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December 3

Etiquette

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? TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 03:18, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

Then you just don't. If you have incontinence of flatus see a doctor. Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:06, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

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)

Snooker

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

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)

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)

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)

December 4

Wood

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

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)

The lumber article may be of interest. 196.50.199.218 (talk) 05:06, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

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)

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)

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)

19th century American blind schools

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

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)

{ec} Yes, see e.g. [1], [2], [3].  --Lambiam 21:57, 4 December 2024 (UTC)

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)

The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School, mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie novel By the Shores of Silver Lake, opened in 1852. Clarityfiend (talk) 14:21, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Stereo balance/phase correlation meter in surround sound

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)

December 5

Encoding "rebassed" songs into 2.1 stereo

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)

The OP's example sound-only video is a remix called "rebassed" of a sound-only video popular a decade ago. The normal lossy audio coding on YouTube videos stands in the way of attempts to boost the dynamic ranges of loudness or frequency. The "rebassist" may hope to have increased the song's dramatic effect but I regret that on my audio system his manipulated low frequency tones intrude as unpleasant distortions. I don't see that this "rebassing" example was more than a poorly controlled re-coding of an analog mashup that fails the claim to make bass notes "much louder without any audible distortion". The OP can be correct in proposing that bass tones could be mixed with better control in the dedicated LFE (Low-frequency effects) channel of a 2.1 stereo system. However encoding and reproducing the dramatic result will likely go beyond the capabilities of both YouTube and my ordinary loudspeakers.

After a music recording is produced in a modern studio equipped to balance audio dynamics across the frequency range, a serious listener ("audiophile") can adjust the bass content using the Baxandall bass control (Baxandall, 1952, -6 dB/octave) built into many amplifiers or invest in a multi-band graphic equaliser. Neither action involves irrecoverable distortion or paying a 3rd party to re-record the source sound. Philvoids (talk) 16:31, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

@Philvoids: though YouTube does support 5.1 surround sound so theoretically, you can encode a 2.1 stereo as 5.1 surround (either encoding silence to center and rear channels, or a center part of center-extraction to center channel and a non-center counterpart of the aforementioned extraction to rear channels) if YouTube doesn't support 2.1 stereo (L/R w/ dedicated LFE). 2001:448A:3070:DCCD:D862:849B:9C69:6E43 (talk) 05:18, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Creating jersey images

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Yes. It is for an Anki deck. And yes, SVG is supported. †dismas†|^(talk) 22:23, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Might there be licensing / trademark issues? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:46, 6 December 2024 (UTC)

Not for a personal project.  --Lambiam 08:23, 7 December 2024 (UTC)

I'm not clear. I'm not recreating the uniforms exactly. Using my Michael Jordan example again, I'm just making a red basketball jersey with the number 23. That could be anyone's. Why would I run into any legal issues if it weren't for a personal project? †dismas†|^(talk) 22:26, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

We cannot provide legal advice. Trademark laws vary by jurisdiction. In Vermont, United States trademark law would apply.  --Lambiam 07:06, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

December 7

Australian companies

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)

Googling "Australian multinational" suggests numerous companies. Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:18, 7 December 2024 (UTC)

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)

December 8

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

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)

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)

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)

Shipping and handling extra. Clarityfiend (talk) 14:30, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

I think you'll find it's dwarfed by Russia's "joke" fine of Google to the tune of $20,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. April foolski! Clarityfiend (talk) 14:29, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Chamberlain's joke turned out to be pretty expensive. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:23, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

Question about the bust of Lenin in the Tallinn City Museum

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)

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

A reasonably thorough Google search failed to find anything. They have a whole park full of old Soviet statuary at Maarjamäe Palace.

Our Soviet-era statues article says: Statues of prominent socialist figures - particularly of Lenin - were mass-produced and installed in villages, towns and cities across the Soviet Union.

Alansplodge (talk) 14:50, 8 December 2024 (UTC)

December 10

Photo of a family of four enjoying a meal

Is anything known about the members of the family in this photo? Mcljlm (talk) 04:21, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

They are (probably unrelated) photo models hired for this lifestyle photo shoot. Here you can see another photo from the same shoot.  --Lambiam 06:56, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. What suggests Lambiam they may not be related?

BTW would one of the other sections be more appropriate? I posted here as I wasn't sure which would be the best. Mcljlm (talk) 13:04, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

There is nothing to suggest they would be related; they are paid models. Just like "families" shown in movies are not actually related; they are actors. Shantavira|^{feed me} 15:16, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

For use in such posed photographs there are many agencies that offer well-prepared socially presentable WASP models of whatever ages you specify at short notice and at competitive prices. To add the requirement that the models are related in real life is unnecessary, would incur greater hiring expense and is therefore less than probably done here. The ostensible mother could in that case be complimented on her fresh appearance after gestating and birthing the two siblings. Shantaviraj mentions movie stardom where being born to an established star has for many, with some salient exceptions, proven to be more a burden than a boon on their career. Philvoids (talk) 15:59, 10 December 2024 (UTC)

December 11

If I ever opt to live in a group home for mental health clients, could my health insurance pay the rent and utilities?

