Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous

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

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.



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V. Ivanova

Text speedily deleted recently from above article:

Is this Vitaly Ivanova? I am interested in contact with a person of this name, originating in the Moscow region, City of Chernogolovka This person would be the father of Alla Ivanaova who married and moved to Canada. Please forward any contact to timsouth236@hotmail.com

Polydactyly

Hi, I was wondering if I could get anymore information on the genetic disorder polydactyly. I am doing a report for my biology class on it. My e-mail is vbrian48@hotmail.com. Thanks a lot, bye.

Brian

Here's a link to an image of a polydactylus hand: [1] and another [2] The extra digits of polydactylus appendages often lack effective muscular connections. Polydactyly is usually inherited as a dominant trait but is also sometimes induced by teratogens.

Formation of human hands and feet begins at about the 6th week of gestation, when cell death divides the apical ectodermal ridge into, normally, five segments. Normal patterns in digits are formed, or not formed, as a result of activity in a zone of polarizing activity at the base of arms and legs on their posterior edge. The morphogenesis probably involves retinoic acid (vitamin A) and a series of genes called homeobox genes.

Other embryonic malformations of hands and feet include ectrodactylyl, which is the absence of a digit, usually unilateral (one only one side) and syndactyly, which is abnormal fusion between fingers or toes.

Syndactylus appendages form in about 1 of 2,000 human births, when the normal breakdown of mesenchyme fails to occur. Clubfoot often presents along with syndactylus, but clubfoot might be inherited or a result of abnormal placement of the legs in the uterus during gestation. In clubfoot, the sole of the foot is turned inward.

None of these are the same as cleft hands or feet, called lobster claw deformity, consisting of an abnormal cleft between the 2nd and 4th metacarple bones and soft tissue, usually along with missing 3rd metacarpal and phalangeal bones, and often with fusing of the thumb and index finger and of the 4th and 5th fingers. You might learn more about this by reviewing articles on human embryology I'm not sure your teacher will be very impressed if you say a bird told you this. If you enter some of these words in the www.google.com search engine, you might find additional sources for this information. You should at least check my spelling, and do something to be sure the information I freely provided comports with some other reliable source. Byrd

Internal link: Polydactyly Bensaccount 04:15, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

After reading a bit more, I learned that polydactyly is present in as many as 100 other disorders, often as a minor trait compared to the gravity of the disorder, and that in rare cases it cannot be attributed to any known cause. RaymondByrd 04:35, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Static electricity and ice

Does anybody here know if static electricity discharges from breaking ice? I'm not sure if it occurs when ice separates from plastic or when ice separates from itself. I observed the phenomena while breaking icecubes from a plastic tray in a darkened kitchen. I would expect static discharges from plastic, though I never really contemplated why they occur, much less if they occur in ice alone or in ice separating from plastic. Just curious...

I remember hearing or reading that breaking icicles causes sparks. I've just spent 10 minutes searching, though, and can't find anything online at the moment. I read something about breaking things causing sparks recently (maybe lifesavers), and the only thing I can find on the net says that from personal experience that's false. I might have read it in Discover magazine--I'll see whether I can find it in an old issue, unless someone else can come up with something. Elf | Talk 17:10, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)
The thing with Lifesavers is called triboluminescence and it does work (I've done it myself). There may be a similar effect with ice; a google search for triboluminescence+ice gives some links, such as [this scientific paper]. -- DrBob 17:46, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Root of the word "Germany"

Can any one tell me, why we call this country as Germany, while it is called Deutschland by Germans themselves? What is the etymological meaning of Germany? Thank you

The word Germany derives from the latin Germanic labeling the babaric tribes of northern europe, see Germanic peoples. The French word for Germany, Allemagne, derives from one specific germanic tribe of southern Germany, the Alamanni. The origin of the word Deutsch is a bit more complicated. The name derives from the germanic word theoda meaning folk, from which around the 8th century the latin word theodiscus labeling the german language developed. And I wonder why the above isn't included in the articles on Germany or German language yet. andy 10:10, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Maybe it's the same user who asked the same question before. See the 'Name of "Deutschland" ' section above. Jay 10:52, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I think it was named after Germanicus Caesar, the general at the battle of Teutoberg Forest. It comes from the Latin name for the area past the Rhine, that's for sure, but I could swear the Romans assigned that name to it and that it had been the name of a person. Diderot 13:42, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

You can check out Germany at List of country name etymologies, it's pretty complete. Btw, it wasn't me who asked this time. Mjklin 15:03, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

im doing a A-level project

can you tell me the compostion of the english 2 pence coin when it was made of bronze and if you can can you give me detailed information on experiments that could be used to find how much copper is in the bronze.

  thank you Gettothegone_2@hotmail.com
According to the Royal Mint the composition of British 2p coins minted before September 1992 is 97% Copper, 2.5% Zinc, 0.5% Tin. Gandalf61 15:25, Apr 15, 2004 (UTC)
Page 594 of my copy of Analytical Chemistry, by Skoog and West (ISBN 0-03-097285-X) gives the procedure for determining the percentage of copper in an alloy. I'd post it, but that would be a violation of copyright, and Dr. West was too nice of a professor for me to do that to him. Gentgeen 06:21, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)

songbooks and music for basic guitar

I have been looking for good, simple songbooks for singing and playing guitar. All types of music from country to gospel. where and how to find the best ones.

An excellent resource is The Online Guitar Archive (OLGA). This collects songs transcriptions (both in chords and tablature) collected from various internet groups. The quality of the transcriptions can be patchy sometimes (or be in some deeply unsuitable key for your voice) but you'll often find that several versions exist for the more popular songs. And it's all free. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:01, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

CATCH PHRASE- help

I am stuck on the last question in a local rotary quiz. The answer is a 'Silly Saying or Catch Phrase'. We are given the FIRST letter of each word but not told the NUMBER of letters in each word. Most of the other answers in this group are from British TV.

T T D S C W

Any ideas?

Reagrding Pashto Article

"In Pakistan, Pushto has no official status; it is not taught in schools and Pushtun children learn Urdu as their language of education and activities outside the home."

I saw this statement in the article "pashto". I just want to make a correction that it is not true that pushto is not taught in schools. It is taught in all governemnt schools in peshwar. I am pushtoon and i lived in Nowshera for 8 years and i been to govrnment schools in nowshera and peshwar and it is taught in governemnt urdu medium schools in peshawar.

Thanks.

