Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 June 1

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June 1

Cycling

In most parts of the world, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk is against the law. And yet cyclists always ignore this rule and do it anyway. Have there been any studies about why cyclists feel that laws against sidewalk cycling and jumping red lights don't apply to them? Bikehornbeepbeep (talk) 00:22, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Apparently, the situation is so out of hand that NYC had to spend money on educating these jerks. http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/nyc-takes-rude-evil-cyclists-new-ads-131570 —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 00:40, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

I think an investigation in my city showed that (some) cyclists thought that the normal road laws were designed primarily for cars, ignoring their needs, so they had a moral right to ignore them. I do take issue with the OP's claim that "cyclists always ignore this rule". Obviously it's not always, and not all cyclists. HiLo48 (talk) 03:21, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The ones that obey the laws don't get noticed. But NYC is trying to do something. There was a recent row with Alec Baldwin when he was riding his bike the wrong way. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:22, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Often people are not confident enough to ride on roads (mostly recreational cyclists out for a nice ride I'd say), that's another cause of sidewalk cycling. The Alec Baldwin incident from what I've read seems to be more of an issue of how he dealt with the police telling him to ride the right way rather than him actually riding the wrong way... Connormah (talk) 03:36, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

True. But the point is that he was riding the wrong way and the cops did something about it. It's to be assumed (or at least hoped) that he wasn't targeted because of who he is, and that the NYC cops try to consistently enforce the bicycling laws. Bicycles have become a pretty important mode of transportation in crowded cities. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:53, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The laws often seem to be anti-cyclist here in the USA. For example, they might require that cyclists ride on the shoulder of the road, which is inevitably full of road debris, and dangerous, as cars may easily strike them, especially where the shoulder narrows or disappears, as in going over a bridge. A more reasonable law, IMHO, would be to allow cyclists on the sidewalks, but specify that pedestrians have the right of way, so the cyclists can go onto the shoulder to avoid them, for example, then go back onto the sidewalk. Of course, in an ideal world, there would be a separate bicycle path, but that is rarely a reality here. StuRat (talk) 04:02, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

There's a growing trend in cities to have separate bicycle paths as well as trails specifically made for bicycles. Minneapolis has a pretty good system. Summer is short, and in the winter they double as snowmobile trails. (Snowmobiles are generally not street-legal.) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:23, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

It's actually not that simple. Here in Austin, Texas, the laws are a complete mess. There is a blanket law that says that cyclists aren't allowed on sidewalks - then a bunch of ad-hoc rules, in some cases applying to single streets in downtown Austin, that say that cyclists MUST right on the sidewalk. It's an unbelievable mess. Austin has more bike lanes than any other city in the US - and we're known as a bike-friendly city...but still, it's horribly difficult to stay within the letter of the law.

The reason so many cyclists break the law in riding on the sidewalk is that they simply fear for their lives out there in the street. Even with bike lanes, you can be taking your life into your own hands. Since sidewalk-riding is rarely prosecuted, and the fines are minimal, I could easily see why cyclists would choose to risk getting a fine rather than risking their lives. Watch this video to get a bike-eye-view of how terrifying this can be. SteveBaker (talk) 13:43, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

I have had the same experience: where motorist are ignorant of the rules of the road regarding cyclists, keeping the law can be suicidal, as I learned after two close calls. Many motorists do not understand hand turn signals; others will not tolerate cyclists ahead of them in their lane. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 19:28, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Super Hod

Can you please find me news articles about a man called "SUPER HOD". My friend said he worked on a construction site and could carry 35 bricks at a time, which earned him a lot of money as he would do the work of 5 men. However, this story sounded like it was made-up and based on a newspaper story about a similar story. His name was SUPER HOD and he could carry 35 bricks in his brick hod. Thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 36.73.100.39 (talk) 00:30, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

think you're referring to Russell Bradley.--Aspro (talk) 02:19, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Our article Brick hod says that typically, 10 to 12 bricks would be carried - so carrying 35 is hardly the work of 5 men...more like three or four. Of course a lot also depends on how fast he carried them. If he walked faster than most people would - then maybe. You'd also want to worry about stamina. Could he carry that many over and over for the same work-day as everyone else.

