Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 May 12

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[edit] May 12

[edit] value of currency

what is the present USD value in indian rupee —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 222.253.250.23 (talk) 01:10, 12 May 2007 (UTC).

US $1 = 41.29 rupees [1]. --mglg(talk) 01:26, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
You can also Google this. Searching for "1USD in INR" (INR = Indian rupee) results in "1 U.S. dollar = 41.0273242 Indian rupees". --Shantavira 13:28, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] comedic sound effects

Hi everyone, I am trying to find a sound bite of the sound "wa wa waaaaa" (like a Trumpet or something) that is commen in cartoons where there a screw up of some sort, or in bloopers... the origin of this sound will be a nice bonus, thanks for the answeres :) 88.153.139.194 02:19, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

It's a muted trombone. See Wah-wah. A search for charlie brown teacher wav might get you a sound file (of questionable copyright status). --TotoBaggins 03:27, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
I don't think that's it. I think what you're referring to comes from Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (though Morricone could got it elsewhere, but I don't think so); whenever something surprising happens, the soundtrack goes "Wah wah waaaaa...." You can here a version of it at seconds 12-14 of this video: [2], or try 2:19 at here. Try renting the movie and seeing if that's what you're thinking of - it's worth seeing anyway. :-) zafiroblue05 | Talk 06:38, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
That's closer. The cartoon effect is always a descending series of theee notes, though. I'm thinking the Three Stooges might have used it, but I'm not sure. The third note is often really warbled, a lot like the signature note in Dragnet. —Steve Summit (talk) 14:24, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
yeah, i am referening to the three notes cartoon version. not to the "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" thingy.... still in all the internet i cant find it... 88.153.139.194 16:50, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
I'm sure that sound has a name. Maybe ask at the entertainment desk? It's the "bwah wah wahhhhh" sound that plays when something disappointing happens to one of the characters. I always thought of it as the "blooper sound" but that doesn't register on Google... it is probably a trombone, but I don't know. --24.147.86.187 18:59, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
A trumpet or trombone can make the sound equally well, with the trombone being able to go to a lower pitch. See Mute (music) A plunger mute starts closed over the bell of the instrument and as it is removed the WAA sound is made. Flutter-tongueing can create the rough tone described.Edison 19:41, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Curiously, the one in my head right now consistently has four descending notes. —Tamfang 06:18, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Woodworking question

I need to make a cut across a butcher block countertop to fit it into my kitchen (a picture of material). Actually I already cut it with my circular saw, but I wasn't careful enough and the cut wasn't straight - the piece is now 1/4 inch too long on one side and just right on the other. Now I need advice on the best way to make the thin cut to rectify this. I have most of the basic power tools and hand tools you might want for this except for a radial arm saw.

Want I am concerned about with different approaches: -hand plane: I've never really planed across the grain like I would have to here. Since this counter top is many strips of wood glued together, I'm afraid I will pop out a chunk of wood. Also I would like to end up with a really square cut on the end of this material - doesn't seem to me like the plane is the best tool for that. -Table saw: My only problem with this approach is what to use for a fence - the table is smaller than my 20 inch piece -Circular saw: Maybe this is the way but I've never used it to make such a thin cut

