Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2006 October 3

< October 2	<<Sep \| October \| Nov>>	October 4 >

Humanities

Science

Mathematics

Computing/IT

Language

Miscellaneous

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 at one of the pages linked to above.

Cooking for the complete idiot?

Any suggestions for a cookbook or cooking website that covers very basic cooking, like "how to scramble an egg" or "how to grill a steak"? Even the cookbooks targeted at college students I've found don't go that simple. --67.185.172.158 00:03, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There's this one, perhaps. Alternatively, try EHow. Ziggurat 00:12, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

At the suggestion of my girlfriend I bought Cooking for Blokes, it it really does go into the daft detail of how to boil an egg, make rice of grill a steak. — QuantumEleven 05:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Indoor Plants

Now that fall is upon us, and winter is approaching. I am thinking about growing some typically spring/summer plants inside. Ive done some research for mimicing the sun cycles and the amount of time the sun is up beginning in the spring (8-10hours) and then to summer (10-12) and then back to late summer/fall (8-10). What I am wondering is what if I just kept some artificial light on the plants 24 hours from the beginning? Would that have an adverse or positive effect?

Thanks!!!

Where do you live that has such short days? Here in Southern California, our longest daylight time is 14-1/2 hours, and the shortest is almost 10 hours. It's just over 12 hours at the equinox. Anyway, I know that many potted plants will survive just fine with 24 hours of light - they do in business establishments where the lights are never turned off. I don't know how that would affect their flowering cycles or growth rates - you may get better results with this question on the science forum.--Shuttlebug 05:34, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that this was put earlier in Science with no answer. Maybe it can't be answered! A long time ago when I was growing err.. 'herbs' in the basement, the general consensus was that light longer than 12 hours had no effect. Also, I just found out that you can't force tulips until they've had a few months in the cold. --Zeizmic 11:55, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Indoor lights may seem bright, but measured with a light meter, a bank of fluorescents is way dimmer than sunlight, and plants tend to be spindly. I have looked without success for a valid source on whether plants need dark time in each 24 hour cycle, or leaving lights on 24/7 works better than a diurnal cycle. I expect this has been studied and documented by the Department of Agriculture.Edison 14:03, 5 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

phantasmagoria

ythere is a pc game called phantasmagoria i wanted to know how i could purchase a copy of this game i have searched quite a bit on the internet but no go created by sierra games 1995-96

I did a search for "phantasmagoria pc" on EBay and got 11 listings, try that. --Canley 02:34, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Phantasmagoria is a very old game (from 1995!), so I think you'll have trouble tracking down a copy (even the 'bargain bins' at computer stores won't have it) - as Canley said, eBay is your best bet. Note that unless you have an old Windows 3.1 or DOS PC lying around, you'll most likely need an emulator to run it (such as DosBox). Good luck! — QuantumEleven 05:24, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think it ran fine on Windows 95 and 98 too. At least it would be odd if my CD with a game collection for Windows 95 back then had a preview for an ancient game on it. By the way, 1995 isn't all that old, just a little over 10 years. I know exactly which game they're talking about and I'd love to play it myself. My computer couldn't handle it at the time it came out... - Mgm|^(talk) 08:20, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Adjusted for inflation and population growth, what is the highest grossing movie in U.S. history?

Adjusted for inflation and population growth, what is the highest grossing movie in U.S. history? --71.244.110.187 01:57, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Probably still Gone with the Wind but this is notoriously hard to compute. See also the second section of List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada. Rmhermen 03:58, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Adjusted for inflation it's Gone With the Wind. See Box Office Mojo. Ziggurat 05:25, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So GWTW is the grossest film? Clarityfiend 17:11, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, that would be Pink Flamingos. JackofOz 20:49, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Boston census tracts from 1960

How would I find a map of census tracts for Boston in 1960? I have a census data set from then, but the tract numbers are all, like, A-0001, SC-0001B, etc., while modern tract numbers for Boston appear not to use any letters. Alternatively, how would I find race/income data on Boston neighborhoods from 1960?

Any help much appreciated! -Bess

You're very likely in the realm of paper census records, which are long and tedious, but were fortunately published. I'd suggest you look for 1960 census records in a large library.

Your best bet is a "government depository library." Typically these are the main branch of the public library of the biggest city in a state, or the library of the flagship state university campus. They will have dusty bound books containing the 1960 census reports. Inside one of those dusty bound books, you should find folded maps that show the census tracts and their boundaries. Marco polo 00:39, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

City with the greatest number of large buildings

Hi there!

i am wondering which city has the greatest number of large buildings.

i was in new york for a week and the large buildings seemed to go on forever! i have been in other huge cities such as delhi, calcutta, bangkok but they were not so full of tall buildings. returning to the west coast san francisco seemed rather quaint!

