Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 January 27

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January 27

Where can I buy a postcard of the Greek town Kirra,_Phocis online?

Thank you Venustar84 (talk) 06:48, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Well, a google search turns up no local businesses with an online presence - but that's no real surprise. A little greek village like that isn't likely to be heavily online - and besides, who buys postcards online? The whole point is to send them to friends while you're staying there! I did a Google Maps search for "Gift Shop" in the town - and the nearest gift shop that Google knows about seems to be in Delphi, which is just a couple of miles away to the north-east. Delphi is a massive tourist trap - with a decent museum and related gift shop. It should be possible to get a postcard of Delphi from there.

But if you absolutely need it to be from Kirra, you may have difficulties. I did a Google street view virtual drive along the main streets of the town, and there was really only one shop that looked like it might sell stuff like that (it's on Epar.Od. Iteas-Distomou at the end of the Metamorfoseos pier). The Google Maps photo of it shows a stand full of that look like guide books and calendars - but you can't really see any postcards. However, my bet is that if they don't have it, it doesn't exist!

Since Delphi is the reason most tourists would be visiting Kirra, I strongly suspect that if they have postcards, then they'd be of Delphi...because that's what most people went there to see.

If a postcard of Delphi is "good enough" then I suggest you get in touch with the gift shop at the Delphi Archaeological Museum...I'm sure they can help.

There are plenty of online stores that'll sell you postcards of just about anywhere: http://www.zazzle.com/delphi_greece_postcards-239562864219744677 ...for example. But these are not authentically postcards printed locally - they are just online services that collect photographs and print them on-demand. Since (I suppose) the entire point here is that the postcard should be from that town, that may not suffice for your needs. But you could find any number of photos of Kirra online and have one of those print-on-demand services print you a postcard from that picture...so I guess this boils down to "Why do you need a postcard from there?"...the answer to which would better inform our search.

SteveBaker (talk) 14:35, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

The reason is because Callisto in Xena Warrior Princess is from there and I'm going to a Xena Conventrion in four weeks and I wanna show people a postcard of the real Kirra. Venustar84 (talk) 21:24, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Who is the most decorated editor \ admin on all of Wikipedia

I've noticed many editors have very ornate and elaborate user pages. Full of accolades, barn stars and medals. Some even speak of or are commended by others of great deeds and achievements. Others speak of illustrious careers in academia or even being members of Mensa.

So my question is, who is the most decorated and universally revered wiki user below Jimmy, of course. I vote for semanticmantis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.19.76.217 (talk) 19:00, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Ha! You're joking, right? I like to help people find info here, but most of my edits to article space are minor, and I have very few awards (I do have an academic career, but I almost never mention it here unless it is directly relevant to a question ;)

As to your question, see Wikipedia:Teahouse/Badge/About#Hmm..._gamification.2C_isn.27t_that_wrong_for_Wikipedia.3F, which links to a few lists of editors who have many successful "good article" nominations [1] or many "did you know" entries [2], and a few other lists of Wikepedians who are ranked in different categories. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:55, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Is there any record of Barnstars awarded?    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 21:37, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Not that I could find. There might be a way to get a list of pages that use each template, or just scrape user pages directly, but that would be a decent amount of work. I suppose doing so would earn you a few barnstars :) SemanticMantis (talk) 17:48, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Our OP votes for SemanticMantis - who is undoubtedly a wonderful person and a valued contributor...but sadly not even close to the most decorated. I count 1 actual barnstar and two other awards, 120 pages edited, and with 4 years of service and 4,300 edits, is entitled to the "Yeoman Editor"/"Grognard Extraordinaire" award level. That's not even close!

It's certainly tough to find any kind of exact award count since many people don't bother to collect them anyplace - and edit count totals are easily inflated by people who run automated edit scripts ("bots").

Wikipedia:List_of_Wikipedians_by_number_of_edits shows that to get into the top 5,000 most prolific, you're looking at needing at least 13,000 edits to your name. Clearly that level of commitment would be very hard for a relative newcomer to achieve. However, since the totals on that list include bot edits, we have no idea who the most active person from that list actually is. One data point I know is that I've never used a bot and I'm the 2,076th most prolific with 28,000 edits, so we know that you're going to need at least a few tens of thousands of 'real' edits to make "most prolific (excluding bots)". The most prolific editor (including bots) is User:Koavf who has performed over 1.4 million edits - but for sure that has to be overwhelmingly due to bots. A large fraction of what he does is things like recategorizing articles and refactoring links, removing double-redirects - which are easy to automate with scripts and such. One click of a mouse can get you 1000 edits if it entails renaming a category that contains 1000 articles.

