Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/August 2004

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[edit] Jack Dempsey

Hi, I recently came across an authentic Jack Dempsey autograph found in an old album of my fathers. My father has the date as January 1, 1933, but the Dempsey autograph was dated January 18, 1933. It was given to my father at the Colonial Theater in Allentown, Penna. My question is: What was Dempsey doing there on that date? I have tried to research on my own, but I can't find anything. I would like to have a little history on why Dempsey was there. Thank you for any help you may have Patrick B

Dear Pat: Hi! Im a boxing expert as well as wikipedia contributor in a well developed group of areas unrelated to boxing. Im a staunch boxing and aviation fan.

As far as your question, I can't answer what was Dempsey doing there (watching a movie, perhaps?) but I can tell you that the Dempsey autograph sells in the thousands,. I wish I had that autograph! You might not be able to buy a house or pay your kid's college tuition with its money's worth, but 1,500 to 2,000 dollars always makes up for a nice pay-off to go on a shopping spree or who knows maybe even a small vacation!

"Antonio Dempsey fan Martin"

[edit] citing Wikipedia

Where is the information (for Wikipedia articles) for a research papaer?

Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. -- Itai 16:22, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Best US University for Physics

There is no correct answer, but: in your opinion, which is the best university in the United States (or any other English-speaking country, if you're so inclined) for those wishing to study physics? -- Itai 16:35, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm not going to call it the best because that would be very chauvinistic of me, and I haven't done comparisons (nor do I study physics) but I'd say the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is probably pretty good. I've heard the University of Chicago has a very good astrophysics department. Others to look at in the U.S. might be Caltech and Georgia Tech. moink 23:19, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Also UCLA , Stanford , Berkeley (I've never heard of Georgia tech) theresa knott 23:40, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

All the Ramblin' Wrecks will be desolated to learn this. Very good engineering school though. I would add RPI in in Troy NY as well. User:ww 15:40, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The US News Graduate rankings (2002) give:

  1. California Institute of Technology 5.0/Massachusetts Institute of Technology 5.0
  2. Harvard University (MA) 4.9

The National Research Council Report in Quality of PhD education (1995) gives:

  1. Harvard
  2. Princeton
  3. Berkeley
  4. MIT
  5. Caltech
  6. Cornell
  7. Chicago
  8. Illinois
  9. Stanford

--Jiang 23:54, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Evaporation

When water evaporates, why is it considered to be in the gaseous state? Isn't the gaseous state supposed to be over 100°C at 1A? -- [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:16, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)

As I understand it as a layman, molecules detach themselves from the rest of the water and float away when they have enough energy to do so. At temperatures over 100°, all the molecules have that level of energy and will float away. As a body of water approaches this temperature, more and more molecules attain the required level.

Energy (heat) levels through the water are very uneven. If they weren't, then putting water in a saucepan on the stove would result in nothing at all until it reached 100° and then it would all instantly and uniformly vaporise. Of course, what happens is that more and more molecules evaporate off until so many are coming up from the bottom that you can see bubbles of them, then the bubbling gets more and more powerful until all the water is gone. — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 20:25, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I think a better answer for the water would include a Phase diagram. At standard atmospheric pressure, 0 degrees C is the tripple point for water, where it can exist as solid, liquid, and gas all at the same time. Above 0, it is either liquid or gas. Above 100C, it no longer can be liquid at standard pressure. If you want more details, I'll dig out my thermodynamics textbook, which takes this further and gives the relationship between partial pressures for water and pressure/temperature. --ssd 20:47, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Hmm, but the question wasn't about pressure, so the phase diagram isn't so useful. It's more about how partial evaporation can occur when overall temperature is below 100° (taking from granted that pressure is at one atmosphere). — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 21:14, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The question did not mention pressure -- which is why I only talked about temperature numbers. However, the phase diagram shows where partial pressures can exist. Thus, between 0 and 100, although below the boiling point, some vapor may exist, and below zero, vapor may also exist. To answer the question exactly, 100°C is the boiling point at which all the water must be vapor; below 100, some of it can still be vapor. --ssd 22:09, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Given the probably context of the question, phase diagrams might be a bit much of an answer. We could also discuss hydrogen bonding and electronegativity of oxygen, as it bears on the question, but it is also a bit much. I think Chameleon hit it just about right. Does Nichalp regard his/her question as answered? --Ardonik 20:53, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)
Very well put Chameleon, I got the funda. I guess that this is also applicable to all other elements. Thanks (PS. Ardonik: I'm a guy) [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:12, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Open source - HRIS software?

Is anyone aware of any free/open source HR software?

  • What kind of HR software? --Ardonik 20:53, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)

HRIS software for managing benefits, tracking employee information, tracking resumes, etc...

  • Here is a partial solution: ePayroll, which automates a company's payroll system. Open-source projects like these seem to be difficult to find, at least on SourceForge. Maybe I don't know where to look? --Ardonik 23:35, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] rcavictorhifiradioscematics

  • I presume you wish to obtain schematic diagrams for historic RCA-Victor radios. Doing a Google search on "rca victor radio schematics" turns up a number of businesses selling these; nobody seems to have free ones. --Robert Merkel 23:13, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] World War 1 Veterans

About how many World War1 Veterans are still alive?
Thanks!

The BBC mentioned 23 in today's news. Out of which only 4 could make it to the anniversary held today. One of them was 103 yrs old. I don't know if they were only British citizens or the total number of survivors. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:30, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)
I believe that BBC report I read noted that they were referring to British citizens. Jwrosenzweig 21:00, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Part of the World War 1 Question

Let me be more specific, about how many World War1 Veterans are still alive in United States, Canada and the world?
Thanks!

Well, in Australia, this story from just over a month ago lists five still alive here. Not exactly what you were asking, I know. This BBC article says there are three in Wales; a reader's comment in this BBC article gives a number 23, but it's not clear whether this is the entire UK or just England. It'll be difficult to track down numbers for, say, Turkey, though.--Robert Merkel 13:22, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
As of November 2003 there were 27 British veterans still alive. Presumably 4 have died since then. The list was published in the Sunday Mirror on Sunday November 9 2003. And a copy is here [1] However, can only see 26 names!?! Mintguy (T) 19:29, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] L2 cache

I have learnt that the external L2 cache of the Pentium processor was created to address the heat problems created by the L1 on the processor - (The size of L1 is limited). Now in the recent tech magazine I read, it says that the L1 and L2 are both embedded in the pentium 4 chip. So why have an L2 in the first place? -- [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:16, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)

As you probably already know, accessing memory is slow. A processor can execute instructions much faster than it can pull them from your RAM, so instead of hanging and waiting for the RAM to return a value it can use, a subsystem of the processor pulls chunks of memory that it thinks will be accessed in the near future into its L1 cache. L1 cache is made of SRAM cells, each of which is essentially just a flip-flop, so data on the L1 cache can be accessed at the same clock rate as the processor. But L1 cache is expensive to fabricate and gets brutally hot (which is why you don't see entire RAMs made up of it), so it's generally limited in size, usually to tens or hundreds of kilobytes. By now, you can probably see the problem: the L1 cache is so small that a processor would spend a lot of resources simply pushing and pulling data from the L1 cache to main memory! Thus the need for an intermediary, larger, less expensive cache that acts as a middle man between the L1 cache (which is the processor's idea of what your memory looks like) and your main memory (which is your idea of what your memory looks like.)
During the course of normal operation, a subsystem of the processor pulls recently accessed memory blocks into the L2 cache. When the processor determines that it no longer needs a memory block in the L1 cache, the block is committed back to main memory. But when the processor tries to access an address that is not in the L1 cache, it'll try to pull it from the L2 cache first. This, of course, stalls the current instruction, but not nearly as much as it would if the processor had to wait for the glacially slow main memory. We see heirarchical compromises like this all the time in computing.
Corrections to my understanding will be welcomed; I probably left something out. --Ardonik 20:53, Aug 1, 2004 (UTC)
That answer is good, here's a few more points. Placing the cache inside the chip reduces the length of the wires going to it, which increases speed both due to the speed of electrons signal propagation in wire and due to reduced chance of getting noise on the lines. (Longer lines must run slower to prevent noise emission and reception.) Also, external cache is also more expensive because it might require extra pins on the outside of the cpu, or slower because it might have to deal with bus contention with other devices accessing the memory bus or cache. --ssd 22:16, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I like both answers, but note that process realities are also an issue. The best circumstance would be that all RAM (all zillion MB you can afford) be present on the CPU chip. That's too many devices to be put on an economically manufacturable chip at present, so RAM is on those little sticks and mounted on the motherboard instead. The cache scheme really works (due to locality of reference in essentially all software), and all the cache memory ought to be put on the CPU chip and for the same reasons (closer, faster). But again, it's not economically reasonable to do so. Chip yields would go down, power draw would go up, and the result would be a large, very expensive, puddle of melted silicon with a few impurities. If we could figure out how to make smaller devices (ie, traces a few nanometers narrower), and how to make devices which take less power, we might be able to put more cache on the CPU chipat an affordable price. And that's what's happened over the last 30 years since the first CPUs on a chip were designed. So it's a power / nr of devices / cost of manufacturing as modified by changes in one or more as research continues on how to make stuff smaller and less power hungry. That's why the first Pentium 4 (or PowerPC 4) CPUs are expensive and run hot. The next few versions of <whatever> are almost always less expensive, include more stuff (ie, more cache on board), and run cooler. They're figuring out how to make smaller and less power hungry versions of <whatever>. ww 19:02, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Thanks, but I know how the two caches work. What I am interested in knowing is why have the L2 cache embedded on the processor? Ww, you mentioned the heat problems; well if your going to have L1 & L2 on board, why not merge it as a single entity? Surely, won't this speed up the processes and partially reduce the heat produced? [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:39, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)
The closer the cache is to the processor, the faster it can run. Thus, they put as much as possible in the processor. The L1 cache is faster than the L2 not just because it is closer to the processor, but also because it uses a faster (and hotter) type of ram. The L2 is slower, cheaper, and cooler -- but it still helps to put it in the processor. How much L1 and L2 cache is put in the processor is a compromise between heat dissapation, cost, speed, and size. --ssd 03:09, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Thanks Ssd for clearing my doubt. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:47, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)
N, The processes I meant were chip production processes. If the combination of your photographic / chemical / etc techniques can only produce a trace (from which transistors are made) so wide then you can only have (roughly) (so wide)^2 devices in any given area. Each device (very roughly) produces the same amount of waste heat, then there is an upper limit to the number of devices possible on any particular size die. Make the devices smaller (next generation of production techniques), find a way to run them producing less heat (lower the voltage is popular), etc and you can get more devices on a single economically reasonable die. At some point as these various factors develop, there is enough room (and heat dissipation capacity) left on the CPU chip to Do The Right Thing, and put some cache RAM on the chip where it's close (and quickly) to hand. Eventually, there's even enough room (after the CPU and a good dollop of Level 1 cache) to add some (or all) the Level 2 cache to the same chip. That's were we are for some CPU implementations today. But it's a lot of devices and those chips run darned hot. Goof up the thermal management and things begin to misbehave. Don't let your fans get clogged with dust bunny stuff. ww 17:14, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Fayetteville 2 or 3 Syllables

Is Fayetteville an two or three syllabel word?