thank you! kai hill

How tall is tall? I consider much of Tokyo to be very tall, but there are regulations in Japan to stop people from stacking skycrapers higher than 70 storeys up. They're afraid they'll topple over when the earthquakes hit; as if anybody would survive an earthquake strong enough to topple a high-tech 100 storey structure in the first place. freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ 07:03, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to the article Skyscraper: "despite the loss of the World Trade Center towers, and the relatively slow pace of new construction, no city in the world has more completed individual free-standing buildings over 500 ft. (152 m) than New York City, with 184. Hong Kong comes in with the most in the world (186), if one counts individually the multiple towers that rise from a common podium, as in buildings that rise several stories as one structure, before splitting into two or more columns of floors (Emporis counts this way)." --Canley 07:04, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fire water

Hi, and no, this isn't about moonshine. :)

In the Anglosphere,
1. What do firemen say when they order that pressurized water be shot at a fire? Would they still say "Fire!"?
2. What do policemen say when they order that pressurized water be shot at a rioting crowd? Would they say the same thing as above, or would they still say "Fire!"? --Kjoonlee 06:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect they don't wait for an order, but what's wrong with shouting "Water!"? Firemen would certainly just get on with it. The police are more likely to say "OK, Let's squirt some ass!"--Shantavira 10:02, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No corresponding command is featured in WP's Glossary of firefighting terms, it would make for a nice addition. In the 'Germanosphere' the command is sometimes 'Wasser Marsch!' (which I always found weird.)---Sluzzelin 12:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I could see that being a holdover from bucket brigades; the line of moving buckets could indeed be construed as water marching. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:50, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm no fireman, but I suspect "hose" or the designation of the specific hose. - Jmabel | Talk 22:45, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is the poorest county/locale in the USA?

In terms of any data you could get: average earning, GDP, quality of life indices, anything really.

I cant find this info out for the life of me. Any suggestions welcome...

Username is Amists, can't log on as I'm at work so no cookies enabled.

Thanks!

I don't know about counties, but there's a fair chance it's in Mississippi, which is the poorest state in the US --Mnem e son 09:45, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

See Lowest-income counties in the United States. ---Sluzzelin 10:14, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There was a West Wing episode where the speechwriter had to stand in staffing the President for the day, and at one point he asked 'Is there some condensed form of the sum of all human knowledge?'. He was pointed towards the Chief of Staff's secretary. If they were making it now, they'd have to point him to WP... --Mnem e son 10:22, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, Wikipedia has become the cesspool of all human knowledge. :) StuRat 15:20, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

3-word hebrew translation

What is "what is happening?" in Hebrew (just the transliteration will do). Thanks.-anon

In Hebrew it's two words. "Mah koreh?". --Dweller 16:13, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Mah matzav" - literally "what is the situation" will work as well. Jon513 16:14, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on context... are you wondering what's happening (something's going wrong) or are you asking your, erm, homey "wass 'appenin'?" --Dweller 16:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

fire

You're not supposed to use an elevator in a fire. How do you escape if you use a wheelchair?

You trust that there's a suitable trolley available - cf google searches such as this. --Tagishsimon (talk)

Many wheelchair users have strong arms and would be able to crawl down stairs in an emergency, though the likelihood is that there'll be people around who can carry them. But if the fire is localized they'd probably be fine in the elevator.--Shantavira 18:01, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hopefully those people wont handle the situation the way they did in Episode Two of The Office's second season, which was, sadly, my first association upon reading the question. During a fire drill, heroic David Brent and Gareth Keenan first insist on carrying Brenda, a co-worker in a wheelchair, themselves, and not allowing that the elevator be used, even if it's only a drill. They barely make it down one flight of stairs, then decide it's too much of a bother and abandon her in the stairwell for the rest of the exercise.---Sluzzelin 19:22, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The rest of the episode too, if I remember correctly. --Maxamegalon2000 02:38, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds likely. Btw, I haven't seen the episode, but it sounds reasonable to assume that Brent's character would probably give some self-praising lectures about the conditions for disabled people at the workplace in that episode? 惑乱分からん 06:32, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

