Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 May 20

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[edit] May 20

[edit] Huge Dick

What is the name of the black guy with the enormous dick with a giant wart on the side tthat often stars in BangBros porno productions? is anything else known about him?

At the risk of being understood all too well, I think this question belongs in Ref Desk: Entertainment. Bielle 01:27, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Funniest question and answer so far. PS:Isn't it "belongs to" instead of "belongs in"? --Taraborn 16:46, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
The Entertainment desk isn't an agent that can own things. The question belongs at a certain location, and that location is "in WP:RD/E". —Keenan Pepper 21:40, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Aha, thank you. As you see, English is not my first language, and situations like this one are good to learn. --Taraborn 09:47, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe its a secret agent :] HS7 19:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

"Belongs in" implies something that can contain and be contained. (This is getting worse.) I see the Ref Desks as categories of questions and answers, so that something may "belong in" a specific category. "Belong to" suggests ownership or associative kinship, as in "That car belongs to me" or "I belong to the public library". I am sure there is a linguist out there who can be definitive for us. Bielle 23:00, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Why don't you try the Bang Bros website at www.bangbros.com. (I haven't made this a link for obvious reasons.)--Shantavira|feed me 09:20, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Bielle's idea of a linguist is brilliant.This seems to be quite a tricky question,so it would be best and most appropriate to get a particularly cunning linguist ;) Lemon martini 10:21, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
You should save that kind of comment, for later.. Vespine 01:05, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] China's population

China's population exceeds more than 1 billion ppl, but they have started the onechild policy. My question is, would the population rate in China decline in about 30-40 years because all those born during the zedong era would have died and there isnt enough children to take the place?

You're making a big assumption here: That people listen to the rules -- Phoeba WrightOBJECTION! 02:31, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Check out Demographics of the People's Republic of China. Looks like the population is projected to stabilize, but not decline, around 2050. Neither it or one-child policy explains how this is possible, though the latter does say that having more than one child is not prohibited, just penalized. Clarityfiend 04:44, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
The one-child policy allows legitimate exceptions (a second child without penalty, if the first is female, in rural areas; up to three or four are permitted for ethnic minorities), and it does not ban second children, just penalises the family for them - you have to pay education costs for the second child, etc. So many wealthier families can choose to have multiple children, and pay the costs.
All this taken together makes the fertility rate about 1.8 - about the same as New Zealand, Norway or Denmark. You'd expect a decline, but not a collapse. Shimgray | talk | 14:11, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vaughan

Just a quick question. How do you pronounce the name of Vaughan, Ontario? I've heard both 'von' as in Otto von Bismarck and 'vah-gen'. Thanks for your help208.96.96.207 02:04, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Locally, we pronounce it "Von". I've never heard the other anywhere in Canada. Bielle 02:19, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
It rhymes with "dawn" -- at least, that's how I say it. I've never heard it pronounced as a two-syllable word. -- Mwalcoff 02:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I've never been to Ontario, but as a person's name, both first and last, I've only ever heard it pronounced "vorn", rhyming with "dawn". FiggyBee 07:56, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
If you persist in using two syllables, we'll have to send somebody around to "fix your vah-gen". Clarityfiend 04:50, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Downshifting to overtake car