Thank you!

I pronounce it as Fa-yet-vil, three syllables. Anárion 08:38, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Fayetteville, NC is pronounced Fay-et-ville. I have heard other pronunciations for other Fayetvilles, such as the one in AK. Reid 00:50, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] United

Was United States the first country or place to use the word "United" and "States" ? Thanks!

Hmmm. That's a little bit difficult to answer, because you have to remember that countries name themselves in their native language first and foremost, and translations are matters of opinion. Heck, in the thousands of years of Chinese history it wouldn't surprise me if one of the many kingdoms was known as something approximating "the united kingdom" or some such.
As far as the English language goes, the obvious other contender for "united" might be the United Kingdom, which was first known by that name in 1800 after the passing of the Act of Union 1800 (though exactly what was united got amended a couple of times since then). So the United States has that one covered.--Robert Merkel 04:08, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
There is also the United Provinces early in the history of the Netherlands...it's not "States," but it's close! Adam Bishop 06:22, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
But it's not clear from the article when the name "United Provinces" came into use, except for a mention that it was used in an Anglo-Dutch treaty in 1814. Maybe one of the Dutch Wikipedians might like to comment... --Robert Merkel 08:09, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
"De Unie der Vereenigde Nederlanden of Zeven Vrye Provinciën Gesloten in den Jaare 1579 te Utrecht" -- The union of the United Netherlands of Seven Free Provinces, signed in 1579 in Utrecht. United Netherlands, United Provinces, United Provinces of the Netherlands and other variant forms were interchangably used. Anárion 08:29, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Mexico is the Estados Unidos Mexicanos, but I think that's only about a century old. — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 20:11, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Slightly off topic, but related, and thought it good to add here. "America" originally referred to the Southern Hemispheric continent now generally known as South America. At one point, there was an "America" and a "North America", "South America" was a term that came later. Now of course, most of the world calls the United States, "America".Pedant 16:59, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] The Left and September 11

As part of what looks like it will be a long and arduous effort to NPOV Left-wing_politics#Leftism.2C_Pacifism_and_.22War_on_Terror.22, I am trying to document the statements of some of the more left-leaning U.S. elected officials in the immediate wake of the September 11 attacks. I suspect I'm going to have to do a bunch of library research in newspapers from the few days after the attacks, because I can't think of a good Internet search strategy for this. If anyone has a good Internet search strategy, I'd love to hear it. I'd also be interested in suggestions for who most likely would have said something quotable. Offhand, I'm thinking Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin, Jim McDermott, Bernie Sanders, Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Peter DeFazio, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Mel Watt, Henry Waxman. My conjecture is that their condemnations of the attacks were more forthright and les contextualized than, say, that of Noam Chomsky, but I lack documentation for this. -- Jmabel 06:51, Aug 2, 2004 (UTC)

As far as the Senators and Congressmen go, that's easy: http://thomas.loc.gov, which has the congressional record. Some of the Senators link it from their homepage, which are located at http://senatorsname.senate.gov (for instance, Ted Kennedy's is http://kennedy.senate.gov). September 12 had an extensive debate on the issue.
If you'll excuse me editorializing for just a moment, may I quote Ted Kennedy, from that debate:
Mr. President (ed's note: this refers to the presiding officer of the Senate, not President Bush) yesterday's terrorist atrocities against innocent Americans were vicious and horrifying. They were acts of unspeakable cruelty unleashed against the American people in a shameful attempt to spread chaos throughout our nation and instill fear in the hearts of our citizens. But such acts will not succeed, and they never will succeed... I commend President Bush for his strong statement last evening about finding and punishing the perpetrators of this atrocity. Those who murder American citizens must have no safe hiding place, and those who shelter terrorists must be punished as well. America will do everything possible to apprehend the perpetrators and to identify and punish those who give them aid and comfort.
--Robert Merkel 08:30, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I fail to see how that's editorializing (it's entirely possible to commend someone for their strong statement while not thinking they're the best man for the job), but Wikipedia is not a debate forum, so I'll refrain. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 14:22, 2004 Aug 2 (UTC)

Maybe I'm blind, but at http://thomas.loc.gov I see how to get the text of bills, but not the text of debates. What's the trick? -- Jmabel 06:21, Aug 7, 2004 (UTC)

The bit that says "Congressional record". There's an index and a text search as well. --Robert Merkel 12:33, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
try the Democracy Now! website archives. Also Archive.org --Pedant 17:06, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Agastya

How does Agastya relate to Babaji, who brought Kriya Yoga teachings back into modern day knowledge via the lineage of Lahiri Mahashai, Sri Yukteswar and Paramahansa Yogananda?

See Mahavatar Babaji -- Chris 73 | Talk 10:04, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
How can a subject line, which branches off into a long elaboration while simultaniously failing to provide basic information about the actual question, and still branch two lines of text, be a good one? ;-) Anárion 14:10, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I formatted the question, so now everyone will wonder why you wrote that :-) DJ Clayworth 19:59, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Does anyone know a company called Cargo Bureau LLC.

Contact Name: V.Neborskiy

Address1:       37,Lenina str.
Address2:       Cargo Terminal Mobi Dick of.11
City:           Kronstadt
State:          Leningradskaya oblast
PostalCode/Zip: 197760
Country:        Russia

Please E-=mail me their contact number to khalida_chowdhury@hotmail.com

thanks in advance

  • (I formatted your entry a bit.) There are a number of companies with that name in the United States, but I can't find any information on a Russian one. If I were in your shoes, having their address I would simply write a letter to them. --Ardonik 19:57, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)
Or try international directory enquiries. DJ Clayworth 19:58, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] a good PD image of a crop circle?

Does anyone have a good, public domain image of a crop circle? - Bevo 14:14, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

If you are looking for an image to add to the article, you might have better luck putting the request on Wikipedia:Requested pictures. I've had some surprising quick responses there. -- Solipsist 09:30, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Thanks! I had not noticed that page before now. - Bevo 14:31, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I was looking around for the image after being listed on Wikipedia:Requested pictures, but could not find any yet. I'll keep on looking. Solipsist: Thanks for the compliments on the quick response :) Chris 73 | Talk 03:40, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Found one (Image:CropCircleSwirl.jpeg). The source says all content on its page is in the public domain, but has a copyright logo at the bottom. Chris 73 | Talk 04:42, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Well done Chris. There's no shortage of crop cicle photos on the web, but it is hard to find one which doesn't claim copyright. Looking at the source for this one though, I wonder whether it is a completely genuine photo - some of the other examples look too complex and the link to 'Bryce 5' at the top of the page could be a give-away. On the other hand I should think it is good enough to illustrate the article. -- Solipsist 07:13, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
This is certainly a genuine pic of a crop circle (many are far more complex) but almost certainly copyright! The site had no right to claim the photos are PD. In a few hours I'll try to trace the origin of that pic and come back to you (I'm going to work now) - Adrian Pingstone 08:07, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've searched for that pic on dozens of crop circle sites but can't find it. Nevertheless I remain confident it is someones copyright. The reason I say that is because the pic can be used in books and publications by the photographer to earn money so releasing it to the public domain is highly unlikely. I also think that the "free to use as you like" notice on the site is referring only to the authors own material, not to the pics he's pulled from the net. So I'm afraid the pic should be deleted off the article (or leave it and hope for the best!). I've looked everywhere for PD circles but can't find any - Adrian Pingstone 15:52, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Some images on Wikipedia are used under "fair use" terms; maybe the present image can persist there under that provision until an image with a clearcut GFDL or PD status is found. - Bevo 20:41, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

("Outdented" for readability) It would be fairly easy to make (in Bryce, etc.) an 'artist rendition' of a crop circle that looks real. Also GPS-controlled tractors/mowers etc. can be modified to do this, as in the corn mazes that have shown up recently, and the Earth Art done in similar ways. Not that there aren't aliens beaming these things into existence, that's also possible. I don't think most alien cultures would be leaving tire tracks in the field though. I'll see what I can do about finding one that looks real and is Public Domain, though.Pedant 17:36, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Citizenship

My dad, John Slavish was born in Yugoslavia in 12/19/19. He came to the United States when he was a small child. He served in WWll in the Army and at Normandy. He now has moved to live with his daughter because he has alzheimer's disease. He has lost all his papers, such as birth certificate, baptismal certificate, marriage license and so on because he doesn't remember what he did with them when he took them out of a safety deposit box 3 years ago. I am a square one. I have had to put John in the Madison Valley Manor because of his disease and would like to put him on medicaid but I can not do that without his citizenship papers. Where would I look to find these? I have his social security number, date of birth, and also his power of attorney. Please help as I cannot leave John in the Manor and pay for his care myself and Medicaid will not help me without his paperwork. Thanks Shirley Badura

