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April 13

A book to read

I was looking for a good book to read. A mystery. Dark and suspenseful type, you know, ones which have dark old mansions and stormy nights. Any suggestions? --Yashowardhani (talk) 05:22, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

The Name of the Rose. Great book, very dark and suspenseful. Basically a Sherlock Holmes story reimagined in a 14th century monastery. Lots of good, gory deaths, suspense, etc. Very good stuff. --Jayron32 05:52, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Sounds good. But isn't it a bit too long? Anyway, thanks for the recommendation. --Yashowardhani (talk) 11:44, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Then watch the film; also good, and one of the few films where they let Sean Connery not pretend to not be bald. :) ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:58, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

This Agatha Christie novel of variable title is shorter and may fill the bill. Deor (talk) 12:55, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Dark old mansions and stormy nights? Try The Hound of the Baskervilles. Not too long, either. Looie496 (talk) 17:28, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

It would be a grand mistake not to read The Name of the Rose. I read it after seeing the movie in the theaters and have read it three times since 2000. μηδείς (talk) 17:34, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

The Moonstone. RNealK (talk) 18:40, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Stormy nights? Wuthering Heights! --TammyMoet (talk) 19:02, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Would you class that as "mystery"? I'd have thought that's more "psychological horror". 86.161.209.128 (talk) 19:38, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Remaining in the classics, Rebecca is definitely worth looking at. Tevildo (talk) 21:08, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

"The Haunting"85.211.192.200 (talk) 08:01, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

The OP and others are talking about "not too long". It would help if the OP told us what exactly this means for him, since humans have a funny habit of being very individual. -- Jack of Oz 21:37, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

By "too long" I meant that The Name of the Rose is 600 pages and rather difficult to read("In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". Now exactly what does that mean?) and I recently found out that it's not for children either (so dad won't let me read that). I'm not a literature student, and I'm 14. Perhaps that helps. And also I like novels reading which I feel like I'm inside. And what makes you assume I'm a "he"? --Yashowardhani (talk) 12:28, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

If you're looking for books specifically written for younger readers, but that are still scary, you might try the works of Mary Downing Hahn or John Bellairs. Helene O'Troy - Et In Arcadia Ego Sum (talk) 19:10, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

For dark, I'd go with Edgar Allen Poe. You seem to prefer short stories, and many of his works are in this form. One that comes to mind is The Fall of the House of Usher. The final scene in the book appears to have inspired the penultimate scene in the movie Carrie. StuRat (talk) 03:23, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Dark old mansions and stormy nights is H. P. Lovecraft, although his stories are only mysterious, not mysteries. μηδείς (talk) 02:27, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

How about The Wyvern Mystery by Sheridan Le Fanu? Helene O'Troy - Et In Arcadia Ego Sum (talk) 18:59, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Common names of freeways

I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I've just been on a holiday to Sydney. (For our American friends, that holiday would be a vacation.) One of the differences between the two cities is the names commonly used for the freeways (or motorways).

Here in Melbourne, while the roads have numbers such as M1 and M31, that's not how most of the public name them, nor is it how traffic reports are given. Some of the freeways have their own names (e.g. part of the M1 is the Monash Freeway), or they still use the names of the highway the freeway replaced (e.g. Princes Freeway and Hume Freeway).

In Sydney, it seems to be all letters and numbers. There's the M1, the M2, the M5, the M6 and the M31. I couldn't cope. To me there was no geographical connection between those names and their locations. I'm sure the locals would tell me that "you get used to it", and maybe I would, but it did seem harder for a visitor.

How does the rest of the world do it? Names or letter/number codes? HiLo48 (talk) 09:08, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Letter/number combination in the UK; some roads had earlier names, e.g. "Southend Arterial Road", now obsolete. In France, again, letter/number, and just a few of the main motorways also have touristy names: A6 and A7 together are "l'Autoroute du Soleil"; A10 is "l'Aquitaine". Italy very keen on names, see Autostrade of Italy. Letter/number combination plus name in Spain. Itsmejudith (talk) 10:29, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

British motorways are always referred to by letter/number combination. Everybody just knows that the M25 is the London orbital motorway, and M1, M2, M3, and M4 radiate from London, M5 is the one to southwest England, M6 is to the northwest. People outside Scotland get a bit shaky about M7, M8 and M9. Not so many people remember that the M60 is the Manchester orbital motorway since that's a fairly recent designation of a number of formerly separate roads, and then you get more obscure ones like the M606. Non-motorway highways are more logically numbered, with A1 to A6 radiating clockwise from London and A7 to A9 radiating from Edinburgh, and other roads are numbered according to the sector of the country they start in, the A494 starts between the A4 and the A5, for instance. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 10:43, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

The historical rational for UK motorway numbers is that they take the number of the A class road that they are intended to relieve. Thus the M11 was built to take traffic that would have used the A11. The A Class roads take their numbers initially from the way that they radiate from London, so the A1 goes north, the A2 goes east etc. Less important roads in between the A1 and the A2 are the A10, A11, A12 and A13. Lesser roads between the A1 and the A10 are the A100, A101 then A1000, A1001 and so on. A weird system but we've "got used to it". Alansplodge (talk) 18:56, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Of course, we have Anomalously numbered roads in Great Britain as well. Ghmyrtle (talk) 20:06, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

In the United States, it's a mixture. In many urban areas, such as Chicago (where I live), New York, and Los Angeles, many major highways have names—e.g., the Dan Ryan Expressway, the Cross-Bronx Expressway, the Santa Monica Freeway—and those names are used almost exclusively to refer to them. Elsewhere, as in St. Louis (where I grew up) and most smaller towns, major highways are usually referred to by their numbers—e.g., I-70, or just "Highway 70". (In St. Louis, though, I-170 is most frequently referred to as the Inner Belt, and I-64 is still frequently called Highway 44—"farty-far" in the local dialect—from its previous designation as a U.S. Highway.) Deor (talk) 12:48, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

I grew up in Chicago and got used to the names of highways as well as the numbers. In fact, we had a quiz in our drivers education class on the names & numbers of roads. That way whether the signs read Kingery Hwy or Rt 83, we knew it was the same road. In other places, they get a bit more confusing. Where I live in Vermont, we only have two interstates so we just call them 89 and 91. But local roads and state routes can be named different things depending on what town you are in. Going West to East, Rt. 2 is called Main St. in Burlington, Williston Rd. in Williston, and Main St. once again once it passes into Richmond. Meanwhile, Rt. 7 is called Rt. 7 in between towns and in smaller towns. It's called Ethan Allen Hwy on maps and Shelburne Road in the town of Shelburne. Though I've never run into anyone who actually uses the term "Ethan Allen Highway" when speaking. I've only ever seen it on maps. Dismas| 13:36, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

One regional variation in the US is a Californian tendency to put "the" in front of a number. Where on the East Coast and most of the rest of the US a traffic report might say "traffic's heavy on I-95," in California the report might say "traffic's heavy on the 101." In LA there is a mixture of numbers and names. Acroterion (talk) 13:43, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately, US roads often have multiple names, causing much confusion. Highways always have numbers, but the locals might refer to them by the number, local name, or either, depending on their mood. The situation is even worse for local roads, which can change their name quite often. In the suburbs of Detroit, for example, we have one road named Metro Parkway, Quarton, 16 mile, and Big Beaver. (You can guess which is my favorite.) StuRat (talk) 16:35, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Like the US, Canada uses number/names. For example the Yellowknife Highway is Northwest Territories Highway 3. The Mackenzie Highway is, from north to south, NWT Highway 1, Alberta Highway 35 and Alberta Highway 2. Of course between Calgary and Edmonton Alberta Highway 2 is the Queen Elizabeth II Highway. In Ontario the four oh one is the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway. The Queen Elizabeth Way in Ontario doesn't seem to have a number but is sometimes listed as 451 or 1. The Trans-Canada Highway has different numbers as it passes through each province and on the second route through the same province. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 16:42, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

I think aside from maps, no one ever calls the 401 "Macdonald-Cartier Freeway". If you asked any random person how to get to the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, they would probably have no idea what you're talking about. Certain parts of it are called the "Highway of Heroes", although I find that kind of silly. The other 400-series highways don't have names as far as I know, but other regional highways in Ontario sometimes do. For example, Yonge Street becomes Highway 11, and people tend to say Hurontario Road and Highway 10 interchangeably. Adam Bishop (talk) 01:00, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Until I looked at the article I didn't know it had a name either. I've always remembered the road as I once had to change a flat with my back to the traffic while going up to Montreal. Not something I want to do again. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 05:30, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

