Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

Template:Communitypage This is not a help page for problems with Wikipedia. See the Wikipedia:FAQ, Wikipedia:Help and Wikipedia:Village pump for questions about Wikipedia itself.

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The Wikipedia Reference Desk serves much the same function as a library reference desk. Do you have a specific question that you want answered by Wikipedia? Then ask below! Give the question a meaningful title, not just "NEED HELP", and you will be more likely to get an answer. To request that a complete article be written, go to requested articles.

If you know an answer, give only a very limited answer on this page. Just post a link to the Wikipedia article that contains the answer (although you might have to supply a few missing details, relevant to the specific question, here on this page).

Old questions and answers will be removed periodically. You can browse old questions and answers in the Reference Desk archive.

Non-reference questions will be moved to more appropriate pages.

• Brett's question about setting up a wiki moved to Wikipedia:Village pump
• Muriel Gottrop's question about Macedonian phalanx moved to Talk:Macedonian phalanx
• Translation question moved to Wikipedia:Village pump
• Linnaean taxonomy question moved to talk:Scientific classification
• e-business redirect answered at wikipedia talk:redirect

See also Wikipedia:Requests for summaries for requesting a Wikipedia-internal summary of reports, documents, websites etc.

To facilitate ease of browsing and replying, please:

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Fleet Air Arm versus Luftwaffe

Hello,

I was attempting to find information about any air battles between Fleet Air Arm (FAA) Corsairs and Hellcats versus German ME 109s and FW 190s? I know that the first German aircraft shot down over Britain by an American made plane was done by a pair of FAA Martlets (AKA. Widcats); and I was curious to see how well the Royal Navy F4Us and F6Fs did against the German fighters?

Thanks,

Darwin

DFCONCON@aol.com

Indian Government Copyrights

Are Indian government webpages copyrighted? If so (and I guess they probably are) do they offer any sort of unrestrictive license to use their work? --Xiaopo's Talk 07:14, Jan 18, 2004 (UTC)

Help needed

posted to Wikipedia:Village pump by anonymous User:202.156.2.211

During the down fall( 1799) of Tippu Sultan , my ancestor migrated from ARABIA and came to the court of Tippu Sultan . He was appointed as Patel and was posted to Chickmagalore . Is it possible to obtain details about him from old records, if so what is the appropraite action I have to take . Thanks a lot Azeez

Forth

I don't know of anywhere else to ask this, but does anyone know where I could find a free Forth System that supports pixel-level graphics? The only ones I can find either cost money, only support character-color graphics, or fail to work with my computer (e.x. Colorforth). Can anyone help? User:128

Botanist needed!

Can some botanist check the new flower pics I uploaded and tell me their official names? Image:Violet-flower-160px.jpg, Image:Beautiful-flower-160px.jpg, Image:Yellow-group-of-flowers-160px.jpg, Image:Yellow-flower-160px.jpg. Thanks! Better to answer on my talk page. Optim 12:41, 22 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Amazing flowers. -Itai 22:29, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

:) Optim 03:19, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Help!

sir,i want to know about recent topics in finance for doing project. i mainly concentrate on share market and banking sector.if you can help me i am greatful to you, so i humbly request you to help me. my e-mail id is resmi_rajagopal@yahoo.com

how tall

Did the tallest candidate always win the presidential race? Can you e-mail a list and the match-ups in order of year. I am usding this information for a college class.

thank you ray ruddles UTHRILLME007@YAHOO.COM

I'm sure the answer is no, but as a general trend, the taller candidate has usually won. Take a look at List of U.S. Presidents by height order, which is still very much a work in progress. --Minesweeper 03:59, Jan 26, 2004 (UTC)

I did a web search and found this claim, although at least once this was claimed true only since the introduction of television, and most resources use the ubiquitous "most" (for instance, see [1]). I failed to find any substantiation. Generally speaking, I cannot recall any gnome ever being elected President of the United States. If you like, this is the sort of question The Straight Dope enjoys taking apart, although the answer, know in advance, is "no". -Itai 22:23, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

INFO PLEASE

THANK YOU FOR TAKING MY QUESTION I AM LOOKING FOR INFO ON A ENGLISH/USA PAINTER BY THE NAME OF "VICTOR WILLIAM COULES"1891 - 1981 I CANT SEEM TO FIND ANY ON THE WEB I WONDER IF YOU CAN PUT ME ON THE RIGHT TRACK THANK YOU

                        VICTOR

I haven't been able to find any information, but know that your query ranks 11th on Google's search for "Victor Coules". Sometimes I wonder whether there is any future in the web, and if there is, whether I'll be able to find it.

- Itai 22:26, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Intense Pulse Light treatments - scars

Hello,

I am of East Indian origin and have recently had Intense Pulse Light treatment to remove a few moles on my face. Even though I was assured by the lab technicians than this treatment does not leave behind any scars, I was left with a scab on two of the treated spots followed by a dark scar. This was last October, 3 months ago and despite the application of Vitamin A & E creams, the marks are still there, just a little lighter. Is there hope that they will eventually disappear? The lab technicians keep reassuring me that they will. The reason it is taking so long is because I have pigmented skin. Please advise as to what I can do to hasten the process of clearing up.

Thank you.

T

Production of 'Perfect" Light by a Firefly

Oxygen plus luciferin results in a chemical reaction that produces the "cold" light at almost 100 % efficiency. [Compared to the ca 10 % light, 90 % heat of a household Tungsten filament bulb] How is the system regenerated? Some reduction reaction must take place.

Ceramic and Clay Sound Analysis

Ceramic and Clay Sound Analysis I am doing resarch on this for my final year paper (mechanical engineering). Please contact me if there is any information or if you have any leads or links to this sort of matter, please do inform me. I do need a big hand here whether from Nobel Prize Winners or from pre-school geniuses. Thank you so much.

E-mail: neospunk@email.com

Metropolitan Police changes due to CDPA 1988

Hi

I work for NCALT in association with the Metropolitan Police and have been recently tasked the job of researching and analysing the recent changes to the CDPA 1988 in the UK. I was wondering if you had any articles discussing these changes and what they mean. It is a matter of urgency because my analysis has to be completed this week. So if you could direct me to where i could find articles on your site relating to the CDPA 1988 i would be very greatful.

Many Thanks

Kamran Habib

Red Barron

I need to know the Military ID Number of Manfred von Richthofen. Can anyone help. Email me at smith63@entercomp.com

Thanks

Glenn Smith

Rifle valuation

I would like some information on the value of a Whitworth percussion muzzle loading rifle by Cartmell. (hexagonal bore .65) Do you know of anyone in Ottawa, Canada who could give me an accurate appraisal?

Sweden's Deaf Schools

I am writing a paper about Sweden's Deaf school and would like to know what kind of budget and/or resources are devoted to their education? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Ginger

World War II Vets Interviewed

I remember hearing something about either the Smithsonian or the National Archive interviewing World War II vetrans. They want to record the vets' stories, for posterity's sake. Can anyone give me more information on this? →Raul654 06:54, Jan 31, 2004 (UTC)

PDA privacy paranoia

• Hypothetically, how can someone delete PDA's computer memory completely, so that nobody will be able to restore its contents? Is the "delete" facility of the PDA's operating system enough and safe to be used by privacy paranoids? :) Answer at my talk page. Optim 16:44, 1 Feb 2004 (UTC)

translation needed!

My name is Daniel Molina, I am a Brazilian and a i live in São Paulo, 23 years old. My question is:

"God be with you"

I really want this sentence translate it in western aramaic, i was searching in the internet and only what a found is alphabet of neo aramaic.

Please help this brasilian student!

Thanks

Daniel Molina

please white it back at:

beatman@ig.com.br

beatman@bol.com.br

linear interpolation

Good day.

I would like to ask how should I interpolate linearly to find for the seven values between two points given?

Please e-mail me at lheslhiee@yahoo.com

Thank you very much.

+I'll send you an excel sheet that makes it very simple. Good luck. ike9898 14:40, Feb 3, 2004 (UTC)

My Ancestors--Help, Please.--from Elizabeth L. Nice

Hello, My name is Elizabeth L. Nice. I am in the United States. My Father was Franklin Motes Nice and all the Nices dateing back to the 1500-1700's were from Nice, France. I have an official coat of arms and I am looking into my ancestoral background. Any information you could give me would be greatly appreciated. My Grandfathers with the name "Nice" came to the United States we believe sometime in the 1700's--As far as we know, they were all doctors--My father broke that chain and did not become a doctor. I was also told that my ancestors founded Nicetown,Philadelphia. My one Grandfather, John Jacob Mickley has the credit for being one of the men responsible for rescuing the Liberty Bell during the Revolutionary War when the British were coming to attack Philadelphia and destroy the Bell. Thankyou so much for your time and any information about my ancestors from France. Very Sincerely Yours, Elizabeth Lee Nice

re: Brigadier General Robert M Montague

I would like any information regarding the general that you have. This is extremely important as I have discovered something regarding him that should not have been discovered here. My address is www.Budmanky@aol.com

Ethnic Group

(moved from Village pump)

I wonder if you could help me.I am trying to fill a form out and it is asking my ethnic group,I am struggling with the answer as my grandad was apparantly jamacan and my grandmother english, and my mother was quite dark half cast and my father english.I was adopted you see so I am a bit stuck with my ethnic group I wonder if you can help Thanks Tracey.

If there's a space for it, you could write in mulatto. →Raul654 10:45, Feb 3, 2004 (UTC)

Mixed-race is more commonly used in the UK. Mulatto is seen as derogatory. Secretlondon 21:44, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC)

I usually select "Other" or write in "American" (although that might get some people thinking "native american"--which I am, too, but not in the sense usually meant. I was born here.). Elf 00:05, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Nineveh

While reading your info re the ancient city of Nineveh, I was wondering where I could find more information specifically about the tablets of history found while unearthing the ruins. Where are they displayed, and where have they been recorded for public interest. I am trying to find specifics regarding the historical evidence of Jonah and his ministry in Nineveh. Thank you for your help.

quaternized protein

What exactly is the meaning of 'quaternized' protein? I am very familiar with protein, so don't bother explaining any of the basics. A google search mostly just turns up company's 'quaterized protein' products for use as ingredients in personal care products. ike9898 14:27, Feb 3, 2004 (UTC)

I've never heard of a "quaternized" protein, but I have heard of 'quaternary conformation,' aka 'quaternary structure.' It refers to the way multiple polypeptide chains join together to form a protein. For instance, hemoglobin is composed of four separate (IIRC identical) polypeptides. My conclusion, FWIW, is that certain companies' use of the term is intended as a deceptive tactic. --Smack 07:56, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

A Kiss Before Dying

(moved from the above article)

Hi!

