Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 March 29

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.

March 29

Unquestionable challenge

Are you able to keep this question rhetorical? Kreachure (talk) 00:18, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

No. Warofdreams talk 00:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Similarly, there is the almost unquestionable challenge of keeping this question rhetorical. --hydnjo talk 01:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

"Unanswered" isn't the same thing as rhetorical, David... FiggyBee (talk) 02:27, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, good job then, uh... Michael! Kreachure (talk) 02:41, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Hehe, I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to user:David from Downunder, who keeps deleting responses to this question. :) FiggyBee (talk) 02:44, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I see... Well, can you figure out another way? (Is that question rhetorical too?!?:) Kreachure (talk) 02:50, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

That rather depends on whether you are expecting an answer. See rhetorical question. Warofdreams talk 03:03, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, please do review our article. --hydnjo talk 03:58, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

English Dubbed Questions

I have a few questions about dubbed animes:

Why is the voice acting so terrible?

Why do they cut out the blood? (they act as if people don't bleed or something)

Why do they cut out unnecessary things in the anime such as someone taking a shower? (as if people don't shower)

Why do they add things that don't needed to be added in Naruto the sexy ninjustu she is in a bathing suit the clouds cover all her naughty parts so why does she need to be in a bathing suit and Sailor Moon the water level was raised just cause you could see the top of her breast?

Thank You

Always

Cardinal RavenCardinal Raven (talk) 02:32, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

All 4 questions have the same answer: Because they aim to sell it to kids. Kreachure (talk) 02:46, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

What about question number four? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:05, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

So. In Japan its out for kids. The kids in Japan watch woman who are naked. They watch lots of blood and they watch shower scenes. That is not a very good answer. We take out so much blood in anime for kids that kids think they are invincible just because of what they watch.Shoot half of those shows are for young teenagers to older teenagers. Young kids end up watching them anyway.And you never answered why the voice acting was so horrible? The girls when crying sound like they are happy or something.Cardinal Raven (talk) 03:12, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

Anime in Japan isn't exactly meant for kids to watch, even though many do. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:28, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

That is why I rephrased what I said. Many of those shows are for older people. Young kids end up watching them. I still want to know why the voice acting in English is so terrible?Cardinal Raven (talk) 03:33, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

When in doubt, blame 4kids. bibliomaniac15 Hey you! Stop lazing around and help fix this article instead! 04:04, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Then I will blame 4kids for the rest of my life. Do they have e-mail or address? I must make a complaint. That is so retarded that they took out a black character out of a One Piece episode. It also is lame that they skipped the death part out of Yugioh. Its also lame that they cut out whatever they want. It is also lame that they do whatever they want to do with anime. Taking out food. I watch anime for its difference in culture. I like to compare cultures and I like to learn about new cultures. That is lame that they want to "Americanize" anime. Anime is suppose to be true to what the artist wanted to make it originally. 4kids make 4ever angry.

Always

Cardinal RavenCardinal Raven (talk) 05:31, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

The voice-acting in English-dubbed anime is bad because it's not a respectable job here. In Japan, a voice-actor is called a seiyuu, and they make whole careers out of just voice work. They are adored and idolized and known by name by all their fans; it's one of the most glamorous careers in their entertainment industry. In America, voice acting is only occasionally done by famous people (especially in big-budget stuff like Howl's Moving Castle, or Disney movies), while for the most part they hire any hack they can find. Americans think of voice-acting as without glory because no one sees your face.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Japanese is spoken in a different part of the voice than English. A Japanese girl speaking relatively normally sounds cutesy and squeaky to an American listener, so they tend to direct their own actresses to be obnoxiously squeaky when playing the same character. --Masamage ♫ 05:59, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Not all of the Japanese characters sound squeaky. They all have different voices. And they don't sound squeaky to me unless they are being squeaky on purpose. Its a sad fate for voice acting in America. I would take pride in voice acting if I could act, but i can't so I would sound just as bad. We need to rethink anime don't we. I find it an amazing piece of work especially the many cultural differences. And I think it would be wonderful if we viewed anime as a piece of anothers culture instead of trying to Americanize something why don't we try to understand the other culture. Maybe at the end of a dubbed version of anime put down notes like onigiri is a Japanese rice ball and its very common food. Something like that instead of editing everything out. Why don't they try to understand the culture? Why don't they try to learn the culture? Japan is a wonderful culture and I think it would give kids a different exposure so that they knew lots more about the world. Isn't that what we want our children to learn about different places?

