Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 June 4

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June 4

Solitaire without a table

One of the inconveniences of solitaire is the need for a flat, clutter-free surface. If there were a game that could be played without any surface at all, and without ever setting down any cards and exposing them to dishevelment, then the player could amuse himself even in the most hectic circumstances, in cramped quarters, or while in motion, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if someone hadn't invented some solitaire game to these specifications. Does anyone know of one? LANTZY^TALK 01:47, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't know what it's called but I do know of a solitaire variant where the only cards you lay down are the discards. Basically, you hold the cards in one hand with the faces down. One at a time you peel a card off the bottom and put it on top. Once you have four cards turned over, if the suits of cards 1 & 4 are the same, you pull out cards 2 and 3 and discard them. If 1 & 4 are the same value (two queens, for example), you discard all four cards. If 1 & 4 do not match, you pull up card 5 and compare it to card 2. You're always comparing the card on top to the fourth card down. If you remove cards and still have 4+ cards in your hand, you keep comparing and removing until you can't anymore. The goal is to end up with zero cards in your hand when you're done. Dismas|^(talk) 02:09, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Solitaire on an IPhone? Looie496 (talk) 02:23, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

How about if you shuffle a deck then see how quickly you can sort it, trying to beat your own record ? (Putting any card down is forbidden.) StuRat (talk) 05:04, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Bubble sort ? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:48, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

You could practice Card Flourishes to impress your buddies next card game. Mastering a couple of One-handed cuts is good for impressing people, and oddly satisfying on it's own. APL (talk) 08:29, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

How about Solitaire, but not Patience (game)? A more compact version of the card game I've heard about is where you put four aces in a row, then deal out the remaining shuffled cards in a 4x3 grid immediately below them, thus making a 4x4 grid overall. You task is to get the cards stacked on the top row in order and the same suite. You can move cards to place on top of adjacent cards but only if they are the same suite or same value. 92.29.114.123 (talk) 08:37, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

There's Rubik's cube. Or do you insist on a card game? There's also this simple game I like.

• Shuffle the top eight cards of spades, hearts and diamonds plus the 7, 8, 9, 10 of clubs. Deal them out to four groups of seven cards each. Take the ace, king, queen and jack of clubs, and add one to each of the groups.
• Now in each move you can do one of the following two kind of moves: choose a group and remove a single club plus all cards of one suit from that group; or combine two groups to form a new group if they have at most eight cards total.
• You win if you have removed all cards. You lose if no further moves are possible.
• There's some element of luck because a few deals are unwinnable, but there's also an element of tactics because you can make moves that lose you the game. (If we were on the mathematics desk I could ask what the probability is that you can win this game, but we're not.)

– b_jonas 17:15, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

use of sexual gratification in palliative care

Is sexual stimulation or sexual gratification part of the palliative care? Suppose, a woman terminally ill with advanced breast cancer seeking palliative care is massaged or kissed on her breasts by the palliative care doc or volunteer. I thought it was a weird thing to do and suspected patient abuse.--Ppppoep (talk) 03:55, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia is probably not the place to go about that, but what you said does raise my suspicions as well. I would find a competent doctor or two whom you trust, and have no association with the doctor in question, ask about it, and then see what they recommend. See a doctor and maybe a lawyer is all the advice I can give here. Falconus^{p t c} 04:59, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

This is not legal advice, nor is it medical advice. In any situation like this, the best advice anyone can give is to raise your concerns with the manager of the practice or hospice. If you are unhappy with any aspect of the care, whether you suspect inappropriate behaviour or just don't like the way someone has been spoken to, you must complain. (I'm a volunteer in a hospice, by the way. Comments about the behaviour of staff or volunteers are encouraged and commonplace. We take it in our stride.) --TammyMoet (talk) 08:14, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes in Denmark where the state health service has paid prostitutes to "calm" mentally disturbed patients. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:46, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

And how is that palliative care? --TammyMoet (talk) 16:50, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

I understand that this was experimented with as an alternative to use of restraints and medication. The payments would have been taxed as normal income. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:16, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

In Japan $40 will get you this. 93.95.251.162 (talk) 15:10, 7 June 2011 (UTC) Martin.

I am a survivor of a shipwreck of the F/V Michelle Lane on Nomans island Mass. in oct.1991

I am having a hard time finding any information of my shipwreck except a sentence in the book The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger on page 164,I am the swordfisherman that was injured during the rescue and flown to air station cape cod then trasported to Falmouth hospital. Am writing my own book and truly would like to receive any documentation on the subjest. Thank you Michael Montgerard75.34.163.244 (talk) 07:32, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia has an article about Nomans Land Island National Wildlife Refuge that has its own website. It shows a picture of a different shipwreck. The island is closed to the public because of unexploded ordnance. The website gives a contact address (US Fish & Wildlife Service) that might have the information you seek. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 14:12, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