I´ve a problem! I´m a austrian student and i have to make a book report about "A KISS BEFORE DYING" But I have not enough time to study this book! If you could send me a summery of this book, i would be very pleased!! (camel_hasi@hotmail.com)

I hope you could read my worse english!

Greetings

Ok, it goes something like this:

There's three robots, Zork, Spork, and Fnork. Spork and Fnork are in love with each other. All three are on a spaceship, but it crashes on a desolate planet. They survive, but Spork's powerpack is damaged in the crash. It will take weeks for rescue to come, and Spork will be dead by then. All three robots have interchangable powerpacks. All three are programmed not to cause injury to another, so Spork and Fnork can't kill Zork and take its powerpack. Fnork offers Spork its powerpack, but Spork says that losing Fnork would make it too sad, and that it would kill itself. Fnork feels the same way. So it looks like when rescue arrives only Zork will be alive, as Spork will have run out of power and Fnork will have killed itself with grief. But the dying Spork has a plan. At night, when the other two are sleeping, Spork opens Fnork's casing, and rewires Fnork to be in love with Zork (rather than Spork). Similarly, Spork makes Zork love Fnork. This way Fnork won't be so griefstricken when Spork dies, and so two of the three will survive to be rescued. Its selfless rewiring done, Spork kisses its beloved Fnork goodbye, and then dies.

Good luck! -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:58, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The factual accuracy of this summary is disputed ☺ →Raul654 02:11, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

Accuracy

Hi, I have been a frequent visitor of this site for some weeks now after stumbling across it on a popular search engine dogpile.com. I have today however found out that anyone can edit this site anywhere in any article - now this worries me slightly. How accurate is this information? How can you tell the sources of this information are honest and true? Is there some sort of testing process to ensure this 'new donated' info is 100% truth. This is quite important for me as I am about to set upon my dissertation and can't afford incorrect information. Thanks Alex Bird - Leeds, UK

That's a good question, Alex. Surprisingly, quite a lot of it is accurate, particularly in the "important" areas. Gross inaccuracies do tend to get removed fairly quickly (I just fixed some comedian who altered Tony Blair to show his successor as Michael Howard, something that hasn't entirely happened yet). But some stuff is nonsense, and there's any number of places where eternal controversy rages (religion, abortion, terrorism, israel etc.). Wikipedia has been cited on news reports, and even in a court case. In most places it seems to be genuinely more neutral (a neutrality often born of fire) and more comprehensive than most professional sources. But there's no such thing as 100% truth (depending on what kind of philosopher you ask, there's no such thing as truth at all). I wouldn't cite wikipedia, or anthing else, without corroboration. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:29, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

For my take on it - I've noticed that when articles do contain errors, they are often very minor in scope. This morning I fixed an error over at the Foundation Series article - it had said the series was written over the course of 42 years, when it was actually 44. Like I said, a very trivial error. And I don't really see blatant errors (not counting vandalism) very often at all. →Raul654 16:47, Feb 4, 2004 (UTC)

I would suggest that the answers at Wikipedia:Replies to common objections would be a more extensive explanation of our take on this issue, but Raul and Finlay have given excellent short replies, I think. The community is able to police itself remarkably well on almost every issue, and errors of fact are becoming hard to find (though I still seek them out, of course...have to get it perfect! :) Jwrosenzweig 18:13, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Personally, I think Wikipedia is nothing short of a miracle, and would have founded a dedicated religion (very much like a dedicated server and twice as reliable), were it not for the fact that I have already traded away my twelve first children-to-be to various religious order and causes in exchange for lollypops. -Itai 16:25, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Title sequence, help needed

Hi everyone my names Tony im doing a HND in graphic design. We have just been set a brief to create a typographically (type) based title sequence for either blockbusters, 15 to 1 or family fortunes. Any ideas as to where i can find the existing or the old title sequences for these shows or any ideas on an approach or concept. Tried researching in all the search engines without any luck.

Thanks in advance.

Tony

stonylaw@yahoo.co.uk

You might try looking over at http://tv.cream.org which is about "classic" British TV. They occasionally have clips of some title sequences, etc., or might link to them. -- DrBob

St. Antoine's

My daughter has a report to do on St.Antoine's in Paris, France. We have spent days searching for any information. Unfortunately, all we have discovered is that it was a church in Paris in the 1500's. We would like to know where we can get more information. Unfortunately, her report is due on Thursday (UGH!), so if possible, any info would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible. I can be reached at octoberbabee@aol.com. Thank you.

This church seems very obscure...my only suggestion is that the St. Antoine district was involved with the Fronde....perhaps the church was involved as well? Another option would be to try the French wikipedia (fr.wikipedia.org), but of course it's a french language site, so I don't know how receptive they are to questions in English. Might be worth a try. I also sent a reply to the email address above. Jwrosenzweig 18:11, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hmm. Are you sure that your daughter's assignment wasn't supposed to be about Saint-Antoine des Quinze-Vingts? See, for example http://www.discoverparis.net/parisinsights/July03_churches.html. -- Jmabel 05:10, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

February

How often does February occur with 5 Sundays? -- arno1576@bellsouth.net

The short answer is that it happens every 28 years. The longer answer is that, on average, it occurs every 28.866 years (think about century leap years). Stewart Adcock 00:40, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Does the fact that there are 5 Sundays in this February (Leap Year) have any significance or does it drum up any superstitions? -- Larry / Anchorage

family

I WAS WONDERING IF THERE HAS BEEN A FAMILY GENEALOGY DONE ON MR. CLARK. AND IF SO CAN IT BE SEEN ON THE INTERNET OR OBTAINED/ THANKS CAROLYN CLARK

Hit the third key from the bottom on the left side of your keyboard once, please. It's labelled 'Caps Lock' and may hold a LED. Jor 23:25, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Firstly, Clark is a very common name, so you would have to be more specific in order to find any meaningful information. Secondly, this is an encyclopedia, not a general information repository, so the best we can do is offer you information about genealogy. - IMSoP 01:24, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Because you haven't given Mr. Clark's full name or particulars, I'm going to assume you mean the U.S. presidential candidate. If so, you can find the Ancestry of Gen. Wesley K. Clark compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner here. Since he was born Wesley Kanne, the son of Benjamin Jacob Kanne and Veneta Updegraff, and took the name Clark when Veneta married her third husband Victor Clark, I wouldn't assume that you're related on the basis of having the same last name. - Nunh-huh 21:09, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The Eagles

What album were The Eagles writing/recording when occupying a beach house in Encinitas, Calif. in the early 1970's?

Anetra Wright 2-4-04 email address: oceanita@juno.com

This encyclopedia has an entry on The Eagles, and one on Encinitas, California, but unfortunately neither gives a clear answer to your question. - IMSoP 01:24, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Unknown Artist

My wife and I bought a still life painting, fruit & flowers, large framed in the 1970's on the east coast, this has hung on our wall since, we have tried to research this artist with no results, I believe he may be Italian, but I don't know, the painting is signed lower right corner M. Ruggio, any help as to age or value will be most appreciated if possible, photo can be sent if needed, thank you

Victor Kovach/ email: trljcky@comcast.net

which medicines are safe to use after "expiry date" has elapsed?

does anybody know whether the expiry dates on supermarket medicines (e.g. non-prescription medicines like multivitamins or Pepto-Bismol etc) mean that the medicine is actually unsafe if you use them after that date, or does it usually simply mean that the efficacy or efficiency is only guaranteed until that date? are there various classes of medicines which are safe to consume after the stated date (albeit having less of an effect) versus ones that aren't? i would imagine that because medicines available in the supermarket are more likely to be misused than those available on prescription that manufacturers of multi-vitamins and aspirin for example would unlikely stock medicines that would not be safe if consumed after their expiry date simply because of fear of litigation. but i'd like to know for sure. --Clarkk 08:36, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please see the Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer. You'd be best off asking your pharmacist. Angela. 08:55, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

Though it's probably worth knowing that in most instances the expiration date is there because the drug becomes ineffective with age, rather than becoming noxious. The ineffectiveness is a danger in itself: you don't want to reach for the nitroglycerine when you're having your heart attack and have it not work. That's why the expiration dates are there: if you find you don't use a whole bottle before they expire, throw out the expired bottle and buy a smaller quantity next time. 0 Nunh-huh 10:53, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Good information on this is hard to get, and often does not exist. The Wall Street Journal did a story or two on it a few years ago, basing most of its treatment on a study by the U.S. Department of Defense, which doesn't want to waste money buying drugs and throwing them out (no sarcastic comments, please). The general conclusion was that expiration dates tend to be arbitrary, backed by little or no actual testing. The economic incentives, a matter to which the Journal tends to pay close attention, are against the manufacturer's specifying an excessively long shelf life, to put it mildly. Naturally, many things really do have a brief life; a prescription for an infection, marked with a short lifetime, clearly needs to be used and thrown out, not kept for another time. Dandrake 21:22, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

Milo (drink)

Does anyone know the history of Milo the chocolate drink? Thanks! PMA 11:41, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

The Milo section on Nestlé Australia's web site is very child-friendly (ie. loud, bright, and not very informative), but has the basic details. —Paul A 02:18, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Observability Duals

What is observability duals in Control theory? What is defining H as G^T? -- snsendam@uno.edu

Wesley Clark Question

Could you please tell me if Mr. Wesley Clark could possibly be the same person who gave a 'talk' at the Naval Air Station, Memphis, TN. in the 70's? Not sure of year but after 1973, maybe late 70's. Thank you.

It could well be. If you have a look at the Wesley Clark article, he was apparently an instructor at West Point from 1971 to 1974. As such, I'd imagine he's the kind of person that would give talks to sailors/naval airmen/whatever you call them (I'm neither American nor a military person). You can also go to his campaign website and have a look in his "reading room", which has a bunch of documents from his military service. --Robert Merkel 00:55, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY INFO.. PLEASEEEE READ!!!