Anyway, just type "Super Hod" into Google - there are lots of hits. Chief amongst them are these:

• http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/5560926/Superhod-Max-Quarterman-on-100000-brickies.html - which says that a Mr Max Quarterman was earning 100,000 UK pounds in the 1970's. I could easily imagine that was five times what a regular brickie would be earning back then.
• http://www.awci.org/cd/pdfs/7601_b.pdf - which calls him "Maxie Quarterman" and says that he was earning about five times what a typical worker was getting. It also says that he hauled 150lbs of plaster at a time "at a run" for 8 hours a day...so yes, three times the normal load and at significantly higher speeds could easily amount to five times what a normal hod carrier would do.
• http://store.historicimages.com/products/ksc15119 - contains another photo of Mr Quartermain, adds the detail that he drove Rolls Royce and was entertaining job offers from construction managers in the USA.
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8715505.stm - shows the guy standing next to what is presumably the afore-mentioned car.
• http://fred67.com/focus.html - a poem written in the guy's honor! He was famous in the mid-1970's because he earned more than the Prime Minister and seemed to have gotten there by sheer focussed hard work.
• There are lots of other articles about him - but they all repeat the same basic information with minor embellishments.

I found various forum posts about "What happened to Super Hod?" - but no actual answers. The consensus is that he eventually stopped carrying the hod and instead sub-contracted plastering jobs...but this is far from certain. There was also talk that the housing price squeeze of the 1980's reduced demand for his services. Since he wasn't a brick carrier - but a plaster specialist, the switch from rendered and plastered walls to plaster-board (aka drywall, aka sheet-rock) would certainly have curtailed his value.

Conclusion: Yes, at least one person with the nickname "Super-Hod" carried three times the normal load for a hod-carrier - and by running everywhere managed to do the work of 5 men - and was paid accordingly. HOWEVER, he seems to have carried loads of plaster - not bricks...which throws suspicion on your friend who seems to be talking about bricks (which are also carried in a hod - but not by Maxie Quartermain). We also know that in 1975, he was 33 years old - so now he'd be in his early 70's.

What we don't know: (a) Was this nickname later applied to other workers who worked similarly hard but carried bricks instead? (b) Is the friend you have one of those people, or is your friend Mr Maxie Quartermain?

SteveBaker (talk) 13:08, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Bricks is what the OP said not plaster! I go back to my post ibid. Wikipedia editors have been granted free access to Highbeam (in return for their souls) and (for those to poor to purchase their own copy on the Guinness book of records...).Superhod Russell Bradley of Worcester lugged bricks weighing 361lb 9oz up a 12 foot ladder in 1991. Including the hod, the total weight was 456lb 6oz. … --Aspro (talk) 20:33, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Yeah - could be. But that guy really isn't widely known by the name "Super Hod" - that one line in one article is the only reference that he was ever called that - and it sounds like more of a description than an actual nickname by which he was known. We also don't know whether he routinely carried this larger number during his regular work. Also, wouldn't the OP's friend have mentioned that he won Britain's Strongest Man rather than how much he earned carrying bricks around? Weird - but our OP has enough information to know which (if either) of these two people is the person he knows. SteveBaker (talk) 04:29, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