Ideas? ike9898 12:43, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

A plane definitely won't work. You're right, those go with the grain, not across.
If you're careful and the saw is of decent quality, you can do this with your circular saw. Start at the too-long edge (that is, the thick part of the cut), and work towards the "feather". I'm always pleasantly surprised at how well this can work. Use a fine-tooth blade for the cleanest cut.
If you're unsure about your ability to guide the saw steadily enough, or if you really want to get the best cut possible, clamp a thin piece of wood or metal (perhaps a framing square) to the work, as a guide, in just the right spot so that you can press the edge of your saw's base (the edge opposite the blade) along it. A circular saw + guide strip combination like this can give you just as clean and straight a cut as with a bench or radial arm saw and fence.
(If this isn't clear, ask and I'll try to explain it better, or make a picture.) —Steve Summit (talk) 13:46, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Thanks! I'm going to try the circular saw. ike9898 13:53, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Also, the cut may not go all the way to the "feather" end, leaving you with a bit to sand down. I'd use a sanding block. StuRat 15:38, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
When I bought a butcherblock table, the workers at the store had to cut it down to fit in the available space. They just clamped a 2x4 piece of wood (actually about 1.5 x 3.5 inches) across the butcher block at the appropriate distance away from the desired cut, and ran the saw across to make the cut. Then they smoothed it with a belt sander, and it looked as good as the factory finished edges. There are several things to be careful of: 1)Make sure the guide is at the correct distance. Make a test cut on scrap wood and measure the distance from guide to cut.2) The saw must staw tight against the guide; do not let sawdust build up and force the saw away. 3)The saw blade must stay perpendicular to the surface; it is all to easy to let it droop and cause the blade to bind or the edge to be bevelled. Naturally you must use eye protection and avoid cutting off fingers. Make a practice cut on a 2x10 or something similar to the workpiece. Your stance can affect how smoothly you are able to control the saw. The choice of blade is important if you want a relatively smooth cut. A saw will inevitable leave cutmarks to be sanded off, so allow a fraction for that. Edison 19:35, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
if it were me i would use a router. failing that, use a belt sander carefully —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tony farg (talk • contribs) 18:05, 13 May 2007 (UTC).
That's the key; make the best rough cut you can with a hand-held circular saw running against a guide, then use your belt sander to trim the wood to the exactly-desired cutline. A belt sander works surprisingly fast when equipped with a coarse-grit belt.
Atlant 12:27, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
Update: I tried the circular saw and it did the trick. ike9898 21:01, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky

What exactly does the phrase mean? I have seen it on t-shirts and the like, but I haven't actually got a deifinition of it. Thanks, 86.145.104.157 13:44, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

"Getting lucky" is slang for having sex (or variations thereof). "In Kentucky" is just a catchy rhyme that means nothing (or, alternately, means "with your sister" -- but that depends on your attitude towards Kentucky). — Lomn 14:28, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Easy Install Pond Pump?

are there any good pond pumps which can be installed very easily - i.e. plug into a socket and place in the pond and its ready to go? We just got a pond pump (Hozelock Cascade 1500) which, from looking at the instruction leaflet, will need an electrician to hook it up to the mains as well as a lot of assembly (with a lot of jargony terms we don't recognize) (and the leaflet says we have to officially notify the local council that we are putting in a new pond pump too!). Is there a pond pump out there (hopefully not too expensive with about 1000litres capacity) that we can plug in, drop in, and go? Thanks for any advice!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.110.53.235 (talk) 19:02, 12 May 2007 (UTC).

Just a word of caution here, perhaps the reason that you may need an electrician is because water and electricity can be very dangerous. There may be pumps that are 'fool-proof', but fools can be pretty ingenious. Truly no offence intended, just be careful.--killing sparrows (chirp!) 08:23, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
In the United States, small pond pumps are commonly available with an ordinary mains lead (12 feet/4M, or so) with an ordinary grounding power plug. These can be plugged into any outlet equipped with a Residual-current device/Ground-Fault Circuit Interrupter (as all outdoor outlets should be per our National Electrical Code).
Atlant 12:32, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Time travel and the "grandfather paradox"

Time travel is real. The Grandfather paradox is not a practical problem, because those who participate in time travel promote what is known as "misdirection and inattentiveness" (M-I). That is, in order to avoid "self-obliteration" ... "future people" do not do *anything* to make themselves "stand out" in a crowd, or interfere with "present people" ... they just blend in. Also, "future people" actually try to *promote* inattentiveness, so as to make their "blending in" that much easier, and to increase their "degrees of freedom". This is why inventions like cellphones and automobiles, and social behaviors that narrow people's attention and focus are so prevalent. They are intentionally put forward to "distract" us from knowing what's going on around us.

Future people time travel to the past because (ironically) our actions polluted the planet and irrevocably rendered the Earth undesirable for our children's children. Now, they are coming back to take what we claimed we were preserving for them.

