^talk]] 02:54, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What do you call a person from Massachusetts?

A person from Texas is a Texan, a person from New York is a New Yorker, so what is a person from Massachusetts called? Is there even a word for it? [[User:Livajo|力伟|☺]] 06:54, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

"Texan" is an adjective; when someone is called a "Texan," it is presumed they are being called a "Texan person." On the other hand, "New Yorker" is a noun. Therefore, "Texan senator" (or "Texan vacation" or what have you) sounds correct to most Americans, but "New Yorker senator" sounds odd. "New York senator" sounds better. To answer your question, I don't think there is a word like "New Yorker" for people from Massachusetts, but you may be able to get around it by using Massachusetts as an adjective, as in "Massachusetts senator." Hope this helps. Garrett Albright 08:13, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Once the post-election emigration begins, you can start calling them Canadians. adamsan 10:53, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

No, Texan is a noun. You would say "a Texas senator is a Texan". Massachusettan receives over 100,000 Google hits which was, by far, the largest for any spelling variation I tried. Rmhermen 14:22, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

It only gets so many Google hits since there are about 100,000 occurrences of this word on one particular website. Excluding that site, the number of hits drops to under a dozen. [[User:Livajo|力伟|☺]] 16:15, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Quite true. Bizarre. How about we just call them "liberals"? Rmhermen 16:49, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

"Texan" is both an adjective and a noun, depending on context. -- Cyrius|✎ 03:38, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

A person from Massachusetts is called a "Bay Stater". --I. Neschek 17:15, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Incidentally, a person from Ohio is an "Ohioan". It's generally used as a noun, not as an adjective. (I would never say "an Ohioan senator". "An Ohio senator" seems much more natural.) It seems to me that these words for residents of U.S. states tend to function primarily as nouns. (But what about "Carolinian"?) [[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 00:48, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

See also demonym and List of adjectival forms of place names. - 14:43, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC) Lee (talk)

what about a person from conneticut?

My favorite from all of these people's names is that a person from Liechtenstein is known as a Lillipudlian. Our team won a quiz competition because a guy on our team knew that. I can't find any reference now to back that up though. - Taxman 21:31, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

Massachusettsite and (most commonly) Connecticutan respectively. --Gelu Ignisque

• The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual (2000) says a person from the Bay State is a "Massachusettsan" and a native of the Nutmeg State is a "Connecticuter". See chapter five of the Manual, here, at section 5.23. As for natives of Ohio, of which I am one, "Buckeye" is much better than "Ohioan". PedanticallySpeaking 19:31, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)
  • • Thank you for the information. My curiosity has been satisfied. [[User:Livajo|力伟|☺]] 01:50, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)
  • Warning to people who are not from Ohio: Do not refer to Ohioans as Buckeyes unless you know that they are Ohio State fans. Michigan fans might object, and a remarkably high percentage of Ohioans are Michigan fans. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 01:07, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)
• We just call each other "Komrade" here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. ;-) Terrapin 20:30, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I for one welcome our... In MA, joke tells you! - Ok sorry couldn't help it. Taxman 00:15, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

A curious situation

If you dive from a good height into a deep pool of water, you'll sink on it quite a lot. When you're that low, the water pressure increases certain amount, but not much since it's density is so low.

But, what if you dived in a pool of mercury? Since the density is what, more than 10 times bigger, would you sink the same amout? If so, wouldn't the pressure of the same depth be too much for the body to take? — Kieff | Talk 07:49, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

Since mercury has a higher density, I'd expect people to tend to float on top of it. Hence, I don't expect you'll sink as much as you do in water. Nevertheless, diving in mercury isn't all that healthy anyway... If you want to be sure, you might want to ask someone at the wikiproject elements ...;) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 08:54, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

The pressure several feet beneath the surface would be a very minor concern. The density of mercury under standard conditions is 13.579 g/cm³. The density of stone is around 2.5 g/cm³. I should think that trying to dive into mercury would hurt a lot and would probably be fatal from a relatively small height, especially since mercury ought to rebound more than stone would. Fortunately, liquid mercury is only slightly toxic, so the diver won't be poisoned unless the pool is near boiling.

A person submerged in the pool would be driven to the surface very quickly, having a buoyancy of about 965 kg (try holding a balloon underwater). The pressure in the pool increases by one atmosphere for every 2.5 feet of depth. The human body can (uncomfortably) withstand at least 10 atm, or a depth of 25 feet, without injury. It is unlikely to survive 13 G of instantaneous acceleration. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 10:38, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Incidentally, a person will sink by about one centimeter in mercury. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 10:57, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ha! Excellent. Thanks for the info.

I'll go fill my pool now :D haha, ahem — Kieff | Talk 18:10, Nov 6, 2004 (UTC)

For some information on what immersion in mercury feels like, as well as a picture of a man floating on it, see http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements/080/index.html Marsvin 17:01, 2004 Nov 10 (UTC)

That is fascinating. It's nice to see direct confirmation of what I'd written. Their complaints about not having a good liquid metal to play with are so funny. And their comment about cesium is great. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 02:44, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There's also an interesting article at NewScientist about which substance you could swim the fastest in (due to buoyancy). here Terrapin 20:27, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Windows media update

I today got an update for my windows media program. but now when i try to put it in full screen mode, the video doesnt take up the entire screen, as it used to. is there any way to change this, and if not, is there any way to revert to my old version of windows media player? elpenmsater

First see to it that the default skin is on. (A problematic skin should be eliminated first). Now press ALT+Enter to jump to full screen. Now make sure that the cursor is centered on the screen (middle). This should hopefully resolve the problem. [[User:Nichalp|¶ ɳȉčḩåḽṗ | ✉]] 19:29, Nov 7, 2004 (UTC)

Nope, that doesnt work. It appears that the new version of windows media player just doesnt allow for a real full screen. It has a full-screen mode, but even then the video only takes up about 2/3 of the screen. --elpenmaster

If I were you, I'd post the question to the applications section of Experts Exchange. You'll probably get a dialogue going fairly quickly with technical people trying to solve your problem. Salasks 06:12, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

Missed stays

What does 'missed stays' mean in a nautical sense?

From http://stevebriggs.superb.net/stanrogers/songs/tony.html: The Antelope was slow. It takes her two whole days to catch up to "a bloody Great Yankee" that is described as "broad and fat and loose in stays". Merchant ships were wide and stable cargo carriers, and they were commonly described as broad. They were not notably fast.

The many novels of Patrick O'Brian, which are set in the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars, and contain many nautical terms, provide a relatively painless introduction to nautical history. The stays are the heavy ropes that run from the masts to the hull. They support the masts. Several staysails are hung from the stays, and these sails often provide angular forces useful in turning and tacking.

O'Brian notes that some vessels would "miss stays" which from context seems a sign of poor design or poor seamanship. Some vessels are praised as "quick in stays." A ship had to "make stays" as it changed direction while tacking into the wind. If it missed stays, it would have to wear about, which involves sailing around to change direction, which was a waste of time. It was necessary to take in sails and set other sails as a vessel changed directions, and this took a coordination among many sailors and the helmsmen. A badly sailed vessel missed stays, or made them slowly and hesitantly, losing ground in a chase.

