Miscellaneous desk
< May 25	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 27 >

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.

May 26

Shoe Polish

Does neutral shoe polish work to make white shoes shiny? --omnipotence407 (talk) 02:22, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes - or any other color for that matter. It's basically just a wax and it works like car wax by filling in the tiny cracks and crevices and making a smooth surface that reflects light more effectively. Colored shoe polishes will also dye the surface if a scratch or scrape goes deep enough into the leather to get below the colored layer. SteveBaker (talk) 03:16, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Utilitarianism

I've read the articles on utilitarianism, moral relativism, and moral absolutism, but still they don't say or mention whether utilitarianism is a form of moral relativism or moral absolutism. So is utilitarianism a form of moral relativism or a form of moral absolutism? Bowei Huang (talk) 05:34, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

These are all concepts. Why would one concept be a form of another? Bus stop (talk) 06:46, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It claims to be a form of moral relativism, because every circumstance must be taken new without preset rules. However, critics claim that it actually works by applying it's one rule (greatest good...) to each circumstance, so it has an 'absolutist core'. True moral relativism claims there is no such thing as good and evil, and utilitarianism does somewhat do this. It's debatable is the answer, so wikipedia which requires neutrality and consensus steers clear.

And Bus Stop, the reason one is a form of the other is because of the scope of each concept. Utilitarianism is an ethical code, Absolutism and relativism are Meta-Ethics so are codes about codes. 91.85.138.20 (talk) 14:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Staple gun

What's the best brand of Staple gun for home use? --PirateSmackK^Arrrr! 06:19, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

We don't really do opinions here. So, unless you can objectively define "best" then it would be hard to answer you with anything worth your while. That said, I have a Stanley staple gun and I don't have any complaints about it. It does an excellent job holding down papers. It only does an average job gathering dust though. About the same as any other inanimate object. ;-) You could check with your local library to see if they have a copy of Consumer Reports that has staple gun ratings in it. Dismas|^(talk) 09:30, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are two big distinctions you need to decide upon: Electric versus manual - and whether you want the staples bent flat (as when stapling three sheets of paper together) or whether you want them left in a 'U' shape (as when stapling fabric onto furniture). I've owned several different kinds over the years and there isn't one particular one that I'd say was any better or worse than the others. SteveBaker (talk) 20:32, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

words that alternate hands on keyboard

I'm looking for a long, comprehensive list of words that when typed on a QWERTY keyboard alternate the use of hands. Examples: antiskepticism, authenticity, neurotoxity —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.156.30 (talk) 07:36, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What is the purpose of this list? One could be generated fairly easily. decltype (talk) 07:42, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A list can be found at User:decltype/Words. The examples you listed are not there, however, because I only had a small dictionary. 1783 words out of the 80269 in my dictionary meets the criterion. decltype (talk) 08:21, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you have something Unixish:

grep -i '^[yuiophjklnm][qwertasdfgzxcvb][yuiophjklnm][qwertasdfgzxcvb]$' /usr/dict/words

will find four letter words that start with the right hand. Add alternating [...] sequences for longer words. Start with the "qwert" group instead of "yuiop" for left-handed words. May want to move "b" and "g" to the other group depending which handedness you consider them. You can prepend "anti" to many left-handed words; keep an eye out for more prefixes and suffixes. Both grep and /usr/dict/words may be available for non-Unix system too; ask google. 88.114.222.252 (talk) 10:58, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can extend that technique to words of any length by doing

r="[yuiophjklnm]"

l="[qwertasdfgzxcvb]"

~~egrep -i "^($r($l$r)*$l|$l($r$l)*$r?)\$" /usr/dict/words~~

egrep -i "^($r($l$r)*$l?|$l($r$l)*$r?)\$" /usr/dict/words

On this system, with 235,882 words in the dictionary file (here called /usr/share/dict/words), this finds 2,622 hits from length 1 to 13 letters, the longest words being "antiendowment", "antisudorific", "autotoxicosis", and "dismantlement". However, this method will not pick up inflected forms unless the online dictionary file lists them separately. For example, it will find "protogospel" but not "protogospels". Also, online word lists meant for general purposes will not likely include the exotic sort of words that tend to provide the best answers to this sort of question, anyway. --Anonymous, 17:02 UTC, May 26, 2009. (Corrected later, see below.)