• In various parts of the U.S., it varies a lot. I grew up in the Boston metro area, and roads there can be confusing for non-locals, because it's a hodgepodge of names and numbers, and the signage doesn't always match local usage. For example, the road looping around Boston is called 128 (wun-twunny-ate) exclusively by the locals, and called that on Traffic reports, though much of it has been subsumed by two interstate highways (I-95 and I-93). The signage for 128 is spotty and thus, if someone tells you to "get on 128 south and get off on exit 30A" or something like that, you're not going to see a sign for 128, you need to look for signs for I-95. Likewise, I-93 in Massachusetts is conceptualized as 3 different roads on traffic reports: North of 128 it is called just "I-93", and traffic reports and locals will call it that. Inside of 128 south to about South Boston it is called either the "Central Artery" or "Kennedy Expressway", and south of that it is called the "Southeast Expressway"; though it's I-93 the whole way, most locals will only think of the section from 128 north in those terms. The part through Boston itself is always just the "Central Artery". There's also 2 different "Route 3"s, and locals don't often draw any distinction, so you have to pay close attention and understand from context whether they mean U.S. Route 3 (from Boston north) or Massachusetts Route 3 (from Boston south). If someone says they went to the Cape and traffic was bad on Route 3, it means the southern one. If they say they went skiing up in New Hampshire and traffic was bad on Route 3, they mean the northern one (technically, they are a continuous route using local city streets inside of 128, but no one really pays attention to that. In the local mindset, Route 3 only means the two expressways). --Jayron32 02:47, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Well, it seems it's a bit of a mess in many places. Might just stay at home. HiLo48 (talk) 07:56, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

... where at least half of the locals seem to believe the Princes Highway is the Princess Highway. They apparently have Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on their minds most of the time. Rather suss, that. -- Jack of Oz 09:24, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

It's good to be flexible about these things... HiLo48 (talk) 11:08, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Yep, I was just down in the Los Angeles area where there's a mix of names of numbers, neither of which seem predictable or all that sensible. Nice to be back in the Seattle area, where we have only numbers, like I-5, I-90, I-405, and, um, the Valley Freeway, the Mukilteo Speedway...er, nevermind. Pfly (talk) 05:27, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Highway exits

As long as we're on the subject of highway eccentricities, I have a question about highway exits, on/off-ramps, interchanges, etc.

In the US Midwest, the exits along a highway are numbered according to the mileage markers along the highway. Therefore, exit 18 will be five miles from exit 23, for instance. Though there may not be any exits numbered 19-22 between them. Here in the Northeast, they're numbered sequentially. Therefore, you have no idea how many miles are between exit 18 and 23 but there will definitely be an exit 19, 20, 21, and 22. I prefer the first method since you always know how far it is to your exit.

How is this handled in other parts of the world? Are they even numbered? Or are they just called various things like the exit that takes you to Smithville is called the Smithville exit? I checked highway exit but didn't see this mentioned. Dismas| 15:14, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

British motorways have sequential numbering, with the occasional suffix (e.g. 21a) where an extra interchange has been added. Very few major roads (other than motorways) in the UK have any numbering, just destination signage. Signage gives distances to the next exit. Dbfirs 15:23, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm surprised they still number sequentially in the Northeast US. Are those state roads ? I thought federal roads and interstates were all supposed to switch to mileage numbering. Note that mileage numbering has another advantage, in that mile 0 is at the start of the road or state border, so you know how far you are from that point, too. Also, there are mileage markers every mile or tenth of a mile, making it easy to tell how far you are from each exit (if you just passed mile 23 and there's an exit at mile 27, then you're 4 miles away). StuRat (talk) 16:18, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

The interstates in many Northeastern states are still numbered sequentially. AASHTO and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices has recommended that all freeway exits nationwide be numbered via mile marker, but such pronouncements are non-binding, and many Northeastern states have kept their sequential numbering schemes. In fact, when AASHTO issued their recommendation, only a few states that I know of that weren't already using mileage-based exits made the shift. It was (IIRC) the 1990s, and the only states which did shift at that time were Maine, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia. Other states that currently use mileage-based systems have essentially always used them, or have for several decades, and states that still use sequential exits (IIRC, this is just New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware (except Route 1), Rhode Island, Vermont and New York) have no direct plans to convert, though I think New York recently tried (and defeated) legislation to convert their roads to mileage-based exits. Other than those states, the rest use a mileage-based system. Until fairly recently, California and Illinois didn't use exit numbers at all: California didn't use them on any roads, all exits were just identified by the road name you were exiting on. Illinois didn't use exit numbers on the parts of the Illinois Tollway system, but did use a mileage-based system on non-Tollway roads. I think both California and Illinois have started numbering exits on these roads recently, however. New Jersey is also an oddity: The Turnpike is sequentially numbered, but the rest of the state uses mileage-based exits. --Jayron32 03:10, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

I've noticed an oddity in Canada, if you see a sign that says "NEXT EXIT 25 KM", that means that the next exit is 1 km away. The signs actually refer to the exit after the next one, and are there so you can determine if you need to take the next exit or can hold out until the following one. Once you know they do it this way, it's helpful, but it sure has caused me to panic when I saw such a sign and thought "Damn, how did I miss the exit ? And I don't have 25 km of gas left !". I would change the signs to say:

   EXIT 1 KM
   ---------  
   NEXT EXIT 
     25 KM

StuRat (talk) 16:23, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Stu, these are interstates. I know that 89 has exit 12 in Williston and it's not 12 miles from anything of relevance. Richmond is exit 11. Burlington is exit 13. etc. None of these sync up with mileage. It's been probably at least 6 months since I've been on an interstate in another state but I don't recall any of them being different or changing. Dismas| 16:41, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Stu, the distance to next exit may only apply in certain provinces. Highways are a provincial matter and thus they can make their own standards. In the Northwest Territories the sign for the next exit gives the distance to the next exit not the exit after the one you are coming up on. Of course most of these are just for pull ins that may or may not have bathrooms. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 17:05, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

In the US, we call those rest areas and they are not labeled as exits since they don't lead anywhere except for bathrooms and maybe some vending machines. The only place you can go with your vehicle is back out on the highway. Dismas| 17:10, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

In the US Midwest, all the interstates I'm familiar with go by mileage. I think Ohio used to have sequentially numbered exits, but they switched to mile-marker exits. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:18, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

France is same as Britain, and I think that is normal in Europe. The first junction is Junction 1, then Junction 2, etc. There could be 5 miles between J1 and J2 and 15 miles between J2 and J3. Itsmejudith (talk) 21:50, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Oh, and in Britain, in France, probably typically in Europe, the service areas are separate from the interchanges. Service areas are known by name. The Watford Gap is famous. Knutsford. In Britain all service areas have parking (cars and heavy goods vehicles), petrol, food and drink, and toilets. In France, you do not know until you stop whether it is just an "aire" with parking, picnic tables and (bad) toilets, or whether there is also fuel and food and drink. My favourite French service area is the Champs d'Amour (fields of love) but there is also the Héron Cendré (ashen Heron). Itsmejudith (talk) 21:57, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

In my experience on French motorways, signs usually name them before you get there, and at an aire, as you have pointed out, there are highly limited facilities. I don't' see the New Jersey Turnpike switching to mile-based, as the exit numbers are in some cases fairly iconic, at least locally (16W for the Meadowlands) And some of the rest areas are iconic too, many travelers who stop at the Joyce Kilmer Rest Area wonder who "she" was. (oddly, very few trees there)--Wehwalt (talk) 22:55, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

In southern Spain, for example near Gibraltar, the exits are numbered by kilometre number, not sequentially. I assume this applies throughout Spain, but I can't remember. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 22:46, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

A few American highways have been numbered by kilometer marker rather than mile marker, Interstate 19 and Delaware Route 1 use a kilometer-based exit numbering scheme (but still list distances and speeds in miles and miles per hour). There may be others as well. --Jayron32 02:32, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

There are also a few "dual-system" mileage signs left - particularly in California, The Land That Sign Replacement Budgets Forgot - which use both miles and kilometers. Generally, these were installed in the 1970s during the national metricization push that didn't really go anywhere. polarscribe (talk) 03:15, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

We have a few mentions of kilometers here in Vermont basically to extend the Canadians an olive branch. Dismas| 06:28, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

I suggest you extend them a maple branch, and save the olive branch for the Italians. :-) StuRat (talk) 07:49, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Continuing from my above comments about my recent trip to the Los Angeles area--if I'm not mistaken highway exits in Southern California are sequential, not mileage based, but in the Seattle area they are mileage based. I don't have a reference to cite offhand, but I'm fairly certain this is correct. Pfly (talk) 05:31, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Autobahn exits in Austria are numbered according to kilometres passed. --Viennese Waltz 07:49, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

North Pole time zone

At the north pole, what would the time zone be. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.171.199.77 (talk) 17:16, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

According to North Pole, all of them or none. It's up to the particular group you're in as to what timezone to use. RudolfRed (talk) 17:58, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

You'd simultaneously be in all time zones (well, all the ones that reach the pole, not the odd half- and quarter-hour offset ones). There are some interesting places like the tripoint where Norway, Finland, and Russia meet, where one step in one direction or the other can take you from UTC+1 to UTC+2 to UTC+4 in winter, or UTC+2 to UTC+3 to UTC+4 in summer (since Russia's on permanent DST). -- Arwel Parry (talk) 18:04, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

You can't stand at the North Pole anyway, you'll fall through into the Hollow Earth where the Hyperboreans live. You will have to follow their eldritch and inscrutable time rules. μηδείς (talk) 20:01, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Aha, so that's what happened to Amundsen. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:15, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Where in the world did you think the UFO's come from? Silly mortal! Mwahahaha...

