Welcome to the miscellaneous section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.
Select a section:
Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

  • Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
  • Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
  • Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
  • Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
  • Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
  • Note:
    • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
    • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
    • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
    • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.



How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

  • The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
See also:


November 24

edit

US clothing requirements circa 1914

edit

I'm reading about the California Impressionists circa 1914, and I can't get over the photos of these artists painting en plein air in full, three-piece suits. To my eyes in 2024, it seems absolutely ridiculous, but I am curious about the social conventions behind this. Was it considered improper for a "gentleman" to paint outside in a shirt and shorts? Why? And who was behind enforcing this? The whole thing makes no sense to me. Viriditas (talk) 21:02, 24 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Appearing in your shirt without a jacket was definitely the mark of a labourer in the 19th-century. A saying was "From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations" which meant that the wealth accumulated by one generation was likely to be squandered by their grandchildren. [1] This formality was a long time in passing; in the City of London office where I started work in the 1970s, a business suit was required for males and you were expected to put on your jacket if you were meeting a customer or even a manager (there was no air conditioning). Alansplodge (talk) 22:55, 24 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
This photo was taken in 1874. He's sitting in the full Hawaiian sun with a suit on. You can't really tell, but it looks like a wool suit to me. All of this forced discomfort because they don't want to appear working class? It's really hard to believe and wrap my mind around. "Let's be as uncomfortable as possible because other people might think we work for a living." Makes no sense, sorry. I get that these strange ideas are passed along from generation to generation, but at some point you have to just say, "this is crazy, I don't care what people think". So why didn't people do that? Viriditas (talk) 23:33, 24 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
There was a picture of Richard Nixon, from the late 1950s or so, showing him walking on a beach, while wearing a full business suit. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots00:03, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
This one? But you know I'm not too sure what he's wearing for a jacket there, it seems to have a zipper, and to be made of a different material. That's more apparent in color photos, such as this one where he is being troubled by a Yorkshire terrier.  Card Zero  (talk) 11:14, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Those jackets are super comfortable. I went through a vintage clothing phase in the 1980s (it was a thing before it was a thing) and got to wear a lot of old clothing, from the 1920s all the way up to the 1970s, and those Nixon jackets were everywhere. I can't remember what they were called, but when you wore them, there was a military and sporty aesthetic involved. The only thing I don't like about those jackets is that every time you sit down or stand up from a seated position, the versions of that jacket with an elastic waistband tend to bunch up and you have to adjust the jacket. I can't tell if Nixon's has the elastic or not. Viriditas (talk) 19:48, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
The Picard Maneuver. (See section 3.2.) --142.112.149.206 (talk) 10:20, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
I didn't even have to look; I've watched enough Trek to know exactly what you meant. Viriditas (talk) 10:43, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Cultural expectations are very powerful, much more so than mere laws. Not only does one feel pressure from one's peers to conform, and expect their disapproval if one were to break a cultural norm, one absorbs them at a subconscious level and feels internally uncomfortable at breaking them.
I (born in the 1950s) was brought up in a culture (the UK) which expected male office workers at all levels to wear a suit (waistcoat optional) at work, and personally felt uncomfortable not doing so up until the mid 1980s, after which I transitioned to wearing (usually) a sports jacket given the choice, but several subsequent employers required me to wear a suit until around 2010, and expectation of a suit at, for example, job interviews are still widespread.
One of the reasons one sees men of the pre-WW2 era wearing suits outdoors is (I suggest) that most of them probably didn't even possess any less 'formal' (by modern standards) wear designed specifically for wearing outdoors/in public. If one is acclimatised to always wearing a particular type of clothes, their feel becomes the norm rather than 'uncomfortable', and it might never even occur to one that another, unfamiliar style might be 'more comfortable.' One of the reasons that Lawrence of Arabia won the trust of the Arabs he worked with was that he, very unusually, adopted their (climate-appropriate) dress rather than sticking to English style clothing as almost all others did.
L. P. Hartley wrote "The past is a different country, they do things differently there." I wonder how many things you, Viriditas, do today unthinkingly that people in the 22nd century will find ridiculous or inexplicable? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.211.243 (talk) 05:24, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