BBC & Daily Mail lift Amish Wiki text

The BBC and the Daily Mail have taken text directly from Wiki's Amish article, with no attribution or identification of the source - see Talk:Amish for details ("BBC gets info from Wikipedia?"). Question: what can be done about this plagiarism? Can an administrator write to the BBC and the Daily Mail, and request that they publish Errata which indicate the omission of identification of source? Failure to identify sources runs totally contrary to ethics of journalism and scholarship. I'd be happy to write to the BBC and the Daily Mail myself, but I'm not an administrator. (I should also mention that I did not write the text that was plagiarized, and thus have no goal in this other than seeing that Wiki gets its proper credits.)PaulLev 17:23, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The BBC very often uses Wikipedia content, but is generally fairly good about citing the source. Writing to the BBC really isn't an administrator's job, as an administrator is neither the aggreved party (that's the contributors to the article, who hold the copyright) nor a representative of the Foundation. The Foundation could (acting as some kind of informal agent of the community) but it doesn't seem to be doing much about the out-and-out Wikipedia rippers (the forks who ignore their GFDL obligations). Do they still broadcast Points of View with Barry Took? Middenface 17:33, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, you can go ahead and write to them directly. I'm not so concerned about Wikipedia not getting credit as I am about some BBC reporter passing off the work of others as his own. Such poor ethics could manifest themselves in totally made up stories, if not corrected now. StuRat 18:17, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say, see also Tim Ryan (journalist), but it appears that someone has deleted the article. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:23, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Deleted through regular AfD process. The article Honolulu Star-Bulletin has a section on Tom Ryan. --Lambiam ^Talk 07:16, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I sent an e-mail about the plagiarism to the BBC, through their "complaint" system on their website. Details on Talk:Amish. I'll let you know what, if anything, I hear back from them.PaulLev 04:42, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've redirected Tim Ryan (journalist) to the newspaper to avoid recreation. - Mgm|^(talk) 09:22, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FYI - A similar thing happened in Australia - Aussie TV program Media Watch picked up on it. [1] -- Chuq 07:19, 10 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Incident at Neshabur

Hello, This has been bothering me for a long time. Carlos Santana has a great song called "Incident at Neshabur". My question is weather this is based on some sort of actual event. I've looked everywhere and have had no luck. Thank you in advance for helping me solve this mystery.F2112jdude 18:18, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's none of the incidents mentioned here anyway, considering Santana released the song in 1970. Perhaps there was no event? -- the GREAT Gavini 19:23, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Reference material for financial aid to North Korea

I'm looking for a breakdown of the financial aid that the United States, Japan, and South Korea have given to North Korea in 2005. I've done a bit of searching on the internets and Wikipedia and can't seem to find verifiable recent figures. Thanks in advance. Lur 18:21, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This page seems to have some information about foreign aid to NK, hope it helps. freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ 12:48, 6 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dark Angel(Arundel High)

gotta quaetion about this topic. there doesn't seem to be any searchable knowledge on it. i can't edit it myself, but i wanted to kno if it were possible to have a topic that was searchable without the information for it?

I don't understand your question at all. Could you try rephrasing? - Jmabel | Talk 22:42, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There was some link to Dark Angel (Arundel High) at the Dark Angel article before, but it was removed, allegedly a comic book series, but almost no good Google hits except for Wikipedia.. 惑乱分からん 23:36, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Febreze

Does Febreze actually kill germs, or does it only mask it? Jamesino 20:34, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Original and scented Febreze formulations essentially do nothing to microbes; they just absorb/inactivate/mask the odour. Febreze also has an Antimicrobial formulation (labelled specifically as such) which will kill some microbes—the label says it "eliminates 99.9 percent of odor-causing bacteria on fabrics". (Though to be honest I would tend to question its efficacy unless you really spray on enough to soak your sofa.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:19, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I did my own test on microfiber dish clothes which we keep rewashing. Apparently, the 'stinky' bacteria build up, and the washing doesn't kill them, unless you soak them in chlorine beach, which is bad for coloured synthetics. I found that spraying on the antibacterial Febreze delayed the stink bomb by a few days. I finally gave up and went for a thicker non-woven cloth that I can toss when it stinks, since I think nothing can kill those bacteria on worn (porous) synthetics. --Zeizmic 21:51, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is Febreze effective in killing or masking odours and germs inside sneakers? Jamesino 22:29, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Probably. Although the amount you need to use can be a lot in certain sneakers... - Mgm|^(talk) 09:12, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Saddest Moment of your Life

What is the saddest moment of your life? Hustle 20:39, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Realizing that people ask questions like this on the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Adam Bishop 20:53, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Realizing my life can never be as happy as Adam Bishop's MeltBanana 21:59, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Realising that two editors have already given attention to this pointless question (whoops now its 3).--Light current 01:29, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh darn :( --⁪froth^{T C} 03:03, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Realizing that Jimbo Wales does not even know of my existence, let alone that of my shrine that I have built where I offer daily sacrifices unto him. Lemon martini 09:59, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He knows me! 8-))--Light current 12:46, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wales is a jerk :/ --froth 9:02est oct4 2006

Hey thats my friend youre talking about 8-)--Light current 13:07, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may know Jimbo Wales but Jesus_He_Knows_Me :) Lemon martini 09:57, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Smash Bros. glitch?

There seems to be a glitch in my copy of SSBM: When I try to get certain bonuses (such as "Master of Suspense" and "Life on the Edge", and get them successfully, the game doesn't give me credit for getting it. I am positive that I am getting hem successfully. Is this a glitch, or am I just doing something wrong? -- TheGreatLlama ^{(speak to the Llama!)} 23:33, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Havent played in a year or so, but lemme try: Sometimes, if you hang too much, you end up getting another bonus, like master of disaster? Idk if thats even remotely related, just popped into my head. Also, try using c.f., he has the best recovery for these type of tricks ChowderInopa 03:29, 4 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]