Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 March 9

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March 9

Sonic the Hedgehog Xbox Live "Very Hard Mode" download help

Where is the Very Hard download for Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360)? Could someone give me detailed instructions on how to get it, or create a link? I've already searched the entire Marketplace and found nothing, yet everyone is saying IT IS there. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.86.254.89 (talk) 00:25, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

Who's being unfair?

I recently got laser eye surgery done (LASIK) and after missing one day of school plus the weekend, I was back in school. My eyes are still dry and scratchy and I have an anti-biotic drop I have to take every 3 hrs. and an artificial tears drop I have to take twice an hour or more if I feel the need to. I don't need a mirror or anything I just kind of tilt my head a little, expose the conjunctival sack and pop my drops in. I sit in the front row of the class (and I pretty much have to because my vision is still recovering) and my geometry teacher is an absolute wussy. He said it's disturbing and I have to leave the class to do it (why the hell doesn't he just look away?). I did that a couple times then it got too bothersome and I was missing important stuff so I went back to doing it in my seat. He kicked my out, but I didn't leave and did it again. He told to the vice principal, and I got suspended for 2 days. I'm pretty damn frustrated because I missed important midterm reviews in two classes. I think he (and the office) were totally unfair. What do you think? Should I complain to the schoolboard? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.53.180.124 (talk) 02:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

It sounds like an authority issue. Who cares if the teacher is a wuss, if he is the one who has the right to boss you around? And trust me, when you are a student, a teacher does have that right. The more you fight it, the more trouble you'll get into. Don't get me wrong - if you like drama, keep on fighting the system. But your best bet is to just cool off and go with the flow of things. Having the correct attitude about authority like that is very important, especially when you have similar relationships with managers and bosses at work. V-Man - ^T/_C 02:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Based on your account, my opinion is that teacher and administrator were unfair, though you also appear to have been unnecessarily confrontational by staying after the teacher told you to leave and applying your eye drops again. My opinion is that if you complain to the school board, they will think that you are a troublemaker. What would be much more effective would be to have a parent complain. Your parent could make the case better than you, because the parent is not directly involved. Also, a parent is a taxpayer and a voter, and ultimately the school board members' jobs could be at risk if your parent knows enough people. (The board may not know how influential your parent is or isn't.)

Bear in mind, though, that if your parent complains, your teacher may respond by enforcing rules very strictly where you are involved, and by grading your work more ruthlessly. It might actually be more in your interest to approach the teacher, apologize for disrupting his class (even though you are not apologetic in your heart), explain that you stayed because you did not want to miss out on his teaching, and asking if there is a way you can make up the review, perhaps in his office hours, before the exam. Marco polo 02:56, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, get your parents on it. And if it is just putting drops in your eyes I fail to see how anyone could find that so disturbing as to require you to miss school. (Well, the missing of school was probably for insubordination, but in any case I think the request was draconian to begin with, and in any case according to your account you were only being insubordinate in order to further your own learning, which is hard to argue with.) A complaining student will get nothing but more flack. A complaining parent will get results, stat. --24.147.86.187 02:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

This seems like the sort of situation that the serenity prayer was invented for. --Anonymous, March 9, 2007, 03:10 (UTC).

I'd like to hear your teacher's view on this, as well... 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 03:13, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

It's interesting to hear that you've had LASIK so young (well it sounds like you may be young) -- your eye prescription should be stable for at least 2 years, and if your eyes still grow and change you may have to have surgery again or you may have to start to depend on glasses / contacts again.

Another thing I should point out, is that when putting eye drops into your conjunctival sac, especially for dry-eye purposes, I do find it helps if you keep your eyes closed for a good minute or so (maybe 45 seconds or whatever) - my opthalmologist always said I should do that and when I finally started listening I could see that it does keep your eyes moist for longer (and technically you are supposed to sit there pulling down your conjunctival sac half the time - which is a mission to do with both eyes - but I wouldn't say pull them down for the whole minute you're waiting). For this reason, I believe it may be more pleasant for you to do this outside the class room -- unless there are passers by in the hallway that might think you a bit weird and will disrupt your attempts.

From your account I would agree that the teacher is being a bit unfair. Did your doctor/parent provide you with a letter outlining the instructions for your eyes? And I'm sure you're aware that airconditioning-smoking-and-wind can be very very harsh on sensetive and dry eyes.

My advice is to firstly obtain a note from your parents/doctor simply requesting that they do their best to accomodate your condition as your eyes are in a very vulnerable state. Now, just keep this letter on you in case it comes in handy. Then you need to decide whether or not you can obey the teacher and do your drops outside - you may decide that you cannot because you'd be missing out on an important lecture/information or you would be disturbed in the hallway. If you decide that you can do these things outside then to me that is best - so you can do the full minute in peace without people staring at your teary eyes. If you decide that you cannot do this outside, then you need to hand your letter to this teacher explaining the situation - perhaps get this ratified by the principal. Call in your parents/guardians if necessary.