What I was getting at has more to do with the sense of Victorian morality and its influence on fashion. But you raise a good point about climate-appropriate dress. Why does it seem that form wins out over function until about the 1960s? Viriditas (talk) 09:47, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
We lack an article about Station (sociological concept). It used to hold a powerful psychological grip on people, rather like Face (sociological concept). In 1669, Samuel Pepys had a new suit with gold lace and a "coloured camelott tunique". He was "afeard to be seen in it", not because he'd look like an idiot, but "because it was too fine". He worries about it on May 1st, and again on May 2nd, and still doesn't dare wear it. About 150 years before that, a startup was a kind of shoe (not to be confused with booting). Wiktionary has an etymology based on its height up the leg: actually many examples were only ankle-high. But note that one of the quotes is from ‎‎‎‎A Quip for an Upstart Courtier, and another meaning of the word is the same as upstart. These are shoes that a peasant maybe shouldn't wear, because they're slightly too nice, and above the peasant's station. Back in 1669, on May 10th, Pepys is vexed by remarks a friend makes about how fine his coach is, and this friend "advises me to avoid being noted for it, which I was vexed to hear taken notice of, it being what I feared and Povy told me of my gold-lace sleeves in the Park yesterday, which vexed me also", and so he resolves never to appear in the royal court with the sleeves, and in fact has them cut off. Presumably if he went around dressed above his station - tricky to calculate - he risks social shunning, and wouldn't get his dream job (for instance, starting the Royal Navy, becoming a member of parliament, and being president of the Royal Society). This is clearly a load of bullshit: such appointments shouldn't depend on wearing the right amount of gold lace. Round about 1800, men seem to finally grasp this, and we have the Great Male Renunciation, which is where the custom of wearing sober suits in muted colors begins. Note that they were functional and practical, at the time, compared to what went before. But men are still really stupidly worried about what their clothes are asserting about their station in life, even with all the gold ornaments taken off and the color subdued, and this continues for another hundred years, at least. On the one day he actually dared to wear his fancy suit, Sam Pepys records: "This day I first left off both [!] my waistcoats by day, and my waistcoat by night, it being very hot weather, so hot as to make me break out, here and there, in my hands, which vexes me to see, but is good for me." People thought suffering in hot weather was healthy? To quote the great sage Butt-Head, "I don't know, maybe they're stupid". Clothes denoted status because cloth was expensive, hence the ruff, a display of cramming as much cloth as physically possible around one's neck. And these status-through-amount-of-cloth-worn anxieties are very old, and go back to the social status obsessed Romans, and the voluminous toga.  Card Zero  (talk) 10:28, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Subscribe. Viriditas (talk) 10:45, 26 November 2024 (UTC)</ref>Reply
Apparently, some Englishmen (with or without their mad dogs) emigrated to Hawaii. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:36, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Let's help everyone out with a link. Viriditas (talk) 09:32, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
I think that you might get used to being hot because of lots of clothes. If you've been brought up wearing multiple woolen layers in the summer, then it would be normal, whereas modern children are used to running around in shorts and T-shirts.
The French Army in both World Wars required their soldiers to wear a heavy woollen greatcoat all year around, which would be a lot hotter than a suit.
Alansplodge (talk) 18:44, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
I think Laurie Lee mentions in Cider With Rosie that farm labourers would add an extra layer to keep the heat of the sun out. And I remember farmworkers wearing cardigans, jacket, and tie in blazing hot weather. DuncanHill (talk) 19:19, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
They still do in Hawaii. It's odd to see if you're not used to it. I may have some old photos somewhere. Viriditas (talk) 19:44, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
In the 1980s I worked for a small software house in Cambridge (the original Cambridge, not a foreign imitation) and we had no dress code (and, of course, people were responsible, and dressed appropriately if they were meeting visitors etc). We were acquired by a large US-based company, and I was posted to a facility near the headquarters for a few months in 1990. I knew that their dress code was shirt and tie, and that wasn't a problem. My first week there, they told me about dress-down Friday, and I honestly thought they were pranking me, because it was such a self-evidently bonkers idea. Either the management cared about your comfort or they didn't: what was the point of casual dress one day a week? ColinFine (talk) 11:59, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
All of this forced discomfort because they don't want to appear working class? It's really hard to believe and wrap my mind around. "Let's be as uncomfortable as possible because other people might think we work for a living. I think even a lot of working-class people wore suits back in the day. Wearing a suit of that sort (even when it was uncomfortable or climatically inappropriate) was I think more just due to social conventions about what was respectable, than a way to demonstrate that you didn't work for a living. Iapetus (talk) 12:50, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Well, it's plausible that the "social conventions about what was respectable" began as a way to signal that one wasn't a labourer. See also blue-collar worker. Alansplodge (talk) 22:33, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

