Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 March 12

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March 12

Silly question

I really dont know how to answer a question in the reference desk.Please help me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 210.212.215.141 (talk • contribs).

Just edit the section you want to reply, and put your opinion ending with ~~~~ (which "signs" your message). -- ReyBrujo 05:17, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Just click on the "edit" link to the right of the question heading. Then put your answer at the bottom. You can indent your response by putting a colon ":" before your response as I have done here. Dismas|^(talk) 05:19, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

DISGUST

I am losing my interest in academics day by day.Earlier I was atleast humble and receptive but now I am always in a frustrated and arrogant mood.I tried to get into IIT and also took coaching but my irrational mind never allowed me to study. Now I am studying in a normal engg. college where everyone inmy class is a dud like me.but since I studied for IIT-JEE I have this conceptual approach but the teachers are not so.Please help me regain my interest in academics.210.212.215.141 06:01, 12 March 2007 (UTC)Prosemite

Maybe you want to be an autodidact. A.Z. 07:33, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Or perhaps you're the type who learns by doing. Consider co-op or work-study programs. StuRat 20:19, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Seeing the practical use of the things you are studying tends to bring the subject matter 'alive' - so if you are very jaded then perhaps you should consider getting a low-end job in the field that interests you for a year - and then coming back to complete your studies. SteveBaker 18:27, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe you are too clever for your teachers and are bored by their offerings? Also, IIT seems to have a numver of different meanings, could you specify?--SlipperyHippo 23:15, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

environment

i have an essay on what i would do if i had a truck and what i wud do to conserve the envioronment.i need some points or ideas on hwo i wud use the truck to conserve the environment,eg collect gabbage using it on the estate

Recycling it to reduce the amount of steel used by the world by a little bit? Sell it and donate to some research fund or sponsoring some third world country children? Well in the most literal sense of "conserving" the environment is not to change it at all, which means not doing anything with the truck. (oh yea please sign your post using ~~~~) --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:37, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Change out the engine so that you can run biodiesel? Dismas|^(talk) 08:12, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

This seems to violate the 'do your own homework' rule ;), but what the hell, I'll help anyway. I few things I'd recommend

- Stripping the truck of unneeded weight (passenger seat if the truck doesn't carry passengers etc) to reduce fuel usage - Converting the truck to run on hydrogen - Driving the truck in a manner that uses less petrol - Don't drive over plants or kill animals while driving the tuck - Use the truck to help with a volunteer program, such as delivering food to the poor, or plants to areas of deforestation. - Stick to marked roads, don't drive off road as it may cause erosin.--IvanKnight69 09:45, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Trucks are inherently gaswasters, though there are good suggestions above for how to minimize that impact and/or make up for that environmental impact by using the truck to serve the greater good. But why keep driving the truck at all? Why not simply use it as a really nice backyard planter, or a sculpture? You could use an electric golf cart to do your hauling instead, and get a nice conversation piece out of the truck. Jfarber 14:28, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, since this is an essay, you need to write a how to, instead of park the truck. First, check your spelling!! Then, write about super tuning the truck engine, so as to run on the least fuel. You can convert it over to propane, with little expense, and it is cheaper and cleaner to drive. Balance the wheels all around, do a good lube job, and drive roads, which are not a lot of ups and downs. To save the invironment, actually could be better handled by elimintaing politicians control over life itself.69.145.75.91 22:23, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

One of the things you could do with your truck is...nothing! That would save the evironment from its pollution! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.111.1.188 (talk) 23:22, 15 March 2007 (UTC).

Best selling OCC (Orange County Choppers) Bike?

does anybody here knows which is/was the best selling bike that OCC ever made?

Muhammad Hamza

Don't they make custom bikes, meaning that they are all one-of-a-kind? Oskar 08:08, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Sure, and which one sold the best? ;-) V-Man - ^T/_C 04:31, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

They have a line of production bikes in adddition to their custom bikes, but I have no idea which one is the best selling.--ChesterMarcol 05:07, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I think our questioner is really asking "Which of OCC's custom bikes sold for the most money?" - but that's likely to be confidential between OCC and their customer - and in any case it's all very much complicated by the Discovery channel deal. Most of the bikes you see on the show are being bought by companies in order to get an hour of prime-time advertising on the cheap - they don't give a damn about the bike they get out of it. Even more so on one of the recent bikes where the 'Flo Jet' company bought one - a large fraction of two hour-long shows was devoted to advertising their machine tools. So it's more about cheap advertising deals than it is about selling bikes. SteveBaker 18:23, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Spoons and upside down faces

How is it explained that your face is upside down in the right surface of a spoon? 213.161.190.228 10:39, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Have a look at Curved mirror and see if it helps you.