Good luck, and remember: your eyes are very very precious, don't let people stop you from looking after them

Rfwoolf 03:49, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

You are being discriminated against due to a medical condition. This is illegal. File a grievance with the school board. If that doesn't work, try your local ACLU. --Nélson Ricardo 04:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

i agree with Nelson, sue him!--Lerdthenerd 11:25, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Ignore the anonymous comments above. Whether or not you end up suing them, you'll find that a calmly-worded letter from a lawyer will usually work wonders in getting a school administrator or school board to "do the right thing". Look in your heart and if you really don't feel you were deliberately being a jerk, try to get your parents to contact a lawyer. The situation will almost certainly work out in your favor.

Atlant 12:05, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Just talk to the teacher, politely and calmly, no need to go overboard with lawyers and all that ridiculousness. Suing will not work; the teacher has every right to ask you, politely, to temporarily leave the classroom while you do that, if it creeps him out. It doesn't matter if he's being a wuss, he asked you, and he has a right to do so, and you refused. You were then confrontational by doing it again after being expressly asked not to. A suspension was overkill, if that's all you did (is it? or did you mouth off?), but I don't think you helped your own situation. Neil (not Proto ►) 12:34, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm a teacher, I've been a "team leader" (initial punishment go-to for other teachers), and a house director for a 60 boy boarding school dorm; I've been on the teaching/admin end of this sort of issue. My opinion is still my opinion, but it's worth pointing out that what I've never been sued yet.

And I support your teacher, and your principal, as long as they made sure you had access to the same CONTENT of that class (not at the same TIME, ir in the same way). Partially, that's because blatant insubordination AFTER being told directly not to do something is a serious issue. But let's deal with the two issues separately, shall we?

Let me start by saying that I do NOT agree that there is any discrimination happening here. If putting in eyedrops in class is going to be visible, then it distracts the entire class, period. You yourself said every moment of that day was high stakes, so that raises the stakes for such distraction. Asking you to leave to do it still supports the learning of everyone in the room, including you (I'll come to that in a minute) as well as giving you the opportunity to fulfil your medical needs.

Yes, you have to leave in this scenario; It is YOU who has the conflict between a need to be in class and a need to fulfil medical needs. And yes, the teacher needs to have accommodated you. But (and here's the very crucial part) such accommodation is for your overall learning/comprehension, not for a given moment of classtime review. Are their other ways to review the material? Were you given ample time before testing to ask questions, and review in other ways -- ways which, I note, don't always involve the teacher? Were you able to use other ways to account for missed time, such as having access to other students' notes? Then you've been accommodated. Period.

There is no reason, in other words, why your teacher must accommodate those needs in the classroom, IN THE MOMENT, unless it puts you at medical risk...AS LONG AS your educational needs can still be met in other ways. In fact, doing so (in-the-moment) puts your needs above the needs of the whole rest of the class, which is just...well, bad community, bad teaching, and a really good way to make sure that no one in the class learns as well as they would have otherwise.

If the teacher said you could not leave to put your drops in, THEN you have a case. This goes against medical orders. Otherwise, pay no attention to those student lawyers.

Note, though, that this is a totally separate issue from the insubordination, as others have noted above. Refusing to leave when a teacher asks you to leave a room is pretty serious in most schools. This has nothing to do with your medical issue. I'd say suspension is harsh but fair.

Imho, if I had a student who came to me and said "I've been out, I have these medical needs," I'd be confident we could make it work. That's what accommodation means. But accommodation involves letting the adults charged with framing the overall situation ultimately decide what's best for that community, within the parameters established, and with the usual opportunity for review and oversight.

Accommodation, on the other hand, does not mean YOU get to decide HOW you can take your drops, or insist that your ideal way to learn (not missing any second of time + needing drops) are more valuable than overall community needs (teacher and all students, including you, have best potential to focus, and to understand the material). It means we get to make sure you get what you NEED (which is, notably, not "being in class" but "learning the material fairly") and to do so in such a way that gives everyone the best shot overall at focus, learning, health, comfort, and time.