In case you're interested, Jimbo Wales has only around 11.000 edits to his name - he's not even on the top 5,000 list...but his contributions are measured differently from mere mortal men.

Edit counts are easily inflated...and asking how many edits you've ever had deleted is perhaps as important as the number you've added! Does fixing a trivial typo in an obscure article count the same as adding an entire paragraph to a major article after having fought for months to get warring parties to agree on what it should say? Who can say what the 'value' of an edit is?

It's tough to figure out the most barnstars - and because many people don't bother to record them, you'd have to trawl back through talk page edit histories to find them. Again, I can tell you that the answer must be a more than my paltry total of 23...I'd bet it's in he hundreds...but that's a guess.

Then there are a bunch of other weird and wonderful accolades to consider. For example, Awesome Wikipedian Day is one where some guy is maintaining a list of (at most 366) Wikipedians whom he considers to be 'awesome'...there are still plenty of slots open - but Feb 16th is definitely taken!  :-)

Other accolades are counted by some people - including number of articles created, number of "Did You Know" entries created, number of Featured Articles and so forth.

Personally, I think that "number of featured articles" is a pretty good accolade - but even then, you don't generally create a featured article single-handedly...it's a team effort. So attributing the honors is tough. But most of the other stuff is vague, hard to track, very, very variable. Some people give away barnstars for the most trivial things - others give just a slice of a barnstar after outstandingly hard work...and most never bother to thank anyone. There are other "awards" that are given ironically or even disparagingly.

In the end, I think we mostly know who the good guys are...and there isn't a way to nail down who is the best of them...which is probably a good thing!

SteveBaker (talk) 21:35, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

@82.19.76.217: As pointed out above, there is no single method for awarding someone else: you can thank users for edits, give them WikiLove, award barnstars, promote featured or good content, participate in the WikiCup or links to disambiguation page competitions, and a few of us even have a holiday named after us. @SteveBaker:: I have never used a bot but have used many semi-automated tools, gadgets, and scripts. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:41, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

@Koavf: Really? Wow! You must have the worst case of repetitive strain injury in history! Well, hats off to you for your many (many) excellent contributions. This place needs more people like you....and the world needs more places like this. Being by far the biggest contributor to by far he largest repository of knowledge in human history ought to put you up there with Aristotle, Newton, and a select number of others like them...well, we could hope - right?  :-) Thank you! SteveBaker (talk) 05:35, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

@SteveBaker: Something like that. Thanks, Steve. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:38, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Weather emergency bungling

So, as anyone living in and around the City (in this case, New York as it should always be in the context of the US except for LA in Cali and Chicago in its immediate area) knows that the so-called blizzard fell flat and wasn't all that much worse than most every week of last winter. The difference was that last winter I don't think there were states of emergency declared whereas this year there was all manner of panic, people were quite rude with one another trying to get supplies, and the NY and CT governors banned travel. This morning everyone awoke and saw that this blizzard was a lemon (if such a term can be applied here). So now I'm wondering, what other instances do we have of panic over giant weather events where government officials shut everything down and wound up with egg on their collect faces? I do recall one instance in the last decade where the City shut down all the schools ahead of another "massive snowstorm" and there was barely a flurry. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 7 Shevat 5775 20:25, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

If "people were quite rude with one another", isn't that just business-as-usual for NYC ? :-) StuRat (talk) 01:20, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

People in NY are usually quite nice outside the cesspool of Midtown. The rudeness was actually experienced in Greenwich (where people have money, but not necessarily class). Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 8 Shevat 5775 01:55, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

It's not clear to me this was a "bungle" - see e.g. Precautionary_principle or the adage better safe than sorry. I for one am happy to not be hearing stories of people dying while stranded in a blizzard. Cost-benefit analysis also comes in to play, and my understanding is that the officials in question would rather risk the costs of shutting down "unnecessarily" than risk piles of bodies that would have likely turned up in the case of no warnings/closures and a harsh storm coming to fruition. SemanticMantis (talk) 21:04, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Essentially two days of business lost in the Northeast because of the reaction to a storm not all that much worse than those in prior years where they didn't shut down everything and nothing rally happened (except when things went further south to places like Atlanta where people had to sleep in their cars overnight in some cases). Usually as a result of these things New York, at least, is very wary of declaring emergencies again (that big snowstorm I mentioned made it so there were no more snow days in NY for many years after). Anyway, that doesn't quite answer my question. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 7 Shevat 5775 21:13, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Look, if I see a big heavy object flying at your head, and I yell "Duck", and you duck, and then later we re-analyze the video tape and find out that if you hadn't ducked, the object would have missed your skull anyways, you'd not get mad at me for telling you to duck. Based on the best available data, the precautions were reasonable and prudent. 2-3 feet of snow is a shitload of snow, and if it had fallen as predicted, no one would be bitching and moaning, in fact, the same people who are saying what you are saying now would have blamed the city for not doing enough to prepare. For the record, most of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Eastern Connecticut is getting what was predicted for New York, and they are quite thankful for the travel ban. It's working to keep cars off the road, allowing plows to do their work, and it is cutting down on accidents and other problems. So, the travel ban works. Complaining because you got lucky doesn't mean it wasn't prudent to take reasonable precautions. --Jayron32 21:21, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