This is one of those Conundra in the Tundra. The trick is to stand on the North Pole and nowhere else such as the surrounding area. Feet have a habit of taking up more space than a mathematical point, and any part of the foot that is not on the exact North Pole is in a certain time zone. Portia and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice will relate to this mindbender. -- Jack of Oz 21:29, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

One half of your body can be twelve hours away from the other half. At least it's not like the rest of the word where your head moves faster than your feet. Dmcq (talk) 23:55, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

How slender would you need to be, to be standing only on the actual point of the north pole? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:56, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Infinitely slender...duh. SteveBaker (talk) 05:43, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

And the boy gets an infinitely slender cigar. :) ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 14:36, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

In terms of infinitesimals, an infinitely slender person is very close to being a point, but points are defined to have zero width and infinitesimal quantities are not zero. Thus, if the north pole is within the area covered by their foot, no matter how slender they are, part of their foot will be in each time zone. -Modocc (talk) 15:20, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

In that case, you can go to hell, Weight Watchers! -- Jack of Oz 19:17, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Right.

So here's another quasi-mathematical question: Presumably the actual north pole is a point. If you're standing close to the north pole, or even on it, being 3-dimensional, you will slowly rotate. But does the actual point of the north pole rotate? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 13:30, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

No, because a point has a location but no dimensions. It occupies zero space. -- Jack of Oz 13:44, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Why was "Ding Dong the Wicked witch is dead" a poular search term in September 2011

The google trend result shows a peak now - but also a high peak in September 2011. What caused the earlier peak? -- Q Chris (talk) 20:22, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

On September 20, 2011 Glee did a cover. Ryan Vesey 20:24, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, that would explain it! -- Q Chris (talk) 20:29, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

For the benefit of non-British readers, it's related to this story. Alansplodge (talk) 23:12, 13 April 2013 (UTC)

Ironically, the wicked witches in The Wizard of Oz (1939 film) were also played by a Maggie. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:57, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, but it wasn't a bunch of ungrateful moral midgets singing her death, just some little people. μηδείς (talk) 04:44, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

That's your opinion which, as you've stated ad infinitum, we apparently don't do here. Dalliance (talk) 08:25, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Let's just say Thatcher's policies did for Britain what Reagan's policies did for America, and then the reader can decide whether those were good or bad things. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 14:36, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, but perhaps we should say "did to" rather than "did for", depending on your political views. StuRat (talk) 17:59, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Well spoken Bugs. Alansplodge (talk) 18:40, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, they were both well spoken. -- Jack of Oz 19:19, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Hehe. μηδείς (talk) 19:55, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Sigh... Alansplodge (talk) 22:34, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Grin. -- Jack of Oz 00:20, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Splunge? μηδείς (talk) 00:23, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Yawn. Itsmejudith (talk) 06:51, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Goosey goosey gander,

Whither shall I wander?

Up the stairs

And down the stairs

And in my lady's chamber chander.

←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 13:26, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Be thankful you're not wandering in your lady's chunder. -- Jack of Oz 13:43, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Lest you may hear the Delicate Sound of Chunder, repeated so many times in the pubs here in the North during the celebrations.... KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 16:43, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

April 14

Kelmscott School London Information

Could you please check information about Kelmscott School in London,UK? It looks like someone has edited it with very disturbing information. Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.31.62.149 (talk) 17:20, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for reporting the vandalism to Kelmscott School. I have reverted it and warned the perpetrator. --ColinFine (talk) 18:01, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Can DEA reschedule drugs at will?

Per the Controlled Substances Act, can the DEA re-schedule different drugs at will without congressional approval? Hence, if the DEA chooses to re-schedule marijuana as a Schedule 5 drug, is there anyone to prevent them from doing so? Acceptable (talk) 17:52, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Basically, yes, although, if I understand right, Congress could override the DEA if it wanted. Pfly (talk) 05:47, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

The Canadian Cross of Sacrifice

I came across our Cross of Sacrifice article, and found U.S. Installations which says; "There is a Cross of Sacrifice located in Arlington National Cemetery by the graves of United States citizens who enlisted in the Canadian military, and lost their lives during the First World War. Proposed in 1925 by Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King, it was in part due to Canada entering the war long before the United States, and many Americans enlisting in Canada to join the fighting in Europe... The inscription on the cross reaffirms the sentiment expressed by Prime Minister King regarding Americans who served in the Canadian Forces." The text seems to mostly have been pasted directly from the Arlington National Cemetery website. Two questions; what exactly is the inscription and what exactly were the sentiments of Mckenzie King? Half an hour of Googling has failed to solve the mystery. Secondly - would Canadians really call their premier "Prime Minister King"? In the UK, we would say, "the Prime Minister, Mr King" or "the Prime Minister, MacKenzie King" instead. Alansplodge (talk) 18:54, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

I would think Prime Minister MacKenzie King but I have probably learned that from Canadian TV. Rmhermen (talk) 00:32, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

To the second question there is Prime Minister King and again. There is also Prime Minister Diefenbaker. Finally the prime ministers site has Prime Minister Harper. If you look through the speech a bit he calls the Minister of Defence by his full name Peter MacKay, the mayor of Inuvik as Mayor Lindsay, the premier of the Northwest Territories as Premier Roland and John Diefenbaker as Prime Minister Diefenbaker. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:10, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm not positive but most sites seem to say something like "The inscription on the cross reaffirms the sentiment expressed by Prime Minister King regarding Americans who served in the Canadian Armed Forces. Following World War II and the Korean War, similar inscriptions on other faces of the monument were dedicated to the Americans who served in those conflicts which may indicate that the inscription is that seen here. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:19, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I found that too; however it's more a statement of fact than an expression of sentiment. I wondered if there was something more lyrical on the other side. Thanks for the info on addressing Canadian PMs, I suppose that they fall in between the US and UK styles. Alansplodge (talk) 09:17, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

The right panel of The first row right-most image reads: "Erected by the government of Canada in honour of the citizens of the United States who served in the Canadian Army and gave their lives in the Great War 1914 † 1918" Dru of Id (talk) 18:53, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, but I have that bit. What does "the sentiment expressed by Prime Minister King" mean? Alansplodge (talk) 20:29, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm coming to the conclusion that I ought to excise the reference to MacKenzie King's sentiments and stick to the facts that we have. Thanks everybody. Alansplodge (talk) 22:26, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Isn't "Mackenzie King" treated as a dual last name? It's like "David Lloyd George". We do call him simply "King" as well, but it seems much more usual to me to use both names. Adam Bishop (talk) 01:24, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Oh, I thought it was a middle name. Does anybody know for certain? Alansplodge (talk) 17:40, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

A couple of his letters look like they're signed WL Mackenzie King. The Canadian Encyclopedia bio refers to him at one point as "Mackenzie King". (Lyon appears to be his middle name, as is customary with politicians.) Clarityfiend (talk) 19:41, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm going to vote in the opposite direction, on the grounds that if his surname was "Mackenzie King" you would expect that his brother would also be a ""Mackenzie King", however this doesn't seem to be the case; see Dougall MacDougall "Max" King. I believe that having your mother's maiden surname as a middle name was not uncommon in Victorian times, two examples that I can think of are Woodrow Wilson, whose mother was Jessie Janet Woodrow, also Thomas Stearns Eliot whose mother was Charlotte Champe Stearns. In Mackenzie's case, it looks as though his parents wished to emphasise the link to William Lyon Mackenzie, but didn't continue in that vein with his younger brother. I cordially invite any interested parties to continue this conversation at Talk:William Lyon Mackenzie King, from whence I rather lazily copied and pasted this. Alansplodge (talk) 21:00, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

