Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2009 November 9

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November 9

What happened to the BBC on YouTube?

What has happened to the BBC World News channel on YouTube? I cannot access the BBC World News account on YouTube and it appears to be no longer working. Was it shut down or deleted? The last videos that I can still watch from my subscription are from August of this year. --Blue387 (talk) 06:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Try here [1] and read the comments. Alansplodge (talk) 17:03, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

copyright my creations and publishing the same

i wrote some poems and wnted them to be copyrighted. i an sure it isn't a copy of somewhere else. can you help me by telling me some site that will copyright it and publish it too(better if for free).i am in india —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.48.182 (talk) 10:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

In nations that signed the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic. Getting published is a completely different thing - why not start a blog or something? Matt Deres (talk) 11:43, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

While it's true that you don't legally have to do anything to have a legal copyright on the things you create, you might potentially have problems proving that it was your own work if someone claimed it was theirs in the future. One cheap, simple strategy is to make a copy of your best work and mail it to yourself in a signed, sealed and dated envelope inside another signed, sealed and dated envelope - using whatever variety of mail your local post office has that requires it to be signed for on arrival. When the item comes back to you in the mail - DON'T OPEN IT! - and keep the reciept showing that the mail was delivered. Then, if in the future you are called upon to legally defend your right to the work over someone else who might claim it as theirs - you can bring the (still-sealed) envelope to the courts and have it entered as evidence. At whatever legal proceeding seems appropriate, the envelope can be opened revealing your signature and a postmark and a copy of your work that proves that the work was created on or before the date of the postmark. Your opponent will then be unable to claim prior publication of the material and you'll win your court case. In practice, merely asserting that you have the envelope around should be enough to scare off all but the most idiotic of plagiarists. This should be enough to defend your right to the material in court should you ever have to do so...and it costs almost nothing to do. SteveBaker (talk) 15:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

That is what they call a poor man's copyright. I am not sure they hold up in court, as they are easily faked (it is not hard to unseal and re-seal an envelope with a postmark on it—you could just send yourself an empty envelope and change the contents at a later date). I would suspect that using a cryptographic hash of the contents, posted on a "neutral", third-party site that time-stamped (like your Wikipedia user page), would be more legally compelling. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:26, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

SteveBaker's idea is worthless in the USA (see www.copyright.gov) but may have some value in the UK (Snopes [2]) or elsewhere. In the USA, copyright registration is not legally required but may be advantageous (for unpublished work); see for information [3], page 7 (PDF) and for online registration [4]. For more information you will have to explain which country/state you live, as the law will vary from place to place. Note however that nobody on Wikipedia can offer specific legal advice, only generalities. --Lesleyhood (talk) 15:51, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

See the article Notary public particularly the details for your region. Having a formally notarised and dated copy of your poetry is strong evidence that it is yours. That's no legal guarantee of course. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:39, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

It seems to me that the discussion of "poor man's copyright", at least, constitutes legal advice, which we aren't allowed to do here. --Anonymous, 00:24 UTC, November 10, 2009.

I believe that there are several Self-publishing companies available on the internet. I know that at least one of them (Lulu) is free - or at least it was when my son published his book on there earlier this year. Mitch Ames (talk) 02:42, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

How to impress boss and colleagues at work?

I just got an entry to a job. They will try me for a few weeks and will then decide what to do with me. It is more like a paid internship. It is my opportunity to impress them asap. My guess is that employers like people with following traits: Conformational, flexible, sycophants, hard working , geniune interest in work and communicative. I have very little real life experience in the workplace. Please suggest me how I can score points in the work place. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.95.27 (talk) 12:47, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

At least until you have worked out which way is up in the new workplace

• Turn up early and stay late, take as small a lunch break as possible
• Be wide awake & attentive - get enough sleep the night before
• Be neat & tidy. Consider this & the above two hygiene factors
• As you say, show interest, and think about what you're being asked to do
• Communicate, yes, but make sure your communication is a) on topic b) at an appropriate time c) only after you;ve thought through what you're communicating about. In particular, remember that each communication has the potential to waste someone else's more valuable time. Make it count.
• Flexible & willing - yes
• Conformational & sycophantic - maybe not. Showing that you understand and accept the agenda is good; being enthusiastic about furthering the agenda is good. Sycophancy tends to show through and is not a very desirable attribute. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:05, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Be humble - the fastest sacking I ever saw in an office was a newcomer walking in and criticising everything she saw.