Always

Cardinal RavenCardinal Raven (talk) 06:06, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

I certainly agree that the level of "dumbing down" of anime when it's dubbed is pretty disturbing. Compare it with Mark Evanier's report on what "parents groups" did to Dungeons & Dragons (TV series)[1]. While that was some time ago, these groups still have influence, and the "think of the children" mentality can be found pretty much all through children's programming. As to why they don't just include straight Japanese references, and then put notes at the end or something, I can think of at least two reasons why they wouldn't: (1) they don't think the kids care enough to read a whole bunch of cultural explanations on the screen, and (2) "fear of the unknown" - concern that if the show doesn't appear to be American, someone (maybe the "parents groups", maybe the kids themselves) won't want the kids to watch it. Sadly, while I abandoned my belief in the stupidity of Americans a long, long time ago, it appears that many American publishers and producers hold on to it, and keep producing things for the lowest common denominator.

That said, I do know one person (a Japanese teacher at an Australian school) who used subtitled anime episodes to help his students understand both the language and the culture. And anime DVDs often have little booklets of cultural notes these days, as well, if they aren't included as an extra on the DVD itself (I know the local release of Azumanga Daioh does the first, and Steel Angel Kurumi the second). Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 06:23, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Because America is a very Christian nation, and Christianity says that the human body is sinful and wicked and that nudity will corrupt our children, whereas the Japanese don't have those particular social values, so what's appropriate for Japanese children is not considered appropriate for American children. The other part of the answer is that animation is not considered a serious medium in America; it's considered these days to be solely for small children who won't care how bad the voice acting is, so there isn't much demand for highly talented voice actors outside of feature films (which have a higher budget and can afford them). In Japan, animation is considered as valid a medium as live action, and has no age connotation - there are animated features for adults and for kids. When was the last time you saw a US show that was animated that was for adults? I can come up with maybe 2 or 3 ever (Drawn Together, Stripperella come to mind), and a lot of them did it to make a point (that's not to say that shows created for kids don't end up sometimes having appeal for adults). Kuronue | Talk 02:43, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Tire chains in Yosemite (in late March/April)

Would I need to bring tire chains to Yosemite NP if I am going there in a few days? It's already springtime and the forecast shows no chance of rain, snow, or freeze, but I need to be sure lest I be screwed. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:05, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Well then, for sure, bring 'em (you've been a member long enough to know that!) and don't put it on us stupido RD'ers to save your life ;-) --hydnjo talk 03:26, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

People still use chains? Do you not have all-season tires, or what? Friday (talk) 03:55, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Friday, you're not from Colorado are you. --hydnjo talk 04:00, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Nope. I've driven out there a few times, but probably not in what was bad (for them) weather. Still, I was under the impression that the modern approach was generally winter tires rather than chains. Friday (talk) 04:02, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Some routes require "chains-on-board" (not necessarily mounted) to be legal. I guess its on accounta the unexpected. --hydnjo talk 04:07, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

My rental had chains in the trunk for that very reason. I never needed them so maybe it was a scam! --hydnjo talk 04:11, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

If you live in California, it's really counterproductive to have snow tires unless you actually live in snow country. If you're just visiting Yosemite or other areas where there's snow a few months of the year, chains are a much better solution. Corvus cornix_talk 21:23, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

