Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 September 17

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September 17

mean

What split the purse means ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.121.188.201 (talk) 01:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

"the purse" generally refers to a prize in the form of money, given to the winner of a contest. Thus to split the purse is to divide the prize money between two or more competitors. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:50, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Shoulder patch on soldier

What is the shoulder patch on this person? It is most likely army as the marines do not wear shoulder patches. --Blue387 (talk) 02:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

It says the image source is "Virtual CD 002:US Marines", if that helps. If you click "View All Images" you can see more from the set. What I don't understand is the pricing for these photos... — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:30, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

(Especially considering how many free high-rez images of US Marines lying down with various weapons can be picked up for $0 on WikiCommons!). SteveBaker (talk) 05:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

For $699, you could probably just pay a soldier to walk around with you in whatever pose you like. Matt Deres (talk) 20:23, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Looks army to me, and it should be a unit patch of some description -- but I can't tell more than that from that photo. I found a page listing a lot of different links to unit patches here [1], but I don't know how current or complete it is. I looked through the special forces/airborne/rangers types, but had no luck. It's important to remember when you're looking for this patch that it's the shape that you'll recognize more than the colors; the bright colors are subdued for field applications. Good luck... Deltopia (talk) 16:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

It could be the patch for the I Corps. --Blue387 (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Thor

What country does thor come from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.111.51.41 (talk) 06:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out the article Thor. He's a figure in Norse mythology (and its modern equivalent, Ásatrú), which originates in the Scandinavian countries. --Masamage ♫ 06:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Asgard. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:54, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Or perhaps Asgard_(Stargate)#Thor? JessicaThunderbolt 15:40, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Why were my edits rejected?

moved to Talk:Indian Armed Forces DJ Clayworth (talk) 16:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Occupational Psychology

I wanted to know the scope of occupational psychology/IndustrialPsychology in India as I am trying to do a research on it. Can you help me find sufficient data in relation to this?

Chinese Clubs/Orginisations

What are Chinese clubs/orginisations like in China? Are they exactly like the ones in Australia? 122.111.51.41 (talk) 08:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Chinese clubs and societies tend to be more active than in Australia and have a higher membership activity rate (no sources, though). As a member of a club in China, it would be considered your duty to be actively involved and committee membership has more prestige - more like, say, the CWA or RSL than a university club that's always struggling to find people willing to take on the responsibility. Members would also be expected to contribute their time for general activities, and would probably do so as a duty. Duties are taken more seriously in China. Membership also gives people a connection to each other. This means that members will feel more obliged to help out other members in need. This is also the case in Australia, but the obligation is stronger. Because there are more people around, recruiting is often easier. The organisation's hierarchical structure is likely to be the same as Australian organisations - general membership and a committee led by a president. Steewi (talk) 04:44, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Ebay says the term "Shabby Chic" is owned and cannot be used

To whom it may concern.

Please help me here as my head is spinning with frustration.

I have always known the term "Shabby Chic" to mean a style of furnishing i.e. painted, distressed type of finish to give an item an appearance of elegance or an aged look.

The problem which is frustrating me, is that I tried to list an item on Ebay with Shabby Chic within the title.

Ebay removed the item and wrote;

---

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding your listing. My name is Ethan and I am glad to help.

We understand that you may not be aware that Shabby Chic is a registered company which produces their own line of products and has a page about their trademark:

http://www.shabbychic.com/corporate/sc_trademarkinfo.html

When members search using the words "Shabby Chic", they will be looking for the branded Shabby Chic items but they will find all the listings that contain the words "shabby" and "chic" regardless of where the words are located in the title. Looking through a large number of unwanted listings is very frustrating for the members and creates a poor shopping experience.

The good news is that you can use Shabby Chic once in your item description to compare the style of the product. However you may not use the words shabby and chic in the title of the item unless it is actually branded Shabby Chic.

I appreciate you bringing this situation to our attention, and thank you for your time.

Best regards,

Ethan B. Trust & Safety Team

---

Can anyone help me understand how a term can be bought thus not able to be used with infinging on copyright laws.