Don't get hung up on hierarchies. In some offices the most powerful (and strident) voices belong to relatively lowly staff. Especially PAs.

Be personable.

Whoever has the keys to the stationery cabinet has almost unlimited power. Or so they think.

Good luck! --Dweller (talk) 13:38, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Here's a good book on Office Warfare Strategy :) It all depends on what you want to do. Do you want to be productive or help people or manage people or gain power or become a guru or what? I recently heard a four year old when asked what he wanted to do when he grew up say 'I want to tell people what to do' Dmcq (talk) 14:15, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

I'll second what Tagishsimon says - in particular about communication and sycophancy. "Communication" does not mean "talks a lot". Sycophancy is not a good strategy. However don't criticise the way the company does things in your first few weeks. That's not to be sycophantic - you simply don't know enough about the way the company works yet to be able to criticise. And good luck, by the way. DJ Clayworth (talk) 15:10, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

And I forgot to add "be keen to learn". DJ Clayworth (talk)

We have one mouth and two ears, so listen at least twice as much as you talk. (When you get to be the boss, you can do the talking then.) And when you do talk, limit your description of your private life, family, hobbies etc to only just enough to let your colleagues know you do actually have a life and you're an interesting person to know. Your main talking should be about the work. -- JackofOz (talk) 20:26, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Disagree with Tagishsimon on one point, but basically it's the same as any place... - *Turn up early and stay late, take as small a lunch break as possible - This is fine if you've got loads of work or been set a tight deadline, it shows committment. Doing so when you have barely any work to do suggests you are either incompetant and therefore need 10 hours to do a job someone else can do in 7 or wasting yours and your employers time. It is extremely likely that in your early weeks with a company you will not be worked-to-the-bone - save the late nights and long days for when the work warrants it. - *If you want the role - don't look all stressed, be quick to comprehend, don't make small jobs look like they are hard work. I know far far far too many people who make a 10 minute piece of work look like hard work. Similarly I know far too many people who get stressed about another nothing piece of work. Don't be nonchalant (spelling) about all work, but (in my experience) you're not going to deal with anything like the level of stress, workload and responsibility in the first month of your role as you are in the next year in that role - so the more 'easy' you make it look now the better standing that puts you in. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:20, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Yup, I endorse 194.221's discussion of that point. I think I really meant: don't be late; don't slope off early; don't give them any concerns about your timekeeping. The added point about not spinning a ten minute job to take an age is well worth noting. Oh - good luck with it. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:36, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Be a "can do" person who shows a genuine interest and enthusiasm. Sycophants are mostly just annoying, "yes men" are strongly counterproductive - if your boss likes either then you'll need to start looking for another job! Don't be afraid to ask for clarification when asked to do something you don't completely understand - better to ask than to screw up by misunderstanding. The phrase "I'm on it!" is a useful one. If you think there is a better way to do something, pick a time when your supervisor or co-worker isn't too busy and ask why it's not done like that. This shows that you're being attentive and are interested - and who knows - maybe you'll be the one to save the company a million dollars by coming up with a clever improvement...but don't assume your idea is right - better to ask someone why your idea must be wrong (because it probably is). But showing that you're thinking about it is well worth the effort of asking - it shows that you care and want to learn more. When you're done with your assigned tasks - ask what else you can do to help. SteveBaker (talk) 15:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

