Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 October 2

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October 2

Business community involvement

I am loking for businesses in cumberland county that are activly involved and also donate into the community. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.2.87.69 (talk) 00:03, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

You'll need to tell us which Cumberland County you are asking about. -LarryMac | Talk 00:07, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Agreed, there's a gap in the info provided. StuRat 00:52, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The questioner's IP address indicates a location in North Carolina, so presumably he/she is asking about Cumberland County, North Carolina. Even so, the question is too vague to answer. It isn't clear what the businesses are supposed to be actively involved in. While it would be possible, maybe, to go through the annual reports of all corporations in the county to see what charitable contributions they've made, that would be a massive research project beyond the scope of a Reference Desk editor. A more efficient way to get this information would be to approach the fundraising staff of organizations with which the questioner thinks businesses should be actively involved and to ask them which businesses actually do contribute. Marco polo 02:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Or he/she could just contact the Cumberland County Business Council located here which appears to be that county's Chamber of commerce. If Marco polo has the correct locality, this should be enough. If not, search for ("chamber of commerce" and "cumberland county" and "__name__") (where __name__ is the state, province, arrondissement or whatever-else-it-is you happen to be asking about). dr.ef.tymac 22:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Strongest Glue

What is the strongest glue/adhesive in the world? Strong in respect to all the tests mentioned in Glue. Thanks,. Acceptable 00:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

For what sort of materials? --Carnildo 00:40, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Paper, metal, glass and plastic. Acceptable 01:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Across that range of materials, I doubt there's a single "strongest" glue unless you mean "the best compromise product that could glue any of those materials". Cyanoacrylate ("Superglue") glues are pretty strong on non-porous materials, though, with epoxy glues being good on a wide range of materials including porous materials.

Atlant 12:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Some very dedicated glue fans have compiled just such a list at thistothat.com. Want to know how to glue fabric to wood, or styrofoam to glass? They've apparently tried it out. jeffjon 13:30, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Exercise machines and calories

So I was at the gym today and I was on the exercise bike. The bike keeps a counter of calories. What I want to know is what that number means. Say it displays 100 calories, is it saying that I've burned 100 calories, or is it saying that it would take 100 calories of energy to turn the wheel as fast as I have for as long as I have. If it is the latter, than I assume that I've burnt more than 100 calories, since no doubt my body is not that efficient.

It would be great if anyone could answer definitely. Thanks in advance.

129.100.207.128 03:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I can't say for sure, but I think it's saying you've burned 100 calories. Note that there's a built-in incentive for the manufacturer to overestimate this value a little bit. There is really no practical way to figure out your calorie balance except by tracking your weight over time, and adjusting your exercise and eating habits accordingly -- in theory you should be able to add up the calories you eat and subtract the ones you burn, but in practice there's so much error in both figures that except in extreme cases you won't even know if the difference is positive or negative.

On the plus side, though, exercise raises your resting metabolism rate. Especially if the exercise is a little on the intense side. So the contribution of the workout may be greater than just the calories you burn while you're physically on the bike. No one here, of course, can advise you on how intense exercise can be and still be safe for you personally. --Trovatore 05:46, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

What did the trainer/supervisor tell you when you asked him? Richard Avery 07:52, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Washtub bass

Which is it, strings on a washtub or a single string attached to a pole? The article is very unclear --froth^t 03:27, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The washtub bass, as played by legendary early twentieth century jug bands and kitchen bands to the present, has a piece of wood (like a broom handle) resting abgainst the bottom of a waashtub (like hinged), which can be pivoted to alter the tension in a string also attached to the bottom of the tub, altering the pitch by a few notes to allow harmony. Edison 04:11, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY/ SAMPLING

WHY MIGHT A RESEARCHER USE QUOTA SAMPLING INSTEAD OF STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.32.219.26 (talk) 05:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Do your own homework. The reference desk will not give you answers for your homework, although we will try to help you out if there is a specific part of your homework you do not understand. Make an effort to show that you have tried solving it first. Also, Caps Lock is not cruise control for cool. In fact, it is considered quite rude. Lanfear's Bane 11:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

But a good place to start your research might be to read Quota sampling and Stratified sampling. SaundersW 11:22, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

LOL the cruise control part was cool. (note that my lol is in caps lock) --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 19:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

WWII Bombing of Nazi prisons and camps

Apart from Operation Jericho, the attack on Amiens Prison are there any other instances of the allies attacking a prison or camp ?