I need to know who wrote the article Subliminal Message, i need the location of the posting orginization, and the date of document. Please this is URGENT! thank you! e-mail me the info if you can (prefered) foxyroxy0709@aol.com

It sounds to me like this is for a bibliography. Is there some policy page somewhere which says how you are supposed to cite wikipedia in a bibliography? →Raul654 22:46, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia. :) Jwrosenzweig 22:50, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Ok, since it's probably too much to hope for him to check back, I'll send him the email ;) →Raul654 22:53, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

Should've mentioned I was going to email....I did, and then got back this: "Your mail to the following recipients could not be delivered because they are not accepting mail from your email address: foxyroxy0709".....ah, I love helping others. ;) I hope foxy roxy (why, btw, did you assume this was a "him" Raul? :) checks back here, 'cause email apparently isn't "(prefered)". Jwrosenzweig 23:54, 5 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I got the same thing too. And (call me sexist) but I tend to assume it is a he unless other information is presented. I didn't even notice the name ;) Anyway, let me post my email in its entirely just in case (s)he does return.

→Raul654 23:59, Feb 5, 2004 (UTC)

---

Dear FoxRoxy:

On the Wikipedia reference desk, you posted the following: SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY INFO.. PLEASEEEE READ!!! I need to know who wrote the article Subliminal Message, i need the location of the posting orginization, and the date of document. Please this is URGENT! thank you! e-mail me the info if you can (prefered) foxyroxy0709@aol.com

The subliminal message article is located at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_message

It sounds to us like this is for a bibliography of some sort. We have an page with instructions for citing it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_Wikipedia

To answer your question specifically:

Q) I need to know who wrote the article Subliminal Message

A) Because Wikipedia can be edited by anyone on the internet, this question is

hard to answer. The Citing Wikipedia page says specifically that you should not cite any particular author. In this case, I count about 15 people who have contributed to that article.

Q) I need the location of the posting orginization

A) The posting organization is the Wikimedia foundation

(http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia ). It is located in Florida.

Q) (I need) the date of document.

A) According to the article's history

(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Subliminal_message&action=history ), the last time it was changed was: (cur) (last) . . 03:24, Jan 5, 2004 . . Thunderbunny (details to 2000 ad message)

The last person who edited it was user Thunderbunny on January 5, 2004.

I hope this has been helped. Feel free to ask me any other question you might have about Wikipedia.

Sincerely Yours, Mark *********

---

Ripple (the alcoholic drink)

I have heard of a drink called Ripple refered to several times. It normally has come up in old black (African-american) comedy and music. Any idea if this is still produced? Can anyone tell me anything about it? I suppose it was probably a fortified wine, something like MD 20/20... ike9898 02:12, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

The Gallo family marketed several infamous inexpensive wines (among them Boone's Farm, Ripple, and Thunderbird). Thunderbird was "fortified"; I believe the others were just cheap. But in terms of reputation, you're thinking right if you're thinking MD 20/20: a cheap high rather than a complement to fine dining.... - Nunh-huh 04:12, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

J. Frederick George

What is J. Frederick George's actual name? Bevo 06:29, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

J. Frederick George's real name is George Jewsbury, according to an interview with Neal Stephenson in Locus magazine. Jwrosenzweig 21:14, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC) (this answer also on Bevo's talk page)

Thanks! I like the new organization of the articles tieing it all together. Bevo 15:24, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Congratulations

I want to thank you for this wonderful resource. This is exactly what the internet should be all about.

Cheers

rich

I think I speak for all of Wikipedia when I say - thank you for the kind words. →Raul654 12:06, Feb 6, 2004 (UTC)

Hear, hear! It's nice to feel that one's work is being used and appreciated. :) Jwrosenzweig 17:30, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

script

I am currently writing a movie script, and I am almost done and would like to sell, I would like to see if you are willing to read it.

We do not publish or read original scripts here. Good luck sending it to a movie producer or agent. Thanks for stopping by, though, and feel free to look at our articles on movies for inspiration. :) Jwrosenzweig 21:08, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Playable range of a trumpet?

What is the playable range (i.e. lowest and highest possible notes) of a trumpet? That information isn't in the article. (Actually, I don't think it's there in many of the other instrument pages, either. I'd add it, but I don't know it.) --bdesham 04:18, Feb 7, 2004 (UTC)

They usually call it "playing range", not "playable". Such data can be found, fortunately for us, easily in groups of many popular instruments, e.g., [2]. --Menchi 06:54, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There is no theoretical upper limit. It's a matter of technique. As for the lower limit, there is one; haven't played trumpet in over 20 years, so my memory could be wrong. Would someone who has played more recently please weigh in? I believe the low note is a F# in the B-flat notation used for trumpet, but it might be possible to get a half-tone lower with all the valves down; I believe that it is equivalent to the E below middle C on a piano. Any good player should be able to get up at least to the C (in B-flat notation, so really a B-flat) 2-1/2 octaves higher. A serious player can make it, at least briefly, to the G (in B-flat notation, so really an F) three octaves higher. Beyond that would be very impressive technique, and really good lip muscles, but it can be done. -- Jmabel 07:02, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm not a trumpeter, but according to the Concise Grove, the range extends (as Jmabel says) from the E below middle C (written F#) and typically extends upwards for about three octaves, though there's no theoretical upper limit, just a practical one (also as Jmabel says). I've added the info the article. --Camembert

As mentioned above, there is a practical limit. However, there's a recording of Mark Van Cleave playing a Quad C, which is generally acknowledged by most trumpeters to be the highest note possible - see (or should that be hear?) http://www.trumpetplayeronline.com/sounds/quad-c.mp3

Seek info Pope Paul VI visit New York 1965

I have Comemorative cards of the Popes visit in 1965 but no captions or comments. Some of them I have figured out. He did visit the UN and meet the Secretary General at that time.

• Mass at St. Pats?
  • He "visited" St. Pat's. No mention of a mass there.

• Mass outside stadium (which one) or Central Park?
  • Yankee Stadium

• Pope visiting with President Johnson, where? Did the Pope meet the President at the White House?
  • At the Waldorf-Astoria. This article also has other info on his visit.

Help, commemts, appreciated

• • I found all of this in 8 minutes with Google. -- Jmabel 03:31, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Intersection of a plane and a polyhedron

I'm not too hopeful on getting an answer here, but Google wasn't much help. Does anybody know how to calculate the area of intersection of a plane and an arbitrary 3D polyhedron? Let's say, for starters, I have the plane in terms of a point and two angles, and the polyhedron is the convex hull of an arbitrary number of points. What's the area of their intersection?

Other things that will be helpful in the future include the area of intersection of a cone section and a plane, and a cylinder and a plane.

Thanks. moink 23:03, 7 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I've simplified the problem a bit. Now I just need the area of the intersection of a plane (in any form, standard i.e. x+By+Cz+D=0 is fine) with an eight-sided polyhedron made up of two not-necessarily-similar trapezoids in parallel planes, and those trapezoid planes are parallel to the x-z plane. moink 02:25, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There may be a better way, but it should be possible to take every pair of points, and find the intersection between the line through the pair with the plane. Then the problem is to find the convex hull area of a set of points in a plane. Κσυπ Cyp   13:15, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! That was actually quite helpful. I have a piece of incomprehensible Fortran code from the 50s that does this. It had an array of 12 intermediate variables, and I couldn't for the life of me think what there could possibly be 12 of. It's the intersections of the plane with the edges of the polyhedron! So now I've got that down, I just need a formula for the area of a plane polygon (I'm actually projecting it onto a coordinate plane, so I have it nicely in 2 coordinates) expressed as the convex hull of some number of points (0-12). (Actually, I'm sure there's an upper limit on the number of points, and that it's less than 12, but my visualization is pretty bad, so I don't know what the limit is. Also of course with less than 3 points it's trivial) moink 19:24, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The area of a plane polygon is the total area of its composite triangles. The area of a triangle with points A, B and C is ½|(B-A)×(C-A)|, × being the cross product, || the length. Κσυπ Cyp   22:02, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Yep, thought of that. Just need to come up with a complete set of non-overlapping triangles to make up the polygon, by only knowing it's vertices, and nothing about the arrangement of its vertices. moink 22:05, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The Graham scan would probably work. Where P_i is the ith sorted point of n remaining points, the triangles are then {P₁, P₂, P₃}, {P₁, P₃, P₄}, {P₁, P₄, P₅}, ..., {P₁, P_n-1, P_n}. Κσυπ Cyp   22:24, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Cyp, you're awesome! And the Wikipedia is awesome! Who knew I could find an algorithm in here to do exactly what I needed to do? moink 22:32, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Even better, I just found out that Matlab (which is how I'm doing this) already has a function to return the area of a convex hull! Yay!!!! moink 02:09, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Mother and fetus: incompatible blood type

How can a fetus with a different blood type than the mother tolerate the mother's blood?

Such troubles arise almosst invariably in the case where an Rh negative mother has a child by an RH positive father. Now, the blood of the mother and fetus are often incompatible, even in the major A, B, O groups, but this is not serious in itself since the blood of the mother and fetus do not intermingle. The blood vessels belonging to each break up into fine capillaries in a special organ called the placenta developed by the mother during pregnancy. Oxygen and food molecules can diffuse across the placental membranes from the mother's capillaries to the fetus's. Carbon dioxide and waste products diffuse back in the other direction.

Although no red blood cells cross the placenta in either direction, it is possible for some of the blood group substances to work loose of the red cell and diffuse across. If the blood group is incompatible with the new blood where it enters, an agglutinin may be developed against it. To what extent this happens depends upon the particular group substance and the quantity that leaks across. For some reason, RH-positive substance, diffusing across into the blood of an Rh negative mother will occasionally (say, once in twenty times) produce an unusually high titer of anti-rh-positive agglutinins.

--Isaac Asimov, The Living River (a book about the circulatory system), page 88

→Raul654 07:04, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC)

One more thing. There is a condition where blood between the mother and fetus does intermingle, and the mother's immune attacks it. This is called Erythroblastosis Fetalis (usually just Erythroblastosis) →Raul654 20:58, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)

Open-site.org, Offline Wiki, Multilingual Wiki

Hello, I have 3 questions: 1. Why don't merge with open-site.org? Maybe they have some stuff that coulb be put here? 2. Why not do an offline standalone exe version of Wiki? I thinkt it would give Wiki more users.. 3. Why when I registered into English Wiki and then to log into Polish I had to register new user?

Regards, Talthen --Talthen 18:32, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I can't speak to the first question, but to the latter two

2) Wikipedia (the english one) is big. Really big - 3,000 megs. There are tarballs for download, but the bandwidth necessary to do it is high.