This past week, for example, I had a student who had a medical note saying that the student needed to be able to drink water "as needed". She tried to suggest this gave her the ability to have a cup of water at her computer workstation. Instead, I gave her the option of sitting near the door, as there is a water fountain within 30 seconds walk, and releasing her from the usual "sign out to go out" policy. Student would have preferred to swig at her desk, of course. But her note does not (and would never) say "at desk" -- because that's not what she needs. She just needs ACCESS to water, just like you need access to drops. If she HAD brought a cup of water into my lab, she would have been sent to the principal pretty darn quick, where he would have rightfully dealt with this as a challenge to authority, not a medical concern. I am, as always, available after school for make-up work, incidentally, but the student has chosen to keep up with notes from her peers as a way to account for the occasional missed sentence. Jfarber 14:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC) (whoops -- forgot to sign...)

In my opinion (as a parent of a teenager) - I would much prefer that my child make a simple statement at the time of the problem - something like "This seems a bit unfair - but OK - I'll do as I'm told"...then promptly and willingly to do exactly as instructed. Then tell me about it - and I will be the one to go ballistic at the school (which - trust me - I would in this case). That way you are protected from any kind of blame and cannot possibly be punished - but you'll get some kind of satisfaction that there have been consequences for your teacher - even if it's only to have to take out 20 minutes of their lunch break to listen to a pair of irate parents ranting on and on about it. Sadly, it's probably too late for that this time because you neatly managed to go from being clearly and obviously "in the right" - to being clearly and obviously "a disruptive student"...bummer. Now it's going to be very hard to focus on the real problem and you'll be fighting entirely the wrong battle - it's gone from being a problem with a stupid and unfeeling teacher who didn't properly understand a medical need - to being a problem of classroom disruption for which you now have to prove your innocence. Give it up this time - apologise - do whatever it takes to sort things out quickly and amicably. Next time - play "good cop, bad cop" - let your parents be the "bad cop". If your parents are not up to this role (which would be a terrible shame - but I don't know your family situation) then talk to your school's councellor - or possibly the school nurse. But this time - it's a lost cause. Go with the flow. SteveBaker 15:30, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Steve, I'm a parent and a teacher -- and I'm always happy to have the parent be the "bad guy", as you suggest, though I think there is an age at which it really does benefit the kid to learn how to take on that responsibility for themself. I also would note that, if you decide that 20 minutes of my lunch break is "punishment" for me, you should know that, from the teacher perspective, you are actually punishing your own kid by doing this, and for two reasons: a) I am 20 minutes less prepared for teaching YOUR kid, and b) because I have feelings too, I am that much less able to give your or ANY kid the respect they deserve for the remainder of the day, ebcause belittled and frustrtaed people are just plain less effective int he workplace. Do what you want, but don't pretend that punishing your kid's teacher is a good way to make imporvements to the ways your kid can, should, and will elarn from that teacher.

But more importantly, in this case, I disagree with your premises, and want to make sure you AND the original querent here see that yours is not even all parents' perspective.

Specifically, Steve, I'm VERY interested in why you think the "legitimate medical need" here needed to be filled in the classroom, since as far as I can tell, the teacher seemed to have no problem with the student leaving class to serve his medical needs...and we've heard NOTHING about whether that teacher offered (or would have offered if the student asked) to help the student account for the "important stuff" he thought he was missing by leaving. In other words, I think we don't have enough information to know whether the teacher was being "stupid and unfeeling", so such accusation may be not just unfair, but ultimately undermine young peoples' ability to be effective advocates for their own education. For all our sakes, can you / will you comment? Jfarber 15:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

PS sorry for any spelling/language errors in the above -- I've only got five minutes between classes, on a rare day where I happen to be overprepared and thus don't need those five minutes to reorganize my thoughts for my next class; I had time to write that, but I have no time to proofread. Jfarber 15:56, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Since I'm old, and a non-legal-combative Canadian, I'll put in my looney: It's just that I've found over the years that 'attack dog' parents don't do their kids any favours over the long term. --Zeizmic 18:19, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I guess it's too late now, but one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received is that you have to choose your battles. Yes, it seems silly that the teacher would make you go outside to apply eyedrops. But this is not a matter that touches deep-down ethical or political beliefs. I would have approached the teacher after class and let him know why you objected to being forced to leave the classroom to apply eyedrops. I'm all for standing up to authority, but I'd say you've got to do it when the authority is being really unreasonable and you have exhausted all of your other options. While you're perfectly within your rights to complain to the school board, don't think they will give you much sympathy. That said, I think the principal went overboard by suspending you. -- Mwalcoff 23:41, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Everyone has a lot of answers. I have a lot of questions. Maybe you wanna think about them.

Does someone have the right to tell you what to do?

If so, where does this right come from? Power, chance, money?

Does your teacher have the right to boss you around?

Who gave him that right? Did you?

If the answer is yes, why do you give him that right?

Do you really want to learn geometry?

Do you like school?

Did you choose to go to school or did someone choose it for you?

