Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 April 30

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April 30

Sports, Football (American)

What yard line is the football placed on when kicking an extra point after a touchdown? What is the answer for this question in each categoty, High School, College, and Professonal (NFL). KevinKevinppierce 01:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I'll point you to our article on the extra point. I just read it and it explains about two of the three levels that you asked about. Dismas|^(talk) 02:39, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

And a quick Google search yielded this link which gives the high school answer. Dismas|^(talk) 02:44, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Apricot and Peach

Can anyone tell me what the difference between an Apricot and a Peach is? Manishahanda 02:05, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

As I think our Apricot and Peach pages will tell you, they are both stone fruits, closely related members of the Prunus genus. —Steve Summit (talk) 02:12, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh, sorry, you asked about the difference, and I told you what's the same. Apricots are a little smaller, and have a smoother, flatter stone (seed). (They taste a little different too, of course, but I'm not gonna try to describe that.) —Steve Summit (talk) 02:15, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

The skin of the apricot tends to be smoother than that of the peach. Bielle 03:47, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Apricots came back in Western Europe when the Arabic culture brought it with its local name, al barqūq. See the name's history here (in French). On the contrary, peach is "persica" : straight Latin name, meaning that it comes from Persia which is Iran now.

You can peel a peach, the skin is easy to roll. The skin can also be "shaved", it offers very thin hair. The fruit has fibers and is quite juicy when ripe.

On the contrary, the apricot's skin is stuck to the fruit ; the fruit flesh is more compact, hard when unripe, wholly jelly/liquid when ripe. Apricots come in yellow-orange colors ; peaches have a clear - whitish ? - or a darker - brownish - skin but the flesh remains quite clear.

Do find illustrations on the internet!-- DLL ^{.. T} 07:55, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Here's a related question! What's the difference between a peach and a nectarine? --124.181.19.144 12:38, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

You can find the answer here. --Maelwys 14:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

We have different experiences of apricots and peaches, DLL. A ripe apricot is neither jelly nor liquid, unless is is truly rotten. And peaches, as we know them in Canada, are all in the yellow-orange range, just like the apricots. (I have heard of, but never seen, a white peach.) I have never encountered a peach with clear flesh, and those with brown flesh are likely to be rotten. I do agree about the differences in the skins, however. Bielle 14:29, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

White peaches are becoming a popular crop in eastern BC - you see them in Calgary all the time in the summer. As to the difference between peaches and apricots - to me, apricots are softer, much smaller than peaches (usually about 1/2 to 1/3 the size), and have a completely different taste. --Charlene 03:30, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, people value peaches enough to harvest them rather than letting them fall to the ground to rot (There are a lot of wasted apricots on the east coast, and I've come to associate them with the smell of vomit). I don't know why this is. ;_; V-Man - ^T/_C 03:44, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Neither do I, since here apricots go for about four times as much per kilo as peaches, which are relatively cheap. --Charlene 10:06, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

What?! That is MADNESS!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by V-Man737 (talk • contribs) 00:31, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

We often get peacharines here in NZ which presumably are a cross between peaches and nectarines. they don't taste anything like either and are bland and almost tasteless, but because they are large they sell.124.197.35.189

ecology

what is the difference between a self regulating and self sustaining mechanism within an ecosystem? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 41.245.54.96 (talk) 10:21, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

Please note that wikipedia can not do your homework for you, especially if you do not show any effort at having solved it yourself. It sounds to me like the difference is fairly obvious in the words, but I don't know ecology, so I won't comment -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 10:53, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I believe you might have already asked this exact same question here.--Azi Like a Fox 11:02, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Copa del Rey 1995 and postponed sporting events

I asked this over at Talk:Copa del Rey but they seem to be in hibernation,so I'll try here.In my Football's Strangest Matches book,it claims that the 1995 Spanish Cup Final was abandoned after 79 minutes and they came back to play the other 11 minutes a few days later.I can't find any more about this,so can you guys help with more info? On a related theme,are there any other sporting events that have been postponed halfway through to be restarted later?I can only think of the Indianapolis 500 where if it rains,they all run for cover and emerge later when the sun comes back out.Wimpy Americans ;) Lemon martini 13:56, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Very dim memory, but wasn't that cup final interrupted by a bomb (threat?)? I'm probably wrong... I'll look for a source. --Dweller 16:11, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm wrong. It was heavy rain. ([1]) --Dweller 16:13, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