Thanks for the help! We'll change the article. By the way, this is an open encyclopedia and you can make any corrections you think necessary by clicking on the edit this page link. moink 21:36, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing out this observation. However the line you are talking about is not in Wikipedia's Pushtu article, but in the website of UCLA. Wikipedia doesn't endorse the correctness of articles in external websites that point from an article. Wikipedia however strives to achieve neutrality in its own articles. Since you have a lot of information on Pushto, you can help adding information to the article. Jay 06:02, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Are there any retail vendors of this media? I'm having trouble finding them at CompUSA type outlets. - Bevo 20:37, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

if you mean the business-card sized CD-R then Fry's Electronics sells em. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:02, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)
you can also buy them at www.5inch.com - DropDeadGorgias (talk) 00:05, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC)

I'm ashamed that I, a history major, cannot remember this, but why is the District of Columbia called the District of Columbia? And once someone remembers, could they put it in that article, as well as posting it here? Thanks! :-) Jwrosenzweig 23:39, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I found this, which doesn't really answer [3]. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:58, 16 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Columbia = an early proposed name for the new country that was eventually called The United States instead. Sounds better than District of the United States. I added that and some other info on the historical difference & gradual merging of Wash and D.C. Elf | Talk

list of Disney animated movies

From the village pump

I've looked all over trying to find a chronological list of the Disney cartoon movies and so far, your list is the closest to what I have discovered. Unfortunately, the second list omitted the two additional Lion King movies, the additional Hunchback of Notre Dame, extra Atlantis and extra Jungle Book movie. I am in the habit of writing which movies was which number on the inside of the movie box and I'd like them to be accurate to what the Disney studio says. According to them, like Peter Pan was 14th, The Jungle Book was 19th, Fox and the Hound was 24th, and so on. Can anyone help me number my other 30 some odd movies? Please? THANK U!!!

The article in question is List of Disney animated features. →Raul654 00:49, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC)

Sleep deprivation

Someone once told me that after around 20 days without sleep a person will... die. I was a little dubious of this, however the sleep deprivation article states that:

Lack of sleep may result in irritability, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory lapses, overall confusion, nausea and eventually death....

...but doesn't give a figure. Does anyone know what the (average) limit is?

(And yes, I didn't sleep too well last night.) Chopchopwhitey 15:09, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)

If my shoddy memory serves me, the world record for human sleep deprivation was done by a california boy who did it under psychological supervision (from either Stanford or Berkeley - I can't remember which). He made it to ten days with no sleep, but at that point, it becomes a question of what exactly sleep is. Does microsleep count? Again, IIRC, in experiments with rats, the rats died after 3 weeks with no sleep. I don't think a human has ever made it that far. →Raul654 15:24, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC)
Am I the only one just a bit troubled by the fact that the world's leading sleep researcher is named Dr.Dement? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:25, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I wondered the exact same thing recently; I learned in my high school psychology class that it's impossible to die from sleep dep, that you'd fall asleep before dying. I did some googling, and from what I can tell by making inferences based on vague speculation, the only way to die from sleep dep is to be incapable of sleep. Check out this small table giving life expectancy with total sleep deprivation (no references given); a newsgroup posting with (again unreferenced) replies claiming death won't occur... I'd also love to see a definitive answer on this. I'm not convinced by any lab studies in which animal (or human) sleep mechanisms were intentionally destroyed. Obviously, if one is physically incapable of sleep, death will occur before sleep. -- Wapcaplet 01:07, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I'd be very interested to know what the supposed physiological cause of death is in these cases. I believe I'm correct in saying that the Autonomic nervous system and brainstem don't really partake of "sleep", so surely can't itself be harmed by the lack thereof. And I think I'm (roughly) correct in saying that a patient with these intact can at least keep breathing, digesting, and heart beating. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:18, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Sleep is not well understood, so I think no definite explanation is known. But experiments have been done with rats: A pair of rats is placed on a circular platform in a pool of water, separated by a barrier. One is hooked up to an EEG (the other probably has a hookup which is ignored). Whenever this one rat starts to fall asleep, the barrier begins to move, forcing the rat awake. This way the rat can rest but not sleep, and the other rat can sleep sometimes. After a while (3 weeks?) the rat that couldn't sleep was unable to maintain its body temperature and died. Even if the rat was allowed to sleep after the body temperature began to wander, death still occurred. For this reason, volunteers are generally not permitted to become this sleep-deprived in studies. As for "you'd fall asleep first", this is probably true in a quiet room with nothing but food and water, but with suitable stimulants or a person to keep waking you, you could stay awake a very long time. I wish I still had the book I read all this in, but it (and its title and author) have now vanished into the mists of time. Perhaps the problem was that I was sleep-deprived to the point of hallucination and bad memory when I read it... --Andrew 15:22, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)

EDI 301

from the Village Pump

Can you direct me as to where to get information about EDI 301. It has something to do with Ocean shipment loading. Please send response to my email address - ctuanqui@sunkistgrowers.com

Thank you.

Ethylene Glycol Production

I am trying to determine how much of the Ethylene Glycol sold as "new" is actually remanufactured or recycled?

If you can help in any way please email me back at jerrystumpf2@netzero.com

Thanks ------- Jerry

  • I think I remember a project I once did on ethyleneglycol. You might want to try to contact the NW&S department at Utrecht University http://chem.uu.nl

--MacGyverMagic

REQUESTED INFO DR. PHIL/ANTHONY HOROWITZ/ALEX RIDER

I think Dr. Phil is enough of a phenomenon to get his own entry here. I'd also like to see pages for Anthony Horowitz and his fictional creation -teenage spy Alex Rider. However, I'm not knowledgeable about any of them and there don't seem to be obvious places to link them. Should I just create some stubs and hope for the best? Or does anyone else want to help out? -- MacGyverMagic

We do have Phil McGraw (I think I'll make some more redirects, as that isn't too easy to find) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:55, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)
We don't have a Anthony Horowitz page (although Crime Traveller links there). So yes, you should make a stub for it, I think. You might also like to tell User:Paul A, as his talk page seems to suggest he's a Horowitzista too. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:17, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

home runs

I'm wondering if anyone knows the entire number of home runs hit in MLB in 1927 versus the total number of home runs hit in the entire MLB in 2003?

http://www.baseball-reference.com is a great resource for this stuff. In particular, the information I used is in the "American League" and "National League" links at the top of http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/ . (The other leagues listed did not play in either of those years.)
The results:
1927
American League: 439
National League: 483
Total: 922
Number of teams at the time: 16
Number of games to a season: 154
Home runs per team per game: 0.374
2003
American League: 2499
National League: 2708
Total: 5207
Number of teams at the time: 30
Number of games to a season: 162
Home runs per team per game: 1.071
Hope this helps. LuckyWizard 01:16, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Glasgow based novel