Hmm... When you say his citizenship papers, you mean his US citizenship papers right, not his Yugoslav or whatever successor state he may be a citizen of? I suppose you are looking for where any records of his naturalization would be so you could get duplicates? Have you tried the INS or whatever they are called now? Mark Richards 16:41, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
If you can't find his naturalization papers, you will have to find them in the records of the court where his naturalization papers were filed. To do this you need to know the place he was living when naturalized, and an approximate time. It may be possible to find the timeframe by looking at census records. Or, if you are lucky, he married a U.S. citizen and thereby became a citizen of the U.S. These are the sort of things that a social worker (including one at the nursing home where he is) should be able to help you with. - Nunh-huh 18:57, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
try the Social Security Administration any local office in the U.S. should be able to get all of his information from the point at which he was naturalised a U.S. Citizen.Pedant 06:19, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Hail Mary in Sanskrit

Can someone link me or otherwise provide a transliteration of the Hail Mary in Sanskrit [2]? Any sort of lossless transliteration is fine. -- Xiaopo ℑ 20:21, Aug 2, 2004 (UTC)

Not a translation? You want a transliteration of the prayer in a certain language then (presumably English) from the Latin to the Sanskrit alphabet. Why? We use the Latin alphabet in English. — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 07:42, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The link I provided shows the Hail Mary in Devanagari, but because the handwriting's a little messy, I can't read it. I was hoping for a transliteration of that into the Roman alphabet. --Xiaopo ℑ 00:26, Aug 4, 2004 (UTC)

I had my mom help me.. she took Sanskrit when she was in high school. Here's what we came up with:

Namastubhyam hai marve krupapurne. Prabhustvdha sakam. Dhamyat(h)ama twam shishu dhanyashwatavoder falamoshu. Hai parashudhamarye janani surveshwuradhya paryavarsmankrute * ghunachasmasaralasamayech eva mastu.

where the * is the S-looking character near the beginning of the third row. She couldn't figure out what that was. Salasks 03:41, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] GIMP

I want to know how to add metadata to PNG files using the GIMP (for windows). [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 21:01, Aug 3, 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm, I tried a site search of www.gimp.org on metadata and it turned up nothing. Perhaps it doesn;t have that functionality? --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 18:05, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
Here's the site where I sniffed it out, the main PNG homepage and the GIMP is mentioned there. I have also tried asking on usenet; so far no luck. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:25, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
Well, I was going to snootily tell you that imagemagick can do it, but while I can get imagemagick to extract the metadata, it can't (as far as I can tell) write to it. How embarrassing. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:29, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Nichalp, do you have GIMP 2.0 or above? If so, you may want to try this meta-data plugin. I tried to test it, but my GIMP is 1.2.5, the last "stable" version provided by Mandrake (yes, I know about cooker, but all I want is a modern version of the GIMP! Okay, that, and Galeon. And XMMS. And mplayer. And....) --Ardonik 19:49, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)
Yes, I have GIMP 2 (for Windows). I downloaded the plugin but I don't know how to proceed. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:44, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
It seem to depend on what you mean by "metadata". Most common is EXIF, which is what most digital still cameras embed into JPG files. The only thing I've found that claims to write EXIF data is OpenExif. There also seems to be the XMP and IPTC formats, about which I know little. I believe IPTC is higher-level information that can be stored inside EXIF blocks, and that XMP is some kind of XML uber-solution for metadata that Adobe seems to be pushing for PDF in particular. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:07, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] improvements in each new version of microsoft word

I would like very much to know what was new in each new version of microsoft word. I can not find this information anywhere. It is my desire to compare the versions to see if it was really necessary to create a new version or if the differences did not show that it was really necessary and we went to the new version only to access the new docs. Thanks.

Raymundo de Oliveira

raymundo.oliveira@terra.com.br

One (admittedly laborious) way to find this out would be to read the reviews in computer publications. A good research library will have copies of such magazines dating back to the dawn of personal computing. --Robert Merkel 04:46, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I think it's fair to say that the program has advanced, although others might prefer to say bloated. But things that are in the latest version that aren't in the earliest include HTML support. The earliest versuions didn't have an annoying paperclip. You probably had less than 32+ colours of highlighter pen. I seem to remember Object Linking and Embedding was one of the much talked about additions in one of the versions.
Incidentally, if you don't like giving MS your money you could always have a look at the free, and compatible Open Office. I've been using the word processor for a few months and people I have sent documents to are quite happy with them as viewed in MSWord, although my requirements are rather simple.
OpenOffice does crash a fair bit, though, but you save every 5 minutes anyway, right? --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 18:50, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)
Crash? Open Office has never crashed while I used it — not so much as once. (I use Mandrake Linux 9.1 -- I have no clue about the Windows version of OO.org, though.) It's a fantastic piece of software, and it is quite simply the best way to create and open Word files on Linux. But unless someone requests the actual .doc file, I keep my documents in SXW format (when printing from Open Office) or RTF format (when printing from MS Word, since it has fewer "issues" trying to import these.) But I digress. --Ardonik 20:27, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)
Yeah, I use Windows, so it's probably less stable on there. Before I installed it various accounts of the program had led me to expect such instability, but it's still a great solution for me. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 14:01, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
I'm running Windows XP SP2 with OO 1.1.2 never had a crash Woofles 02:30, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)
This site may help: [3]. It lists new features of Word 2000 compared to previous versions. Not a complete answer, but it's a starting point. --Ardonik 20:30, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)

Well, since the first Microsoft Word version was made for DOS in 1983, I think it's safe to say there have been plenty of developments other than mere bloating since then. Whether those developments have substantially improved the program's usefulness is another question. At any rate, Google is your friend. A quick search is likely to turn up a number of historical accounts of Word's developmental history. Here's one. -- Wapcaplet 02:29, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] display the map of north africa up to 1800

Next time leave a short question, even if your headline covers it, so it's easier to read. Anyway, click the link for Africa Historical Maps. The UTexas site is the best for all maps. Salasks 08:09, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

Map of Pangæa
Enlarge
Map of Pangæa
  • And here's an earlier one. -- Solipsist 18:41, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] name this childrens song

i heard someone singing a childrens song the other day, and i've been wanting to find out the title (and possibly the lyrics too, i guess)

all i know is it was referred to as 'the spook song' and the beginning goes 's-p-double-o-k, skull and crossbones lead the way'. Thepedestrian 20:45, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)

It's the "Yale POTUS" cheer. Salasks 07:53, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

There is also a version that goes "H-A-Double L- O - W - double E -N spells Halloween", at least that I sung when I was a elementary school. It's all based off of one tune, whcih for the life of me I can't remember the name. Lyellin 08:18, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Same book, different publishers

I was recently visiting a publisher's website, when I found a book currently published by them that I had bought before. But my book has a different publisher's name on it. The cover design and content all seem to be the same. So my question is: did the new publisher buy the design along with the rights to publish from the old publisher? Is it ever possible for a book to be simultaneously published by several publishers--i.e., through some kind of agreement? 61.52.75.71 20:47, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

in this era of constant media consolidation, a smaller publisher could have been swallowed up by a larger one. perhaps thats the case with your book; put out by the original publisher then changed in publisher's name only when they were bought up. just a thought. Thepedestrian 20:54, Aug 5, 2004 (UTC)
A large publishing company often owns several "lines" - brands, which might appear to be "the publisher" unless you know lots and lots about the publishing industry. Most commonly, they have a classy, expensive-sounding brand for hardbacks, and when the same book is released as a trade-paperback a few months later they release it under a different brand. And often they have multiple lines for the cheap paperback end, often divided by genre. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:55, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
publishing rights will also go to different companies in diffferent countries (e.g., U.K. vs U.S. vs Canada etc), though it is rare to see the cover art stay the same. Sharkford 16:36, 2004 Aug 20 (UTC)

[edit] Raffles Institution = Most Prestigious in Singapore?

According to the Raffles Institution article, the RI is widely considered the most prestigious school in Singapore. Is this a fair statement? Salasks 08:11, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Star Trek characters: Multiple Series

Have any characters appeared in 3 or 4 different Star Trek franchises?

Only one that comes to mind at the moment is Quark: our favourite Ferengi appeared in DS9 (of course), had TNG cameos, and was in the intro of VGR. There are several more characters which appeared in two series though. Anárion 21:58, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Q appeared in several TNG and Voyager episodes and 1 DS9 episode Dmn 22:07, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Does Riker count? He was in TNG and VGR (thanks to Q) and his clone was in DS9. Adam Bishop 16:17, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
What is VGR? I don't know of any characters that appeared in 3-4, but there are plenty (as anarion said) that appeared in two. — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 17:32, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
VGR is the little ship that could not, Voyager. Anárion 08:51, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I would like to make a joke at this point involving the plot of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but alas, I am not witty enough to come up with something good. Jwrosenzweig 20:12, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Stare Trek: The Motionless Picture? ;) Anárion 21:20, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Quark was on DS9, appeared in the Voyager pilot, and made an appearance or two on DS9. Q had several appearances on TNG and Voyager, and had one appearance on DS9. Kirk appeared in the original series, a TNG movie (Generations), and the DS9 episode trouble with tribbles (stock footage). Majel Barret, wife of Gene Roddenberry, has been in every series as the computer voice - she also played nurse Chapel (note - Chapel was originally supposed to be Kirk's executive officer - the network nixed this idea) and Luwaxana Troi. →Raul654 17:45, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)
Actually Captain Pike's Number One was not the same character as Christine Chapel. In some of the novels she is presented as her older sister (but of course all Trek novels are non-canon). The networks found a woman as second-in-command threathening apparently. (The same reason the trousers were replaced with miniskirts: women were not allowed to wear the same clothes as men.) Anárion 08:51, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Spock appeared in the original series and in the TNG episodes Reunification Parts One and Two. I think he was also in DS9's Trials and Tribble-ations - I at least remember Dax calling him sexy. Dmn / Դմն 22:25, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
But that was just footage from The Trouble With Tribbles blended with new DS9 footage, so he didn't really appear twice :) Adam Bishop 06:57, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Homeowner Title

Hi, I need to add my spouse to my homeowner property title. Where and how to do that? Thank you. Alex Lazo, Atlanta, GA altora@netzero.net