1930s leukemia treatment

edit

Were there treatments for leukemia in the 1930s? 86.130.15.246 (talk) 21:50, 24 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the newly discovered X-ray was used to treat leukemia. Doctors found that radiation therapy worked best against chronic leukemias, but it was useless against acute types. X-rays could provide months or even years of remission for people with chronic leukemia, but the disease would always return.

The first medications for leukemia grew out of the horrors of World War I, when it was discovered that the chemical weapon mustard gas suppressed the production of blood cells.


  • Wolpert, Jessica (April 28, 2021). "The History of Leukemia Explained". www.myleukemiateam.com. --136.56.165.118 (talk) 05:14, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
No. Mustard gas#Development of the first chemotherapy drug says it was trialled in 1942, and eventually (when?) entered clinical use as chlormethine.  Card Zero  (talk) 17:24, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
According to History of Radiation Therapy Technology, radiotherapy was first used on a leukemia patient in 1903. Alansplodge (talk) 18:36, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
According to Chlormethine § History the effect of mustard gas on bone marrow and white blood cells had been known since the First World War. Further chemical and biological research led in 1935 to the discovery of a related family of chemicals with nitrogen substituting for sulfur was discovered – the "nitrogen mustards" and the synthesis of chlormethine. World War II research led to clinical trials for use in chemotherapy. The research could only be published in 1946. There is no contradiction, but the path leading from the chemical weapon of WWI to the drug that became available after WWII is not straight.  --Lambiam 18:38, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
In The Waltons episode The Gift, Jason's best friend Seth was stricken with leukemia and had only a year to live. They mentioned there was no cure and did not mention treatments. 86.130.15.246 (talk) 22:37, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

November 25

edit

USPS tracking number

edit

Last week I ordered a small item on ebay and the seller (through ebay) sent me a tracking link that forwards to a usps.com tracking page. The message said the item should show up in tracking within a few hours, but that was 4 or 5 days ago and it's still not there. The tracking number is 31 digits starting "00040106..." which doesn't look like a USPS tracking number to me. I think I have seen 4010... tracking numbers before, but don't remember where. USPS ones seem to usually start with 9 though maybe not always.

Anyway it seems like too many digits. USPS, UPS, DHL, and Fedex don't recognize the number, with or without the leading 0's removed. Does anyone have any idea? Ebay makes it quite difficult to contact the seller since I checked out as "guest" rather than logging in. It wants me to either create an account to contact the seller (I don't want to do that since I already have an account) or log into my existing one (I can't for now, because of computer issues that aren't relevant here). So I'm asking for any wisdom about either ebay or about tracking number formats.

I do know that some shippers are doing a thing where they send the package by DHL to a post office near the recipient, and USPS brings it to the person's door. That might be the case with this package. It has become quite expensive to send small items by normal USPS methods.