I'm trying to find a novel I read many years ago. All I can really remember is that it was set in Glasgow, or more specifically the Gorbals (I think). All the events took place between a Friday and a Monday (inclusive). I also seem to remember the protagonist accidentally setting fire to someone's flat (again, I think). Does this ring any bells for anyone? - Lee (talk) 01:25, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Nothing rings a bell. Take a look at No Mean City (30's razor gangs) which is supposedly the definative Gorbals novel. Then there's How Late it was, how late (written in the vernacular, lots of swearing) and Swing Hammer Swing! (about which I know very little). Perhaps it's one of these (they're all fairly famous). Maybe checking these out on Amazon.co.uk will refresh your memory (I'm ashamed to confess I've read none of them). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:56, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
D'oh. Swing Hammer Swing!, winner of the 1992 Whitbread prize - which was why I read it in the first place. Stupid memory. Many thanks. - Lee (talk) 02:13, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Pai Hsien-yung

Is Pai Hsien-yung gay? The article Pai Hsien-yung states that Pai has explained that he believed his father knew of his homosexuality and "never made it an issue," though it was never discussed. . If so, I would like to add him to the list of famous gay people, since he is a very influential writer among Chinese community. --θαλαμηγός (talk) 03:36, Apr 18, 2004 (UTC)

Okay, some one has given me a evidence. just post here as a reference[4]. --θαλαμηγός (talk) 09:53, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)

Ganesha using tusk as stylus

I find this under your Mahabharata entry: "In the course of writing, Ganesh's pen failed, and he broke off one of his tusks in the rush to keep writing." But I cannot find any such mention in the epic itself. Kindly give me the reference to this breaking off the tusk to write down the dictation of Vyasa. Pradip Bhattacharya kanakpradip@yahoo.com

Several Google references to this can be found here. RickK 20:03, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Scientology

from the Village Pump

Fred Brewer

380 Rexford Drive

Hermitage, PA 16148

(724) 981-4695

nittanyrebs@aol.con


To whomever it may concern;


In the 1950s, I heard that Scientology was started by fans of a novel L. Rod Hubbard wrote about a planet like Earth on the other side of the Sun. They said these fans disturbed Hubbard at first, but later he joined them and became the head of Scientology which had already started without him. In recent years, any source I ever see about Scientology says Hubbard started it after writing Dianetics. Which version is true?


Respectfully yours,


Fred Brewer


I'm no expert on the subject, but our articles on Scientology, Church of Scientology, and Dianetics are fairly thorough. According to those, it was initiated by L. Ron Hubbard himself. -- Wapcaplet 19:41, 17 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Legend has it that scientology was started by Hubbard as the result of a bar bet between him and Robert A. Heinlein. This legend [5] is almost certainly false... but it's amusing, and that's the important thing. (It's one of those stories which I preface with "now, it didn't really happen this way... but it should have!") Grendelkhan 21:22, 2004 Apr 17 (UTC)
Ummm...."almost certainly false"? I forget if Hubbard Jr. discussed it in his book too, but the discussion on that very page seems to conclude that five independently corroborative accounts seem like rather more than coincidence. Chris Rodgers 02:31, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Grendelkhan said that the story of the bar bet with Heinlein was false. The five independent accounts are simply that Hubbard claimed the real money was in starting a religion. -- Wapcaplet 15:42, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Dianetics begat Scientology. Your story about sci-fi fans is much contrary to what existing analysis of Scientology/Dianetics/Hubbardism in general has said... Some of Scientology is derived from Dianetics... Dysprosia 02:37, 18 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Presedentes

We would greatly appreciate to know the name and E-Mail of each of the LatinAmerican Presidentes.

Thank you in advance. Guillermo R. Morini morini@yunque.net

You can find the names by visiting each country page: Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. Tempshill 00:29, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

List of maps?

Did I once see a list of maps on Wikipedia, or am I making that up? —Bkell 04:10, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Maps has a list of sources within and outside of Wikipedia. Wikipedia:WikiProject Maps also has a list of orphans and requested maps. -- chris_73 07:45, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)


Matrix Inverse

Is it true that if a matrix A is nonsingular, does it always follow that its inverse is also nonsingular? Do you have an item regarding this?

Yes, since matrix inversion is defined as a reversible process. So since a matrix can only be inverted if it is non-singular, the result must be non-singular so that (A−1)−1 = A This is an important property, if you think about it, because it makes inverted matrices behave like inverted numbers, which is what they're for after all. See also Invertible matrix. - IMSoP 13:39, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
This is the "easy way out". You have defined non-singularity to mean invertible (and admittedly the article you cite does this too). But what if non-singularity is defined as "no non-trivial solutions of Ax = 0" (as is common, and I suspect the direction the original poster is coming from). How then do you prove that non-singularity is equivalent to invertibility? Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 13:47, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
If A is nonsingular, det A ≠ 0, that is, det A = c (c ≠ 0). Using the rule that det (A-1) = (det A)-1 (see Determinant), then for this to hold then c must not be zero, for if it was, det A-1 = 1/0 which is not defined. Dysprosia 03:13, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Yeah, I also count that as a "cheat". If you "know" about the properties of determinants, and why they work, then you know about non-singularity and invertiblity. I bet this was a "from first principles" homework question, otherwise it is trivial.
So then prove that if a matrix has determinant zero, then it cannot be invertible. It becomes a little more apparent if you look at Cramer's rule. From there, then you can establish everything else you need. Dysprosia 22:23, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)


los angeles county, california demographics

i am trying to get more specific demographics data for the south bay region of los angeles county. specifically, i am trying to find population densities by postal code, and/or census tract, and/or a.p.n....any ideas how id go about getting this info??

-adam el_bizzaro@yahoo.com

  • This has them--you'd probably want to click Download rather than scrolling thru all the pages:[6]
For other available breakdowns, start here: [7] Niteowlneils 03:30, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Zip files and Cursors

  1. The zip file format has been named after PKZIP developed by Phil Katz. Any idea why he called it "zip" ?
  2. Also the cursor that we see on text editors - why is it called a "cursor" ?