In Georgia each county has a land court. You should contact the Fulton County, Georgia land court to find out how to proceed. - Nunh-huh 23:22, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Shape name

What is the name for the shape of a racecourse? (Rectangle with two semicircles at the sides) [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 20:51, Aug 6, 2004 (UTC)

I believe it's an oval. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty confident. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 20:55, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)
No, it's not an oval; an oval is an ellipse, which is a stretched circle. An ellipse has no straight parts; it's always curved somewhere. A racetrack has sections which are locally straight. grendel|khan 21:27, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)
It is an oval. Perhaps mathematicians would rather call it something else, but "oval" is what sportsmen call it. Here are two examples: from a British horseracing site and from the United States Tennis Court & Track Builders Association. -- Heron 21:39, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Oval is a pretty unspecific term. It can mean anything from an ellipse to an ovoid shape to a racing oval to a rectangle with rounded corners. So yes, I think it's called an oval, and mathematicians shouldn't get too upset since we have the nice specific word ellipse. moink 21:51, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
A super ellipse, at least for certain values of it's parameters, looks like a rounded rectangle. -- DrBob 23:58, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I'd go for "oval"; it's a pretty vague word. "Ellipse" is not the true meaning of "oval" anyway. "Oval" originally meant "egg-shaped" (from Latin OVVM, egg). "Ellipse", "race-course–shaped", etc are extended meanings. — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 13:33, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
A layperson may call the shape an oval. But an oval really refers an ellipse. The technical term for egg-shaped is ovoid. Looks like super ellipse fits the bill, although from what I've seen itis a generalised term. [[User:Nichalp|¶ nichalp | Talk]] 19:57, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
Actually, a non-layperson might still call it an oval, for she would not call an ellipse an oval, because she calls an ellipse an ellipse. ;-) Well, to quote Eric Weisstein's MathWorld --always a good authority on such things--: "An oval is a curve resembling a squashed circle but, unlike the ellipse, without a precise mathematical definition." * Simon A. 17:50, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
"Rectangle with two semicircles at the sides" pretty accurately describes it. An ellipse is not a 'stretched circle' it's a curve with 2 foci. An oval is a term used for the shape for a long time, think that's suitable. An oval is the proper term for it, not ovoid, ovoid is more properly used to refer to a 3-d object, an 'egg-shaped' solid.

[edit] Name that butte

discussion archived to Image talk:Wfm monument valley annotated.jpg by Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:34, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Taxonomy reference?

What's a good web reference for taxonomy? I couldn't find anything on the WikiProject Tree of Life page, but perhaps I'm not looking hard enough. I want to, for instance, be able to say "Banded Hare-Wallaby" and be given enough taxonomic information to fill out a taxobox. I seem to remember a four-letter thing beginning with an I that did this. Any help here? grendel|khan 23:13, 2004 Aug 6 (UTC)

Found it. It's ITIS. Which really should be a redirect to Integrated Taxonomic Information System, not the other way around. Where do I go to get that fixed? grendel|khan 01:13, 2004 Aug 7 (UTC)
Done. I have to go to sleep now, could I trouble you to fix any redirect issues? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:21, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Done. Dmn 08:51, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Ccompletely clueless here... how does this work? actually, I don't care how it works, how can I use it?Pedant 18:48, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Euler crosses the Continental Divide

I recently had the fun of driving from Chicago to the Pacific on (mostly) Interstate 80. (No sarcasm here; I liked it.) In the middle of Wyoming I saw a sign announcing the Continental divide. Some miles later, I saw another. I was waiting eagerly (with Leonhard Euler breathing down my neck) for the third one, but it never came. Oddly enough, I still got to San Francisco, which therefore must be on the Atlantic coast or topologically impossible.

Now I see that the diagram in the Wikipedia article shows the divide dividing in two in the middle of Wyoming, leaving a sort of island that's neither east nor west. What's going on there? Does I-80 go through a basin with no drainage in the middle of the divide? Can there be any sense in saying that you're crossing the continental divide when you cross a divide into that basin or out of it? Dandrake 00:28, Aug 7, 2004 (UTC)

It's the "Great Divide Closed Basin" http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/huc.cfm?huc_code=14040200. Scary, huh? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:37, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
That is, it's an endorheic basin covering about 4% of Wyoming. Endorheic basins are quite common in dry climes, and any boundary between watersheds in dry areas will have lots of teeny ones. This one is quite big. How you and Leonard chose to interpret this is up to y'all - really it's a third hydrological system, discrete from both the atlatic and pacific systems, and the two signs merely expose the (over?) simplification of the "great divide" nomenclature. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:04, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Furthermore, let this be a lesson to you, not to go on lengthy car trips with Leonard Euler. He smells funny, and he doesn't pay for gas. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:04, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] In the U.S., what is a registered Democrat/Republican?

This should perhaps be at Requested articles instead, but I'm not sure about the right lemma:

In the USA, what exactly does it mean to be(come) a registered Democrat or registered Republican, as in Bill O'Reilly was a registered Republican? (I sort of know, but am not sure enough to write it myself.) It's an expression not widely known outside of the US, so an article or an appropriate redirect would definitely be appreciated. Sorry if I overlooked an existing one. regards, High on a tree 01:06, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

In the US, voting in party primaries (that is, deciding who'll be your republican candidate for xxx, etc.) is often (but not always) conducted by the same voting system as is used for "real" elections. In states which have "closed primaries" (that is, where only folks who've previously said they're republicans can cast a vote in the republican primary) there is a register of registered republicans, democrats, greens, etc. voters. Some states have "open primaries", where any voter can vote in any primary (and sometimes do, occasionally voting for the least electable candidate for the other party. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:12, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
At one time in Massachusetts (and perhaps still, but I haven't lived there for 20 years), one could vote in either primary. Having done so, one was automatically a 'registered <whatever>'. If you wanted to go back to being neither, you had to take the annoying step of an official notification (postcard I think) to the elections office (these are the folks who maintain the voter lists, register voters, and all that). Whereupon you were again an unregistered <whatever> though still an officially registered voter. NY is so Byzantine that no one understands how it works. Getting on the ballot (as a candidate of a particular party) is (currently) so difficult one is tempted to simply give up. But then NY State has not had a budget on time (as mandated by (?) the State Constitution) since Carter was President. It's like living in Wonderland (Alice's). Clausewitz would have much to say about friction, were he still alive. ww 18:06, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
It's a shame we don't properly capture stuff like this anywhere (the closest is U.S. presidential primary). Don't most states have different schemes? I think HoaT's suggestion that we requested-articles this area would be a great idea. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:21, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Finley: Thanks for the explanation. Maybe you want to add this to the primary election article? After all, it's rather unique to the US and often misunderstood in Europe. Simon A. 17:54, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
It means that you are either: (1) a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party or Republican Party and are officially listed in the party's database of members or (2) voluntarily joined a public list of party affiliation as one arrives at an election polling place. --Gerald Farinas 18:46, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
In Ohio, where I live, there is no such thing as a "registered" Republican or Democrat. When you register to vote you do not state a party affiliation, unlike states such as Kentucky or Florida. One is officially "non-partisan" until voting in a party primary. A voter who votes in a primary then reverts to "non-partisan" status if he doesn't vote in the primary again within two years, I believe. (This is why about three-fifths of Ohio voters are officially "non-partisan" despite the dominance of the two major parties.) And even if one is listed as "Republican" or "Democratic" a voter is free to vote in the other party's primary by asking for the other ballot on primary day. That said, this is Ohio's unique system and other states' practices are completely different.PedanticallySpeaking 16:51, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks to everybody for their well-informed answers. It seems things are a bit more complicated than I thought - there are actually states where one has to state a party affiliation when registering to vote for, say, the presidential election? And registration for the primaries is always handled by a state election office, not by the party itself?

As Finlay said, it would be a pity if the information above would not make it into the article space. I would suggest creating registered party affiliate (U.S.) or something like that, and having registered Democrat and registered Republican redirect to it (since the latter are the terms most likely to be sought after). I'd prefer someone knowledgeable to write this up, but if nothing happens, I will try my best and summarize the above sometime during the next weeks. regards, High on a tree 23:21, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] the nature of Babism

Three questions on the nature of babism.

  • Is it Babis, Babism, or Babiism? It is in wikipedia as Bábís. I have only ever seen it as Babism, and the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica lists it as babiism.
  • Does this religion exist as separate from islam? I need to know for the List of religions. I have only read that it was an islamic sect and not a separate religion. However, my only source was The Kingdom of The Cults.
  • Does it still exist today? It might be useful to know this too.

--metta, The Sunborn 01:51, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I believe Babism is what Babis practice. The word "Babiism" is just another transliteration of the same persian word, and seems to be a rather archaic one at that. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 02:24, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Much of Babism survives today as the Bahai faith. --Gerald Farinas 18:48, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)
No, I need to know if Babism is a separate religion from Islam and Baha'i. --metta, The Sunborn 02:31, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] searching for any information about my grandfather's family - turn of the 20th century

Hello,

My grandfather, Abraham Andisman, born 1891 lived to the age of 95. He was one of twelve children, and their family emigrated from Russia to Rosenhayn, New Jersey probably sometime in the early to mid 1880s. Is there any way I could find a copy of his birth certificate? Are there any elderly residents of Rosenhayn who might remember the Andisman family. They worked their own farm for many years in Rosenhayn, and were some of the first Jewish farming settlers in the area. I don't remember his parents' name. My mother, who is 88 this December, would probably remember her grandparents' names, and several of her aunts and uncles...my grandfather's brothers and sisters. When I get that information, can anyone out there recommend a person or office I might contact? My mom's maiden name is therefore, Andisman. She married a man named Ralph Cherashore, my father deceased since 1979.

Thank you anyone for your assistance.

Harold Cherashore email: harrisshore@sbcglobal.net

Statewide registration of births began in New Jersey in May 1848. The New Jersey State Archives has these records with indices through 1923. When I last checked, requests for certificates were handled through the State Registrar of Vital Statistics in the New Jersey State Department of Health in Trenton, New Jersey. You need to contact the Archive via phone or the web to find out what the fee is (it seems to be $4 per year searched) and to obtain request forms. Contact information can be found here and here. - Nunh-huh 20:52, 7 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Weed or plant?

