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July 2

80s music video involving fruit

My friend is being driven crazy by the vague memory of this music video.

It was the music video for a pop song, the sort typical of 80s music. She would have seen it on MTV (or its equivalent) in Italy sometime between 1984 and 1988. The song is in English. It must be quite a famous song, as she remembers seeing it all the time then. The singer is male, possibly with tan skin and looking Brazilian, but she's not sure about that. It's your typical up-beat, good to dance to, colourful song/video. The key thing she remembers is the theme of the song (either just in the video, or in the lyrics) is fruit. She feels strongly the lyrics include "passion" or "passionfruit". The theme must be about love and passion (common in 80s songs) but there is also the theme of fruit. She feels very strongly that the name of singer or group is Little or something like that. Any guesses are welcome, I'm completely stumped. It's not a silly song, like "Agga Do", it's a standard pop song.

10:20, 2 July 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.209.166.97 (talk)

"Sledgehammer"? Video - jump to about 2:20. --Michig (talk) 10:54, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Definitely not 'Sledgehammer'. I'm pretty sure it's NOT Peter Gabriel or Bryan Ferry. 118.209.166.97 (talk) 11:08, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Raspberry Beret ? 1985, and features fruit, hats, romance, and a male singer who's more than just a little bit tan. But as far as pineapple on the head, unless Weird Al did that in a take-off on Raspberry Beret, you might have to go back to Carmen Miranda to find that on a singer. (Carmen Miranda warning: You have the right to wear a silly hat with fruit on it, but, if you choose to do so, this may be held against you in a court of law.) StuRat (talk) 20:54, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

My immediate thought was Kid Creole and the Coconuts, who recorded the album Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places and were "upbeat...good to dance to... colourful"... with "backup female singers" - but I can't remember them doing a video as described. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:39, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Tim Howard and USDOD

What does Tim Howard have to do with the United States Department of Defense? The latter article has had to be semiprotected due to a string of edits such as and . Normally, vandalism has something to do with what's going on in real life, since it wouldn't otherwise be likely for a group of unrelated people (most vandalism was by accounts, but the accounts were active at the same time; either they're unrelated, or they're socks, and vandals normally don't create socks until the first account is blocked) all to start vandalising the same article in the same way. I could see vandalism by unrelated people happening if department head Chuck Hagel became involved in a controversy, but it's not the same with some random footballer. Nyttend (talk) 13:19, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

This is related to the World Cup. Howard is a goalkeeper (obviously a defensive position), and some people have apparently decided that for his stalwart play he has earned the moniker "secretary of defense". (Such nicknames are common in American sports, and I assume elsewhere. Mike Singletary of the Chicago Bears was sometimes called the Minister of Defense because he was both a top defensive player and an ordained minister.) The resulting disruption to Misplaced Pages seems to be a hot topic. Deor (talk) 13:46, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

{{User Wikipediholic}} applies when you learn about Internet culture/sports events by looking at WP:RFPP :-) Nyttend (talk) 14:12, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

It's a good thing that I previewed before posting the response above. I had originally characterized Howard as a "gaolkeeper"; if sports fans had seen that, articles such as Prison warden might have become their targets. Deor (talk) 14:27, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Not likely. How many supporters of Howard even know that "gaol" is a real spelling in most of the world? They'd probably see it as a typo. Nyttend (talk) 15:06, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

As with the closing line of the Flinstones theme song, "We'll have a ga-ol time". ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 19:24, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Extant (TV series)

I'm confused by the ads for this show. One set has Halle Berry returning pregnant from isolation in a space station, while another set has her with an artificial intelligence male child (a seeming rip off of the AI film). Do these two plot elements have any relation to one another ? Also, she looks even fairer skinned than usual. Is she doing the Micheal Jackson thing and bleaching her skin, or are they trying to make her look white in the ads via computer manipulation ? (I suppose her wearing cosmetics to look lighter is a third possibility.) StuRat (talk) 19:28, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Lighting works wonders, and skin tones can vary depending on the lighting of a scene, as well as makeup. And Halle is not all that dark-skinned anyway. As to the confusing preview clips, unless someone has leaked the details of the plot somewhere, we're probably stuck with watching it to find out what's going on. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 19:53, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Kane

Is Kane a Time Lord? Because I don't see any other way he could be an advisor to Stalin in 1946 in Red Alert and still be alive (and more-or-less unchanged at that!) in 2062 in Tiberian Twilight. 24.5.122.13 (talk) 23:55, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Kane who? Or who Kane? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 00:24, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

That would be Kane (Command & Conquer). That link might have the answer, but I haven't checked (the article is lengthy for a character from a video game).  —71.20.250.51 (talk) 02:13, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

The boring answer is in the first sentence, and also explains why Bart Simpson is still ten. All fictional characters have that power (even fictionalized Stalin).