SteveBaker's suggestion (about asking what else you can do) is a good one for the first few probationary weeks. However, once you are more secure in your position, you probably don't want to do that, especially if you combine it with Tagishsimon's suggestion of coming early and staying late. In my experience, (for-profit) companies will gladly load you up with as much work as you are willing to take and work you for as many hours as you are willing to work. Also, when you ask "what else can I do", the person you ask is likely to assign to you the most tedious and disagreeable work, because they would prefer to keep the more interesting or enjoyable work to themselves. At first, you will have to do a fair amount of tedious grunt work to pay your dues, but once you have impressed everyone with your willingness to work hard and once you feel reasonably secure in your position, you will probably eventually have to set limits by asking your boss to prioritize ("Would you rather have me do X or Y because I don't think I can do both by the end of the day?"). Or you can resign yourself to being an overworked peon without time for a personal life. But, I repeat, remember this advice for the time after you feel secure in the job. Until then, you will need to be eager to please and should follow SteveBaker's and Tagishsimon's advice. (This advice assumes that you will be paid a salary and are not eligible for overtime and that you will not be working under a union contract. If you have overtime or union protections, you have less to worry about.) Marco polo (talk) 16:14, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

The best way to impress professional people is to have good manners. Central to this is observation. Listen, but not like a slave eager to please. Listen to learn exactly what is required of you, and then execute your duties correctly. Contrived efforts to impress people are an affront to good taste. Vranak (talk) 17:03, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Since people are trying to give useful advice can I just suggest one about getting overworked. Don't take on more work than you can do. Don't promise too much, if they ask for too much ask about the priorities. A manager much prefers to have a good plan about what's happening and what will happen than to be in a mess at the last moment. Making up time if you were already overloaded is not a reasonable proposition, if you have problems tell them early. Be forthcoming. If you can think of a way round all the better. Dmcq (talk)

Demonstrate competency and commitment. For instance, if the boss asks you "Can you design a database to track the ...." and you have the ability or can figure it out, work hard, and have it ready and working very soon. Don't say "Why should I have to do it? No one else has to do it." Be competent without being a showoff or braggart. Be someone that others look forward to working with as a coworker, which includes social skills, and someone that the boss can count on to get something done right promptly. Definitely make sure you understand the boss's priorities, and don't get sidetracked on low value work. Edison (talk) 19:46, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

(Unless the boss specifically wants you to do the low-value work so that the more experienced staff are freed up to do what they do best. In that case, you would be seen as uppity and not willing to pay your dues if you demand higher-value work. As Edison says, make sure you know what your boss wants. Marco polo (talk) 21:37, 9 November 2009 (UTC))

Don't take any sickies or spend lots of time on personal matters on the phone or otherwise wasting time. Dress appropriately for the job, no need to be sloppy or overdressed. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:08, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

If they do offer you the job, then whatever you do, make sure you carry on in the habits you set during your trial period. Don't feel you can start slacking because you've got the proper job: people will notice and your tenure in that position will be short. --TammyMoet (talk) 09:51, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Human Blood Sugar control

Some 10 or more years ago it was decovered by a research team that insulin didnt directly control sugar levels , rather it triggered the maufacture of another substance which did. What was the name of this substance as I would like to follow the research20:12, 9 November 2009 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Quadeco (talk • contribs)

Start at Blood sugar regulation and come back if you need more. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:26, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Where does the word "firework" come from?

Can anybody tell me where the word "firework" comes from?

...more specifically, why the use of "work" in "firework"?

Is it a chinese translation? Is it merely archaic English?

Any help greatly appreciated, as, following Bonfire night, my 4-year-old son keeps asking this question. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.254.56.44 (talk) 21:07, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

The suffix "-work" or "-works" is old terminology for any constructed, like woodwork, earthworks, "the whole works", etc. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:17, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Here's all I could find[5] Alansplodge (talk) 21:28, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