The recent game between Leeds United and Ipswich Town was stopped due to a pitch-invasion for something like 25 minutes only to reconvene for less than a minute's football. I seem to remember there being a rather odd coca-cola cup game between Liverpool and (I think) Aston Villa which had a delayed kick off to about 9/9.30pm that went to extra-time and penalties that meant the game almost spanned into the next day (i.e. the game played through midnight). I think there are quite a few examples littered around football of games stopping, Real Madrid had one the other season I recall but forget the details. ny156uk 17:05, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the Real Madrid - Real Sociedad match on 12 December 2004 was interrupted by a bomb alert with 2 minutes 40 seconds remaining to play. The two teams got together to play the 2m40s (plus 4 minutes of stoppage time) on 4th January 2005. As an interesting bit of trivia, you can also cite this match as an instance of a club (RM) changing its manager during a game - Mariano Garcia Remon was replaced by Wanderley Luxemburgo in the interim! -- Arwel (talk) 00:51, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

For some reason we don't have an article rain stopped play, but if we did it would have extensive sections on cricket and tennis, where this happens all the time. In a sport which relies totally on how a ball bounces off the ground, you can't really allow the ground to get wet. Algebraist 21:26, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Rain out seems to be the correct term for the phenomenon in question, according to this Google search (carefully avoiding rainout, a different subject altogether)... V-Man - ^T/_C 01:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Careful with the word 'correct'! 'Rain out' seems to be the usual US term, particularly for baseball, that I had never heard before. Rain stopped play is the usual (correct) British term, particularly in cricket or tennis. Skittle 15:36, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I was suspicious of that possibility; hence my accomodation on the WP:RDAC listing. V-Man - ^T/_C 00:35, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Major League Baseball enacted a rule this year that games can no longer end in ties (draws). If a game is rained out after 4.5 innings have been played, and it's a tie game, the game is restarted on a later date. I believe this has happened once so far this year. (If 4.5 innings have not been played, the game is replayed from the beginning.)

Games have also been restarted (in previous years) because of upheld protests of umpires' decisions (as in the Pine Tar Incident) and because of curfews (see Longest professional baseball game). -- Mwalcoff 02:20, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Another famous postponement was the 1962 Grey Cup game, aka The Fog Bowl. Although the 50½ minutes before the game was suspended due to lack of visibility were high-scoring, 28-27, nobody scored after the game was resumed the next day. --Anonymous, May 1, 2007, 04:42 (UTC).

Cannot add a row to a table

Hello,

Why can I not edit the table at this location:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_farms

thank you,

Dave rep 15:06, 30 April 2007 (UTC) <e-mail removed>

Please explain what you mean, for I am able to get the editing window when I press Edit this Page. Also, it's not a good idea to put your e-mail on public web sites, or else massive spam. Splintercellguy 15:11, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Hi, thank you for pointing out the "Edit This Page" tab.

EOM

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dave rep (talk • contribs) 19:38, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

Soundtrack to the Gulf War

The Doors, Ride of the Valkyries, etc have become a cultural soundtrack of the Vietnam War. What are the songs that will be forever etched into the public consciousnes when they think of the Gulf War (either one, I am thinking more about the first). Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.189.98.44 (talk) 20:26, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

That awful "God Bless the USA" song by Lee Greenwood is probably the Gulf War I song. It seemed like it played endlessly. --140.247.248.175 21:23, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

True/horrifying fact: I became a US citizen in 2004, and part of the naturalization ceremony was the viewing of a military-oriented music video of that song. I can't remember if it actually showed George W. Bush doing his famous end-zone dance for winning the Iraq War so quickly, but it was definitely along those lines. --TotoBaggins 02:19, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Thanks - I'm thinking more of things like the Public Enemy song that's prominent in Jarhead.