I ask as although it might not destroy materiel it could save lives and cause immense trouble for an occupying force.

Thanks

Paul —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.86.166.234 (talk) 06:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There was a single small attack on Auschwitz-Birkenau that had little impact. I don't remember if it was planned or not, but Primo Levi writes memorably about enjoying it as it happened, in Moments of Reprieve. --Dweller 11:55, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

(EC) Bombing is not exactly known for it's accuracy and would be more likely to have a detrimental effect on the population of the camp than the security or the infrastructure; in other words the captives would be much more likely to suffer than the captors. Plus they would probably be put to work to repair any damage done and would suffer doubly. Camps are also often in remote, difficult to access or 'hidden' locations. Lanfear's Bane 12:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

That's true of carpet bombing, but dive-bombers can be accurate enough to hit the perimeter defenses. Unfortunately, even if the prisoners escape from the camp, there is little hope they would escape the country to freedom. Thus, such a tactic would not help the prisoners much, but could harm the enemy, as they would need to pull troops from the front to hunt down the escaped prisoners. StuRat 18:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

See Task Force Baum for details on another prison camp attack, this one by land instead of air. StuRat 18:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Gestapo headquarters both in Denmark and Norway were bombed by the RAF. These facilities housed prisoners as well. However, the rationale for these bombings was not just to ease prisoner escape, though that may have been one of the reasons. The Danish bombing was a success, while the later attack on Oslo was a failure.Asav 15:50, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Recycling bags

The two large chain grocery stores near me will both take plastic grocery bags to be recycled. They have a drum to put them in near their doors. The smaller mom & pop grocery store that I normally go to does not take these bags back for recycling. What I don't understand though is why neither of the local town recycling centers will take these bags. What is it about the bags that the recycling centers don't like but the stores do? I hate those bags, so I always request paper instead but the question still bothers me. My locale is the U.S. state of Vermont. Dismas|^(talk) 12:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Plastic recycling does cover some of the difficulties of recycling plastic. You also have to take into account the location for recycling this material - large supermarkets can ship material around more easily than mom and pop who might have to travel a distance to recycle when the supermarkets lorries will be gathering centrally. Mom and pop might pollute more driving to the recycling centre than they save the environment by recycling. Also the larger supermarkets will have a much better volume of material to work with, it might take mom and pop years to gather a sensible amount to recycle. The supermarket may also recieve tax breaks by encouraging recycling and it is also good for their public image. Many offer you a penny back for every bag you re-use - this will also possibly save them money. In the Republic of Ireland you have to pay for your plastic bags to discourage people from taking more than they need. Many supermarkets also sell sturdy 'bags for life' than can be used over and over for a small price. Do keep in mind that they do all this for one reason - profit. Lanfear's Bane 12:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

My issue isn't with the mom and pop places not taking them. I can understand the back end of things may be overly expensive, complicated, etc. for them to do the recycling. What I'm curious about is the recycling centers turning them away since that's what they do... they recycle. I'll take a look at the article. Dismas|^(talk) 14:14, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

In my local area (southwest England) the equivalent to "mom and pop" will take the plastic bags from big supermarkets and use reuse them by giving shopping in them to people who don't bring their own shopping bags. Charity shops (goodwill stores) are also happy to take and reuse supermarket bags. Reuse is even better than recycling! SaundersW 12:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know, but it might be that recycling plastic bags loses money. As such, it would be an expense that recycling centers and mom-and-pop stores can't afford, but that big chains can take as a deduction from their corporate taxes. Also, the cost would be lower for a big chain due to economies of scale. Marco polo 15:16, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

