Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 April 3

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[edit] April 3

[edit] The term "accident retard"

I keep seeing this spammed in a lot of the signatures of the DeviantArt community. What's the origin? Raptor Jesus 03:07, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

"Accident" could mean an unplanned pregnancy, and "retard" is slang for a person afflicted with mental retardation. StuRat 19:41, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Googling that term turns up an explanation for its use in the DeviantArt community. 152.16.63.230 04:23, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Establishing a new high school

This is a hypothetical question and I have absolutely no chance of carrying this out, but, suppose I wanted to establish a new public high school in Geelong, Australia, how would I go about doing that? --Candy-Panda 08:31, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I have a feeling that the Department of Education for Victoria would have something to do with it. They are probably in charge of building new schools. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 08:59, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes. You might persuade the DOE that a new high school is warranted in Geelong, but whether they think you are qualified to run it or teach in it (if that's what you want to happen) is another question. JackofOz 10:12, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] make sense

who can make sense out of this number 18 ,2 and over 1 million? yep?and i have been told to make sense of it,

Sorry, I can't make sense of the question. Are you given the statement "18, 2 and over 1 million"? − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 10:17, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
How about 218= more than a million? Jfarber 10:27, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
218=262,144 < 1,000,000 − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 11:00, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
D'oh! If I was good at math, I'd hang out on the math desk more.  :-) How about 1818= more than a million? That would be 18, used 2 times... Jfarber 12:17, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Alt possibility: how about 18 twos? That's MUCH more than a million. Jfarber 13:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
It would help an awful lot if we knew some context. What is being talked about here? SteveBaker 14:29, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

You say "this number" and you follow it with "18 ,2 and over 1 million?" which is not a number in notation I have familiarity with, although it contains 3 numbers. Perhaps the question is copied imperfectly from the source, making it gibberish, or perhaps it is a novel numerical notation. Edison 15:10, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, one more try, since I checked with a math teacher with a quirky mind. He thinks this could be A SINGLE number if one accepts a) that the comma can be used as a decimal point, and b) that the word "over" is often used to mean divided by. That would give us a rewrite as 18.2/1000000 (or 182 divided by ten million). A very small number indeed! Jfarber 15:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

for a) commas and decimal points are the other way round in continental europe :) HS7 16:29, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Following Jfarber's math teacher's advice, the answer could be neon with a volume concentration of 18.2 ppm in Earth's dry atmosphere. See Air#Composition. ---Sluzzelin talk 22:02, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] environmental organisations

Please check whether the following are governmental environmental organisations?

  • commission for environmental co-operation
  • European environmental agency
  • United nations environmental programme
  • Wild life institute of india
  • Indian institute of forest management
  • Global environment policy
  • Agenda 21
  • world mateorological organisations
  • World wilderness congress
  • Central zoo authority of india 61.1.232.193 10:34, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

What is meant by non-profit environmenatl organisation. 61.1.232.193 10:34, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Just because nobody wants to clean up your mess, doesn't mean you can try again and again. --Zeizmic 11:52, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Please do your own homework. We're not here to perform research you are expected to do on your own. -- mattb @ 2007-04-03T12:56Z
What you can do is check the spellings of the organization names listed here (e.g. Wildlife is one word, "global environment policy" is unlikely to be the name of an organization, etc.) and reread the answer already provided above by ny156uk and Vespine, to the repeat queries with this same heading. If this doesn't answer the question, you can check by searching each name, enclosed in quotation marks, using a Web search engine such as Google. As previous responses have indicated, further repeating this question here is inappropriate. -- Deborahjay 14:20, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] radio code

hi is there anywhere i can get a "ford traffic 3000" radio security code from , as the battery was disconnected. (i mean for free!)

