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April 21

Identify a shell

I found a shell, the top of it looks to be a scollop, but the bottom is deep and looks like a clam shell you may know what it is? I looked at all the scollops and clams and it really looks to be 1/2 of each. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.6.104.20 (talk) 00:56, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A picture is worth 1000 words, and one answer... --Jayron32 01:09, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. In the meantime, a wild guess - the turkey wing (Arca zebra); also called a zebra ark. Alansplodge (talk) 00:00, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Diamond ring price structure

I'm wondering, when buys a diamond ring how much of that cost is split between:

The people providing the stones and precious metals (i.e. material costs)
The people who manufactured the ring (i.e. manufacturing costs)
The people who marketed and sold the finished ring (i.e. sales costs)

I've heard it said that the cost of diamond rings has been artificially inflated by supply limitations on the stones created by suppliers with near monopolistic powers. However, I'm curious how much of the ultimate cost is actually controlled by the material costs and how much of it comes from the other steps in the process. Dragons flight (talk) 02:28, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have an answer to your questions but in reference to the price fixing and monopoly, see De Beers. Dismas|^(talk) 02:56, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A classic (if old) article on the diamond trade (or lack thereof) is Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? Paul (Stansifer) 16:00, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That is a great article - strongly recommend! It's always been clear how completely the cartel has brainwashed the public into accepting the idea that buying from them is a time-honored and inescapable ritual of love, but I did not know how quickly this feat could be accomplished. People really are little more difficult to program than a microwave oven, I suppose. Wnt (talk) 21:25, 26 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can compare the price of a ring with a natural diamond to that of a cultured diamond to get an idea of the cost of the stone. This won't give you an idea of the costs for the other two nor the materials besides the diamond but your primary interest seems to be how much the diamond adds to the cost. I believe the big difference is when you have a relatively large stone. (One issue is that I think many jewelers are still unwilling to use any cultured diamonds, so you have to shop around or turn to the internet. This likely also increases the cost.) I don't know the accuracy or the age but see e.g. [1] for one comparison of the raw diamond cost. These forums [2] particularly [3] may also be of use. Nil Einne (talk) 16:04, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What type of APA source are these?

http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/annual-reports

What type of APA sources are the PDFs on that page? If you have a paid (or school) NoodleTools account and could tell me what type to select there, that'd be even more awesome (but even if you don't, giving me the APA type is fine too). Thanks. - Purplewowies (talk) 03:16, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

They are "Works by associations, corporations, government agencies, etc." as defined by this page, and the reference list is "Corporate author, author as publisher, accessed online" as defined by that page. --Mr.98 (talk) 04:05, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That didn't help me with the NoodleTools problem, but if it comes to it, I know what method to use to manually cite it (I'm just compiling all my citations and notecards through NoodleTools, so it's confusing to do it outside unless I have to). I've also sent them an inquiry (which they literally make impossible to do unless you've already created the citation), and hopefully I'll hear back from them soon. Thanks again!

- Purplewowies (talk) 01:13, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I understand why you probably think that using a citation engine is a smart approach, but I will warn you, as a teacher (and a stickler for citation), that most of those churn out absolute rubbish that looks nothing like acceptable citation formats (why? I have no clue. It is not rocket science), and if you don't actually know the formats, you won't be able to see what parts of wrong and what parts are right. In my experience it takes literally 10 minutes to memorize a new citation format if you write them down a few times (you don't need to learn every single case, just figure out how to do the three dominant types of sources you use and know where to look up strange cases). Doing it by hand is probably more accurate, and it can be even faster once you get used to doing them. (I write long, boring, academic things for a living; I cite everything by hand, it is never wrong, it is never time-consuming.) OK, off of my soapbox I go... --Mr.98 (talk) 01:06, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I do triple check the format before I actually go to turn them in (I typically use it for MLA, a citation style I've had memorized for the past 6 years). In fact, this is the first time I've used it for APA citation, so I'll probably be quadruple checking it against the formats for this assignment, which, for the types of citation I've done previously (and the types I was given examples of), I do know what they're supposed to look like and how to manually cite them. I'm really using it more because I'm super busy and disorganized right now, and it offers the ability to link a big chunk of content to the citation in a notecard thing. :P It's also mostly a pay service, and even though I graduated from the school that's paying for it, I somehow still have access, so I'm milking it until it shuts me out like it's supposed to. :P

Follow-up question: what would Autism Speaks's 990 tax forms be? I'm perusing the link given in the earlier answer, but I can't figure it out (unless it's the same format as you told me to use for the annual reports?). - Purplewowies (talk) 01:31, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You could do it the same as the annual report. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:25, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks!

- Purplewowies (talk) 16:25, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What do you call this part of a sword?

I'm trying to translate the German word Messingbügel, as it applies to a sword. Is there a term for this, other than (brass) handle?