In similar fashion, almost nobody would look for pre-ennoblement David Lloyd George under "George, David Lloyd". He was always referred to as "Mr Lloyd George", not "Mr George". But his family surname was George, not Lloyd George. His wife was Mrs Lloyd George, but his daughter was plain Megan George. See Talk:David Lloyd George#His pre-peerage surname. -- Jack of Oz 21:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Although our article suggests that he added his uncle's surname to his as a sort of political nom de plume, so not exactly the same. I took the liberty of correcting your link to the talk page. Alansplodge (talk) 23:07, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

New Party

I am having problems with the New Party (United States) article. I have problems using hyperlink sources from KeyWiki.org or Barack Obama and The Enemies Within book. Notability the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism inside the New Party that the Committees of Correspondence was radically left (Marxist-Leninist). The users on New Party (United States) are trying to cancel my account for no good reason. After all, Keywiki.org is also a wiki.

http://www.amazon.com/Barack-Enemies-Within-Trevor-Loudon/dp/0615490743 www.cc-ds.org/

Renegadeviking

Those may not be reliable sources, per the edit comments in the article. You should raise the question on the article's talk page. Don't engage in an edit war. RudolfRed (talk) 20:14, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

And discussing on the talk page does not mean inserting the full text of a Communist Party document from 1975. It means explaining briefly what you want to do and why you want to do it. Looie496 (talk) 20:17, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

Getting rid of narrow/thin white lines in maps

If you look really carefully at this map (http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/pdf/territory/pagetacq3.pdf) and similar other maps, this map has narrow/thin white lines running though some parts of it. What is the best free way to get rid of these narrow/thin white lines in Linux while still preserving all of the colors on this map and the high quality of this map? Thank you very much. Futurist110 (talk) 23:11, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

It's an artifact of the way the pdf file is set up internally. I think the image data is divided into rectangular chunks, and they aren't being welded together perfectly. If you look at it with a different pdf viewer, it will look different. Not necessarily perfect, but different. Looie496 (talk) 00:36, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Would it be a good way to convert this file into another file format (such as jpg, svg, et cetera) and then convert it back to pdf format? If so, which file format should I convert it to? As for different pdf viewers, which other pdf viewers besides Document Viewer are available for free and can be used in Linux? Futurist110 (talk) 00:52, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

The chunks are actually totally fine in the original files (they do exist as part of the vector format). But the PDF viewer makes a few "guesses" about how to scale them when rendering them, and guesses wrong. So they show up as hairline white lines. Converting it to a raster format (with, say, Photoshop or Gimp) ought to be OK, though. (PNG ought to be ideal.) Converting it to another vector format (e.g. SVG) will preserve, rather than fix, the underlying issue. But you should be aware it is really just an issue with how it is displaying on the screen, not an issue with printing or rasterizing. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:09, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I am looking for a free way to fix it, and I do want it to be fixed on my computer screen as well, rather than merely when I am printing it. That said, I appear to have found a great free PDF converter here (http://docupub.com/pdfconvert/). Thank you very much for your advice about the PNG format being ideal, since I don't know much about all of the image formats out there. Futurist110 (talk) 03:03, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I agree with previous responses, and note that the white lines appear to move when I zoom in and out, with my PDF viewer. That's a sure sign they aren't part of the actual image, but just artifacts created by the viewer. StuRat (talk) 17:55, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Is everyone here sure that PNG is the best format for converting this map from PDF in order to get rid of these thin white lines? Futurist110 (talk) 22:57, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

PNG would be the best non-vector image format choice. I’d say the ideal solution would be to merge the chunks so they are one path, eliminating the possibility for them to have gaps altogether. This can be done in Inkscape. Even more ideal than that would be to regenerate them from the original data in a more render-reliable (or vector oriented) fashion, but that would likely be even more work. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:45, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

"I’d say the ideal solution would be to merge the chunks so they are one path, eliminating the possibility for them to have gaps altogether."--Does anyone have any advice on how to do this? I'm not very good at using Inkscape, so yeah. However, I do want to point out that converting this picture and similar pictures to PNG format appears to have achieved my desired outcome, so thank you very much for this advice. Futurist110 (talk) 02:31, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

It typically involves opening the file, ungrouping most everything, manually selecting every chunk that belongs together, and telling the application to combine them (from the Edit menu, IIRC). Unfortunately part of what makes the way such files were already created suboptimal is that just opening them and editing them can be quite a tedious ordeal on ordinary consumer hardware, because instead of a single path with a single boundary of vectors for the computer to calculate and keep in memory, exponentially more boundaries must be dealt with. ¦ Reisio (talk) 08:36, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

It's a huge amount of work if you aren't already familiar with vector editing programs. Converting it to a PNG is much easier. I believe GIM can import PDF files and convert them to raster images. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:31, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

It’s a lot of work even if you are familiar. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:04, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

How do these two U.S. National Atlas maps look now that I converted them to PNG? Futurist110 (talk) 07:45, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

April 15

Pilobolus Soundtrack

Can anyone tell me what the song used in this performance by Pilobolus is from? I have a vague feeling I've heard it being used somewhere else... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX5AOkgxpqk&list=SPfLpFsUtJnOZX6_0uDjtIuSFq6v0EvbQl&index=3 La Alquimista 02:45, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Is it Empire State of Mind (http://www.lyrics.com/empire-state-of-mind-lyrics-jay-z.html) by Jay-Z? Futurist110 (talk) 04:04, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

teenagers

i was wondering if there's any way of knowing how many teenagers edit wikipeade. if someone reading this is, and you say so, that would give me some idea. (p.s., feel free to remove this if it violates some rule. i'm used to having everything i put on the internet being taken down.) 70.114.248.114 (talk) 06:11, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

No need to take the question down — it's an interesting question, but one to which there is no exact answer because editors do not usually disclose their age (though some do, either deliberately or by accident). I would estimate that at least a third of editors are teenagers (like yourself). Perhaps someone else can give a more accurate estimate. Dbfirs 06:45, 15 April 2013 (UTC) (no longer a teenager!)

It's a very interesting question. I would be surprised if it's as much as a third, but really I have no idea. I'm sure there have been surveys and studies about this, but this is the best I can find at the moment, which appears to be self-selecting. Maybe someone else could try digging a bit deeper.--Shantavira| 07:47, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Here are some results of a 2011 survey. Deor (talk) 09:08, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, if those are representative, then the fraction is less than a quarter, so I was possibly over-estimating. I was including the frequent anon edits from school pupils that are not always constructive. Dbfirs 11:26, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

It's a tough question because "people who edit wikipedia" might be people who spend 50 hours a week obsessively creating content - or people who occasionally see a typo in an article they were consulting - and just drop in to fix it. It might also include vandals, trolls and other malcontents. So this is a tough question to answer. I think the 2011 poll is the best information we have - but it's kinda thin. SteveBaker (talk) 14:28, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I was accused of being a teenager here on Misplaced Pages the other day because of my alleged immaturity. As someone who is removed from those years by five decades, but as someone who also works with teenagers daily, taking immense delight in it, I could have taken it as a double insult, but I took it more as an indication of the intellectual capabilities of my accuser. HiLo48 (talk) 21:31, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Dbfirs, why assume i'm a teenager? and SteveBaker, did you mistype "occasionally" on purpose? but you all have valid points. except, i wouldn't think it's more then five percent. my reasons are beyond my knowledge. 70.114.248.114 (talk) 21:47, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Where I live, it's usually only teenagers who start sentences with a lower-case letter, and use lower case for the personal pronoun, but please tell me if my assumption was false. Things might be different where you live. (or praps u were delibratly fooling us?) Dbfirs 07:15, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Speaking of mistyping, are you aware there's no such thing as "wikipeade"? It's Misplaced Pages. In fact, that's the only spelling error in any of your posts in this thread, which leads me to ask "Was it deliberate?". -- Jack of Oz 22:36, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

There is a Wikipede though. Rmhermen (talk) 03:17, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

• See On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. The take away from that iconic 20-year old cartoon is that there is no way to reliably verify the identity of anyone on the internet. This has not changed in 20 years. --Jayron32 04:22, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

being a teenager isn't something you should be "accused" of. yes, i did type "wikipeade" on perpose, to see if someone would say something. and jayray32, what the h are you talking about? 70.114.248.114 (talk) 05:31, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Did you type "perpose" on purpose as well? Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:37, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

• • There's no reliable way to answer your question, because we have no way to confirm who people say they are. --Jayron32 11:33, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

body language

if ppl call you fat enough, you start to believe it. that's known. but i was wondering if there body language can effect how fast this happens. (p.s., do the admins ever block an ip permanently? and what's with me being asked for a captcha do to external links when there were none?) 70.114.248.114 (talk) 06:18, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

In reply to your postscript: No, IPs are not usually blocked permanently. That's because they are not usually permanently assigned nowadays. We don't want to block other users that get the same IP by accident. You are being ask for a CAPTCHA to fend of link-spamming robots. Even when you only add a portion of the page and don't add a link, there may be an external link elsewhere in the page when you try to save it. It's not quite trivial to find out if an edit added a URL (consider a spam bot who edits the page 3 times, each time adding 1/3rd of the address), but it is easy to check if there is any URL in the text, so, AFAIK, that is what Misplaced Pages uses. The easy solution is to register an account. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 07:29, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I don't think you should start to believe that you're fat just because other people say so...and that's independent of whether it's their body language or what they call you. Science to the rescue...you can calculate it!