I agree in part, The OP could help by coming back with more info. The OP's location suggest he may be an ex-pat. Also, since he doesn’t give his age I am only presuming that he remembers "Super Hod" Russell Bradley being featured on UK television. He had his hod bespoked for him …. FOR BRICKS. You said “We also don't know whether he routinely carried this larger number during his regular work.” Fair comment but the TV thingy pointed out that in between entering competitions he had to earn a living, which he did be carrying more bricks than anyone else on his bespoked hod . Now OK, he might have have had more than one hod but it remains verifiable that he did what the Guinness book of records said he did and He-Carried -BRICKS. As Russ Bradley (according to WP has not yet gone to that great bricklayer in the sky), I think he may be able to throw a ton of bricks on your point (pun intended).--Aspro (talk) 21:32, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

dandelion

If a dandelion seed was put into a large pot on it's own, and regularly weeded for other plants, how big would the dandelion get? Would it just grow and grow until it filled the entire pot, or does it have a size limit coded into its genome? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pizzxx7 (talk • contribs) 10:31, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

It's a perennial root system that flowers annually, at least in the wild. Like your typical houseplant, the roots should be able to grow until the pot becomes "rootbound". If you get the right type of dandelion, you could harvest the leaves and make salads. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:17, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Note that the OP is yet another blocked sock. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:31, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Blocked or not. I think I can answer this. As a kid I grew dandelions in good rich soil. And they do grow bigger. You ask why? Because, when they grew you put a large flower-pots over them to blanch the leaves -for salad. If you did not, then without the competition from other weeds they grew really big. So yes. In a pot without competition they will grow bigger (than say on a lawn). If you don't blanch them, the leaves can/will taste bitter, so leave those in the ground until autumn. Then dig up the roots, dry them, and make dandelion coffee.--Aspro (talk) 17:49, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia

How did the Wikipedia userbase manage to usurp power from Jimbo Wales and turn him into a powerless figurehead? Surely as the owner and bill-payer of the Wikipedia server he could simply pull the plug at any time — Preceding unsigned comment added by CareerSoat (talk • contribs) 12:52, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Your characterization of the situation is way off-base. Nobody "usurped" Jimbo - he set up the system from the outset to be run by the editors themselves and handed over the financial reins to form a public charity in 2003. He did this to avoid the growing financial burden on his own (for-profit) business - not because anyone took it from him. Since 2003, he neither owns Wikipedia, nor pays any of the bills here.

The servers for Wikipedia and it's sister projects belong to the Wikimedia Foundation (Sue Gardner is the executive director, Jan-Bart de Vreede is chairman of the board) - and the software and essentially all of the content (except the Wikipedia logo!) is licensed under an open license - so even if the WikiMedia Foundation decided to commit corporate suicide by "pulling the plug", any of the bazillion existing mirror sites out there could pick it all up and carry on in a matter of days. Jimbo is only one of ten board members who vote on issues relating to Wikimedia - his position is as an "emeritus" board member - so he's the only member of the board who isn't voted in...although I think he could (in principle) be voted out.

Financial ties with Jimbo Wales and his other businesses have been severed for years - WikiMedia (and hence Wikipedia) is funded by public contributions and charitable grants. You can read the rules under which WikiMedia Foundation operates here. You can see that Jimbo is not remotely able to dictate any "plug-pulling".

That said, Jimbo still wields considerable power here just because people respect him and his vision - and because he gives presentations and hosts discussions about Wikipedia and it's sister projects around the world - so that he is undoubtedly the public face of Wikipedia. When Jimbo says something, people listen - but they don't have to listen - and he is frequently overruled or ignored. He is, however, a figurehead - and ignoring Jimbo tends to bring a ton of attention from other editors who tend to side with his point of view.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:34, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

As a point of clarification, User:LilaTretikov / Lila Tretikov was possibly the executive director at the time of your comment above. If not, she is almost definitely by now or if really not, should be soon. (She was due to take over on the 1st June 2014 which since there isn't even UTC−13:00, let alone UTC−14:00, it was thoroughout the world during the time of your message. But may be she didn't start at midnight instead some time later. However since it's nearly 5pm in San Francisco, it seems unlikely she hasn't started by now. Of course since the 1st is a Sunday, I would guess she didn't do much officially.) [1] Nil Einne (talk) 00:02, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Note that the OP is yet another sock of somebody or other, now indef'd. However, the information posted above is useful, so no hat. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:07, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Navvies

