Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 February 10

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[edit] February 10

[edit] Encyclopedia

What is a 2007/2008 print encyclopedia? What is a 2007/2008 CD-ROM encyclopedia? 68.193.147.179 00:32, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

The first would be a printed encyclopedia that was published for the years of 2007/2008 and the second would be the same except that instead of being in print, it would be on CD-ROM. Dismas|(talk) 04:14, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
I think he's looking for specific examples --frothT 07:50, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Unless you have a time machine, you aren't going to find any genuine 2008 encyclopedias for a couple of years yet! Even 2007 seems unlikely since we are only a small fraction of the way through the year. Print encyclopedias like Britannica typically produce new encyclopedias only every few years and fill in the gaps with 'year books' that summarise the changes and add historical data for that year. But I doubt you'd see the 2007 year book until sometime in the middle of 2008. CD-ROM encyclopedias can update more frequently since they don't have to be typset - but even so, you aren't going to see any 2008 data until sometime late in 2009.
I guess it would help to know the context of your question. SteveBaker 16:14, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Do you know a example of the lastest encylopedia [cd rom and print]
Check out our article: List_of_encyclopedias. It would be remiss of me not to recommend 2006 Wikipedia CD Selection - which is the best of Wikipedia crammed onto a CD that you can download for free - or purchase (with a good slice of the money going to charity). The 2007 CD-ROM version of Wikipedia is under construction right now - but as far as I can tell, no definite release date has been announced. SteveBaker 16:41, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] College basketball shooting decline?

66.167.231.155 03:24, 10 February 2007 (UTC)I was just looking at the NCAA media guide for basketball, and was looking at the statistics section. Looking at Florida's shooting percentage this year, they lead the NCAA at 54%. That's the highest total in the NCAA since 1989 when Michigan shot 56.6& for the season. Not to mention, the last time an NCAA leader in field goal percentage shot less than Florida did was in 1976, when Maryland shot 53.7% from the field.

In other words it has been 17 years since a team had a higher shooting percentage than Florida this year. Yet the previous 13 years, every leader in field goal percentage had a higher shooting percentage than Florida. What has caused this drop-off in field goal percentage in the NCAA?

Probably the adoption of the 3 point shot in 1986, the shot clock in 1985 (with the time reduced in 1993), and a change in philosophies to games involving more aggressive defense are the biggest factors. Some might also claim that players today don't learn the fundamentals of mid-range shooting (hook-shots, set shots, etc) in favor of a style that prizes layups, dunks, and 3 point shots. Mishatx *разговор* 06:17, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Solar Panels

Is it possible to paint over solar panels and they still function properly? Also, what type of air is in compressed air cleaner cans?

If it's opaque paint, no. As for the air, nasty fluorocarbons (see Canned air). --frothT 07:49, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Even if it's transparent paint - no. Solar panels take light from the sun in wavelengths outside of the visible spectrum (eg InfraRed and UltraViolet) - and whilst some kind of 'clear varnish' might look transparent in visible light, it might absorb or reflect away light in other wavelengths and completely cripple the ability of your panels to do their job. Just leave them alone! SteveBaker 16:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
Silicon based PV cells have peak efficiency for photons with energy just a bit over 1.12 eV, which corresponds to a wavelength around 1100 nm (infrared). The efficiency trails off rapidly for shorter wavelenghs (higher energy) because the absorption coefficient rapidly increases for higher energy photons and because most of the energy in these photons in excess of ~1.12 eV is released into the PV cell as phonons (heat) rather than current-carrying electron-hole pairs... So your typical crystalline or multicrystalline Si cell actually does a very poor job of converting UV light into electrical energy. In other words, just as Steve said, don't coat PV cells with anything unless you're quite sure of the coating's optical properties (not to mention any potential chemical reaction with whatever you're coating). -- mattb @ 2007-02-10T17:58Z
I can see no benefit for painting over solar panels. Why would you want to do that?Edison 06:26, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Language translator that stays in our alphabet