You can measure your weight versus your height and find out for yourself. When you know the answer, you don't have to care what other people are saying about you...you'll know for sure. It's really easy to weigh yourself and measure how tall you are and calculate your "Body mass index" (BMI) - which is the standard that lets you know whether you're overweight or not.

If you know your weight in kilograms and your height in meters, divide your weight by the square of your height and that's your BMI. If you know your weight in pounds and height in inches then divide weight by the square of your height and then multiply the result by 700.

• If you're a child or a teenager, then you need to consult the chart in our Body mass index article.
• If you're an adult, and the BMI result is below 25, then you're the right weight for your height - and definitely cannot be considered "fat". At a BMI of around 25 to 30, then you might want to consider losing a few pounds, but calling you "fat" is a bit excessive (the technical term would be "obese"...which, for adults means "a BMI over 30"). But if you're an adult and your BMI is over 30, then perhaps your friends are trying to tell you something important...but perhaps in not the most subtle of ways!

So for me, I'm 5'10" (which is 70 inches) and I weigh an unfortunate 210 lbs (down from 300lb a couple of years ago). So 700x210/(70x70)=30, so with my BMI of 30, I'm what you'd fairly call "fat" - and I'm working hard to do something about it. You can turn the math around and multiply your height squared by 25 (and divide by 700 if you're working in pounds and inches) and get your desired weight...which for me is 25x70x70/700 = 175lbs. So I've got to lose 35lbs...and since sustainable weight loss requires that you do it sensibly, I've been eating 1700 calories per day and dropping about one pound per week - so it'll take me another six or seven months to get where I need to be....sigh.

But if your BMI is below 30, and certainly if it's below 25, then you will know for sure that you aren't fat - and to hell with anyone who says otherwise!

SteveBaker (talk) 14:25, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Don't know of anything specific but peer pressure or social exclusion or body language might be starting points. Most of the emotional impact of what's said comes from body language but people vary greatly in how they deal with negative opinions or taunts, I'd guess psychological resilience would say something about that. There are measures of how fat a person is like body mass index and they should be relied upon for factual information, if a person is dangerously obese then they should try to do something about it for the sake of their health. Personally I think one should depend on others for knowing how one appears as that is likely to be less biased than one's own opinion, but it should be viewed dispassionately as if one was another person and whether good or bad it should just be treated as evidence in figuring out the future rather than as an emotional subject to waste time on or rejected so one does things assuming an untruth. Dmcq (talk) 14:33, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Body dysmorphic disorder--TammyMoet (talk) 17:40, 15 April 2013 (UTC).

BTW, I think you meant body image. "Body language" is conveying information by nonverbal means, like sitting close to somebody you like. StuRat (talk) 17:48, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

I’d say BMI could be used as a guide, but not that it should necessarily be relied upon. Better indicators are probably things like blood pressure and other things that could denote you are actually unhealthily overweight, rather than merely aesthetically imperfect. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:49, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Possibly - but we're not being asked about health - merely whether the epithet "fat" could reasonably be applied...and BMI is a pretty reasonable non-judgemental, numerically definite answer to that. If your BMI says that you're not fat - then whoever is saying this is just plain wrong. If it says that you are, then maybe they have a point...although they may be conveying it badly. SteveBaker (talk) 01:00, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

That seems to be a contradiction in terms, Steve. As you point out, BMI Index is a non-judgmental indicator. It does not say that anyone is fat. and it does not say that anyone is not fat. It is just a number, on the basis of which an assessment can be made. -- Jack of Oz 06:55, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Moreover it is not aesthetically (or medically) reliable (but could certainly be used as a generic goal post setter). ¦ Reisio (talk) 08:31, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

protect childhood innocense

I would like to learn about a group who proports to protect childhood innocense. My search yielded religious affiliations but I did not find the full extent their protection encompasses. Protecting childhood innocense seems an admirable goal, but my question is the definition of childhood innocense protection. Is this a back door method of promoting pro-life or pro-choice positions or really as simple as the name implies, protecting the innocense of children? Where is the source of funding and to whom has the funds gone? Who are recent recipients of the funding and what criteria needs to be met for funding to be dispersed?

This is the first time I have ever asked a question of Misplaced Pages so am not sure of the proper presentation or if I have provided enough information in order for Misplaced Pages to research my question and then provide a response. Upon your advise, I shall be happy to provide any information Misplaced Pages may require of me.

Thank you for your kind attention to this inquiry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.163.12 (talk) 17:01, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Usually when people talk about "protecting childhood innocence" (note the spelling), what they mean is preventing children from learning about sex. And usually it is religious-oriented people who care most about that. On the whole, though, your questions are so broad that they are almost impossible to answer in a meaningful way. Looie496 (talk) 17:07, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

It's short, but Children's interests (rhetoric) basically sums up how many people would interpret that phrase to be used. Think of the children! ~ Amory (u • t • c) 17:42, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

It wouldn't directly fit with either a pro-life or pro-choice position, but does go along with anti-condom and anti-birth-control philosophies. The idea is that if children know nothing about sex, then they won't have sex, so don't need such things. However, this argument is seriously flawed, as keeping children ignorant of sex in modern society would require total isolation from mass media and society. And, even if you could do that, children eventually figure out sex all on their own. So, the result of such policies is unprotected sex, leading to disease and unwanted pregnancies. Once the unwanted pregnancy occurs, then the pro-life bit comes in.

The new vaccine against HPV given to girls to prevent cervical cancer might also be targeted in the name of "preserving childhood innocence", thus increasing the rates of cervical cancer. StuRat (talk) 17:44, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Given to boys and girls these days. Turns out if you just give it to girls the incidence of oral cancer in males goes up. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 18:04, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

What about gun safety lessons, shouldn't these start as soon as children are coordinated enough to pull a trigger? It's rather naive to think they won't shoot each other if we don't talk about it. μηδείς (talk) 17:54, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

The NRA would argue precisely that. StuRat (talk) 22:06, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

My sister works in Boston. My niece and nephews will be shielded from news of today's events, just as they are shielded from overt adult sexuality. Has nothing to do with a maudlin religion, as both she and my Brother-in-law are atheists. The innocence of children is an issue of the decency of adults. Not some silly superstition. μηδείς (talk) 01:25, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes. The idea or theory is to prevent or minimize kids' exposure to stuff they may not be ready to handle yet, to keep them from getting traumatized. It's a tough call, because every kid is different. The parents have to know their kids' maturity levels. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 02:07, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Can you identify this city?

See this picture. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 17:52, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

got via google images Dmcq (talk) 18:04, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Same as Dmcq, but I used tineye. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 18:06, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Duh, I was pushing the wrong button at Google. μηδείς (talk) 18:20, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Just as an aside, see Los Angeles City Hall which is probably the most famous building in the downtown L.A. skyline, for a city not known for its iconic tall buildings this is probably the most famous one. --Jayron32 20:25, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Well, excuuuse me, but except for Texas and Salzburg I have not been west of the Mississippi. μηδείς (talk) 21:18, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Austria is west of the Mississippi? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 02:28, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Hahaha. Saltzburg is in Eastreach, but you can get there by going west. I am always flattered when people actually pay attention to what I write. Thanks, Bugs. μηδείς (talk) 02:59, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

If you write with the general expectation you will be ignored, your standards will slip grievously in order to fulfill your internal prophecy. Conversely, if you generally write in order to be noticed, you'll become a crass show-off, a literary Liberace. In between those two poles is the place to be. -- Jack of Oz 02:56, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Me neither. But I'm aware of the existence of things I have not personally been in the presence of. --Jayron32 21:51, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