Did the public care that much about navvies dying by the bucket load during construction projects of 19th century? Dosxexe (talk) 14:15, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Define "care that much". Accidents can happen in most any engineering project. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:46, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Death in the workplace was a common occurrence, for instance the Hartley Colliery Disaster killed 204 men in one go. I suspect that several British miners were killed every day without any disaster. Sailors, fishermen, builders, foundry men and many other trades were prone to the most gruesome accidents. My grandfather's first job as an apprentice on a sailing ship was to look after a man who had fallen out of the rigging and took 15 hours to die. Women who made matches went down like flies with phossy jaw, for which the only treatment was amputation of the lower jaw. So I think people accepted that many jobs were dangerous, but that was the way it was. A modern parallel might be that many drivers accept that 35,000 road users are killed a year in the United States, but complain about restrictive measures designed to reduce this. There were moves to improve things, Lord Shaftesbury pushed through legal regulation designed to protect women and children, and by the end of the century, laws like the Workmen's Compensation Act 1897 meant that bosses had to compensate their injured employees. There were similar moves in Germany and the US. This book review has more details. Alansplodge (talk) 17:25, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The OP is yet another blocked sock. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:29, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

I hereby appoint you Sockfinder General. Alansplodge (talk) 20:52, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Electricity

Is it true that in some parts of America they still use DC electricity as mains electricity instead of AC electricity? Also how is it that hillbilly families can live in the same house for generations without working or paying any bills? Does it have something to do with the American Civil War? Ccdvscmos (talk) 14:53, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Who says they don't work or pay any bills? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:55, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

As to the first question, High-voltage direct current would seem to be the answer, and it would seem to be mostly or solely a European thing. Of course, everyone uses direct current if they have any appliances in their house, as the AC is converted to DC for the appliance. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:58, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Only for low-voltage equipment, using a Switched-mode power supply. Do you still have high-current rectifiers in the US? Dbfirs 09:12, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

The OP is yet another blocked sock. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:28, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Common house appliances that comprise an AC motor, Fluorescent lamp, Incandescent light bulb or electric heater involve no conversion of AC to DC. The article War of Currents describes the replacement of domestic DC by AC mains supplies throughout America. A remnant 110V DC supply in part of Boston damaged many small appliances (typically hair dryers and phonographs) used by Boston University students, who ignored warnings about the electricity supply. By 2007 the last direct-current distribution by Con Edison was shut down. 84.209.89.214 (talk) 20:08, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Folks I knew who worked at Consolidated Edison in NYC said that their DC customer had motors, pumps, ventilating fans and elevators which worked so well on DC that they resisted replacing them with new AC equipment. DC distribution continued for many decades after Westinghouse, Tesla and AC won the "War of the Currents" over Thomas Edison in the 1890's. The 19th or early 20th century motors were rewound and new brushes and bearings were installed as needed. If I recall correctly, the high quality hotel where Tesla lived at his demise in 1943 still had DC coming from the outlets. A light bulb or an "all-American" tube table radio or a fan with a universal motor worked fine on either. The fluorescent lights of the era or anything with a transformer , or an induction motor, would have required AC. Toward the end of the DC era, the utility distribution lines were converted to AC but rectifiers were provided at each building. The NYC utility stopped maintaining the rectifiers recently as stated by 84.209.89.214, but possibly some dead-ender customers took over the maintenance for rectifiers for some of the building equipment. A motor- generator would have been a simple and tested way to operate AC equipment from DC mains for low power AC equipment: 120 DC in, 120 AC out. Customers loved the reliability of the old style DC grid in a central business district, due to the high reliability, and because it was easy to have a large battery bank to power the grid during outages of the feed from the generating station. From the 1930's onward there were introduced low voltage AC network grids providing 120/208 or 480 volt supply to downtown buildings, with dozens of 12 kv feeders and with the transformer secondaries all tied together via network protectors to achieve decades between outages. The ampacity of the AC secondary network mains might be 50,000 amps, so faults would burn clear. Edison (talk) 02:00, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

How do people living near time zone boundaries deal with frequent crossings between time zones?