Jay 17:48, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)

I suspect the computer cursor was named after the one on a slide rule. The COD says it's from latin, meaning "runner". -- DrBob 18:10, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Thanks DrBob, I looked at the picture of the slide rule cursor, it doesn't look anything like the blinking cursor we know of ! I was also wondering when did the cursor first come into computers. Before text editors, they must have been used on command line consoles, and the terminology must have gone into text editors which were developed later. Cursor talks nothing about the history. Jay 03:40, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Cursor has meant simply any movable item that marks a position, dating back to the 16th century. Nothing specific about its shape or material is implicit. So presumably "follow the bouncing ball" on Sing Along with Mitch was a cursor, too-- Elf | Talk 04:10, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
An anecdote I dimly remember from an anti-software patent screed from years ago: You know when your cursor is at the bottom of the screen and you hit Enter, and all the text on the screen scrolls up a line to make room for the next line? IBM supposedly holds (or held) a patent on that. AFAIK, they never shook down anyone for payments on this patent. Tempshill 00:26, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I've always assumed "zip" was meant to conjure up the idea of squashing things into a suitcase and pulling the zip (or zipper, if you're American) closed - and that metaphor has certainly been frequently used. The letter Z also seems to have some enduring connection with compression - perhaps because of LZ77 and its variants - so that connotation may already have existed when Katz started. I'm only guessing, though, I'm afraid. - IMSoP 18:20, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)
LZ stands for Lempel-Ziv, after Jakob Ziv and Abraham Lempel. Perhaps "zip" was chosen because it similar to "Ziv", in addition to the metaphorical connotations of "zip". -- Tim Starling 03:33, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)
Thanks IMSoP and Tim. while I had looked into every possible meaning of zip from the dictionary, nothing seemed to match the "make big into small" or "compress" meaning that I was looking for. Your visualization of squashing things into a suitcase is interesting, lets hope thats what made name it that way. Reg. the Ziv - Zip connection, if I'm able to get even a single external link, I'd make an entry of zip in list of computer term etymologies and make a mention of it. Jay 03:40, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Survey Lodge Ranger Station.

I am trying to find out information about the Survey Lodge Ranger Station that is located in Washington DC at the intersection of 17th Street and Independence Ave near the mall. I would like to know about it's history and what it has been used for over the last 100 years. Can anyone help me answer this question. Thank you.

From the pump

Hello I recently hear about the virus AD 36. And was wondering if there is at all anyway possible to get a sample for myself. As I am underweight and think this could be the answer to my Problem. Please let me know. Regards

Bradley Janse van Rensburg

E-mail: Bradley@quyn.co.za

for information please

from the pump

i was wondering if i could get anymore information on the genetic disorder polydactyly? I am doing a report for my biology class. Thank whomever this may concern.


--216.16.116.171 02:41, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)Brian Douglas

  • Brian,
    I can't give a direct link, but click this: Online Mendalian Inheritance in Man database and search for "polydactyly". You'll find it involves more than one genetic locus, and can click on the specific genes found by the search. (The main entry, or at least a useful one, seems to be here). - Nunh-huh 02:47, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)
    • Also see this abstract, it looks like it would be a good article to have your library get for you. - Nunh-huh 02:50, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

A direct link is polydactyly. (Also in reference desk). Bensaccount 14:38, 15 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Idenification of a Flag

from the pump

What flag has the british symbol (like the Hawaii Stat Flag) in the upper left hand corner, and red and white strips (like the American Flag?

It's either the flag known as the Grand Union Flag, used by George Washington's army in the American war of independence [8], or it's one of the flags of the British East India Company [9]. Depends where you saw it, really. Marnanel 16:47, Apr 17, 2004 (UTC)
I didn't know that about the E.Ind.Co., but to clarify: the modern US flag derived from one with the UK flag in its corner. When it became independent, the stars were put in the corner instead, and some have suggested that they were originally arranged to make the same shape. - IMSoP 11:38, 19 Apr 2004 (UTC)


help

From the pump

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am doing a report on Ai Yazawa for my school project. I have 20 questions to ask that will be published in our school news paper. I have looked all around the web for Mr. Ai Yazawa's email or adress, as to write a letter to him, but could not find it. I was hoping you could help me locate him for this interview. If you have any information that may be of help, please send it to meat Yueskaysgirl@aol.com

Sincerely, Morgan Rhodes

We do have an article on Ai Yazawa on the Wikipedia, but it doesn't have the information you're searching for. Searching for Ai Yazawa on Amazon reveals that her books are published in the United States by a company called Tokyopop, whose website is at http://www.tokyopop.com. They have a contact page on their website. If you ask really nicely they may pass on your letter to Ms (she is a woman, according to Tokyopop's profile on her) Yazawa. There are two other problems you may face - she may not speak much English, and she probably gets a huge amount of fan mail and may not have time to provide detailed answers to all your questions! Anyway, it can't hurt to contact Tokyopop and go from there. Note to Wikipedians: I have emailed this to Miss Rhodes.--Robert Merkel

Dual citizenship

I am 18 years old, and my Mother is a citizen of New Zealand, my Father is a citizen of the United States. I was accidentally born in the U.S. I now want to immigrate to New Zealand, and my Mother has always told me I have dual citizenship. She is not able to provide me with the appropriate paperwork. How do I find out this information?

My mother says I have to contact Washington, D.C.

Can you give me some direction on where I can get information regarding my dual citizenship? pamelaboyd1@cox.net

I had a friend who was born to in England to an American mother and a czech father. Until he was 18, he held dual citizenship in both countries (which allowed him to freely cross international lines). When he was 18 (for tax purposes), he had to choose which one to keep. At least between England and the US, there's a good faith arrangement to honor such situations. →Raul654 04:48, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)
I believe that the US regulations have changed in the last few years (although I do not have the appropriate references) so that you can now be a dual citizen US/other country, for suitable other countries (Canada is OK, I believe). So, look it up, but make sure you're checking recent data. --Andrew 15:09, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)
You will find contact information for the New Zealand embassy (Washington, D.C.) and consulates (Los Angeles & New York) here. If you're moving to New Zealand, you'll mostly be interested in whether New Zealand considers you a citizen or not. If you want to maintain dual citizenship, you may want to make inquiries about avoiding things that will effectively forfeit your U.S. citizenship. - Nunh-huh 05:01, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
As Nunh-huh has said get in contact with a NZ embassy or consulate, they will tell you what you have to do. Either you will just apply for a New Zealand passport or you will apply for a Citizenship by Descent certificate, then apply for the passport. -- Popsracer 13:46, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Who authored the definition of these terms?

Hi! I'm currently working on a research and I need the author and book references these terms has been gotten. these are the terms:

  • computer game
  • god game
  • internet game
  • role-playing game (rpg)
  • real-time strategy game (rts)
  • computer
  • computer software
  • LAN party
  • First person shooter (fps)

I need this as my reference/bibliography on my dissertation. Pls.care to e-mail me at: eve_girl_02@yahoo.com. I'm hoping for your immediate reply. Thank You!

Roanne Vista

Hi! If you mean the articles here on Wikipedia about those terms (e.g. computer game, LAN party, etc.) then the information you need is at Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia.
Note: I think I'll make an exception to my normal personal policy and send an e-mail as well for this one. - IMSoP 16:15, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)


Axial Tilts of Jupiter's Moons

From the village pump

I noticed that the Axial tilt was left blank for Jupiter's Moons, Europa and Ganymede...Does anyone know these values? (user:162.18.75.91)

8086 programming

Dear Sir/ Madam,

I am a student at my fourth year of study majoring in computer engineering?