Question: The above is just a fictionalized scenario thought up one day. Is anyone aware if this scenario is similar to any pre-existing works of science fiction, or entertainment, or formal theories related to time travel? NoClutter 19:16, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Have you reviewed some any of time travel in fiction, since there is an enormous volume of all kinds of speculative time travel science fiction out there? User:AlMac|(talk) 19:41, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
The concept of time travellers blending in to avoid damaging their timeline is fairly common, but I've never heard of mobile phones/iPods being used as a tool to prevent people noticing timetravellers; indeed, the film Sliding Doors is a good example against this hypothesis: in the film, a person's entire life is changed by the fact that a child in a crowd happens to be standing in a slightly different place in two different scenarios; a seemingly meaningless change can have huge effects on the timeline; therefore time travellers would be understandably wary of even "M-I". Ditto polluted world; any civilisation that could travel in time would surely have the technology to restore the planet anyway (although it is possible that people may travel back in time to collect seeds/DNA of later-extinct species to clone them in the future). Of course, now I'm just a bit worried that you yourself are from the future, and this is all some convoluted psychological trick to convince that time travel is not real when it is! Ah, well. Laïka 23:00, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
The motivation, "future people time travel to the past because our actions polluted the planet and irrevocably rendered the Earth undesirable...", is rather like that in the story "Vintage Season" by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (originally published under a pseudonym). --Anonymous, May 13, 2007, 06:22 (UTC).
Just a thought - the above scenario wouldn't rule out the Grandfather paradox, because you don't know that all time-travelers will promote "misdirection and inattentiveness." If even one traveler went against the rules, the paradox could come up. zafiroblue05 | Talk 23:27, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

There's no such thing as original thought anymore. Anything you've thought of someone else has thought of. Worry more about making it so the reader wants to read it, not about how original it is. Look at World War Z. Obviously, there's nothing creative about mockumentary books, or zombie horror stories, it's the way he made it interesting to read that makes it good. The zombie survival guide is practically a portmanteau of Worst Case Scenario and a Zombie flick. Look at japanese manga/anime, most of them follow the same basic plots as each other to some point, but they aren't all extremely popular. Think of star trek, compared to the thousands of other sci-fi shows at the time. -- Phoeba WrightOBJECTION! 06:33, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I have discussed the time-travel paradox in my book 'Time Travel:A Complete Impossibility',the best-selling non-fiction book of 2026 Lemon martini 10:53, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sydney River McDonalds Murders

In reference to the article "Sydney River McDonalds Murders" I am interested in the fact that Darren Muise a convicted murderer has the ability to invest an inheritance with said rewards being in the millions all while incarcerated in a Federal Penitentiary. Is there no law that will limit the freedom a convict has? If this is the case when Darren Muise is released from incarceration he will be a millionaire. I personally have worked for 30 years and have been a law abiding citizen and will probably never see a million dollars in my own personal fund, so after a portion of my tax paying dollars has helped to keep him fed , clothed and sheltered he will one day be free and wealthy. I find information like this disturbing and was wondering if the information in this article is factual and can be backed by reference or if it is just an assumtion or hearsay 142.167.152.211 19:48, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

A quick Google search seems to suggest the negative. Sounds bogus to me anywayz. Splintercellguy 20:25, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
I can't find any source online that confirms this either. However, there is no reason it couldn't be true. Being in prison does not stop one receiving an inheritance, and he presumably has access to newspapers and can speak to a broker by telephone, thereby controlling his investments. If and when he is released he will be able to access his money without restriction. The only question would be: if he was such a visionary in seeing potential in the tech-markets, why was he so stupid to rob a McDonalds and murder some people in the process. Rockpocket 20:31, 12 May 2007 (UTC)


If I were a member of one of the victimes' families I would file a civil suit against this sick bastard the moment he walks out of the prison gates, and take him for every last cent he has.

[edit] Capital punishment

I'm looking for a specific case concerning capital punishment, but I'm having trouble remembering the details. I believe it occured in Massachusetts, inside a federal building of some sort (I think it was a federal hospital). One of the nurses was injecting poisons into her patients, and when she was found out, there was some uncertainty as to how to punish her, --because she was in MA where their is no death penalty, but I think she was from out of state, AND since she was working in a federal building, there was some discrepency as to whether she should get the death penalty or not. Can anyone point out the specific case, or at least the nurse's name? I believe it happened about 6 or 7 years ago. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.85.144.149 (talk) 21:26, 12 May 2007 (UTC).

