Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 January 30

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January 30

Dogs

How many tyeps of Dog breeds are there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by RyanKB1234 (talk • contribs) 00:36, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Our Dog breed article goes into some detail about how the breeds are not scientifically determined but are determined by clubs; but it skirts the question of how many there are. List of dog breeds acknowledges it is an incomplete list, and proceeds to list about 491 of them, by my count. Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:51, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

This[1] page lists an awful lot of breeds - sorry I haven't counted them. And all descended from the Grey Wolf apparently[2]. Alansplodge (talk) 12:11, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

TV problem

My TV (Integrated High-Definition DLP Projection Television) won't stop buzzing. I tried changing the lamp, but no luck. The ubzzing alternates between loud and irregular, and sort of monotone and dull. Sometimes the TV turns on with wierd colors too, and the screen sort of shimmers. What shoudl I do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.137.221.211 (talk) 03:28, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

The range of symptoms suggests a possibility of a problem in the TV power supply. Is the buzzing from the speakers or from within the TV itself (ie independent of volume level)? --220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:49, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

In other words, does the buzzing change loudness when you turn the volume up or down? --203.22.236.14 (talk) 12:11, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

It is not related to the speakers. It's coming from the TV itself. 76.230.151.47 (talk) 20:19, 30 January 2010 (UTC) (previously 99.137.221.211, changed IPs)

Is this mechanical noise of the fan? Check whether the projector has a setting up menu with a brightness adjustment because some TV projectors increase the fan speed when the brightness setting is increased.Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:42, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

"won't stop buzzing".(Your first post) and "not related to the speakers" So the TV makes the noise all the time when it is turned on. It is possible that the sound is directly caused by a loose power transformer, depending on the age of the TV as more modern ones make less use of, if any, large transformers. But this does not explain the other symptoms. It appears it is a DLP, (Digital Light Processing) type, which is only a few years old? If you are not familiar with electronics, even for such an apparently simple problem it would be unwise to try to fix it yourself. My best suggestion would be to have a TV technician examine the TV. It still sounds like a faulty power supply. Note I had not considered the possibility of fan noise, Cuddlyable3 makes a good point.--220.101.28.25 (talk) 23:52, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Car tires keep blowing up

My brother has an Lexus IS 300 and his tires keep blowing up. He says he thinks its just one of the tires, but it might be two of them. His car is lowered, and two of his rims had cracks on them, but the rims were fixed by a rim shop. This time he was driving at night and one of his tires blew and he ended up on the other side of the street on the top of the curb. We can't figure out what the problem is. Does anyone have any ideas as to what it could be? Thanks for the help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.35.8 (talk) 08:23, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

One of the things that often causes continuous tire failures is a car that is out of alignment. I would have it checked and if needed, realigned. - ^Avicenna_sis @@09:35, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Lowering a car's suspension may cause various problems if done incorrectly (see here) including difficulties with wheel rims and problems with tyres rubbing inside the wheel arch. If it was my car, I'd have its setup checked by a competent specialist engineer. Karenjc 14:14, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Possibly the most common cause of tire problems is incorrect Inflation Pressure. Combined with possible Wheel Alignment problems, and Lowered Suspension, as already suggested, this may cause the problems as described. Possible driver 'error' must also be taken into account. The cracked rims suggest that the wheels may have hit kerbs on other occasions which may have damaged more than the rims. Also See Tire maintenance --220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:57, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Certainly it's more than possible that the cracked rim repair left some rough metal on the inside of the rim that's wearing away at the rubber of the tyre and eventually causing some kind of a catastrophic failure. If the two tyres that blew out were on the two wheels that were cracked and repaired then I'd say that was highly likely to be the cause. I would never consider re-using cracked rims - sure, they aren't cheap to replace - but the consequences of a poor repair are so serious that I wouldn't consider doing it.