Your regex seems to miss words that start and end with the right hand. I think "^$l?($r$l)*$r?\$" will catch everything. -- BenRG (talk) 22:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Damn, I missed a ? when converting from the original to the two-alternative version. Sorry about that and thanks for the correction, Ben. I've corrected my code above; it now produces 3,139 hits (the longest words are still the same four as I said above). Your version produces the same hits but will also match a completely empty line, so it takes advantage of the fact that we know there aren't any in the file, which I preferred not to do. --Anonymous, 00:05 UTC, May 26, 2009.

Note: that should be "neurotoxicity". here is one list with more examples. ---Sluzzelin talk 10:43, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I was going to make the same point yesterday, but I thought I'd better check. Google gives over 15,000 hits for "neurotoxity", some of which are probably errors, but it seems to be a recognised word. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:59, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FYI, the longest such Wikipedia articles are Euroskepticism, Hanaiakamalama, Helanshanensis, and Dorkrockcorkrod. --Sean 18:44, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hey Sean, how did you do that? auto / decltype (talk) 19:00, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can download a list of all article titles at http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/latest/enwiki-latest-all-titles-in-ns0.gz. Grepping through that turned up two longer titles, Rubyrubyrubyruby and Bobobobobobobobo, though they are mere redirects to Ruby (song) and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. -- BenRG (talk) 22:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've loaded a DB dump into MySQL, so I can do SQL queries against it. I didn't list the longer ones BenRG mentioned because the Ruby one seemed bogus, and the Bobo one had punctuation which messed up the left-right alternation. --Sean 17:33, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I type the 'b' key with both hands. Is it supposed to be a left or a right hand key? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 13:34, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My beloved GoldTouch split keyboard has 'F6', '6', 't', 'g' and 'b' (and everything to the left of them) on the left hand - so I assume that's the "correct" way to touch-type. Hence 'b' is on the left hand. SteveBaker (talk) 14:27, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm - that's interesting - the 'ergonomic' keyboard I have at home has F6 on the right hand. But 6,t,g and b are still on the left. Touch-typists with ergonomic keyboard needs who use the F6 key frequently must be few and far between! SteveBaker (talk) 03:15, 29 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Including punctuation and allowing B and space to be hit with either finger, the non-redirect winner is Clement Claiborne Clay, and the redirect winners are Clement Claiborne Clay Jr, Authenticity of the Bible, and S.W.A.T.A.W.A.T.A.T.A.A.. -- BenRG (talk) 19:18, 29 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

cat /usr/share/dict/words | grep -iv '[qwertasdfgzxcvb][qwertasdfgzxcvb]' | grep -iv '[yuiophjklnm][yuiophjklnm]'

grep -v chooses lines that do not contain the string in question, so the first grep excludes words with consecutive left-hand letters, and the second excludes consecutive right-hand letters. I get 3072 words, the longest being antiendowment, antisudorific, autotoxicosis, dismantlement. —Tamfang (talk) 21:34, 3 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Recent temperatures in the city of Paris

No doubt this is relatively easy to find, and I'm just being thick, but where can I find a list of recent (say the last week or two) daily high temperatures for the city of Paris? Thanks in advance --Dweller (talk) 09:39, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wunderground carry records back to 1996. Quite handy that. Fribbler (talk) 11:24, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. I had thought the max temperatures were warmer on Sunday and Monday of this week, than those recorded there, by several degrees C. Is there a way of double checking? --Dweller (talk) 12:04, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You coult try Météo-France here. My French isn't very good at all though, so I find it hard to use. Fribbler (talk) 12:37, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes Meteo France is perhaps the best bet, but to correct Fribbler's link, here is the link to the weather and temperature for the last week. Astronaut (talk) 17:33, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, my knowledge of French is non-existent. Fribbler (talk) 19:44, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Merci, to you all. --Dweller (talk) 11:29, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Psychology video