OED implies it is a very old English word, no obvious etymological roots to other languages indicated, with first recorded instances in the 16th century, e.g.. "1575 GASCOIGNE Pr. Pleas. Kenilw., At which time there wer fire-works shewed upon the water; the which were both strange and wel executed. 1590 WEBBE Trav. (Arb.) 29, I my selfe was there constrained to make a cunning peece of fire work framed in form like to ye Arke of Noy." Looks like a variation on the -works trend, coming initially from any sorts of explosives or fire-involved "works", later being generalized as explosives, and finally as pyrotechnic displays. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:32, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, when I was a kid and would ask my parents what a word meant, they would send me to the dictionary, a big honkin' old Webster's Unabridged, to research the matter. That's where my interest in words and word origins came from, and it might be good advice to the young'un in this discussion. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:28, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Webster's? I feel sorry for you, working with such a limited resource. My parents had the Oxford English Dictionary to refer me to. --Carnildo (talk) 00:14, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Isn't that, like, the size of an encyclopedia set? We only had so many shelves. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:01, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

The Compact Edition of the OED is contained in only two - admittedly large - volumes, both with over 2,000 12" x 8½" pages each carrying four pages of the original edition photo-reduced. They come in a 14" x 10" x 6" slipcase which includes a drawer containing a large rectangular magnifying glass (which I used to be able to dispense with in a good light). The whole thing weighs around 20lb, so rather than burdening a shelf with it, I use it as a telephone pedestal next to the desk where I'm now working. At one time this edition was an optional introductory offer from Book Club Associates, so there are likely quite a few still knocking around in 2nd-hand bookshops (where I got mine), for those who would find this format useful. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 12:06, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Signal light LED changing at Rancho Santa Margarita

When did Rancho Santa Margarita change the shadings on green light? Is it 2001 or 2002 then when they change to LED on the top stop light. They did them one year gap or all together at the same time just like Laguna Hills because none of them have the LED change on yellow light.--209.129.85.4 (talk) 21:41, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried calling City Hall or the Department of Transportation to find a person who knows? For this type of local, routine public works question, a phone call seems 10,000% more likely to yield an answer for you than Wikipedia's Reference Desk. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:59, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Before the Telephone?

What communication device did most people use before the telephone? Was it a telegram? <(^_^)> Pokegeek42 (talk) 22:33, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Long long before the telephone was invented there were Smoke signals, Talking drums/communication, and Semaphore lines and flags.Cuddlyable3 (talk) 22:56, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget yodelling. --Tango (talk) 23:12, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Immediately before the telephone people would have used letters and telegrams. Earlier still, there were various other methods of communication. --Tango (talk) 23:12, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Amplifying on "letters", because if you imagine it's like today's postal services, you'd scratch your head and say, "Huh?"

If Arthur Conan Doyle can be believed, there were at least two postal delivery a day -- you could write a note to someone (local, that is) in the morning and expect a response by return post the same day. I understand the same existed even in the mid-to-late 20th century in France, as well; perhaps a local of the sufficient age can confirm this.

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:18, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the afternoon post ceased to be a few decades ago in the UK, I think. --Tango (talk) 23:44, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

To an extent. More recently, Royal Mail tried to deny that there had ever been such a thing and a lot of people pointed out that it had still existed in their area not that long ago. 86.142.224.71 (talk) 00:19, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Darwin had similar rapid correspondence with people in London—one note in the morning, a note reply by evening. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:02, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Two deliveries on weekdays and one on Saturdays was the norm in Australia till around the early 70s. Now it's one a day on weekdays, period. That's called progress. -- JackofOz (talk) 06:52, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Most people, most of the time, got most of the information they needed locally. They walked to places, and talked to people face to face. Ghmyrtle (talk) 23:45, 9 November 2009 (UTC)

I think the U.S. Postal Service (as we now call it) had two deliveries a day not too many decades ago. Not knowing for sure, I would suspect the Saturday deliveries are a vestige of that. They probably worked all day during the week and half a day on Saturday - which is still not uncommon in businesses in some parts of the world. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:57, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

I lived in downtown Oakland and Berkeley, California, from 1969 to 1992, and was slow to learn that (because I was in the central business district) I was getting two deliveries a day, even on Saturdays. I sometimes forgot, and would assume something wouldn't arrive until the next postal day, when it actually came by the second post that day. —— Shakescene (talk) 23:24, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