The boring in-universe answer seems to be "little is truly known" about him. Mysterious characters leave imagination room for all sorts of powers and backstory, which can be exposed later to further further plots. Kane (wrestler) has milked that trick for 17 years now, and we're still not sure whether he's totally human. InedibleHulk (talk) 14:14, July 3, 2014 (UTC)

A fictionalized Stalin who doesn't die in 1953 would be alternate history. Also, that would deny him his destiny, which is to spend a dark eternity refighting World War Two with Adolf Hitler in Hell. Robert McClenon (talk) 16:58, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

In this version of alternate history, Stalin ends up being strangled by the Allied leader Stavros, whose family had been murdered by Soviet troops during their invasion of Greece (or, in the other ending, poisoned by his own right-hand woman Nadia, who's secretly working for the Brotherhood of Nod). Also, in this version, Hitler is erased from time, so World War 2 never happens -- instead, there's a major war between the USSR and the rest of Europe. 24.5.122.13 (talk) 22:29, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

July 3

(Exhaustive) public domain resource

I know Misplaced Pages has an article on List of films in the public domain in the United States, but these just encompass the most notable ones. Where can I find a very extensive list? Theskinnytypist (talk) 00:28, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

The very first line of that article (after the lead / Table of Contents) reads: "There is no official list of films (or other works) in the public domain. It is difficult to determine the public domain status of a film because it can incorporate any or all of the following copyrightable elements ...". Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:21, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes as Joseph says, there is no exhaustive list. But these archives are more extensive than our list: Library of Congress , and archive.org . SemanticMantis (talk) 16:47, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

• I'd be careful about trusting archive.org on everything though; copyvios do get through. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 16:49, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

2014 World Cup metrics question

Toward the end of regulation time on the USA v. Belgium game, a US player came out and was replaced, and a statistic was displayed as 9.33 km, and the average was something like 8.4 km. If km has the usual meaning, that would be 46 complete runs up and down the pitch, because the length of the pitch is 100 metres. That is a lot of runs up and down the pitch in less than 90 minutes. Did that refer to the distance run up and down the pitch during that game, or during the four games? Also, does someone really track the distance run up and down the pitch by each of the ten players on a team? I know that American sports fans are metrics-crazy, but is there really the technology to track distance run up and down the pitch by each player? Robert McClenon (talk) 16:37, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

Yep, that sounds like a pretty normal distance to cover, especially if the player was a midfielder. As for the technology, most likely they will be using image analysis of the footage during the game, as they did during the previous world cup: company responsible. Also, more about the technology: the WSJ. 82.21.7.184 (talk) 17:04, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

The player was Graham Zusi, by the way. You can view his individual statistics for that game by going to this FIFA page and then selecting "19 ZUSI" in the righthand drop-down box (titled "Tactical line-up"). Apart from "distance covered" (9386 m) and other stats, it gives you an image of the field highlighting his most frequent locations during the game, allows you to compare his stats with that of opponent players on a radar chart, etc. ---Sluzzelin talk 17:28, 3 July 2014 (UTC)

July 4

What African countries is the Simpsons shown or dubbed in?

What African countries is the Simpsons shown or dubbed in? Venustar84 (talk) 18:38, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

We have Non-English versions of The Simpsons, although that doesn't really help here...there is a French version that is quite good (well, the European French version, at least), I suppose that could be seen in the parts of Africa that speak French. But apparently the first time the Simpsons aired in an African country was in Angola in 2009. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:50, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Is there really a "Ghost Symphony"?

A friend told me about a classical piece she heard on the radio years ago, something called "Ghost Symphony." She said it was by Beethoven, but when I did a search, I found a piano trio (not a symphony) called "Ghost." This piece was pretty, but I thought it was going to be absolutely spectacular. Is there a classical piece by another artist named "Ghost Symphony"; when I searched, I couldn't find anything else.Miscellaneous131 (talk) 21:39, 4 July 2014 (UTC)

I suspect your friend just misremembered. Beethoven's Ghost Trio is pretty well known among his works, though he didn't give it the nickname himself. Joseph Haydn wrote a lot of symphonies, many of which have nicknames, but not a Ghost as far as I can tell. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 18:48, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Another faint possibility is a so-called "Gastein Symphony" by Franz Schubert, which either is lost or was transformed into another work, possibly the Symphony No. 7. -- Jack of Oz 09:36, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Actually, it's more likely to be the Symphony No. 9 (the Great C major). Double sharp (talk) 02:48, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes, you're right. "The Great" was once (and in some places still is) referred to as No. 7. One could write a book about the colossal confusion surrounding the numbering of Schubert's symphonies. And Antonín Dvořák's. -- Jack of Oz 21:03, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

possibly Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 ?

because, the Misplaced Pages page about the Ghost Trio says: The D major trio features themes found in the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 2.