Is geometry really so important for you that you will accept to be in the presence of someone who you think is disrespectful to you just because you want to learn it?

Can´t you learn geometry somewhere else? In books or with another teacher?

Shouldn´t a student have right to study in a place where he feels comfortable?

Is it just me or is it a lot easier for the principal to suspend a student than for the student to suspend a principal?

Why is it easier for the principal to suspend a student than for the student to suspend a principal?

Is a school supposed to teach the students to act in a good way? If the answer is yes, then: why would a good school ever use suspension?

Why not teach people right from wrong by talking to them and using arguments supporting your opinion?

Is the purpose of suspension to teach the students to act in a good way? If the answer is yes, how does suspension do it?

If the answer is no, then what is the purpose of suspension?

Why when the student does something considered wrong by the school they suspend him and prevent him from going to the place where he should learn how he should act (the school) instead of making him go there more often? A.Z. 06:43, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

To answer the first few questions: yes, from their responsibility to the whole class to teach them algebra, yes, the country and your parents gave them that right, yes, irrelevant, irrelevant, yes, no, depends what you mean by comfortable, yes, because students are selfish and shortsighted with short fuses, yes, by creating consequences for unwise actions, suspension also prevents students from undermining others' learning, while making their parents take their behaviour seriously, because it makes him consider his actions more carefully next time, while putting an angry person in a school they are angry at will not generally lead to anything being learnt. I hope this helps. Skittle 13:50, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers, Skittle. It helps a lot. Even though the idea was that the student who asked the question would think about them, he can still think about them and now he can think about your answers and my response to your answers as well. You didn´t answer all questions, so you need to say what questions you are answering or no one will know to what questions your answers are referring, except for a few.

Do YOU accept and agree that your country has the right to give someone the right to tell you what to do? WHO gave your country that right and why?

Do YOU accept that your parents have the right to choose someone to tell you what to do? WHO gave your parents that right? It wasn´t you.

IS IT irrelevant whether you like geometry or not?

Are you selfish and shortsighted with short fuses? WHY do you go to a place where they think you are like that?

Don´t ALL unwise actions have consequences even if you don´t "create" them? Why don´t they tell you what they THINK you have done wrong and then let you ANSWER and talk to them until they convince you? Will a student EVER learn wise from unwise or will he always need someone to suspend him when he is bad?

Does it look right to you that the reason to consider your actions more carefully is the fear of getting suspended?

This doesn't look right to me, but then, I don't think I heard anyone here seriously suggest that this was the actual reason to consider your actions more thoughtfully...and I certainly don't think this is what any teacher or administrator believes, or what they would tell students. Instead, I'd suggest that considering actions more carefully should be done (in school situations) because you share responsibility for making sure that the educational environment works best for ALL students, not just yourself...and that forgetting that (and acting on that refusal to behave appropriately as part of a community of learners) is a kind of community disruption, which can naturally result in suspension, which we might then define as part of the learning process (what's being taught/learned here via temporary removal from the community is, for you and others both, that public and disruptive anti-community behavior cannot be tolerated IF a community is to be effective, less the community devolve into chaos, which in schools means no one learns at all.)

Unless, of course, you believe that anarchy is a social structure which effectively supports learning, especially when, by definition, not all learners are LEARNING specialists -- i.e. will accept short-term "counterintuitive" lessons which have been proven to most effectively lead to long-term knowledge/skill/awareness...and are aware enough of pedagogical theory to take daily ownership of their own learning in ways that will maximize that knowledge, skill, and attitude potential. If you do believe this, bless you, and perhaps you should drop out of school so you can learn in your own anarchic environment, as it might genuinely work best for you; if you accept it, know that this is not an age issue -- even adult learners need some external management of such management. Jfarber 12:24, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

No one learns anything if they´re not interested in the subject. If the kid really wants to learn geometry and he doesn´t think he can learn on his own, then let him choose his teacher, let him choose his school and let him choose his own rules, let him choose whether suspension works for him. If he does not like geometry and does not want to study it, you will only make him hate school, teachers and math by forcing him into something he does not wish to do. If you think geometry is important, show him that by using arguments. If you think management is important, show him that, teach him that, convince him of that. If your counterintuitive lessons are so proven and so effective, just point that out to the student, show the proofs, show how effective they have always been and let him reach his own conclusions and choose for himself. Whether freedom of choice is anarchy or capitalism or whatever doesn´t really matter. A.Z. 18:58, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

It is not the job of a school to "sell" education, or its curriculum, in part because it is not the school, but the school BOARD -- usually a group of parents -- who determine curriculum. (Well, them, and the colleges that require certain standards for admission.) Even if it WERE the job of a school to convince students that the curriculum was worthwhile, though, that would be a prerequisite for a course, not part of a course.