Atlant 11:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, it's only upside-down if you are beyond the focal point of the mirror - but with the curvature of most spoons being so tight, it's pretty hard to get close enough to the spoon to find out. This image: http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/refln/u13l3a3.gif explains it better than words can. If you follow one of the blue rays from the top of the picture (which would come from the top of your face), you'll see that the red reflected ray goes through the focal point and heads downwards - where a ray from the bottom of your face ends up going upwards...hence the image is upside-down. The reason for that is that top of the spoon/mirror is tipped towards you - so it reflects the ray down where the bottom edge bounces is tipped away from you and bounces the ray upwards. What is perhaps not so obvious about a 'spoon-mirror' is that it doesn't "reverse" left and right like a flat mirror does (although that exposes a popular confusion about what it means to 'reverse' an image in a mirror). SteveBaker 23:41, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Travel websites

Are there any good websites that offer reliable, unbiased information on travel, written by independent travellers? Say I want to go to the south of France, for example - I'd like to read tips from people who have been there as to where are the most pleasant resorts, hotels, restaurants etc. Any recommendations? Many thanks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:43, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

you could try wikitravel.org Think outside the box 11:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I regularly use this site Holidays Uncovered and find most of the comments useful; though as usual, you will always find the odd person who hated his holiday because the hotel he chose didn't serve mashed potato. CasualWikiUser 11:58, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Ah, a "no spud dud". StuRat 20:14, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I like trip-advisor (www.tripadvisor.com), it includes hotel reviews, city reviews, things to do etc. ny156uk 18:30, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

pub photographs

l am trying to find levi (joseph) of leadenhall street london who pub photographs of towns and city's

I have done quite a bit of searching for this without success. www.bt.com The UK phone book has no business of either name in that street... Is this a person who works for a firm by a different name? It's not such a big street. --Dweller 12:25, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Shirley-Phelps Roper Video

Does anyone know if this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5FIMpHbgU video can be download from any websites anywhere? I'm looking to download it onto my hard drive, not just watch it. --IvanKnight69 13:17, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

If you have firefox you can get an extension to download videos https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q=youtube&type=A&app=firefox meltBanana 14:50, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Hey, that looks very nice! =D I need to check it out... 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 15:18, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

She's infuriating. I woke up to her being interviewed on a local radio station one day, and I was in a bad mood the rest of the day. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:37, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

perfume choice:eternity moment

please help me select a perfume because im sensitive to most(too strong smells).my favourite is eternity moment.thanku. asma.

I have very sensitive skin, and I use L'Instant from the Guerlain. The perfume is light, feminine, and not too "funky". Its dominant notes are "Citrus Honey, Magnolia, and Crystalline Amber". I mostly use the Toliette Spray as it is lighter than the much stronger perfume. There is also a body lotion that might work for you. Hope this helps. Perfumecountry.com listing of it's L'Instant items. Zidel333 16:44, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Also remember "less is more". StuRat 20:11, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Astronaut

How would I go about pursuing a career as an Astronaut in the United States?

Try talking to NASA maybe?--88.110.207.121 18:04, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

thanks, jerk

As potentially sarcastic as the answer may have been, it is realistically a good start. I'm sure their website will have some guidance/place to email for advice about this. A look at astronaut suggests a military jet fighter pilot background was previously important. I suspect that strong knowledge of the sciences is also beneficial. Both Aldrin and Armstrong held science-based degrees/and or masters. Good luck, there are only 448 people in the world that have gone into space (according to the wikipedia article). That makes it probably one of the smallest occupational-achievements in the world. ny156uk 18:29, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

<pedant alert> I bet scientists who have successfully cloned mammals is a more elite group of occupational acheivement ;) </pedant alert>. Regarding being an astronaut, these days you will almost certainly have to have a PhD if you want to take the scientist's route into space. Otherwise its a long slog thought the ranks of the airforce. The Right Stuff gives a nice historical overview of what it takes to become one of those elite few. Rockpocket 22:22, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, for Christer Fuglesang, the only Swede who has travelled to space (a local hero, in Sweden) it took 13 years after completed astronaut education, to finally get to outer space. You'd probably need some patience. 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 23:43, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Note that knowing about Aldrin and Armstrong's career paths will not help you on this. NASA astronaut backgrounds changed pretty considerably by the late 1980s, away from flight jocks and towards scientists.