In Washington it is not unheard of for chains to be required for driving over the Cascades. Pfly (talk) 05:18, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Member, I'd bring them just to be safe. I don't know what part of the park you are going to (Tioga Road and Glacier Point Road both remain closed until Memorial Day, typically) but if you are driving Hwy 41 between Wawona and the Valley, you crest at over 6000 feet at Chinquapin. I see a chance of snow all through the coming days (forecast for that part of Highway 41 that goes over that summit) and they take their tire chain policies seriously there. (I go there a lot.) If you don't bring them, you can always get in and out via 140 to Merced, which stays below 4000 feet; it's extremely unlikely it would snow there this late in the season. Have a good trip, Antandrus (talk) 01:55, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

psychological flurry

I have this strange temperament.Whenever a girl says that I look handsome I get into a psychological rollercoaster.I keep thinking about it for days together.I am always eager to know what girls are thinking about me.I am becoming a kind of zombie.I have reached such depths in this abyss that there seems no way out.Please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.2.51 (talk) 05:58, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

This is not a counseling hotline or a forum. The only advice I can give to you is not worry about. Everyone wonders what the opposite sex is thinking. Its natural. Always, Cardinal Raven Cardinal Raven (talk) 06:21, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

One tip: DON'T TRY TO 'FORGET ABOUT IT'. It never works. Just let the emotions flow naturally and you'll fly out of the abyss. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 06:49, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Now-a-days with condoms, birth control pills, and diaphragms readily available girls are becoming no less bold and outspoken than many males when it comes to casting their fishing hooks into the water. Just think of yourself as a little bitty fish not quite ready to have your scales scraped off and a hot fire placed under your bod. 71.100.1.132 (talk) 08:43, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

In any event, there is no cure. Not even religion. Castration might help, but it is illegal in countries such as the U.S. Neal (talk) 01:49, 30 March 2008 (UTC).

It's not such a strange temperament to be easily manipulated by flattery. Besides being a confidence boost, there's probably a self-help book on how to handle the emotional rush, and the people that cause it, ; ) Julia Rossi (talk) 02:02, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

YouTube help needed

Is there a way to keep track of all the comments that I make in the different videos in the youtube just like in the different pictures in Flickr, so that I know what comments I made and what happened to them (their responses and all)? Thanks DSachan (talk) 07:07, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

You could try searching for your Youtube user name in Google. Type "[your user name] site:youtube.com" without the quote marks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:53, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

World's Greatest Issue(s)

A very strange question, and I'm sure it is open to debate - as there is no definite answer, but I would love to hear your views, as I had a discussion with my colleagues about this the other day, and we couldn't come up with an mutual answer. The question was "what is the world's most important issue?" We had lots of ideas, pollution, poverty, wars etc. but couldn't decide what, if we had to choose, is the most important! I'd love to hear your views, and I'm sure my colleagues will! Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.79.100.49 (talk) 11:45, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

People that debate on the world's greatest issue, then no-one will be actually doing anything on any of the issues. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:59, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Religion, (and the problems that it causes).--Artjo (talk) 12:43, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

This is not a forum for soliciting opinions. Take this to a chat room please. Matt Deres (talk) 20:12, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Overpopulation. — Kieff | Talk 20:32, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

French Maids...

Hi, Two questions... What do they wear? and secondly what dialect should they use when speaking?

See our articles on French maid and French phonology. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:34, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Per the Reference Desk guidelines, we cannot advise on treatment methods for your ED. (...but your idea certainly worth a try.) --Milkbreath (talk) 20:45, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

I was asking because a contact needed to know in respect of a comedic play they were writing,

It's a shame others on the Reference Desk don't assume good faith.. ;) 62.56.111.179 (talk) 22:54, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Try to find some movies of farces hotclaws 07:41, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

micronations at war

Are there any instances where two (or more?) micronations have gone to war, like a fake war with fireworks or something. Like shooting fireworks at each others boats or invading a micronation and conquering it? xxx User:Hyper Girl 13:40, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