I am serious about the anarchic structure, by the way. Plenty of students learn better in non-school environments. If so, that is a matter for the student to take up with the parent, not the school. Jfarber 22:22, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

If the student is angry at the school, why doesn´t the school make a big effort to better understand his reasons and try to improve so students are not angry at the school anymore? A.Z. 18:29, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

I see nothing here that suggests otherwise. But there's a limit to that. Sometimes, A.Z., just because someone is angry, it doesn't mean they're right. Jfarber 22:22, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

ULTRA and enigma debate

Where is a website or place where I can read about debates of historians on the actual effectiveness of ULTRA on the outcome of WWII? 64.230.5.36 02:36, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Other than trying to figure out how to narrow down an intense Google search, I'd recommend clicking around the external links for the Ultra article. V-Man - ^T/_C 03:54, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Colour to a blind person

How do you explain colour to a blind person? --Candy-Panda 05:49, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, I suppose you would compare it to pitch.--Pharos 05:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

You could take the Mask approach and supply them with cool running water for blue or a warm stone for red. Dismas|^(talk) 11:43, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Certainly musical pitch is a good analogy. Volume of a sound (amplitude) is like brightness - Pitch of a sound (frequency) is like colour (there are even analogs of chords in mixed colours) - and the spatial position of a sound is like the position of a splotch of colour in your field of view. Aside from the fact that sound waves are vibrations in the air and light waves are electromagnetic - and that the frequency of vibrations of light is vastly higher than sound - that is not just a good analogy - it's the literal truth. Temperature is a less good analogy because we aren't equipped to distinguish frequency from volume - hotter versus colder is kindof a mixture of the two. So the sound analogy is a better one. SteveBaker 13:57, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Of course, if the blind person has little to no grounding in the physical sciences, a pseudo-scientific analogy may do little to clarify matters. I cannot think of a good way of explaining it, though. -- mattb @ 2007-03-09T14:14Z

That may be true - but I think most people can understand the concept of the pitch of a musical note versus it's volume. Of course that's describing what it is - not what it seems like to sighted people - so I guess the nearest analogy is that colour affects the look of something in (very approximately) the same way that smoothness or texture affects the way an object feels. That might give the blind person a better understanding of the way we use colour in day-to-day perception. SteveBaker 15:17, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it would be possible at all, because before you explain colour to them, you'll have to explain what it means to see things in general (ie: explain sight), which seems like an impossible task to me. - Akamad 23:47, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Synesthesia suggests (at least some) human brains are able to couple senses, suggesting that the use of once sense to accurately perceive our interpretation of another is not such an abstract idea. Rockpocket 01:30, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

It just seems like a near impossible task to me, because I imagine the conversation going something like this:

Blind person: "What is colour?"

Non-blind person: "Colour affects the way we see things in the same way pitch affects the way we hear things?"

Blind person: "What does it mean when you say 'see things'?"

Non-blined person: "Ummm..."

Akamad 01:35, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

With respect, Akamad, blind people fail to detect light in their eyes, they do not lack the basic understanding of what being able to see means. I presume you do not have the ability to read minds, yet you can (again, I assume) comprehend what one would mean when they say "I can read your mind". Rockpocket 07:18, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

I think the appeal of the question is that sensation is such a low-level thing -the only real thing actually (go read Hume)- that it's pretty much impossible to describe it in a meaningful way. Analogies are useful, but how are you going to describe on a visceral level what it feels like to see? I'd say it's impossible, but for a blind person resigned to never experiencing sight, analogies are certainly useful to understand it --froth^t 01:50, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Also see Philosophy_of_perception#Philosophical_ideas_about_perception --froth^t 03:25, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

What difference does a colour make to a blind person.The colours we see with our naked eye are nothing but visible spectrum waves and their interference waves.To say clearly they are our mere perceptions but not absolutes.They are sensed by reeds &cones in our eye and the theory that a colour is 'actually' a colour is wrong.The only thing is that a blind person cannot perceive light leave alone the different spectrums in it.If some extra terrestrial being exists which can perceive our "so called u.v. radiations" then a non-blind person will be considered "blind" with respect to it.210.212.215.141 09:45, 12 March 2007 (UTC)Prosemite