The L.A. city hall has been used for everything from a staple background image on L.A. cop shows to a stand-in for The Daily Planet building in the 1950s Adventures of Superman TV series. It has appeared on every episode or film of Dragnet, as it is the icon on the police badge.File:Dragnet title screen.jpgFile:Dragnet movie.jpg ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 23:44, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Isn't U.S. Bank Tower more famous/iconic? (It's the one the aliens blew up in Independence Day, at least.) Adam Bishop (talk) 01:14, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Quite a structure, but a lot more recent. Which were more iconic in New York, the WTC towers, or the Empire State and Chrysler buildings? My money's on the latter. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 01:57, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

@ Baseball Bugs: Sure, it's west and east, though going west takes a little longer. Bielle (talk) 02:49, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Exactly. μηδείς (talk) 03:02, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, and similarly you can get to Texas by way of Salzburg. So you actually are west of the Mississippi - many thousands of miles west of it. Who said geography was mundane? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:17, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Geography is mundane exactly - "of the earth". Bielle (talk) 04:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

And thus you win today's alertness prize. :) ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 05:26, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Interesting to see novomundane persons discussing the word "mundane". -- Jack of Oz 06:48, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

According to the biblical account, we're all members of homomundane, Jack. --Dweller (talk) 09:10, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

I can see what μηδείς means if Texas in Mexico is the farthest west they've gone. ;-) Dmcq (talk) 08:38, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

I have never been that far north in North America, the furthest being extreme N.E. MA, and Niagra, Ontario. μηδείς (talk) 19:05, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Learner's License Ontario appointment required for test

Do I have to make an appointment for taking Learner's License test?--Donmust90 (talk) 19:26, 15 April 2013 (UTC)Donmust90

The main site is not very useful for this question. There is a comment, however, that says "oral knowledge tests" require an appointment, so perhaps one can deduce from that that other tests do not. Better still would be to call the number given for Drive Test Centre information, and ask: 1-888-570-6110 Bielle (talk) 23:02, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

If you are referring to the G1 written knowledge test, simply visit a drivetest centre along with some sort of legal identification papers that allow your legal name, date of birth (month day and year) and signature to be verified. These can include a passport, citizenship card, or immigration documents. Birth certificates are also acceptable as proof of date of birth. signatures can be from OHIP cards, and other such things. Also, bring some cash. No appointment is necessary. On the other hand, if you are referring to the G1 exit test (which grants a G2 licence), you would need to make an appointment. Consider purchasing a copy of The Official MTO Driver's Handbook, which is where I got all the information from, or look through a copy at the library or bookstore. Brambleclawx 01:57, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

April 16

Does not getting enough credits in college equal to being held back?

UNF recognizes a person with 30 credits as a sophomore, 60 a junior, and 90 a senior.

For instance, I had 87 credits at the start of my senior year, does that mean I am held back (as in like grade school where you failed a grade)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.62.86.109 (talk) 03:28, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

College is not like grade school or high school. You have a lot more latitude to determine your progress through the school. Some folks go to school part-time and might take well over 4 years to get through. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:41, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

I'd be far more concerned/interested in how long until the College will let you graduate, rather than what they say you technically are. If you start your fourth year with fewer credits than you are supposed to have, but you will still be permitted to receive your bachelor's at the end of the year, it doesn't make a difference what the college calls you. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:40, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Unless it does. I don’t know about UNF specifically, but having more credits than most people can get you into quite absurd situations. ¦ Reisio (talk) 08:29, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Per Reiso, it very much might. I recall that, when I went to school, your class rank determined which order you got into classes; seniors got assigned first, followed by juniors, and so on. So the way the college classified you based on what "year" you were supposed to be in made a difference, as the earlier you were in your career the harder it was to get the schedule to wanted. --Jayron32 11:40, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Which is annoying enough, but if you have too many credits, at some places you can actually become at risk of being unable to complete your degree. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:45, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

The strict answer is no. Being held back in America at least refers to having to repeat a year's instruction in Grammar or High School because of various failures in courses or tests. In effect you are treated as if one year younger than your chronological age. In college you will not be forced to take an entire suite of courses over again with a younger class. You will simply not be ranked with other students as noted above who will have priority in signing up for limited classes, etc., as mentioned above. The cause in this case is not necessarily failure--you may simply not have taken enough classes. And you will not be forced to repeat any curriculum, except for classes in which a passing grade is necessary for graduation or you major. The proper place to discuss this is in your course advisor's office, not with random people on the internet. μηδείς (talk) 19:02, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

PAYEMENT

OLA

THIS IS sofia of portugal. 1000.000.00

TO DO WHAT IHAVE TO DO — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.153.211.220 (talk) 09:42, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I do not understand what you are asking. But I very much suspect that you have come to the wrong place: this is the reference desk of Misplaced Pages, the encyclopaedia that anyone can edit.

If you do have a general knowledge question, you will need to be much more specific about what your question is. --ColinFine (talk) 10:27, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Suspect "sofia of portugal" is asking for money. Astronaut (talk) 17:18, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Or trying to pay a bill...--Auric talk 17:43, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

In what denomination, though? Dollars? Euros? Razzbuckniks? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:17, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Steal a nuclear warhead from Kreplachistan and hold the world hostage for ... one million dollars. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:36, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

But make sure you have the correct backup - sharks with frickin lazers on their heads are a start... But careful you don't end up with genetically mutated sea bass... gazhiley 07:49, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Google

Any idea why THIS happens even though many documents contain "§" in the title? (e.g. Misplaced Pages's entry on §) ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 12:14, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

This is true of many or most unicode characters. For example, searching ¶ or ¬ will yield the same results. The google autofill/suggestions can recognize the characters when you type them, but google's algorithm can't seem to find them within documents, because it doesn't support unicode (or not fully at least, I don't know). Unfortunately, if you're searching for a symbol like that, you'll have to either figure out what it's called, or describe it. —Rutebega (talk) 13:49, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Google ignores most non-alphanumeric characters (and even alphanumerics if it thinks you might have meant something else similar) in an effort to cater to the inept majority. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:46, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Is it because of that, or because supporting more than that would entail even huger, more problematic database indices? --Mr.98 (talk) 00:27, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

In my opinion the latter seems more likely. Were I in google's shoes, I would never go out of my way to reduce functionality in order to avert potential user mishaps. This is because averting potential user mishaps is impossible to begin with. As the saying goes, "Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool."

Oh, and Reisio: google does parse non-alphanumerics, but only ASCII characters. For instance, $ works, but € and £ do not. —Rutebega (talk) 02:18, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

P.S. I just remembered to check: some unicode at least is supported in google's search function. Specifically, I just tried searching in Japanese and Hebrew, both of which work in the American version of google. So basically, it's just symbols that google leaves out. —Rutebega (talk) 02:25, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Not a matter of opinion; Google does go well out of their way (although arguably this way is their primary business). ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:19, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

You are missing out the fact that the search was for a single character. That may be more significant than exactly what single character it was. Sussexonian (talk) 14:56, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Eek, Google is getting too intelligent, when I just stuck in 'a' its returns were directed at my interests. I think I better disable that otherwise I'll become totally insulated from anything else. Dmcq (talk) 10:49, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

See "Filter bubble".—Wavelength (talk) 21:31, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Ocean view student

I where in ocean view student,in 1990 to 1993 and i dont graduate. so my cuestion is if i can have some paper to proof that i studie.and what can i do to get it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.136.158.46 (talk) 14:58, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Hello. This is Misplaced Pages. I suspect you arrived here by mistake thinking it's the website of the college of one of the many Ocean Views that are around the world. If you tell us which college it is you're looking for, we might be able to get you a website or email address. --Dweller (talk) 15:38, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Based on how the question is written, I suspect that they are talking about high school. They should be able to contact the school, and ask for a transcript. That will have a record of when they attended and how they did. There might be a small charge for it. StuRat (talk) 02:37, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

To the OP, I would recommend that you avoid making too many spelling mistakes in your request to the school, the receivers might take offense or imagine that these mistakes reflect on their teaching ability and refuse to answer. --Lgriot (talk) 11:51, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Civilian bravery awards - U.S. equivalent?