You might try contacting the Cape Cod Times. Their online archive only goes back to 1997, but a phone call might provide information on how to find copies of older articles. Alternatively, you could try local libraries, which should have microfilm copies of local papers from the time of your shipwreck. Marco polo (talk) 00:01, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

The air rescue service should have records of this.Hotclaws (talk) 01:54, 8 June 2011 (UTC)

“Schmitt und Sohn”

What is “Schmitt und Sohn”? --84.61.191.235 (talk) 10:21, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Can you give us any context to work off of? Schmitt is a German surname. "und" is the German word for "and". And "Sohn" is the German word for "Son". Dismas|^(talk) 10:32, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Schmitt+Sohn ("Aufzugswerke M Schmitt & Sohn GMBH") is a manufacturer of elevators and related items, based in Essen in Germany. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:36, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Really low cost apartments in United States

Hello. I have a friend who is slightly challenged but who has lived on his own before. (Think Forrest Gump level.) I'm trying to help him by finding a good place to live. His mom, who he'd moved in to help take care of, died a couple years ago, and circumstances too complex (and not that relevant) to get into are causing them to lose the house.

He wants to "go somplace warmer," and while I've thankfully dissuaded him from Hollywood he still has trouble understanding that he can't just get on a bus without a plan. (With a plan, he's fine.) He has just Social Security of about $700 a month coming in and *maybe* a pinao playing gig or two providing dinner music, thought thankfully he knows that might not always come.

Yeah, I know, it's hard to find places for that low in rent alone, though I suppose government housing would be okay, but then I worry about safety, and those that are safer (and even ones that aren't as much) have long waiting lists. (2 years around here.)

So, I was looking for sites in addition to the "best places to live" lists (which found me Arlington, Texas and the state in general) and the sites which give a cost of living estimate for moving from one city to the other; those helped me give him suggestions but just because you see "housing is 14% less" doesn't mean it's only apartments, as I'm sure homes are included. (Though they give a good hint.) Are there sites like some realtors that list 1 bedroom apartments in the U.S.? I know rural would be cheaper, but most searches seem to just talk about bigger cities (like the aforementioned Arlington.)

Sorry this is so long. Thanks for your help.99.16.47.203 (talk) 15:22, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Fortunately the cost of living in many of the "warmer places" your friend might be interested in can be somewhat lower, thanks to lower tax burdens; Texas and Florida both have no state income tax, and while your friend may not even have a federal tax burden (or much of one) they will still reap the benefits. Consider smaller cities, or exurban suburbs of larger cities, like McKinney, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas ... they'll have rental units usually priced below the market rate for the larger city. There are lots of apartment search engines out there that will let you look for rent rates in the cities they cover, and many will offer a referral bonus to the renter when they lease a place that they represent. --McDoobAU93 16:42, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Here is a sortable city-by-city cost-of-living index. Areas with the lowest cost of living include Springfield, Illinois; Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas, Abilene, Texas, Gadsden, Alabama, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Jonesboro, Arkansas; Dothan, Alabama; Hagerstown, Maryland-Martinsburg, West Virginia, Pueblo, Colorado; and Fort Smith, Arkansas/Oklahoma. Also, state income taxes really don't matter for your friend's purposes. Because he has a fixed low income, his income tax liability is likely to be very small, if at all. A more important concern would be state sales taxes and (if he wants to buy and not rent) property taxes. Neutrality^talk 20:18, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Here in Denton, Texas the city is growing like it never has before. In the last 20 years we have had two Walmarts built that are at the north and south end of the same loop intersecting with I-35. Denton is special because it is an urban jewel in an oasis of rural Texas. On my 10 minute drive from University of North Texas to the North side of town I pass a Sam's Club and no less than 10 steer. My apartment rent is currently $525. During my hunt I routinely found apartments in satellite cities (e.g. Sanger, Texas, Krum, Texas, Decatur, Texas, Aubrey, Texas, Pilot Point, Texas) that base their rent entirely on income! This model would be a blessing to your friend. Although the complexes I did talk to had a waiting list, they do have exceptions that can bump someone up on the list. I have family that lives in Arlington. It is indeed a dreamy place to live, but the traffic on Texas_State_Highway_360 is the dichotomous nightmare. Plus, arlington seems to be on the "other side of the hill" if you know what I mean. The small towns above I mentioned are very inviting and have a much more appealing way of life. Jus' makurself sure thad'juh know howta talk when y'all git dern her. Schyler (one language) 13:20, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

If having multiple Walmarts is now considered a status symbol, it's no wonder we're in trouble. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:40, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Um what? Shadowjams (talk) 08:30, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Walmarts are notoriously destructive to local economies and are about as low-class as you can get. The Onion has a rather amusing take on the latter. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:16, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

That's priceless. I think of Walmart as kind of a redneck Disneyland - built for folks who have large families of hyperactive children; and with aisles just wide enough to accommodate those kids as they go running and screaming to their next Adventureland. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:41, 7 June 2011 (UTC)