Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 March 14

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March 14[edit]

Dispensing of Medication[edit]

I have recently moved back to Okeford Fitzpaine after looking after my mother-in-Law for a year with Dementia. I re-joined the surgery I was with before in Sturminster Newton and was dispensed medication from the nearest chemist. Things did not work out there and after 3 weeks joined another surgery in Child Okeford and they have their own Dispensary, but I cannot get medications from there as the PCT have a rules concerning this, which means I have to travel a round trip of 5 miles to get my medication from Sturminster Newton. I would very much like to get my medication from my surgery - what can I do about this? This is a massive inconvenience. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.29.64.91 (talk) 13:38, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not convinced we can help you with this.217.158.236.14 (talk) 14:00, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
If it helps, the Child Okeford surgery's website says specifically on this page that "You can get your medicines at the Surgery if you live more than a mile from a Chemist". Wikipedia's Reference Desk can do nothing to help you in your dealings with the surgery or the PCT, but assuming this is the surgery where you are now registered, you may wish to point out this wording to them. - Karenjc (talk) 15:07, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Many chemists will deliver prescriptions free of charge in the UK.--Shantavira|feed me 15:59, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Uh, they do? Do you mean "deliver" as in push it through my letterbox and/or hand it to me if I'm there in person when their person arrives?
Or do you in fact mean the doctor's surgery is willing to make an arrangement to have a pharmacy of my choosing (for example, at the local supermarket) have the medicine ready for me whenever I need it?
I've never seen mention of the former, and I use the latter (widely advertised) but it's riven with mistakes (surgery sometimes forgets to send the prescription through, surgery will deliberately not send the prescription through if I've been ignoring their letters and they want to make me aware of this, surgery will deliberately not send the prescription through if they've been doing it for six months and the wind is blowing from the north-west when the six months is up, pharmacy will sometimes give me someone else's drugs and I don't notice until I've got home, who knows what else... I'm amazed that anyone who needs medicine to keep them alive lasts more than a year or two). --Demiurge1000 (talk) 21:15, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
They do. My pharmacist (in the UK) delivers to my door. As I have to pay for my prescriptions, they will only deliver to me in person - or they would not get paid. I believe if I was entitled to free prescriptions they might push through letter box (subject to size) but possibly not as normally if one is entitled to free prescriptions one must fill out the back of the prescription form to confirm the reason you qualify - which is, I believe, subject to some random check. In fact my pharmacist only delivers; the company has a dispensary and a van but no walk-in shop. I don't know how common it is, but it certainly does happen and a quick google shows multiple pharmacists who advertise free delivery to the door in my city alone. Boots the Chemist have a service where they will deliver from an online pharmacy by post [1]. I sometimes experience the issues you mention - and did when I used to collect my prescriptions from (a different) chemist's - but the errors are almost always the fault of the surgery rather than the pharmacy. Valiantis (talk) 23:16, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, OK. You have just potentially made life a LOT easier for me, and maybe somewhat harder for my pharmacy. (It must have been quite hard for them already, given how they struggle with the basics.) Thank you to you and to the earlier poster! --Demiurge1000 (talk) 01:04, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

recover of drummond duck aircraft[edit]

I read Mitchell Zuckoff's book FROZEN IN TIME and I would like to know if the Drummond Duck aircraft was eventually recovered from the ice glacier? Zuckoff's book ends in 2012 before another recovery attempt could be made. from Eva Poe, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.86.66.107 (talk) 13:40, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You could ask him yourself. There is a "contact" button on his website.--Shantavira|feed me 16:04, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Here is his live blog, as well. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 19:26, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
(pedantic planespotter edit) That's Grumman Duck, please. I know they are ugly, and stand zero chance of turning into swans, but try to get their name right... AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:10, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Actually a Grumman J2F-4 Duck. Quack! According to the fascinating blog, they are still working on it (having presumably stopped for the winter).--Shantavira|feed me 14:36, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
But it's still odd that the OP claims to have just read Zuckoff's book and yet still gets the name wrong. I'm not criticising the OP; I see examples all around me all the time of (usually youngish) people who don't seem to give a damn for detail, and there's clearly a bigger picture at work. I can only imagine it's our so-called education systems. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 23:11, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Who were the leaders of the Bonus Army?[edit]