I've read a few articles online that said if you are looking to rapidly overtake another vehicle, you should downshift to get your engine in the proper power band and then accelerate. But if you downshift, won't your car slow down a bit? Also, what is the exact process of performing this downshift overtake? thanks. 64.230.4.107 03:39, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Whether and how much your car will slow down depends on how long you take to shift, and how hard you press the accelerator as you release the clutch. Whether you want to downshift or not will depend on how fast you're going and what gear you're in to begin with; my car has five gears, and if I wanted to overtake someone at 70km/h I might shift down from 5 to 4. But I wouldn't shift down if I was overtaking at 90. Basically, it's a question of which gear you will have the most acceleration in at that speed. However, I will just say that if you need every ounce of acceleration available to make the pass in time, you probably shouldn't be trying to overtake in the first place. FiggyBee 07:51, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Yes, your car will slow down a little bit, depending how slow you are with your gearshifts. But that is easily compensated by for what you gain in acceleration when you go to overtake. Try for example driving on flat ground at a fairly slow speed in a high gear (say 60km/h in fifth gear) where your engine will be at very low revs and then accelerating - you'll find it's a pretty slow and arduous process no matter how much you put your foot down, especially if your engine isn't that powerful. Now try the same thing in say third gear and notice the difference. That's the principle of downshifting, most engines generate more power and torque at higher revs (it's also the same reason you might downshift when going up a steep hill). And if you don't have a car to try this on, you can get exactly the same effect using a geared pushbike. What's the process of performing it? Push in the clutch, choose a lower gear, press the accelerator slightly to bring up the engine revs, then release the clutch gently while still accelerating to try to get a smooth gear change. --jjron 07:56, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Surely anyone stupid enough to ask this question shouldn't be driving a car in teh first place? Best username yet 13:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I don't think that's particularly appropriate, or for that matter correct. I'm amazed when travelling with others how many people are reticent to downshift, often for this very reason. And did you think that perhaps this person in fact does not drive a car (lots of teenagers for example use Wikipedia, which is why I added the info about the pushbike to my answer). --jjron 14:14, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Short answer: Yes, down-shifting gives you more power for accelleration (in a stick-shift car).
Long answer: Most cars produce more horsepower at high RPM's - but are most fuel efficient at lower RPM's. My MINI Cooper'S - for example - gets best gas mileage at 2000 to 3000 RPM - but most accelleration at 4000 to 6000 RPM. So when you are cruising along the freeway, you want to be in top gear (6th on the MINI) at somewhere around the freeway speed limit - you'll see you are running about 3000 RPM which is great for fuel economy. But at 3000 RPM, you don't have much horsepower to get the car accellerating. Dropping down a gear - but squeezing gently on the gas pedal to maintain the same speed - pushes the RPM's up - if I drop from 6th gear to 4th - the RPMs will leap from 3000 up to 5000 or so. Now, if I stamp on the gas pedal, I'll get much more accelleration than I would have done in 6th gear and the car will rocket up to 100mph in just a few seconds. However, you can only do that if your RPM's were in the 'efficiency' band around 2000 to 3000 as you were cruising along. If I were driving my car at 130 mph (eek!) in 6th gear, it's already turning 6000 RPM - if I down-shifted - even just down to 5th, the RPM's would jump up to maybe 7500 RPM - into the dangerously over-revving "red band" region - and the engine could even be damaged as a result. But beyond about 6000 RPM, the amount of power the engine produces starts to drop again - so down-shifting at 130 mph would slow the car down dramatically. At lower speeds, this need to downshift to maximise accelleration has another benefit. When going through corners, you can drop down a gear or two - without squeezing the gas pedal to keep your speed up - and the engine will slow the car down - helping out the brakes. So you can drop a gear to slow down coming into the corner - then take advantage of being in the 'power band' of RPM to accelerate back out of the turn again. This can leave you in the weird situation of wanting to brake and push on the gas pedal at the same time - hence 'heel and toe' driving where you use one part of your right foot to push on the brake with the other part pushing on the gas. Performance cars (like my MINI) are often designed with foot pedal placed so as to make this easy. Cars with automatic gearboxes will often downshift for you automatically if you press down on the gas pedal hard and suddenly. This is called 'kick-down' and it does pretty much what you'd do yourself in a stick-shift car. SteveBaker 16:32, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Oh - you also asked for the exact process: Stomp on the clutch - while you move the shifter to the lower gear, squeeze gently on the gas to match the engine speed to the speed of the car in the new gear - release the clutch - now floor the gas pedal to accellerate away. Once you've passed whatever it was, simply up-shift in the usual way to get back into your cruising gear. The knack of doing it well is to match the RPM of the engine to the new gear without over or under revving it - which would cause a jerk when you released the clutch. Learning to get that right takes practice - but it's important to do it smoothly or you'll wear your clutch out and put undue stresses on the transmission. Once you get good at it, you won't even need to think about it anymore. SteveBaker 16:57, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
If you get really good at it you can shift down without even using the clutch. However I definitely do NOT recommend you even try this in a new car with a tight gearbox, I used to do it all the time in a '84 corolla with a loose transmission, it was very easy. Cruising at 60km/h in 4th gear and around 2000RPM, you give it a bit of gas to make sure the engine is pushing on the gears and then you'd slowly let the accelerator go, as the revs of the engine decrease there is a moment where the engine stops pushing on the gears and the gears start dragging on the engine, at that exact moment you can pop into neutral without the clutch, that's the easy and relatively safe part. Then what you do is the exact opposite, you rev the engine slowly up until the 3rd gear is spinning at the same speed as the gears, from memory around 3000RPM at which point you don't need the clutch to pop it into gear, you just gently push against 3rd feeling for when the gears will mesh, it should just sort of melt into place, at this point though if you mess it up you can get a nasty crunch as the gears scrape, and if you are unlucky you can trash your gearbox entirely, so again, do not experiment with a car you care about:) Vespine 02:10, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I can vouch for Vespine's comment. When I was in high school my best mate had a Daewoo Nexia (think Mk II Vauxhall Astra in slightly-modernised bodywork). One day we were out on a mini-roadtrip somewhere and the clutch pedal mechanism collapsed, leaving it stuck in second gear. Since the car was mildly knackered anyway (and my mate is not given to calling out breakdown assistance in any circumstances), he decided to try out something his dad had mentioned about changing gear without the clutch. We managed to get home (about 25 miles of mixed country lanes and urban driving) by carefully matching the revs of the engine and gearbox; 3000RPM sounds about right, there's resistance from the gearbox until they're matched and then it'll drop in, with or without some crunching. I think at this stage the car had done about 70000 miles, but I can't say how much longer the gearbox lasted after that treatment because about two months later my friend had his car keys stolen from a leisure centre locker. They took the car, used it in an armed robbery of a post office about 140 miles away and then nicked the wheels and dumped the car in a car park with the windows down and the sunroof open, during a thunderstorm. Unsurprisingly it was a write-off :-) --YFB ¿ 03:41, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
Well, at least it went out in a blaze of glory - much better than ignominiously rusting out! SteveBaker 23:32, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Metal's reaction to price scanners