Cruithne and UFOs

Google "Cruithne and UFOs", related matters, and you'll get several sites that claim this rock is a UFO. UFO Casebook (Since it got deleted, go to www.ufocasebook.com) has a selection of alien races. Type in the SEARCH area, "Alien Races" and check out the entry on the Reptilian Aliens. It says they have a asteroid that has 30,000+ of them in it, waiting to hit this planet. 65.163.112.107 08:02, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Where can this be placed ? 65.163.112.107 08:03, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh really - this is utter meowmix. When they say that the astronomers "have not yet ruled out that it is artificial" - that is not the same thing as "Astronomers believe it to be a UFO". Sure they havn't ruled that out - but then they also haven't ruled out that it's made of Lime Jello and sings the Chicken Dance song on alternate Thursdays. Please - extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence - and right now there is zero evidence that this is anything other than a boring old run-of-the-mill captured asteroid. SteveBaker 15:12, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

You mean, where can it be placed in Wikipedia? There seems to be plenty of possible places in the "See Also" section of the entry on UFO where you might ACKNOWLEDGE claims that a certain rock is a UFO. But remember, the "truth" you'd be placing is "there are claims", not "this rock is a UFO."

EVEN THEN, unless you can demonstrate that your above sources are reliable by the usual Wikipedia standards for source material, then the answer to your question seems to be "Sorry, this cannot and should not be placed here at all."

For example, I note that the UFO page manages to remain legitimate by NOT trying to claim that such things as UFOs and reptilian aliens exist or not, since the evidence is too controversial...but by merely categorizing the types of claims people make. Jfarber 15:06, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

i'm replacing cuss words with meowmix, so make sure to make your comments clean ones

What a completely meomix thing to do. You must be a complete meowmix meowmix - and I think you should just meowmix meowmix meowmix yourself. Seesh - Meowmix! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs) 02:59, 11 March 2007 (UTC).

Smile

What exactly does it mean when a girl smiles at a boy (not necessarily looking at him)everytime she comes accross him?Actually it happened to me two to three times with the same girl.People say(only few)that I look strange and some say I look deadly.What may be the reason of the smile?

Funny question. It's hard to calculate the meanings of facial gestures in person--much harder over the internet. There really isn't enough to work with here. Age? Her persistence? Does she focus particularly on this third-person boy when she smiles, or does she smile at lots of other people? What is meant when you say she smiles at him but doesn't look at him? Smiles and looks away? That could be indicative of shyness, and shyness is indicative in turn of what what I think you're question is getting at--that she possibly has a crush of some sort on the boy. Otherwise, it could just be friendliness, especially if the girl is more than a year or two older and the boy is, as I for some reason suspect to be the case, young. If you want a better answer (which may still not be possible), we'd need more details.70.108.199.130 06:16, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hint: smile back and see what happens. --Ouro (blah blah) 09:43, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Scary Movie 4 Trailer

Can anyone tell me the name of the song in the trailer for Scary Movie 4? I'm not meaning Karma Chameleon, It's the song that starts playing once the tripod starts blasting people. I've being looking for it for ages, and only thought just now to ask here. The trailer is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0zAlXr1UOs --IvanKnight69 08:42, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

First of all there's every chance that it's just a generic movie score. But do you know what it sounds like? It sounds like "How soon is now" by Love Spit Love - sounds very much like it but isn't it. You may have to watch the movie and see if the song turns up there. If you're desperate, email Miramax or the production company itself and see what they say Rfwoolf 10:46, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I've watched the movie and it isn't in it, or in it's soundtrack listing. The song continues later in the trailer after Dr Phil cuts his own foot off. It doesn't sound like a generic movie score to me, sort of sounds like perhaps a 70's/80's motown song, or something similar? Thanks for the tip, If I don't have any luck I'll try emailing. :) --IvanKnight69 11:51, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm. I agree that it sounds like a 70's/80's motown song - my idea that it was "How soon is now" was based upon the limited spurt after the tripod starts shooting people - but then after doctor Phil, if it is the same song, it sounds more Motown.

The only lyrics I managed to make out clearly is at the very end, it says "Do what you want". Good luck. Rfwoolf 18:08, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Though simultaneous postings to multiple Reference Desks is discouraged, this sort of question might do better on the Entertainment Reference Desk. -- Deborahjay 15:00, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Urgent Help Needed please.

The aged father of a close friend is dying and has asked his son to make very specific arrangements for his funeral, including the music. The father has asked for Mario Lanza's version of "Because you're Mine" to be played at the service - but neither my friend nor I are able to source it locally (Scotland) as the film and soundtrack were apparently produced in 1952. Neither of us is into music downloading but I wondered if anyone here might be able to offer any advice on how we could obtain the above-mentioned track at pretty short notice. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by CasualWikiUser (talk • contribs) 17:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC).

the song is available to buy for 79p on the UK iTunes Music Store. You would need to install iTunes if you don't already have the application. It can then be easily written to a CD if you have a CD-RW on your computer. Hope this helps. ny156uk 18:07, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

It's generally available, but you'd have to kidnap a neighbour's kid to get it! :). I noticed it's from a 1998 album: Mario Lanza's greatest performances at MGM, in the classical section. This is really modern for the classical section at your local record store! --Zeizmic 21:21, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Just to say thanks to the above respondents, especially ny156uk. I have left a message on your talk page. But thanks again, I got the track I was looking for, and was able (eventually) to copy it to CD. And as you suggested, it did only cost me 79pence. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by CasualWikiUser (talk • contribs) 13:11, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

Cloaked Jew...?

