Miscellaneous desk
< August 1	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 3 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk 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 on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 2

Thin to fat

Has there ever been a weight-gain competition. Like going from thin, to fat with a competitive objective and prizes at the end. Not just a little weight gain, but I mean from perhaps slightly underweight to genuine obesity. Would be a fascinating sport. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.243.193.206 (talk) 08:59, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It would be an extremely stupid and dangerous sport - if sport is even a suitable word to describe such a thing! I suspect the nearest thing may be some eating competitions - and even those are considered such a bad idea that Guinness World Records no longer lists them Wymspen (talk) 09:42, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A regimen of no breakfast and a large lunch followed by a sleep is intended to help Sumo wrestlers put on weight so as to compete more effectively. The 6-foot-8, 704-pound sumo wrestler Emanuel Yarbrough was named the "Heaviest Living Athlete" by Guinness World Records. But sumo wrestlers have a life expectancy 10 years shorter than the average Japanese male due to the enormous amount of fat they accumulate. AllBestFaith (talk) 10:36, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

An excellent example, except I think the OP means a contest specifically about weight gain, kind of the opposite of The Biggest Loser. Sumo wrestlers' weight gain is a means to an end, but is not the end in itself, which is to win wrestling matches. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:18, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I understood that Frenchmnen gained weight in order to join the "100 kilos club". See this 1912 article. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 12:28, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Note that boxers may want to gain weight to move up to the next weight class. In some cases, they may need to gain weight quickly. Presumably the goal is to gain muscle.

Also, actors may need to quickly gain weight for a role, although a fat suit is a safer way to go. StuRat (talk) 15:55, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Cook's Rate Adjustment RSVP form

I received your rate adjustment rsvp for the $19.95 in the mail, and wondering if there is away to order the Cook's one full year subscription on the internet web sight? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.127.102.18 (talk) 15:11, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think Wikipedia has nothing to do with this. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:37, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Are you looking for Cook's Illustrated a cooking and food magazine? Their website is www.cooksillustrated.com. Some problems have been mentioned about their subscription practices but Wikipedia cannot help as it has no connection with Cook's Illustrated. AllBestFaith (talk) 23:10, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Timetable for aircraft strobe lights

Is there any fixed time range (in local time, such as between 6 pm and 5 am for example) when civil aircraft are required to have their strobe lights turned on? If yes, does it also consider summer and winter daylight durations, fog and other visibility factors? Brandmeister^talk 17:13, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See here for a copy of the official guidance - you want section 4-3-23 Use of Aircraft Lights. http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/aim_basic_4-03-14.pdf Wymspen (talk) 17:27, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Are American guidelines binding worldwide? 86.28.195.109 (talk) 18:46, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

They are most often ICAO compliant. The document also uses "domestic" where the FAA wants to refer to the locally defined situation. --Askedonty (talk) 19:17, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Religion as a category in the column of basic facts about a person

I have noticed that when a person is Jewish, his or her religion is listed in the right hand column beside a category called religion. This is the column containing basic facts about the person. When the person is not Jewish, no category for religion exists in the right hand column of basic facts. If the person's religion is relevant, why not have that category for every person you list? I really don't even understand why you put in a person's religion. I haven't noticed a column for race. Enough said, I'm sure you get my point. Thank you for your consideration. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.206.85.218 (talk) 18:20, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia has a policy on this titled Wikipedia:Categorization/Ethnicity, gender, religion and sexuality which basically notes how it should work. Since Wikipedia articles are written and maintained by thousands upon thousands of volunteers, there is no guarantee that policies and guidelines are always adhered to. Any variance you find is not always intentional; as someone may not know of such a policy. You are noticing a pattern which you are mistakenly assuming is due to design rather than by random chance. The intent may be quite different from what you notice; the reason it is the way you notice is not because it is supposed to be that way, but because no one has fixed it yet. If you see a problem you're supposed to just fix it without asking permission. Much faster and easier that way. --Jayron 32 18:30, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) There have been a lot of discussions on this, including Template talk:Infobox/Archive 11#RfC: Religion in infoboxes, which includes some links to earlier discussions. There's also Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 127#Religion: Jewish, Talk:Bernie Sanders/Archive 13#Request for comments -- religion in infobox (revised here), and Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)/Archive 126#RfC: Religion in biographical infoboxes. The general consensus is to not include religion unless a subject's religion is significant to their article. Furthermore, Jewishness is a complicated exception since it can cover culture, religion, and ethnicity. clpo13_(talk) 18:34, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly (the last bit). An ethnically Jewish person can be, say, a Catholic, and even join the priesthood and eventually become Pope, without ever ceasing to be Jewish. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:22, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Saint Peter, for one. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:05, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Catholic cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger was born Jewish in a Jewish family. Akseli9 (talk)