So, possibly the radio announcer said something like: "this is the second movement of Symphony No. 2, which is reminiscent of 'the Ghost Trio'..." ?

( or played Symphony No. 2, and said it was reminiscent of the Ghost Trio... ? )

Or... what about Symphony No. 2 by Elgar, which contains what Elgar called "the ghost motive" ?

Or... thinking laterally, maybe not a symphony per se, but another piece of music intended to portray the supernatural, and the announcer said something flippant like: "this is for any ghosts who may be listening" ? Maybe a selection for Halloween ?

Night on Bald Mountain - by Mussorgsky ?

Danse macabre - by Saint-Saëns ?

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - by Dukas ?

90.244.131.120 (talk) 05:18, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

The Skeleton Dance was the first Silly Symphony, though almost certainly not the tune you're looking for. InedibleHulk (talk) 16:46, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

July 5

Fruit Ninja score counter

So when I'm playing Fruit Ninja on Android, the score counter is odd: I now have 12,325 points and when I earned 234 more in an arcade mode, the counter showed a total of 12,326 instead of 12,559 (although sometimes it shows correct calculations). Why is that? Brandmeister 14:09, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

I don't know, but keep in mind many games have highly nonlinear scoring algorithms. I take it you mean you get a "score" in points, as well as a number of fruits sliced (If you aren't given two numbers, then how did you get the 234)? In e.g. a shmup, two players can each shoot exactly 100 enemies, but player A has a score of 10K while player B has a score of only 100, because A shot with more accuracy, faster, etc. This could easily be explained if fruit ninja counts "streaks" or "chains" or other terms that mean successive hits without misses, or hits with small enough gaps between them. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:09, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Oh, and google will find you several discussions of fruit ninja's scoring system. Here's one description of how it works in arcade mode . Much like Ms. Pacman, it seems that the (random) distribution of fruit types will affect the final score. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:12, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

July 6

107% rule in motorsport

The rules in Formula One says, if you don't set a lap time in qualification within 107 % of the best driver's time, you should not be allowed to start. Still, many drivers are allowed to start anyway, for instance at the 2014 British Grand Prix today. The information usually only say, they are allowed to start based on a decission of the stewards. However, it never says why they are allowed to do this.

I would like to know why. Can someone please help collect information about this or explain how the stewards argue? Outer Image (talk) 12:57, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

The stewards generally allow a driver who fails to set a time within the 107% mark to race if:

• the session took place in wet or changeable weather conditions;
• the driver's times were excluded due to a technical or sporting infringement;
• the driver was unable to set a time (or a quicker time) due to mechanical problems, a collision, or a driver error that otherwise prevented them from continuing;
• the driver was within the 107% mark during free practice.

Basically, the rule is to keep out drivers and cars that are obviously too slow in all circumstances during a race meeting, not because they have encountered problems that have prevented them from going faster. This is reflected in the fact that the only time it has been exercised since its readoption in 2011 is when Hispania turned up at the first race of the season in 2011 and 2012 with an untested car that was in no fit state to compete.—Midgrid(talk) 16:56, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the accuracy and detail of your answer Midgrid. Jeepers time goes by fast. I thought it was the start of last season when those cars were disqualified. I hope that you enjoyed today's race. Cheers. MarnetteD|Talk 17:20, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Manuscript (Sheet music)

I looked at manuscripts of sheet music by Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. There is something interesting how they wrote. When the note stem is below the note head, the stem is right not left as one would have expected. So it looks reversed. Did this convention change, meaning that even publishers printed that way, or was it just how they wrote? --2.245.79.34 (talk) 22:41, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

IIRC, in some very old editions (I'm not sure exactly when), it would indeed be printed this way, but by the time of Chopin it was mostly just a handwritten thing (because it's faster to write it this way) and would be printed the usual way. I'm not entirely sure about the chronology of this, though. Double sharp (talk) 02:47, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Somehow I don't see how this is faster. --2.245.117.245 (talk) 13:18, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Which casino games pit players against each other rather than players trying to beat the dealer?

I think Poker is one but there must be others I'm not thinking of. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:8051:4D60:F581:635C:F565:26EC (talk) 23:40, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Bingo. That's about it as far as I can see. In craps and baccarat, players want diametrically opposed outcomes, but they're still playing against the house. I'm guessing one reason is that the management doesn't want its patrons losing their tempers and attacking each other. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:37, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

No, the casino wants games it can control the outcome of and generate cash for themselves. --Jayron32 01:42, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Even with Bingo, when there's money involved, the church or lodge or whatever takes a cut from the total cash, right? As with a lottery. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:08, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