How do people living near time zone boundaries deal with frequent crossings between time zones? --173.49.79.20 (talk) 16:44, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

It's a royal pain. You always have to specify the time zone any time you plan anything. If they are mostly in one time zone, then they might assume that to be the default, and specify when they mean the other time zone. This is why time zone boundaries often detour around major cities. China even tries to use one time zone even though it should use about 5 or 6, based on geography.

Internet and teleconferencing meetings have this problem even worse. I think it's time to abandon local time zones and all use UTC. StuRat (talk) 18:43, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Time zone boundaries are drawn following the boundaries of countries and their subdivisions to minimise local disruption, see Lists of time zones. Astronauts orbiting in the ISS use UTC time and ideally synchronise their sleeping cycles with controllers. German occupiers during WW2 imposed their own time in countries such as France (which previously used GMT) and the Netherlands (which previously observed "Amsterdam Time", which was twenty minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time). Since then both countries continue to use CET (Central European Time). 84.209.89.214 (talk) 19:38, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The towns of Coolangatta, Queensland and Tweed Heads, New South Wales are so close, they even share the same main street. One side is in NSW, the other side Queensland. The latter state has chosen not to participate in daylight saving time, while NSW does. So, for about 5 months of the year, it's one time on one side of the main street, and an hour earlier or later across the road. This must be an absolute boon for businesspersons, families, travellers, and humans in general, and is one of the obvious advantages of having states rather than the federal government have jurisdiction over such matters. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:48, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The Canadian city of Lloydminster seems to be much more sensible. The city straddles the border between the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta—a problem because Alberta observes daylight savings time (DST) and Saskatchewan does not. The city's charter specifically makes provision for Lloydminster to follow Alberta's use of DST, even in the parts of the city on the Saskatchewan side of the border. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:54, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Some wish it were that simple here. The cities of Albury, NSW and Wodonga, Victoria straddle the Murray River. Although they're not nearly as close as the two I mentioned above, they do form a more or less unified economy. But they come under different state and local government jurisdictions (DST itself has never been an issue between these 2 states). There was a move back in the early 2000s to have them declared a single city for governance and other purposes while remaining legally parts of different states, but there were so many constitutional hurdles, the plan never got off the ground. OTOH, Broken Hill is well and truly within NSW, but uses the Australian Central Standard Time rather than Eastern Standard Time. Presumably that was merely an agreement between NSW and South Australia to allow the time zone boundary to be more interesting than straight. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:45, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

It's a pain in the butt is what it is. I live in Indiana, which has one of the more screwy systems. People who live near big cities tend to use the time that it is in that city regardless of what the rest of the state does. For instance, if you live near Chicago or Louisville. They practice daylight savings time in some counties and not in others, which makes it difficult. At least one capital case in Indiana used an alibi busting time phone call as evidence of guilt that was later determined to be a flawed report because the defendant lived straddling the time zones. Bali88 (talk) 00:31, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

s:Page:Bradshaw's Monthly (XVI).djvu/19

What are the current/last known names of the Wallsall and Wolverhampton mentioned here?

I don't think they are the modern stations of the same name.

ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 16:58, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Can you post a link to an external online copy please so we can see what you are talking about? Thank you.--TammyMoet (talk) 17:09, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Wikisource - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Bradshaw%27s_Monthly_%28XVI%29.djvu/19

Scans: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bradshaw%27s_Monthly_%28XVI%29.djvu

I was trying to reconcile the figures shown in the tables (which in respect of the fractions aren't readable.), It's proving trickier than it looks.

(Nobody here has access to the Bradshw concerned to get better scans? :( )

In 1843, those would have been stations of the Grand Junction Railway. I'm not positive, but the Wolverhampton station may have been this one, and the Walsall station may have been this one (called Bescot Bridge station at the time). Deor (talk) 12:57 pm, Today (UTC−7)

Thank you.. That checks out in respect of my own researches off wiki..