The Principality of Sealand has had a genuine no-joke coup d'etat, complete with (successful) counter-coup, prisoners of war, treason charges, and negotiated release. Algebraist 14:20, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Not micronations, but in the spirit of your question: some years ago there was a French "invasion" of one of the smaller channel islands. I can't remember the details, but I think it was a rather silly thing - some Rugby players play-fighting, flags waved and knocked over, and a policeman came and told the French to go away again, which they did provided they were allowed to stay and eat their sandwiches first. 81.187.153.189 (talk) 18:42, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Depending on which side you believe the Conch Republic might be considered a micronation. And they did declare war against the US (they promptly surrendered one minute later, and then applied for 1 billon in foreign aid). They also did "fight" the US army by firing water cannons from fire boats, and throwing stale Cuban bread at them. And I believ they have a mock battle every year on the anniversary of their independance. SunshineStateOfMind (talk) 23:43, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Excellent. The spirit of The Duchy of Grand Fenwick lives! Skittle (talk) 20:24, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Tongan troops invaded and occupied the Republic of Minerva, although there was no fighting. -Elmer Clark (talk) 17:43, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Opening day(s) chaos at London Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5)

Let me say first of all that I know nothing about running an airport - BUT - I have operated for many years very successfully in several other major areas of civil and government fields of operation - and have never, thanks be, experienced a first, second, or even third day disaster such as that at T5 this week (3rd day example was only 1 lift/elevator out of 16 was working). My question is therefore based on my own experiences where I was crucially involved in change management ie., given that British Airways were already operating relatively successfully out of Terminals 1 through 4, why was it necessary to go for a big bang scenario on T5-Day 1, instead of winding it up very gradually over a period of say, 6 months to a year? Wouldn't that have given all the new systems, procedures, staff, airlines, customers etc., etc., a fighting chance to deal with any glitches as they arose without the appalling embarrassment that has been caused to BA, BAA, London, and Brand UK, not forgetting Willie Walsh? 81.145.240.153 (talk) 13:56, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

British Airways has to vacate the other terminals as they need to be refurbished and other airlines move in for example from Terminal 2 as that will be re-developed for another new terminal Heathrow East. The same exercise was done a few years ago when Terminal 4 was opened and British Airways moved in over a weekend. MilborneOne (talk) 20:58, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmmmm

Was Wikipedia Really Vandalized 1,000,000+ times on November 30, 2005 as they say at [2]? ~ DarkZorro 15:07, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

You can't believe anything on Uncyclopedia. Useight (talk) 16:10, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

I really doubt it. Back in late 2005, 250 recent changes covered about three minutes (I was pretty active fighting vandals then -- I'm just going on memory) -- that's a total of 5,000 changes in an hour. That is total edits: all good edits plus vandal edits. That makes about 120,000 edits in a day, very roughly. I remember doing some coarse statistics on the amount of vandalism in a random selection of recent changes a couple years ago and getting one out of eleven edits being vandalism, -- so about 10,000 vandal edits per day is in the ballpark. Antandrus (talk) 16:14, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, you definitely can't believe that joke website! Thanks Guys (or gals)! ~ DarkZorro 16:25, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Ah, but that's for the English Wikipedia alone. If you multiply that across all projects, 1,000,000 seems a tad more plausible. GeeJo ^(t)⁄_(c) • 22:08, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Given that en WP carries about 1/4 of the project's traffic (based on having ~1/4 the articles), it remains entirely unreasonable. — Lomn 05:22, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Why doesn't home page place the "focus" of your mouse in the Search box?

Any time I go to Wikipedia, I always have to then click inside the Search box. Why don't the programmers just place the focus there when the page loads?

Thanks!

Andy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.189.56.117 (talk) 18:16, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

If you go to www.wikipedia.org, the focus is already in the search box. If you go to the main page of the English Wikipedia, the focus is not in the search box because it would mean you had to click outside the search box in order to scroll around the page in the handiest manner. Since the point of the English Wikipedia main page is to showcase the best bits of Wikipedia, it is important that people can look around it easily. If you only ever want to search, go to www.wikipedia.org and type what you're looking for. It's automatically set up to search the English Wikipedia, although you can search a different Wikipedia using the dropdown menu alongside. 81.157.46.230 (talk) 18:20, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

If you create an account, you can configure it so that the cursor appears there. See Wikipedia:FAQ/Main Page#Why doesn't the cursor appear in the search box, like with Google?. Algebraist 21:25, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Roman Bread