I believe a web search for killer nurse will show you what you're looking for. --TotoBaggins 00:37, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
The name's Charles Cullen. –S.dedalus 19:35, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] code help

I need some help with this code- I'm not asking for someone to decode it for me, just tell me what kind of code it is:

d1ebed86014f0375b769e97e4574a301
21ae6a06e83ea09077dc6a42481caeb8
c680fc003f961d14cb5c962e0976aca1
c9fa1fd294edfabec908683b971a2543
cf62e13b6f333fb9fc0e8b0ba9ff09d2
f9dabbcc95e5620e8f9110d9a1503d6b
375a917645af61bfd49539fe12e805e6
ce9ba1e3cb0479319b7f99be9909c9e8
22522bdbe75ba4420279c341d90a0935
559ccb42a6b1775d7ea56adee14f3e6f
556ece1f28d75f27d3ff9f2300fe581e
a94ede39996b27477f39377c197ceb3a
f5e7d0fd207dcb0249f46b4196bd1151

Thank you. 68.231.151.161 21:27, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Since the digits range from 0 through F, it's most likely hexadecimal code. --LarryMac | Talk 21:38, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Interpreted as hex, as LarryMac suggested, those digits reduce to a 208-byte file full of random binary bytes with no obvious pattern or significance. Can you tell us anything more about where this data came from, or is it a pure puzzle? —Steve Summit (talk) 21:55, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, could be anything, from a random bunch of hex values, a signature, an encoded message... without a context, we can't tell you exactly what it is. -- ReyBrujo 22:18, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it is supposed to be an encoded message. 68.231.151.161 00:16, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Um, any more information? What's supposed to be the result? The algorithm? Splintercellguy 06:04, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
With no other information, I'd try treating it as an array of 1664 pixels – arrange them in grids of 13×128, 26×64, 52×32 and so on, and see if anything looks like a picture. —Tamfang 06:12, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
That would be four-bit color- Not pretty. --76.106.15.180 00:20, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
I had in mind one-bit color (did I miscount?). Remember the interstellar signal? —Tamfang 04:30, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
Looks similar to what encrypted e-mail messages look like. Check out Hushmail and PGP, for example. Unimaginative Username 03:14, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
This looks like the code generated from running the #MD5 algorithm over a group of files which is often used by database systems to identify duplicate files.

[edit] Gun malfunction in Schindler's List

In the Steven Spielsberg movie, Schindler's List, there was one scene where a Nazi SS officer went inside one of the factories and asked a worker to produce a door hinge, while timing him. Unsatisfied with the result, he drags the worker outside and pushes him in the ground and attempts to execute him. However, the gun fails to fire and after attempting to fix his gun, the gun still does not fire. The officer is seen repeatedly pulling back the slide and pressing the trigger. What could be some possible reasons for this gun malfunction? Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you pull the slide back and release it, the previously chambered round should fall out right? Since there was no bullet that came out, did the gun perhaps have an empty magazine? Thanks. 64.230.87.189 22:19, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe the malfunction lie in that no bullet could enter the chamber, or it simply jammed. Joneleth 23:03, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

As far as I can remember (it's been years since I saw the film), the gun was not loaded in the first place - it was intended to be a mock execution. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:14, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

of course the gun wasn't loaded, I don't think people would like it much if they went around shooting actors.

...He's talking about in the context of the film... It's obviously very possible to shoot people and kill them without harming the actors. -- Phoeba WrightOBJECTION! 07:35, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

The most likely cause for this type of failure in real life would be a broken or missing firing pin. Sublium 22:29, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] who is most hardcore?

who is the best? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by L.P, Cheshunt (talk • contribs) 23:56, 12 May 2007 (UTC).

Brandon Vedas. --TotoBaggins 00:42, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
Iggy Pop Vespine 22:46, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
Jenna Jameson. Cyta 07:55, 14 May 2007 (UTC)
They can't all be the most hardcore... 213.48.15.234 13:29, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
unless they're all SECRETLY THE SAME PERSON!!! —Tamfang 22:50, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What is noel edmonds' address?

What is his address? —Preceding unsigned comment added by L.P, Cheshunt (talk • contribs)

Apparently he lives in Exeter, although I don't think his home address is a matter of public record. Various methods of contacting him are listed here. FiggyBee 01:18, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
He lives in South Tawton, dunno where exactly but if you wander around there it'll probably be the house painted pink with yellow spots. -88.109.229.1 14:20, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
I believe Noel's House is in Crinkley Bottom. Cyta 07:57, 14 May 2007 (UTC)