I scanned both Jews and Who is a Jew? articles without finding any reference to the term “Cloaked Jew.” Can anyone tell me what this term means? 64.92.13.184 18:04, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

This putative term you're querying seems to appear neither in Wikipedia nor on the Web at large (based on a search using Google). Did you perhaps extract it from some larger context? A particular cloak worn by Eastern European Jewish men on the Sabbath or other festive occasions is a knee-length outer garment, usually of black silk cloth, called the kapote. As an outward sign identifying a religiously observant Jew, this in instances of antisemitic attacks would make the wearer a prominent target. Jewish men today, including such prominent visible figures as the rapper contemporary rock/reggae musician Matisyahu, wear this garment by choice and/or in adherence to the garb acceptable within their community.-- Hope that helps, Deborahjay 18:38, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Agriculture's share of labor force

Hello and thank you for your help,

I am trying to find statistics that show the agriculture, in terms of the labor force it employs, has decrease from 1900 to today.

I can find partial trends, over some decades, as well as the latest data, but no comprehensive histogram. Data for western europe would suffice.

Thank you,

Wahydrising sunset 19:08, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[Email address removed; see notes at the top of page Phileas 20:53, 9 March 2007 (UTC)]

You could try EarthTrends -- no comprehensive histogram, but the right data for you to construt one. Jfarber 01:26, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Gold prices

For a long time, gold was $35 an ounce. Then it suddenly jumped up to ridiculous heights. Gold#Price doesn't really do a good job of explaining why. So what happened? Clarityfiend 19:18, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Try United States dollar#Silver and gold standards. --hydnjo talk 19:40, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

The dollar article should, but doesn't, offer an adequate explanation. Until 1968, the U.S. government promised foreign holders of dollars that they could demand an ounce of gold for every $35. However, the United States was engaged in deficit spending to fund the Vietnam War that increased the supply of dollars faster than U.S. gold reserves were growing. Foreign demands for gold threatened to exhaust U.S. gold reserves. So the guaranteed conversion price was gradually increased. Finally, in 1975, the United States completely abandoned the gold standard, because deficit spending was increasing the money supply so fast that orderly convertibility into gold was no longer possible. Because the money supply (and by extension the demand for gold) was expanding very rapidly, while the supply of gold was expanding very slowly, the price of gold rose sharply. There was something of a speculative bubble in gold prices during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The gold price dropped during the 1980s, but it has remained well above $35/ounce, which prevailed in an era of slow money expansion. This reflects the sharp drop in the dollar's purchasing power. In recent years, the price of gold has been rising again. This is a reflection of the rapid expansion of the money supply (not just in the United States) resulting from historically very low interest rates. This time, due to the vast expansion in the supply of tradable goods and services with the entry of China and other formerly closed economies into the world market, there has been little consumer price inflation. However, there has been dramatic inflation in the prices of tangible assets such as real estate and gold. Marco polo 19:58, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict)You might also be interested in Bretton Woods system and Nixon Shock. As to why it "suddenly jumped up to ridiculous heights" see 1979 oil crisis:

Theoretically, the rise in oil prices should have had a deflationary effect following an initial inflationary rise in the overall price level. This is because the price increase in oil was essentially a tax, whose net effect should have been to reduce demand...Instead, different from the outcome the president was led by his advisers to expect, the rise in oil prices had stoked the inflationary trend rather than banked it...The deflationary effects of the "oil tax" were being overridden by the growing strength of inflationary expectations that prices would continue to rise regardless of administration pronouncements to the contrary...The effect was a determined consumer effort to shift wealth out of money into the acquisition of real assets such as gold and real estate. The price of gold would exceed $300 per ounce in July, on its way to $700 in 1980; investors and speculators acquired the precious metal as a hedge against further inflation. Thornton, Ricard C. (1991). The Carter Years: Toward a New Global Order. p. 437.

—eric 20:08, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

The causes of price inflation are disputed. The oil crisis article suggests that prices can be driven up (seemingly magically) by "inflationary expectations". However, the money to drive up prices has to come from somewhere, namely an increase in the money supply. This in turn is controlled by the actions of governments and central banks. While some economists believe that expectations can drive up prices autonomously, others have argued that attributing causality to expectations (rather than to deficit spending and/or interest rates running behind the rate of inflation) serves to deflect responsibility for inflation away from the governments and central banks that alone can control it. Marco polo 20:39, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Orange (UK)

Anyone know how i can get through all the automated rubbish on their callcenter phoneline (07973100150) to speak to a real person? You need to type in an orange phone number but i cant make calls from mine at the moment as it is locked (contract ended).