What ingredients were used to make bread eaten by the ancient romans? Of course there would be flour and water, but all that makes is a tasteless hunk of bread that is as hard as a rock. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.61.7 (talk) 20:07, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Did you try yeast ? 205.240.144.129 (talk) 20:35, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Our article "Yeast" does not mention Rome or Romans. Our article "Bread" says that Pliny the Elder spoke of Gauls making a lighter bread by using the foam skimmed from beer. This suggests that the Roman bread was heavier but that they leavened somehow. It seems that yeast in the air will leaven bread dough to some extent if it sits long enough. The principle of keeping a "starter" has been around a long time, too. The role of yeast in fermentation, essentially what is going on in bread, was not understood until Pasteur. --Milkbreath (talk) 20:58, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Flat breads is interesting and leads to focaccia in its many forms, as an Italian flat bread. It must have started somewhere. The kneading process is a key to developing the combination of flour and water into bread. Julia Rossi (talk) 00:21, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Roman Meal bread is delicious and nutritious. Try some today! Edison (talk) 02:50, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Sourdough can be made from yeast microbes that float around in the air, and can be speeded up by those blooms on the surface of fruit. Learn more from Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods.BrainyBabe (talk) 19:21, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Lights Out - Will people DIE ?

Heard that the lights will go out due to some Eco-crap. Someone who is on some kind of life support, such as kidney dialysis will end up DEAD tonight. Why don't the Eco-crowd does NOT think of this is beyond me. IF someone does die because of this, will the FBI step up its "Operation Backfire" program ? What about all of those computers that will have to be rebooted, incl. some Wikimedia servers ? Wikipedia is NOT CENSORED. Someone wanted me to ask these questions in a profanity loaded manner. 205.240.144.129 (talk) 20:33, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

They're not shutting off energy. They're just turning off lights, and as far as I know, nobody dies directly from lack of lighting. — Kieff | Talk 20:41, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm guessing that you're speaking of Earth Hour. People are just turning off their own lights; the companies aren't stopping the distribution of power. Mastrchf91 (^t/_c) 20:43, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Would it not have been useful to spare the time to check our article Earth Hour? You could have saved us all some paranoid, sensationalist and ill-informed waffle... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 21:04, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

WE ALL GONNA DIE!!! ok maybe not, but I could see an increase in crime in major cities that are turning their lights off due to lack of lighting. I mean if you're going to mug someone you might as well do it when the street lights are off.--ChesterMarcol (talk) 21:12, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Of course some people will die, people are ultimately stupid and no doubt some idiot will decide to take that final step to Darwin without the assistance of lighting. As to whether someone who is in hospital, which generally have huge electrical backup systems, is any more likely to die than on other days? Well life support and dialysis machines generally aren't plugged into light sockets.. (but imagine the fun if they were and were fitted to a clapper - *clap clap* HE'S DEAD *clap clap* HE'S ALIVE). Nanonic (talk) 21:25, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

"Well life support and dialysis machines generally aren't plugged into light sockets.. (but imagine the fun if they were and were fitted to a clapper - *clap clap* HE'S DEAD *clap clap* HE'S ALIVE)." Ha very funny. I can just imagine it now. To answer your question no. The other guys just answered it most life support systems aren't plugged into light sockets. Cause that would be horrible. Every time we had a blackout we would have more people dead.Cardinal Raven (talk) 22:25, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

I think this means that government buildings are going to be turning their lights off. They also try to get the citizens to shut off their lights and use less energy. It doesn't actually shut off the entire energy systems though. So the people in hospitals will still have all the lectricity they need. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.119.61.7 (talk) 01:04, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

I turned off the main breaker in my home for an hour and lived to tell about it. I lived every bit as well as my grandparents did in their youth, with kerosene lamps and a fireplace. Big deal. Edison (talk) 02:48, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

We turned off the lights and lived by the light of the TV. Useight (talk) 03:36, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Damn! I completely forgot about this. I would have very much liked to play Arkham Horror by candlelight. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 14:24, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

You still could. AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 14:55, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

But then I wouldn't be making a statement or something along those lines. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 16:20, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

What Are They Called?

What are those fake doctors called? The ones that poison their patients and stuff.