Weeds or plantings?
Enlarge
Weeds or plantings?

I've planted a bunch of stuff in my deck garden over the past couple of years - perennials, annuals. Other people have too (read:parents). And we haven't always kept track of what we've planted. So now we've got a bit of a problem. There are some tall plants that are starting to overtake the deck garden, and we can't tell whether they're weeds or whether we actually planted them and they will eventually yield tall, beautiful flowers. Please help.

Click the picture for large version. Note the small blue and violet flowers that are overshadowed by the tall shooters. Salasks 18:18, Aug 7, 2004 (UTC)

  • Not an answer to your question, but I think that would be a nice image to go in the garden article (if, indeed, it is an image of a garden.) --Ardonik 01:07, 2004 Aug 8 (UTC)
    • Please don't put that pic on the article, WP needs "striking" illustrations of the article title. The pic excellently illustrates the question but it's not good enough for the article. Sorry to be so blunt, I've just put on two pics, which should show you what I mean - Adrian Pingstone 09:29, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
      • OTOH, it made an excellent addition to lawn. [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 19:36, 2004 Aug 8 (UTC)

Ok, well, that's fine I guess - I'm glad it was of some use, though the lawn was incidental to the picture and the question. Salasks 03:17, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)

Don't know what the tall yellow things are; I'd guess at "weeds". But weeds are merely plants growing in the wrong place. So the question is, are you happy with the tall yellow things? If not, rip 'em out and enjoy the blue & violet flowers. They're never going to do anything except get taller & have more yellow flowers of the type they're now sporting. And, btw, are you sure there's nothing amiss with your lawnmower, like one side of it being lower than t'other? Your lawn looks a wee bit scarred :( (Wikipedia: your one stop source for garden criticism...) --Tagishsimon
excuse: lots of rain Salasks 16:43, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
post a close-up and I bet you get the name of both plants. Pedant 19:01, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] COMMUNICATION IN THE PAST: PIGEONS, SMOKE SIGNAL, RUNNERS, PONY EXPRESS, TELEGRAPHS,ETC.

What's your question! Please always put a question below the heading - Adrian Pingstone 09:32, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Though in the meantime you can read Carrier pigeon, Smoke signal, Runner (last paragraph), Pony Express, Telegraphy. And also: category:Early telecommunications, category:Telecommunications
But, yeah, where do these strange heading style questions keep coming from? I keep wanting to satirise them by putting up things like Boil Subterranean Moped? or Partial Nemetode Incident --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 14:14, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
Indeed. SNEAKERNET', MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE. -- Jmabel 18:20, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)
Perhaps it means the Reference desk interface is confusing for new users, suggestions on the talk page. -- Solipsist 17:39, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] What type of Hepatitis does Pamela Anderson have?

I met Pam recently, and my aunt asked me what type of Hepatitis does she have to which I had no answer, so which type does she have? Can it be true, based on the type she has, that she only has about 8 years to live?

"Antonio Hollywood Insider Martin"

She has Hepatitis C, apparently. [4] --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 14:17, Aug 8, 2004 (UTC)

To answer the second part of the question, guesstimating the amount of time someone has "left" is always more art than science - it's certainly "possible" she will only make it to 8 years or less. However, with treatment, her life expectancy improves considerably. A paper I found regarding Hep B and C suggests that "The cumulative survival rate was 99.1% at 5 yr, 76.8% at 10 yr, and 49.4% at 15 yr" - I have not read it, but I assume their subjects were receiving conventional treatment, as opposed to Pam An, who seems to indicate she would prefer alternative medicine. A liver transplant to prolong life is also an option. --inks 01:38, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Alternative Medicine, eh? We could always send her to Mr Natural Health. She could keep his hands - cough - full whilst he's on his 3 month ban. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 00:47, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] nose

Well, read the article on noses. — Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 13:41, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)

is this a question? well, then read all about eating boogers while you are at it, it's 2 clicks from nose...Pedant

[edit] galleria numerata, galleria posto numerata.

I found these words in a philosophical book. By surfing the internet, I found these words mean a class of seats at the opera theater. Those are two of cheapest seats. However, that is not enough. It would be greatly appreciated if you explain those terms in gory details. Thanks in advance.

Well, the galleria is the "circle" or "balcony" of a theatre (as well meaning "art gallery", "shopping arcade" and "tunnel"). Not to be confused with the "gallery" or "gods", which would be loggione, and are expensive seats. Posto is "place" or "seat". Numerato (feminine: numerata just means "numbered", so galleria numerata is a circle of seats with numbers on, as in many cinemas. It seems opera houses do not number the dearer seats though.
Ticket prices for a certain show at the Theatre of Pisa
  • Platea, posto palco centrale I o II ordine euro 36
  • (€36 for a seat in the stalls or "orchestra", or the 1st or 2nd row of the centre box)
  • Posto palco centrale III ordine e posto palco laterale I e II ordine euro 30
  • (€30 for a seat in the 3rd row of the centre box or 1st and 2nd row of the side box)
  • Posto Posto 1^ galleria numerata e posto palco laterale III ordine euro 23
  • (€23 for the 1st numbered circle and 3rd row of the side box)
  • 2^ galleria numerata euro 17
  • (€17 for the 2nd numbered circle)
Ticket prices for the opera at the Royal Theatre of Parma
  • Poltrona Euro 80,00
  • €80 for a comfortable seat in the stalls (literally armchair)
  • Posto palco centrale Euro 72,00
  • €72 for a seat in the centre box
  • Posto palco laterale Euro 65,00
  • €65 for a seat in the side box
  • Galleria numerata Euro 21,00
  • €21 for a numbered seat in the circle
  • Posto in piedi in galleria Euro 8,00
  • €8 to stand around like an idiot in the same area with everyone knowing you're poor.
— Chameleon Main/Talk/Images 13:10, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)


Perhaps it's the translation of the term "peanut gallery" (Shakespeare's "penny-grubbers?"), meaning the so-called "unwashed masses". That might find its way into a philosophy encyclopedia.. Rhymeless 00:51, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

loggione -- is this equivalent to 'loge'? "Posto in piedi in galleria" (a spot on foot in the gallery) somewhat equivalent to the standing room in "standing room only' aka SRO. Peanut gallery is the cheap seats, as peanuts were considered food that only poor people ate. In Wisconsin in the 40's my grandmother used to refer to the third (or hgihest, most distant) balcony as 'nig*** heaven' (I hate that word, you know which one)... I think you could refer to the galleria numerata or galleria posto numerata as 'the cheap seats/peanut gallery/nosebleed section/'in the rafters' in colloquial English. Pedant

[edit] video home system

  1. Wiktionary definitions: video home system.
  2. Wikipedia articles: video home system.
  3. What are you asking about, anyway? --Ardonik 12:24, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)
Or maybe they want Video Home System. Or Video game console. It's always more fun and fulfilling to guess what the hell the question is than just answer one... --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 00:56, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)
Well, I'm not sure if the question submitter gained anything from this incident, but I now know what VHS stands for! --Ardonik 03:37, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)
Lol...me too — Ilγαηερ (Tαlκ) 04:58, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It's like Jeopardy!, only you get to supply the answer too. -- Wapcaplet 22:52, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Or is it 'Video Home' system? ("I'd like to thank my parents, Sinead O'connor and The Pope.")Pedant 19:35, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Event horizons and much else

What is the relation between accelerating universe, cosmic inflation, Hubble's law, event horizon, and gravitational collapse? In particular, how might an observer inside an event horizon distinguish between inflation and their own collapse? --Eequor 10:12, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't really understand the question. Inflation is rapid expansion - so rapid that the different parts of the universe move away from each other faster than the speed of light. This makes the cosmic microwave background radiation look unnaturally even temperatured. I.e different parts of the sky are at the same temperature even though no signal could have passed between them. The heat simple would not have had time to flow if inflation didn't happen. If the observer were collapsing, there would be no reason for the CMBR to be at the same temperature everywhere. As for Hubble's law - the further away a galaxy is from us the faster it is speeding away. This is easily explained by saying the universe is expanding, if the observer were collapsing would we see the same effect? (Let me think on it)theresa knott 15:13, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I'm curious what we might see if we were somewhere between an extremely massive, cooling object and its event horizon which appears (from our perspective) to be about 15 billion light years away. Wouldn't we see something very much like a cosmic microwave background? --Eequor 16:02, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Not an expert, but I don't think the radiation from the massive, cooling object can go outward from it and reach us. Pretty certain that from the event horizon, more or less everything goes in. At least, with conventional theory.--Fangz 00:42, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Light produced in the present will not reach us, but light that had been produced far enough in the past may return to us from orbit, assuming the object has moved relative to its position when the light was emitted. --Eequor 02:54, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I don't see why this would be so. Central postulate of Special Relativity - Light speed constant in all inertial frames of reference. Whether or not the emmiting object has moved from its original position must neccessarily be undetectable, and so it must make no difference. And the problem with the event horizon is still there - if it is impossible to move outwards from the BH at the event horizon, how would it be possible to move outwards from the object within the event horizon, where the gravitational force is even stronger? And how can we account for the perceived recession of galaxies relative to us in all directions, when surely they must be accelerating towards a common centre.
Besides, if the light was from the past... what is the point of there being a massive cooling object right now? I mean, look at what are we left with - photon emmiting event in the past, which created CMB radiation, peculiar spacetime structure to wrap it around... Is this any different from conventional big bang theory? (Aside from introducing a absolute centre of the universe, which opens lots of cans of worms) Did anyone say Occam's Razor?--Fangz 18:10, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

OK I've I've had overnight to think on this, and I'm certainly no expert on general relativity, but I think you'd notice tidal effects. Towards the singularaity and towards the event horizon galaxies would appear to be moving away from us. Ok so far :-) But at right angles to these directions galaxies would appear to be moving towards us :-( Also if there were no big bang there is nothing to explain why the CMBR even existed. And there is the ratio of light elements in the universe. There is a lot of primordial helium and deuterium about, where did it all come from if not the big bang? theresa knott 07:19, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Tidal forces isn't a problem. See Supermassive black hole.--Fangz 18:10, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
No I think it is a problem. We wouldn't suffer spagettification because we are so small, but the unverse is huge. I suspect even very weak tidal forces would be detectable over the huge scales involved.theresa knott 23:43, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Ee, I'm not sure what the intent of your question was. The answers above might be appropriate, but such feedback as there is has so veered off from the original question as not to clarify much. So... Here's my input. The concepts you've asked about are in some respects quite different, so I'll take them one at a time. If there was a Big Bang (as all the evidence currently available suggests), then there was a time when everthing was crammed into a much smaller space than it now occupies. At some very early time (for reasons I understand are unclear to all), there was a brief period of Very Rapid expansion. That is, stuff was crammed this close and afterwards it was much less closely crammed, and afterward came very quickly. As tk points out, this had effects which are (just) still observable. We think. The guy who thought it up (Guth) is going to win the Nobel Prize one of these days (if he hasn't already, and I missed it). Well, if things aren't expanding anywhere near so fast now (14 billion years later), they are nevertheless still expanding. Hubble (after whom the telescope is named) noticed that there was a connection between speed of recession (at least from our perspective) and distance from us. It appears to be a constant linear relation. That's Hubble's Law.