It depends on how you look at it. The bingo games I've known of charge for the card and part of the money goes to the house, part goes to the pot. The money is still coming from the players, it's just a matter of if they take their cut from the sales or the winnings. Dismas| 03:16, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes, my point being that it's not just casinos that play that game. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 05:06, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

If you consider sports wagering a casino game, the odds somewhat depend on how much other players put where. And one side has to lose for the other to win. But, of course, the math is all figured to benefit the bookie in any situation. InedibleHulk (talk) 04:40, July 7, 2014 (UTC)

In California (except native-American casinos), where gambling laws mostly prohibit player-vs-house gambling, most games in cardrooms are indeed poker or poker-variant games like pai gow poker. But that article notes that some cardrooms operate a PvP system (where the house takes a fee or rake rather than being a participant) for casino-type games like blackjack, baccarat, and craps. Unfortunately the article doesn't specify the particulars of how those game variants are conducted in that setting (and as I'm in the UK, cardroom websites in the US aren't letting me read their info pages). I imagine that, if the "house" wins, those winnings are either redistributed or there's a pot. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 23:18, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

July 7

LEGO Video Game Graphic

Do the LEGO video games to PC have better graphic than the console ports? Or are both versions sharing the same graphic? --89.249.2.54 (talk) 09:22, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

My personal experience is that all the lego games look the same on any platform. This page says about the recent lego game: "The same attention to detail in the core artwork carries over to the game on PC, where we find that texture detail, filtering and shadow quality all closely match up with the console versions." SemanticMantis (talk) 16:03, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

July 8

Re; Play length of one side of 33⅓ long playing records.

What was the maximum amount of audio that could be pressed on one side of an l.p. album,and were there any known record company policies regarding that? There is a unreferenced statement about this in the Misplaced Pages article on Stevie Nicks,1975-78:Fleetwood Mac and Rumours section paragraph five. "Nicks had also written and recorded the song "Silver Springs", but it was ultimately not included on the album because of space limitations for studio albums on vinyl records, which were limited to 24 minutes per side". I know that l.p.'s were released with more than 24 mins. on a side ,but I don't have any citable references handy,other than actual l.p. records that I bought in that era.Jonel469 (talk) 02:50, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

I have a London Records FFRR LP, bought about 1980, with Beethoven's 5th Symphony on one side and the 8th Symphony on the other side (Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt). No timings are given, so I timed it myself, and found that this version of the 5th is no less than 34 minutes long. (The other side is 27 minutes 30 seconds.) So still not a citeable reference, but a better starting point than "more than 24 minutes". The record sleeve claims that the LP uses a patented high-fidelity techinque called full frequency range recording but nothing says that any special method was required to fit this length on one side. --50.100.189.160 (talk) 05:44, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

According to LP record, the longest LP produced was Dream House 78' 17" by La Monte Young, and several other records with over an hour's running time are listed. Tevildo (talk) 07:14, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Wow thanks,since asking this I read LP record learned a thing or two.Jonel469 (talk) 12:26, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Yes, LP records are typically quite old, so it's high time they learned a thing or two. -- Jack of Oz 20:06, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

looking for a chess board online

Hi all, I'm looking for a chess board app, ie. where you can move the pieces around on the board, and play a game with someone, but not a chess server. I don't want to play games with other people online, I just want to play with my nephew on Skype. He has a physical chess set, but I can't get one here in China, or at any rate I don't have a clue where to look. I can't find anything online, no matter how hard I try. I don't care whether it saves games or not, since I can reload them manually. I just need a kind of javascript-based web app that lets me move the pieces around. Thanks, IBE (talk) 16:36, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

User Bubba73 is our resident chess guru, so he might know. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 17:14, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Can you clarify why you don't want an internet chess server? I mean, that is exactly the appropriate tool/service for playing chess with you nephew on Skype... SemanticMantis (talk) 18:53, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

World Cup kit

Why are Germany playing in their second kit against Brazil? Not very easy to confuse white with yellow after all. What are the rules on such things? 92.21.123.121 (talk) 20:04, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

See sports marketing. Come back if there is something in that article you don't understand.--Jayron32 20:14, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

I understand sports marketing, what is it exactly in that article you think I ought to read? Why does it explain the change of kit for the semi-final? 92.21.123.121 (talk) 20:36, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

It could very well have to do with which team is considered the "home" team in the match. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:05, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Teams choose which uniform to wear based on what will generate the most income for them. Germany likely needed to wear their second kit to generate sales of it in a high profile match. --Jayron32 21:08, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Considering they're currently ahead 5-0, they better hope they got enough sales in the first half. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 21:14, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

In answer to the original question, without the unhelpful cynicism or speculation, here's FIFA's regulations on the current World Cup, which includes a brief description of the use of "equipment" on page 32. Contrasting kit includes contrasting shirts, shorts and/or socks. Apologies you didn't get a suitable response above. The Rambling Man (talk) 21:19, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

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