Does the U.S. have an equivalent to the George Cross (UK) for acts of the utmost bravery and gallantry by civilians? I've looked at Awards and decorations of the United States government but, aside from sector-specific awards such as the Lifesaving Medal and Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, I can't see one. Many thanks. Dalliance (talk) 21:58, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Is not the Presidential Medal of Freedom what you describe?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 22:04, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

I didn't see it that way when I read it. It appeared to be for achievement and, frankly, political friends rather than outright heroism. Dalliance (talk) 23:44, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

The Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor is only awarded to "Public Safety Officers" which I take to mean members of the civilian emergency services. Alansplodge (talk) 22:57, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

D'oh! I see you've already discounted that one. Alansplodge (talk) 22:58, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

April 17

Pot sizes

Are cooking pots marked in litres or quarts in the USA? I live in Canada and we only do litres. One Boston pressure cooker bomb had 6L stamped on it according to one source.--Canoe1967 (talk) 06:51, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

They tend to be in quarts, although pots imported from other nations may very well be labeled in liters. So, that probably does mean the pot was imported, although it's always possible it was made in the US for export, but was sold domestically instead. StuRat (talk) 07:56, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I've never used a pressure cooker, but lots of things are marked both ways, on opposite sides. Looie496 (talk) 14:51, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

CNN is reporting the Boston pot is imported from Spain. Probably no dual labeling requirements. (Just checked four pots in my kitchen - only one had a size and it was labeled "4L/2qrt" which doesn't even make sense.) Rmhermen (talk) 15:21, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Yeah - that's weird. Quarts and liters are almost the same size - so to one significant digit, 4L/4qrt would make more sense. Perhaps they're using Winchester quarts?! (That's a very archaic measure - so I doubt it) SteveBaker (talk) 16:35, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Maybe they were thinking of a quart being 2 pints (thus 4 litres is roughly 8 pints) and somehow got both their maths and their terminology totally confused. If you're gonna stuff something up, it's not good to be half-hearted about it, but best to make a complete cock-up. -- Jack of Oz 21:16, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Maybe they wanted to say 4 L and 2 qrt (of a liter). OsmanRF34 (talk) 00:10, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

You mean like 4.5 L? -- Jack of Oz 01:37, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Or 4.25 L? -- Q Chris (talk) 07:59, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I mean 4.5 L, expressed in a rather non-standard way. OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:36, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Can you suggest any possible advantage, purpose, point or benefit of such a marking? -- Jack of Oz 01:47, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

@Rmhermen @SteveBaker. You could try filling the pot with something accurate like a measuring cup. You may also wish to list it on Ebay in case some collectors are looking for them.--Canoe1967 (talk) 21:33, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that qrt QRT means quart. The abbreviation for quart is qt. I don't have any pots with sizes but I have some glass and ceramic cookware that has imperial and metric and they use l and qt. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 07:54, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

alarms

I have trouble with losing track of time whilst busy with something, so I thought what might help is if I had an alarm that would beep at me once every hour, something I could just quickly install on my computer and set up, anyone know whether such a thing exists and where I might get one?

213.104.128.16 (talk) 15:56, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

That depends heavily on your OS. One simple solution is just a digital watch: if you have one, they usually have a setting to beep once on the hour. —Rutebega (talk) 16:25, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. This also has the advantage of working while you are away from the computer. Note that this feature is normally called a "chime". An "alarm", on the other hand, is set for a specific time. Actual alarms (for important events) is another option I'd recommend. My cell phone allows me to schedule events on it's calendar and set off an alarm before the event. I typically give myself 3 hours to get ready and drive there. If you don't have the ability to set the alarm before the actual event, you can always schedule the actual event early, for the time when you need to start preparing.

And, if you don't wear a watch or have a cell phone that can do this, how about a clock with an hourly charm ? This should be more reliable than a computer, which may fail to ring when the computer is off, the volume is turned down, etc. A clock plugged into the wall with battery backup is the most reliable. StuRat (talk) 16:36, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

How about http://www.dailyalarms.com ? An online alarm clock that lets you set over 1000 alarms per day. Just set an alarm for every hour while you're at work (or whatever). SteveBaker (talk) 16:30, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

mm, I didn't want to buy a whole new watch or yet another clock just for this, I was hoping for something I could set for once an hour, rather than having to manually set each individual hour, but until then, this might work. And actually I'd rather it not run while I'm away from the computer, since it'll keep waking me up all night. then again, do you have to go into those alarms and turn them off each time, too, because that would get annoying. 213.104.128.16 (talk) 19:07, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

If you are running Microsoft Windows, you can easily use the Task Scheduler to do this. Just create a small Win32 program that plays a sound file or displays a message, and let it run once an hour. --81.170.199.71 (talk) 21:58, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Batch script;

@echo off
:start
ping -n 60 localhost>nul
START/min sndrec32 /play /beep.wav
goto start

77.101.52.130 (talk) 00:28, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Just copy that to notepad and save as timer.bat on desktop, we assume?--Canoe1967 (talk) 03:03, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

AFAIK "ping -n 60" will send 60 requests within few seconds. Not suitable to use as 'wait for 60 minutes'. If OP is on Windows, OP can download Resource Kit from Microsoft and use sleep.exe in batch file. Task scheduler suggestion by "81.170..." is also good. - manya (talk) 04:15, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

It sounds like a handy idea for a batch file. Someone should write one that works and add it to the Batch file article. Add 'remark' statements where they can adjust timing. If it was in Linden Scripting Language you could probably sell it on Second Life Marketplace.--Canoe1967 (talk) 04:29, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Oh right yes, it should be "ping -n 3600" for an hour wait. 77.101.52.130 (talk) 11:04, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

You can do it on the Calendar in Outlook. Set up a recurrent appointment lasting 1 minute, every hour, with an alarm at the time the appointment starts. You might get annoying reminders when you set up real appointments but there should be ways round that. The computing desk would know. Itsmejudith (talk) 06:42, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Apimac timer is nice for Mac computers. Bus stop (talk) 10:42, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

You could get an analog clock that plays Westminster Quarters.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 22:41, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

'Rank' of New Zealand National Party MPs

Here is the National Party's list of MPs. Under the first third of MPs, it gives the MP's 'rank'? I'm not sure what this refers to. At first I thought their seniority in terms of time served in Parliament, but some lower-ranked MPs have served longer than higher-ranked MPs. Then I thought it was a government seniority thing, but some of the MPs without a 'rank' are ministers. Does anyone know what the rank refers to? User:SamUK 18:55, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

As far as I see, only one MP without a rank on that list is a minister (outside cabinet as it were) Michael Woodhouse. The exclusion of a rank for him may have simply been a mistake as he has a rank here . Perhaps when his position was moved (if it was moved) after the most recent cabinet reshuffle when he was made a minister , the person involved forgot to give him a rank. Edit: It was changed, you can see the older version here . Nil Einne (talk) 19:24, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

I forgot to link to Cabinet of New Zealand#Members and other ministers which appears to be up to date. is useful if there is doubt. I noticed in the old list Simon Bridges was also not given a rank despite being a minister, but again perhaps it was a mistake. Nil Einne (talk) 20:40, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

It seems to be a creature of the NZ electoral system. There's no mention of it in Electoral system of New Zealand. But this says:

• How do I become an MP?

• In an election, as a voter you get two votes: one for a person to represent your electorate and one for the political party you want to form the government. You might choose an electorate MP from a different party to the one you give your party vote to.
• Therefore, you can become an MP in two different ways. You can become an electorate MP by being elected by the people in that community. Otherwise, you can become a “list MP”, which means you are chosen by your political party and given a ranking on their list. The number of people on that list who become MPs depends on how many party votes the party wins. If you are high up on the list, you are more likely to get a seat in the House.
• You can both stand for a particular electorate, and be included on the party list.

(my bolding) -- Jack of Oz 21:07, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

Rank being their list rank was my first thought but the ranks listed are not the ranks from the last election and as far as I know most parties only publish/finalise lists just before an election (but I'm not sure of that). It's probable the order of the later few MPs is their order according to their list ranking in the last election (after the ministers, speaker and perhaps some other exceptions) but I never checked and they aren't given a rank anywhere. Nil Einne (talk) 14:21, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

LiveJasmin: Member Chat vs. Private Chat

When you browse performers at LiveJasmin, you can see that while some are available, some are unavailable. Among the unavailable performers, some are "in private chat", while the rest are "in member chat". What is the difference between the two? I occasionally use LiveJasmin credits to interact directly with the models myself, but as far as I can tell, I only have one option to do so, and I believe it to be the "private chat" option. --81.170.199.71 (talk) 21:56, 17 April 2013 (UTC)

April 18

Mansion in Blairsville, PA

I live in Indiana County, PA. Southern Indiana county borders with Westmoreland County PA near the town of Blairsville. Just 3 miles south of Blairsville there are the remains of an old stone mansion, a small cottage a detached garage with living quarters on second floor and the remains of agood sized in-ground swimming pool. I have been told by many elderly residents that the mansion was built by The Graff family. I find information regarding that family, however , I find nothing on the mansion. Could you direct me to a site or page? If, thank you in advance. Ron McLean71.206.244.165 (talk) 00:37, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