We're still not answering Dismas' main questions, which is, why do town recycling centres not take plastic bags? (I have not a clue; I'm going to guess that there is not a market for them, as there is for much of the other things that do get recycled. I am, too, suspicious of supermarkets that take back their bags. I hazard a guess that many will "recycle" them into the general waste stream, making their customers feel good, but not actually achieving any recycling.) --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:19, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There is no cabal! I don't however doubt that this is a possibility. There are literally thousands of stories along those lines and as SaundersW points out reusing is much better than recycling anyway and you eliminate the possibility of all your hard work going to waste only for some evil corporation (pretend there are good ones just for the sake of comparison) just to dump the recycling material anyway. Reduce, reuse and recycle in that order. Lanfear's Bane 15:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The problem with recycling anything is getting enough volume of the recycleables to make it worth building a factory to do the work. It's likely that there aren't enough bags returned in one city to make it worthwhile - and it's very likely that whichever kind of plastic the bags are made from is incompatible with other plastics that there are facilities for. However, the supermarkets have trucks going back from the supermarket to their local distribution center and from there back to headquarters - they are large and empty (on the return journey) - so it's easy for them to have someone dump the collected bags onto a truck once every few weeks and have all of the bags from all of the supermarkets in the entire country arrive back at one central point. Once you have an entire country's worth of plastic bags as feed-stock, it's well worth building a factory to recycle them. The Mom & Pop stores don't have access to that kind of infrastructure - so they can't do it either. SteveBaker 16:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Well here's a link to a site that looks at product-lifecycles as a whole to compare the green-issues of them (http://www.ilea.org/lcas/franklin1990.html). Which bag-type to choose depends on recycling rates of it V its compartive. Strangely plastic comes out above paper unless paper is receiving pretty good recycle %. Certainly the reason may be that recycle-centres may focus on certain things. There has always been a big split between garden-waste and household-waste at the skips i've been to and nowadays it's getting more focussed on recycling other goods too - perhaps it is just waiting for them to be able to manage this (or it may seem of low importance if the superstores are doing it for them?) ny156uk 16:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if this is true, but I have heard that it is difficult to handle plastic bags in the sorting facilties. They dump everything onto a conveyor belt and workers pick out particular kinds of recyclables. The plastic bags don't stay on the belt they just blow around. Why paper doesn't have the same problem, I don't know. -- Diletante 16:34, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[1] suggests it isn't usually profitable (although it's obviously a POV site). [2] mentions one iniative including some details of how they are recyled and another iniative [3] although I didn't see any details on how they are recycled. Remember that ultimately recycling centres should only take things they have a market for. (Rather then taking and dumping which I've heard happens in the US although I don't think it happens much here in NZ) One of the things I guess is that with plastic bags it's not so much the mass or amount of space they are taking up in landfills which are a concern but their specific environmental effects so reducing their usage may seem more appealing then recycling Nil Einne 19:57, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes, municipalities will only accept category "1" (polyethylene terephthalate) and "2" (high-density polyethylene) plastic for recycling. Presumably, these types are easier or cheaper to recycle than categories 3-7. It's possible that it's cost-effective for a big grocery-store chain to recycle millions of the bags but not for your local town government to recycle hundreds. -- Mwalcoff 01:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Bypass

Why do we want a bypass?

faster travel, getting cars away from the centre of town. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

"It's a bypass. You've got to build bypasses." --LarryMac | Talk 13:36, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Brilliant catch o_o --froth^t 18:18, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Why do we not want a bypass? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.52.98.68 (talk) 12:59, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Don't want to see those fields & trees disappear under tarmac, don't really support the aspirations of car drivers to get home five minutes early. Those are the normal pro and anti views. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:09, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

To reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease. Fair enough IMO. All these people that protest about bypasses should buck up their ideas and leave the poor surgeons alone. Lanfear's Bane 13:40, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