It's also possible that during tyre rotation, one or more of them got put on backwards...some of those low profile tyres have an arrow on them showing which way they should be mounted (My MINI Cooper'S has that) - the tyre rotation process for tyres like that should be to swap the front and back tyres on each side of the car - but NOT to cross them from one side of the car to the other. It's possible that normal Lexus tyres can rotate either direction and the new sexxier tyres cannot...some idiot in the garage might "know" that Lexus tyres should be crossed over to the opposite side - when these aftermarket tyres should not. This could cause all four tyres to eventually blow out - which might explain what's going on.

Suspension lowering by itself shouldn't make much difference if it's done right - but again, if that work has been done incorrectly such that the camber or track alignment is off - or if the tyres rub the wheel well in sharp turns or when the suspension is at the top of it's travel...then I could easily imagine this being the problem. Worse still, once one tyre has done this once (which might be a purely chance event) - it's possible that the resulting swerving and hitting the curb would bend or break some important suspension part which would, in turn, cause more blow-outs.

If your brother is a speed-freak, check that the tyres that were put onto the car after lowering have an appropriate speed rating for fast driving. If they are not the original tyre types that came with the car, then they might have a suprisingly low top speed rating or even a weight rating that's less than the weight of the car. If the lowering and tyre swapping was done by inexperienced people - there could be any number of other issues. Without doubt (because blow-outs are really dangerous) he needs to get the car inspected by someone who is NOT the guys who repaired the rims and NOT the guys who did the lowering of the suspension. The alignment and balance needs to be checked and the inside of the cracked rims and all of the suspension and steering parts carefully inspected.

If this happens again - or if you still have one of the blown out tyres - it would be well worth looking carefully at the tread to see if it was worn evenly across the full width of the tread - and to keep careful track of which wheel causes these blowouts AND how your tyres are rotated when they are changed. That would give a clue as to what happened. If you live in the US, most reputable tyre stores will replace a blown out tyre under warranty if you return it to them...but in any case, the damage to the tyre may be a valuable clue as to what's going wrong.

SteveBaker (talk) 21:26, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

There are two easy habits which help reduce the risk of blowouts - One is regular examination (once a week, have a quick look at the wear pattern, run your hand over both sidewalls to check for damage or bulges and check the inflation pressure is still OK). The other is to look over the tyre fitter's shoulder when you get a new tyre (make sure there are no rough spots on the rim where the bead seats, check he smears some lubricant on the bead before fitting the tyre, watch he doesn't accidentally split the bead while mounting the tyre (I have seen it done!), make sure you get a new inflation valve and watch him as as he does the balancing - even if you don't understand how the balancing works, the fact that somebody is looking over his shoulder should encourage him not to cut corners).

Zeusfaber (talk) 14:50, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

blue Saturdays on a calendar

Where did the convention of showing Saturdays in blue on Japanese calendars come from? I figure that Sundays in red is from the common Western convention, but it seems to me that blue Saturdays is not used so much, if at all, on Western calendars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.37.238.138 (talk) 16:52, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

It's useful to indicate weekends on calendars, and all the Saturdays are blue on my (UK) year planner. Blue ink is quite cheap so I don't think any other significance is intended.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:19, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Are the Sundays on your calendar blue or red? Just to clarify: the convention I am referring to is blue Saturdays, red Sundays, and the rest of the days no special color (e.g. black). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.37.238.138 (talk) 18:02, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

While I know nothing of calendars in Japan, I suspect there are two features here. Firstly, the original division of the week into 6 working or 'week'-days and one day of rest (Sunday) has mutated into the five-day week with two days that are distinct. So it is useful to mark them out on the calendar. Secondly, the varying traditions of printing calendars with Sunday either at the beginning or the end of the week makes it harder to spot at a glance the day of the week relating to a given date. So by colouring both Saturday and Sunday anyone can see at a glance which 5 days are weekdays, without needing to read the column headings. --Sussexonian (talk) 22:10, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