I am having a problem with programming the 8086 microprocessor? I was asked to suggest 3 methods on how to minimize the run time of any assembly program I write?one of the suggestions is to minimize the number of instructions.

After reading the articles you've put on your site?I decided to come to you for help and any suggestions you could provide?

Thank you so much?

Please I need your help?


(1) Unroll any loops you might have. In other words, if you have the equivalent of (for a=0; a<5; a++)
Don't code it as a loop. Copy and paste your code 5 times. That way, you never have to call branch (this saves 3-4 cycles * the number of times you go through the loop). More info. →Raul654 18:08, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)
(2) In-line expansion is your friend. →Raul654 18:13, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)
Since you're talking about assembly language specifically, another thing you can do is become familiar with the number of cycles required by each instruction within the CPU. Some instructions require more cycles than others (one commonly-cited example is that multiplication takes longer than addition, though I understand that with modern x86 CPUs and their pipelining ability, this is not really an issue). Anyhow, using instructions that require fewer cycles would reduce run time. Assembly can be hand-optimized in other ways; for example, there may exist a single instruction that performs the same function as several other instructions together; use the single instruction, rather than multiple instructions. But the use of memory has possibly the most significant impact on run time; if you are using a value repeatedly, put it in a register rather than going out to RAM. Using a variable in a register can be hundreds or thousands of times faster than using a variable from RAM. And of course, you can always do a Google search for "assembly optimization" to turn up many other suggestions. -- Wapcaplet 20:18, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Read this: ISBN 1883577039 (and you'll see why Raul is at once totally right, and horribly wrong) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:50, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
He said he wanted it time-compressed. Who cares if his code blows up to 3 megabytes? ;) →Raul654 21:28, Apr 20, 2004 (UTC)
The cache. If your level1 cache is 64kbytes or so (much much more than an old CPU or a current embedded CPU, a bit less than a modern mainline CPU), blowing your code to 3 megabytes will make it run very slow indeed (as that poor code cache thrashes the FSB madly), far slower than the few cycles you've saved binning a few instructions from the loop guard. So unrolling small (few iteration, small body) loops is usually a good idea, but unrolling big, multiplicitous loops is very bad. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:15, 20 Apr 2004 (UTC)
He said he was optimising an 8086. I've never seen an 8086 with 64 KB of L1 cache, nor 3 MB of address space to unroll loops into. Optimising an 8086 is much simpler than optimising a modern computer. It's just a matter of counting clock cycles and using registers wisely. A good knowledge of the instruction set is necessary. Remember that many instructions set flags according to their result, obviating the need for an explicit test before the conditional jump. A nice trick I've seen is the use of self-modifying code -- you can store data in the immediate mode bytes of instructions. Immediate mode is faster than memory mode, and much faster than loading from the stack using a BP offset. -- Tim Starling 00:38, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC)
Yes, you're quite right. I read "8086" to mean "x86 architecture", which may be a rash assumption (if it _is_ 8086, I'm guessing it has to be a software emulation of the kind CS/EE lecturers are fond of using?). Indeed, an 8086 had no cache at all. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 01:43, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
But it did have instruction pre-fetch, which is another good reason for unrolling short loops. If this is a school project then its always worth stating the obvious: use registers, use the simplest addressing mode, count clock cycles. Oh, and if this is a genuine 8086, buy a floating-point co-processor. :-/ DJ Clayworth 13:39, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Ahem - self-modifying code considered *extremely* harmful. →Raul654 02:10, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC)
What would software engineers know anyway? ;) There might be issues with protected mode and pipelined processors, and maintainability is an issue given the lack of proper tools. But if your only goal is to find the fastest possible configuration of a few hundred lines of code, self-modifying code can give you an edge. It's a useful technique for competition or perfectionist thrill, if not production code. -- Tim Starling 06:58, Apr 21, 2004 (UTC)
Yes, but sometimes no. Like anything else, you can do it in an ad-hoc, spaghetti way, and spend weeks figuring out even the most modest of bugs. Or you can do it in an organised, structured way, and it can be a useful technique. Consider latest generation JVMs (doing things the "hotspot" way) which regenerate their assembly based on the runtime patterns of a piece of code, reorganising the code in the fastest and most cache-coherent way possible. Most modern processors (again, not 8086) perform branch prediction and often qualified conditional preexecution, so arranging your code so that all the compares are structured to branch only in the more exceptional case (a trick Abrash covers at great length, particularly in his latter book, and that Hotspot does) can be a big saving (as a failed branch predict causes a pipeline interlock). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:36, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
By the way, even minimizing the number of instructions isn't a sure method. (This isn't about unrolling loops, which increases the size of the program but reduces the number of instructions that the processor executes.) Lkewise, you don't always use a more powerful instruction in place of a series of lesser ones. By my recollection, the multiple-bit shift instruction is slower than a series of one-bit shifts! Dandrake 19:41, Apr 26, 2004 (UTC)

MBE's AWARDED BY KING GEORGE V

How can I find out why an MBE was awarded to an ancestor of mine by King George V? Liz Stilwell 20/04/04

The honours in the Order of the British Empire are given for services to the United Kingdom. They are granted today to honour a lifetime of service in the arts, sciences, military or civil services [10]. You could try writing to the cabinet office at ceremonial@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk. Gdr 15:40, 2004 Apr 22 (UTC)


Greek Font

1) What is the name of the Greek font I see used a lot on Wikipedia and elsewhere? It is the font Wikipedians use to create symbols like ς and η and ζ.
2) Do you know where I can download it?

I don't know how you made those, but you just did it - it's built into Wikipedia. Type the name of the letter, preceeded by a & and followed by a ; and it will appear (& alpha ; written together without spaces will appear as an alpha, α). I hope that makes sense. Adam Bishop 06:04, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
If you're on a computer that runs windows, the font with the greek characters is called "Symbol". You don't need to download it, it comes with windows and is installed by default. (If you're not on a windows machine, they'll be some analogous font used instead - but if you can see the symbols, you already have the font).
The other way that greek is used in the (english) Wikipedia is inside mathematical equations (e.g. ). That font is the default symbol font for Tex, and is called "Computer Modern", I think. --- DrBob 17:44, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)
There is a misconception in this question. Fonts are installed on your computer, and have nothing to do with Wikipedia. Recent Windows distributions come with fonts for many languages: for example in Windows 2000, go to Start → Settings → Control Panel → Regional Options; tick all the boxes in the Language settings list; click "Apply" and follow the instructions (you will probably need your installation CDs at this point). Then you should be able to see not only Greek text (αβγ), but Cyrillic (АБВ), Thai (กขฃ), Japanese (あいう) and other writing systems. Gdr 18:48, 2004 Apr 21 (UTC)

Personality Cult

Is it considered a personality cult if the person at the centre of the cult is dead? I'm thinking of Lenin in the USSR and its propaganda. DO'Neil 01:07, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Well, considered by whom? This is not a term that has a precise, generally agreed-upon definition in this respect, so it would be reasonable to either include or exclude such a situation. -- Jmabel 21:36, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Who are these people?