Thanks -- 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:6B00 (talk) 20:41, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

I don't know that Wikipedia can be of much specific help here, but you might try putting your tracking number into a "global tracker" that runs the search through multiple carriers. I often use 17track (can't link to it) for tracking international orders into Canada. It's also possible that your seller (or eBay itself) created a shipping label and tracking number for the item but the seller hasn't actually shipped it yet. You probably will have to contact the seller to resolve this, which means you probably will have to create a throwaway account if you don't want to use your existing account. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 20:47, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thanks, I tried 17track and it said something about Pitney Bowes creating the label. Yeah it's probably not shipped yet. I am reluctant to make a throwaway ebay account because the guest checkout had my name/address/cc# which match the ones in my existing account, and the two accounts might trigger their security alerts. I can't login to my normal account right now because the computer I use for that is broken and I have to fix or replace it. If the thing is simply pending shipping, it's no big deal. It's a $4 computer part and I can just buy another one locally for now, and maybe eventually have a spare. I was sort of hoping for an answer like "4010... is a tracking number for XYZ and it means [whatever]" but that would have been too good. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:6B00 (talk) 21:17, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
The way it works is the seller prints a label and a tracking number is created. It does not mean that the item has shipped. It may never ship. It only means a label was created. For small sellers, it is expected that they make a shipping trip once a week. So a few days wait is normal. It will register shipped when actually shipped. If the seller is in a foreign country, the item won't show as shipped until it is in the domestic shipping system. I've had packages from China get a tracking number right after I ordered, but aren't listed as shipped for months because it apparently was sent through a bulk service by boat that waits for a container to be full until it is loaded on a ship and then has to get unloaded and sorted before showing up in the shipping system. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 01:08, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
So a slow boat from China, rather than to it, literally. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:35, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

If anyone cares, the package arrived a couple days ago, but never showed up in the online tracking system. The tracking link still says no such package even now. The label on the package has some numbers on it, that don't resemble the supposed tracking number even slightly. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:C426 (talk) 02:27, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

November 26

edit

Aviation: Who designed these 2 liveries?

edit
 
Kuwait Airways' current livery applied on an Airbus A330-800neo
 
MEA's 2008-2021 livery applied on an Airbus A330-200

Hello. Who are the designers behind Kuwait Airways' current livery and MEA's livery from 2008 to 2021? I had researched but I could not find any answer. The closest leads were a newsroom article that celebrated the delivery of MEA's first Airbus A330[1] and a Kuwait Times article that celebrated the delivery of Kuwait Airways' first Boeing 777-300ER[2]. Both of the articles mentioned that the delivered airplanes were the first ones of the 2 airlines with the aforementioned liveries; however, the articles did not reveal the designer(s)/design agency behind the liveries. I would appreciate if someone did the research and/or knew the designers.FSlolhehe (talk) 21:47, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

References

November 27

edit

Race and ethnicity

edit

Why most Eastern European countries collect data on race and ethnicity but most Western European countries do not? And of Western European countries, why however UK and Ireland collect such data, despite having similar immigrant populations to rest of Western Europe? Which is the reason for that? --40bus (talk) 20:05, 27 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Do they? Nanonic (talk) 20:09, 27 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
What's the basis of your premise? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots21:18, 27 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
I have wondered that in recent times. I find odd that UK and Ireland collect, whereas other Western European countries do not? --40bus (talk) 06:07, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
What's the basis of your claim? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots12:53, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
The French Republic is officially colorblind making collection of data on "race" and "ethnicity" (whatever those might mean) essentially impossible and in many contexts illegal. I've heard, but cannot confirm, that this is in large part due to the sorry history of the use of certain ethnic data during the second world war. 2A01:E0A:CBA:BC60:78A5:3BD8:C150:36D (talk) 14:32, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
I would have thought it has a lot more to do with the principle of laïcité. See Secularism in France. --Viennese Waltz 14:40, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
However, census data was used by the Nazis to identify Jewish people in Germany and occupied European countries including France; see The dark side of census collections. Alansplodge (talk) 22:28, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
In 1941, french social security numbers had an extra digit added 1 and 2 [depending on sex] designate French citizens including Jews, 3 and 4 “Natives of Algeria and all French subject colonies, with the exception of Jews”, 5 and 6 “Indigenous Jews French subjects », 7 and 8 “foreigners including Jews”. Not our finest hour. 78.244.166.180 (talk) 00:47, 29 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
From a European perspective, I'd guess the whole concept of "race" feels a bit fuzzy. There might also be historical reasons. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 16:39, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
In the UK, race and ethnicity data is collected by institutions in order to demonstrate that the services they provide are available to, or used by, customers of varying origins in proportion to the incidence of those origins in the general population (or the target need's population). It is driven by anti-discrimination legislation. -- Verbarson  talkedits 18:55, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Reliable sources

edit

Is the NRA (National Rifle Association) considered a reliable source for firearm topics? They issue a magazine that I get and was wondering if they could be used. If you have any questions or need more information just let me know. User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 20:35, 27 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