3) The wikipedia user databases are seperate. User accounts on the english wikipedia exist only for en.wikipedia.org. Polish accounts exist only on the polish wikipedia, etc. →Raul654 18:54, Feb 8, 2004 (UTC)

3: Because it is presumptuous to think that others would ever be intrested in say, Bajorian WP, and flood the Bajorian WP up with users who never go there. I doubt you'd ever dare to call yourself a real Bajorian Wikipedian, even if you have an account there. --Menchi 18:55, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

3) Because it happened that way, and therefore now is the potential problem that different people have the same login on different Wikipædias, making it harder to set up a unified login system. Κσυπ Cyp   22:10, 8 Feb 2004 (UTC)

1) Open-site.org have a completely different set up to us. I don't see how a merge would be possible as they have very strict access levels, whereas we allow anyone to edit. Also, their license is not compatible with the GFDL. See the Open site thread on wikipedia-l about this too. Angela. 02:31, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)

skin color

I have heard that when a child is born, his or her skin color will not be darker than the darkest parent. Is this true?

• No. Next question? Jmabel 00:17, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

• Nor is there the opposite rule: that the child can't be lighter than the lighter parent. Explaining this in detail would take part of a first-year course in genetics, or maybe the genetics section of a good high-school biology course, if there is one. (I tried to write a brief, accurate summary of why this is, but found I couldn't. Sorry.) Dandrake 07:29, Feb 16, 2004 (UTC)

research

dear Sirs,

I'm not sure I'm in the right office; if not perhaps you can direct me.

I am writing a novel and need some detailed information on the Yoshiwara pleasure enclave somewhere in Asakusa. I am looking for the specific location or address, size and/or map if possible (permission to reprint) and it's outcome from the fire raid of March 9/10th.

Also, I understand there may have been a POW camp in arakawa called NIPPON TSUUN 10-B. Any detailed information on this or any other camp in the north asakusa area or where I can go to find this information, would be greatly appreciated.

Domo Arigato,

Marc Hagan

Marc, the Wikipedia is an online, volunteer encyclopedia. A brief check suggests, there's no detailed information on that in the Wikipedia; you probably need to visit a good research library for that kind of information. --Robert Merkel 04:20, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

what works of literature written from 1595-1605

Well, for starters, much of Shakespeare. Can you be a little more specific on what you are going after? -- Jmabel 00:19, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Legal term

This is a question I suppose most native English speakers (and quite a few who aren't) should be able to tackle with no great difficulty. What is the legal term - if such exists - for the time since a crime is committed after which no complaints can be filed or legal processes begun? -Itai 20:09, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

We refer to "the statute of limitations". Example: "He escaped prosecution for robbery as the statute of limitations for robbery in the first degree is 7 years." Jwrosenzweig 20:40, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

A simpler verison of the above: "He could not be prosecuted for the crime because the statute of limitations had expired" →Raul654 20:54, Feb 9, 2004 (UTC)

As usual, Raul provides the more useful response at the Reference Desk. :) That is a far nicer sentence than mine. *shakes head sadly* Jwrosenzweig

Thanks! This is just what I had in mind, and both examples are highly enlightening. -Itai 21:37, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

note that "statute of limitations" is a specific US term (particular to the US legal system) and that the phrase is thus specific to that country. Legal systems descending from the UK's legal system(s) (which means most other english-speaking countries) lack both this concept thus any phrase for it. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:11, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for your response! I suppose that, alas, I had best not murder anyone when in Britain. <sigh> Truth be told, I was looking for the English equivalent of an Israeli term, which seems to correspond to the American, as you say, "statute of limitations". I am dimly aware that the Israeli legal system is derived, to a certain extent, from the British, but am no legal expert. -Itai 21:37, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Even in the gun-totin', free-wheelin' USA, I'm afraid there is no statute of limitations on murder. :-) No matter how long it has been, there are some heinous crimes for which you can always be prosecuted here. Jwrosenzweig 21:40, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Actually, the term is used in Canada too, which makes me think it is used in all British-based legal systems. moink 22:19, 9 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Advertising Slogan

Good afternoon,

I hope you can help my work colleagues and myself we are trying to remember which british advert the following slogan relates to:

tasty tasty very very tasty.

thank you for your time.

best regards Kim and the crew

Used to sell Kellogg's Bran Flakes, I believe. -- DrBob

P-51B/C (technical drawings)

Where can I obtain technical drawings of the P-51B/C?

You are far more likely to get an answer if you give us a clue what it is. This could be anything from an airplane to a model of speaker... -- Jmabel 07:36, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It's easy enough to find out - by Googling for "P-51B/C", for instance - what the P-51B/C is. Anyway, I rather think anyone who knew where to find the requested technical drawings would already know what they were technical drawings of. :o) —Paul A 08:06, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Difficulties in Navigation

Is there a way in Wiki to navigate through a hierarchy? It feels like the only way to find an article of interest is through search. I suppose as an encyclopedia nerd, my first instinct is to want to open a table of contents and browse through a multi-layered hierarchy. Does such a thing exist? Is there a master hierarchy to which every article in the database belongs?

Thanks much!

Zachary Ryan

There is no master hierarchy, but there are attempts to categorize major articles by subject area. Try clicking on the subject areas on the Main Page or just click here and see if that helps you find what you want. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 19:15, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It's the nature of knowledge that not all subjects fall into a hierarchy. Many are combinations of aspects of several unrelated fields that are otherwise unrelated. The words in each article, ideally, should provide links not only to broader and narrower subjects, but also to other subjects that are related to it in some other way. Wikipedia can use encyclopedia nerds like you to help create these links. Perhaps you would enjoy contributing to Lists of articles by category, which is closest to the hierarchical table of contents you seek? GUllman 01:41, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Black Holes and White Holes

I realize that the existence of Black Holes and White Holes are still being discussed. However, I was wondering if it has been discussed that their is an exit or why out inside a Black Hole. I know white hole would be a type of exit, but every site I've been to says that they're existence is impossible.

See Hawking radiation — this seems to be the only matter which can 'escape' a Black hole. Jor 21:47, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Even then, that's from just outside the event horizon, so still nothing escapes. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:51, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

No matter "escapes" a black hole. However, black holes do effectively shrink (from the annihilation of particle/anti-particle pairs) through Hawking radiation. Still, the particle that the black hole "loses" is not the same particle as appears near the event horizon. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 22:28, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

This FAQ contains a good discussion of what happens if you fall into a black hole. -- Tim Starling 04:54, Feb 11, 2004 (UTC)

David Cassidy

Can you tell me please is there a DAVID CASSIDY website on the World Wide Web ? I cannot find one. Thank You

Google is your friend Jor 23:00, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Alter color

If light is an electomagnetic wave could a big enough magnetic discharge alter the surounding area's color by a fraction? I asked my teacher but he said to look and I haven't found anything. your help will be greatly appreciated.

                             thanks
                                Grant Colasurdo

IANAP, but I believe that light isn't exactly an electromagnetic wave, nor is it particular (getting all quantum mechanics-y). It may have something to do with the fact that you can't affect radio waves by magnets, either, I believe. Anyway, someone may want to clarify :) Dysprosia 04:14, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Light most certainly is an electromagnetic wave. However, a magnetic field won't change the frequency (colour) of light as it travels through space. If it is travelling through some kind of matter, a magnetic field will alter the polarization of the light due to the Faraday effect [3]. And some materials may change colour when a magnetic field is applied, for example by the Zeeman effect.

Light is definitely affected by electric and magnetic fields, but in most cases it is the direction or polarization of the light which is affected, not the frequency. The reason light bounces off things rather than passing straight through them is because of the strong electric fields inside the materials. Processes which change the frequency of "monochromatic" (single-frequency) light are called "nonlinear". -- Tim Starling 05:00, Feb 11, 2004 (UTC)

Just to clarify a few things - first of all, light always behaves like a wave except when it impacts something, and then it behaves like a particle (see Compton effect). You could probably use magnetic fields to "steer" (monochromatic) light, but not to alter its frequency. The only way to do that is to pass it through some kind of material.

Also, as a side note, you might want to read the article on Cherenkov radiation, which is produced when high energy particles pass through matter. They impact with such force that a blue glow is emitted. →Raul654 08:49, Feb 11, 2004 (UTC)

The "color" of an object is its reflection spectrum - the set of wavelengths that it reflects rather than absorbing. It depends entirely on its molecular structure; more specifically, on the energy levels of atomic and molecular orbitals. Unless the radiation is so powerful that it can cause chemical reactions, it can't change the color of anything. --Smack 22:33, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Is Canadian american records owned or in anyway a part of MCA?

Is Canadian american records owned or in anyway a part of MCA?

BIBLE TIMELINES

I HAVE GATHERED INFORMATION ON HALLEY'S COMET AND NEED DATING OF BIBLE EVENTS FROM ADAM'S CREATION, ALSO FROM ROMAN HISTORY RECORDS. IS THERE SUCH A BIBLE TIMELINE AVAILABLE, IF SO, HOW DO I ACCESS IT?

DOES WIKIPEDIA HAVE ROMAN HISTORY RECORDS WHICH I CAN ACCESS? IF SO, HOW DO I DO IT? SPECIFICALLY, I NEED INFORMATION ON WHEN THEIR CALENDAR OF IDES, NONES AND KALENDS WAS BEGUN.

First, please do not type in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Dating of Biblical events is notoriously controversial. Bishop Ussher made perhaps the most popular calculation of Bible dating several hundred years ago, which placed the creation of Adam in the year 4004 BC (October, if I recall correctly). Many Biblical scholars today would disagree, but Ussher's dates still have their defenders. I couldn't offer any more guidance than that. We are not a Roman history repository, though we do have articles on ancient Rome. Perhaps Roman calendar would be of use to you? Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll need to invest in some specialized books, or better yet go to the library of a seminary or other religious college (even a public university's library would probably help). Books on Bible dating and the more detailed aspects of Roman history are your best bet. Jwrosenzweig 16:59, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

foreign abrev for word "company"

I am stumped for an assignment due today. My instructor wants 5 abbreviations for the word "company" in different languages. I know in french it's SA. Could anyone please help me? Thanks.