See also Swampy. --Dweller 13:49, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Some suggest it is bad for businesses in the town that the road 'bypasses' - meaning there is a lot less throughput of people, making it less likely people will stop. Others might argue that it makes the town more desirable and pedestrian friendly thus making it a better (i.e. more enticing) area for business. It can also be argued that there is an impact on house-prices as quieter main-roads through towns often make people value the homes more (lots of people want the 'quiet life of a town' but with the bypass-connectivity to big-cities). There are many more pros/cons besides this (build cost, land disruption, loss of green-land, movement of traffic burden to next un-bypassed town etc etc) ny156uk 16:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Are you talking about any bypass in particular? Nil Einne 19:46, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps to improve cardiac perfusion. Edison 05:30, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

We need bypass surgeries so that your brain gets blood supply when the doctors are operating on your heart replacing your old valves. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 19:00, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Sprites

How do i make a sprite comic/get sprites? (Iwas looking for ones from video games etc) - 81.158.75.136 13:56, 2 October 2007 (UTC) (Q moved by Dweller 14:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC))

You mean the little 2D animated images that are used in old-fashioned 2D video games? Well, of course many of these are going to be copyrighted - so mostly you can't get them legally. However, there are a heck of a lot of OpenSourced games out there - and for them, you can grab the sprite images fairly easily by getting the source code from the game. A good place to look for such things is Happy Penguin. However, (just like Wikipedia), there are a few rules about what you can do with the artwork from the games - but usually they are not to onerous. Just be sure to read the licensing conditions for whatever you need. SteveBaker 15:58, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh - and if you want to make your own - just use a regular paint program with the image resolution set WAY down low. I've used 'The GIMP' to do that (it's free and supports animations as well as still images) - but probably you could use Photoshop or something like it. SteveBaker 16:00, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

On windows - using 'paint' with zoom set to 800% works well.87.102.43.162 18:37, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - for a one-off stationary sprite, that's fine - but if you want to animate them then you need a paint program with 'layers' and some way to switch the layers flip-book-style and to replay the layers as if they were frames of a movie. I know GIMP can do that - I strongly suspect Photoshop can too - but GIMP is free and Photoshop is $$$. SteveBaker 19:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

If you want to go truly "old-skool", try Deluxe Paint. It was very popular for these purposes back in the '90s. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Jeez - only if you are VERY VERY DESPERATE! I didn't think that thing ran on anything modern! But why use a 22 year old tool? GIMP is free, it's modern, it runs on everything and it's a superb tool for the job. But if for some reason GIMP is no use, check out: List of raster graphics editors, Comparison of raster graphics editorsand Category:Raster graphics editors. SteveBaker 22:12, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Try looking for "sprite sheets" that may help. Well known characters frequently have them. Sifaka ^talk 01:27, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't dream of using DPaint for photography editing work, but for editing pixel-by-pixel, indexed colour graphics, precisely such as sprites, it is close to the perfect tool. In DPaint, you can get that exact pixel to have that exact colour much, much faster than in the GIMP. It also has many useful features, such as fully customisable monochrome or multicolour brushes, pattern and gradient fills, snap-to-grid painting and a perspective feature. The GIMP has many features that are more complex but they are often also more abstract. In DPaint, you can get down to the pixels. JIP | Talk 17:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

http://bobandgeorge.com/Other/FAQ.html Kuronue | Talk 15:51, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

Is there other kinds of leave besides FMLA and disability?

I am diagnosed depressed and know that I can get FMLA. But I have not been at my job a year and have been advised by my doctor to have some kind of back up plan for the days that are horrible and unworkable. Are there other kinds of legal leave out there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.220.2.13 (talk) 18:15, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Suck it up and do your job or quit, I'm depressed too but I don't expect someone to pay me not to work. Man It's So Loud In Here 21:29, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

For someone who is clinically depressed "suck it up" is not helpful - anyone who has been through it would never have said that.

FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993) is unpaid leave for people who are seriously ill - and it allows you to take up to 12 weeks leave over one year - but only if you are physically unable to do your work (the word "physically" is a concern here) - and crucially, only after you've worked there for a year. If your doctor says that you qualify then you don't get paid for the time you take off - but the company shouldn't be able to fire you when you don't come to work.