The best place to ask this question is at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard.  --Lambiam 14:46, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Ok thank you for your answer. I will ask there then. User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 20:41, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

November 28

edit

Clock questions

edit
  1. Does 12-hour clock have a written numeric form in any of continental European countries? Does it have a written numeric form in Finnish, Polish, Italian and Swedish, for example?
  2. How do English speakers say leading zero of times such as 01:15?
  3. Why does English not use word "clock" in expressions of time? Why is it not "Clock is five" but "It is five"? --40bus (talk) 06:21, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply


2. Usually we do not when the context is clear, and if it isn't we would usually add ". . . a.m." or ". . . in the morning." In some contexts (for example, in relation to a train or similar timetable) we might say "Oh-one fifteen"; "Zero-one fifteen" would be understood but is not usual. In a militarily related context "One-fifteen Zulu" might be used (my father, a retired soldier, sometimes uses this convention when talking to me).
3. We do. The usual expression is "It is five o'clock"; "It's five" is also used in hasty or informal conversation when the context is clear. However, this only applies to 'on the hour' times; we normally say "It's five-thirty" or "It's half-past five, for example. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.211.243 (talk) 07:15, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
To clarify o'clock is an abbreviation for "of the clock", used in English since the 15th-century. Alansplodge (talk) 22:20, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
3. The expression is not "Clock is five" for the same reason one does not say "Thermometer is 40 degrees". The measuring instrument is not the measurement. One can say, "The clock shows five in the morning."[2]  --Lambiam 14:42, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Although not "it's 40 o'thermometer".  Card Zero  (talk) 17:17, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
Although some say "40 degrees on the mercury", like this for example. Alansplodge (talk) 23:04, 28 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
For the same reason, there's no such thing as a hot or cold temperature. Temperature is a pure number with no attributes. What's hot or cold is the thing you're measuring. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 21:06, 29 November 2024 (UTC)Reply
That's a matter of opinion. And temperature has units rather than being a pure number. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 23:28, 1 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Correction noted. But it's still wrong to refer to a hot or cold temperature. We can talk of temperatures being high or low, but not hot or cold. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 10:55, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 2

edit

Viktor Yanukovych overthrown by the US?

edit

Both John Mearscheimer and Jeffrey Sachs have said that Viktor Yanukovych was overthtrown by the US. I browsed the Viktor Yanukovych article and a few related articles, but I could not see any support for this. Did I miss something? Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 15:26, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

They can say what they like. Wikipedia articles are based on WP:Reliable sources. Are there any reliable sourcces that say this? Shantavira|feed me 19:14, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Had I found any reliable sources, I would not have had to ask here.

I would like to add that both of them usually have good and reliable references in the books I have read, but neither of them have written any books written about this. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 19:45, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Who are those guys? Are they pro-Russia? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots19:17, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
John Mearsheimer (presumably), Jeffrey Sachs. --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:47, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thank you, I have corrected the spelling to John Mearscheimer, Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 20:06, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mearsheimer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 19:48, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
If it was done secretly, we wouldn't have access to reliable sources, now would we? Clarityfiend (talk) 01:16, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
It depends on how reliable you consider Putin to be. :) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots03:29, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Putin is not mentioned. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 08:54, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Now that I look back, they don't mention "secretly". I have corrected this. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 08:52, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