While I don't doubt the "just to mark the weekend" ideas, I thought I read somewhere that Japan had a number of Seventh Day Adventist adherents. So maybe it's a religious custom? Dismas|^(talk) 04:04, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Before the five-day week became common, Saturdays were often treated half-weekday, half-Sunday (called handon or half Sunday, see Japanese words of Dutch origin), where people work half of the usual work hour, or school ends about noon. It is probably because of this custom Saturdays are colored diffrently. --Kusunose 04:30, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Straw (Hay bales) lost by farmers transporting it

Does anybody know of any good estimates for the amount of straw lost by farmers when they transport it around by truck without covering it? I appreciate it would be different depending on distance, so any sort of per-mile basis would work nicely. I was following a truck today carrying hay and it was constantly streaming off the back and I just thought - over say 50 miles they must lose a notable amount, but wasn't sure what would be a good ballpark figure. Any ideas? ny156uk (talk) 16:58, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

well, wow. what a question. I have no idea, but I think this is a matter of indifference to farmers (hay is sold by the bale, not the pound, and is an easily renewable material). but I'll leave a sensible answer to someone else. --Ludwigs2 17:31, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

I really must point out that straw and hay are different things. Straw is somewhat cheaper ($30 for a large round bail weighing perhaps 1000+ lb), while hay sells for $50-$200 per ton (check out this fun site). I would imagine that the amount lost, while quite annoying to the guy driving behind, is pretty insignificant compared to the overall mass of the bales. And as Ludwigs pointed out, neither is a terribly valuble crop for a farmer. Buddy431 (talk) 02:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

While it's true no one's getting rich on hay, the stuff is expensive enough that you can get a free horse on just about every Craigslist in the country. --Sean 20:36, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Note that just because it's sold by the bale doesn't mean that the weight doesn't matter. A number of factors go into the weight of the bale (size, density, moisture), and if you're selling bales at a given size and moisture for the same price but at 2/3 the weight as your neighbor, you won't have customers for long. Cows eat by weight, not by the bale. --Sean 20:34, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

I can't imagine how one would be able to answer this. Some people probably just throw loose straw in a truck and hope for the best. Others probably have it extremely secure and lose very little. Is the straw wet? Is it dry? How big is the truck? How much straw is in the truck? Is it a pickup truck or a much larger vehicle? How fast? You get the idea... There are an incredible number of factors that go into this. Falconus^{p t c} 23:45, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

I think Bob Dylan has the answer - [3] Richard Avery (talk) 08:38, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Falconus is right about the huge number of variables one could involve in trying to figure out the answer: everything mentioned above, plus bales of hay themselves (not ignoring Buddy431's point, but hay's what I know better, so that's what I'm working with) vary as to how tightly they're packed, both by intent and upkeep of the baler, dryness of the hay, &c. Also does it count if a whole bale falls off the back and they have to put it back on the truck? Whole lot more loss there. But so for a wildly rough estimate let's assume a bale of hay is 36 inches long by 24 inches wide by 18 inches high. The volume of one bale of hay would be 15,552 in³. Now for kicks & grins let's say your average individual stalk of hay that's actually going to come loose at the average sensible speed on an average country road is four inches long (I'm thinking it's actually probably less than that, because most of what comes loose is probably going to be practically chaff, and an inch or less long, but 4 inches, to account for the flying foot-longs that work loose, too) by 1/4 inch across, and let's assume perfectly cylindical hay (i.e., no kinks, no tapering, no bulbous lesions) hay too, for simplicity's sake. That would give us a volume of 0.1964 in³ for one piece of hay. Let's say our truck has a bed that's nine feet long and six feet wide, and we're stacking our bales five high, so a perfectly full truck is three bales by three bales by five bales. Oh yeah, our truck has a headboard four feet high at the front, but no sides and no tailgate. So the exposed surface area of the hay is going to be 3.5 feet by six feet at the front over the headboard, which is 3024 in², nine feet by six feet on the top, for 7776 in², nine feet by 7.5 feet on each side for 9720/side or 19440 in² total, and six feet by 7.5 feet at the back for 6480 in². The total surface area exposed being 36720 in². If at 30 mph, or .5 miles/minute, let's say 1 piece of hay flies off for every square foot (144 square inches) of exposed hay every minute (evenly across the exposed area). That would be 251 and change per minute (call it 250), or 125 per mile. Total volume per mile then would be 24.55 in³. So if we drove 648 miles we'd deplete our hay supply. How long it would take with non-made-up numbers for volume of a piece of hay and rate of hay fly-off, I don't know, and with remaining variables added in, damned if I know. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 00:48, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Hold up. Something's not right there. I used the volume of an individual bale, not the whole truckload. Volume of the truckload is 699840 in³. So 5598 miles to deplete the whole truck, discounting the things I discounted before, and still totally made up numbers. Some jerk on the Internet (talk) 01:02, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

