Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 April 30

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April 30

Right to the point...

I have a pre 1937 Nagoya Arsenal Arisaka Bayonet serial#42579 need to know where to look for its value.Have found other similer bayonets but cant find info on the actual bayonet I have.Any help would be good. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wayne Stanbra (talk • contribs) 03:24, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

I added a title. StuRat (talk) 03:33, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

There's one for sale from a dealer at USD 109.95[1] but one on eBay is only going at USD 41.00 (7 bids and 7 hours to go!) Alansplodge (talk) 17:47, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Plant fertilizer spikes

The instructions say they last about a month, but mine seem to be the same as the day I put them in the soil, a year ago, even though I water the plant directly on the spike. So, is my assumption that the spike would quickly biodegrade incorrect ? (Do the fertilizers just leach out, leaving the spike intact ?) StuRat (talk) 17:10, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

It's all about what you think counts as "quickly". But yes, the spikes, as well as Osmocote slow-release granules will keep their structure intact long after the N,P,K are gone. They will biodegrade eventually. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:27, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

I was hoping for some visual indication of when I need to replace them. I guess I'm back to circling days on the calendar. StuRat (talk) 20:07, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Amateur long-time gardener here: I personally have never had any luck with the spikes, regardless of the brand, and think of them as a scam akin to those glass baubles that supposedly keep your houseplants watered. Honestly, unless your talking about fertilizing your yard (or, in some cases, vegetables) you're better off with o;d fashioned sun and rain water (stay away from using municipal water unless it's well-water b/c of all the "stuff" they treat it with...try a rain catch instead for you plant water), and changing out the soil fairly regularly, maybe twice a year. Fertilizer often does more harm than good unless you're using it on a large scale. Quinn ^✹SUNSHINE 00:59, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Quinn, I think it really depends on your soil. Maybe you are fortunate to have very good soil, and probably to keep it that way, you have to rotate beds with a nitrogen-fixing rotation every couple of years, plus a yearly addition of good compost. Otherwise vegetables will remove nutrients even from very good soil. Where I garden, few vegetables will grow decently without fertilizer. (Potatoes are somehow an exception.) The key is to do a soil test and then add only the lacking nutrients. When adding the nutrients, mix them well into the soil and wait for a good rainfall or two to dissolve them before planting so that you don't burn your plants' roots. If we are just talking about lawns, on the other hand, they will grow in almost any soil without fertilizer as long as you 1) have a mix of grass and clover (for nitrogen), 2) have adequate water, and 3) leave grass clippings on the lawn when mowing rather than collecting them in a sack and removing them (and their nutrients). Marco polo (talk) 16:14, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Plato Smith

Im trying to find out what the name (proper name) Plato Smith would be in Greek — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.35.241.210 (talk) 17:23, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

I added a title. StuRat (talk) 17:50, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

"Plato" is a Greek name, so wouldn't be translated at all. If you want it in Cyrillic script Greek script, that's "Πλάτων".

As for "Smith", there are several approaches:

1) You can leave it "Smith", as names are normally not translated, but left alone. If you want it in Cyrillic script Greek script, that's "Σμιθ".

2) You could translate it to whatever word in Greek means one who works with metal (since that's what "smith" means in English), if your goal is to make Greeks think of metalworkers. I think that's "Siderás" ("σιδεράς").

3) You could translate it to whatever last name in Greek is the most common, if the ubiquity of the last name is what you are trying to convey to the Greeks. I believe this is "Papadopoulos" ("Παπαδόπουλος"). StuRat (talk) 17:54, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Why would the OP want it in Cyrillic script? The question was about Greek. Your answers above look like Greek script, not Cyrillic --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:22, 1 May 2012 (UTC)

Right you are. I had it right to begin with, then went back and messed it up when I tried cut and paste in a link, but had the wrong thing in the buffer and failed to notice. StuRat (talk) 17:23, 1 May 2012 (UTC)