If I understand this correctly "missing stays" refers to not responding to a change of wind so you can catch it while sailing. -- [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|^(talk)]] 22:41, Nov 7, 2004 (UTC)

To miss stays is to attempt to tack but fail. A ship sailing upwind by zigzagging must either tack (turn into the wind, through a small angle) or wear (turn away from the wind, through a large angle). Tacking is trickier than wearing because there is less time, and because there is a point in the turn when the ship is pointing directly upwind and so must depend on its momentum to continue the turn. If the sails aren't adjusted in time the ship loses momentum and can't complete the turn: it has to stop and wear instead. On a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel such as a sloop it's easy to tack because you can move the sails on their booms; on a square-rigged ship the operation is much more complicated.

The term arises because on a square-rigged vessel, a fore-and-aft sail between the foremast and the bowsprit (known as a staysail or jib) is used to keep the ship turning as it passes through the eye of the wind. A staysail is so-called because it is rigged using the stays (which support the masts fore and aft, as opposed to the shrouds which suport them sideways). Gdr 17:55, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

Cowcatchers on modern trains?

On reading news reports of the Ufton Nervet rail crash, I'm curious as to why modern trains aren't fitted with a Cowcatcher, to flip a car with which the train is unfortunate enough to collide out of the way (rather than its getting tangled up under the train's nose, lifting the loco and forcing it to derail). Worse, it looks like the shape of the nose of an Intercity 125 (the locomotive in question) looks particularly prone to this (even when compared with other modern fast trains like the TGV or the Eurostar. I suppose I can see an aerodynamic argument, but is that the only reason? - John Fader

British trains have never had "cowcatchers", and I don't think they were ever particularly effective once trains reached an appreciable speed. In most cases of a train striking a car the car gets disintegrated very quickly, particularly if it is struck directly as seems to have happened yesterday, rather than if it's struck a glancing blow when the car may get bounced out of the way. It would be advisable to wait for the official enquiry report to definitively figure out what happened, but it may have just been bad luck that a particularly dense piece of wreckage, the engine perhaps, happened to derail the train. It's not easy for an object to derail an HST power car, they weigh around 100 tons. -- Arwel 21:29, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In addition to Arwel's previous comments, there are fairly regular occurrances of trains hitting objects at level crossings. As previously noted, most get bounced away. In order for a 100 ton loco to piggyback a car it would have to be pretty much square on. -- BesigedB 22:00, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Given the speeds and energies involved, it looks to me physically infeasible to neatly flip a large obstacle over when hit at high speeds. "Old West"-style "cowcatchers" were used on very slow trains, by modern standards.

As far as I know, when a TGV hits a large animal such as a cow or a horse, the tip of the nose of the train generally gets badly damaged. I've already heard of TGVs being delayed because they hit a wild boar. David.Monniaux 21:02, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

the history of plumbing and sewage systems

i would love to know more about plumbing systems and their historical role- what form they took, civilizations that had advanced systems or came up with inventions. basically where has all the shit and piss gone? I'd assume it wasnt just left in the street to build up, smell and cause disease. im sure the river waters were used for drinking and people wouldnt particularly want to make it unsuitable for drinking (althought i know that this was the case in England and some of western Europe during the early industrial era but that seemed like a new phenomenon which was remedied shortly after people started getting cholera and dying). anyway any information that you could provide me with would eb great. thanks -Ella

I believe the ancient Romans had the first plumbing and public sanitation systems of significance. You can try looking at sewage, sewage treatment and waste management. -- FirstPrinciples 14:45, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

Rivers were quite popular for the purpose and that is where all the "stuff" left in the streets ended up anyway. And remember a portion of the "products" were collected for making medicines and for industrial processes like leather tanning and cloth dyeing. Rmhermen 16:13, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

The Romans were latecomers. The Cretans had elaborate plumbing and flush toilets at least in the palace of Knossos around 1500 years earlier. (just do a search on Knossos and plumbing if you want more) Alteripse 18:51, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'll see your Cretans and raise you the Neolithic drains and toilet at Skara Brae. adamsan 19:49, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Wow. That must have been where Fred Flintstone lived. Alteripse 20:45, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Seattle sports trivia

Can someone tell me when was the last time that the University of Washington Huskies, and the Seattle Seahawks both won home games in Seattle on the same weekend? Seems a long, long time. Thanks if you can help.

Do you know anything about the political situation in Somaliland?

If you do, please help resolve the dispute at Yaasiin Jaamac Nuux, an alleged president. We (well, mostly I :-) can't figure out whether it's a hoax, a partisan article on a pretender, a vanity page or Goddess knows what else. The few WWW pages on Somaliland are, unfortunately, mostly in Somali. Resident expertise is direly needed. I thought the reference desk was the most appropriate place to ask (it's already listed as disputed) but if you think there are other good locations for this question, please copy it. Thanks. JRM 15:53, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

The president of Somaliland is Dahir Rayale Kahin. He is the recognized president by Britain, the EU and some of the members of Congress in America. He was elected in April, 2003. The election was monitored independently and declared to be fair (though very close) from what I understand. Skyler1534 19:38, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

Alright, then all that remains is figuring out who the hell Yaasiin Jaamac Nuux is. I'm going to leave it alone for now and give it, say, a week before putting it back on VfD as a suspected hoax (because Somaliland is relatively obscure, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt). I'm pretty sure he's nobody of importance, as my initial suspicion was, but let's not be hasty. We can afford to drag this around for a while.

Skyler, I've copied your note to the article discussion page. JRM 21:29, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

Question?

Hi, I was ask to answer a question which I don't know,the question is;what is the largest sex organ in our body?It will be very appreciated if I can get a fast reply.Thank you for your time & service..

Well, I don't know what your largest is, but as for me... :^)

Answer depends on what you consider a sex organ. Most folks get off on being touched in some way, so the skin is arguably the biggest, since it is also arguably the bigest organ in the body.

As an aside, should there be a wiki sex ed project? Wikinookie? :^) It would certainly be interesting to see what would come of it.

Diderot 19:00, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

By surface area or number of involved afferent nerves, it's probably the skin; by weight, it's probably the brain/spinal cord (since the brain and spinal cord play a critical role during sex in all higher animals). →Raul654 19:06, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

I like big butts... er, never mind. ;-) It's a bit of an odd question, since on the face of it, one might initially assume there would be a difference between women and men, but Diderot and Raul654 are right, our skin contains the external stimuli of the nervous system. func(talk) 20:23, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The liver. The rest of the body (brains, skin, and actual sex organs); sexual dimorphism itself; indeed, all social structures; and the universe itself have come into existence as the liver's way of making new livers. - Nunh-huh 06:05, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

LOL!!! I just caught this. func(talk) 20:15, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Brain capacity

1. In biology, are there specific situations where the absolute brain mass of an animal is an important measurement?
2. The encephalization quotient produces a dimensionless number reflecting relative brain mass. Are there equally informative calculations which would produce different values for the same parameters? That is, are there multiple semantically equivalent representations of relative brain mass?

--[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 20:30, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

To answer the former, yes - Carl Sagan's Dragons of Eden specifically says that a certain minimum amount of brain matter is necessary for 'housekeeping' functions. So that for very small animals, the EQ will be disproportionately large. For the latter, I'm not really sure what you are asking. →Raul654 20:43, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

To answer your second question, no. There isn't any other manner of determining brain parameters in a similar manner as the brain to body mass ratio - at least none that are both quantitative and reasonably convenient. ClockworkTroll 14:31, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, nothing official maybe, but you could for instance try brain mass vs surface area, or brain mass vs total sensor resolution across some or all sensory systems. You might be able to find all kinds of interesting correlations like that. How about brain mass vs length of the gut? I never tried that, but there might be an interesting indirect correlation there as well. Physics types enjoy graphing everything vs everything on the off chance that they might find some kind of correlation. Biologists should do that more often eh? Kim Bruning 01:17, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Grammar question: 'try and' ...