Try talking to NASA, maybe. --24.147.86.187 23:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

The thing with astronauts is that it's not actually all that difficult (compared to other similarly prominant jobs) and a heck of a lot of people want to do it. That means that NASA can happily turn away all but the most insanely over-qualified of them and still have more astronauts than they'll ever need. So you are going to have to be educated out-the-wazoo and have the best possible pilot skills - you name it. But NASA isn't the only route. If you are just starting on 10 years of college education and another 10 of learning to fly, flying jets, being a test pilot, etc - then by the time you are going to be even close to qualified to be a NASA astronaut, there are going to be jobs with people like Virgin Galactic and other commercial space ventures where they are likely to be much more pragmatic about who they send up there. SteveBaker 15:58, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like it would be easier to build your own rocket than work for NASA :] HS7 16:53, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

It is? Really? Lisa Marie Nowak Nil Einne 21:00, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think they would appreciate that. Rya Min 23:50, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Airline Routes

Short: What place on earth is the least likely to have a plane flying over on any given time?

Long: I'm looking for the inhabited and accessible city (not Antartica, nor some tiny island in the pacific) on earth that is the least likely to have an airliner flying over. I've tried to find a map with the most common airline routes, like the route planes between Tokyo and Heathrow take (over Siberia) or between Heathrow and New York (curve northwards slightly towards Iceland). However, all maps of such nature are promotional maps for airports and airlines, showing the city in question as the centre of a huge network, and miss large parts of the world and many other routes. I suppose some kind of airline regulating organisation or a school for pilots would have a map with all routes, but I can't seem to find one.

The decimals in chances of planes flying over don't bother me that much, but the fact that there are more planes flying a certain route, how remote it might be, certainly counts.

Thanks in advance,

User:Krator (t c) 19:04, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe Afghanistan as they all get shot down, or over North Korea so we don't get accused of spying :] HS7 19:25, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I found this (http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume19/transportation7.html) that may help. If the Map is accurate central Africa looks like the smallest 'impact' routes for places on mainland continent. ny156uk 19:28, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, that was what I was looking for! Seems the answer is southern Sudan or the Gobi desert. Interesting is the amount of traffic going to one of the airports in the Caribbean (Cuba?), and the huge amount of domestic Chinese flight, even back in 2003, when the map was made. Compare that to the low amount of domestic Indian flights. --User:Krator (t c) 19:37, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

(after edit conflict) I think that planes actually do fly over Afghanistan at very high altitudes, which are too high for the weapons used by the Taliban and their like. On a recent flight to India, I flew over Iran and some sketchy bits of Pakistan (Baluchistan). On the flight to India, I saw other planes from the window at several points along the route. However, on a flight from the Netherlands to Tanzania a year and a half ago, I saw no other planes in the sky after we crossed the Mediterranean. Our route did cross southern Sudan. There is very little air traffic over Africa in general. South Africa is probably the busiest destination on the continent, but most of its international traffic would be to Europe (primarily London), which would fly over West Africa. Flights on Emirates from Johannesburg to Dubai would travel over inland East Africa to coastal Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia, while flights to India would cross southern Mozambique and then fly out over the Indian Ocean. The least busy skies would be bits of far western Africa too far west for flyover traffic and with little or no traffic of its own, such as Casamance, and a larger chunk of East Africa outside of flyover routes, particularly northern and central coastal Mozambique. There might be parts of the Kalahari desert also outside of the main routes emanating from Cape Town and Johannesburg. Finally, I think that are parts of far northeastern Siberia due north of eastern China and Japan that are out of the way of traffic both from Europe to East Asia and from East Asia to North America. Marco polo 19:42, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I wrote all of that before I saw the map. I have to say that I am pleased that my conjectures were correct. The only thing that I missed was the empty zone over eastern Congo-Kinshasa. Marco polo 19:45, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Note that that map doesn't include the Southernmost portion of the world. While holding to your rules, I would expect the Southern tips of South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand (which is a Pacific island, but not a small one) would have the least overflight traffic, although some of those points might actually have nearby cities which are destinations for flights, like Cape Town. StuRat 20:03, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