I was watching a video in psychology class that had Phillip Zimbardo in it (the video, not my class) and it was about visual perception and they showed a video of a fake robbery or something where everyones wearing black and some guy shoots another guy and you think its one guy who shot him but it turns out to be another, and the video is supposed to show that eye-witnesses can be unrealiable. Does anyone have a link to the fake shooting video? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 13:55, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't - but here is something much more convincing! [1] (Please: People who have seen it before - please refrain from explaining what's in it in too much detail - because it spoils the effect for other people). SteveBaker (talk) 20:28, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That page doesn't give the instructions for what to do while watching the video, so it doesn't work. You are supposed to count how many times to balls are thrown or something, isn't it? --Tango (talk) 22:23, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ack! I didn't actually watch it again. Let me see if I can find a better link. The idea is: "I encourage you view this Java video of a basketball game and try to count the total number of times that the people wearing white pass the basketball. Do not count the passes made by the people wearing black."...then come back and we'll tell you what to do next. SteveBaker (talk) 23:16, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, those instructions should work. Does somebody that didn't click the link before seeing the instructions (be honest!) want to try it out? --Tango (talk) 22:43, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It worked perfectly on my wife. SteveBaker (talk) 05:34, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It might be helpful to mention the people in black don't throw the ball to the people in white, so you don't have to worry about them Nil Einne (talk) 14:45, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know the video, but it's true that many eyewitnesses can be extremely unreliable, and that tendency can be increased in all sorts of ways. For example, if someone witnesses a crime and sees the perpetrator, and a police officer asks the witness what kind of a hat the perp was wearing, suddenly the witness can "remember" the type and color of hat -- even though the guy wasn't actually wearing one at all. To get an accurate description, it's important to not inadvertently suggest the witness details. As I recall, David Simon's absolutely fascinating book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets discusses this phenomenon at some length. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:44, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

So, I counted 14 passes by those in white. Do I pass or fail? // BL \\ (talk) 03:36, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I put a proper answer on your Talk page so that people who haven't watched the video yet won't have the effect spoiled for them. SteveBaker (talk) 05:26, 28 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've not been able to find the Phillip Zimbardo video that the OP asked for, but my three favorite videos along those lines are these: 1, 2 and 3. The first one is a different version of the video that SteveBaker linked to, above. 152.16.16.75 (talk) 00:32, 30 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

US politicians education background

I am trying to find out the college backgrounds of members of the US House and Senate. Rather than going into all ~550 individual articles, can anyone suggest a way to get this information at a glance?

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.223.163.109 (talk) 23:02, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wire-bound congressional directories like this one are popular on the Hill; they list colleges for each member. Your local library might have one or might order a new one if you ask. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 02:28, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nike founder, Phil Knight, is a Portland, Oregon native. I'm trying to find out precisely where he grew up in Portland

What is the address of Nike founder, Phil Knight's, childhood home? What is the address of the (now defunct) Pink Bucket Tavern, which, according to a Sports Illustrated article, was next door to where Knight first sold his prototype Nike shoes? 65.161.188.11 (talk) 23:07, 26 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If no one has the answer here, call a large library in Portland and ask if they have phone books or city directories going back to the year in question. Then ask them to look up the address of the tavern. As far as where he grew up, it looks like his dad's name was William W. Knight, so it's simply a matter of going back to the appropriate era and finding William W. Knight in the phone book or city directory. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 02:21, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Many libraries have a reference desk accessible through their web site. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 02:33, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed, here is the link for the online "Ask a Librarian" service of the Portland central library. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 02:39, 27 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm the guy that asked the original question, and I've taken Mwalcoff's advice and consulted the Multnomah Co. Library. The county librarians responded to me via e-mail this morning. This is what they said:

"According to our catalog, Phil Knight was born in 1938. Wikipedia says his father was a lawyer and later a newspaper publisher. 1962 city directory - Pink Bucket Tavern - 5021 SE Powell Blvd 1962 also lists William W & Lota Knight (publisher) at 3650 SE Claybourne. Going back to his childhood time. we checked the 1943/44 city directory. It lists William W & Lota Knight at 6536 SE 36th Ave."