Now to figure out where Curzon Street station was in relation to the current New Street. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 22:34, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

The article Curzon Street railway station has its coordinates, which you can click on to see a Google or OS map. It was about a kilometer northeast of New Street station, at the corner of Curzon and New Canal streets. The original 1838 station building still stands on the site. Deor (talk) 09:27, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Certain Song played in the movie "The Sacrament "

Hello there, I have watched the movie " The Sacrament". In that movie, a certain song started playing at 20:59 minutes. It was a kind of rap song. The song started when lead actor Joe Swanberg started playing basketball with some boys in playground. What is that song name and who is the artist? Thank you.--180.234.18.232 (talk) 17:37, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

You've already asked this on the Entertainment page. Please don't ask in multiple places. If anyone knows, they'll answer there. Rojomoke (talk) 21:10, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

create a title for a new heading on which I have no information

I am trying to a new subject title, to create a Wikipedia article, however being somewhat new to this particular game, I went around the carousel and was not able to create the article title on "seborrhoeic intertrigo". Can someone please direct me to a more simplified page for directions on how to create that title. Thank you

Wikipedia already has separate articles about Intertrigo an inflammation (rash) of the body folds (adjacent areas of skin) and Seborrheic dermatitis an inflammatory skin disorder affecting the scalp, face, and torso. 84.209.89.214 (talk) 19:01, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Hi Gooseberry4112 (talk, contribs). This sort of question is better placed on the help desk, which answers questions about using Wikipedia. You will probably find that you are unable to create new pages yet, as your account is too new. 86.146.28.105 (talk) 19:03, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Forgetting a language

So long time POW Bowe Bergdahl has just been freed and I've read that he has trouble communicating in English due to being cut off from the English-speaking world for so long. This would make sense to me if he were a child who'd been held captive for five years, but he's been (to my knowledge at least) speaking English exclusively for the first 23 years of his life, far far longer than the years he has spent listening to Arabic exclusively. How can his brain have already forgotten the English language in just five years as an adult? Does he have trouble speaking in any language (which would be understandable if that was really the problem) and the press is merely neglecting to mention that? Or is it really possible to forget a language you've spent the vast majority of your life communicating in when you're in a situation where you only hear another language being spoken for a considerable amount of time? Or is this something that is only specific to psychological trauma? 69.156.170.189 (talk) 19:47, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

He'll pick it back up quickly with immersion assuming no medical condition we can't comment on. I lived as an adult for a six month period of total immersion in Spanish (following a two-year period in which most of my daily communication was in Spanish) and got to the point I dreamt in Spanish, and found myself saying, literally, "How you say in English?" on more than one occasion. (I am a native English speaker, but had also spoken Spanish as a child as well.) I suspect the fact the guy's been in captivity will have a much worse long-term affect than getting back his mother tongue which he spoke into adulthood. If anything, I hope he becomes a very highly paid consultant. μηδείς (talk) 21:11, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

I once spent several months speaking mostly French. More than once someone addressed me in English unexpectedly and I didn't understand it at first. —Tamfang (talk) 07:23, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

I had a colleague from a European country who was on a one-year assignment at our Midwestern office. Months into it, he told me he found he was forgetting his native language. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:59, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Wow, that is interesting. I would imagine the stress of the situation probably played a major role as well as whatever physical and psychological harm that came to him while in captivity. The article Language attrition may help answer some questions you have. My own personal experience with this...my grandmother grew up in a French enclave in America and spoke French exclusively in her home, but moved away when she got married and spoke English exclusively. She would go years between seeing or speaking to other French speakers but seemed to have no issue remembering the language. So certainly it's not an across the board phenomenon. Bali88 (talk) 22:54, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Small point, but the language Bergdahl was exposed to in captivity would have been Pashto, not Arabic. --Xuxl (talk) 08:16, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Or Pashtun, according to this article.[2] One interesting comment, from another former POW, is that he had been forced to keep silent for many months, under threat of death, and found that it took him a while to make his vocal chords work again. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:02, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

No, Pashto. Pashtun people speak Pashto, and about as much Arabic as Icelandic.92.26.130.57 (talk) 10:24, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Are there any really good shows of any kind of an Art of War by Sun Tzu nature?