No, I didn't really answer your question, sorry. I saw it as a bit of a loaded question, so I thought I'd address the issue that it's not really objectively clear that anything was messed up or bungled, that's more a matter of opinion. I'll also point out that even though the storm wasn't all that bad in NYC, it seems pretty rough in other areas - almost 3' of snow, coastal flooding, and hurricane-force winds in parts of Mass [3] [4] [5]. -- I'd want things shut down for that, and no place in Mass. is very far from NYC. I'll stop challenging your assumption now, hopefully others can answer your specific question :) SemanticMantis (talk) 21:26, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

No worries, and in your defence, it was rather loaded (I normally try to avoid those) There's no question that Boston being shut down is necessary. A family member sent me video of people snowboarding and skiing down Beacon Hill around buried cars. New York (and apparently Greenwich, CT) are very well-equipped for storms like this and far worse. So even if you have snow falling continuously, the accumulation on the roads is never all that much as it gets salted and plowed rather quickly and throughout the night (in fact, a town snow plow was running through a neighbour's driveway at 4 AM).

When we headed out this morning, all the roads had been thoroughly plowed, but every business was closed (likely because people thought they were getting a day off and decided to take it anwyay. What I said only applies to New York and her surroundings though. I do rememeber the famous DC Snowpocalypse of 2010 when DC, being wholly unprepared, had to be shut down completely. What a vacation! Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 7 Shevat 5775 21:40, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

There's an old expression: "Better safe than sorry." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:10, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

You know the mayor said the exact same thing. Our Scottish clan has another old expression. This kind of thing can also lead to a Boy Who Cried Wolf scenario in the future which would likely lead to disaster. No one going to answer my question? :( Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 8 Shevat 5775 00:03, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

There was that time all those people thought the world was ending, so threw away their stuff. The apocalypse is weather, and those who preach it are as good as any government official, as far as the flock's concerned.

But yeah, this is is the fishiest thing I've ever seen from secular weathermen. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:46, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Fantastic list, and I think you're referring to the 2011 instance, right? I think even remember reading about that story now. Though it's not a government reaction. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 8 Shevat 5775 01:55, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

I was aiming to not single any one forecast out. The essence of them is undying. So long as there are old cryptic writings and troubling current events, there will be those who follow their leader in tossing earthly goods and waiting on a hill. Or murdering their families. Or just yelling "Wake up!" at strangers in public forums. That said, they all generally remind me of William Miller. Not a government official, but still an authority figure. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:37, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

This is true, but still I know there's other cases where city or regional governments have made big mistakes along these lines. Has to have been a few in London. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 11 Shevat 5775 21:02, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

If nuclear winter counts as weather, there are a megashit-ton of unused, government-issued (or at least promoted) fallout shelters from the Cold War. That time and money could have gone somewhere useful. Of course, they still could come in handy. Can't call it a mistake till the bombs are gone. Seems like hysteria, though. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:32, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Hurricanes are always a hit-or-miss proposition. By the time you know for sure where it will hit, it's too late for a full evacuation, so you just have to evacuate early on, if it might hit your city. StuRat (talk) 01:22, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Hurricanes you can't do much about except sandbag, board, and evacuate. With snowstorms you can bring out those sweet heavy duty rigs. The thing you don't want happening is that people become so accustomed to drills and false alarms that they do nothing when a real emergency strikes. The tsunami that hit Hawai'i in 1946 is a good example as people had gotten used to the warnings being nothing and also thought it was an April Fool's joke as this was on 1 April. Over 160 people died as a result.

