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August 26

Internet as therapy for social anxiety

I was reading the On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog article, and this line piqued my interest:

The play revolves around six different individuals unable to effectively communicate with people in their lives who find the courage to socialize on the Internet, protected by their anonymity

The citation is dead and the play does not seem to be online, but I wonder if there is anything similar freely available? Not necessarily an artistic portrayal; journalistic or scientific approaches would be of interest too so long as they are in narrative form. I am specifically interested in (professionally-verified) tales of elderly people, youths with developmental disorders, deadbeat teens, alienated housewives and such marginalized groups who have benefitted from social technology. For inspiration, In My Language. Thanks in advance, appreciate any leads, Skomorokh 16:38, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The video you linked to is about autism, not social anxiety. Although the former might suffer from the latter, it's not always the case. There are also lots of people suffering from social anxiety who are not autistics. For a film about social anxiety and the Internet: [1]. It's about a guy who starts a relationship with a doll that he bought over the Internet. It might be seen as a cautionary tale about too much Internet, when you have social anxiety. Quest09 (talk) 21:18, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unusual International Borders?

The town of Baarle-Nassau has some a pretty strange border with belgium. Are there any similarly odd borders elsewhere in the world? --CGPGrey (talk) 17:35, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm interested as to what we're looking at. The yellow area is a totally enclosed space, is it surrounded by a separate country? Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 17:38, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-Nassau. Marco polo (talk) 17:49, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) the bit inside and Baarle-Nassau (Netherlands) outside? I'm struggling to match up the maps in the articles to the map provided. Grandiose (me, talk, contribs) 18:48, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The yellow areas on the map are Baarle-Hertog, surrounded by Baarle-Nassau, though there are counterenclaves of Baarle-Nassau inside some of the pieces of Baarle-Hertog. Marco polo (talk) 19:51, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

List of enclaves and exclaves has all kinds of weird things. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:40, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Which leads is to this nightmare. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:50, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That one, India-Bangladesh, has exclaves nested three deep. It is probably the most extreme example of this kind of border in the world. Pfly (talk) 19:54, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Or are there other geographic oddities such as Kaliningrad? --CGPGrey (talk) 20:21, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Kaliningrad counts as an exclave; it's just a very large one. There aren't that many very large exclaves today, but historically there were more. Consider, for example, the Scramble for Africa: virtually the entire continent was claimed by European nations that, obviously, were not contiguous with their Africa territories. --M@rēino 20:44, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
- Geographically, Alaska is pretty much identical to Kaliningrad in terms of being accessable only by sea from the rest of the nation. Alaska, however, is much larger. There's also Musandam, which is detached from the rest of Oman in a similar manner. --Jayron32 23:28, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  - I think you mean Alaska's inaccessible by land from the rest of the nation. Surely it's possible to fly between Alaska and the contiguous 48. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 23:56, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    - Well, it would also be accessible through a land route, if you were prepared to tunnel under the ocean, but in context we all understand that the discussion is implicitly restricted to the Earth's surface :-). On the general subject, the blog Strange Maps has devoted several posts to the subject of un-nested and nested ienclaves and exclaves. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.78.50 (talk) 06:45, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Naturally there are blogs devoted to enclaves/exclaves and other such geographic oddities. This one has a page asking whether the world’s largest exclave is Alaska. It depends on how you define exclave, the blogger concludes: "Some sources view an exclave as a territory legally belonging to another entity but without a physical attachment. Alaska meets that definition. Others would use that definition as a starting point but then add that it has to be completely surrounded by foreign land. Alaska fails that test." Other curious exclave/enclave oddities, most of which I read about at that blog: Llívia, Spanish enclave in France, connected by a Spanish road through French territory (apparently there is an even smaller French enclave within Llívia. Île des Faisans, which changes from French to Spanish territory every six months. The teensy tiny little enclave of Sandoval County, New Mexico. Some enclaves and other border oddities in Akrotiri and Dhekelia (see File:CIA-Dhekelia.png). Then some "almost exclaves"—Jungholz, Austria, which is connected to the rest of Austria by a single point. And the so-called Drummully Polyp of Ireland. Also the extreme gerrymandering involved in Arizona congressional district #2 (with its long tendril along the Colorado River connecting the Hopi Reservation with the rest). And here's a non-exclave geographical oddity: The closest boundary monuments on the US-Canada border, a mere 18 inches apart. Pfly (talk) 04:12, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The late and unlamented bantustan of Bophuthatswana in South Africa consisted of six disconnected pieces embedded within South Africa. Roger (talk) 08:09, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

on sale

I happen to notice that both tesco and asda are selling off a lot of summery things very cheap, and that most of these have already sold out entirely. So, I am just wondering, where might I go to find out what day all these prices will be cut so much next year, in the interests of not missing out on such great deals next time around. 85.210.122.130 (talk) 18:44, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They are unlikely to have decided this far in advance, as it's best to make such decisions at the time, based on current inventories, when the fall and back-to-school inventory is expected, sales from competitors, etc. However, as a rule of thumb, I'd expect the sale at about the same time each year, so you can pencil that in on on your calendar. Note that it's also possible they won't have such a sale next year, if the economy improves and their summer inventory largely sells out at full price.StuRat (talk) 18:48, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am told that Christmas day is good, or (presumably) just after Easter, depending on what you want to find big discounts. Also the same time next year (depending on weather?): I can't see how they'd manage to sell out in the summer, that would be supremely bad stock control, and I wouldn't associate that with Tesco, so they would have something, if only a little, left over. - Jarry1250 ^{[Weasel? Discuss.]} 20:06, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If they only have a little left over, they wouldn't need a sale. That's when they sell the remainder off to an odd-lots store, etc., or maybe just toss it in a bin of discount items, without having a formal sale announced. StuRat (talk) 06:14, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The end of "summer" varies considerable by region, even within the UK. Here in the north, we are already noticing signs of autumn, so would be unlikely to buy any summer goods (except at sale price to save for next summer). I expect that Tesco and Asda policy varies depending on the weather and other factors mentioned by StuRat above. Dbfirs 07:33, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

So, the sale could start at any time, or not at all. They have no idea just yet, but perhaps later, next August, would there be anywhere someone could go to find out a more accurate date, other than having to look on their websites every day? 79.66.99.126 (talk) 15:14, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, many retailers are happy to put you on a subscription e-mail list, where they will notify their "preferred customers" (anybody who will tolerate their SPAM) of upcoming sales. Check out their web-sites, and register, if you can, and make sure any such boxes are checked, when you do. StuRat (talk) 17:38, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wich date of the race is correct?

There are many links that containing several different dates of the race between Tom Thumb (locomotive) and the horse. Wich date is correct August 18 1830 [2] [3] [4] or September 18 1830 [5] [6] or August 25 1829 [7]? If August 25 1829 is not the date of the race then there is a mistake in Wikipedia here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1829_in_rail_transport. Blast furnace chip worker (talk) 19:17, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please don't duplicate questions on multiple Ref Desks. This question also appears on the Humanities desk -- any responses should go there. Looie496 (talk) 19:37, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Periódicos

What are the world's best known hispanic newspapers of the political right and left? Thanks a lot. Schyler (exquirere bonum ipsum) 22:26, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is Category:Spanish-language newspapers published in the United States and Category:Spanish-language newspapers. You could probably read those articles yourself to find some to meet your definition. You should also be aware that the terms "political left" and "political right" have wildly different definitions in different political contexts. One nation's rightists are another nation's leftists. --Jayron32 23:23, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For the press in Spain, see this BBC summary, although I'm not sure those newspapers have a large readership outside of Europe. Lesgles (talk) 21:33, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]