OK, so I'm too cheap to buy Time magazine. But anyway, they have the following people listed as among their top 100 most influential people in the world. Who are they?:

RickK 03:32, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The "What links here" pages for some of the above pages show :
I just created a stub entry for him using numerous Google resources; someone with the time and inclination should read the book I linked to or find some other information on him and help clean up that article!JimD 02:36, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)
Jay 03:47, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Lindsay Owen-Jones is the chief executive of L'Oreál, I think. He's Welsh. DO'Neil 06:00, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hernando de Soto is a Peruvian author/economist. [11] Gentgeen 06:05, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Based on a quick Google search Fujio Cho appears to be (or have been) president of Toyota. Hiroshi Okuda also returns references to Toyota, as Chairman of the Board, among other roles. Daniel Vassella is CEO of Novartis. Paul Ridker and Jeff Sachs both seem to be academics/pundits of some sort, you'd have to dig a bit to find out their claims to fame. I think we've covered all of them now, between us - time for someone to start writing articles on them! (And if anyone disputes inclusion, cite Time as a reason to keep :-p) - IMSoP 21:23, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

You'll probably find more on Sachs if you give his name as Jeffrey Sachs. -- Jmabel 21:39, 21 Apr 2004 (UTC)

What do you do if you think an article has many errors?

I just read the article on Simone Weil. I added a line saying that the claim that Weil committed suicide is countermanded by Simone Pretrement in her biography, Simone Weil, A Life [the definitive bio.]

But I think that there are a number of other erros in the article: It says that Simone Weil sought afflicition by going to work in the factory while Weil says that she sought the job because anyone who was to write about econmics/social philosophy should experience it before writing and because she sought to learn the special knowledge that workers possessed [epistemological priviledge].

The current artilce says that Weil's mehtod is like that of James. But James in a pragmatist. Weil is a Platonist -something that James criticized.

I do not know what to do about the article. I do not feel right just taking out someone elses work and yet, I think the article needs correction.

Katel

Woah, that's interesting. I was just by here on a lark; I would have expected this to show up at Talk:Simone Weil. I contributed most of the material on Weil's thought (not the biographical stuff), and thus some of your bone-picking should be with me. However, mayhaps better to do it on the Talk page?कुक्कुरोवाच 22:25, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Do not ask for permission if you actually have facts to improve. Change it! :-) Yes, Wiki means "Be bold"! (Actually, it means "quick", but....)
But if you have to have some controversial theories on some government alien conspiracies, you might wanna bring 'em up in the relevant article's Talk (discussion) pages first. Some people would say: "Still go 'head anyway!" But that may end up in disasters. Now, a French philosopher who died more than half a century ago, well..it's probably not THAT controversial nowadays, so, go ahead! Do what you want. Just don't troll! ;-p --Menchi 01:07, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Well, if there are actual factual errors, just correct them. On the other hand, if "Some people say X and some people claim Y" you can just add the unrepresented viewpoint. (E.g. "M. Smith says Simone Weil committed suicide, Simone Pretrement argues in Simone Weil, A life that she did not.") Don't worry too much about removing stuff, if someone disagrees they'll put it back in<G>! - Nunh-huh 01:10, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

radius

from the Village Pump

I am looking for visual representation for a radius, an ancient tool for measuring distance on maps. I hope it isn't just a compass.

thanks so much. wsubity@yahoo.ca

The following Google search should give you plenty to chew on: [12] -- Jmabel 16:40, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

physiological psychology

Hello Do you know where I can study physiological psychology? I am doing my honours in psychology now in Australia and wondered if I can go on and do a Phd or Masters in Physiological Psychology. Everything mainly seems to be neuropsych.

Help could possibly change my life. my email is h.haydon@student.qut.edu.au

(moved from Talk:Physiological psychology by chris_73 04:50, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC))

Identification of a Flag

I am an italian charm bracelet seller and have acquired a charm that looks like the british flag in the upper left hand corner and has the american red and white stripes on the rest of the charm. I have a picture, but do not know how to display it here. Can you tell me what this flag is?

I have color printed from your site all the countries for reference, and it does not appear to be any of the countries. Any help you can give me will be appreciated.

I apologize in adavance if you do not commonly answer questions of this sort, or if this site is not used for this purpose, but even my suppliers do not know the answer to this question, and they are selling these charms.

Thank you, Sandy

Like this flag? It could represent a flag the United States used during the American Revolution. Adam Bishop 16:07, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Are you the same person who asked this question before? Either way, there's some answers just up the page from here. - IMSoP 16:13, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Politically Correct Map of India?

The maps of the south asian region shown all over wikipedia are incorrect. Pakistian occupied Kashmir is showed as a part of Pakistan, which is gross. It is a part of India and should be shown as such. can any one upload the correct map?

Perhaps someone can make a map that shows it as a "disputed region." It's hard to make a map to satisfy both sides of a conflict. moink 00:48, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
As I am sure you know the best representation of Kashmir on large-scale maps has been the source of a lot of controversy. Small-scale maps are often less problematic because they can mention all claims and all controlled areas. Oddly our Kashmir article only mentions map issues by refering to ext. links. - perhaps we can improve this. Which image(s) do you find problematic, so we can look at it further? Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 08:56, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Term - "Seventh Wave"?

Greetings,

I have been unable to find out what "seventh wave" refers to.

Maybe you can add it to the wikipedia.

Thanks

I believe there is folklore in the surfing community that says that good waves come in cycles of sevens, to each seventh wave is a good one. But that's just my unreliable memory. DJ Clayworth 17:46, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Google-ing on "seventh wave" and "origin" I found a few references to that belief and one as follows:

Surrounded by water, it is not surprising that inhabitants of Ireland, Britain, Scotland and Wales considered water a boundary between this world and that. To go "beyond the seventh wave" was to disappear entirely.[13] JimD 02:49, 2004 Apr 24 (UTC)

I've heard of this as "The Ninth Wave" - via the Kate Bush album-side, supposedly from a poem by Tennyson - "Wave after wave, each mightier than the last/ Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep". This is also mentioned in Brewers. -- DrBob 06:59, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Finding a book whose title I can't remember

Hello,

I remember reading a book about a n older gentleman who was taken ill and traveld to a plave in Europe for rest. While he was there he "people watched" and landed his gaze on a beautiful young boy in his teens who was traveling with is aunt ot someone. This man spent all his time obsesing over this boy's beauty, and trying to come to terms with his own aging. Can you find the mname of the book and the author? I thought that Nietzsche wrote it, but when I looked up his titles, nothing rang a bell for me.