From [4] I find the following for compnay

• France - CIE
• Germany - AG

• The Netherlands - BV

Jor 20:16, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

And the following for incorporated

• Sweeden - AB
• Norway - ASA
• Germany - GmbH
• Japan - LTD
• The Netherlands - NV
• UK - PLC
• France - SA
• Spain - SA de CV
• Italy - SpA

Hope it helped. Gentgeen 18:04, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

In Greece anonymous companies (SA) are named as AE (Anonymi Eteria = anonymous company). Other Greek abbreviations for companies are EPE, AEBE, ABEE. Optim 03:02, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Whales and Dolphins

I heard that anccient whales and dolphins used to walk on land. Is this true? Thanks, Gino gakmariutto@tds.net

No, not exactly. They had remote ancestors, 50 million years or so ago, that walked on land. These had even remoter ancestors, more than 250 million years ago I'd say without looking it up, that swam in the water, which was natural, since they were fish. This all needs to be preceded by a "some people believe", since some people believe in making inferences from the evidence of geology and biology, and some people don't. Dandrake 19:24, Feb 11, 2004 (UTC)

To put it another way, yes they did. ;) Well, Dandrake's right of course, but I believe the point being made in the statement that you heard is that whales evolved from creatures that left the water to walk on land... only to later head back to the water. This is, of course, the case for all aquatic mammals. Whales and dolphins however (unlike pinnipeds) have lost all external vestiges of their (rear) legs. --Dante Alighieri | Talk 20:25, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Another piece of data is whales with atavistic rear legs. -SheikYerBooty 02:23, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

The Theme Song from The Late Late Show with Gay Bryne

Can someone please tell me the name of the theme song for the Late Late Show with Gay Bryne?

vietnam veterans

I COULD BE WRONG BUT I THOUGHT SOMEONE MIGHT FIND THE INFORMATION ON THE FOLLOWING WEB-SITES OF SOME INTEREST. htt://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/chas/agentorangedisussion.htm and htt://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/chas/agentorangemedicallssues.htm

I haven't been able to get the sites to open, but if you judge them worthwhile, feel free to add them as "External Links" to an article of interest, or summarize whatever information is contained in them and add it to a Wikipedia article. If you're not sure how to do this, feel free to drop me a note on my user discussion page, and I'll walk you through it (it's not complicated) as best I can. -Itai 22:40, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Transformation of a Conic

I am obviously terrible at computational geometry. And I got such a good answer here the last time I asked that I thought I'd ask for something else.

For those of you who saw my previous cone-plane-intersection question, I've reduced it to this one.

I have a conic expressed as:

a*x^2+b*y^2+c*x*y+d*x+e*y+f=0

What can I do to make the x*y go away? Like, maybe transform it to a u,v space so that I can make it

A*(u-u0)^2+B*(v-v0)^2=1

I would particularly like it if the area of the conic was invariant in the transformation. If I performed the same transformation on a line that intercepted the conic, would the segment of the conic bordered by the line keep it's area?

Thanks. moink 17:07, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Substituting

$x=u\cos(\theta )+v\sin(\theta )$

$y=-u\sin(\theta )+v\cos(\theta )$

$u=x\cos(\theta )-y\sin(\theta )$

$v=x\sin(\theta )+y\cos(\theta )$

should get rid of the x*y thing (without adding a u*v thing), with the right θ. Haven't checked if I worked it out correctly, but maybe

$\theta ={\frac {\arctan {\frac {c}{b-a}}}{2}}$

Κσυπ Cyp   18:37, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Fixed formula, now should hopefully now at least work for a=1, b=2, c=3. (Probably forgot the 2 in (u+v)²=u²+v²+2uv.) Κσυπ Cyp   18:46, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

P.S. It preserves all areas and lengths, since the transformation is a plain rotation. Κσυπ Cyp   18:52, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

UK PRIME MINISTER'S COUNTY HOME

COULD ANYONE TELL ME WHO WAS THE FIRST UK PRIME MINISTER TO OCCUPY CHEQUERS?

MANY THANK

BARBARAC

According the BBC Radio 4 page it was Lloyd George who was the first Prime Minister to use Chequers. In January 1921. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/sceptred_isle/page/187.shtml? --Dieter Simon 00:17, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Soldiers on the Plains of Abraham

Is there a list of names of the soldiers who fought on the Plains of Abraham? I am specifically looking for the names of soldiers who came from other countries to join in the fight. Thanks, Jan

Just to clarify the above - the plains of abraham are located outside quebec. The above is (almost certainly) referring to the 1759 battle of Quebec -- Battle of the Plains of Abraham. →Raul654 07:46, Feb 11, 2004 (UTC)

Probably not. If anyone bothered to write down the names of British conscripts and mercenaries 250 years ago, that list was probably destroyed long ago. --Smack 22:35, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Printed Dictionary

I am interested in a printed dictionary of common words concerning all PC-vocabulary. Where can I order this? Is such a book available? Thank you for your answer in advance Yours sincerely,

Renate M. Degenfeld Austria

I found a few on Amazon.com. I'm not recommending the books in specific or that you buy them on Amazon, but they do seem to be the sort of book you're looking for. Click here --Dante Alighieri | Talk 20:21, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Liquid crystal sheet

Hi there,

Please can you help me to find where to buy a liquid crystal "sheet" I am in South Africa if it helps

Regards Ian Woolridge

rice field price

hi I want to know how much cost every meter rice field in Ramsar (in Toman)? my e-mail address is : aria272002@yahoo.com

ggg

Dear Sir

I am a researcher in Hefei Physical Science Institue of Chinese Academy of Sciences. I would like to buy a Nd:GGG laser crystal rod with the size 8mm in diameter and 100mm in length. I am to useing rod pumped by flashlamp. On the homepage, I konw you can you can provide Nd:GGG crystal. Please quote for the following products.

Type: laser rod Material: Nd:GGG Nd concentration: 1.1 to 1.5 at.% Orientation: [010] +/-2 deg. Diameter: 8 (+0.0/-0.1) mm Length: 100 (+1/-1) mm Surface quality: 20/10 scr/dig Surface flatness: lambda/10 @ 633nm Parallelism: < 30 arc. sec. Perpendicularity: 15 arc. min Chamfer: 0.2 mm Coating: both faces AR/AR @ 1061nm, R<0.2% Quantity: 1 pc.

Can you tell me more detailed messages, such as its price, how to buy it and so on? You kind response would be appreciated greatly!

Best regards!

your sincerely

Jiang Haihe

P.O.Box 1125
HeFei,Anhui,230031
P.R.China
Tel-No.: 551-5591667
Fax: 551-5591270
E-Mail: hjiang@aiofm.ac.cn

I don't know about the price &/c, but this is a Wiki here. We don't sell crystals or lasers or that kind of thing. Dysprosia 09:03, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Maybe *you* don't ;) →Raul654 22:21, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

Leap year on Sunday

Does anyone have the answer to these questions?

1. When was the last time Sunday landed on a leap year?

2. When will be the next time that Sunday lands on a leap year?

Thanks very much in advance.

John

They happen every 28 years. The next time will be 2032. The last was 1976. →Raul654 22:01, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

Kathleen Kennedy

Did Kathleen Kennedy give up her US citizenship? How else would she have a title of nobility? --Jiang 22:23, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It is my belief, possibly mistaken, that US citizens may hold titles of nobility. We are not prevented from having them...the Constitution only prevents the granting of titles by the US, or the official legal recognition of other country's titles. Her noble status elsewhere wouldn't offer her any status under US law that she did not already have. I'm afraid this is all based on a history major's memory, though, so someone else may have books at hand that offer a more complete answer? Jwrosenzweig 22:38, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Correct. Jamie Lee Curtis for example, is also Lady Haden-Guest through her husband inheriting a barony -- she actually attended the State Opening of Parliament the last year before her husband lost his seat in the House of Lords when it was reformed. -- Arwel 22:53, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There was actually an unsuccessful attempt to pass a constitutional amendment against US citizens taking titles of nobility. See The missing thirteenth amendment. -- Jmabel 00:39, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

But when US citizens are knighted (e.g. Rudy Giuliani, Steven Spielberg, Wesley Clark) they are not entitled to the title "Sir". The Constitution states "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." --Jiang

No, a US citizen who is not employed by the Federal Government can use any title he's entitled to (and probably those he's not entitled to as well). The non-use of the "Sir" by those who are not British citizens is a British restriction on the honor, not a restriction by the U.S. Constitution. The passage you cite restricts only employees of the federal governemnt. - Nunh-huh 06:58, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Yes, the applicable part of that constitutional quote is And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them... (the United States). The restriction on foreigners using British honours is a British one, also affecting Irishmen like Bob Geldof and Terry Wogan. -- Arwel 13:23, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

B.F. Skinner and Conditioned Behaviour

What behaviour did B. F. Skinner agree to be the only one that is not conditioned? --Xiaopo's Talk 23:43, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

Is this a trivia quiz, or what? One would have to guess suckling, but I don't have a source for this? -- Jmabel 00:41, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

POPE JOHN PAUL 2

Can anyone tell me the approximate height and weight of his holiness? No, sorry, but you might find this interesting. Pope trivia

anthony

I am researching Colonel Anthony Van Egmond.Specifically his life prior to his involvement in the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada. His place of birth, family, religion, schools, military service, years in Pennesylvania, trek to Upper Canada and association with the Huron Tract grant are of particular interest. (Mary P Smith, moved from Anthony Van Egmond by Dysprosia)

grep with context

Does anyone know where I can find a variation of the command line utility grep that shows the lines occurring before and after the line that matches a pattern? Bevo 15:24, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

GNU grep will do that. grep -A 2 -B 2 foo will show 2 lines before and after each match. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:11, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! With that knowledge I was able to find a port that I can use at http://unxutils.sourceforge.net/ Bevo 19:37, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

If you're stuck on windows, a download of cygwin is probably be best medium-term solution, most particularly because you get a decent shell. No matter how good a win32 port of a unix utility is, you'll be in pathname and escaped-character hell when you try to run it under (gulp) batchfiles. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:56, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Ain't it the truth! <grin> - Bevo 01:03, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Man U

Please could you tell me who was the captain of Manchester United's winning side in the 1999 European Cup Final Thanks Liza

curiosly, I've failed to find that info. Roy Keene was their captain for most of the campaign, but he was suspended for the European Cup Final, and none of the reports that I can find say who replaced him. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:22, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Peter Schmeichel in his last game for the club. Mintguy (T) 08:37, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

"class" of Hadrons?