I may not be able to repond to this post as I only found this opprtunity to ask a question here by searching on google etc.

Therefore, please copy any reply to me directly at roger.edwards (e-mail removed for safety)

Kindest Regards, Roger. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.167.229.124 (talk) 10:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Roger, I removed you e-mail because it is the policy here on the Reference Desk not to display such addresses to avoid misuse and spam. "Shabby Chic" is different from "shabby chic" and I can't see how they can constrain you from using the words in lower case.

There's certainly no copyright law involved here. The legal issue is that Shabby Chic is a trademark of the company. I do not know to what extent this trademark would prevent you selling things advertised as 'shabby chic'. However, the legal situation is a non-issue since eBay is running its own website and is free to do so as it wishes. Even if your lawyer advises you that you can use the term without violating the trademark, you would still need eBay's consent to do so on their website. Algebraist 11:13, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - I agree. There is nothing illegal in using those words in situations where you aren't mis-representing yourself as a company called "Shabby Chic" - companies can't take words out of the English language and own them. You could even start (say) an electronics company called "Shabby Chic" because trademark law only prevents people using the name in ways that would confuse a potential customer. You can also legally say "This dresser is so shabby, it's almost chic!" - because you aren't using the terms as the name of a company.

However, eBay have their own internal rules about what listings they allow on their site. Their rules are more stringent than the law requires. As they carefully explained to you - they want to allow people to search for "Shabby Chic" and get listings that ONLY relate to products from that company - and NOT to a bunch of random items that merely happen to be shabby and chic. So (within limits) they don't allow trademarked names to appear in the title of an auction item - even when it would be perfectly lawful to do so.

That's their call. When you make a website, you get to set the rules. It's the same here at Wikipedia - you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk...it's not illegal to do so - but it is in violation of our internal rules. So - you have no reason to complain - they are at liberty to toss out your auction item for any reason whatever and there really isn't anything you can do about it...except maybe set up your own auction site!

SteveBaker (talk) 12:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

There's a nice irony here Steve. You quite rightly point out that "you're not allowed to post medical questions to the reference desk", but that also applies to legal questions, of which this original question is a prime example. If one or two of our more pedantic colleagues had passed by recently I doubt the discussion would have got this far ;-)) Richard Avery (talk) 14:39, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Pedantic? Can do! I'd like to just point out that medical or legal questions are not a problem. That's not the same thing as medical or legal advice. For example, in this instance the original poster wasn't asking for legal advice, he was merely asking how this works. Not the same thing. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:06, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The whole point about this question is that this ISN'T a legal matter - it's a matter of eBay policy and nothing more. SteveBaker (talk) 15:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

And one reason that it's an issue to eBay is that the company holding the Shabby Chic trademark must defend it. Trademark law in the U.S. is different from copyright law; you can lose trademark protection ("cellophane" was once a trademarked term, for example). On the other hand, trademark protection is limited -- you might be able to get away with a restaurant chain called Shabby Chic; you most likely could not get away with a line of clothing.

eBay is shifting its emphasis away from auctions and becoming more of a straightforward online retail site; no doubt it hopes to maintain good relationships with large vendors. --- OtherDave (talk) 16:28, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Not sure how that's relevant; the "Shabby Chic" issue on eBay goes back at least seven years. (In other words, people were complaining about it when I worked there.) --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 22:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Health

Any information on the health service in Ireland? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.1.82.216 (talk) 12:23, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

See Healthcare in the Republic of Ireland. Algebraist 12:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Technically - I presume you're talking about the Republic of Ireland - Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and has the same health care service as the rest of the UK. We have an article Department of Health and Children (Ireland) - but it only tells you about the structure of the government department - not about what the current policy is. I guess the first place to look is at the web site of The Department of Health and Children. SteveBaker (talk) 12:36, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Another useful website is The Health Service Executive. Fribbler (talk) 14:35, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you know