tia

I did a Google search on "ford traffic 3000" and every single one of the hits on the first page of results was people looking for security codes! http://www.decodemyradio.co.uk seem to be offering a service to unlock these things at a reasonable price...but it's a very dubious thing. The code is put there to prevent people from stealing the radio...and if it were easy to "unlock" it, that would defeat the purpose of having it. SteveBaker 14:25, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Best bet is contact the manufacturer. There is a tale of 'putting it in the freezer overnight' that supposedly unlocks it, but I have no idea if this suggestion is just some urban legend or actually true. I suspect it is a little risky though, as freezing electrical stuff doesn't sound like the brightest idea. ny156uk 16:52, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
A car radio should be made to withstand freezing temps, or it would die during winter in the northern half of the US and most of Canada. So, do I understand that any time you disconnect the battery (or it goes dead) you need to call Ford to have the radio re-enabled, with a hefty fee ? That sounds worse than the original problem (occasional radio theft), to me. If they can't do better than that, I'd rather not have a car radio, and just carry a portable radio with me, instead. StuRat 19:30, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Freezing the thing overnight is presumably about causing a supposed battery-backed EEPROM or similar to fail, such that it returns to factory defaults. Of course to be useful in this application a) the point at which the battery packs in when frozen must be above the point at which components or their mounting of the PCB is damaged by shrinkage b) the battery must recover from its frozen state and of much more importance c) you'll then need to know what the factory default code is. --Tagishsimon (talk)

[edit] water usuage

how do i tell if i am using to much water and what does 411 kilolitres work out to for daily use over 6 months period

(411 l * 1000) / (6 days * 30) = 2283 l/day A family sized home water heater holds around 150 - 200 liters. So you are using over 10 times as much water as a conventional water heater holds. This article contains a table of water usage that shows that a typical American family uses around 280 liters/day (converted from 74 gallons) for home use. I would say you are using more than 8 times the average American does. Unless you are doing some major gardening, or have some other large source of consumption, then you may have a leak somewhere or your water meter may have a problem.--Czmtzc 14:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
2,000 liters is an awful lot of water (imagine a tank full of water - shaped like a cube about 40 feet on each side!). If that much were leaking somewhere under or near your house every single day...the consequences would be pretty noticable - water would have to be eroding soil and washing out the foundations of your house. That's almost 2 liters a minute. If you turned on a faucet at full flow 24 hours per day, it could only just about produce that much flow rate. It have to be a broken pipe - not just a leak. I'm betting on a faulty meter. SteveBaker 14:19, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
It's worth suggesting user error as a possibility at least on par with a faulty meter. Consider how Czmtzc noted above that the asker's use is about 10 times that of the average American household's. What if, instead of a faulty meter, the asker accidentally typed "41" as "411", or accidentally read "41.1" as "411"? Either of those would also easily resolve the discrepancy. Moreover, I find either one significantly more plausible than a meter faulty to an order of magnitude. — Lomn 17:28, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

2000 liters is 70 cubic feet which would be a cube with sides 4.13 feet in length. Not 40 feet on each side. Just one of those order of magnitude issues that plague our house. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:38, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Michigan Wrestling controversy

I just looked at the WIN Magazine final wrestling poll, and Michigan's ranking is WAY overrated. There final ranking was 9, despite going 2-10-1. Are the writers of this poll idiots? What kind of logic is this?

"How do ties count in ranking systems for wrestling" is a pretty broad question, but I bet someone can find some actual reference information to get you started. Other than that, the only semi-legitimate question I can squeeze out of this is "What Rubric does WIN magazine use to calculate ranking in its wrestling poll?" Unfortunately, poll ranking rubric information is generally only known to the staff of the magazine itself. If its the latter you're looking for, I'd recommend a letter to the editor. Jfarber 14:09, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

In general, I would expect ties to be counted as halfway between wins and losses, for scoring. As for why the magazine came to that conclusion, ask the writer, he should be out shining that new Lincoln Navigator he just got as a "gift". StuRat 19:25, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Information on management personnel numbers

Friends

I am looking for any information on the prescribed numbers of game wardens required to effectively manage an area of tropical forest (no. per acre/ha). Any litrature to cite will also be helpfull.