The article, Hadron, contains this assertion:

 The class of hadrons is further subdivided into three subclasses

Does Physics have a formal classification system like Biology does? Bevo 14:56, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Well, I suspose whatever the prevailing model is will determine how particles are classified (like Standard Model). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:23, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "formal". What is it that makes biology's system formal? →Raul654 15:54, Feb 15, 2004 (UTC)

I'm looking at it from a Wikipedia point of view. Typically when you find an article in a specific bird, say Barn owl, you get very detailed "Scientific classification" information. You can then drill down on Scientific classification to get that concept "formally" defined. I'm wondering if there is some sort of equivalent tradition in Particle physics that we could use to expand Scientific classification beyond Biology. Bevo 16:06, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)

In that case, yes. List of particles contains a very good summary. →Raul654 16:09, Feb 15, 2004 (UTC)

where to find a book

I am looking for "Emilo" a spanish book published back in 1930s which is currently out of print. Any help? User:141

• Have you tried ABE Books? By registering a want-list with them (and waiting long enough), I've found several obscure things and also discovered that some weren't nearly so obscure as I thought. There are other services, of course, but this is the one that has worked for me. Dandrake 07:39, Feb 16, 2004 (UTC)

wiki projects - the Hungarian language

I am contemplating to post an article on the Hungarian language. I need encouragement, though. You can find my postings to this date as items in discussion columns. My pseudo-name is apogr. Could you check whether they are worthwhile and if I should proceed with then project? Regards 81.182.94.17 07:32, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Oracle Corporation Campus in Redwood Shores, California

Does anyone know when the main Oracle Corporation Campus in Redwood Shores, California was built?

Thanks, JS

This article here, about the history of Redwood Shores, says that the Centrum Office Complex (which Oracle moved into and later took over) was completed in 1989. I'm not sure if that's the same place that serves as their main campus, but I think it probably is. Hope that helps. -- Vardion 04:47, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Locating poem:

Would like the original of this german poem, about the author's impending death from stomach cancer; don't know author's name either. I know some of it in the english translation: 'tis just a prick, 'tis scarce a pain Just felt to which no name I give Henceforth it speaks again, again Uneasy now I have to live." .... If to complain, I try, of what? I cannot put it into words .... Until at last, I really know That with death's shaft, I cannot cope.

You're looking for Theodor Storm's Beginn des Endes -- available here. Jwrosenzweig 18:41, 16 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Compactness and collections of sets

• Is a finite collection of compact sets compact?
• Is an infinite collection of compact sets compact?
• Is the complement of a set of algebric numbers compact?

-- Taku 19:11, Feb 16, 2004 (UTC)

Why 2 in Missouri?

As a bonus for one of my Finance classes, we were asked to find the person's name that started the Fed in Missouri. We were told that he/she had a strong influence, and that is why there are two banks in the state of Missouri. Who is this person? Thanks.

[5] might give some clues. So might [6]. Good luck. If you get a solid answer, please let us know so we can work it into the relevant article. -- Jmabel 07:30, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Obtaining Michael Kamen/Metallica concert sheet music

What is the process/procedure for obtaining sheet music that was used for a single event but may not have been release to the general public?

Specifically: The sheet music Michael Kamen wrote for the 1998 concert with Metallica.

Public DNS Servers

My ISP's DNS server is broken. Where can I find public DNS servers (free)? Ric 00:10, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Well, a bit of googling turned up this list of suggestions:

ns.worldnet.att.net AT&T-WorldNet (USA, www.worldnet.att.net) nameserver.concentric.net Concentric (USA, www.concentric.net) arl-name-svc-1.compuserve.com CompuServe (USA, www.aol.com) ns.psi.net PSInet (USA, www.psi.net) dns1.sympatico.ca Sympatico (Canada, www.sympatico.ca) pns.dtag.de T-Online (Deutschland, www.dtag.de) dns-sol.swissonline.ch SwissOnline (Switzerland, www.swissonline.ch) main.piter.net PiterNet (Russia, www.piter.net)

I don't know if any of those are anywhere near you, but in general I think any DNS server will accept requests from anywhere. I might be wrong on that, but it would certainly be worth just trawling the help pages of other local ISPs and trying the dns settings listed for them. - IMSoP 00:52, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Are you asking who you can run the DNS for your own website--i.e., your website can't be reached because your provider's nameservers are down? If you know what you're doing, try ZoneEdit. This is a paid service, but your first five domains are free, There are other, completely free services, like EveryDNS.

Oregon Cities that no longer exist

Is there a reference that I might access via net or books that you can recommend that would give me information about cities in Oregon that no longer exist? Also, I would like to access so Oregon maps dating back to the lat 1800's and early 1900's.

Thank you so much, in advance, for your time and efforts.

Sandy

• Sandy,

Check out the links here. There are several maps and gazetteers that you can find there. - Nunh-huh 02:12, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

What was the Brest-Litovsk Soviet Border?

My impression was that the border of Soviet Russia after Brest-Litovsk was the same as the border of the Russian Federation today. Could anyone tell me whether this was the case, or was the actual border somewhat different? →GCarty

The Brest-Litovsk border was the Russian/Soviet (technically, Russian) border with the rest of Europe at following their peace with germany in 1917. Between 1917 and now, there have been some minor changes. →Raul654 14:02, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

Oh, and for the record, no. The Russian federation of today does not include Ukraine, Moldova, and several other present-day countries that were part of a "Russia" following Russia's exit of WWI. →Raul654 15:59, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

Eh? I'm sure that Brest-Litovsk created an 'independent' Ukraine (actually a German puppet). After Germany surrendered in 1918 Ukraine became genuinely independent, but was reconquered by the Soviets in 1921. The main area I'm not sure about is Belarus. →GCarty

Leap year starting on Thursday

How often does leap year start on Thursday, thus producing 5 Sundays in February?

Same question was asked above. Leap days occur on Sundays (thus, February starts a leap year on a thursday) every 28 years. →Raul654 16:11, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

"Empty Head" Timblin

My ancestor was Charles "Empty Head" Timblin and was well-known for appearing as Jeter in Tobacco Road. My Dad as a child describes his huge fancy car and his wife in furs and jewelry so apparently he did very well at it. Do you have any information on him or can you direct me to where I can find it? Thank you very much. Kerry

Kerry, perhaps you're referring to an actor? The IMDB has a very small page on a Charles Timblin here. There was also a Charles Timblin who taught at Washington State University over a century ago, I believe, but I don't think that's who you're looking for. Perhaps try a university library that could help you search old newspapers for articles on the actor or his movies/shows? Just a thought. Jwrosenzweig 01:05, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Saracen's Contribution to Science, Pros and Cons

Recently, while visiting my daughter in Singapore, I did a random searach for "saracens". The website I selected was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracens I have now gone back to this site on numerous occasions but cannot find the article. Unfortunately, I also do not recall the name of the author.

It would be very muchapprecited if you could assist me in finding this article.

Thank you, Kenneth T. Hern kthern@txucom.net

Just to prevent him from being bombarded, I'll field this one (Unless someone else wants to). →Raul654 03:45, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)

Regarding the GNU License Agreement.

{apparently, no question here}

Paintings of the High Tatras

I am looking for prints of paintings of the High Tatras, and/or posters. Any suggestions?

There are several paintings at this link. RickK 03:14, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Elastic Collision

can you show how you derive the equation for V2F=V1o(2m1/m1+m2) for an elastic collision using the two formulas for conservation of momentum and conservation of kenetic energy?

Please e-mail me back at ryhill15@hotmail.com

Conservation of momentum: m1*V1o+m2*V2o=m1V1f+m2*V2f

Conservation of kinetic energy: m1*V1o^2+m2*V2o^2=m1*V1f^2+m2*V2f^2

Solve the first equation for V1f, substitute it into the second eq'n, and see what you get. moink 05:10, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Red River and Erhai Lake

Does the Red River begin in Erhai Lake (Yunnan province, China) or not? On some maps I see, it looks like it does, but on other maps, it looks like it doesn't. I've removed the mention of Erhai Lake (or Lake Erhai, or Erhai, or whatever you prefer to call it) that I placed in the Red River article, but I'll put it back if I can confirm that the river does indeed begin there. Please respond either here, on my talk page, or by fixing the article itself. Thanks. -- Vardion 05:00, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

blue oyster cult

what are the band members names

According to http://www.blueoystercult.com/Band-main.html:

• Eric Bloom
• Buck Dharma
• Allen Lanier
• Danny Miranda
• Bobby Rondinelli

RickK 03:19, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Jose Gonzaelz Clemente & Co.

While on vacation in January in the Dominican Republic my husband found a bottle in the ocean. We have been searching for any information on Jose Gonzaelz Clemente & Co. Mayaguez, P.R. we assume it is an older rum bottle. We are interested in finding out how old the company is and if they still exhist. Thank you, Julie e-mail address Jules0155@aol.com

That's certainly a typo for "Jose Gonzalez Clemente & Co." See for example http://www.rum.cz/galery/cam/pr/gonzalez/. (& I'll email her) -- Jmabel 23:20, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Ancient Egyptians' hair colour: Only black?

Hello. Will I be wrong if I argue that all Ancient Egyptians much have had only black hair? Is is possible to say that an Ancient Egyptian could have been redhaired or blonde? Answer with email or here. Thank you! Optim 02:45, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm currently reading "River God : A Novel of Ancient Egypt" by Wilbur Smith, which he *claims* is a rewording of ancient Egyptian texts, in which one of the main characters is blond. But his ancestor was a female slave from somewhere north. RickK 03:09, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your comment. Also, Cleopatra is listed under List of famous redheads - is this correct? Optim 03:17, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Cleopatra wasn't really Egyptian though, she was Greek. Adam Bishop 06:02, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I found this from the Royal Ontario Museum: [7]. Maybe that will help. I think I also remember reading somewhere that Ramses II had red hair. (Looking this up on Google also seems to bring up a bunch of racist stuff, like Stormfront...) Adam Bishop 03:14, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thanks! Optim 03:17, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Registered organisations, charities, etc

I am interested to know how to get a list of all legally registered organisations, charities, non-profits etc which exist in one country or city, without asking for a specific organisation. Is this possible? Do you know any internet sites which could help me? And also, how could I get such a list for old organisations which do not exist anymore. Thanks. Use my email or answer here. Optim 03:07, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

There is no general method to do this; it's going to be different for every country, and with some countries it's going to be different for every city. Can you be more specific as to what you are looking for? You are presumably not going to be trying to list every organization in the world, so if you narrow this question there is a better chance someone can give you a useful answer. Also, just what do you mean by "organisations"? Are you trying, for example, to get complete listings of the teams in every amateur sports league, for example? Such exhaustive completeness will be difficult for even one large city, let alone a broader scale. -- Jmabel 23:17, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

For charities in England and Wales, you might try the Charity Commission search page. --Camembert

A custom

In Greece, When a person dies, the Orthodox christian church places papers for public view (in the streets) which look like this: "Person A.Name, XX years old, died" etc to inform the public about his/her memorial etc. Is this a custom of all orthodox churches or all christian churches? Is it country-specific? How about non-christian cultures? It seems in Asia they don't have this custom, since in China I know that when a person dies they don't put papers with his/her name in public. Optim 03:13, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

• In the United States it's customary to have an obituary printed in the local newspapers, but as far as I know that's the only such notice that's usually circulated. Isomorphic 06:08, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)
  • Thanks for answering. In Greece newspapers are also used in that way sometimes. Optim 06:43, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)
• In the UK it's common for either the relatives or the funeral director to place a small classified advertisement in the "Deaths" column of the local newspaper (the first part of the paper my mother always read!), which will say when the death happened and what the funeral arrangements are. Less commonly an obituary will be published a few weeks after the funeral. -- Arwel 23:45, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

history and philosophy of linear equation.