You might want to use google maps to get an address for us and let us know. μηδείς (talk) 01:33, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Houses owned by John Graff House: 195 South Liberty Street and Alexander Graff House: 216 South Liberty Street are part of Blairsville's Underground Railroad tour . There is also a Graff Insurance Agency in that town. Rmhermen (talk) 14:39, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Those appear to be in the town, though, Rmhermen. I think the mansion the OP is referring to is the one "off Route 217 between Brenizer and Hillside" mentioned in the newspaper article about some teenage mischief here. That puts it about three miles south of the town, as the OP states. (I can't be sure, but the Bing aerial view at 40°22′57″N 79°15′42″W / 40.3826°N 79.2616°W / 40.3826; -79.2616 shows what appears to be a ruined structure that may be the building in question.) Deor (talk) 15:16, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

5 hours at Oslo Airport

Today I got a call from my travel agency that there has been a change in my return flight from Munich via Oslo to Helsinki. There is now 5 hours time between the flights to and from Oslo. What can I do in that time? Is it enough to go outside the airport and actually explore Oslo? Actually, even if you extend the Nordic countries to also include the Baltic states, Oslo is one of the two capitals I have never visited, the other is Vilnius. JIP | Talk 18:38, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

(Oslo Gardermoen, I assume?) Well, you might be slightly tight on time, but it certainly seems feasible, assuming you're arriving during the daytime. Flytoget will get you in to Oslo Central Station within half an hour. From there you can pick up any number of public transport options from Jernbanetorget (station). For instance, Tram no. 12 will take you to Frogner Park in 15 minutes (get off at Vigelandsparken), or you could simply take a brisk walk up Karl Johans gate towards Slottsparken. Personally, I'd recommend the latter to give you the best 'flavour of Oslo' within a short period of time, but then again I didn't get to go to Frogner Park and I hear it's rather nice.

Journey planning on the pubic public transport can be done at ruter.no - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:17, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

PS: You might like to give the guys over at the Wikivoyage Tourist Office a shot at answering this. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:21, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I think you meant public transport, Mike. 19:59, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Just a Freudian slit. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:05, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Keep in mind that if you leave the airport, you'll have to do the whole check-in and security screening again, which will eat an hour or more if it's busy. As much as I would like you to explore the town I grew up in, I'm not sure just how much you would see in such short time - but my recommendation would be Akershus Fortress winch is both pretty, interesting and within walking distance of the main railway station. WegianWarrior (talk) 20:20, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Bondage question

I was today at a bondage workshop and I was trying to tie up a rather long-haired woman. The only problem was that her hair got in the way of the rope. I didn't want to tie her hair up to cause her unnecessary pain, so I had no option but to touch her hair to move it away, which I felt very awkward and would have avoided it if I could. She couldn't very well move it away herself as I had tied her hands up. When a woman is tying me up, there is no problem, because my hair is short. Is there anything that can be done to help this, other than having women cut their hair short too? JIP | Talk 19:31, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Allow talking in the workshops? Itsmejudith (talk) 19:55, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I did talk to her, saying I had to move her hair away, but I still felt awkward about it. So far she hasn't seemed to have a problem about it. JIP | Talk 20:01, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Flip her upside down as required to angle her hair out of the way. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:16, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

• Switch to the origami workshop. The angles one has to consider there don't invoke the same sort of awkwardness. Never-the-less... origami can still challenge your most wild intellectual creativeness and determination to bend the material to your will. --Aspro (talk) 21:46, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Make a hairbrush part of the game playing. It has multiple uses, one of which involves moving hair around. --jpgordon 22:09, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Also, with origami, one does not need safewords... So one does not have to bother with pointless dialogues such as: Master: You will be come my paper crane. 'Slave:' No. I wont! Master: 'Why not my lovely? 'Slave:' Because your folding plans are for thin Japanese rice paper and your trying to fold me out of 100 gsm Conqueror Laid Business Paper... 'Master: 'Enough of your stubbornest and clever logic... onto the fire with you! 'Slave:' Buuuutttt (safe phrase comes in here....) George-Bush-was-brilliant-and-the-savour-of-all-mankind!
Instead: Be like Gaff. Leave little origami Unicorn figures (or whatever other triggers you can think off ) around, to freak out the replicants. Tying knots is just for Boy Scouts. --Aspro (talk) 22:47, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Not hardly. When you're looking for adventure of a new and different kind/and you happen to meet a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined/Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared! Be prepared! --jpgordon 23:11, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

• Um, no judgment, but if you are going to workshops, surely you are aware that there are dedicated fora for this type of thing? That will probably give you better (and more serious) answers? Or perhaps the point of this workshop is to discuss such matters with sympathetic people? It also seems weird to me that you are comfortable enough to tie someone up (presumably requiring lots of touching), but uncomfortable touching/moving hair...

--Anyway, if you are competent with fancy hitches, lashings, bends and so on, surely you could apply a simple braid or plait, no? That's one easy way to keep hair out of the way. One could also ask a long-haired partner to put their hair up before the rope comes out. Finally, there are all sorts of ways to tie hair that are not painful at all (meaning your intent is to tie the hair, not getting caught in other ropes). Just google 'hair tie bondage', you'll get plenty of good links, and even some helpful youtube tutorials. SemanticMantis (talk) 23:51, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

I would switch to bestiality; animals rarely have long hair, and, as an added benefit, many have bones in their penises. μηδείς (talk) 02:55, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Environmentally friendly sushi?

If a person really likes sushi and wants to prevent extinction of animals due to human overconsumption, then is it possible to try environmentally friendly sushi? Maybe the two choices are artificial crabmeat sushi and vegetarian sushi. They are cheaper than raw fish sushi too, and maybe more environmentally friendly? Sneazy (talk) 21:41, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

Well, "artificial crabmeat" -- surumi -- is made up of pretty much anything white that can be rendered flavorless and then artificially flavored. So it might or might not be involved in species overconsumption. Anyway, this seems useful. --jpgordon 21:49, 18 April 2013 (UTC)e

I'd say pretty much the same thing. Unless you know what the artificial crab meat really is, you (and the rest of us) can make no judgement as to its soundness as an environmentally friendly food. Vegetables are a much more environmentally sound source but again, the growing of some of them involves inappropriate agricultural practices, such as old growth forest clearing. Find out more details. HiLo48 (talk) 21:59, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

It is a mistake to assume that eating fish is inherently unsustainable/ will result in extinction. There are plenty of fish that are/can be sustainably harvested (there are also some that should be avoided if one cares about sustainability). For instance, tuna (depending on where/how it is harvested), gets the seal of approval from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (a highly reliable source), see here . Their site even has a handy pocket list and smartphone app describing the "best" fish to buy. Sadly, there are no easy answers, and products don't always declare their provenance. However, the good news is, if you are willing to do some research, there are many options for sustainable and ethical sushi making that include real, tasty, wild-caught fish! SemanticMantis (talk) 23:37, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

This topic is inspired by the Misplaced Pages article entry on the bluefin tuna that is hunted to extinction in the sushi business. Poor fishes! 65.24.105.132 (talk) 00:06, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Yes, that is why I said that some species should be avoided if one values sustainability (or, now that I think of it, biodiversity). Note that bluefin tuna is a disambiguation page. Thunnus maccoyii is a "bluefin tuna" that is listed as critically endangered, while Thunnus orientalis is listed as Least Concern. Lesson learned: scientific binomial nomenclature is vastly preferable for research purposes, and some tuna are currently sustainably harvested with no risk to the viability of the wild population. SemanticMantis (talk) 01:10, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

The problem with that from a consumer perspective is that fish is rarely sold under its binomial nomenclature. Worse yet, fish is slightly notorious for being routinely mislabeled. ("One In Three Fish Sold At Restaurants And Grocery Stores Is Mislabeled" ; Survey Finds That Fish Are Often Not What Label Says ). I believe that most sustainability metrics (like the Monterey Bay Aquarium one) take this fact into account, not listing names of otherwise sustainable fish if unsustainable ones are likely to be sold under the sustainable name. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 01:25, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Landline phone ringtone

(USA please) Are there any telephones for use on a landline that allow you to select your own ringtone, just as a cell phone does? Thank you.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 23:06, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

There are probably some that allow you to select from a small number of built-in ring-tones, by flipping a toggle switch. However, I doubt if any allow you to download ringtones. That would be an odd combo of old technology and new, something like a video phone with a rotary dial (which I did see in an old Outer Limits episode). StuRat (talk) 02:19, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

The local Bells in the US offer what is called a distinctive ring service where you are assigned more than one telephone number per line, and the phone will ring with different ring patterns (e.g., two short rings instead of one normal long one) when people call your second number. If you simply mean how the phone itself rings, that is a matter of the hardware. μηδείς (talk) 02:52, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

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