Can you help? Lisa Boerum ljboerum@yahoo.com

Ancester-Mysliwa

I'd like to find information on the subject person. First name Julia-last name could be spelled Mysliwy, or Mysliwa

Charles Bed173@juno.com

Oh come on, give us a clue! We're surprisingly good at coming up with answers here, but give us something to go on — any particular time period in the last three thousand years or so of recorded history? Likely place? Did she do anything famous? Arwel 22:25, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Well, according to the section title, Julia's main claim to fame is being an ancestor of Charles. Likely time period? Perhaps 3-5 generations ago -- as far back as most people are just learning how to post a good genealogy query know their ancestry from oral tradition (at least he has collected two written samples of her name so far). Where? Judging from his American e-mail address and her eastern European surname, she most likely immigrated after 1880 or so since there wasn't much immigration from that region to the US before then. How's that for deduction? GUllman 00:42, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Not bad :) Still don't know anything about her though. I wonder if Wikipedians could find out anything about my great-grandfather John Jones (late 19th century, north Wales, where Jones is an extremely common surname and John was a highly popular first name)... Arwel 14:47, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

an elaborated version of the same question was added further down:

Gentlemen: I would appreciate any information you can provide or other link for subject name. The name could also be spelled Mysliwy. She left Galicia in 1910-1914 age 12,and came to the US. Her father had a glue factory(area unknown). She had three step-brothers same surname-first names unknown. sorry for the sketchy info. Thanks for any help you can provide. Charles Bed173@Juno,Com

Well, there's no Julia Mysliwy listed in the 1930 US Census (see [14], possibly married by then? The 1920 Census data requires registration), 3 J Mysliwy's found at [15], but I'm not going to register and possibly spend money there -- you'll have to do that! Try the Genealogytoday.com website -- Arwel 23:29, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

¶ sic semper

Copied from the now-deleted article ¶ sic semper Dear all

May i ask you to help me ?

Where does the sentence "¶+sic+semper+tyrannis" appear?

I know the sentence is quite famous, but it is written somewhere prefixed by ¶

May I ask you for help

karluv@eresmas.com

Thank you

To the best of my knowledge, "¶" is just a mark sometimes used to set off paragraphs. The sentence "sic semper tyrannis" (Latin for "so always to tyrants") was most famously spoken by John Wilkes Booth moments after he shot Abraham Lincoln. -- Jmabel 21:46, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
I realise it sounds stupid, but ¶ does look (very slightly) like a little handgun (barrel downward). Perhaps its a revolutionary rebus? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:14, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It's a sign - the revolution is starting! Who should we line up against the wall first? →Raul654 22:16, Apr 23, 2004 (UTC)
This is wikipedia - things don't work like that. We'll have a long argument about what to call the wall, a series of quickpolls to decide on who'll be shot and who'll do the shooting, and then the bullets will be slowly pushed into the most unpopular person. In the meantime, someone new will take the wall down and build a model of Barad-dûr with the bricks. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:23, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)
On a somewhat arcane note, I believe "¶" is technically known as a pilcrow. - IMSoP 22:21, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Um, sic semper tyrannis is the state motto of Virginia. Booth was quoting it. RickK 23:55, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Mary McGrory's 1975 P.P. article

from the pump

If anyone has a copy, please send to gil.garcia@ed.gov

Thanks

In case anyone was wondering, I think P.P. stands for Pulitzer Prize. This wasn't obvious to a non-American (me). Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 14:01, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
It's not obvious to this American, either. Kevin Saff 15:46, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Not obvious to me either... although I am curious as to why Pete thought that Americans as a group WOULD find it obvious... ;) --Dante Alighieri | Talk 17:39, Apr 22, 2004 (UTC)
Sorry didn't mean to be confusing. McGrory's recent death was quite well reported in the States, but not elsewhere. Even so, I guess it's still quite a poser - I had to look at her article to make the leap. The article also appears to give the answer to the original inquiry actually - she was awarded one of Prizes for a whole series of commentary articles about Watergate so it is not right to think of a specific article. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 20:48, 22 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Program guide

Alright folks, I've got a tough one. I'm trying to find somewhere (newspaper, internet site, by-request flyer, whatever) that regularly lists the program schedule for a local Spanish-language television station (Channel 14, Telefutura, out of Arlington, Virginia.) It's ok if it's in Spanish (in fact, it almost certainly will be,) I just need to know where to get it. I could use from the site's Spanish speakers. If you could actually find the info I'm looking for, that'd be great. Otherwise, if anybody knows the appropriate Spanish vocabulary for things like "television station" "channel" "program schedule" or whatever, that would help me in my own searches. Isomorphic 16:48, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Found it, and although I speak some Spanish, I didn't need to speak Spanish to find it. I found out by going to http://tv.yahoo.com and clicking on "TV listings" at the top, and when they asked for my ZIP code, I pretended it was 20007. (I had found out that that was a Zip code near Arlington.) I then went to the TV listings page, and the listings table contained a link to this page: http://tv.yahoo.com/tvpdb?d=tvs&id=166053608&channels=us_WFDC&lineup=us_DMA511&.intl=us
I hope this is what you're looking for. LuckyWizard 22:22, 24 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Thanks a lot! Now that I see what you did, I feel silly that I didn't think of that, but then, that's what asking questions if for. Isomorphic 09:57, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)


How many Wikipedia edits are there per day?

It varies, but it's not unusual to have 10-20 per minute.
Take a look at Special:Statistics too.  — Jrdioko (Talk) 03:26, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)

How many Wikipedia edits are there per day?

I'm working on a research paper, and have mentioned that the Wikipedia receives about 3,000 editorial changes/updates per day. I read it somewhere on the Wikipedia, but can't remember where. Can anybody direct me to the correct link so that I can cite my source appropriately?

Thanks!

--Lori 4/24/04

According to wikistats - in March, there were 922,000 edits to all the language wikipedians combined, and 361,000 of those were to the english wikipedia. That's 30,000 edits per day to all of them combined, and 12,000 per day to the english wikipedia. →Raul654 03:28, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)
One more site: Wikistats. Also, I'm not sure if you were asking about this but Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia has some information about citing the articles themselves. HTH  — Jrdioko (Talk) 03:31, Apr 25, 2004 (UTC)

Name of short story

I once read a short-story the plot of which is set at a dinner table having 2 (or more) families. The entire story is in direct speech (a monologue actually) by one of the ladies. As she keeps chattering, the reader gets to know the stories happening in the background of their lives. She is unaware that her husband was having an affair with the woman at the other side of the table, but the reader comes to know it before she does.