Thank you

Always

Cardinal Raven

Cardinal Raven (talk) 20:59, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

Could you be more specific? Are you talking about the likes of Jack Kervorkian? Dismas|^(talk) 21:41, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

No. I am talking about the doctors who pretend to be doctors and work in hospitals just to poison patients. Serial killer doctors or something like that. That is what I am talking about.Cardinal Raven (talk) 21:45, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

Quacks? --~~MusicalConnoisseur~~ Got Classical? 22:08, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

For the longest time I thought they were called Angels of Death. And no not quacks. I can't remember there was a case about a serial killer who pretended to be a doctor to finish off his victim or something. Quacks is something completely different.Cardinal Raven (talk) 22:23, 29 March 2008 (UTC)Cardinal Raven

I'm not sure if there is a specific term. The legal area would be 'impersonation' regardless of any murderous or psychotic intent. 62.56.111.179 (talk) 23:06, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

If you mean real doctors who go bad, they might be "rogue" doctors. See also Jayant Patel who the media refers to as "Doctor Death". Quack is also used to describe doctors who are ineffective but for psycho medics there's a list at Angel of Death Julia Rossi (talk) 00:07, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. Gandalf61 (talk) 00:56, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Harold Shipman is a general practitioner who killed hundreds of his patients. BrainyBabe (talk) 19:25, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Dude, that's like Báthory numbers! --Oskar 01:15, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

One thing I am not, Oscar, is a dude. Your reference to Bathory led me to Most prolific murderers by number of victims, where Shipman sits at number 3. BrainyBabe (talk) 14:12, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

I use both dude and "girlfriend" as gender-neutral terms of affection, to the great annoyance of all my friends (male and female alike). BTW, cool, I didn't know we had an article listing the most prolific serial-killers. I've just always had a depraved fascination with Countess Báthory :D --Oskar 21:25, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

In some dialects of English, "dude" is a gender-neutral term. --Carnildo (talk) 21:28, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

Split Trax vs. Twin Trax-Audio

On commercially produced CD's, can anyone explain the difference between Split Trax and Twin Trax?? I've recently purchased a CD toting Split Trax(Vocal on right balance, Instruments on left balance)but voices are sporadic throughout disc, usually on chorus of songs only, not verses. Publisher (BrentwoodBenson)hasn't been much help answering this question. Previous CD's have had vocals on left side throughout all songs,both verses and chorus so I'm wondering if disc is flawed ,or if I should have ordered Twin Trax instead of Split Trax--Glekel (talk) 22:31, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Your disc probably has backup vocals only. It is meant to be used to backup a soloist who sings the lead vocal live. It gives you the option of having live backup singers or using the ones on the CD. Thomprod (talk) 23:36, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Are there other "somethings"?

Perhaps this question is worded poorly. What I mean is that it's often been asked "Why is there something rather that nothing" as if to conclude that those are the only two possible states. Whether you're religious or not, it's safe to conclude you came from another "something". Something we cant comprehend in this something, since "something" in our every day experience is defined by things we can see, touch, or even "feel" internally. I'm logically(?) assuming that this other something has to exist because it is in some way connected to this something, otherwise we couldnt arrive here. What I'm trying to ask here, is if there's a next something, or "plane of existence" if you will. I dont necessarily mean life after death, just another level.

Everyone I've asked so far has given me a blank stare, but I'm sure The Great Wiki can handle this!Sam Science (talk) 23:23, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Talk about "miscellaneous". The trouble with your idea as I see it is that we are already having great difficulty defining the something we've already got. Plain existence is a complete mystery, so when you try to extend your mind to encompass a further mystery, an alternate something, you end up back where you started: here. It's not like you can say "this something" and contrast it with "that something", because we don't even know what this something is, and this something might just be that something, too. How would we know? That's assuming that your fundamental conclusion is sound, which it is not; in fact, it contradicts the second part. We didn't have to come from something, and if we had it would be this something. Also, a multiplicity of somethings does not rule out a nothing, and you are still left with a dichotomy. Anything at all is as one in opposition to nothingness. --Milkbreath (talk) 00:13, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Are you talking about stuff (matter) and its animation? Although the science desk would have heaps on matter and energy, I'll sit here with you in the Great Wiki patch waiting for the Great Wiki. Meanwhile, you could look in the Leibniz article at this section[3]. Afaik, Leibniz understood the nothing to be ultra-refined matter. Julia Rossi (talk) 00:34, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't really follow the question, but the way it's couched seems slightly reminiscent of the anthropic principle. Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 00:42, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Leibnitz understood nothing? Wow! I Kan´t believe it... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 00:44, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Sloppy of me, not the nothing, but that space is ultra-fine matter. I forgot we have Zoom among us. ; ) Julia Rossi (talk) 00:51, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Or perhaps consider Discordianism. The distinction we make between what exists and what does not exist, and between order and chaos, is dependent on our own personal views of the world and does not necessarily conform in any way to 'The Truth'. Mu 81.157.46.230 (talk) 01:32, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