Can you please brief me about history and philosophy of linear equations.

Use http://ccins.camosun.bc.ca/~trushel/math164/linearalgebra/section2/lineq.htm as a starting point (a site found using the search terms linear equation mathematician at Google...you might want to try that also and explore other sites uncovered that way) Bevo 18:40, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

demand d'iformation (Jet Li)

je suis un amateur des arts martiaux (kung-fu wushu;kung_fu win chin...)alors je me suis tombé dans une site sous titre "jet li" le nom de mon méilleur star.ma question est ce que si possible d'avoir l'email de mon hereo "jet li " ou quelque chose qui peut m'aidé àétre en contact diréct avec lui?

Hard to decipher through the combination of French langauge and funny characters, but I believe this person wants an email address for Jet Li. -- Jmabel 23:12, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Easy question...

Hello!

Such a lot of hard work has gone into your project. WOW! Very impressive!

I am looking high and low, seemingly, for a list of at least some of the cities in the U.S. which share the same name.

Any directives you could spare?

I thank you.

G. Erickson

You might start by looking at Wikipedia:Multiple-place names -- Jmabel 23:10, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Secret ballot

When was the secret ballot introduced in American elections? Mintguy (T) 23:22, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

• The secret ballot is called the Australian ballot, and it was brought to the U.S. by the progressive movement. It was adopted by many states in the 1880s. Kingturtle 23:31, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hm... I thought it would have been earlier. It was universally adopted in Britain in 1872. I hadn't considered that different states would have introduced it at different times. What was the last state to adopt it then?

• The first city in the U.S. to have the Australian ballot was Louisville, Kentucky in 1888. Later that year, Massachusetts became the first state, and New York the second state. By the end of the next year, eight more states were onboard. By 1900, 39 of the 45 states had Australian ballots. I do not know which states were the last to switch to this system. Kingturtle 23:52, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)
  • P.S. There is nothing in the U.S. constitution that says how the votes for President are to be tallied or that a popular election has to take place at all. Kingturtle 23:54, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Thank you. I'm indebted. Mintguy (T) 00:03, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Adrian Nastase and "illegal activities by religious sects"

The article on Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase contains the intriguing phrase, "Recording Secretary of parliamentary commission on judicial problems and human rights with reference to illegal activities by religious sects." About 2 months ago I tried asking on the talk page there, "What was going on that there would be such a commission?" No one answered, so I'm taking my question here in hopes that someone has a clue. -- Jmabel 07:20, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The only commission about sects which I can link Adrian Nastase to seems to be a European Parliament one (rather than, say, a Romanian one). I think that must be the one that the article refers to. Its report is available here, and seems to indicate (section II A) that it was prompted just by general concern, rather than specific problems. I don't know whether that's of any use to you, but it's all I can seem to find. -- Vardion 09:35, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

"Anatole of Paris" by Sylvia Fine

To Whom It May Concern:

I am trying to locate sheet music for "Anatole Of Paris", which was performed by Danny Kaye, written by Sylvia Fine.

I've attempted to locate this sheet music but have had no luck, so far. I'm hoping you can help me.

Thanks for your time.

All the best,

Clive Revill email: selsrev@earthlink.net

Try this link. RickK 02:15, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Clive Revill? The actor? RickK 02:16, 18 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Questions

I wanted information about a pediatric nurse. I 'm going to a health career school but I'm not sure what a pediatric nurse does I want to do something that has to do with taking care of infants and toddlers in the hospitol's Could you please send me information on what type of nurse that it?

Well, that might be kinda hard since you didn't provide any kind of address. —Frecklefoot 20:33, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

What's the address needed for since any answers can be put here! But the person should have said which country the info is needed for.

Adrian Pingstone 22:51, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Chances that person will actually stop back to check the response: 0.00001%. →Raul654 23:11, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC)

If they do come back, I'd recommend checking out www.napnap.org or the FAQ at www.pediatricnursing.com MK 21:27, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

stomach banding

I have a friend that about 25 years ago had a ring put around the lower part of her stomach to aid her in losing weight as she was very overweight. Now, many years later she is having so many health problems as now she can only drink and if she eats solid foods it will not pass and she is losing a lot of weight and also is throwing up every day. Do you have any information that might aid her as I thought at one time you had people on that had problems from this procedure. A doctor told her the ring is closing and she will have to have 99% of her stomach removed. Can you help her? She is on disability and medicare! Any information would be so greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Mari Howard

Where do I find information on homelessness in Monroe County,NY?

From Village pump

Hi my name is Tonya my email address is atlmker2442@wmconnect.com

I was trying to find information on homelessness in Monroe County, NY I was thinking about doing a speech for college on this issue in my county. But I not sure where to look. If you could help me out that would be great or even if you could point me in the right direction.

Thank you Tonya

• Tonya, take a look at:
  • Homeless & Housing Services
  • Rochester Indymedia
  • D & C article
  • Data shows homeless up 30 percent

Good luck, Kingturtle 06:13, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Look at Monroe County, New York. --Jiang

With all due respect, Jiang, there is nothing in that article to answer Tonya's question. She's legitimately asking if anyone can help her with a research query. Why give her and obvious and useless reference? -- Jmabel 06:02, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

It doesn't serve wikipedia's purpose to answer random question. Wikipedia is not a discussion forum. If it's relevant, then it has to do with our article on the subject. --Jiang 06:10, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Well, the question should probably have been on the Reference Desk, not the Village Pump, but it's a perfectly reasonable question, and the distinction between that page and this is often unclear to people not involved in this project. -- Jmabel 23:26, 20 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Enquiry

Is there any Overseas Branch of African Development Bank at 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf London E14

Thank you

Saibal Chatterjee saibalda@yahoo.com

richest - poorest countries

Looking for list of richest and poorest countries and also richest and poorest people.

What do you need exactly? The UNDP Human Development Index is probably the most generally useful. Mark Richards [8] 00:14, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Chinese architecture

I was trying to find the entry on Chinese architecture (and ideally with some pictures) but couldn't find it. Any suggestios? - and if there's no such item - and not even for any other country, Wiki might consider adding the category?

Jeff from L.A.

Surprisingly, we don't seem to have an article on Chinese architecture yet, although there's a link to the unwritten article from our architectural style article. Yet we do have articles for Japanese architecture, Cambodian architecture, Indian architecture, and Bhutanese architecture. It seems strange that we should be missing one on Chinese architecture, but now that it's been brought up here, maybe something will be done about it. (I'd try myself, if I knew anything about the topic). -- Vardion 07:26, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Conversion torque into pressure

Dear Reader, By accident I got on your Website, and I do not know if this is the right channel to post my question. If not, then could you please direct my to the right source? Thank you. Here is my problem. For a research project dealing with rehabilitation after cartilage repair in the human knee we want to compress the cartilage. By pushing the lower leg inward at the ankle , trying to bend the leg inward (with the knee joint being the point of rotation)we want to compress the inner side of the knee and its cartilage. We need a formula to find out the amount of pressure that will occur at the inside of the knee joint. The only known parameters are: The force applied at the distal end of the lower leg The length of the lower leg Both will give the amount of torque We also know the surface area on wich the pressure will be applied. But how can I convert this torque into pressure at the knee?

Thank you

Omer Matthijs boma@inode.at

I'm not sure if I totally understand your question, but let me give a crack at it anyway. So you're pushing at one end of a leg. If the leg's not accelerating, there's an equal and opposite force acting somewhere... let's assume the knee. If you can assume that the pressure acting over the surface area you have is constant, you can easily get it from P=F/A, where P is pressure, F is force, and A is area. Of course there's a torque too, just the force times the distance, but you don't even need to consider that. moink 05:00, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Question about Maria Theresa Reef and Ernest Legouve Reef (sorry)

First, sorry about posting a question here, but trying to edit the Ref Desk itself reported (with IE 4) "action not supported by Wiki" or something of that kind. Could someone else move this question there please?

The question itself concerns two "reefs", Maria Theresa and Ernest Legouve, that are in the South Pacific at roughly 150 west, 35 south. Rand McNally's Illustrated Atlas of the World does not indicate they are part of any country, which is rather strange considering all other tiny remote islands appear to be claimed (excepting near Antartica).

Interestingly, Maria Theresa features in two of Jules Verne's novels, Les enfants de Capitaine Grant and L'Ile Mysterieuse. In the former, it is also referred to as Tabor, its French name. Verne describes it as fairly large and having a forrest, but is that true or is it just coral? And who discovered it and Ernest Legouve?

Google is our friend, yes, but I got surprisingly little result. Any reliable information is appreciated; please answer at Ref. Desk itself. In fact, in return I'll try to create articles on both, in English and Dutch.

Thank you in advance, 194.109.186.161 15:59, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Well, I've moved it for you (from the discussion page) - I wonder what the problem was... - IMSoP 19:31, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Merged British and Irish parliaments

On what date did the combined British and Irish parliaments first meet after the 1801 Act of Union? Was an election called in Ireland or did the members of the Irish House simply relocate to Westminster? Mintguy (T) 20:30, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Cinnabar

I am aware that mercury is a very dangerous substance to work with and was therefore wondering if that same cautions would be necessary for working with cinnabar? Thanks. misscathy.seacoast@verizon.net

A quick google search on "cinnabar toxicity" suggests that it is dangerous. For instance, this fact sheet from the state government of Queensland, Australia, says that cinnabar mining represents a significant potential source of mercury exposure for workers.