... that early claims by European mountaineers to have set world altitude records in the Himalayas have been disproven by the discovery of Inca artefacts on the summit of Llullaillaco

this is taken from the front page, now maybe I am missing something but Llullaillaco is in South America, while the Himalayas are in Asia, this caused a bit of confusion for me as I wondered hoe the Incas got to Asia. Please explain. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 13:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

European moutaineers reached a certain point on a certain peak in the Himalayas. Believing this to be the highest anyone had ever climbed on any mountain on Earth, they claimed the world altitude record. Later, some Inca artifacts were discovered on the summit of Llullaillaco, which is higher than the point in the Himalayas previously referred to. Therefore the European mountaineers' claim to the world altitude record has been disproven. That's how I read it. -- JackofOz (talk) 14:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought Everest, in the Himalayas, was the biggest mountain (with some people saying that K2 is bigger, but anyway, it's in the Himalayas)?--ChokinBako (talk) 14:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes - but the period of history we're talking about was before Everest had been climbed. K2 has periodically been claimed to be taller than Everest - but I believe that the NASA shuttle radar altimetery survey disproved that theory once and for all. SteveBaker (talk) 14:12, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

K2 is often described as being taller than Everest because it starts lower down, the peak is most definitely at a lower altitude, though. --Tango (talk) 16:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This may be part of where the questioner's confusion came from. Think Himalayas, think Everest, and there's nothing higher than Everest. But the statement never mentioned Everest, just the Himalayas. And there are places in the Andes that are higher than places in the Himalayas. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:21, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

.PDF vs. .JPG

My new printer allows me to scan images and save them to either .pdf or .jpg format. I want to scan my old snapshots (mostly 4" x 6") and correspondence; most likely they will never be altered after I do so. Is there a quality difference between the formats? If I standardize on one format will I regret it later (because I will have to rescan them again in the other format)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.120.95.34 (talk) 15:01, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Normally you would use jpg for the photos and pdf for the documents. I have no idea how it's developed in this way, but that's what most people do and I'm happy to follow the herd :-) --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:10, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Neither format is particularly attractive - but PDF is more useful for multi-page documents. JPG is the better of the two for photos. If it'll do PNG - use that. SteveBaker (talk) 15:42, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

PDF is a container format that can hold images in a lot of different formats. If the "PDF" option just puts the JPEG file inside a PDF, which is likely, then there won't be any quality difference. But the only way to be sure is to save the same scan in both formats and look at them carefully. Comparing the file sizes might also give a hint. -- BenRG (talk) 16:20, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

As long as you don't use lossy compression on the image files, you should be able to easily change from one format to the other using readily available software. (You can convert them even if you used lossy compression. However, you'll lose image quality.) PDF (.pdf - "Portable Document Format") files aren't intended for editing once created, so you may have difficulty extracting the images later. The PDF format is a good choice for "documents", but is not intended to be an image format, but rather intended to be the equivalent to an electronic "printout". On the up side, it does allow you to store multipage items in a single file, which most "image" formats won't do easily. JPEG (.jpg) is a good picture format (the name stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group"), especially for photographs of realistic scenes, however it can employ either lossy or lossless compression, and you may not be able to change the settings. PNG (.png) is a format where you know you'll get lossless compression. It does about as well as JPEG for photographs, and it's much better for line drawings and cartoon-like figures (see article for details). Another option is a TIFF (.tif) file. It's the "classic" image archive format, however like JPEG it has both lossy and lossless modes. I'll concur with the others - PDF will probably be best for the (multipage) correspondence, and for the snapshots I'd recommend PNG, or JPEG with lossless compression, if you can do that. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 16:37, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Although the JPEG standard defined a lossless mode, hardly any software supports reading it and as a result it's essentially never found in the wild. If your software offers to save as JPEG you can be sure it's lossy. JPEG does do a very bad job on black-and-white images. PNG doesn't compress photographs nearly as well as JPEG in my experience (even at high JPEG quality settings). TIFF, like PDF, is a container format which can hold practically anything; if you've got a TIFF there's no telling how it's been compressed (although most commonly it's uncompressed or compressed with LZW, which is lossless). For black-and-white (not grayscale) images JBIG2 will compress much better than PNG, and can be contained in PDF or TIFF (though not all software will support reading it). PNG will do in a pinch for black-and-white images. All this is probably academic, though, unless you can switch to different scanning software. -- BenRG (talk) 17:47, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Snapshots- .jpg . Correspondence- .pdf . Boomshanka (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 01:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC).