We have gotten so used to fast communications that we forget that communication was at a much more leisurely pace not all that long ago. "What did we ever do without cellphones?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:01, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

What did we ever do without Twitter? Until three tears ago teenage girls couldn't even tweet their friends to tell then they were eating toast. PhGustaf (talk) 01:53, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Three tears ago? Hey, big girls don't cry-yi-yi; they don't cry. No, they had no twitter, no blackberry; they had to resort to texting on their regular cellphones, which is like so Stone Age. This thread started out asking about long-distance communication, and by contrast, I saw some news segment not long ago that talked about teenage girls texting, generating book-size monthly cellphone summaries - much of it generated while sitting next to each other. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:30, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

I remember a vistor to the UK putting a job application in the mail one afternoon. The same company phoned them the next morning asking if she was looking for a job. She said "Yes, but how did you know?". "We got your application in the mail". DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:15, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Err, yes, but there was still plenty of long-distance communication throughout the 19th century before there were telephones, etc. It is not like everyone was just walking around for a thousand years until it came around. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:02, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there was, but there wasn't an expectation of an immediate response. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:19, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Telegraphy was extremely common even after the telephone was invented, as it was often easier to send and use than the telephone in its earlier days and did not require synchronous communication (you didn't need to make sure that the party you were trying to communicate with was personally at the other end of the line at the same time). Telegrams were extremely common as late as the 1950s. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:02, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

One gauge of the popularity of telegrams is how often they turn up in WB cartoons of the 1940s (typically delivered by "Western Onion", of course). They were also an attention-getter. I recall listening to radio broadcasts in my youth were they would mention getting telegrams from listeners. That process has essentially been replaced by the fax, of course. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:19, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Telegrams were commonly available in the 1860's and 1870's, before the telephone came along for local voice communications in the 1880's and gradually to coast-to coast voice communications by 1920 or so, but telegrams were quite expensive. They were for important business communications, news, or crucial personal communications, not for chit-chat. The minimum charge in Britain was 1 shilling in 1880 [6]. A Western Union telegram in the US in 1871 apparently cost on average 49 cents, for a few words. What would that be today? Edison (talk) 03:49, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

$8.71, or so the internet tells me. --Tango (talk) 03:57, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

How about the 1880 shilling in today's money? And international telegrams were hugely more expensive. Edison (talk) 14:52, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Telegrams would typically be used for information that was seen to be of an urgent nature, such as births, deaths, etc. Paying by the word tended to keep messages short. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:33, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

We have an interesting article on History of telecommunication but most of the pre-telephone stuff has been mentioned above. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 08:23, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

If you want to read more about telegrams, how they were used, how the system developed, and that sort of thing, I recommend the book The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage. The book also goes into semaphore systems, which came a little before telegrams, but typically weren't available to the general public. But, as stated above, for things that weren't urgent enough that people needed to send a telegram, they did what people had been doing for centuries before the telegraph was invented -- they wrote letters. Postal systems as we understand them today, with sticky stamps and regularly scheduled deliveries (which, as noted above, not so long ago might be faster -- for short distances -- and more frequent than now), didn't always exist, but there were still ways for mail to get from one place to another. The article on mail has some descriptions of early postal systems.

Of course, all these letters were handwritten until the typewriter was invented. --Anonymous, expanded 08:38 UTC, November 10, 2009.

If films are to be believed, before the introduction of mail service, written communication were carried by personal messenger. Astronaut (talk) 17:38, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

For the wealthy, yes. For a poorer person wanting to send word to a relative a few villages away they would just give it to someone they knew was going in that direction, I believe. (Of course, they would probably have to find somebody to write it and then the relative would need to find somebody to read it - the local priests, perhaps. Just giving the person going in that direction an oral message may be easier.) --Tango (talk) 18:30, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

When there was regular railway or stage-coach service between two places, it was common (either formally or informally, with or without payment) to hand on a letter or small package to a passenger, driver or guard for transmission to the next inn or station. —— Shakescene (talk) 23:31, 10 November 2009 (UTC)