Now, is the motion of everything in that expansionary way (now muuuuuch slower than it was during inflation) a constant one? If not, gravity (of everything taken together) might be strong enough to gradually slow everything down eventually, in which case things will finally reverse and start to contract. When it eventually all gets more or less to one place (the Big Crunch), that will be one kind of gravitational collapse. No one thinks that's likely just now as the measurements of how much stuff there is and how fast things are (still) expanding don't seem to leave much chance. But we've only been watching for maybe 100 years and so we may have missed something. and there is all the 'missing' matter (ie, dark matter) which is clearly present (from its observable gravitational effects here and there and mostly everywhere) but not at all well understood. And in recent years there's also been 'dark energy' which seems to be hanging around but which is even less well understood. If there isn't enough total gravity to cause the Big Crunch, will things just keep expanding (slower and slower but never quite stopping)? Or, might there be some previously unknown force which opposes gravity but only works at really long distances (or only adds up enough to be noticeable over really long distances, which is not quite the same thing exactly)? There might be, as some recent observations have suggested such a thing. If so, things might eventually be moving in an expanding way faster and faster and faster.

General Relativity (thus far the most successful of the theoretical accounts of the nature of gravity) predicts many things about how light behaves in a gravitational field. One of them is that if the field is sufficiently intense, light will be bent so strongly it can't escape from the field. When this happens to a distant galaxy's light passing near a closer galaxy we sometimes notice a lens effect, producing two images of the distant galaxy (sort of like a mirage, but with rather different causation). No one looking (from a distance) at a light inside that field will be able to see it. In fact, as a light emitter approaches such a field, there will come a place (sort of an invisible spherical shell, if you will) after which the light being emitted can no longer escape. That's an event horizon. For material objects it's only the limit of the various distances after which the object is trapped. Light, by Special Relativity, moves at the fastest possible speed and material objects can only approach that speed (with greater and greater difficulty the closer they get).

Black holes are exactly this sort of thing. With enough mass (what's left of a really big star, for instance, after it 'runs down', as it were), there will be a sufficiently intense gravitational field to overcome the repulsions of elementary particles and there will be a local Crunch. If a glop of matter isn't quite big enough to do that, it might only reduce all the particles to neutrons producing a neutron star. Anyway, black holes (but not neutron stars) show just this effect. Hence, 'black' hole. Actually there will be some radiation from it due to quantum mechanical effects (Hawking radiation, named after its discoverer) but that's a sort of quibble at this level of discussion.

Inside an event horizon, it is thought that much will 'remain the same'. For example, my candle will still be visible to me as it disappers for others, assuming I survive the various other effects (high intensity radiation, tidal effects, ...). Though there are simultanity issues here that must be considered carefully. But what I will see (modulo my survival) won't matter in some sense as whatever it can never be communicated to anyone outside the field. A one hand clapping or tree falling in the forest making noise sort of thing. Pragmatically, it won't matter as no one anywhere else will ever learn about it. But the odd effects have been the subject of many a science fiction story, some of them quite good.

Maybe this helps? ww 18:52, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. More specifically:
--Eequor 20:18, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Maybe you like this animations. Simon A. 18:07, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
That's very impressive! --Eequor 16:59, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Dah, ultracompact neutron stars win for oddest visual effects. Too bad the series doesn't explore what is observed if one crosses the photon sphere. It seems that gravitational collapse is more or less correct -- infalling light from the photon sphere may make arbitrarily many orbits before reaching the observer, so everything inside the sphere must be visible at once in every direction, with the entire sky outside the sphere superimposed on top in innumerable layers. I'm curious whether the light sources would remain distinct. --Eequor 18:28, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Photon spheres

In the above-mentioned website, R.J. Nemiroff describes a surface called a photon sphere, which is the locus of orbits with an orbital velocity equal to the velocity of light -- that is, the distance at which photons may orbit a star or black hole indefinitely, neither spiraling inward nor escaping. How does this differ from an event horizon? How closely may a body in an elliptical orbit approach the speed of light? --Eequor 16:59, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Is this similar to the particle horizon? --Eequor 17:38, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Intracommunication

Within the event horizon of a black hole, is it possible for any signal to reach a receiver less deep in the gravity well? Would infalling observers see themselves pass through the horizon, or would the horizon seem to fall with them? --Eequor 23:16, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The short version: We don't know what happens inside the event horizon, and we can never know.
The long version: By definition, no information can get out. My understanding of black holes (which I'm sure is limited - of course, so no one really understands black holes, but if someone did, it would not be me) is that they're a sort of a one-way information transfer zone. I would take that to mean that nothing (specifically, no information) from within a black hole can get any further from the center of the black hole.
The gravitional field that keeps the photons within the event horizon is stronger the closer you are to the center. If it's strong enough, at the event horizon, to keep a photon from escaping, then it's even stronger further in, so that same poor little photon hasn't got a chance of getting out.
The question of what an observer approaching the event horizon from the outside would see is addressed in the black hole article under section 2.3 ("falling in"). The event horizon is an imaginary boundary. You can't really "see" it. You can only deduce that it is there by the effect of the black hole on its surroundings. There wouldn't be anything spectacular to let you know that you had crossed it. Aranel 22:27, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)
See Virtual Trips to Black Holes and Neutron Stars. The event horizon is easily visible if one is close enough to it, because light from the entire universe is visible if one looks up from the horizon, along with infinitely many copies of all light sources. Approaching the horizon, the sky becomes increasingly compressed into a circle, so that it would appear that one was looking up at it from the center of a perfectly black bowl. Exactly at the surface of the horizon, the sky shrinks to a point and disappears.
My intuitive sense says the same thing that you do about light escaping upward: it shouldn't be able to, from any location within the horizon. It's hard to think about, though; it seems like (for example) a person ought to receive nerve impulses from the rest of their body, since they're connected (though of course the tide would be tearing them apart, and their body might already be cooked by their own nerve impulses traveling downward). --Eequor 16:26, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Eventual horizons

  1. Supposing that gravity propagates at the speed of light, can a true event horizon form around a black hole?
    1. Might the escape velocity of the black hole instead approach the speed of light as an asymptotic limit, for all distances within the Schwarzschild radius?
    2. Would the tidal force remain meaningful?
--Eequor 17:50, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] anointed oil

So what's the question? - Adrian Pingstone 12:30, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

  • Something about anointing? --Ardonik 12:34, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)
    • No, no... I bet it's something about oil. Salasks 14:05, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)

It's probably something about extra virgin olive oil. --Eequor 16:12, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

clever, EEQUOR, clever, I believe you are on the right track, though, ... I think this refers to the 'anointing' of Jesus' with the Holy Ghost, giving him 'miraculous power' or the similar 'anointing' (first epistle of John ch 2, v 23 -- 29) of Jesus' folowers. aka the Gift of the Holy spirit...Pedant 19:56, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] using nobody and nobody in english grammar

Could you be more specific please? [[User:Meelar|Meelar (talk)]] 15:46, 2004 Aug 9 (UTC)
Nobody is functionally the same as no one, if that's the question. Salasks 19:50, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)
Well, not quite. I'm a native English speaker, and no one sounds more formal to my ears. I wouldn't use the word "nobody" in an academic paper, for instance. --Ardonik 03:39, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)
So you're trying to say I'm not a native English speaker?! Damn, that's cold. The question didn't say when would you use nobody/no one, it just asked about the grammar of it. Actually, the question didn't even mention 'no one' so maybe we're arguing over nothing. Salasks 03:53, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)
All of the online dictionaries I've found indicate that no one and nobody mean the same thing and have the same usage. Only difference is when nobody is used as a noun meaning an unimportant person ("Among all these learned Wikipedians, I feel like a nobody."). I wouldn't correct one for the other in any other case I can think of (says the editor). Elf | Talk 19:04, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Amerigo Vespucci

I read some information somewhere about Amerigo Vespucci's name wasn't Amerigo, is this true? Also, I read somewhere America is not name after Amerigo Vespucci, is this true too? -- Thanks!

from The Americas:
A few alternative naming theories have been proposed, but none of them have any widespread acceptance. One theory, first advanced by Jules Marcou in 1875 and later recounted by novelist Jan Carew, is that the name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. The gold-rich district of Amerrique was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold. According to Marcou, Vespucci later applied the name to the New World, and even changed the spelling of his own name from Alberigo; to Amerrigo; to reflect the importance of the discovery. Salasks 19:45, Aug 9, 2004 (UTC)

(follow-up question) Is there any proof about Amerigo Vespucci changing his first name? Plus the name Amerigo, was that name around before 1492 or before the first Europeans were in the Americas? Thanks!