I'm trying to get a translation for certain English phrases into Russian, but every online translator I find gives me the Russian version of the word of phrase in Cyrillic. Which is no good to me since I can't read it. Where can I find a translator that will translate the phrases, but keep them in our alphabet? (That's odd, I know the name of the Russian alphabet but not our own.) 58.7.196.1 11:56, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh - and I'd rather not use the Languages reference desk because I have a number of phrases to translate, which keep popping up, and it's all for rather frivolous reasons, so I'd rather not clutter the place up. 58.7.196.1 11:58, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
"Our" alphabet is called the "Latin alphabet" or "Roman alphabet". By checking out the article on transliteration, I found the link to an Automatic Cyrillic Converter. What you can do is copying your received translations to the converter as an extra step, please note though that automatic translation is notoriously unreliable for any higher aspirations than a rough gist of the subject. 惑乱 分からん 12:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
See Uncyclopedia's Babel fish article. V-Man737 05:35, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
Be aware, of course, that transliteration will not necessarily tell you how to pronounce something. Russian pronunciation is a real pain in the ass, because the stress can shift all over the place in ways which are totally uninituitive to an English speaker, and will result in completely different sounding words. For example, Ivan is pronounced to a Russian as EE-vahn, whereas almost all English speakers would assume it to be I-van. Sputnik reads "Sput-nik" to an English speaker, but "Spoot-nik" to a Russian, etc. --140.247.242.75 18:15, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I don't think that is stress, just ortography. It seems similar to the ortography of Spanish, Italian, Finnish etc... 惑乱 分からん 15:46, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Free E-Mail Penpals

Are there any websites that offer free opportunities to make contact with an online penpal by email? --Waxout 15:34, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Just go to Google and type in 'email penpals' - and you'll see dozens and dozens of sites offering that kind of thing. But I would advise you to avoid that kind of approach. There are just too many scams, viruses, weirdos and predators out on the Internet to trust sites such as that. The best way to find friends on the Internet is to subscribe to mailing lists or forums based around subjects that interest you. Actually, Wikipedia isn't a bad place to find interesting people to talk to either. If you contribute to articles that interest you - you'll find other people working on the same kinds of things. In many cases those people provide their email addresses on their Talk: pages precisely so you can start up conversations outside of the Wikipedia community. But look for people with similar interests - watch topics of interest for a while and you'll pretty soon come to find people who have similar likes and dislikes. SteveBaker 16:03, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Start a blog,there are opportunities to E-mail or IM each other in various ways through the sites.There is usually a pretty reasonable security system on them.I've got several friends now that I communicate with on a penpal-like level I met through blogging.hotclaws**== 09:40, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Depersonalization/ Derealization

What causes Depersonalization/ Derealization and what is the souloution?

Science is still unsure of the exact cause or causes of depersonalization and derealization (which redirects to depersonalization). It may be that there are several causes, and the article briefly mentions likely ones. V-Man737 05:39, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TAX FREEDOM ACT 1998

When purchasing clothing from a stores internet site I was charged tax. My state does not charge tax on clothing. When I asked the company their answer was "the tax freedon act of 1998 allows to tax in any state that they have stores. Thank you72.79.82.49 18:30, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure if there is a question in here, but there is no benefit to the firm charging you tax if they don't have to (after all the sales tax goes to government not the business). Someone may be able to clear up the law more. ny156uk 00:43, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
  • As I understand it, the store has to charge the tax of the state in which it's based.If you went to another state that charges tax you would have to pay,even if you don't live there but are just passing through.hotclaws**== 09:45, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flight prices

Using a site such as Expedia to find a one-way flight from London to Tokyo on, say, March 1st 2007 brings up a flight from London to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Tokyo via Lufthansa flight 710, for a reasonable price of £360. However, the exact same Flight 710 from Frankfurt to Tokyo, on its own, costs a slightly larger £2,374. How does that work? Sum0 20:21, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Talk about packaging bonuses! febtalk 20:27, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
It has a lot to do with supply and demand; think of it as a road trip where everyone wants to go to a certain place. If you only want to go to a certain place, you would probably end up going there by yourself and paying for all the expenses. If you are willing to take a couple stops to let others in your group see what they want, you'll be able to split the cost with them. I'm not sure if that explains it fully, but it's kind of how I see it. V-Man737 05:44, 11 February 2007 (UTC)
I just realised something I didn't make very clear: it's not the same flight that takes off from London, stops at Frankfurt and continues to Tokyo: it's a separate flight to Frankfurt and then another, basically unrelated, separate flight to Tokyo. I don't know if this makes any difference (or if you realised that anyway)! Sum0 13:35, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

A 'pure' non-stop always sells at a premium. --Zeizmic 16:08, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] definition needed

How do you define 1. Primary employment 2. Secondary employment 3. Tertiary employmnet 86.137.195.192 23:41, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Is this what you're looking for? Dave6 talk 02:52, 11 February 2007 (UTC)