Thanks.

Wildlife section 1 14:18, 3 April 2007 (UTC)wildlife section 1

I would expect that to heavily depend on the number of poachers you have, and how well armed and willing to resort to violence they are. In a completely inaccessible region, none are needed. In a region where thousands of poachers are armed with automatic weapons and willing to use them on wardens, you may need an army division. StuRat 19:19, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can you name a person who got his name from AMERICA?

Can you name a guy who got his name from AMERICA? Other than captain america. can you think of anyone?

Do you mean Amerigo Vespucci? Actually, America got it's name from him, rather than the other way around. · AO Talk 14:46, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
America_Ferrera she's not a guy though. -- Diletante 14:51, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
A search of Wikipedia seems to indicate that America Ferrera is the only notable person to be named "America," although I don't doubt that there are others. Carom 15:51, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Hey, I thought america was named after that welsh guy that owned john cabots boat

The argument for Vespucci is weakened considerably by the fact that countries are never named after their discoverer's first name, but their last. The argument in favour of Richard Americk (the man to whom you refer) hinges at least partly on that discrepancy. It is some while since I read any articles or books about this subject, but I believe that there may have been a map involved somewhere in the pro-Americk argument, one which (if genuine) supported the theory quite well. He was closely linked with John Cabot's voyage and the funding thereof. Adrian M. H. 15:36, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Wrong way round! America got its name from Richard Americ: A British person. :-)
see Richard Amerike —Tamfang 22:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Actually, it did get its name from Vespucci, not Americ. - PatricknoddyTALK (reply here)|HISTORY 15:52, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I do not think it possible to state categorically either way when even the experts are divided on the issue. The Vespucci theory does not quite ring true for my earlier reason, and I for one am open to the possibility that the "Americk" theory may possibly be the right one. Adrian M. H. 19:29, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
"The argument for Vespucci is weakened considerably by the fact that countries are never named after their discoverer's first name, but their last." You're forgetting Petoria. Capuchin 11:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
You do know that it is fictional, yes? Adrian M. H. 16:04, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think many people are named after countries, the only american I can think of named after a place was the first british person born in the new world, named after the state of virginia, which probably doesn't quite count :( HS7 16:08, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

North america was named after americ, and south america named after amerigo, but neither of these got their names from america, and after a search on both wikipedia and msn the only name I have found is america ferrera

You people are slightly off the track. I need a male name which either has AMERICA in it or has been derived out of it. for example there is a name mentioned above Richard Americ. though it is not, but is can be believed to be derived out of AMERICA. so please.... can you think of any name?

A female character in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is named "America Shaftoe". --TotoBaggins 17:46, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think the OP is asking for someone who has actually been named after america, but as for what they are really asking for, I have no idea :( HS7 18:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

There's one very obvious guy's name derived from "America": "American". See American McGee. — Lomn 18:06, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I have a feeling that the op means names that originated in America, instead of from other countries. But that's a guess. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 18:41, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
There was an Americus Holmes. Corvus cornix 19:43, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

How about Gordon MacRae - his surname is an anagram of America without the "i". Could the murder of members of a 12-step group who are trying to give up drinking be described as "AA Crime"? JackofOz 21:54, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Abbie Hoffman had a child named america; I don't know its gender. —Tamfang 22:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Per Richard Brautigan, who wrote "Trout Fishing in America," 'In April 1994, a Santa Barbara teenager named Peter Eastman Jr. legally changed his name to "Trout Fishing in America". At around the same time, National Public Radio reported on a young couple who had named their baby "Trout Fishing in America".' See also same story at Snopes.com [1]. U.S. census and immigration records list thousands of people with America as a first or last name: 9,460 in the 1880 census, for instance with America as a first name: In Philadelphia in 1880 there was America Mickey born in Pennsylvania about 1873 per Ancestry.com (subscription required). America is rarer as a last name: 207 in the 1920 U.S. Census, such as Thomas E. America, white, born in the District of Columbia about 1866. In the 1930 Census there was even a man named America America, living in Revere Massachusetts, white, born about 1902 in Massachustees of parents from Italy. Sadly, Ancestry had no one named "Captain America" although there may well have been officers of that rank with that last name. Many of the persons with America as a last name were black or were immigrants who may have chosen that name to make a statement. Some immigrants used America as a last name on the ship manifest, perhaps to replace their old world name for whatever reason. Edison 20:48, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I know anecdotally of an immigrant to Australia who chose the legal name "Twenty-One Bastard Australia". JackofOz 00:04, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Iracema, of course. A.Z. 04:11, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] mergers