What is it like for mental health clients to live in group homes? What is paid out-of-pocket? What is paid by insurance?

As a diagnosee of schizotypal personality disorder and other disorders, and being thought to still be on the Autistic Spectrum by some therapists despite a rediagnosis to the above disorder, is there a group home near or in Hutchinson, KS for anyone with my types of disorders?

Could my Medicaid KanCare Sunflower health insurance pay for all expenses associated with living in the group home?

I hope to no longer have to pay $450/month in rent and over $100/month in energy bills as well as $70/month in Cox internet at 1 GBPs if I move into a group home and have health insurance pay for it all.

I would only intend to live there until all of my debts are paid off and once I have substantial investments saved up, including dividend stocks so I can live off of a passive income that pays for basic living expenses in a normal residence again.

And lastly, what freedoms might I possibly be giving up if I were to ever move into a group home? Thanks. --2600:8803:1D13:7100:7CBD:B058:3248:4DA3 (talk) 04:47, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

The only people who could possibly answer this are KanCare Sunflower health insurance. Look at the terms of your agreement or ask them directly on their help line. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:56, 11 December 2024 (UTC)

December 12

How to revert a company

I received an unsolicited email soliciting a contribution to an upcoming issue of a biomedical journal. My contribution, they assured me, coming from an eminent researcher like me, would greatly enhance the quality of said issue. This may well be true, but, since my knowledge of biomedical issues has largely been formed by doing research to answer questions at the Reference desk, this does not bode well for the quality of this issue, even with my eminent contribution. I don't want my name to be associated with low-quality journals, so I'll refrain from contributing.

The email states at the bottom, in fine greyish print,

BioMed Grid LLC, California, USA. If you do not wish to receive this email, revert us.

I indeed do not wish to receive this email and would like to unreceive it. But I can't figure out how to revert this company. Can anyone help me? (There are some more companies I'd also like to revert.)  --Lambiam 09:19, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I guess it means block them or tag it as spam. I assume you've read American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research. Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:03, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I believe it's just corporate talk for "email us back". See definition 14 in Wiktionary. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 20:09, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

I was about to add that it's Indian English - but the Wiktionary entry says it is now global. ColinFine (talk) 21:02, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

But is it? I'd never seen this before. Our article on the journal states that the publisher, Biomedgrid LLC, was first registered in California in 2018 by Sasidhar Vontethina and Sushma Manchikanti, both Indian (more specifically Telugu) names.  --Lambiam 08:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

December 13

LUFS meter vs. Audiosurf algorithm

What are similarities and differences between LUFS meter (especially momentary) and Audiosurf's audio analysis algorithm (when comes to how tracks are colored in particular way depending on the song intensity)? Considering the color (when "fancy coloring" mode is enabled) of momentary LUFS bar on my own multichannel peakmeter when fed with the same song as the video, lines up with the color of the blocks and the tracks on this video and/or this sometimes and at other times, it doesn't line up assuming they somehow sync with the video. 2001:448A:3070:DCCD:D862:849B:9C69:6E43 (talk) 03:43, 13 December 2024 (UTC)

The article about the Audiosurf game tells that the game engine analyzes an imported song to create and save its dynamics in an ASH file. Reverse engineering these files to extract the generating algorithms is research that is beyond anyone here. This is proprietary information that the game creator Dylan Fitterer may choose to withold. Already as you look for correlation between your objective LUFS detector and the game screen, bear in mind that where the object of Audiosurf is more to entertain than analytical logging, some degree of randomity may be deliberately included. Philvoids (talk) 16:32, 14 December 2024 (UTC)

December 15

Meta physics

about things beyond nature 105.113.11.194 (talk) 20:36, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

See Metaphysics? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:34, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Note that metaphysics is not about phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The usual term for these is "the supernatural".  --Lambiam 07:57, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

December 16

My habit of feature requests scared a developer?

Reading these posts (this and this) on a thread about foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer in HydrogenAudio forum about my doings that "scared" off a developer of foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer and foo_loudness_peakmeter components for foobar2000 player and yet, the developer of a spectrum analyzer plugin for MusicBee did implement my feature requests into this plugin despite I've not have written fanon wiki pages about future version of CoolEdit Nostalgia (like I did this and this before). So, why would they? 2001:448A:3070:EA0F:F1A2:31A3:43A5:587B (talk) 18:22, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

What has this got to do with wikipedia or finding references for anything? Nanonic (talk) 19:34, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

@Nanonic: perhaps finding a reliable reference for what some bad habits when comes to feature requests that are likely to made software developers quit their job. 2001:448A:3070:EA0F:A59D:BE84:1D03:3CD (talk) 21:20, 16 December 2024 (UTC)

December 17

Futures contract

I don't understand finance, so I thought I'd ask. If I buy a futures contract for say a ton of corn at a specific price, and I hold it until the delivery date, will someone literally deliver a ton of corn to me? Thanks. Therapyisgood (talk) 00:04, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

The contract is likely to read "FOB Kansas City," or something like that. You'll probably have to move it from whatever transportation it is on (train, ship) yourself. Or, arrange (pay for) delivery. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 01:38, 17 December 2024 (UTC)