To my ear, it sounds perfectly normal to 'try and find out somthing', or to 'try and see who is there', or to 'try and get more'. My ever meticulous (is it spelled correctly)...editor (mother), changes 'try and' to 'try to' every single time...'try to find out', 'try to see who', 'try to get more'. Seems to me that 'try to' is correct, but is 'try and' incorrect, and why?

I hope someone can try and help me out on this one.

In descriptive linguistics, a common usage is never judged correct or incorrect; scientists studying language aim to describe how language is used and not dictate how it should be used. Because so many English speakers employ this usage, it is obviously part of the English language. The rhetorical device of joining two elements with a copulative conjunction rather than subordinating one to the other is known as hendiadys (a Latin-language modification of Greek hen dia dyoin, "one through two") and was common in Roman and Greek literature; it is like saying nice and warm or cups and gold for nicely warm and golden cups respectively. --Gelu Ignisque

A prescriptive grammarian would however say that "try and" is being incorrectly substituted for an infinitive. What is meant to be said is "try to draw" not "try and draw". But as Gelu notes, some would consider that a bunch of bull. So if you want to conform with someone's idea of "correct", use "try to" instead. Grammar also explains the above idea nicely. - Taxman 21:37, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

Speedy-quick translation

How would one say "hidden key" in ancient Greek? I know the root words are kleis and kryptos, but how to make those agree in grammatical gender and in the nominative case? Thanks in advance, Gelu Ignisque.

Kleis is feminine, so the adjective would be kryptê. Adam Bishop 03:27, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thank you SOOOO much! Gelu Ignisque

Polish+Lexicon

Um... Topic + Question = Answer. ;-) func(talk) 04:27, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Figure of speech

I just posted this on Angela's talk page:

Your home page is a disgrace to the community. It's preposterously stylish and well-organized; a textbook case of rampant simplicity. You make everyone else look bad. Forget that! You make me look bad. And stop doing so much for Wikipedia and its community! Your tireless dedication and positive attitude are lifting everyone's spirits to revolting heights. No wonder everybody is throwing "please-retire-you're-stealing-my-job" barnstars at you! Why don't you and Jimbo get a room, for crying out loud! JRM 22:14, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

(No, she hasn't responded yet. Forget about the exact content for a moment. I'm getting to a real question. :-)

Is this a recognized figure of speech? What's it called? It's not exactly irony—it's more like heavy sarcasm, but sarcasm typically does not contain both positive and negative elements—only positive elements brought in a clearly ironic fashion, intended to mean the exact opposite. Here, I'm giving the superficial impression of heavy and insulting criticism, but on closer investigation this is untenable, because the statements at the core are clearly positive. Perhaps it's a sort of inverted sarcasm with verbal rather than tonal clues? Does it have its own name? JRM 22:32, 2004 Nov 8 (UTC)

Tongue in cheek? :) func(talk) 03:59, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have no idea what it is. Nor do I know whether I was expected to respond and how one might do so if that were expected. :) Angela. 08:15, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Oh, I'm thinking a week-long ban is in order. Wikipedia is not a comedy outlet. :-) JRM 09:41, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

A week-long something without a doubt. --Phil | Talk 11:22, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Flirting? --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 10:49, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

ITYM "playing with fire" :-) --Phil | Talk 11:22, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Arguing against naturalism

What are common arguments against philosophical naturalism? --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 23:00, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm... I guess, for academic purposes, that I would start off with some of the things mentioned in the last paragraph: semantics, ethics, aesthetics, philosophy of mind. These areas of human study can be seen as representing a "grey area" for naturalism advocates. For some reason, the chinese room thought experiment comes to mind as a potential battle ground for those opposed to and in support of naturalism, (but maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about ;-) ). func(talk) 04:09, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oooh Ooh, there's an entire stack of possible ways to go at Epistemology. Philosophical naturalism only covers the output from a rather old and overused Epistemology called Empiricism. Sounds like it should be relatively easy to poke a large number of holes in it. (I'm not an expert in using philosophies to poke holes in each other though, maybe a Real Philosopher might yet show up :-) ) Kim Bruning 02:06, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

baby goanna

What is a baby goanna called?

I think you've answered your own question. :-) "Goannling" doesn't seem right, and I don't imagine that the English language has designed a diminutive specifically for this species as it has for, say, cows ("calf"), cats ("kitten"), and dogs ("puppy"). I imagine "baby goanna" would be the only recognizable word in English, though if I am wrong I hope someone will correct me. Jwrosenzweig 23:15, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I would concur with you. Looking at this handy appendix from our sister project [7] there is nothing listed for iguana (from which they get their name), monitor lizard (which is their actual family), or lizard (under which general category they should fall). Admittedly, since goanna itself is not listed, there may still be a term of which I'm unaware. Of course, many lizards are egg layers, and I IIRC that includes monitors, so theoretically you could use the generic term hatchling. --Cvaneg 00:57, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I believe the general term for a very young bird, amphibian, fish, or reptile of any species is hatchling. That may be suitable for you... ClockworkTroll 14:21, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What is Westphalia?

Is Westphalia a region, former region or German state or district? --Anon

See Westphalia. [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 03:00, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Time

How is time part of nature?

The best way to answer that is to simply say that time is a dimension, just like any of the other Euclidian dimensions you are familiar with (height, width, or depth), although it is one that we do not percieve as readily. →Raul654 03:05, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

• I think we perceive it quite readily. Cosmetics companies keep reminding us of it... that's as opposed to the gym industry, which is more concerned with width. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 10:54, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

It may depend on what you mean by "nature". In truth, we don't really have a very firm philosophical hold on what "time" is, but we can measure its passing, and doing so along with measuring other "dimensions" allows us to understand more about the universe, (nature). Much of our understandly of the physical world involves mass and energy in motion, and the notion of motion requires measuring time. We can't comprehend somthing moving at a single exactly point in time... all motion has a duration. With regard to my philosophical hold comment, our ability to notice the passage of time is considered by some to be a part of human a priori knowledge, that is, things that we understand without experience, (we seem to be born with an intuative sense of time). func(talk) 03:52, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

John Soane, R.A.?

In our article on John Soane, it reads that Sloan, who was an architect, "became ARA in 1795, then full RA in 1802." Both ARA and RA link to disambiguation pages, but none of the offered alternatives seem appropriate. My best uneducated guess is that RA stands for Registered Architect, and that ARA for something like Associate Registered Architect. Can anyone with actual knowledge either confirm or correct my guesses? -Rholton 04:03, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It denotes membership of the Royal Academy of Arts -- Associate of the Royal Academy, Royal Academician. See here and here. -- Arwel 10:54, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! You are a gentleman and a scholar. -Rholton 15:08, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Noam Chomsky

What is known of Noam Chomsky's personal life? Is he married? Does he have children? What does he do in his spare time? [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 04:20, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

I saw some documentary on Chomsky once that said he's married with children (one or two I think) but because of his political opinions he tried to shield them from public view. That started in the 60's, when he first stepped out of his role as just a linguist to broadcast his views on Vietnam. As I recall, the film portrayed him as being pretty courageous for putting his family at risk to make his views known (no comment by me). Mjklin 04:38, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