So, one of them had better write a book about it, so I can get some reliable source. I have read several reliable sources that ChatGPT claims to support the thesis with good references, but I find the conclusion to weak to entertain. They mostly seem to focus on individual US representtives supporting the demonstrators in Kiev in 2014, and discussion whom they preferred as a successor ,which indeed they did, but which seems a to me not to be enough for the full accusation. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 11:52, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

In his 2014 essay "Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West's Fault: The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin", Mearsheimer wrote,
Although the full extent of U.S. involvement has not yet come to light, it is clear that Washington backed the coup. Nuland and Republican Senator John McCain participated in antigovernment demonstrations, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, proclaimed after Yanukovych's toppling that it was "a day for the history books." As a leaked telephone recording revealed, Nuland had advocated regime change and wanted the Ukrainian politician Arseniy Yatsenyuk to become prime minister in the new government, which he did. No wonder Russians of all persuasions think the West played a role in Yanukovych's ouster.[3]
This does not (IMO) fit the qualification of a claim of Yanukovych being overthrown by the US, but at best being overthrown with approval by the West and moral support from some US politicians. What are the sources that claim that Mearsheimer claimed something substantially stronger than the quoted passage? What do they state, exactly?  --Lambiam 16:25, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
It's funny to see McCain being characterized as a "liberal". Maybe the author is the one who's deluded. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots16:47, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
In the essay, everyone who is not a realist is considered a liberal.  --Lambiam 08:25, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Bugs, since this is coming from JSTOR it's presumably an academic article. In academic parlance "liberal" does not mean "center-left relative to the Overton window of United States politics". It means liberalism in the broad sense, which covers pretty much the entire US political spectrum prior to Trump, certainly everyone from Reagan to Sanders. --Trovatore (talk) 20:22, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
So "liberal" as in "lover of freedom". I guess you can't be a realist and believe in freedom. :( ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots07:07, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Actually maybe it has a slightly different meaning in this context. Following links from John Mearsheimer took me to anarchy (international relations)#Schools of thought, which contrasts realism, neorealism, liberalism, neoliberalism, and constructivism. In case anyone cares, my own alignment, from a brief reading of the blurbs, would probably be closest to neoliberalism. However I couldn't really follow the "constructivism" description, so who knows; maybe I'd prefer that one if I understood it. --Trovatore (talk) 20:56, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 3

edit

Etiquette

edit

Normally, when you need to pass gas in a public place, you excuse yourself and exit the room. What if you're somewhere where you can't leave spontaneously, like halfway during an interview? TWOrantulaTM (enter the web) 03:18, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Then you just don't. If you have incontinence of flatus see a doctor. Shantavira|feed me 10:06, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Plan ahead. Arrive early. Use the restroom. Check yourself in the mirror. Use the restroom again just in case. Clean your teeth. Fix your hair. Check all your buttons and zippers. Then, start the interview. Overall, it looks much better than being the guy who comes running in at the last second. But, if you have to fart and absolutely cannot help it, you simply do it and politely appologize. Nobody is perfect. Giving a common fault to interviewers is better than letting them dig for weird faults. In the end, it makes you memorable. Nobody will forget the guy who let a big one rip in the middle of an interview. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 16:45, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Snooker

edit

In snooker, what is "a shot to nothing"? 205.239.40.3 (talk) 11:03, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

It's somewhat subjective, but essentially it's a pot taken on with safety in mind: an attempted pot which, if missed, will leave no easy pot for one's opponent. It's quite common at the start of frames, when a player breaks off and leaves a long red to a corner pocket. Instead of committing fully to the pot, the player could play it in such a way that the cue ball will return to the baulk end and be left safe behind the baulk colours. It's defined at Glossary of cue sports terms#S under "shot for nothing", its alternative name. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 11:24, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thank you. I have never heard ""shot for nothing". John Virgo and pals, on the BBC, always say "shot to nothing". 205.239.40.3 (talk) 11:28, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Agreed. In British English, "a shot for nothing" would imply having made a shot for no purpose when one needn't have shot at all, which makes no sense in the context of snooker. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.1.211.243 (talk) 17:55, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 4

edit

Wood

edit

What is the kind of wood that makes wooden planks? Informationappeared (talk) 03:40, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

