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April 13

Playoff formats in North American Pro Sports

Why does the NHL have a different playoff format then their counterparts in NBA and MLB have?--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 03:25, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

They don't, however. The NHL and NBA both play a 16-team tournament with every round a best of 7 series, while MLB plays (starting this year) a 10-team tournament with a 1-game first round, a 5-game second round, and 7 games for the last two rounds. Roughly speaking, however, they all play a multiple-round tournament with each round being a "best-of" type series. The Stanley Cup playoffs and NBA Playoffs are almost identical in format, excepting a few differences in seeding. --Jayron32 04:18, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Music identification

Can someone help identify this famous piano piece, that is stuck in my head but whose name I cannot recall ? The particular snippet I have uploaded is from the Argentine movie Medianeras (wikipedia article yet to be created) hence the incidental overlapping audio; unfortunately the movie credits do not name the source. Thanks. 50.129.92.215 (talk) 05:28, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Did you record it from your next-door neighbor's house? Cuz it is super faint and the noise level is so high compared to the music, it is hard to make anything out at all. The little bit I could make out sounded a bit like a Chopin Nocturne, but I couldn't place a specific piece, given the quality of the recording. I could be way off. Is there any way you can record directly from the source, rather than using a mic? --Jayron32 05:36, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I realized that the recording was pretty poor. Partly because the foreground "noise" that was part of the movie soundtrack, and partly because I used my laptop's inbuilt mic to record the DVD playing through my TV speakers.

In any case, a bit of a hit-and-trial search through my music library led me to the correct piece: Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (2nd cantible movement). Thanks for your help though; now I can go to sleep! 50.129.92.215 (talk) 06:13, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

7

[1]

What is the symbol between the hammer and sickle and anarchy symbol?Curb Chain (talk) 06:07, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like a black flag. —Tamfang (talk) 07:23, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you zoom in a bit, it seems to be a black flag in front of a red flag. Alansplodge (talk) 07:31, 15 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which is the symbol of the German "Antifaschistische Aktion". 86.146.125.223 (talk) 22:53, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Television westerns

Were any TV westerns ever wiped? And if so, how many episodes? Thank you.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 15:00, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For clarification: by "wiped" do you mean "had their videtapes blanked or re-used for other programmes"? Also, are you interested in all westerns made worldwide, or just those made in particular countries or languages? Either way, I'd expect there were certainly some, during the same era of expensive and short-supply tape in which the BBC wiped many episodes of Doctor Who. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.193.78.26 (talk) 17:02, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

By wiped I mean erased or reused. I'm interested in the westerns filmed in the 1960s for US television such as The Virginian, Gunsmoke, etc.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 17:22, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Westerns were generally filmed, not videotaped, so there was no way to "wipe" them. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:41, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh I see. Excuse my ignorance. I had been wondering because there are channels in the US that show old re-runs of westerns and there seem to be so many episodes extant. What a fool I am.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 17:53, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Don't beat up on yourself. :) Film lasts a lot longer than videotape - especially black-and-white film. Part of the reason for the ongoing success of I Love Lucy was the wise decision to commit them to film, thus ensuring they would have a much longer shelf life. Pretty much anything outdoors was also filmed. In-studio work was more likely to be videotaped or kinescoped or sometimes not recorded at all. Hence most of the westerns survive (if someone bothered to save the films) while videotapes are often long-gone or never-were. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:51, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The western was a very popular format during the 1950s and 1960s, until the networks pretty much ended the genre en masse during what the industry calls the rural purge of 1971. Shows like The Virginian, Rawhide, Bonanza, Have Gun–Will Travel, Wagon Train, Petticoat Junction, Gunsmoke etc. In the 70s, the airtime was given over to urban family sitcoms and cop shows. The reason there are so many Westerns in re-runs is because a) there were so many made and b) those were the last of the viable Westerns, so if you want a Western TV show, you're pretty much stuck with the stuff that was filmed in the 60s, or maybe Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, the last long-running American Western I can remember. --Jayron32 18:56, 13 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It wasn't all that long running, but Deadwood was unabashedly awesome. 203.27.72.5 (talk) 04:28, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When they started showing those silly family sitcoms is when I began to watch considerably less television. Those 60s westerns were fsntastic. There was also a good one called The Monroes.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 11:58, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I rather liked some of those "silly family sitcoms", like All in the Family. StuRat (talk) 21:45, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Me-TV shows old series. Its westerns are: The Big Valley, Bonanza, Branded, The Guns of Will Sonnett, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and The Wild Wild West.[2] Daniel Boone too, if you're willing to stretch the meaning of western. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:20, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, Boonesborough, Kentucky was the West, at that time. This TV (OK somebody copied somebody else's name here) also plays some westerns, like Bat Masterson. RTN also offers Westerns, like Daniel Boone. I haven't seen any Westerns on Antenna TV yet, but can't rule them out. For those with cable, there are even more choices. There's also Netflix streaming and Hulu. StuRat (talk) 21:32, 16 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]