Note: I have emailed this person with an answer to their question.--Robert Merkel 03:25, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Victoria , vancouver Island, British Columbia

Can anyone tell me how it was decided that Victoria located on Vancouver Island became the capital of the province of British Columbia. The only reference I can find is in a book that says after much drinking and trickery it was decided for Victoria. Can anyone tell me what happened. Thanks

This is total hearsay (I think perhaps I heard it from my father, who is sometimes right and sometimes completely wrong, and I can never tell the difference). After they decided that the 49th parallel would be the dividing line between Canada and the U.S., they didn't want the U.S. to claim Victoria (which is S. of the 49th parallel). So they put the provincial capital there, reasoning that there was no way the Americans would be so rude as to claim a provincial capital.

Before that, it was in New Westminster. moink 04:56, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Victoria , vancouver Island, British Columbia

Sorry my contact is lbhilliard@comcast.net. Thanks

need help.....leonardo da vinci

Hello,
My name is Jessica. I have a question. I am doin a research project on Leonardo Da Vinci, and I want to find out his real name since Da Vini is not. Do you know of any source that can help me find out. I think it is impossible, its not stated anywhere. Maybe if I can even find out his father last name would be helpful If you can help thank you so much. You can email me at swtbttrfly@aol.com with any information\ Sincerly Desperate for this answer.....

See Leonardo da Vinci. The problem is that people didn't always have surnames... before surnames were developed people were known by the place where they live or by their father's name. So Leonardo was Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci - no surname, and yet his real name. - Nunh-huh 00:02, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I am willing to email this person, unless someone else wants to. →Raul654 00:05, Feb 23, 2004 (UTC)

Roland Koning

(from user:137.186.203.169) - The Nederlands painter Roland Koning gave me a set of twelve reproductions of his paintings titled " Herstel Van De Havens Rotterdam" published in the year 1967. They are nicely mounted in their original booklet published by

Opgedragen Aan Officieren, Onderofficieren, Korporaals en Manchappen Van Den Munen Oprium Dienst Der Koninkluke Marine

He was a very famous Dutch Painter. The Queen of the Nederlands published a retrospective of his paintings and bestowed a national honor to him.

I am at the state in life when I am trying to part with peices of endearment and the memories of these particular items is enough. Roland Koning was my neighbor in Waasenaar. I would appreciate your informing me of who I might contact to find the value of these reproductions and where I could dispose of them.

Gordon Davis 210- Patterson Blvd SW Calgary, Alta T3h 3J6 Ph 403-246-5615

Current name for a town in England

I am attempting to locate hospitals in the town of Heathcote Close where I friend of mine was born in 1968. This town is not listed on the A-Z list of towns in England.

Might the name have been changed? If so, are you aware of the current name?

Thank you ever so much for your time. This is all in conjunction with determining the time this person was born so a special gift of a birth chart may be given for their upcoming birthday. However, I've been notified that times of birth are not recorded on birth certificates in England and was directed to contact the hospital of birth for that information.

First, I do need to have the correct town so I may search out the time!

Have a lovely day and thank you for taking the time to read this as well as hopefully supplying an answer.

Sincerely,

Sherrill Curtis

Hi Sherrill, the only match that comes up on a Google search is Heathcote Hospital in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. To be honest place names haven't changed that much in the UK since 1968 so your best bet would be to have a look at your friend's birth certificate, which would have the name of the hospital and the town and county it's in on it. Time of birth is only registered in the UK for multiple births. -- Graham  :) 11:06, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi Sherrill, Heathcote Close sounds more like a street name than a town - a search on Google.co.uk shows Heathcote Closes in Aldershot, Liverpool, Chester, Maidstone and Derby on the first page alone. If there was a town of the name I'd expect it to appear early, but I can't say I've ever heard of a town of that name. Try to get a look at your friends' birth certificate for the address of the birth (at that time not everybody was born in a hospital!). -- Arwel 11:23, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hmm good point. This website is a good place to look for a street name in the UK. There are 8 possibilities. -- Graham  :) 11:28, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

A picture of a tree to identifiy

I was walking around Kenilworth Castle and spotted this redwood-like tree, which I didn't recognise but thought perhaps rather uncommon (at least in the United Kingdom); is it (a) identifiable and (b) worthwhile for the Wikipedia? (The images on that site are mine, and licensed as public domain, or GFDL if you prefer.)
James F. (talk) 14:09, 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hi James, it could be a Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) because they have been fairly widely planted throughout western Europe for their timber. They only grow to about 45m max in Europe though, much taller in the US. It's difficult to tell without seeing the scale and the leaf form exactly what it is. -- Graham  :) 10:57, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

military camouflage

When was military camouflage very first invented and who invented it?

A quick websearch releaved that the term itself comes from the French during World War I. They formed the first formal camafloughe unit. Houghton Mifflin has a pretty good write up on the history. →Raul654 01:32, Feb 24, 2004 (UTC)

obsolete scientific theories

What are some obsolete scientific theories?

for this new page about theories that were once commonly accepted and are false.

Searching for info on artists

Hello, My name is Trish, and my husband and I inherited 4 bronze sculptures a few years back. The problem is that I cannot find any info about them. I was hoping this site may be able to help. Any info would be appreciated. We can be e-mailed at lilfuny@yahoo.com.Thanks in advance the info is listed here that we have. Pecheur , par Picault (sculpt) E Picault (fisherman) La Sirene D. Puech ( mermaid/angel) Germaine B. ( man seeding) Terville (woman holding basket with shells in it.) All are at least 24 inches high, La sirene is really huge. Many Thanks, Trish Fortier

Caesars Legions

Didn't Caesar have his LegioI Gallic and LegioIII Germanic, taken off him by the Senate before the Civil war campaigns against pompey?

I don't know which ones specifically were taken away, but you might want to look at List of Roman legions, Legio I, and Legio III Gallica. Adam Bishop 13:24, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Area of a sector of an ellipse

Ok, I'm back to pester Wikipedia with more geometry questions.

I need the area of a "central" sector of an ellipse. That is, a sector with its vertex at the centre of the ellipse (NOT at a focus). I have the major and minor axes of the ellipse, and I can nicely orient it to be centered at the origin with it's axes along the coordinate axes. So it's equation is x=a*cos(theta), y=b*sin(theta).

I have the two angles (measured counter-clockwise from the x-axis) of the rays bounding the sector: theta1 and theta2.

If this needs arctans somehow, explain to me what to do to get the right branch of the arctan. I have the atan2 function available to me, that takes a numerator and denominator and figures out the quadrant from the signs, and returns an angle between -pi and pi.

Thanks! moink 18:23, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Okay, the way I solved this is by considering theta1 to be equal to zero, and solving for theta2, henceforth θ, assuming it's less than π/2. Areas for other values of theta1 and theta2 can be calculated by appropriate additions and subtractions, thanks to the symmetry of the ellipse.

Drop a vertical line from the point (a cos(θ),b sin(θ)) to the x-axis. This separates the problem into the area of the triangle on the left, and an area under the curve on the right. The triangle on the left has an area of

${\mbox{Triangle area}}={\frac {ab}{2}}\cos \theta \sin \theta$

The hard part is the area under the curve.

${\mbox{Area under curve}}={\frac {b}{a}}\int _{a\cos \theta }^{a}{\sqrt {a^{2}-x^{2}}}\,dx$

which, according to MathWorld's article on ellipses, can be integrated analytically giving:

${\mbox{Area under curve}}={\frac {b}{2a}}\left[x{\sqrt {a^{2}-x^{2}}}+a^{2}\sin ^{-1}\left({\frac {x}{|a|}}\right)\right]_{x=a\cos \theta }^{x=a}$

Substituting in and solving gives

${\mbox{Area under curve}}={\frac {ab}{2}}\left(\theta -\cos \theta \sin \theta \right)$

So

${\mbox{Total area}}={\frac {ab\theta }{2}}$

-- Cyan 20:44, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Hmmm. The formula I found (for area between zero angle and theta):

${\mbox{Area}}(0,\theta )={\frac {AB}{2}}atan\left({\frac {A}{B}}\tan \theta \right)$

As in Cyan's answer, then Area(theta1,theta2)=Area(0,theta2)-Area(0,theta1).

The problem is, as you say, choosing the correct branches of atan. If you're using atan2(x,y) (=atan(y/x)), then the cases are (assuming thetas between 0 and 2π), in pseudo-C:

if( (θ<PI/2.0) || (θ>3.0*PI/2.0) ) { y=A*tan(θ); } else { y=-A*tan(θ); }

if(θ<PI) { c=atan2(B,y); } else { c=2*PI+atan2(B,y); }

Area=A*B*c/2.0;

I think that should work. -- DrBob

ABBA's Fernando

Would anybody happen to know which war, and which crossing of the Rio Grande, is referred to by ABBA's song Fernando? (The song's lyrics are available here. This page also contains a comment by one bruno64 providing an explanation of sorts, but one that isn’t very convincing.) Thanks, Itai 23:41, 24 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Buddhist symbolisms

I wonder if anyone can tell me the significance of the toucan as sybolism, as well as the baby Buddha, rear-end raised in the air wearing glasses.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Eleanor Mason

You may contact me at

  nornorny123@aol.com

dari and Farsi

Moved from Wikipedia talk:Village Pump HI, i just came new into this site accidently and i found it very interesting...the reason why i came into this site accidently because i was searching for the difference between dari and farsi. I am an afghan and i have been having argument with my friend who call themselves persians(Iranis) I told them that we are not persian because persian means farsi we dont speak farsi but a different dialect called Dari. The differnce may not be alot as was said in this site by someone, but they are different languages doesn't matter how close or simlar they r, they are different, lets say by .5%, that gives the 2 countries different languages, The iranis cant say they speak dari and the afghans they cant say they speak fari.

Now the real question which has been bothering me is this which i hope the administrater of this room will answer me. Can afghans call themselves Persians ( farsi) even though they speak dari???????? I am new to this site and i dont know where or how to read the reply of my message here, i would like anyone who has an idea or the administrater of this room who knows more to e-mail me their answer at afghanguy_1@hotmail.com that would be greatly appreciated

Quote about civilization as ants on a leaf by Nietzsche?

I remember reading a passage about a tower of ants on a leaf that was swirling downstream towards (?). This image was suppossed to be a metaphor for "civilization."

I'm pretty sure it was a quote from Nietzsche, but in my searches of the web and "The Portable Nietzsche" I've come up empty.

Can someone please help me find this quote?