So you need to somehow hang on until your first year is up. That means using your normal paid sick days and your vacation days judiciously - don't take a sick day unless you absolutely, utterly have to. I suppose you might be able to claim that your depression is a work-related injury and try for Workers' compensation - but that sounds like a hard thing to prove. What remains is to discuss it with your management and hope that they value your skills sufficiently to tolerate you taking unpaid leave. Depending on the nature of your job, they might be better off if you don't come to work on 'bad days' rather than paying you to do substandard work. But you've got to understand that if you are in any way replaceable - they may not be ready to negotiate - especially if they know that you'll potentially disappear for 12 weeks as soon as your first year is up.

Other possibilities include using 'flex-time' - build up hours of work on your good days (eg work a 10 hour day when you can) - head home early or come in late on bad ones - some companies don't mind that. Another thing that can help is if you can telecommute. Often you'll find yourself able to work at home when you can't stand going into the office. But again, it depends on the flexibility of the company. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs) 22:05, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

It can take a long time to find the right medication - but when you find it, it'll turn your life around. Good luck - I feel for you. SteveBaker 22:01, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Have you considered Vitamin P? I find it a little variable fom day to day but on the whole I am happier and it can also help regulate mood. (This is not medical advice.) Lanfear's Bane 08:21, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Writing 'This is not medical advice' in a teeny-tiny font doesn't prevent it from being medical advice (and bad medical advice at that). People's tolerance for and benefit from various antidepressants varies wildly - and there seems to be no good way to predict which one will work the best at the outset. I know someone who had to try a dozen different treatments over about a year before finding one that worked for her. The trouble is that it can take more than a week for the drug to build up enough in your body to kick in - then you need a couple of weeks of taking the stuff to evaluate how well it works and what side-effects you're going to get - and if it's no good, you have to wait a couple of weeks for it all to flush out of your system before you can try a different one. So you can really only try one drug per month - and if it's really the 10th one that works - you'll spend a year trying to figure it out. Prozac is not a magic bullet for everyone - just take a look at side-effects list in our article. SteveBaker 16:03, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

For those that dont know clinically depressed can have severe physical reactions such as loss or difficulty of speech, limited movement, headaches, lethargy and aches...so yes there a few times that I am unable to PHYSICALLY work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.220.2.13 (talk) 15:12, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Yep - you, I and your doctor know that - which is why he says that FMLA applies. However, your management may not understand. SteveBaker 15:54, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Steve, have you considered that "It can take a long time to find the right medication - but when you find it, it'll turn your life around", and your later post, which is focussed solely on medication, could also be construed as medical advice, and not necessarily good advice. There's a lot of debate about the best way to approach depression, but my own experience showed me that drugs alone are not the answer. They may relieve some of the symptoms, but they can never treat the underlying cause. I had one doctor say to me that (words to the effect of) "far too many doctors immediately prescribe medication for depression, but it should rarely be the first step and never the only step". -- JackofOz 05:06, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

High Deductible Health Plans and Health Savings Accounts

I would appreciate if someone could direct me to a source that could confirm that if funds are withdrawn from a health savings account to pay for eligible medical expenses, the amount withdrawn is credited against the deductible of the High Deductible Health Plan, and therefore reduces the deductible (or could possibly eliminate the deductible) for remainder of the plan year. Thank you Allouez 18:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it works that way. Any expenses you have subject to a deductible should be submitted to your insurance company (preferably by the provider of service). They will then have a record of what you are going to have to pay "out-of-pocket." They don't really care where you paid it from, although using an HSA is probably the best idea. e.g. I had lots of lab tests done early this year, which the lab first said were worth $410. The negotiated charges with my insurance company brought that down to $49.13. I had to pay $13.46 for one test that wasn't covered, so my "in-network annual deductible" of $2500 was reduced to $2486.54. The balance ($35.67) was covered because I get $500/year worth of preventive maintenance (of which I now only have $464.33 left). I actually paid the $13.46 from my own checking account, because I am stupid and didn't use the debit card they gave me for the HSA. I'll figure that out at tax time. --LarryMac | Talk 19:06, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks LarryMac. Excellent example and it cleas up a lot for me. Allouez —Preceding unsigned comment added by Allouez (talk • contribs) 21:18, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

north america

about north america. What is the mane of this culture area? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.69.4.81 (talk) 20:26, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