The article for Bonus Army lists Walter W. Waters, William Hushka, and Eric Carlson as leaders of the Bonus Army. But the article itself lists the last two only as individuals who happened to get shot when they accosted police officers. Are they leaders in the same sense Crispus Attucks is, by being a martyr and posthumous symbol, or did they actually serve as leaders during their lives? 50.43.148.35 (talk) 18:01, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Bonus Army wasn't really an organized force. It was a mostly spontaneous gathering/protest movement. As far as I can tell, the only named leader is Walter W. Waters; Hushka and Carlson were merely casualties of the conflict with local police, and were not primary organizers. After the fact, Smedley Butler was a prominent supporter of the Bonus Army, and used his government connections to speak on their behalf. He was not, however, a "leader" of them, merely an outside supporter. --Jayron32 18:10, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
In that case, should their names be removed as leaders on the Wikipedia article? 50.43.148.35 (talk) 18:12, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Go for it. --Jayron32 18:14, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'm scared to; I feel like I'm disrespecting the dead ;_; 50.43.148.35 (talk) 18:25, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do you bid on a city?[edit]

http://www.wadsworthcity.com/the-city/bids.html 50.43.148.35 (talk) 21:17, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a gambling bid, and it's really sort of a reverse auction. If the city needs a utility company to do something, it asks who can do it best for the lowest price. See this for example, where the city you listed needs someone to improve the parking lots in the area. They say the job will probably cost $218,900 to do, so they're not going to hire one guy with a shovel and a sack of plaster for $20. Different companies could send their offers to do it for at least that much, and whoever has the lowest plausible offer gets to improve that parking lot. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:29, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Cool! That's really interesting. Thanks! 50.43.148.35 (talk) 21:36, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Is that an example of a monopsony? I remember that term from economics :3 50.43.148.35 (talk) 21:38, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Judging from our article, something like it if it's not. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:55, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds just exactly like a tendering process. See Procurement#Procurement process. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 22:45, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
See also Request for tender. Which is exactly what this is. --Jayron32 02:00, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Editing introductory sections of Wikipedia articles.[edit]

I would like to improve the wording of one sentence in the introduction of the Wikipedia article about Ron Kovic but there is no 'edit' link anywhere above the 'Contents' box. Are introductions locked?

(This is the part that I think needs attention: "....on January 20, 1990, exactly 22 years to the day that he was wounded in Vietnam.") Hayttom 21:53, 14 March 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hayttom (talkcontribs) [reply]

You need to click the main "edit" link next the the title, or the main edit button in the toolbar at the top. Go ahead and make the correction, or let us know what needs changing (I would use "after" instead of "that"). Dbfirs 22:01, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've commented on this deficiency before, myself. Sure you can edit the entire article at once, but this greatly increases the risk of an edit conflict. Instead, I suggest you pick "edit" on some other section, then you will see something like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ron_Kovic&action=edit&section=1

Edit the address bar and change the last number to 0, then hit enter, in order to edit section 0 (the lede), alone:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ron_Kovic&action=edit&section=0

StuRat (talk) 22:55, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
In Preferences, the Gadget tab, in its Appearance section (Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets), has a check box to "Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page". —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 23:24, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
thanks!Hayttom 08:16, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved
Did that work for you ? I had that box checked all along, but it never actually worked for me. StuRat (talk) 03:54, 17 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I had that box checked, too, and I'd forgotten about the need to set it. It is currently working for me, but sometimes it hasn't in the past. Dbfirs 12:15, 18 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ears popping during flight[edit]

Sorry if it's a silly question but the reason that one feels pressure in one's ear during ascent and descent on a pressurized commercial jet is because the cabin is not perfectly pressurized right? Is it possible to design a a plane with a perfectly pressurized cabin so that one does not feel any pressure in one's ear during ascent/descent? Thanks Acceptable (talk) 22:15, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article on Cabin pressurization. One problem with your suggestion is that not all airports are at the same height. It doesn't take much difference in pressure for the effect to be felt in the ears. I notice the same effect in my car when ascending or descending a steep hill (we have lots of them where I live). Airline policy seems to be to make the pressure change gradual so that most people do not feel any pain. Dbfirs 22:27, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Two biggies:
The higher the pressure difference inside the cabin and out, the more the plane's fuselage will be stressed, leading to shorter service life and increased risk of failure.
And the air in the cabin needs to be refreshed with outside air (all that bothersome business with the SLC (self-loading cargo ...err, sorry, the memo said to stop calling passengers that) needing oxygen). A large pressure difference makes it more expensive, fuel-wise, to collect low density outside air, bring it up to pressure, and heat it to human tolerable temperature. 88.112.50.121 (talk) 00:24, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Not heating up but cooling down. Once the air is compressed to the cabin pressure, it's too hot and needs air conditioning. Hayttom 05:17, 17 March 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hayttom (talkcontribs) [reply]
And rather than a shorter service life, more likely a more expensive fuselage (because it needs to be made stronger). --50.100.193.30 (talk) 09:19, 19 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]