Like really tactical, strategic, manipulation, psychological thriller, chess game kind of theme, presnt day, conspiracy, counter conspiracy, ambush, counter ambush, intelligence, counter intelligence gathering, how to identify spys/ anti military strike teams/ conspirators and their methods and how to turn them on themselves without them knowing it, and to disappear from their radar within a matter of seconds and stay disappeared for any length of time meaning any where from 1 day to 10 years.

Examples: The Unit, Death Note, A clear and present danger, the good sheperd, spy game, jack reacher, the bourne series, shooter, sherlock holmes and sherlock holmes a game of shadows with Robert downey jr., tinker tailor soldier spy, enemy of the state.

Tv shows and movies such as these. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.194.228.242 (talk) 20:47, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

• For political conspiracies, try House of Cards. So far I've only seen the British series, which I loved, but I am also looking forward to viewing the American (Netflix) remake.

• On the spy side, there's Spooks ("MI-5" in the US and elsewhere), although those British spies often seem incompetent in that series, to me.

• Burn Notice is a good American spy series, since the narrator/main character often explains the thought processes behind each move. I believe Leverage may be similar, but I've not yet seen it.

• As far as movies go, you might try The Hunt for Red October, although it's not quite contemporary and more on the military side. StuRat (talk) 15:57, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

House of Cards is about political manipulation; it only touches on a few aspects of the things the OP mentioned. More like "The Prince" than "The Art of War". Matt Deres (talk) 16:47, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

It rises beyond mere political manipulation, to murder, for example: "Well, we all have to go sometime". (But, of course, so does Machiavelli's "The Prince".) StuRat (talk) 13:32, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Leverage is goofy and implausible in the extreme. It's entertaining, but has nothing to say about the real world. It's kind of like a cross between NCIS:LA and LA Law as written by the writers of The Simpsons. μηδείς (talk) 22:08, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Paying into a Cuban cellphone account from the US

According to the ETECSA website it is possible for people in the US to make a payment towards a Cuban cell phone account by a transfer of fUnds, which involves providing ETECSA with your routing number, account number, name and address. English Overview. I'd like to pay against an account (supposedly you only need the payee's cell phone number, which I have) but i do not wish the Cuban state phone service to have any personal information of mine.

Western Union says they do make anonymous payments against foreign bills, but Cuba's ETECSA and Cubacel (its branch company) are not companies they deal with at all. My bank has said such anonymous transfers are possible, but they said they could not do so in this case.

Can anyone suggest a third party through which it would be possible to make an anonymous payment against a Cuban cell phone account, or any method that would have a similar result? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 21:05, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Assisting you with transferring funds in accordance with the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, Title 31 Part 515 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations would constitute providing legal advise. Assisting you with circumventing the restrictions therein would constitute a conspiracy, neither of which I am prepared to do presently. 212.69.8.2 (talk) 23:20, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

Besides a troll and a single purpose account, you're a hoot, IP 212, that's what you are. I am entirely unconcerned with the law or evading it, especially since any agency I use will be an American bank or an agency owned by the Cuban regime. I simply know, from related professional experience, that Americans make such payments in huge amounts, and have done so legally and for over a decade, but the available online means are unclear instructionwise. But I believe I have found a workable 3rd party method. In the meantime, real answers from non-puppets are still welcome. μηδείς (talk) 04:36, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Email me from a non-single-purpose account if the answer to how to achieve this interests you. μηδείς (talk) 21:41, 2 June 2014 (UTC)

Resolved