Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 April 15

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 15

Airport's name

A have quite a simple question. Everybody knows the name "John F. Kennedy International Airport" is to commemorate the 35th President of the United States. When you talk about the name "Washington Dulles International Airport", which person are we commemorating? Foster Dulles or Alan Dulles or both or someone else? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.234.224.32 (talk) 06:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Washington Dulles International Airport tells us it's named after John Foster Dulles. It's right there in the lede paragraph, just a click away. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 07:01, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

George Washington, as well.... TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:15, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but only indirectly. It's named primarily after the city. If the capital was named Garblestone, the airport would presumably have been "Garblestone Dulles International Airport". -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:30, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Acts of God and Acts of Parliament

What's the difference between acts of God and acts of parliament?

Bowei Huang 2 (talk) 07:13, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia has articles on both. Might as well look them up yourself rather than expecting someone to paraphrase here. HiLo48 (talk) 07:20, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Acts of Parliament sometimes take Acts of God into Account. Acts of God do not take Acts of Parliament into account. For further info, see responses to the OP's question[1] on the Humanities desk. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:57, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

As for similarities ... both are potential ways for insurance agencies to stiff their policy-holders ? StuRat (talk) 18:00, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The difference is in the definition of the word "Acts" which has two different and distinct (though distantly related) meanings in each phrase. In the "Acts of God" phrase, the word usually means "actions", this definition is what is meant by Acts in "Acts of the Apostles". In "Acts of Parliament" it means "a law". Of course, God also has laws (the substance of which depends on your own personal religion), but that isn't what is usually meant by "Acts of God." That phrase usually just means "Things God did", or in a legal sense, "Things which are beyond human control" are usually refered to as an "Act of God". --Jayron32 01:14, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Mutual funds

I found a magazine from 1999 that surveys mutual funds and makes some recomendations. (The economy was booming in 1999.) How can I tell how well those 1999 recomendations have done? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:39, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

You can use this mutual funds calculator, but honestly I don't know how you can find a fund's past fee schedule (front end load, deferred sales charges, MER, etc) if you were not their client. Royor (talk) 16:16, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The 1999 magazine article gives that data. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:41, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The link posted by Royor is forward-looking, and you want something that is backward-looking. Fortunately, that information is readily available. Just plug in the funds' symbols on a finance website, such as Yahoo Finance. You can look up the symbols there, if the 1999 article doesn't give them. You don't need the fee schedule, since fees are reflected in the reported returns. John M Baker (talk) 15:41, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I want to look from 1999 until now, to see how well the old predictions preformed, by comparison. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:58, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Thing between the blade and the grip of a knife

What's the name for that? It's common in hunting knifes and military knifes. It's there to avoid your hand slipping into the blade. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.8.67.214 (talk) 16:18, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Thumb grip ? Here's a pic with the thumb grip at top and a finger grip below: [2]. StuRat (talk) 16:23, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

That would be the guard; see knife for illustrations. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:31, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Agreed, but sometimes crossguard. Alansplodge (talk) 18:56, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

karakul and pakul caps

Which colours do the karakul and pakul caps come in? Grey? Black? Brown? Tan? White? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.153.235 (talk) 17:13, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Doing some quick Googling, it looks like that list is about right for karakuls, while pakols also come in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue, so pretty much every color (haven't seen any purple/violet or cyan yet, though). Also note that while pakols are usually single color, karakuls are often two-tone, like the one Hamid Karzai wears. StuRat (talk) 17:41, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Sherwani and nehru coats colours

Which colours do Sherwani and Nehru (both sleeveless and full-sleeve) coats come in? Black? Grey? Brown? Red? Blue? White? Tan? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.153.235 (talk) 17:20, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

I see I need to teach you how to Google. Go to www.google.com, type sherwani coat, hit enter, then pick Images at the top. View the results. Do the same for nehru coat. Also try the word jacket in place of coat. StuRat (talk) 17:54, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Give a man a fish, and he will thank you, teach him how to fish, and he will be eternally grateful. But, best of all, give him free lifetime meals at Red Lobster. StuRat (talk) 17:58, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Men eating lunch on a girder

thumb

Hello, not sure if I'm in the right section. The picture of the men on the girder having lunch is a picture that has been in my family for years, more then one of them. My stepfather William Carlsen has said that his father is the second or third man in the picture. My stepfather died maybe 15 yrs ago and my mother when she was alive and the picture came up in conversation would also say the same thing. I have no other information, but the pictures and them saying that his father is in the picture. Now that the third man has been identified I'm believing that the second is Bill's father. Are there any records from the company that hired them that would have their names or paycheck information. I don't know where to look for that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.4.164.117 (talk) 17:22, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

I added a title and the pic. StuRat (talk) 17:29, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

One obvious question is: 2nd or 3rd from which end ? StuRat (talk) 17:31, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Presumably the left. Our article Lunch atop a Skyscraper has names (sometimes more than one) for all except the man second from the left. I'm guessing that's the guy in question. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:40, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The photograph does not prove that there was nothing between the beam the men were sitting on and the street hundreds of feet below. Similar scenes were common in silent movie comedies, with a platform actually just out of sight below the image area. This is not to gainsay that ironworkers took huge risks to create the infrastructure and buildings we still use today. Edison (talk) 04:17, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Well, there are other similar images which show how precarious such workers actually were while peforming their job [[3] and [4]. The real story behind the people who actually built most of New York's skyscrapers during the 1920s and 30s and onward is actually quite facinating. A substantial proportion of these workers were recruited from the Mohawk people from Upstate New York, a fact noted in our article on the Mohawk people and which has been covered by number of good books and documentaries. --Jayron32 04:43, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Not to be picky, but both of those examples are the same with regards to the fact that you can't see what's three or four feet below the worker. That's what Edison is saying — there may be a platform or net or something so that the fall is a dozen feet rather than many hundreds of feet. I've no clue myself. But personally I think the "lunch" photo has quite a drop, even if there was a platform there. It would have to be several dozen feet below them to be out of the frame, and that would still be a very dangerous if not fatal fall. Photos from downward facing angles (like this and this and this) make it clear to me, anyway, that this was pretty dangerous work. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:41, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