Expert piece of work, but I don't remember name of the story nor the author. Can someone help. Jay 22:00, 11 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Scheme issue

In Scheme, if I have an unnamed lambda function, how do I get that function to call itself?

For example:

(lambda (lst1 lst2)
(if (null? lst1) lst2
(name-of-lambda-function (cdr lst1) (adjoin-set (car lst1) lst2))))

In this case, name-of-lambda-function should refer to the lambda function itself. Basically, I need Scheme's equivalent of "this" in C++.


You will probably need to use a let or a let* to bind a variable to the function. You may need to use letrec to make the binding occur later. It's been quite a while since I've done scheme programming *sigh*, so I don't remember exactly.

French quotation

Would you have the name of the author of this quotation ('citation' in French): "Penser, rever, savoir,c'est tout là.?"

Or, where do I search for like proverbs in French?

Thank you very much.

vivelafrance@myexcel.com


Savoir, penser, rêver. Tout est là. - Victor Hugo, Océan prose Diderot 08:40, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Question RE: Wikipedia Article on Chakras

Dear Fellow Wikipedians,

I'm currently writing a paper for a comparative religions class I am taking. In the course of my research, I consulted the Wikipedia article on Chakras. The article stated that there is some evidence that the ancient Greeks as well as the Early Christians had systems of chakras. One external link attached to the article provided some good, but brief information on the subject. I'm looking for a list of books, magazines, websites or organizations that can shed some more light on the topic.

Regards, John Haun Email: Jhaun@nycap.rr.com

Short-toed eagles in Granada Spain

moved from Village pump by IMSoP 21:58, 25 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Hi,

Thanks for your site.

Could you please supply some information on Short-toed eagle breeding & migration habits. I live in Southern España (www.geocities.com/lecringranada/birdlist) and have become very interested in the local Eagle population. The Spanish Imperial has completely disappeared from our area. Over the last 5 years, due to changes in agriculture and hunting, I have seen the decline of Bonelli’s until last year we only recorded one in the valley. However, this seems to have increased the population of both Booted and Short-toed eagles and I would like to know how large a territory each pair will need. I have watched as the Short-toed have flown with snakes and indeed have located snakes which they have dropped in flight , the largest of which was over 5 foot long. Quite often the effort of flight with such weight forces them to rest in open ground giving wonderful observation opportunities. At the end of the last breeding season we watched a family of 4 Short-toed on many muscle building flights before migration. From this I thought (no doubt in error) they had reared 2 chicks. This year we have seen the return of a juvenile before the adults. We were expecting the adults to force it into a new breading area but this has not happened. My question is, did I see the same family grouping last year made up of a new chick, a juvenile from a previous year & the two adults because the text books say they only hatch one egg per year?

Thanking you in anticipation , Ken Sumner.

Database dumps

I wanted to do some mining on Wikipedia data. I got the link Database download from Arvindn and downloaded the dumps. But, the dumps seem to have only two tables cur and old. I would want to have the complete schema replicated on my machine. Please direct me to where the information is available.

-- Sundar 05:40, Apr 26, 2004 (UTC)
As I understand it, the cur table holds all current revisions and the old table holds all the old revisions, so you have got all the data you need... or am I missing something? Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 11:50, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Pete/Pcb21, if we consider only the text of the articles, then these two tables suffice. But, I was looking for information like which page links to what page etc. which does not appear to be present in the dumps. If you have some time, please visit The Database schema.
-- Sundar 12:33, Apr 26, 2004 (UTC)
The link table isn't exported, but you can rebuild it yourself. In the maintainance directory in your mediawiki drop there is a script called "rebuildlinks.php" which builds it. It takes a long time to run (more than 2 days on my ram-poor desktop machine). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:51, 26 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Actually the link table is exported, it's just hidden away in a secret location, namely http://download.wikimedia.org/archives/en/ . There are still a few tables which you won't find there. For instance the searchindex table is no longer kept up to date so you have to build your own anyway. And private data such as the user, watchlist and user_newtalk tables are not available. -- Tim Starling 00:27, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)
Thanks for the information, both of you. -- Sundar 08:56, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)

Thanks

Gentlemen- Thanks for your help with locating info on Julia Mysliwy. I'll follow your suggestions and hope for the best. Congratulations on your site. Best of luck. Charles Bed173@Juno.Com-

More on Child Sacrifice?

In the Wikipedia entry on "child sacrifice", it states that "many religions" sacrificed children in order to ward off "chaos". Could someone point me to the source of this statement? I'd be curious to know what religions sacrificed children specifically, when and where, etc...

the beltway murders.

i worked as an xtra in the movie, see photograph 6 of 32. I am the guy in the plaid shirt and black jacket. I live in Canada and would love to obtain a copy of the movie. can you please help me. my email is davidwilliams@telus.net thank you

Mr. Williams, can you explain what website you think you're posting to? RickK 00:51, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

International equivalents of a gap year

What are the national equivalents of a Gap Year (I'm thinking both the term used and the actual practice thereof) ? I'm sure there must be an Australian and New Zealander equivalent (not least because there's so many antipodeans in Edinburgh already that their original countries must be deserted). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:17, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

In Canada, or at least in Ontario, we don't have a name for it, we just call it "taking a year off." Adam Bishop 00:30, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)
In Australia it's invariably called "deferring". The student receives an offer from a university immediately after leaving high school, and defers commencement until a later date. [16] -- Tim Starling 00:37, Apr 27, 2004 (UTC)
I don't think that that's really the right term; we (in the UK) have deferred entry, yes, but that's to do with there being a year betwixt the end of attending one institution and enrolment at the next; the Gap Year is a specific activity that is often (but not always) carried out in this 'spare' year -- you could just spend the time lazing about instead, or doing some work. Gap Years are semi-structured, or at least focussed around an activity (like teaching English as a foreign language to school children in Chile, comme Prime William) and also generally include some level of travel abroad.
I suppose that it might be one of the not-so-few perculiarly British things... ;-)
James F. (talk) 02:18, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Kumara - Purple Variety - Where?

Do you know where I can obtain the purple variety of KUMARA??

Regards; bluelytes@yahoo.com

For those who don't already know, it's a sweet potato. For bluelytes, how is anyone going to be able to answer your question when you haven't indicated where in the world you are? theresa knott 08:43, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Where can you get them? New Zealand. Sometimes at Sainsbury's in the UK, but not often. If you live in the States, you're probably SOL, although I'm told they grow a few in Hawaii now for the restaurants. Diderot 08:47, 27 Apr 2004 (UTC)