The reason those songs are etched in the public consciousness (and by "public", we mean "Western" of course) is because they featured prominantly in seminal movie soundtracks. I don't really believe we have had movies of quite the same impact about the Gulf Wars yet. But I suppose the soundtracks of Jarhead and Three Kings are as close as well get. I think the most notable media association with first Gulf War will be the real-time reporting in situ (specifically by CNN). Rockpocket

I wouldn't make these kind of comparisons, we are living is such different times. Just like no one will ever again write a lyric like Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom, no war will have a soundtrack like vietnam. which btw I think would have to include Hendrix before Valkyries, becuase Hendrix was actually listened to during vietnam while Valkyries is purely from the film. Vespine 00:14, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

• British squaddies made a famous version of miming to Peter Kay's "Amarillo" which has been all over the internethotclaws**== 09:32, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

"What are the songs that will be forever etched into the public consciousnes when they think of the Gulf War?"

That's very good and interesting question. The answer may well be "we don't know yet, because it's too early to know what songs of the time will remain popular and (or maybe, or,) become widely identified with the that war."

Interesting sub-questions might be "was the music about the war?", and, if no, "is the music contemporaneous with that war?", "if it was contemporaneous, did it become identified with that war at the time of the war, or later on?" and "were it were not for that war, would the music still be widely popular?"

See, perhaps, It's a Long Way to Tipperary for WWI; "Lili Marleen" (I wrongly thought it was associated with WWI) and The White Cliffs of Dover for WWII; Non, je ne regrette rien for Algerian War of Independence for roughly contemporaneous songs that got associated with a war.

For retrospective associations, perhaps see (this is from memory, I may be very, very wrong) the theme music to M*A*S*H for the Korean War; the China Beach use of the (albeit originally contemporaneous) We Gotta Get Out of This Place and theJimi Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower.

Mmm, thinking about it now, I'm pretty sure I'm trying to reinvent the wheel here, and probably not very well. Is there a song that is widely associated with Gulf War 1? It is, of course, all subjective. Nevertheless, if there is an answer, I sure don't know what it is, but I hope I've helped even a little bit, 44. --Shirt58 12:04, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

How about "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash? 138.163.128.43 19:05, 3 May 2007 (UTC)

East German Traditional Food

What kinds of food/recipies/etc really personify or represent the former East Germany, the DDR? I can only really think of Spreewald Gherkins from Goodbye Lenin. Thanks in advance, 82.12.214.93 20:54, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

German cuisine isn't a bad article. I'm European and nothing says German Food to me more then sauerkraut and bratwurst. But if you mean specifically eastern then that's trickier, German cuisine has an old and rich history, I doubt a few years of commies had much effect on it. Vespine 23:13, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Vita-Cola is a well-known example of an East German food product that has been revived by ostalgie. Indeed, a number of formerly defunct East German products have been put back into production by enterprising individuals who have latched on to this niche market - there may even be a list somewhere. In fact, here is a website that sells all kinds of ostprodukte, including food (only in German, sorry - ask on my talk if you need any help translating/understanding). Carom 00:28, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

That website's really good. I'm fine with the German aswell, thanks. 82.12.214.93 17:24, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Ramio? yes, ramio.

My wife has just bought a blouse (in Spain as it happens) and the attached label says it is made of 100% ramio. I've had a spin in Google but it doesn't seem to show much. Can anybody tell me what this ramio is or point me to a resource that will explain.Richard Avery 21:42, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

It's probably ramie. - Eron ^Talk 21:49, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Ramio, Ramio, wherefore art thou Ramio? Sorry, that was irresistible. And if I hadn't, someone else StuRat would have. -- JackofOz 21:52, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

ya..nothing came up for ramio except that it is actually translated from spanish into ramie-........ramie is a bast fiber, taken from the stalk of a plant grown in China. it is known as "rhea" or "china grass". Ramie resembles flax but it is coarser. The cost of production in making the yarn is high. Ramie has great strength, lustre, body and appearance. does that help? --Kittycat rox 22:08, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, more than enough to be going on with. Oddly it was not particularly expensive, but with clothes I guess the labour component is important. A good result - well apart from JackofOz's terrible pun, but curiously compensated by his excellent page!! Thanks to you allRichard Avery 14:23, 1 May 2007 (UTC)