In this picture, it's the C-shaped part which would go around the back of the hand. Herbivore (talk) 14:11, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The part depicted in your example is the sword's guard. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 14:20, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

according to http://web.archive.org/web/20031218222717/http://home.xnet.com/~shrike/rapier/histrap.html it's a "knuckle bow", or possibly "loop gaurd", I have also seem the generic term "curved hilt" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.78.88.114 (talk) 14:22, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think "knuckle bow" is a direct translation - judging from google image results "Messingbügel" in german does literally and figuative mean "brass handle" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.78.88.114 (talk) 14:26, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here it is called a 'knuckle guard'. Our article simply calls it a 'guard'. The differing styles appear to be called 'Bowl' or 'Bow' shaped. I suggest translating as 'Knuckle guard' or 'knuckle bow guard' for your example. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 14:27, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

More detail in the WP articles Hilt and Basket-hilted sword. Alansplodge (talk) 16:28, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Kony 2012

This was big at the time of release of the film six weeks ago, but has it maintained its high profile? the article tells me "American supporters were asked to put up posters in their hometowns in an action named "Cover the Night", taking place on April 20, 2012." Did they? HiLo48 (talk) 17:19, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

All I can say is that driving along U.S. Route 9 through Wappingers, New York, today, there were dozens of Kony 2012 signs that weren't there last weekend. Juliancolton (talk) 17:48, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a graph of the number of mentions for '#kony2012' on Twitter in the last 90 days (or, actually, the 90 days to April 5th). As you can see, discussion peaked on Wednesday March 7th and, after a little spike on 15th/16th March, has hardly been mentioned since. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:17, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As another data point, I just got home from driving around several parts of Richmond, Virginia, and saw a single hand-written sign on a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper. Generally when the question takes the form "did/do Americans do X?", the answer is "no, we don't get a newsletter every day telling us precisely how to act, and you may have noticed that it's a rather large country/population." --LarryMac | Talk 23:41, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Surely you can see that I have simply used the wording from the article, which obviously I didn't create. It wasn't about "all" Americans. It was about "American supporters" of the Kony 2012 campaign. I thought it was an obvious question once I read that line in the article. Didn't mean to offend anybody. Just curious about the process triggered by that film. HiLo48 (talk) 08:21, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This might explain the Kony sign I saw in someone's yard yesterday. It's the only Kony related thing I've seen though. Which is a bit odd considering Vermonters love to jump on a well meaning bandwagon. Dismas|^(talk) 02:09, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Writing in APA

I am writing a meta-analysis paper on a specific topic by looking at published journal articles and summarizing and analyzing them. Almsot every sentence, I have facts/statistics that I obtained from different articles. Suppose that I am citing a specific article in many sentences in a row, do I need to cite it at the end of every consecutive sentence (John, 1995)? I seem to re-call a professor telling me that if I am citing a single article many times in a row, I can just put a single in-text citation at the end of the paragraph in APA style. Is this appropriate? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 18:44, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you can cite them after the last sentence in the series. That's how it's normally done, as long as its clear that the material comes from a source, and is not your own work. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 00:05, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is often difficult to handle. The basic goal is that the reader be able to tell, or at least guess, which sources support which statements. My usual practice is to reference the first sentence, and not cite explicitly again until I come to something from a different source. If you find that the reader is going to be bombed with citations, you should think about reorganizing your material, perhaps in table form. Looie496 (talk) 00:13, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What is officially single-spaced?

A paper that I am submitting specifies a the length as a functional of a specific number of pages at single-spaced. In word 2010, the default is 1.15 space and there is another option for 1.0 spaced. Which of the two, 1.15 or 1.0, is official considered "Single-spaced"? Thanks Acceptable (talk) 21:54, 21 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think that 1.0 spacing is single-spaced, since "single" means "one". However, only the the organization that you are submitting the paper to knows for sure, so you should contact them with your question. RudolfRed (talk) 00:44, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The default Word 2010 options should not be considered as standard for any kind of typography. They diverge in several key ways (line spacing, paragraph spacing, font choice) from usual standards. Single-spaced is 1.0. (And most contexts, the font should be 12 pt and something like Times New Roman.) --Mr.98 (talk) 14:43, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm going to assume that you meant "should not be considered as standard..." there.... TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:49, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed! --Mr.98 (talk) 13:19, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Most conferences or journals provide style files or clear instructions on formatting. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:55, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is why paper length should be specified by character number. The "spacing and pages" thing is a hold-over from typewriter days. They should just have you submit a paper in digital format of a specified range of number of characters; it would be trivial to have an automated process to then take the submitted papers and format them all how they want for printing hardcopies, if needed. --Jayron32 21:59, 22 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It is not always trivial to convert formatting if you are talking about things beyond very basic documents, unless you make rather large assumptions about how people have formatted them, and if you're doing that, you might as well just tell them how you want it formatted. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:22, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

...and the constraint in the print version is usually pages (each paper is allocated a certain number of pages, and those pages are exclusive to the paper). In quality typography, "iiii" is a lot shorter than "WWWW". --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:31, 23 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]