true to life pictures

what camera's out there take the best real life photo's (better focus, light, exposure..etc),im getting a new one soon and i currently have a digital kodak easy share one but it's not good for the type of pictures i want to take —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.50.53 (talk) 16:02, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The website http://www.dpreview.com/ is extremely good for indepth reviews of digital SLR cameras. If what you want is a point & shoot they do do reviews of those too. As for which one - well 'real life' is subjective. If you want something that photographs exactly what you see infront of you then it seems to be common to suggest that 50mm is around about what the 'eye' sees (i.e. 28mm is wider than our own vision, 100mm is more zoomed than our own vision). There is no simple answer unfortunately - suffice to say that the vast majority of cameras are capable of taking good photographs, but some make it easier than others - some offer more control than others. Personally I have a Pentax K100d (recently replaced with the K200d) and my parent's have a Fujifilm F110 (or F100 I forget) both of these are - in my opinion - excellent cameras for their price range. ny156uk (talk) 17:29, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

According to what I have learned, it is impossible to make a photograph of something exactly as we see it. The reason is that the brain is constantly adjusting the visual information it receives from the eye and correcting the balance between different lighting. Cameras aren't smart enough to do that, they capture the image exactly as it is - not exactly as it should be. The resulting photograph lacks the brightness differences, because it's a static object viewed under uniform light, and thus the brain can't automatically adjust it as it does the real world. JIP | Talk 17:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

For the reasons JIP notes, the most important thing for making a "true to life" photo is the skill of the photographer, not the quality of the camera. A shoddy camera can prevent you from making good photos, and an expensive one will let you work under more difficult conditions, but it's the photographer that's most important. --Carnildo (talk) 21:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Though I will point out that a good camera can make a lot of difference over a crappy camera even with a mediocre photographer. I have a pretty crappy camera and no matter what I do with it, the quality is always pretty poor in terms of lighting, colors, etc. (Which is fine. I got it primarily to take pictures of documents, and it does that well. Everything else, it does pretty lousy.) I've seen other cameras though (sorry, don't know brand names, models) that no matter what the photographer aimed at the colors, lighting, etc. were all wonderfully vivid and balanced, effects that you could never get out of my camera (even if you did have very fancy external lighting apparatus, etc.). I suspect that the tradeoff between quality and price plateaus fairly early on, but there is certainly a tradeoff. I've definitely had cameras that took way better pictures than others, no matter what your skill level is. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:43, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree, at least partially. I recently got a "Powershot A720IS". It is by far the "smartest" camera I've ever owned. It somehow intelligently determines the focus point and exposure far better than any other automatic camera I've ever used. However, I still take a lot of photos that "don't come out" in situations where a skilled photographer with a manual camera could have produced great photographs. Photography is an art form and handing over part of the artistic process to computer software is never going to be 100%.

All that said, If you're getting a new camera I strongly recommend you get a camera with "Optical Image Stabilization"(not digital stabilization. That's better than nothing, but not as good.). I also recommend "facial recognition" if you take a lot of snap-shots of people. (That causes the camera to focus on the nearest human face, even if they're not in the center of the frame.) APL (talk) 01:26, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Swidnik Poland

There is a square in Swidnik, Poland on the highsteet, just outside the Solidarity ofices. I wish to know more about this, as my friend says it translates roughly and is named after comedy characters, like Tom and Jerry. Who is it acctually named after? What is it called and any other relatvant info thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:16, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Polish Wikipedia states that it is officially named after the Constitution of May 3, 1791, but it is named "plac Bolka i Lolka" after two comedy characters. (I live in Poland, but I haven't heard about Świdnik before.) MTM (talk) 18:51, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Highlander II The quickening

Does any one know where I can watch this movie online? I have tried www.watch-movies.net, but they say there are no videos available. It MUST be online some where though Plaese help me I will let you cut off my head if you do help.(after Ive watched it) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:25, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

This question might be better suited to the Entertainment reference desk, but I'll offer one answer anyway: Why not just buy the DVD? This is one of those movies that can usually be found in the $1.99 bin so it isn't worth much effort to download it.

