Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 April 17

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 17

twix nougats have little divots on top of them

why the heck do they have those — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.214.0.62 (talk) 03:58, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

According to our article (and my taste buds), Twix bars don't have nougat. Are you referring to the divots in the crunchy portion of the snack? I would suspect that it helps the caramel hold on to the bars. Basically giving the bar more surface area for the caramel to adhere to. Dismas|^(talk) 04:30, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

wow so it isn't even nougat. and yes that makes sense. as a close friend of mine who works in organic chemistry says, everything comes down to surface area. thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.214.0.62 (talk) 04:32, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

It may be that the holes are 'docking' holes (see Cracker (food) and Roller docker) from the production of the biscuit to prevent over rising. A lot of biscuits (uk sense of word) have these. ny156uk (talk) 18:47, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Election of Officers

At Board Meeting an elction is due to take place to appoint a Chairman, there are 12 Board Members eligable to vote. There are 2 nominations for the post of Chairman, namely the current Chairman and a new nomination, the ballot ends in a stalemate 6 votes for each candidate. What happens next ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.169.135.229 (talk) 10:36, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

That depends on the by-laws of the organization. If the number of voters is an even number, one of the officers (often the chairman) gets two votes to break ties. This is not always the case though. Dismas|^(talk) 10:52, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

How common is it for the chair to get two votes? In cases where the chair has a casting vote, I'm used to them not voting unless there is a tie. Quite common is for a tied vote to just count as a negative result, though. --Tango (talk) 11:20, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Most boards that I'm familiar with don't have an election for the chairman. Instead, someone proposes a chairman and there is a yes/no vote on that proposal. If it gets a majority, they are appointed. Usually, you have a discussion before hand and know before the proposal is officially made that it will have majority support. If no proposal for chairman can get majority support, then you have a problem! You need to find a compromise candidate that a majority will accept. --Tango (talk) 11:20, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Indeed, IIRC, most boards run meetings via some variation of Robert's Rules of Order or other similar guidelines, and I don't think Robert's Rules allows for head-to-head elections. Someone makes a motion to nominate a person for a position, and there is a yes/no vote on the motion. In a board of 12 people, any vote needs a clear majority to pass, so a nominee with only 6 votes would fail the motion to elect. Someone would then propose a new candidate, and there would be another yes/no vote, and so on till a motion on some candidate got 7 votes. --Jayron32 13:44, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

German WWII uniforms

Help, Why do some high ranking German officers wear one chevron on the right sleeve of their uniform whilst others do not? Bobbitty — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobbitty (talk • contribs) 14:26, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Does World War II German Army ranks and insignia or World War II German uniform or List of military decorations of the Third Reich or Uniforms and insignia of the Schutzstaffel help? I've not looked through them in much depth, but they seem to be fairly comprehensive articles. --Jayron32 14:36, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Ehrenwinkel für Alte Kämpfer—Honour Chevron for the Old Guard. (More colloquially, the Old Fighters' chevron.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 19:43, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

World Naked Bike Ride

Does anyone know anything about World Naked Bike Ride in 2012? The official website http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org is now just a flimsy front end for the wiki site http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org, which doesn't work. Accessing it at all gives an error about an invalid function. I can't even notify the staff about this, because their contact information is also on the non-working wiki site. Did the wiki site ever work? Is there going to be a World Naked Bike Ride 2012 anywhere? I would find it pretty difficult to organise, join, or visit such an event when it's impossible to see where and when it is going to be. JIP | Talk 18:58, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

What I really don't understand is that why some editors don't search google before posting here!!! --SupernovaExplosion ^Talk 02:59, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

I understand they have a special version of the race for masochists, in which they use metal seats. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:47, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

I did search Google before posting. Unfortunately I did not find information about the WNBR in all countries, neither did I find any overall information such as an introduction or FAQ about what it is all about. However, the wiki site http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org has just started working again, so this question is now moot. JIP | Talk 19:12, 19 April 2012 (UTC)

I would expect that participation in, say, Greenland is fairly limited. Especially for the cyclists using metal seats. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:15, 20 April 2012 (UTC)