They vary, but the mullet is traditional. --Sean 20:35, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

From north to south, the major regions of North America are Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Central American countries. There are significant cultural differences between these regions, and substantial variation even within them. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:03, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

The United States and Canada (or Canada except for Quebec depending on your definition) are part of a culture area sometimes called Anglo-America. This region occupies most of North America, but part of North America lies within Latin America. Marco polo 00:56, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Women

there are only three types of women in this world, what are the types. it does not have to do with race, color or personality. can someone please help me. i cannot find the answer if my life depended on it etro---- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.196.108.226 (talk) 20:37, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

This is rather an odd question, as women like to think that they are all unique human beings, rather like men do. However maybe you are looking for something like Triple Goddess. SaundersW 20:43, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

There are various sorts of classification schemes by which one can divide people (or just women): social, scientific, religious, ethnic, economic.... There are also hundreds of jokes that start off with the line "There are only three (or two, or four) types of people (women) in this world...". You're going to have to be a bit more specific for us to take a shot at your question. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:58, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Ah, yes: There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't. SteveBaker 21:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

What about the other 1000 ... ? (Joseph A. Spadaro 03:51, 3 October 2007 (UTC))

This is unanswerable - there must be an infinite number of ways to map an arbitary grouping of unique objects according to an open set of criteria. Women who drive big cars, women who drive small cars and women who don't drive cars. I think we need a LOT more to go on here! Was this division made by a particular kind of pundit? In what context is the question asked? SteveBaker 21:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Or you can just go to your favorite Google-search-syntax-compatible-but-not-necessarily-google-because-they-aren't-the-only-game-in-town search engine and submit the following search verbatim:

   "there are only * types of * in the world those"

Using this approach, you might actually find the joke for which this line is the set-up, which may well be what you're after. If not, at least you'll have plenty of stuff to trawl through. dr.ef.tymac 21:56, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Update: (see Milkbreath's post below instead, it has a better search query). dr.ef.tymac 22:25, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Interesting question, and an excellent straight line. Hippocrates mentions three kinds of women and says they are bred by the three possible combinations of "male" and "female" seed from the mother and father. There is an Irish proverb, "stubborn as a mule, unruly as a hen, gentle as a lamb". I found these by googling on "'three kinds of women' joke". I only looked at the first few hits. --Milkbreath 22:02, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Those who can count and those who can't? FiggyBee 01:15, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I believe that three Archetypes of women universally found are the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Many productions of Macbeth draw on this-- as does Neil Gaiman inhis Sandman comics. Rhinoracer —Preceding signed but undated comment was added at 10:14, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Indeed. Aren't they also represented in Norse mythology by the Norns? Certainly in works based on Norse legend, they tend to work that way. Of course, these archetypes probably tell you more about what roles women were generally expected to fill than about women themselves. (I know we all know this, but it probably needed saying anyway, particularly given some of the 'hilarious' comments posted...) Skittle 23:53, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

only 2, those who will sleep with you and those that wont

...and those who fall asleep on you. Clarityfiend 18:04, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

No, 3: those that will sleep with me, those that won't and those I haven't met yet. DirkvdM 08:12, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

The third set intersects with both your first and second sets, if I read you right. --Kushal^{Click me!} write to me 18:57, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what the 3 types of women are, but I know what the 3 types of men who fail to understand women are - young men, old men and middle-aged men. -- JackofOz 10:11, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

HAHA. Good one JackofOz. --Taraborn 09:04, 5 October 2007 (UTC)