As for his "spare time", fepending on your point of view, he has a very impressive career as a political commentator and is a noted academic in his spare time, or vice versa. Which is to say, I don't think the man has a lot of what most of us would call spare time. He is usually not involved in most aspects of contemporary popular culture, although he has certainly not been unfriendly to anarcho-punks and has occasionally welcomed opportunities that have been offered him to use popular-cultural channels as a mode of outreach for his own ideas; for example, he once contributed a cover-story essay to Maximum RocknRoll (at Tim Yohannon's request) and allowed Chumbawamba to package a CD of a lecture of his in with one of their albums. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:50, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

No sound on European DVDs

Alright all you techies, I bought some DVDs in Europe recently, brought them back to America, and attempted to play them on my laptop computer. After switching over the region code in Windows Media Player, I get picture but no sound. Any ideas on how to make my French movies as French as they wanna be? Mjklin 04:31, 2004 Nov 9 (UTC)

Have you maybe tried using another DVD-playing program which ignores regions, such as VLC? If you can't get sound out of any other programs either, then it could be possible that, while you can change or ignore the region in your software, your actual hardware DVD drive is hard-coded to Region 1 (or whereever) and isn't playing along so nicely. (Though I doubt that's the issue, 'cuz if it were, I don't think you'd be getting video either...) Garrett Albright 07:02, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it's a region thing, French tv uses SECAM rather than NTSC. I know that trying to play SECAM films on a PAL player gives you black and white pictures and no sound and I'm guessing there's a similar incompatibility between SECAM and NTSC. If the disc is encoded for a different tv standard then you'd need a p[layer that can cope with it. adamsan 09:02, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are several issues discussed here:

• the US and Europe are in different zones with respect to the DVD zoning system; instead of changing the zone of the DVD drive (which you may do only a finite number of times' unless you have a "hacked" machine), one method is to use a player program that ignores DVD zoning by using DeCSS to decrypt the contents of the DVD;
• Europe (both PAL and SECAM) uses a 50 Hz vertical frequency and the US (NTSC) a 60 Hz vertical frequency (this originally came from the frequencies of distribution of AC current to customers); both also differ in the number of lines used vertically; TV sets usually can only cope with a fixed vertical frequency, and some DVD players may be incapable of playing a DVD designing for one frequency on another; of course, DVD players on computers have no such limitation.

Apart from this, PAL, SECAM and NTSC are standards for encoding color TV on analogue channels; DVD is digital. In short, there is strictly speaking no PAL DVD, no SECAM DVD, no NTSC DVD; contrary to what Adamsan implies. :-) There are only differences between the kind of TVs they expect to be played to (PAL/SECAM vs NTSC), and these differences do not matter for playing the DVD on a computer. In any case, such differences do not affect the way sound is encoded.

Proprietary DVD playing software tends to implement many "features" aimed at preventing users from playing DVDs on "unauthorized" devices, or to copy DVDs to videocassettes. It is possible that one of these "features" is responsible for the problem.

In any case, I advise using a free DVD player such as Videolan. You will have much more control over what happens. David.Monniaux 20:50, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

David and I are referring to the same program by two different names, just in case that was throwing you off. And yes, you don't need to worry about PAL or SECAM DVDs; VHS tapes are another matter. Garrett Albright 05:01, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you really need the sound with your *cough* French films? I can tell you, from a wealth of experience, that those sorts of DVDs normally just have funk noodling, with some fretboard slapping - you could just put on a Level 42 album or something... it won't really degrade your, er, degraded pleasure. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 15:38, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Videolan worked fine guys, thanks. Couldn't put in the subtitles though, but it's no biggie. Mjklin 16:30, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Pseudonym and Alias

I asked this question on talk:pseudonym but no one would answer me : Whats the difference between a pseudonym, nickname and an alias ? Can royal and religious titles be considered pseudonyms, for e.g., is Dalai Lama a pseudonym for Tenzin Gyatso ? Jay 07:35, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Well, Dalai Lama should be considered a formal title rather than a pseudonym. Since Tenzin Gyatso is generally referred to in English as the Dalai Lama, that's a reference to a title rather than a name. I don't believe that the fact that the title supercedes the name matters in this case. A nickname is generally applied by other people, as opposed to one's self. I believe the main difference between alias and pseudonym is one of connotation; as an alias is more commonly used as a name taken to evade something, whereas a psudonym is usually adopted in order to hide one's actual name but not to actually evade anything. Hope this helps. [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 07:55, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I answered on talk:pseudonym, and my answer is, roughly speaking, the same as Rhymeless'. David.Monniaux 20:56, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

reference of editing wikipedia

Well it looks like you may be learning on the fly, but you could try looking here if you're having problems.--Cvaneg 13:05, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

wikipedia

The answer is Wikipedia. There are also certain things that Wikipedia is not. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:51, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Radiation poisoning

I am living in Bulgaria and have just heard of confirmation from a Romanian border guard of a hushed up leak in the past week. Perhaps some confusion with the Russian "leak/incident", but it got me thinking--in your entries on radiation poisoning and radioactive contamination, there was no information as to whether any self-help was possible in these cases. I am thinking of things like increased consumption of red wine (Ok, any excuse!), which was suggested by a friend as a way to increase anti-oxidants. Scare stories are bound to occur, but lack of information about incidents will surely lead to others like myself searching your site for ideas, as i couldn't find useful information by using google.

Thanks in advance for any helpful comments. 9th Nov 2004

Quoting the U.S. Department of Energy: "There is no medicine that will effectively prevent nuclear radiations from damaging the human body cells that they strike." However, potassium iodide pills can prevent the thyroid from retaining radioactive iodine which lowers the risk of thyroid cancer which is one among many worries from radiation. Rmhermen 14:38, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Ugh, I hope conditions are safe there. Antioxidants are always good, but the body can only cope with so much ionization at once. Some radiation will reach DNA in any event, at which point you need effective DNA repair more than protection from free radicals.

Of particular concern are radioactive iodine and xenon. The thyroid will absorb any iodine that you intake, which will lead to thyroid cancer if the iodine is radioactive. You can protect yourself from this by taking large amounts of potassium iodide, so that dangerous forms of iodine are less likely to remain in your body. (However, excess iodine or inadequate iodine may also lead to thyroid cancer, and excess potassium may be quite dangerous).

The best way to prevent radiation poisoning is by staying well away from any source of radiation. A dosimeter can be used to measure radiation exposure over time, and a geiger counter or a scintillometer can measure immediate exposure. The limit of safety is 2 millirems or 20 millisieverts per hour.

If you have already received a lethal dose, there is little you can do. If you do not suddenly become nauseated, followed by hair loss, you are probably safe from radiation poisoning. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 14:46, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If this concerns the Balakovo nuclear reactor in Saratov, it was found to not have a leak. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 16:22, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The incident the guard is most likely referring to is the shutdown on November 4 of the Number 4 Rivno nuclear reactor, in the Ukraine. Fortunately, there was no leak of radiation. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:07, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

what does one call a follower of Russian Orthodoxy?