There are probably hundreds. Common ones are pine, maple, cherry, walnut, teak, oak, kiaat and many more. It will vary from country to country. The are 2 main categories - hardwoods and softwoods. 196.50.199.218 (talk) 05:03, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
The lumber article may be of interest. 196.50.199.218 (talk) 05:06, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
In Europe, nearly all floorboards and general-purpose wood sold in DIY stores is spruce, mostly Norwegian spruce or Sitka spruce - it's known in the timber trade as "white deal", although actually a very pale yellow colour. Scots pine or "red deal" is sometimes also used and can be distinguished by its prominent grain and darker colour (pine kitchen furniture was popular in the 1980s). Larch is used for fence panels, pallets and other purposes where a smooth finish is not required. Alansplodge (talk) 21:30, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Besides spruce, beech is also popular for furniture in Europe. The really heavy furniture designed to last for centuries (i.e., mostly antique by now) is usually made of oak. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:46, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
It appears the user is writing a new draft article for planks, but Wikipedia already has plank (wood). 64.53.18.252 (talk) 22:21, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

19th century American blind schools

edit

Were there blind schools in 19th century America? 81.152.221.213 (talk) 20:09, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Googling "19th century American blind schools" easily found Educating The Senses In The Second Great Awakening which mentions Perkins School for the Blind. Alansplodge (talk) 21:36, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
{ec} Yes, see e.g. [4], [5], [6].  --Lambiam 21:57, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
In the Bonanza episode Gabrielle, the 11 year old title character is blind has never went to school. See the episode on Youtube and the scene of her talking to her foster brother at 25:10 to 26:07. 81.152.221.213 (talk) 23:24, 7 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Stereo balance/phase correlation meter in surround sound

edit

I've finally implemented stereo balance (level difference between left and right channels) and phase correlation (level difference between mid and side representations) metering into my own peakmeter project so I'm wondering, are correlogram/pan meters still useful for surround sound? Basically if you put something like this into my own peakmeter, there are 2 phase correlation and stereo balance meters for each pair in 5.1 and quadraphonic sound when shown. 2001:448A:3070:D641:A0A3:AF2:596E:8A96 (talk) 23:49, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 5

edit

Encoding "rebassed" songs into 2.1 stereo

edit

Why rebassed songs like this one involves replacing bass from original with a "new" one (essentially applying a highpass filter on original signal), instead of encoding the rebassed part into the LFE channel and keeping the original two channels intact (essentially making it a 2.1 stereo)? By 2.1 stereo, I mean 3 separate channels (first two are left and right channels respectively with the last one is dedicated LFE channel). 2001:448A:3070:D641:A0A3:AF2:596E:8A96 (talk) 00:28, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Creating jersey images

edit

I have a personal project for which I'd like to make images of jerseys and put player numbers on them. Basically what WP has on the page for any sports team. I only need the jersey and not pants, socks, etc. The project is for creating digital flashcards. For instance, if I were making a card for Michael Jordan, I'd grab my template of a basketball jersey, change the colors to the appropriate colors for the team, overlap a "23" on the jersey, and save that as an image to use on my flashcard. Optimally, I'd like to have different jersey templates for US sports (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, PWHL, NWSL). How can I do this most easily? As you probably suspected, I have no image manipulation experience. FWIW, I'm on a Mac. Thanks! †dismas†|(talk) 20:53, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

I wonder if Template:Basketball kit helps.
 