The thing that always bothers me about that photo is the strange "glow" around most of the people in the scene. It definitely makes me wonder if it's a fake. 216.136.51.242 (talk) 14:16, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

With the photographic equipment and film of the time, I imagine Ebbets might have had some difficulty getting detail into the mens' faces and into the cityscape below with a single exposure. He might well have used the darkroom technique of dodging and burning to get greater dynamic range into the final print. Astronaut (talk) 17:02, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

It's unlikely that there would still be records of construction company employees from the 1930s, and even more unlikely that any records that do exist would include pictures or other information that could be used to identify a man in a photograph. Your best bet is to contact the Bettmann Archive, which owns the copyright to the photograph and has taken an interest in the workers' identities, to the extent of hiring a private investigator, according to our article on the picture. John M Baker (talk) 15:35, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

water vessel history

When is the earliest known design of the bow of any boat narrow in the front? I.E., when was the front of any water vessel very pointed, like a canoe? Approximate date? But what group of peole? In what geographic location? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jarickert (talk • contribs) 21:57, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

First created on the 1st of August 1782 at 3:56pm in the afternoon , by the 'Shakers' who where a sub-species of the homo-sapien – and its spelt 'bowl'.--Aspro (talk) 20:43, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Of course sauce boats were described as far back as 1690 and they too are canoey shaped things...--Aspro (talk) 20:55, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Please don't mislead our users, Aspro, not even in jest. The front of a vessel (boat, ship, canoe ...) is indeed a "bow" (not a "bowl", that's a container for water or other stuff). If you're correcting spelling, you can start with "where" (in who where a sub-species) - it's "were". And the "its" in "its spelt" is "it's" (an abbreviation of "it is", and thus requires an apostrophe). -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 21:39, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

In the case of Titanic, the bow did become a bowl. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:50, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The reconstructed "solar barge" of Khufu

We can't get a specific date for you, since obviously many boats had pointed fronts, from antiquity. Perhaps the real question is, what is the oldest boat, since presumably it had a pointed bow. Usually being made of wood, ancient boats tended to rot away in a few thousand years. Human artifacts have been found from 130,000 years ago in Crete: [5]. Since that's an island, this implies that they got there by boat. (I suppose it's possible it wasn't an island at some point, and they just walked across, but archaeologists don't think so.) StuRat (talk) 21:45, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Certainly not the first, but excavated: the Khufu ship from 2500 BC. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:07, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

The oldest extant boat is apparently the Pesse canoe, which as a dugout canoe, is indeed pointy in the front. I got this information from the obscure article titled boat. --Jayron32 01:05, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

If you've ever tried to paddle a craft that presents a vertical surface to the water, like an oil-drum raft, you'll know why it didn't take a whole lot of brains to appreciate the need for a pointy bow. Alansplodge (talk) 17:27, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

But on reflection, they seem to have got along without pointy ended boats in Wales for a few thousand years[6] (see Coracle). Alansplodge (talk) 17:35, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

A flat leading edge is definitely out, but either a sharp point or a gentle bow, as in the coracle, could work. I expect that the sharp point leads to more directional stability, while the rounded bow is easier to turn. StuRat (talk) 17:59, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Actually, the skill with a coracle is to STOP it from turning! A good sculling draw-stroke is required, and you need to be able to do it one-handed if you want to go fishing at the same time. Alansplodge (talk) 18:03, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, just as I indicated, it would be easy to turn a coracle, perhaps too easy. This is why pointed bows are more common. The coracle looks like it might be useful in extremely small rivers, where you need to be able to turn on a dime. StuRat (talk) 18:07, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Are we talking ordinary Northumbrian spokeshavers' coracles here?  :) -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:36, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

I confess that I had to use Google to find that you were referring to Flanders and Swann of blessed memory. See Design for Living, or you can hear it on YouTube at 6:20. Alansplodge (talk) 17:58, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

I've obviously been neglecting my Flanders-and-Swann-listening for far too long, because I firmly believed it was a Monty Python quote when I posted it, and I would have bet millions and millions of dollars that it was John Cleese who uttered those words. Thanks for the correction, Alan, and for saving me rather a lot of money I don't have. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 07:39, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

On a parting note, I'm sure it's only at Wikipedia that one can find mention of karakuls and coracles on the same page. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 08:22, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

crude oil research

i am interested in contact information of newly built private refineries and crude oil marketing companies in the USA, CANADA, EUROPE and ASIA. the answer should be in form of listing, which should include phone, email, websites etc. i will be grateful if you will do me the honor — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yenagoastate (talk • contribs) 23:32, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Your oil research assignment doesn't sound crude, it actually sounds quite refined. I doubt that wikipedia contains that level of detail. But have you looked at specific oil company articles, and google, and that kind of thing? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:05, 16 April 2012 (UTC)