Today I bought some cheap silver coloured metal earrings, and after I'd got them back from the check-out them I noticed there was a strange gold colouring on the lower part of both earrings which wasn't there before. It rubbed off easily with my fingers. I was wondering if maybe the price scanner at the check-out caused this weird reaction, and how is it caused? --Candy-Panda 07:43, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Probably the "silver colour" coming away from the cheap metal base. Common on low priced goods. Not the scanner.86.202.156.216 15:20, 20 May 2007 (UTC)DT

The barcode scanner? I've never heard of a very low-power laser removing coatings like that. -- mattb 02:49, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

No the gold stuff rubbed off, the silver stuff is still there. --Candy-Panda 07:00, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like some mild tarnishing. FiggyBee 07:32, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Exhibitionism

how to react when faced by an exhibionist? Official police hint? Comprehensive study of "stratgies"? (move along [and tell police], laugh, tell how small "he" is, fotograph with mobile phone, beat him [if skilled in fighting]) -- 172.158.202.78 10:26, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Don't Panic, keep walking? --antilivedT | C | G 10:45, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
WP:DENY them! -- Phoeba WrightOBJECTION! 12:29, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I think (as seen here and here) that this question is better suited on the Psychology reference desk. A.Z. 18:11, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Whoever created that, they need to add it to the Reference Desks header so that it shows up on all of the other pages. Corvus cornix 18:53, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I'll do so in a couple of minutes. Thank you. A.Z. 19:09, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
It appears that I don't know how to do it, but I think I'll eventually learn it, if I keep trying. A.Z. 20:04, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
It works! Now someone has to draw an icon so we can link it from the main header, the one with the mona lisa, the book and the atom. I made my suggestion on the new desk. A.Z. 22:41, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
<jk>Whip out scissors and approach with maniacal expression on face, mumbling over and over "Lorena Bobbit"? Or apologize profusely for having left your magnifying glass at home.</jk> Clarityfiend 18:34, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
How about "Ooh that reminds me.I need to buy some chipolata sausages" Lemon martini 10:24, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
Ignore him. Exhibitionists get off on your reaction. --Carnildo 22:40, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