Let's cut to the chase. Jesus of Nazareth never abjured his Jewishness. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:56, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

He was never pope, though. (Rather, He is the guy the popes are supposed to answer to.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:34, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The point I'm making is that if he returned to Earth and, for whatever reason, needed a passport from a country that puts nationality (as distinct from citizenship; the Soviet Union used to do this, and Russia may well carry on that practice) on their passports, he would be classified as "Jewish", despite being considered the founder of Christianity, not exactly historically known as a pro-semitic creed. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:46, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Even nuclear arsenals couldn't stop Jesus. He could go wherever the hell He pleases. (in-universe) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:21, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I dunno. Cheech and Chong once did a bit where Jesus was trying to cross the border into Mexico. He was asked His name. He said, "I have been called the Prince of Peace." The border guard said, "Sr. Peace, we do not want you or your kind in this country!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:07, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Nevertheless it is My will." [starts walking slowly, deflects automatic gunfire, nonviolently flies over the barrier instead of breaking it, by the time Jesus is past the inhabited border area a Huracán-class Mexican corvette is firing 15 foot long Harpoon anti-ship missiles with Teledyne CAE J402 turbojet/solid propellant boosters at Jesus. Their 488 lb loads of high explosives hit Jesus at 537 miles per hour, completely unaffecting Him. Mexico asks the less pro-Christian nuclear states for backup] Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 22:09, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

But eventually foiled by nails. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:10, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That was part of the plan. The plan where a world with genocide is mysteriously better than a Garden of Eden with much less crucifixion and zero chance of 1-100,000,000,000 burning forever. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 12:59, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

And with robotic individuals. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:33, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Jesus didn't actually found Christianity, His disciples did. Although putting "Israeli" on His passport wouldn't likely make things any better. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:59, 4 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Jesus was a Roman subject, but not a Roman citizen. It is unclear that Rome considered a resident of Judea to be a "Judean citizen" however. Judeans in the Greek Cities of the Roman Empire: Rights, Citizenship and Civil Discord addresses this a bit. Collect (talk) 15:42, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A side-note about this is the fact that a person's religion seems to come up in interviews quite a bit more when it's anything but Christian. There are some exceptions, of course, like Mel Gibson. Especially around the time that he was making The Passion of the Christ. So, when the religion is mentioned, we then have a source for it and the information gets put in the article. †Dismas†|^(talk) 21:11, 3 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Just to be clear; verifiability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for including some bit of information about a subject. Relevance to the overall narrative of the article is also vital. After all, any number of facts about a person, up to and including what they may have had for lunch on August 9, 1991, could be published somewhere in a reliable source. We should make sound editorial decisions on what information we should, and should not, include in a person's Wikipedia biography, and the relevance of any one fact, including a person's religion, should ALWAYS be considered, including whether to mention it at all, how to mention it, in what context, and what depth of coverage, if any, we give to it. How to write good Wikipedia articles is MUCH more than "if it's written somewhere, we include it..." --Jayron 32 18:06, 5 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Photos of old British towns

I have several photos that I found that were taken by my parents and I am looking for information on where they were taken since nothing was written on the back of the photo. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drobichaud58 (talk • contribs) 19:59, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

First step would be to put up a scan of the pics and we'll see if there is any identifying information on there :) Lemon martini (talk) 22:18, 2 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]