Cheers Rickystrapp 20:59, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi, press 0# each time that you are prompted for a number (3 times). 21:46, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Thank you Rickystrapp 00:30, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

If you just need to type in your phone number, why does it matter if it expired? Do they hang up and call you back rather then just using it to know who they're talking to? Nil Einne 21:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Human Extinction

If we were all to disappear tomorrow, how long would it be before all signs of human existence are gone? I'm thinking that without constant maintenance, most structures would eventually fall apart. Wood frame houses would rot without a fresh coat of paint every few years, bridges will rust and collapse. Would the pyramids last as long as anything built today? How about concrete vs. stainless steel construction?

Some rather depressive magazine did a piece on this a few months ago. I forget which, but they seemed to suggest that most traces of mankinds existance would be gone with 500 years. I suspect many things would not 'disappear' but be buried/hidden from view. I think the Pyramids would potentially end up falling victim to sandstorms? Bridges etc. would stand for decades untouched if not more. It will be a long time before we have to know, perhaps by then the Pyramids will already be long gone? ny156uk 23:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Our bones and our most solid structures (maybe flight data recorders are among them?) would at least be present in some form for millions of years. I heard about a CD-like disk called the Rosetta disc which was conceived for this purpose: preserving information for geological time spans. --Taraborn 23:28, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I cannot recall wherefrom, but the article suggested that a half-mile cubic container could contain all human life present and past - and if then pushed over the edge of the Grand Canyon, it would literally disappear from view for all time coming, wiping out any evidence of human existence on Earth. Discuss. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by CasualWikiUser (talk • contribs) 00:22, 10 March 2007 (UTC).

OK, OK, I didn't sign it - and I forgot to pre-empt the purist question about who would do the pushing.... My apologies for both omissions - Just let your imaginations wander. CasualWikiUser 00:25, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Seeing as we find signs of dinosaurs existence today and they have been extinct for 65 million years, and considering we are slightly more adept at creating long lasting materials than they were, I would say 100s of millions of years. Rockpocket 01:12, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Depends how long it will take for Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 to be destroyed. --88.109.39.128 14:33, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

The Lunar plaques should last a while too. Algebraist 17:58, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Demanding that ALL traces are gone would put an exceedingly long time limit on it indeed. We make things out of materials like gold that simply do not corrode or decay in any way. So I'm thinking that an item of gold jewellery would be around until the present continents are subducted under the earth's crust - and that's billions of years. If you looked at something like the sculptures on Mount Rushmore or the Pyramids, then erosion will EVENTUALLY get them - but the big, anaomalous pile of identical gold bricks stored at Fort Knox is going to be there for a lot longer. I agree though that the deep space probes are most likely to be the longest lived things of all. The odds of them hitting something is almost zero - until most of the universe has been sucked up into black holes - they are likely to survive pretty much intact. I don't think there is much that could utterly erase us from history. But no matter what, 500 years is FOR SURE too short an amount of time. There are plenty of artifacts we find (like cave paintings, stone tools) from primitive man that are millions of years old...and it's likely that fossilised remains of modern man can be found someplace that would last a lot longer than that. SteveBaker 01:42, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

An impact event would help things along, so to speak. Imagine some alien life forms finding Voyager, deciphering the plaque on how to find us and finding a dying ball of wind and sand instead of the Earth. --Ouro (blah blah) 09:41, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

By the way, if we were able to find tools made by hominids, why won't anyone find ours which are infinitely more advanced, common and in some cases resistant? I find it very unlikely that a future civilization won't find any evidence of our intellectual feats in the far future, unless Earth is completely obliterated by the Sun exploding and so. --Taraborn 20:08, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Women

How to get a woman?

Read some biographies about Giacomo Casanova. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:51, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

This tells you not only how to get a woman, but how to get the Woman of Your Dreams (also known as a mail-order bride). Alternatively, you could just be yourself and speak to woman that you find attractive. Unless you have particularly high standards, you will probably meet someone that reciprocates in time. Rockpocket 01:02, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

The simplest way would be to use a giant spring-trap baited with chocolate. --88.109.39.128 14:34, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Really you can order Britney Spears by mail order now? Jesus, I knew she's sunk low but not that low (Just joking, there's no way in hell she's the woman of my dreams but the joke worked well, I think) Nil Einne 21:33, 11 March 2007 (UTC)