A "Russian Orthodoxist" gives a few Google hits, but Google wants me to search for Russian Orthodentist instead... Dunc|☺ 17:38, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, obviously, just "Christian" would do, but I would say "Russian Orthodox Christian". Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia refers to "Orthodox Christians", which is less specific but I think probably acceptable in some contexts, depending on what you are trying to emphasize. Of course, I'm not Russian Orthodox. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 18:00, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

concur. "Russian Orthodox Christian". -- Jmabel | Talk 20:51, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

The phrase "follower of Russian Orthodoxy" is somewhat misleading; "member of the Russian Orthodox Church" would be more to the point. "Russian Orthodoxy" is not a separate religion from "Greek Orthodoxy" or other forms of Eastern Orthodoxy; rather, these are separate organizations, mutually recognizing each other as parts of what they consider to be the "One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" (Roman Catholics also claim that title; Catholics and Orthodox disagree about which of those two communions is entitled to call itself that). But I agree that the phrase "Russian Orthodox Christian" does the job. Michael Hardy 21:56, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, one could call them a "Christian," "Orthodox Christian," or "Russian Orthodox Christian." You would generally be safe enough with "Orthodox Christian" unless there was some special reason to distinguish them from the other jurisdictions. Wesley 03:03, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC) (member of the Orthodox Church in America)

Michael Hardy's point is very good. "Orthodox Christian" is the best generic term; "Russian Orthodox Christian", "Greek Orthodox Christian", "Serbian Orthodox Christian", etc are okay if it is know for certain that the person so designated is actually a member of the Russian Church, the Greek Church, the Serbian Church, etc. Otherwise, one risks either offending or demonstrating ignorance of Orthodox ecclesiology. JHCC 19:46, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think it's not just a question of what is known, but of what information one is trying to convey. If one writes "Bishop X recognizes the autocephaly of the OCA because he is a Russian Orthodox Christian", then obviously the term "Orthodox Christian" without the word Russian would fail to convey the point, which is the he belongs to a particular jurisdiction that grants that recognition, whereas other Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions do not. Or "He descended through a hole cut in the surface of the frozen river because he is a Russian Orthodox Christian"; clearly just "Orthodox Christian" would fail to do the job; members of the Cypriot Orthodox Church don't do that very often! Michael Hardy 01:24, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Westphalia Again

I still don't understand whether Westphalia is a region, former region, German state or district?

From Westphalia: Westphalia is a historic region in Germany ... now [mostly] included in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia. It used to be part of the duchy of Saxony, was created a separate duchy by Barbarossa, elevated to a kingdom by Napoleon, then became a province of Prussia, and now parts fall in two of the federal states of Germany. So it is a region, former region, former duchy, former kingdom, former province, and also forms parts of two German states (one of which is named after it). HTH. -- ALoan (Talk) 18:49, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

That's right.

I suppose "historic region" could be replaced by just "region" since regionhood is more or less in the mind of the beholder. Otherwise, the situation is pretty much as you describe it. Several entities of varying character have been called "Westphalia." Their borders have differed quite a lot, but they are all basically in the same part of Germany. Today, there is no institutionalised entity called "Westphalia", but one German Bundesland contains part of the area that has, at some time or other, been part of one or more historical institutionalised entities called "Westphalia", and is thus partially named after it. Diderot 12:09, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Just to make sure the above is understood: a bundesland is a federated state, in Germany. David.Monniaux 21:08, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

History of the Irish health care system

Does anybody know where I could find some information about the history of the Irish healthcare system throughout the 20th century (by Ireland, I mean the Republic of Ireland)? Thanks in advance. --Edcolins 19:35, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

Spam

If one has an email account that is being used (by persons unknown) to send out spam, what can be done to stop this? [[User:Rhymeless|Rhymeless | (Methyl Remiss)]] 01:44, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Change your password. If you have some sort of secret question that someone else might be able to answer, see if you can change it. (How is someone else sending spam from your address unless they are logged in to your account?) Is the spam really coming from your address? There are a lot of viruses these days that will fake it so that it looks like it is coming from your address, but really it isn't. -[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 01:59, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well this is a backup email account that I sortof forgot about for a year or so. I come back, and not only do I have a lot more incoming spam, but I seem to have what look like automessages from normal-looking email accounts, saying this is spam and they have an automessage (etc etc). The account in question is webmail.

Also, this may be an inept or malevolent spammer who is using your address as the from: or reply-to: address. Anyone can put anything they want in those fields. Or as Aranel said it could be a virus, which probably means that someone who has you in their address book is infected. There isn't a whole lot that you can do about forged from addresses, this is one of the reasons mail servers really shouldn't bounce virus or spam warnings back to their 'sender'. Rhobite 06:00, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Receiving bounce-back emails due to a spammer forging your email address is becoming ever-more common. It usually doesn't mean your account has been compromised in any way. Unfortunately there's very little you can do about it. -- DrBob 16:45, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

At this point, I would recommend closing that email account, if you can. Try checking out the support area of whatever webmail service you are using. Garrett Albright 04:56, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The Years

How was the year 1 A.D. and the B.C. years measured? Was it measured by the sun, water or something else? And the way we measured the years in the last hundreds of years what is the origin of it? Thank you!

These are not measured according to any physical standard. They are measured according to the traditionally believed date of Jesus Christ's birth, though later scholarship suggests that he was born a few years earlier than this traditional date. The adoption of this year for the epoch was an amendment to the Julian calendar after the end of the Roman Empire by monks. See Anno Domini for an explanation of this. --Robert Merkel 04:13, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the poster's question, with regard to the sun, water, etc. Are you referring to how long a year is? Many people, both in ancient times and today, use a lunar calendar, which produces "years" which are a little less than one solar year. The Mayan people were fascinated by time, and had multiple means of measuring it. Today, very careful observations are made of Earth's progress around the sun. In addition to our system of leap years to keep our calendar in sync with the solar year, occationally a leap second is added to UTC time. func(talk) 04:56, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Many cultures used the occurrence of solstices as a significant yearly milestone, which yields a rather more reliable measure of the solar year than counting full moons. The 5000 year old Newgrange site was built to align with sunrise on the winter solstice. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:53, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are many ways of measuring years. Using seasonal events like the flooding of the Nile or the migration of a species of bird is simplest. The ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius (i.e., the day on which the star first became visible above the eastern horizon just before dawn). Solstices are another method. The year article covers this in detail. Gdr 16:08, 2004 Nov 10 (UTC)

who is st. liem de la paz?

i would like to know who is st. liem de la paz. thnx for your help.

I think this is a St Vincent (see [8] - Vietnamese Dominican martyr, 1773) but I'm not sure if he is one of the Sts Vincent mentioned on the disambiguation page. -- ALoan (Talk) 15:06, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

names of places in the cape and they origin

Perhaps you could elaborate on the cape to which you are referring? --Cvaneg 16:10, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Antivirus

Is there any open source antivirus software? Is so, do they work or are they easily defeated because they are open source? Rmhermen 15:39, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Several. ClamAV is one that's well known. I don't know how they compare to closed source AV software. Gdr 16:11, 2004 Nov 10 (UTC)

I think it is a well known secret that heuristic scanners can do a much better job of virus detection than a signature based one can, but the AV companies stake their claim on how much you need them to update the signatures and constantly remind you of all the new serious threats. It's the fox watching the henhouse to some extent. They make a lot of money and are thought of as the guys we need to have around, so this little fact is glossed over. - Taxman 17:35, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

While heuristic scanners may be the wave of the future, and better in theory, it is my understanding that they have not yet proven as capable as signature based services. Specifically, they often state you have an infected file where in fact you don't and state your files are ok when in fact theres an infection. Salasks 02:19, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

It's a bit of a fallacy to assume that open-source anti-virus software would be easily defeated; the idea behind security in open-source software, which has played out quite well in practice, is that there are far more whitehats ("good" computer users) in the world than blackhats (malicious users), and that, more often than not, the whitehats will spot a security hole or glitch in open-source software and work to fix it before blackhats will find it and work to exploit it. See full disclosure. Really, though, perhaps the best open-source anti-virus software is Linux; install it and all your worries about Windows viruses go far far away. :) Also consider switching to the Apple Macintosh if Linux is over your head — Mac OS X has yet to have a proper virus, just a couple of pathetic attempts. Garrett Albright 04:53, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yasser Arafat

What nation's citizenship does Yasser Arafat hold? PedanticallySpeaking 18:20, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Arafat presumably has some sort of diplomatic passport, though more to the point, what passport would a normal Palestinian have? Jordanian? Egyptian? or can the Palestinian Authority issue their own?