 
 
 
{{{title}}}
In theory you could use it (in a sandbox) to produce arbitrary jersey images and take screenshots of the results. But it's gone wrong here, evidently it wants some data from some kind of context. Well, it works fine in a sandbox, just not here.  Card Zero  (talk) 06:36, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
It did not work because of the indentation colons inside the template body. This should work:
 
 
 
 
Example
AFAIK there is no way to overlay the number 23.  --Lambiam 07:41, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thanks. I suppose there's no way to scale these up nicely, either. The number could potentially be added in an image editor (in Impact (typeface), most likely), if imprecise centering is acceptable. There's Category:Kit_and_uniform_templates for other sports.
Using subst: before the template name makes the SVG code visible upon editing, but I can't think of a lazy way to then scale the whole image up to something approaching fullscreen. (This is best done at the SVG stage rather than in a raster editor, to avoid jaggies or blurred edges. An alternative would be to save the svg and open it in Inkscape for scaling and further modification.)
Oh, what am I saying, it's not one SVG, it's CSS with several SVGs arranged within it. Maybe a screenshot followed by crappy raster upscaling is the best way, depending on tolerance for low quality in whatever this project is. Or ... there are upscaling algorithms suitable for simple images that maintain sharp edges, but I'm not sure what software allows their use. Imagemagick?
This whole thing might be a valid use for AI, if you can get it to behave itself.
OTOH the SVGs are on commons, of course: see Kit_body_basketball.svg and the categories that it belongs to (Sports_kit_templates is several levels up from there). And, organized separately in typical Commons style, SVG_association_football_kit_templates.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:20, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Thank you! I'll look into those options. The images don't have to be big. They're going on flashcards, so maybe a few hundred pixels per side. †dismas†|(talk) 13:24, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
I don't really know what a digital flashcard is. If this is for Anki (software), it seems that its flashcards are essentially webpages and would probably accept svg images, making pixel size irrelevant. (Or maybe not, its manual is vague, I can't find a list of supported image formats.)  Card Zero  (talk) 14:54, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Might there be licensing / trademark issues? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots17:46, 6 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
Not for a personal project.  --Lambiam 08:23, 7 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 7

edit

Australian companies

edit

Are there any Australian multinational companies? None comes to mind. There are many American multinational companies, but are there any Australian ones? --40bus (talk) 10:12, 7 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Googling "Australian multinational" suggests numerous companies. Shantavira|feed me 12:18, 7 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
BHP, Bailey Nelson, Boost Juice, Breville Group, CSL Limited, Canva, Commonwealth Bank, Donut King, Gloria Jean's Coffees, Harvey Norman, Incitec Pivot, Lendlease, MYOB (company), Macquarie Group, Ramsay Health Care, The Coffee Club, Westpac, Woolworths Group (Australia), Zambrero.  --Lambiam 22:52, 7 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

December 8

edit

What's the process regarding submitting a record-breaking joke to Guinness World Records?

edit

I'd like for my mother's 600-Bitcoin joke to be submitted to Guinness World Records for the most expensive joke ever told to anyone in the world, because 600 Bitcoin is now worth >$60,000,000.

She told me in 2014 that she had invested 600 Bitcoin in 2011. Years later, getting desperate about figuring out a way out of my student loans, I asked her to cash out a little of her bitcoin investments in order to pay off my loans, and my siblings', because it appreciated so much. She didn't know what I was talking about. So I reminded her about her 600 bitcoin investment claim that she told me in 2014.

Then she said "I was only joking."

Now I wonder whether that was the most expensive joke anyone has ever made in recent history. If there were more expensive jokes than that, may I know about them? But if not, how do I submit that joke to GWR for being the most expensive joke ever? What criteria do jokes have to meet to be recorded on Guinness World Records? Thanks. --2600:100A:B037:56CA:C994:6FC:E8CE:B0CE (talk) 04:08, 8 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

I don't know what you're talking about. How is that an expensive joke? What's expensive about it, anyway? An expensive joke would be a joke that led to some expenditure. --Viennese Waltz 06:39, 8 December 2024 (UTC)Reply
As it happens, I personally own the asteroids in the solar system, no joke. They contain quadrillions worth of gold. Reveal your identity, and I'll bestow all this wealth to you in my will.  --Lambiam 07:43, 8 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Question about the bust of Lenin in the Tallinn City Museum

edit

In this photo I saw a bust of Lenin in the Tallinn City Museum, who know about its origin? -- Great Brightstar (talk) 06:14, 8 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Tallinn City Museum know about its origin. Contact details are on their website. Shantavira|feed me 09:43, 8 December 2024 (UTC)Reply