voting

why isn't voting done with polls of say 2000 people in each state? seems like itd save a lot of $$$ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.227.110.199 (talk) 23:59, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

If you're referring to the United States, 2000 people isn't near enough people to get an accurate sample of the general concensus of the population of any of the U.S. states. Dismas|^(talk) 00:13, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

whatever, then 10,000 or something. but less than the number that votes now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.227.110.199 (talk) 01:07, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it's the campaign costs that need to be reduced rather than people's right to vote as individuals, but I'm Australian and don't know what's the most expensive thing about American federal elections. Julia Rossi (talk) 00:55, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

According to our article the United States Electoral College has 538 members in toto, far less than 2,000 per state. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 00:58, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Isaac Asimov took this to it's logical extreme in the short story Franchise in which there is only one voter chosen for the US Election. Nanonic (talk) 01:08, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Okay, so 2,000 isn't a concrete number. So, if cost is the issue to you... In order to determine which X number of voters are going to make the decision some sort of process and procedures would have to be in place to pick the people. This would entail a lot of new legislation to be drafted, discussed, and voted on by the the legislature. Then there's all the oversight that would have to go into it such as making sure more than X number didn't vote, the right people did the voting, etc. Are you going to keep the list secret? It won't be for very long. So then you have to make sure that nobody is trying to unfairly influence the voters. It's really a lot easier to just allow everyone over a certain age to vote. Make them register at a polling place and check them off from a list when they come to vote. The expense isn't in the voting, it's in the campaigns. Dismas|^(talk) 01:51, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

As we know, private polling is done all the time in order the gauge the popular mood about politicians and issues, and pollies do take note of them, much as they pretend not to. They're soundly based on statistical sampling theory, but that theory is inherently prone to some degree of error. Sometimes the polls accurately reflect the view of the electorate on election day, but sometimes they're very wide of the mark. They wouldn't help in proportional representation systems, where every vote counts - our last general election was in November 2007, but they're still arguing about the result in one seat. It's gone to the Court of Disputed Returns, but the jury's still out. This also explains why there's no substitute for a national census in order to gain detailed information about certain subjects. -- JackofOz (talk) 02:16, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Be assured that machine politicians would make sure that the 2000 (or 10,000)selected agreed with them. It would be a charade. It would invalidate universal suffrage. Edison (talk) 02:46, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

the whole point is that they're selected randomly. but i can see how dismas' complaint about unfair influence could be bad, but there are ways around that.

with respect to the money thing--that the money's in the campaigns and not the voting systems--the tax money is just in the voting systems, i think, and if it's also used in campaigns then that is horrible, but the tax money is what we need to be concerned about. freeing up tax money to use for other things. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.227.110.199 (talk) 04:32, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

Again, if it's the U.S. you're talking about then tax dollars are used. See Campaign finance in the United States. Dismas|^(talk) 06:56, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

If a politician was worried that he'd lose a critical swing state, he could buy every randomly chosen voter in the state a new car. Unless they're chosen day-of, which would be inconvenient and troublesome. APL (talk) 13:09, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

People might feel disenfranchised. They would be very likely to cry "No taxation without representation!", although interestingly the article Voting rights in the United States states that the right to vote is not guaranteed (only that it may not be refused based on race/sex/etc.). AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 14:49, 31 March 2008 (UTC)