Ah, here we are: from passport "Stateless persons (those to whom no country will grant a passport or citizenship) generally travel internationally on transit documents issued by the United Nations under the terms of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. These are accepted in lieu of passports by most governments. Similarly, refugees and asylum seekers often travel under non-national interim documentation, rather than the passport of the country from which they are fleeing."

The PA issues passports, which you can apply for here. The PA consider this passport to be a right of "every Palestinian citizen"; the USA apparently recognize it as a valid travel document but do not recognize it as conferring citizenship of any country, in some bureaucratic twist. Arafat, presumably, has a PA passport.

• Not necessarily. Heads of state do not require a passport to travel, e.g. Queen Elizabeth II does not have one though British passports are issued in her name, and if the Authority can issue passports then Arafat would be in the position of a head of state. PedanticallySpeaking 15:53, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

Palestinians outside of Palestine mostly get "travel documents" such as those alluded to above. In Egypt, they get Palestinian Travel Documents; in Lebanon, they get Lebanese Travel Document for Palestinian Refugees (pdf). The exception is those living in Jordan: they get Jordanian passports, and are considered Jordanian citizens. There's an art project on it... - Mustafaa 19:15, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Very interesting - I hope someone is writing this up for passport :) -- ALoan (Talk) 19:58, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It does get quite confusing. A couple of my best friends are Palestinian. She's from Nablus. She holds a Jordanian passport, even though she's never been in Jordan (except inasmuch as Jordan still claimed the West Bank when she was born in the early '70s.) Her parents and one of her sisters hold Israeli passports. Meanwhile, her husband and his family are a mix of stateless and Israeli citizens. It's a mess. --jpgordon{gab} 20:09, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Asthma and Allergy medication

I'm heading to my relatives for thanksgiving, and they have cats. I love cats, but my Asthma goes through the roof around them, and I'm allergic to them. My question is will an over-the-counter Allergy medicine (anti-histamine) help? Or do I need something more professional? Any experience? Terrapin 20:51, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Of course, you should probably ask your doctor. If your condition is serious enough you may want preventative medication (long-acting inhaler, singulair, etc) or at least a rescue inhaler (albuterol). You do not want to have a potentially life-threatening asthma attack. As for over the counter medication, Claritin (loratadine) is now OTC in the U.S. and you can get generic stuff pretty cheap. Many people find Benadryl (also OTC) is more effective than Claritin, but it does make you drowsier. In short: An OTC antihistamine is better than nothing, but you need to see a doctor to make sure that your conditions are under control. Rhobite 22:42, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

Medication is a very personal thing. If you haven't taken much, any of the above should be fine, but be sure to read the instructions; for instance, it takes TWO DAYS of taking claritin before it reaches maximum effect. Also, be aware of side effects, and switch to another medication if they start to bother you. (Not all side effects occur with every person.) However, some people "wear out" drugs (even antihistamines), and become resistant to their effects over a long period of taking them. In summary, people can suggest what to try, but not even a doctor can say if they will work for sure without knowing your past history and you trying them. --ssd 06:30, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

There are professionals who give advice on this sort of thing. They are called doctors. Allergists especially. Antihistamines don't do much to avert asthma if you have a real-for-sure animal dander trigger, but there are some other things that might depending on how severe your asthma is and how long you intend to expose yourself. Alteripse 19:12, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

training in the US Marine Corps

Is the training course described in the article Basic School pretty much the USMC equivalent of Basic Training? ike9898 21:36, Nov 10, 2004 (UTC)

I don't know for sure, but I think not. From the description, Basic School sounds like an officer-only training course. Basic Training is for enlisted recruits, right? Key45 23:54, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Not really. TBS (this being how a Marine makes an acronym for "The Basic School") is only for Marine officers. Every Marine officer completes TBS as their first assignment after being commissioned. Many come directly from the Officer Candidate School located on the same base at Quantico, but others come from ROTC or the Naval Academy. The Marine Corps has basic training for enlisted soldiers just like the other services. Isomorphic 16:02, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Electric blanket tests

I am a chartered engineer and feel competent to check my blanket myself. Just what checks are undertaken by "competent authorities"?

David Turner, Derby,UK. -- (unsigned by) 62.254.0.12

I suggest you contact the blanket manufacturer or your local electricity authority. They will probably give you detailed maintainence intructions for next to nothing. -- FirstPrinciples 05:56, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Shoe store in the Ala Moana shopping center

How can I get a list of stores in the Ala Moana Shopping center, shoe stores that is. Is that possible thru you???

This is most definitely not something that Wikipeida in general, or the reference desk in particular covers. I'd recommend something along the lines of Google or some other search engine/directory when you are looking for information on local businesses. This one time, though, you can get it here. --Cvaneg 19:16, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Tweaking Windows from outside to get it working again

I've just rebooted my computer and, to my horror, Windows (Xp Pro, SP1, English) hangs on the blue screen with the Windows logo just before you get to the GUI. The cause was a manual drive-letter change carried out in PartitionMagic 8.0. PM caused the computer to restart and run a batchfile to make the required change, but this file appeared to be corrupt and the letter-change failed. I would guess that the change was half-completed however, because that partition (containing the operating system) no longer boots correctly.

My data doesn't seem to be corrupted: there must just be some little boot file somewhere with the wrong information. I luckily have ways to access the relevant files, if someone can tell me which to edit (or point me towards a site with the info). I want to avoid reinstalling Windows because I spent a long time refining settings, installing programs and visiting Windows Update.

• I have a bare-bones installation of Windows on another hard disk, which I can boot into, but I want to avoid that because it seems to be infected with a trojan.
• I have a live CD with Knoppix that allows me to access all my files securely.

Thanks. Chameleon 20:27, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Last time I checked, it's hard to access NTFS file systems from Linux, though this may have changed. I'm assuming you've tried rebooting in safe-mode? (Hold down F8 on boot). You could also try booting off the Windows CD and invoke the recovery console. -- DrBob 23:49, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Oops, yes. It looked like I had full access, but it's actually read only. I'd have to change to FAT32 first if I wanted to use Knoppix. The safe mode and the Windows CD are no use. Chameleon 01:27, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Can you unplug your smegged-up HD, plug in your other infected drive, wipe it free of viruses and then use it as a boot drive while you access the other drive? Garrett Albright 02:00, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I've got a dual-boot set up, so I can boot from either drive at any time. I've tried to clear the secondary one of viruses and spyware, but there still seem to be traces of something called "Cabrotor". Anyway, it is useable. If anyone can tell me which files to change on the drive that hangs on booting, I can change them from the other drive. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If you're near a bookstore with a good selection of computer books, you might check out Hack #73 in O'Reilly's new book "Knoppix Hacks", titled "Write to NTFS." You can do it with Knoppix 3.4 - the book also includes a CD with version 3.4 if your version is older. Catbar (Brian Rock) 02:06, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I might look into that, but I think it's probably easier to boot from the other drive now. I don't have access to a good selection of computer books here because I live in Spain, so I would be relying on a translation existing. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you have a bootable floppy drive and the Partitionmagic 8 rescue disks? If so, it may be a relatively trivial problem to fix. (I may be able to send you the disk images if you are really desperate). -- FirstPrinciples 05:49, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Another possibility to try is booting from your original XP CD and attempting an automatic recovery. -- FirstPrinciples 05:53, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