The Taras?

In this photo of a Buddhist statue, , I cannot find a reference for who the characters are along above the top of the Bodhisattva's forehead. I'm thinking they represent 5 Taras, but I am lacking confirmation of that presently. (I'm asking here because I noticed there isn't a Religion Reference desk. Wouldn't that be fun?). --Neptunerover (talk) 17:22, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

see Tara_(Buddhism). a religion section would be interesting - I'd haunt it, it if were a reasonable place - but (IMO) it would rapidly turn into a complaint section containing spillover from creationism-type article. it might be worth making a proposal for it though. I may do that. --Ludwigs2 17:28, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Well at least we might be able to try and create a space where different religions could be treated with the same respect as other branches of knowledge. I take your point that it might just attract the sort of viciousness that people seem to want to hurl at people of belief, but it might just put up a flag of "here be dragons" and people who don't believe might stay away. We can but try. --TammyMoet (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 18:10, 30 January 2010 (UTC).

I just looked at the main page, and (technically speaking) religion is listed under the humanities. I've left a talk page note here: Wikipedia_talk:Reference_desk#religion_.26_spirituality_reference_desk. let's see what people have to say. --Ludwigs2 19:29, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

This is from Thikse Monastery. Maybe Five Dhyani Buddhas?—eric 20:35, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Two stories tall! Wow. So whoever the characters represent, they are about human life sized, I think. When I said how much fun a Religion Reference desk would be, I meant it a bit sarcastically, considering what a Vietnam such a desk could potentially turn into. But as long as everyone understood religion as speaking nice to each other and not pointing fingers and so forth and understanding our differences are only illusions, then such a desk would be great. That idea however could be seen as merely the seeking of pigs on the wing. --Neptunerover (talk) 00:18, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Personally I think we should have a mystical reference desk, where you never get any answers but come away feeling better about the world. kind of the antithesis of editing wikipedia, really... --Ludwigs2 05:01, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree. Everything we need is right here. Having such a desk would help the mystical articles become more comprehensive, since people drawn to the desk for both questions and answers would want clarity in the articles. --Neptunerover (talk) 09:33, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

How would that work? People already don't get any answers, but I don't think they feel any better about the world. Adam Bishop (talk) 15:00, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Through understanding that getting answers is not the meaning of the world, perhaps it could help to harness their need to find answers and heal the stress it invokes. --Neptunerover (talk) 01:34, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure they are Taras rather than Dhyani Buddhas. If we could see what implements they are holding it might help. Unfortunately even experts can get tripped up over questions like this, as there are lots of different ways to depict lots of different aspects of lots of different bodhisattvas in lots of different sub-sects of Buddhism.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:53, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

not sure what to do next

I have been trying to write a book, but have hit something of a dead end. the school is intending to hold a charity fundraiser, and for some reason in relying on three teenage volunteers to do most of the work, though a fourth may well turn up to help out occasionally. Perhaps more.

Anyway, they have no ideas what to do, and I have no ideas what they could be doing, other than seting up some market stalls and having people bring stuff in to sell, which might just work if noone has any better ideas, I suppose. It needs to be something they could all work on together for a while each day, for perhaps three weeks, then have the entire event held on one or two days. I am really struggling here, with this one annoying little thing stopping me doing any more. Can anyone help?