I think "Amerigo" is just the Italian form of the Germanic "Amalric" (which is also found in French as Amaury or Maury). Adam Bishop 00:36, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Oh, actually the The Americas article says: Amerigo is a form of the German name Haimirich, meaning ‘ruler of the Home’, from haim (home) and rich (powerful). Adam Bishop 21:04, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
This book excerpt argues that he did change his name, while this article argues that he did not. Salasks 16:37, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)


"America" originally referred to the Southern Hemispheric continent now generally known as South America. At one point, there was an "America" and a "North America", "South America" was a term that came later. FWIW Pedant 21:22, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] Cooking oil

You have no idea how tempting it is just to leave the heading as the "question". But what I really want to know is about frying. Whenever I fry something I'm never sure how hot I've got the oil. Flicking a little water from my fingertips into the oil gives me some indication, but seems a little hit and miss. Has anyone got any tips that will help me know when to put in my egg? At the moment it either sinks and sticks to the bottom as the oil is too cold, or it bubbles alarmingly, shooting geysers of hot fat in my direction. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 01:03, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

What about a meat or baking thermometer. One or both of those go to very high temps.. Not that I've tried this myself. Rhymeless 01:29, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Eggs should be fried in pretty cool fat. Get a good non stick frying pan, add a little oil or lard and let the egg sink. Chips on the other hand need hotter fat. Cook them over a medium heat (testing by adding a single chip, it should bubble gently. When they look cooked (changes from semitransparent to white) take them out. Heat the fat up to hot - it has to be oil- lard will burn. You can tell by looking at it when it's ready the suface moves slightly but test with a single chip it should brown in about 30 seconds. Brown all the chips in the hot fat. Note that if you add raw chips to fat this hot you will set fire to your kitchen. Have fun. theresa knott 07:31, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm. OK. Yes I think my problem is that I always use the smallest saucepan which isn't non-stick. I'm already quite good at doing chips since it doesn't seem to require any degree of subtlety on my part (not the way I like them at least). --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 15:06, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC)
You are trying to fry eggs in a saucepan? Use a frying pan! You need less than a cm depth of oil. theresa knott 18:12, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Ooops, sorry. No, I meant frying pan, and I use a frying pan. I'm not brilliant in the kitchen, but I'm not that much of a dullard either. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 23:27, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)
I keep a cannister of panko crumbs nearby. I slip in a couple flakes of panko (Japanese bread crumbs) to test the heat of the oil. Once the panko starts to bubble and fry up, it'll be ready for your egg. --Gerald Farinas 19:44, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
this isn't quite 'frying' but the best 'fried eggs' I've made (vegan now, so this is a while back) I've used an iron skillet, heated on a low flame, after it's mildly heated (to the point where a single drop of water sizzles when dropped onto it, but not so hot that the drop pops/dnaces/skittersI use very litle oil approx 1 and 1/2 tablespoons, to coat the pan, crack an egg into it and let it cook with the same flame setting covered by a lid, at low heat until a little more than halfway cooked, then I add about 2 teaspoonsfull of water to the covered skillet. Undercooked eggs may be dangerous, if not aseptically clean. Cooking at low heat keeps the sulfide formation down, so the eggs are tender and not rubbery. Adding the water helps the egg to cook completely at low heat, the steam cooks the top of the egg. Pedant
I think I can picture myself being unable to get the cover back on after I've been sent running from the kitchen with some terrifying oil and water disaster happening in there. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 23:27, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)
very very little oil, just enough to make the pan slick, and just enough water that it all turns to steam almost immediately Pedant
I'm happy to report that by using the new sizzly water effect and a different saucepan there is no end to my skills at killing unborn chickens. Thanks heathens. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 01:12, Aug 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Proslepsis vs Prolepsis (Figures of speech)

Is there a difference between a proslepsis and a prolepsis? --Edcolins 19:59, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

One difference is that Prolepsis is in the dictionary while Proslepsis is not. Salasks 22:05, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

Don't believe everything you don't read in the dictionary. Wikipedia has articles on the two terms, and they are different. -- Heron 13:47, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Thanks Heron, can I say they are paronym? --Edcolins 20:25, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

You can say they are paronyms, as they are both from the same root lambanein, to take. Only the prefixes are different: pros- means 'toward', and pro- means 'before'. :-) -- Heron 20:54, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

So proslepsis and prolepsis are paronyms but not cognates... --Edcolins 21:15, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

Actually I think they are both. According to The Oxford Companion to the English Language, cognates are words related by descent, "especially" [but, I infer, not "only"] across languages. -- Heron 19:40, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

P.S. I'm not sure if this applies to words with different prefixes, like your examples, so perhaps I am wrong to call these cognates. -- Heron 19:45, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I infer that pros- and pro- are related; the former, "toward, to, in front," is an alteration of proti (which looks like an extension of pro) that was influenced by a dialectal preposition pos ("toward"). Got that? --Gelu Ignisque

I have another question about prolepsis. In the article prolepsis, would someone kindly give me an example of sense #3, the grammatical sense? --Gelu Ignisque

Done. See the article. -- Heron 19:50, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] What county is Herlong City in of California?

Lassen County Salasks 22:20, Aug 10, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Information on Foster Fiske Jones, died in 1960

My name is Sharon Allen and I live in Maine. I would like to find any information on my father Foster Fiske Jones who lived in Celmsford and died in 1960. I never got to see or know him but I would like to find someone who may have know him, or might have a picture to share. My Email address is:

  • Sallen_989@hotmail.com

Thank you for any help provided. Sharon

I feel bad that you never got to meet your father, but unless he's notable enough to be in an encyclopedia, he won't be on Wikipedia. You'll probably have better luck on some genealogical website, but your question isn't for Wikipedia. Sorry. [[User:Mike Storm|Mike∞Storm]] 02:18, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've seen stories in local newspapers before where someone has placed an ad in the local newspaper (ie Chelmsford's - I guess - in this case) and has managed to meet up with someone who knew the person concerned. If you're able to find out which school he went to I guess you might discover that they still hold reunions and may be able to meet his classmates. You could also, if you know where he was born, look through the records of the local registry office. I've looked at it only briefly, but you may find something useful here. Good luck. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 15:22, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Recent Developments in Electronics

Can you please provide some online references, links etc which describe the recent dewvelopments in Electronics. Bharath 06:41, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Could you narrow down your question a little bit? Anything from Slashdot to EEtimes to Audiophilia and thousands more besides might be the kind of thing you're looking for. --Robert Merkel 06:52, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Richard Amerike

How do you pronounce Richard Amerike last name? Thanks!

AM-ur-ik, though originally it would have been ap Meurig, ap MAY-rig. -- Arwel 19:18, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Damn song I can't pin down.

There is a song, (I think it's a drinking song, or at least I seem to remember it being used on an advert for beer here in the UK many years ago), that is going round in my head but that I can't quite manage to remember what the lyrics are. It is something like Bar Bar the Bull Bull emir, although that's obviously nonsense. It's a Turkish chap and a russian chap and that's about all I can remember of it. If anyone can make something from these few morsels I'd be most grateful. 22:23, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I think you mean Abdul Abulbul Amir -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:40, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Sometimes we fear for Finlay :( --Tagishsimon
I wrote the article :) →Raul654 08:10, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
To quote Barney Gumble "Don't cry for me, I'm already dead". Seriously, there's a really good (ancient) cartoon of the song (one of those out-of-the-inkpot type ones) although now its depiction of the participants' supposed racial characteristics now seems, well, more than a little broad. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:20, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
You are an absolute star! It's been driving me bonkers for the past few weeks. I've also found out what the advert was for. [5] Mintguy (T) 01:46, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC) --- And now I've found the ad itself! Ad (real player) Wow I love the Internet and Google. Mintguy (T)
I remember that Ian Dury chose this for one of his songs on Desert Island Discs. --Auximines 08:07, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Seems like I remember Hawkeye singing bits of this on MASH, too. -- Wapcaplet 03:36, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Also, on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data's brother, Lore sings this song once. --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 16:08, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Naming of popes

How are popes names decided - is the man himself given the complete right to decide? Could, for example, a pope name himself "Pope Cowboy Bob" if it weren't controvertial... Or do cardinals "assist" him. --[[User:OldakQuill|Oldak Quill]] 10:21, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

from the HowSutffWorks article "How the Papacy Works":

As the newly elected pope accepts his new role, it is tradition for him to select a new name. This papal tradition dates to 533 and the election of Pope John II, whose birth name was Mercurius, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Mercurius is derived from Mercury, a pagan Roman god. Believing that a successor of St. Peter should not carry a name belonging to a pagan religion, Mercurius chose to change his name upon his election to honor a previous pope.
While some that followed John II chose to retain their original name, it soon became commonplace for new popes to choose a new moniker. The name change also symbolizes the new life that the new pope is entering as the head of the Catholic Church. Typically, the new pope selects the name of his favorite Saint or a former pope whom he admires.
John Paul II, the current pope, chose his name to honor his predecessor, John Paul I, who died just 33 days after being elected pope. John Paul I chose his name to honor predecessors Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI.

Again, that full blurb is from the HowStuffWorks article "How the Papacy Works" Salasks 13:36, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

Pretty sure any Pope would respect Cowboy Bob's intellectual property... theres a cartoon I've seen: Pope Dave and Archbishop Joey - a miracle occurs and Dave the surfer dude and the Pope switch places, unbeknownst to all but the Pope... anyone point me at a source for these? I've only seen 2...Pedant 21:31, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)

[edit] nazim hikmet

who wrote the breifing on Hikmets life at your facility?

The article Nazim Hikmet was written (as are most wikipedia articles) by many people. A list is here. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:01, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Green party EU commissioner?