My floppies are a bit screwed. I could go out and buy a couple now. Chameleon 09:09, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, leave a message on my talk page if you want the rescue disk images. I can't guarantee they'll help, but they are the first port of call if PartitionMagic has an error. (A simpler way to make the disks would be to install PartitionMagic on another machine and make the disks yourself -- make sure you get the latest PM8 patch here) -- FirstPrinciples 09:38, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

The comments above are predicated upon a (very) false assumption. You assume Partition Magic is a product of PowerQuest, a division of Symantec Inc., of Cupertino CA. You have, all of you, been deceived. Partition Magic was made by the dark lord Sauron himself, in the fires of Mount Doom, in the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie. Your partition table is corrupt, and no amount of linux wiz-bangery will fix this. You must take your Partition Magic CD, and any associated floppies, back to the firey furnace in which they were made. There you must cast them into the fire. Only then will your PC boot (and still you should re-install from original boot media, format your fixed disk, and beg Illuvatar and Gilbereth to restore your machine to proper working order). The true path lies not in fixing your machine, but in accepting that it's buggered. - Dave.

Potato clocks

I had an idea out of left field today: I was thinking about solar cells, and the thought struck me that plants (grass, weeds, flowers, etc.) receive a lot of solar energy, and make very efficient use of it. I thought about a digital clock I had as a kid that ran on two potatoes with zinc and copper electrodes (and of course it would also run on salt water and other things, since the potatoes were just an electrolyte). How much power could feasibly be generated in this way? Say, if I found a way to wire up electrodes to the grass in my front yard (possibly at the root level, so they're out of sight), would I be able to get enough useful energy to make the effort worthwhile? Would the gradual corrosion of the electrodes make it infeasible? I did some searching without much success; found this little experiment, and a claim that plants contain high electrical potential. I figure there's got to be a good reason we aren't using our gardens to power our homes by now. Anyone know why? Commence "flower power" and "power plant" puns now :-) -- Wapcaplet 22:10, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Just a wild guess, but it's probably far more efficient to ferment and distill the potatoes into ethanol. People do this now with corn and cane sugar, no reason it couldn't be done with potatoes. Rhobite 23:58, Nov 11, 2004 (UTC)

Actually, this childhood battery that you made with potatoes does not produce energy out of the potato. It does so by reduction-oxidation of the electrodes. The potato just plays the role of support, and supplies moisture and electrolytes; you'd get the same result with a salty solution instead of the potatoe.

The article that you are linking to actually says exactly the same. Rest assured that if there was an easy way to get electricity out of plants, people would already have done so.

(Note that you could, for instance, produce ethanol (alcohol) with the plants, through fermentation, and then power a fuel cell.) David.Monniaux 20:48, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Well, I wasn't think of potatoes in particular, but plants in general. -- Wapcaplet 00:54, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

An interesting concept. Too bad I can't answer your question, but I can wish you well in your search for knowlege, as well as link you to a potato radio. Hmm, I wonder if I got a plant large enough (a giant sequoia perhaps?), if I could power my car with it... Not only could I drive around town, but I'd have a cool sound system as well. Garrett Albright 08:22, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I also don't know, but I have the feeling that the chemical energy the plans produce would be much greater than the electrical. Then take into account that your could extract only a tiny portion of the electrical enegery and it would require a vast network of electrodes, I think it would not be feasible. - Taxman 13:26, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

This may not be the same idea, but it is drawn from the same general principles: somebody told me recently about some experimental robots which have been successfully designed to catch flies, and digest them to produce (presumably) electrical energy - a kind of artificial Venus fly trap, I guess, only mobile... So, I think the general concept is feasible, but just sticking electrodes in the ground probably wouldn't do enough; and remember, herbivorous animals tend to need extremely complex gigestive systems to break down the plant matter into a usable form, so artificial carnivores may well be perfected first. - IMSoP 13:49, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fly eating robot here and here. -- FirstPrinciples 14:14, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

See also: biofuel. --Heron 14:21, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm not sure that photosynthesis is that efficient at capturing solar energy. Estimates appear to vary, but This article suggests a light -> chemical energy conversion efficiency of 1.6%, compared to silicon photovoltaic cells which have typicall light -> electric energy conversion efficiencies of around 15% (and can approach 25%) [9]. Using plants for biofuel does have the advantage of lower production costs. However, you might like this story about making photovoltaic cells from spinach.

If you regularly find yourself considering unconventional applications of science like this, you might enjoy finding a copy of The Inventions of Daedalus. One of David Jones' ideas was to scale up the energy potential from squeezing piezoelectric crystals, such as quartz, by strapping electrodes to either side of a continent and using the moon's tidal effect to squeeze the quartz in the Earth's crust. He calculated you should be able to get a 20MV potential across a distance of 1000km (unfortunately its not likely to work in practice). -- Solipsist 15:03, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Hmm, well, on a slight tangent, plants actually produce electricity directly, in a chloroplast inner membrane using chlorophyll, the electricity is used to pump Hydrogen ions (a.k.a. protons) into the space enclosed by the membrane. This produces a very large hydrogen gradient across the membrane, which drives an ATPase (== an Enzyme that deals with ATP) to produce ATP from ADP (to imagine why this works, think of an ATP powered proton-pump running in reverse due to the stiff gradient) . ATP is the internal power distribution medium inside cells. This ATP drives the plant cell's processes. Famously: The enzyme Rubisco is powered by ATP generated in the chloroplasts, and links carbon dioxide and water to produce pyruvate which then gets linked into stuff like glucose (with oxygen as a waste product). The best methods we currently have for recovering electricity from a plant are akin to blowing up a power plant and then burning the furniture to get some warmth. It's massively inefficient. Internally plants can get quite good mileage out of their chlorophyl, methinks. ;-) See Photosynthesis for details. Improvements in solar power generation could be based on further investigation of the internal processes in plants. Kim Bruning 01:37, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Study of ancient manuscripts

What is the name of the study and cataloging of ancient manuscripts, i.e. those from the invention of writing up to classical times? And do we have an article on it? I'm interested especially in how one identifies which ancient documents still survive and which have been lost, and how we know. Mjklin 16:44, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Palaeography and Diplomatics. adamsan 16:46, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And epitome gives some indication about lost works. adamsan 23:52, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You may also be interested in papyrology. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:54, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Junket

you have described Junket as a name brand of dessert under "Junket" Where would I find out how to contact the manufacturer so I could find out where to but yhe product?

thank you Bob Eakin beakin@telus.net

please advise how to contact the maker of the Junket you describe under Junket so I could find out where to buy it. thankjs Bob Eakin beakin@telus.net

Here's a good place to start: http://www.junketdesserts.com/ It looks like you can order it online.Mjklin 20:10, 2004 Nov 12 (UTC)

Any reason we don't link that in the article? I believe that usually when we write about a product we do list the official site. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:14, Nov 12, 2004 (UTC)

Braille equivalents

I was reading the Braille article, and I had a couple of questions. First off, the article says that Braille has been extended to 8 bits in order to support unicode. Is this what is being taught in schools now, or is it merely something that programmers came up with? Also, what are the braille equivalents in other languages. Presumably languages with roman alphabets can use braille, but what about pictographic languages? --Cvaneg 23:36, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Chinese Names

The Chinese characters are missing from Table 1 (Char./T. & S.) at the bottom of the following web page:

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Chinese%20family%20name

Please provide same.