A less serious example is the lack of snow days in NYC because the government was so embarrassed by not having a storm show up that even on days of extreme snow storms, there were no cancellations, this may have predated even the great President's Day Blizzard of 2003 (during which I recall being at school and there being over a foot and a half of snow) and several other such days. On the people side of things, just think of kids and adults ignoring fire drills which are prompted by the same alarm as a real fire (instead of just training people in evacuation techniques without the alarm, but also making sure they've heard it before).Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 8 Shevat 5775

When I lived in/near Los Angeles, I never heard it called "the City". San Francisco is, tho. —Tamfang (talk) 08:16, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

I was being generous to LA people in case they got angry. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 8 Shevat 5775 21:44, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Usually "the City" means the city closest to you. When I say I am going to the city, I mean Scranton.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 20:47, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Actually, there was a study done—which I sadly can't find— that showed a good portion of the country considering "The City" to refer specifically to New York. I could also point you to a satirical article by The Onion which rips apart Boston. All that said, please do not interfere with our self-importance, unwarranted or otherwise.... Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie | ^{Say Shalom!} 11 Shevat 5775 21:02, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

I noticed a huge roadkill fox. And a squirrel. They were missing eyeballs.

The rest of the corpse was virtually untouched.

And I was wondering, why do crows, corvids, in fact all manner of scavenging birds pick out and eat the eyeballs first. Thats who I saw dunnit. Sure, they are easy to access but surely the nutritional content must be virtually nill. Wouldn't it pay off better for the scavengers to go for the choice cuts first, and not the offal.

In fact, I think a lot of animals do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.152.161.61 (talk) 20:44, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Not every animal is fortunate enough to have sharp teeth or strong jaws for choice cuts. A crow would look especially stupid with them, to boot. They take what soft bits they can get. InedibleHulk (talk) 20:57, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Yep. Also keep in mind that crows are facultative scavengers, not obligate scavengers. If there were turkey buzzards around, they would have broken the skin and feasted on flesh. Then the detritovore eventually eat what was left by the rest. SemanticMantis (talk)

Furthermore, a good knock on the head can pop the eyes out of their sockets, making the shiny white contrast even more apparent. Sort of like how you can pass people on the street without a second glance, except for the guy who's "eyeballing" you. Crows know what's normal and what's not in a face. If the tongue's hanging out of a slack jaw, that's even more reason to peck. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:27, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, bear in mind, the eyes are full of liquid, so in addition to a soft and tasty snack, they get a bit of light refreshment. By the way, in Japan, it is common courtesy for the host of a meal to offer the eyes of a fish to the guest. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 10:13, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

There's been a fairly common superstition throughout history that eating a body part gives you its attributes. Hearts give you courage, brains make you smart, eyes help you see further. I'd like to think modern bird brains are beyond that, but media pressure may be driving some toward the unattainable ideal. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:52, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

And don't forget, that birdbrain for stupidity was coined before ornithologists and cognitive scientists became aware of what the nidopallium is capable of! ---Sluzzelin talk 21:56, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Crows and ravens are well known for attacking the eyes of live lambs and incapacitated sheep - Farmer forced to kill newborn lambs after horror attacks by crows was the first of many references that I found. Alansplodge (talk) 23:09, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

That seems more to do with the winds of winter than a regular feast for crows. If they were dying from heatstroke, would we blame the flies? InedibleHulk (talk) 23:20, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Seeing is believing - Ravens Attack Newborn Lamb. Alansplodge (talk) 02:03, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

I believe I saw one of four ravens peck a lamb's ass a couple of times. It might have been two. Hardly terrifying, especially by creature of darkness standards. That saintly white momma sheep was about as aggresive, but nobody went blind. InedibleHulk (talk) 05:06, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Why did a lamb have a donkey? KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 06:23, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

Backup. InedibleHulk (talk) 11:21, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

In the "got your back" sense, not like this. InedibleHulk (talk) 11:25, 30 January 2015 (UTC)

This dog seemed to know how to.... :)

Would someone know where I could buy a online statue of the nymph Callisto_(mythology)?

Which brings me to the reason of how this question is related to my question up top about Kirra Greece, :The reason is because Callisto in Xena Warrior Princess is from there and I'm going to a Xena Conventrion in four weeks and I wanna show people a postcard of the real Kirra and a statue of the real Callisto. Venustar84 (talk) 21:46, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Come, on Venustar84, you know how to google. Search for "kallisto/callisto statue reproduction/sale" and see what you find. (A hint, there's plenty.) This is not the sort of research you need us for. (Good luck, in any case.) μηδείς (talk) 01:27, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, neither representation is really of the real Callisto. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:55, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

Why settle for an old boring postcard. Whilst your out there, why not try your hand at a bit of Lifecasting. Far better than any postcard. Editor Μηδείς is in to all things cultural -maybe she will let you practice on her to get your technique right :¬ )--Aspro (talk) 21:42, 7 March 2015 (UTC)