The opening credits of Cagney and Lacey featured Marybeth Lacey seemingly giving a frank and heated opinion to a flasher. Sadly, the title music meant that her words were inaudible. I vaguely recall that the British TV programme Points of View requested a lipreader to decipher the comments, but I don't remember the answer. --Dweller 10:51, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] digital rape

Look im a little cofused hear. i herd the term "digital rape" on the news. what is the meaning of the term becouse thay did not say wether it was any difrent form the usal type. i say neither looks to any good.

Thanks DRY IYC

It refers to penetration of the victim using the finger/s (digit/s). --jjron 13:57, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Well, a story came out a few weeks ago about a girl that has been raped on Second Life. I'd guess that's it. — Kieff | Talk 16:46, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

That's right, it could either mean rape with the fingers (digits) or simulated rape on a computer/in a game/video. StuRat 20:09, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

It could also mean raping a digit? A.Z. 20:10, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Dear God - I mean, there are literally thousands being raped and murdered in Darfur, Iraq, and Afghanistan, et al. Can we please get a little bit real in here?
That may be, but still doesn't mean we should ignore rapes committed by the forcible insertion of a finger. StuRat 23:28, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Digital Ass Rape exists, but it redirects to digital rights management. A.Z. 23:52, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that's someone's comment on how they feel about DRM. :-) StuRat 05:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
One of most misleading phrases in advertising is when an ad for a medical clinic says the docter will give male patients a digital exam of the prostate. I wonder if any patient expects doc will be looking at a digital display on a meter.Edison 20:47, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What site?

A few days ago when i went to the hockey hall of fame , there was a place where i could broadcast a hockey game and then watch it , the video then said that i could go on specific site to watch it again if i saved it.I would like to know what that site is.Thank you for your time.

You got two answers here, the first time you asked it. --Steve Summit (talk) 21:52, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

whoops!! my bad (74.102.217.142 23:16, 20 May 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Downloading a flash movie

Is there anyway I can download a flash movie from a website? More sepcifically, a historical short from Historica Thanks. Jamesino 16:59, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

You may find some tips in this thread from a week or so at the Computing Desk. —Steve Summit (talk) 17:55, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
  • FlashGet is versatile for this sort of thing and not restricted to the popular video sites. - Mgm|(talk) 08:21, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] sexuality

My partner and I had a debate over whether science has said it is normal and/or safe for partners to sleep during intercourse (sleep together while penetrated/penetrating) I know i read it here somewhere but now cant find my source. PLease help::

So, what is your question?
Come on people, get with the 21st century already:) There really is no such thing as normal when considering sexual matters between two consenting adults. I can not possibly see a safety issue regarding this, my opinion is that the operative word here really is consenting. When you are asleep you can not give consent, which even between married couples should never be disregarded, but if you and your partner decide and agree that you are both happy and comfortable to be woken up (or not woken up) occasionally mid coitus, then as above, what's the question? Vespine 00:02, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I would just like to say that I'm glad who ever it was undeleted this question. I agree it isn't very tasteful or terribly informative or anything like that, but who ever deleted it without even entering into discussion was inappropriate for a place where free speech is promoted. Thank you. Vespine 01:00, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
I read this to mean, "we both fall asleep mid-intercourse." Which, if the case, present century's mores aside, might be considered a little abnormal. -- Azi Like a Fox 04:42, 22 May 2007 (UTC)
No idea how safe or normal it is but the word you want to research is somnophilia. meltBanana 18:23, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ice cream in hospitals

This question has been moved to the appropriate desk i.e. Science which deals with the Human Body. You can find it here: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science#Ice_cream_in_hospitals. --Eptypes 01:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rage Virus

This question has been moved to the appropriate desk i.e. Science which deals with the Human Body. You can find it here: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science#Rage_Virus. --Eptypes 01:14, 21 May 2007 (UTC)