StuRat if you click on the map it 'enlarges' the view and shows Australia/New Zealand and teh southern tip of S America/Africa (just incase you were interested to know). ny156uk 21:36, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm going out on a limb and guessing that Svalbard is the least air-plane dense populated location in the world. Oskar 20:50, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

How about North Korea? I bet every airline except Air Koryo avoids flying over North Korean airspace. They don't want to be like Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (which was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1983). -- Mwalcoff 23:05, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

What about the airspace over the White House? Clarityfiend 23:14, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, maybe Krator should live there. (I know you didn't say you would actually live there, but I'm just following the joke. :) · AO ^Talk 23:38, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

If you can discover where LOST is set, that might be a possibility.  :) JackofOz 23:55, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

You mean Oahu, Hawaii?

No, not where it's filmed, but where it's set, ie. where it's supposed to be in the story, some uncharted place in the Pacific where no planes or ships ever visit. JackofOz 03:15, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't know whether anyone would necessarily be avoding North Korean airspace. North Korea is not the Soviet Union Nil Einne 21:09, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

What about somewhere on top of an aeroplane, since they very rarely fly over each other

Uk Driving Licence f k p cats

I recently passed my UK Driving Test (B - Car) and on my photocard i have as well as B and B1 f k and p codes (Agricultural Vehicles, Lawn mowers and Mopeds) - These aren't in my provisional cats list, so i'm guessing they're full. The licence states code 122 which is "basic moped training" so does that mean i can drive vehicles stated above - and moped after training - without L plates and without passing another test? Just seems a little weird as my friend needed to pass a tractor test and my other friend must ride a motorcycle with L plates until he takes a test - they doesn't have a car licences. The DVLA is absolutely useless when it comes to things like this, so i'm wondering if anyone in the know has any knowledge on this? Thanks! :D -Benbread 19:11, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

There is an article on UK Driving Licence codes, but I can already tell you that the moped/motorcycle difference between you and your friend is down to engine capacity. The standard licence you hold lets you drive two-wheelers only up to 50cc. I'm at a loss for the tractors though, unless your other friend is driving large mechanical or industrial tractors, not simple farm tractors. Spiral Wave 22:06, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

cow question mayne gansta g-unit yeahh spiniies yeah

how many cows are there in wales and thick on average are their coats?

Cows have thin hair not fur coats like many other mammals --froth^t 06:54, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

the number of cows changes all the time, especially since dairy cows give birth every year to keep their milk yeild high :) HS7 19:44, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Pigeon Sex

One of my friends thinks he saw pigeons having sex. Does anyone have a picture so we can see if he's right? (Also, yes. Pigeon sex is funny and we, as teenagers, wish to laugh at it. Slugs mating was cool, why not pigeons?) 64.198.112.210 19:29, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Could you give us a description? 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 20:18, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I've seen it before, downtown, where the pigeons congregate. I was in middle school or high school at the time and had to do a double look. It's not really that different than other animals. The female stands there and the male one tries to keep balance. And there's not any movement because their penis is just a long tube. Yea, yea, I'm questioning myself on why I know this much. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:31, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Knowledge is power! 惑乱 分からん * \)/ (\ (< \) (2 /) /)/ * 23:45, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

How did newspapers start?

How did newspapers start? When did they start. What was it used for first of all. I can't really find the answer for this anywhere. Chris88.108.217.17 19:51, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Looking at the first paragraph of our article on newspapers, I found this article, Johann Carolus, on the first newspaper publisher. Meelar (talk) 19:54, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

please name this comic strip or animated short film or both

The questions are actually here and here. This may be frowned upon cross-post, if so, many sorry. Not sure which category was best. Thanks. NoClutter 20:57, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

French National Health Service

french national health service. how could I get some information about it?

If you read French, you can peruse this website of the French Health Ministry. Marco polo 22:40, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

There is also this French Wikipedia article on Sécurité sociale en France, which covers the health insurance system. Marco polo 22:49, 12 March 2007 (UTC)