there is an old adage that "greener pastures act as a drive to move."how do u justify this statement in favour of the merger on the basis of the organisation,the management and the employees?193.220.190.1 19:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Does the phrase "greener pastures" also include places where you can have your homework done for you by happy little elves ? StuRat 19:13, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Ha ha...great answer StuRat. ny156uk 20:14, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks ! StuRat 02:22, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lithuanian Kings/Queens/Nobles

I need a list (or at least some information on) of Lithuanian Nobles. I have not been able to find a list of some kind on the wikipedia website. Also, I would like to know if any of the nobles' names might be a variation of "Lopatto". (Note: the name Lopatto might have undergone some Italian influence.) Even if it seems a little far-off, I really would like to know!--12.219.231.81 21:52, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

None of the above, at a quick glance, get you much further. --Tagishsimon (talk)

[edit] Protein Tablets

Are there any protein tablets that are suitable for 16yr old males? I want to build muscle, and have tried whey protein powder (drinks), and find them disgusting, are there any alternatives? If so, where can I get them from? Please advise me on such products that may be more palatable, but at the same time being suitable for my age. Thank You

We can't give medical advice. If you want real advice talk to a doctor, though I think strength training helps build muscle. Splintercellguy 23:00, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Asking about stuff you can buy at the supermarket is hardly medical advice, it's dietary advice if anything. I don't believe protein supplements are dangerous to take for any age individual but you have to learn about your own body if you want to see any kind of effect, like do you know how much protein your body can absorb at any one time? Do you know how much exercise you have to do to turn that protein into muscle? drinking or taking protein won't do anything unless you already follow a strict exercise and diet regime. To develop one of those for yourself takes a lot of time and research or the help of a qualified personal trainer, there are no shortcuts, that's why infomercials about exercise machines promising shortcuts STILL air on TV and that's why those same machines gather dust and end up at garage sales or ebay a year after they are bought. Vespine 06:09, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
(Agreed, dietary advice is not medical advice.) Unless you are a weightlifter, you probably don't have to worry about not getting enough protein for your muscles. If so, why not go with natural proteins, as in beans and nuts ? Fish are also a good source of protein. Eggs, meat, and fowl aren't quite as good for you, but still acceptable on occasion. Skim milk is also a good source. StuRat 06:23, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
  • You're not trying to build muscle with just protein intake are you? There's no way around old-fashioned exercize. - Mgm|(talk) 07:54, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
  • Yeah I do exercise as well, I'll try just with high protein foods then. Thanks for your help!
  • If you dont like the taste of whey protein try soy protein shakes. They taste quite a bit better in my opinion. They're a little harder to find and a little more expensive, and a little less effective though.

[edit] Romain Gary

On Dec 2 1980 the French writer and Diplomat committed suicide. He left a note explaining his action. I had a typed copy at that time that I kept in my archives. I lost that copy and now I need it for research on Gary. Where do I find a copy of that letter please ? In French if possible - ani

The question was asked earlier at the Humanities Desk which was probably a better choice for posting it than here. Two helpful attempts at answering your question were already given there. ---Sluzzelin talk 00:52, 4 April 2007 (UTC) Sorry, I just saw that someone advised you to post the question here. Can't win for losing, eh? ---Sluzzelin talk 00:56, 4 April 2007 (UTC)