/Chuck Arnold/

Even though the content is excerpted from Wikipedia, since it is an external site, we have no control over it. However, you can go to the article that the content was taken from (List of common Chinese surnames) for the traditional and simplified characters. --Cvaneg 01:31, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Family Military History

My name is Chebahtah. It is a family of Native American Indian origin from Oklahoma. I am trying to find out how many members of my family have served in the United States military. What is the best way to find this information. I do not want any info except names and dates of service. This woujld include all branches of service. I have tried google and seeveral other engines.

That's not the kind of data you are likely to find online. The center for military history might be more helpful place to ask your question- http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/ . →Raul654 04:31, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Camille Pissarro's death

A newcomer to Wikipedia asked on Wikipedia:Help desk about how to get Wikipedians to check out contradictions in articles and I'm putting the queries here: When did artist Camille Pissarro die? The article gives two different dates. PedanticallySpeaking 15:14, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Funny, the death date seems indeed to be controversial...I'm not able to do any serious library research right now, but I noticed that Encyclopedia Britannica says he died November 13, 1903, while the German Brockhaus encyclopedia has him listed as having died on November 12. If two such renowned encyclopedias differ, there's probably some real difficulty in pinpointing the date. I'm intrigued to dig up some biographies and have a look, but that will take some time... -- Ferkelparade π 23:01, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Ellis Island

A newcomer to Wikipedia asked on Wikipedia:Help desk about how to get Wikipedians to check out contradictions in articles and I'm putting the queries here: When did Ellis Island close? The article used to say that it closed on 12th November but now says that it closed on 29th November. Stephen Turner, who posted this on the Help Desk, says he checked the web and found both dates were equally common. PedanticallySpeaking 15:16, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Both the NPS and Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island Foundation use the vague "November, 1954". Rmhermen 23:25, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

I am extremely confused. I've found the 12th, the 19th, and the 29th all listed in about equal occurances. If I were to make a stab in the dark guess, one might speculate that the last detainee may have finished processing on the early date, but with the employees of the emigration service not offically moving off the island until the later date, or something like that. Just thinking out loud. func(talk) 06:55, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

World Series Trophy

Is a new trophy created for each year's winning team or is it like the Stanley Cup and passed forward to each new winner? PedanticallySpeaking 15:38, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

After reading the article, I'd be inclined to say that a new trophy is created each year. It talks about recent designs, which implies more than one or two versions. Also, considering that the current design has 30 flags each representing a team in the MLB, that would mean the trophy could at most be 6 years old since the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were added in 1998. Finally, it references the 2003 and 2004 trophy as separate entities. --Cvaneg 16:38, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I had this question a few days ago before I read the article, which also gave me the impression of a series of trophies, I just was hoping someone could confirm that. PedanticallySpeaking 16:45, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

Who lied to his diary?

Who was the Clinton administration official who testified to Congress, when hearings were held on how bank regulators treated the failure of the savings and loan owned by the Clintons' friend Jim McDougal, that he had lied to his own diary? PedanticallySpeaking 15:40, Nov 13, 2004 (UTC)

According to CNN Josh Steiner (towards the bottom of the page) --Cvaneg 16:08, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Mental age

What help is available for individuals who have a high IQ but low mental age, distinct from autism; for example, a person who considers themselves to be mentally a teenager, but possessing a body ten years older and believed by society to be adult?

You may be interested in emotional intelligence, though that doesn't seem to have any practical suggestions. --[[User:Eequor|ηυωρ]] 22:04, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You mention autism for some reason. Hmm in that case, might be a long shot, but are you looking for Asperger syndrome? Kim Bruning 22:10, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If this person actually has some sort of mental disorder, then I would recommend seeing a specialist (i.e. a psychiatrist), as Wikipedia is not the best place to look for medical advice. Otherwise, I think you'll need to expand on what you mean when you say this person considers themself to be a teenager. After all, there are plenty of teenagers who are forced into the adult world due to circumstances. What specifically, is this person having a problem with? --Cvaneg 22:46, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It is difficult to answer this question, perhaps owning to the uncertainty of what you mean by considering "themselves to be mentally a teenager". Since you mention a high IQ, then it can be assumed we are talking about social or emotional skills, and since the presumed "age" of equivalence is the teenage years, then we can rule out mental handicap. Here's the thing: I am 32 years of age, but I don't "feel" like an adult. I "feel" very much like I did when I was a teenager. Now, this is all very subjective: in truth, I know that I am more mature, better read, and far more responsible than I was at that age... but it doesn't change that underlying feeling I have that I am still pretty much the same dude I was in highschool. In some people, a certain sense that they are not yet ready for the "adult world" is probably more acute than in others, but everyone has this feeling to some degree. If this person has some access to a professional guidance counselor of some kind, perhaps via a community center or even a church, they should avail themselves of it. func(talk) 02:40, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

SPACE STATION - APPENDECTOMY?

What happens if someone on the space station requires an emergency appendetomy or other life-saving operation?

I imagine it's very much the same as people stationed in Antarctica. Which is to say that they try and get them out as soon as possible, and in the intervening time they will have to figure out a way to make do. Jerri Nielsen, for example, contracted breast cancer while at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and had to self-administer chemotherapy until she could be airlifted out. --Cvaneg 21:14, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Immediate transport to earth, unless an experienced surgeon is member of the team and he/she has the right (sterile) material. Until then normal non-surgical management applies (fluids through drip, no oral intake, broad-spectrum antibiotics, medication to maintain blood pressure eg adrenalin). In theory, appendicitis could be lethal in space. JFW | T@lk 22:14, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The ISS has a Soyuz escape module which can return the station occupants to Earth at any time, in a matter of hours. NASA are also developing a new escape capsule to be available by 2006. (As a side note, "fluids through drip" could be difficult, given that most drips rely at least partially on gravity feed. I'm sure someone at NASA has considered this, perhaps they have some sort of pressure-driven system.) -- FirstPrinciples 00:41, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

IVs run on pumps eveb in hospitals on earth, and antibiotics could be given to buy time. Alteripse 01:06, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I believe that all astronauts have one before they go, just in case. I'm not sure about this though. Alphax (talk) 08:51, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

New York tax code change

What changes in the tax code spurred a speculative building boom in New York, which led to a great supply of apartments on the market prior to 1987? --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 02:33, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

Douglas MacArthur's middle name

The Douglas MacArthur gives his middle inital as "B." What did that stand for? [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 04:44, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)

Ugh. I thought this was going to be a quick answer, but it isn't.

After a little digging, I've turned up sources that variously give his middle initial as A, B, C, D, M, and S! -- Cyrius|✎ 05:30, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

The only quasi-authoritative source I can find for a middle name is his IMDb entry, which gives it as "Arthur", his father's name. I'm not trusting them on this one because it doesn't show up anywhere else online. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:38, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

So his dad was called "Arthur MacArthur"? Is that possible?.... --Menchi 05:50, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Not only was his father Arthur MacArthur, he was Arthur MacArthur, Jr.! -- Cyrius|✎ 05:59, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Reminds me of this Homer quote: "Uh...I'm the piano genius.." --Menchi 06:20, 14 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Music markup language

Is there such a thing as a unified markup language for music? Or is this covered by LaTeX? -- Alphax (talk) 09:12, Nov 14, 2004 (UTC)