Also, were they to come on here within the book and ask the same thing, what would people tell them? And would I be allowed to mention that they had done so in the book?

148.197.114.158 (talk) 19:55, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

So the question boils down to: Hypothetically, how could three or four teenagers raise money for charity? (Preferably in a way that would be interesting in a fictional context). I don't see any reason why your book shouldn't say that the teenagers came here for help - if you don't use the names of specific real-world ref desk contributors or infringe on the Wikipedia logo copyright by making fake screenshots or something - I can't imagine any reason why that would be a problem.

Perhaps, then I can be of most help by answering the question your teenagers asked instead of answering the one you asked (which is fun because I've never had to answer a question for a fictional person before!).

Well guys it's good to hear that you're going to do something so worthwhile. I wish more people would. Wikipedia doesn't seem to have an article listing the possibilities for teenage fundraisers - but there is a "Category" index: Category:Charity_fundraisers which collects the titles of articles that are about fundraising in general. There are about a hundred possibilities there - all with associated Wikipedia articles.

I think you could have fun going through some of crazier fundraising ideas in the category index - perhaps keeping the basic ideas but changing the details to make it your own. It's hard to know what kind of event you might enjoy simply because you didn't tell us what your interests are. If you are into sports, you might go for something like The Garbage Bowl - a 30-a-side football game held in freezing snowy weather with the players wearing nothing but pyjamas! You could set the match up in other circumstances and have people wear even less suitable clothing (tennis in toga's, bowling in bathrobes, golf in ballet tutu's)! On the other hand, if you are a bunch of computer geeks, you might try an idea I did once which was to have a local computer store sponsor an event where members of the public suggest an idea for a computer game on Friday night - and you all stay in the storefront window, working like stink over the weekend (losing MUCH sleep and eating only Pizza!) and have the store sell copies of the resulting game for charity afterwards - it's good publicity for them and good money for your charity - and (if you're a geek like me) it's a LOT of fun.

Without knowing more about your interests - it's impossible to suggest something specific. But hey - thinking up an idea is at least half the fun.

SteveBaker (talk) 20:42, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

See this tiny tip: Human interest story. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:29, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Why not give it a go? Pose a real question here on the ref desk as if it had come from your fictional characters, study the answers you get, and try to gain inspiration from that. IMHO, I think it would be better for you take some measures to protect the online identity of any answerers - ie. it probably isn't necessary to quote every answer, including every signature and date/time stamp. Astronaut (talk) 13:52, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

A slave auction or promise auction (people register a promise to do something, eg to wash a car, do some ironing, which is auctioned off) would keep your teenagers busy, and perhaps offer some interesting areas for plot development. Gwinva (talk) 00:59, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

The kids could put on a show. DOR (HK) (talk) 06:17, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

I want an perfect answer

Why need telangana a seperate state —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ajay.kalva (talk • contribs) 22:34, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

This reference desk is not the place to demand "perfect answers" or to ask for opinions on a topic. Xenon54 / talk / 22:54, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

The article on Telangana has some information on the matter, and might address the OP's question. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:20, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

(ec) See the article Telangana that treats the Separate Telangana state movement. On December 23, 2009, the Government of India announced that the issue of a new state will be addressed only after a consensus is reached. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 23:25, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

to answer the question as best I can (not being Indian). The nation of india was formed somewhat heavy-handedly as a product of British colonialism; prior to that the region was a collection of independent kingdoms (loosely put), often with their own cultural histories, languages, religions and ethnicities. If I were to make an argument for a separate state, I would say that the region contains a separate, unified cultural/ethnic population, and statehood is the correct option to give them political self-determination and proper representation within the greater political structures on the nation. I'd need to study the situation much more carefully to make that argument effective, however. --Ludwigs2 23:49, 30 January 2010 (UTC)