Atlant (talk) 18:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't seen it online anywhere. I'll second Atlant's notion that it's not particularly worthwhile. Watch it, but don't have your expectations high. Further off topic, I somehow managed to end up with 2 copies of it, and I haven't been able to give the other one away. Steewi (talk) 04:48, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

link JessicaThunderbolt 15:45, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Where did the term change management originate?

Can you please tell me where the term 'change management' originated from and provide me a reference for this, along with the exact definition that was used at the time? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.5.107.60 (talk) 16:27, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

you fire one bloke 'cause hes doing a shitty job and hire some one else to replace him, thats a change management. or. you cutyou finger nails from really long to short, but plan it first on a piece of paper, thats change management. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:40, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

We do have an article on Change management (engineering), but unfortunately it's weak in terms of history. You may find that its references have helpful information. You may also be interested in the related topic of Configuration management. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:44, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Interesting question. I've just played with Google Book Search, doing searches by decade for "change management". According to the sample of books google has scanned, the term originated after 1950 - it appears to be absent in books from 1940-50 (in the sense in which we're using it), present in all decades after. You can play the game too, with this sort of query. The first two books google threw up in the query I've linked to are from a Sociological Abstracts book, and an Instrument Society of America proceedings, so I'd hazard a guess that the phrase emerged from academia. So now I'm guessing that much the same advanced search game could be played from google scholar or another academic paper search engine to find the first instance of use. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:32, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Factual error in the caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture

The caption of the South Whitley, Indiana picture says the street name is Main Street. The street is named State Street. 165.138.201.1 (talk) 19:04, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

I have changed it, though you could have even done this yourself! That's the idea behind Wikipedia. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 19:15, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Royal Lines

Who would be the most rightful heir to be King or Queen of Poland especially, but also of most other European countries, notably eastern europe, do we have such a list? I have seen a list of most likely people to be the rightful heir to the Romanov throne so that one is done, any others? Poland Particually. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.18.32.117 (talk) 21:31, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

The Polish monarchy was, unusually, elected, so I don't think there's any way to know who would be King now if the monarchy still existed. --Tango (talk) 22:59, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Yep, no way at all. They mostly chose people from royal families of countries that they weren't currently at war with, if that helps at all! This site has some interesting attempts at answering your question, although not for a lot of places you are likely to be interested in. Tombomp (talk/contribs) 19:32, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Keeping surgically removed objects

Suppose if I went to a North American hospital to get kidney stones or a bullet removed; do I get to keep the kidney stones or bullet after the surgery? If not, does the hospital just depose of it? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 22:11, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

If you ask the surgeon he/she can save if for you. The norm is to dispose of it, but as you will likely be paying many thousands of dollars for the surgery they will probably honour your request. Plasticup ^T/C 03:34, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Kidney stones they'll sometimes keep (or at least break up, examine, culture, etc) for diagnostic reasons. Same goes for a tumor, of course. A bullet is less of a diagnostic challenge. --Scray (talk) 04:02, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

A bullet? I think the police might be interested in that. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:07, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

And depending on what's known about how you got shot, bullets may be confiscated as evidence. (Of course this is neither legal nor medical advice, but I do watch a lot of Law & Order...) --Anonymous, 04:06 UTC, September 18, 2008.

Some bullets are removed many years after the injury. --Scray (talk) 04:14, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

One must wonder: what does one do with a kidney stone? Display it above one's fireplace? --Blue387 (talk) 08:15, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Keep it in one's pocket as a reminder of one's mortality, and eventually bequeath it to a friend? AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 09:56, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Samuel Pepys kept his on display in his study, I believe. I'm not sure whether it was above the fireplace. Deor (talk) 12:35, 18 September 2008 (UTC)