I vaguely remember that there was a European Commissioner that used to be in a Green party. I thought it was Gunter Verheugen, but just checked and it was not. Help!? -- Kaihsu 14:25, 2004 Aug 12 (UTC)

Ah, it was Michaele Schreyer. -- Kaihsu 14:27, 2004 Aug 12 (UTC)
Also! Salasks 16:22, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Chocolate

What are the chemicals that contribute most to the flavor and aroma of chocolate? --Eequor 17:23, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Are you talking about natural chocolate or commercially produced chocolate? Commercially produced chocolate has a lot of additive chemical and compound components that affects the flavor of the final chocolate product. The biggest factor in chocolate flavor is not necessarily a chemical but is the amount of cocoa butter present. A chemical called lecithin is mixed with the cocoa butter to either reduce or enhance the flavor. Two types of sugars are usually added in different quantities not only for flavor (sweetness levels of the chocolate) but also for texture. --Gerald Farinas 16:48, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Both forms, but especially natural chocolate. What are other common chemicals in commercial chocolate? Which types of sugar are used? --Eequor 17:47, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
In its natural form, not one chemical contributes overwhelmingly to the flavor of chocolate. It is a mixture of over 300 chemicals produced during the fermentation process of the cocoa beans that influences the pungent flavor and aroma of natural chocolate. --Gerald Farinas 16:48, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Gerald, I take it, you live in the US, don't you? ;-) You know, I've been to the U.K. and bought a bar of Cadbury's chocolate, and found it awful, and so was doubtful when a collegue claimed that US Hershey's chocolate is even worse. But she was right. :-O Anyway, what I actually wanted to say: Shocking that they would dare to put artificial flavour into plain chocolate, where you live. Whithin the EU, the law allows ony to call chocolate something made of cacao, milk and maybe lecithin. There is a currently ongoing debate about allowing other fat than cocoa butter (like palm fat) but so far the EU fortunatly didn't yield to this pressure. (And, there is an exception that only in the UK, you may call the stuff chocolate even if it contains less than IIRC 20% or so of cocoa -- which explains Cadbury's.) But it seems they also have decent chocolate where you live -- judging from your correct second paragraph. Simon A. 17:30, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, unlike the Germans we Americans only think we know what chocolate is supposed to taste like. :P --Gerald Farinas 19:49, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The psychoactive alkaloid in chocolate that is best known and most distinctive is theobromine, a methylxanthine similar to caffeine, but which may share some receptor affinity with tetrahydrocannabinol. See [6] for a summary with links far better than the usual about.com fare. Alteripse 16:13, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

does that maybe explain why chocolate is a favorite of the 'depraved marihuana addict' when in the horrible throes of the dreaded 'munchies'? If you want fairly good American chocolate, try Euphoria Chocolate. All our food in America probably tastes the same to foreigners, since there are so much additives (to make it more appealing to the most people) and subtractives (to remove flavors that are less appealing) and combine that with the high amount of genetically identical fruits and vegetables, and the inordinate amount of genetically manipulated frankenfood we eat, etc...
I've heard that american food tastes like "cheap macaroni and potato chips". Funny how we think of ourselves as rich and powerful, but we are content with crappy food. Pedant 23:10, 2004 Aug 17 (UTC)
I also have to point out (can't be said too often) that theobromine is also the thing in chocolate that kills dogs. Ask me sometime for a detailed description of the exciting symptoms from The Night I Almost Killed My Dog. Elf | Talk 23:59, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I guess you get used to UK Chocolate. It's not that bad, certainly not as bad as Hershey's. Kinder though Eughh... Anyway, I was just wondering while we're on the subject of adding things to food in the US. Why do you guys add bloody cornstarch to yoghurt?

In subtle ways, we're mostly taught not to think for ourselves in American schools, trained to submit to authority, and not question things. That's maybe why most of us don't even read food labels, and why we don't gather in hordes and destroy GMO crops. And to be fair, 'we' don't add cornstarch to yoghurt, the 'yogurt corporations' do that. We just don't question it. I imagine that cornstarch is cheaper than cream, and makes yogurt seem creamier for less money. No offense met to my fellow Americans, obviously wikipedians are not the average folk. No offense intended to crop-destroying Europeans, either. Pedant 04:58, 2004 Aug 18 (UTC)

[edit] Most abundant proteins in an animal?

There are many, many different types of protein in an individual animal, but there are more copies of some proteins than others. Supposedly, collagen is the most abundant protein in mammals. I need to know which are the other most abundant proteins... ike9898 19:07, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)

--Eequor 20:11, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)
might want to look into amino acids too, since they are 'what proteins are made of'.

[edit] Dudley Moore material

I have been sent some film of 'Behind the Fridge' featuring Dudley Moore. These cans are trims from 2 programmes transmitted in Australia by the Nine Network in November 1971. Since this is nothing to do with the BBC, I wondered if you want it?

Many Thanks Christine Slattery TV Archivist BBC Information & Archives Reynard Mills Windmill Road Brentford Middlesex TW8 9NQ

020 8576 9415 christine.slattery@bbc.co.uk

Even if you could guarantee that the copyright holder had licensed according to Wikipedia's terms, I'm not sure this is the place for it. Wikipedia only stores digital data not physical film. I would suggest that a film and tv museum or the Dudley Moore Appreciation Society would make better use of it. adamsan 17:56, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I've passed this information to the editor of Publish & Bedazzled of The Peter Cook Appreciation Society (a good friend of mine). He'll bite yer bloomin' hand off, so he will. --[[User:Bodnotbod|bodnotbod » .....TALKQuietly)]] 23:42, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Amazon Canada First Novel Award

I have found several sites related to the Award, but have been unable to find the actual site where I can get information on how to enter the contest. Does anyone have any ideas. Thanks for any help you can give. betty 11:12 Aug 13/04

You'd probably be best off contacting Amazon.com through their contact us page Salasks 15:30, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Manuals of style

Moved from the Wikipedia:Help desk

Is there a manual of style for instructional language, i.e. the proper way to write for a broad audience clearly, concisely, imperatively, politely, and unobsequiously? --Eequor 18:36, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia shouldn't have instructional articles. Maybe Wikibooks would be better for this? Angela. 20:16, Aug 12, 2004 (UTC)
Mostly I was considering language as written for pages in the Wikipedia: and Help: namespaces. Do you know whether Wikibooks has their own manual of style? --Eequor 01:13, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Our manual of style applies only to articles, so unfortunately won't help with the other namespaces. The Wikibooks:Wikibooks:Manual of Style only covers formatting. I can't think we have any internal resources to help you. Perhaps you should ask at the Reference desk for something outside of Wikipedia that might explain instructional writing. Angela. 06:38, Aug 13, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Home run / stolen base milestones

Has any Major League ballplayer hit at least 2 home runs and stolen at least 2 bases in the same game?

Lou Gehrig and Rickey Henderson maybe Joe Morgan.. I'm going to have to check this.. Rhymeless 04:01, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Also, a friend of mine said Deion Sanders did, as well. Rhymeless 06:11, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Running Perl Scripts in Windows

I got the "100 Google Hacks" book and want to run some of the scripts in a Windows environment, but all the Perl scripts are demonstrated in a UNIX enviroment. How would I do this? Salasks 10:53, Aug 14, 2004 (UTC)

A couple of options are;
  1. Install the Cygwin environment. Could be overkill, but would give you many of the features of Unix environment, including Perl scripting. Some of the hacks to make Cygwin's style of unix cooperate with Windows/Dos can be confusing.
  2. Install ActiveState - Perl, which is a version of Perl with extensions for Microsoft Windows platforms. You can then double click a script icon to run it (although since many scripts take command-line parameters this isn't always useful). You can also run Perl scripts from the DOS like 'Command Prompt' console. It is not always easy to find the free version of ActiveState Perl on their site, but you probably don't need their editing/debugging environments.
  3. Some Text Editors, have facilities or extensions to run external scripts. Might not be so easy to setup and get started.
Problem areas I've come across with Perl under Windows, tend to be around path naming, #! interpretation, and some socket issues. Both options may run into problems when installing a minority of Perl modules for CPAN, but you would likely be pretty experienced at using Perl at that point and be able to figure out the work arounds. -- Solipsist 11:57, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • Another option: install MinGW. It's like Cygwin, except that the binaries are ported to Windows natively instead of going through a DLL emulation layer. It has a sister project, MSys, which ports the GNU building environment to Windows, including bash, autoconf, and make. The Perl interpreter will be part of one of those two projects; once you have MinGW installed, you should be set. --Ardonik 19:37, Aug 14, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Evolutionary advantage of the pyramidal decussation

What is the evolutionary advantage of the pyramidal decussation - indeed, neuronal decussations in general (e.g. the optic chiasm)? What pressures would cause such a system to evolve? (To me, the entire 'split-brain' system seems to be prima facie inefficient.) Can anyone enlighten me? -- FirstPrinciples 15:28, Aug 15, 2004 (UTC)

Your question suggests that you believe efficiency is a hallmark of evolution, which of course it is not! Systems evolve by a variety of fortuitous outcomes, false starts, and contingent events, and in response to changing environments: efficiency would imply design, not evolution. - Nunh-huh 05:42, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Very simple answer. The split brain allows specialization of the hemispheres rather than simple duplication. The advantage of a "spare brain" (like a spare kidney) is less than the advantage of "2 brains" that to some extent do different things. (And yes, a complete split would be bad, and yes some symmetrical motor functions are retained). Alteripse 16:03, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Brain lateralization
Left Right
verbal visual
linguistic spatial
concrete abstract
However, it is possible for a person to function with damage to the corpus callosum (with various effects). There is normally considerable intercommunication between hemispheres due to their high degrees of specialization. A split brain allows complex analysis according to opposite (but synergistic) paradigms simultaneously without interference (parallel processing). In this way, a complex result incorporating both paradigms is obtained without loss of efficiency for either. --Eequor 16:41, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
The decussation may be a survival trait. Crossover of motor function may ensure that a damaged part of the body is less likely to be associated with similar damage to the region of the brain controlling it, as they are on opposite sides. --Eequor 16:41, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

While we're on the subject, does the Corticospinal tract article describe only the human nervous system, or all mammalian ones, or some other class? It would be nice if there were a statement in that article describing its scope. -- Heron 17:29, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the Corticospinal tract article refers only to the human nervous system. In other animals, even other primates, the basic layout of the brain can be significantly different. (Side note: in my experience there are several articles out there about general anatomy that are implicitly about human anatomy. The penis wiki comes to mind, which deals with the human penis as if it is "the" exemplar of all penises in all species. We should be careful to avoid the trap of anthropocentrism.) -- FirstPrinciples 01:53, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)--not to mention phallocentrism!Alteripse 01:57, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
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