Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 November 27

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November 27

Half-siblings from different mothers or fathers

My mind is a strange and wonderful place. This question was on it when I woke up this morning, and therefore I must know:

• Who has produced the greatest number of half-siblings from different mothers or different fathers?
• To clarify, there could be more than one child from the one spouse, but there is at least a subset of the person's progeny such that no two members of the subset are full siblings.

Example: Bill marries Mary and they have Jane. Mary dies. He marries Wanda and they have Sylvia. He and Wanda divorce. He marries June and they have Brian. He and June divorce. He marries Catherine and they have Peter and Paul. After he gets out jail for murdering Catherine, he has Tom, Dick and Harry with Zelda, without the benefit of matrimony. So he has 8 kids altogether, of which we can identify various subsets of 5 children none of whom have the same mother. If N = 5 in this case, who produced the greatest N?

I suppose it comes down to who had the greatest number of fruitful wives or husbands or partners. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:33, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Probably a man who had many children, like Genghis Khan. Women can't have nearly as many children as men, so they are unlikely to hold the record. StuRat (talk) 18:37, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

You might find List of people with the most children#Male useful. Dragons flight (talk) 18:41, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Let's not forget men who donate to sperm banks, which are used by women who have problems reproducing in the normal way. 92.8.216.67 (talk) 19:16, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

The list linked above includes Bertold Wiesner, who ran a fertility clinic and personally provided much of the erm... vital ingredient. Alansplodge (talk) 12:28, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I guess the question for Jack is: do you only want legally recognised children? if you do, but since it seems marriage isn't necessary for your cases to be accepted, it will be hard to decide if all of Genghis Khan's children are 'legal'. --Lgriot (talk) 16:48, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I hadn't really thought it through, but yes, I was assuming legally recognised children from non-polygamous partnerships. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:54, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

So, ignoring polygamous marriages and illegitimate children, possibly Glynn Wolfe. He had 19 children between his 29 wives, and was only ever married once at a time [1]. Neither my source nor our articles states whether any of his wives had more than one kid, or whether all of his children were legitimate. Someguy1221 (talk) 21:03, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. The figure of 19 children may be rather fuzzy. This source says:

• Exactly how many siblings John has, nobody knows. Scotty claimed 40 children, 19 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren. The true number of descendants may never be known, because all except John remained with their mothers, who tended to vanish. Many children presumably don't know, or don't want to acknowledge, their connection to so notorious a patriarch.

So the data on Wolfe is very tenuous. There must be a candidate with rather more concrete data. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:23, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

• Also, he didn't have 29 wives. He was married 29 times. There are a few women on that list to whom he was married to more than once. --Jayron32 16:25, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Toothbrush

I'm planning to buy a bunch of this type of toothbrush from a reliable website. Any websites with offers would be of help too... 103.230.104.8 (talk) 20:43, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

Do any of these help? --Jayron32 13:04, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I need the actual link to buy from, in U.S.A via card? I can't find it... A suitable, reliable order page would be of help. Colgate doesn't seem to have that page, or probably I can't find it... 103.230.105.7 (talk) 19:04, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

I have no idea what you can see in that search result but I would be surprised that it's missing stuff like this [2] which even shows up for me in NZ. Nil Einne (talk) 10:38, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Blending oranges

I want to blend oranges because I hate eating them. Do I have to peel them first before putting them into the blender? Is it safe to blend the seeds as well, I heard they contain cyanide. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 187.60.255.29 (talk) 21:38, 27 November 2016 (UTC)

The rind is bitter, and you'll have a hard time blending the rind and seeds, so I would omit them. But you are probably better off using a juicer or a press on the flesh. I too cannot eat an untreated fresh orange, for some reason the flesh makes me gag. (I have no such problem with sliced grapefruit, though.) What I do is slice oranges thinly, then freeze them (recipes). It is a refreshing treat, and the pulp is inoffensive that way. μηδείς (talk) 00:21, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Why are you folks forcing yourselves to eat a food that you hate? Good health doesn't depend on oranges. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 10:41, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Who said I hate oranges? I love orange juice and frozen oranges. μηδείς (talk) 04:04, 29 November 2016 (UTC)

Wouldn't it be quicker and cheaper to buy fresh whole orange juice? Bear in mind that the oranges on the shop shelves are selected for size and appearance.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:08, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

You may be thinking of apple seeds, which do contain traces of cyanide. I'm not aware of there being anything toxic in orange seeds (and many cultivars are seedless), but they are unlikely to help the taste. The outer portion of the rind - the orange part - would provide a pleasant flavour and aroma as it contains citrus oils, but the white pith just below it is quite tough and bitter. Including it in your blender would not help the flavour at all, if your blender could even cope with the fibre. So peel them - or press them - or just eat something else. Matt Deres (talk) 16:02, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Zest (ingredient) is the outer peel of citrus fruits, and contains tangeritin. Zest is quite aromatic, and oily, but also may contain pesticides, so buy organic if you want to eat this. Mandarin oranges have less of the bitter pith, so they would be a better choice for a blender or juicer. Note that a regular blender does not attempt to remove the pulp, and that will make it too thick to drink. You would need to eat it with a spoon, or strain out the pulp and just drink the juice. Cleaning the blender will also be a chore. You will get a tiny amount of juice from each orange. But I agree that the best method is to cut each orange in half and rotate it while pressing down on a hemispherical form (the bottom of a handleless cup, over a large bowl, will work if you lack the proper tool). Or you can just squeeze the orange half, but be sure to wear safety goggles. StuRat (talk) 17:43, 28 November 2016 (UTC)

Don't pretend that organic anything is pesticide free, or only contains safe pesticides. Someguy1221 (talk) 04:10, 29 November 2016 (UTC)