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May 1

A weird english-spoken film about scientists inducing sexual impotence (in the '50)

Hello Learned Ones ! While travelling last week in Belgium, I caught some fragmentary glimpses of a film their TV channel named TV5 was then airing, & since am obsessively & unsuccessfully trying to know its refs. English spoken (with flemish sub-titles) and very well filmed ( hence made in G-B, I think) , it was about a team of scientists who, in the '50, were trying to induce sexual impotence in some human guinea-pigs and observing their behaviour from behind a glass (some not so bad, though depressing, soft-porno scenes appeared then). There was also a scene in a high society cocktail : some important executive making a speech about his youth (as a pennyless student he had forgottten his fedora, « which cost more than his car » in a restautant while dating a very wealthy girl, and next day she brought back the hat to him, and afterwards they married ...) . A young female scientist, who disapproved of the whole experiment, had her son abducted...There were in the dialogues some mentions of Dr Freud, and implicit reminiscences of "Brave new world" , "Clockwork orange" and Pavlov. I tried to enquire about the film the day after, but to no effect (try to ask questions in french in the northern part of Belgium about an experiment inducing sexual impotence, and you'll see...). Thanks a lot beforehand to those who know that film for their answers Arapaima (talk) 08:30, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Were you watching TV5 Monde? You can check their program schedule on their website, although I don't know how far back it goes. Adam Bishop (talk) 23:45, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

They provide a full schedule for the current week at http://www.tv5.org/cms/chaine-francophone/programmes/p-86-s2-z23-lg1-La-semaine-d-un-seul-coup-d-oeil.htm, but apparently not for past or future weeks. (Change lg1 to lg3 in the URL for English.) However, at the bottom of the page there is an advanced-search link, "Recherche multicritères", and that page allows you to search for shows from last week. But when I tried it, I didn't see anything that looked as though it might fit the description. If I select movies, for example, it shows

22:22
Hasta Santiago
Hôtel du Nord
Intus
La passante du sans-souci
Le Bon plaisir
Les Heures blanches

and none of the plot descriptions sounds anything like what you asked about. I also tried a couple of other categories, and I didn't see any titles resembling "Masters of Sex" (below) either. --50.100.193.30 (talk) 06:06, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like it could be Masters of Sex. I haven't seen it, but the time period fits. It features a team of researchers (based on Masters and Johnson); and it's currently a popular show in the USA (where I think it is also produced). SemanticMantis (talk) 03:22, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yeees, it was Masters of Sex allright !!!, & thanks a lot to all (& I think I had glimpses of episod 6 Brave new world). So Rotten Tomatoes says about it : smart performances, deft direction, and impeccable period decor. OK , but I figured no made-in-USA TV serie could ever have aired such under-the-skin history of Masters & Jonhson and their team. Times change... BTW, I had found a TV program on the morrow, & it didn't mention "Masters of Sex", but Bienvenue parmi nous. And I wonder how I figured the scientists tried to induce impotence, when it was already there (possibly as as side-effect)...Thanks so much for your help, pals ! Arapaima (talk) 09:40, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There's a great difference between what is allowed on US broadcast TV and US premium cable TV. Masters of Sex is on Showtime, which is premium cable. --50.100.193.30 (talk) 06:50, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Barbara Allen

Was the Scottish folk song "Barbara Allen" only meant to be a song about unrequited love? Or was it intended as an allegorical message having something to do with the Acts of Union? ;-) 24.5.122.13 (talk) 09:10, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

As you will see from the relevant articles, both of which you have kindly already provided links to, the earliest reference to the song is 1666, which was well before 1707, which is when the Acts of Union passed by the Parliaments of England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. So, no, no such allegory can have been intended, unless you wish to postulate the existence of time travel. RomanSpa (talk) 09:30, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In checking the lyric of Barbara Allen (song), and being pretty much an ignoranimous about poetry and such, how close are words like "fallin(g)" and "dwellin(g)" to the way "Allan" [sic] would have been spoken, three and a half centuries ago? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:33, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Definition of ignoramus: someone who can't spell the word.... Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:56, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bugs Bunny says it that way. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:51, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Folks were pretty lax about the accuracy of their rhymes in the 18th century; our own National Anthem rhymes "cause" and "voice" (third verse), which I'm fairly certain were never pronounced with the same vowels or even consonants. Alansplodge (talk) 11:23, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Present participles such as "fallin" would be pronounced with an /ən/ at the end (i.e. as though they rhymed with Allen) in Scots - see the Modern Scots#Grammar article - and in some Northern English dialects (see Geordie#phonology). (The Northumbrian dialect of Old English from which Scots and (properly) Northern English dialects descend retained the OE present participle ending "-and" while Southern dialects co-opted the gerund ending "-ing" for the participle. Scots and Northumberland dialects still distinguish between a present participle ending in "-an" (having lost the /d/) and a gerund ending in "-in" (/ŋ/ having turned to /n/) according to the OED's entry on the "-ing" present participle suffix, although it seems the standard English spelling of "-ing" has influenced the not fully codified spelling conventions of both dialects.

So the "-ing" spelling in many of the standard English versions of "Barbara Allen" is an anglicisation (presuming the ballad originated in Scotland or the Borders as seems most likely). "Dwelling" could also be an anglicisation as "dwall" is a Scots variant of "dwell" [1], so "dwallin" (rather than "dwelling") would also rhyme with Allen. None of which invalidates Alansplodge's point as there are other lines in various versions of the ballads where the rhyme with Allen is a half-rhyme at best, though generally a better half-rhyme if pronounced with a final /ən/ than a final /iŋ/ . Valiantis (talk) 01:00, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Indian film about autism

There was this Indian film about an autistic teenager. His parent tries a cure on him, which turned him into a kind of sociopath, so they gave him some antidote which turned him back to his previous state. His parents gradually learned to appreciate him for what he is. Any suggestions? --Yashowardhani (talk) 11:09, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you mean India, and not a Native American film ? StuRat (talk) 14:25, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, of course I mean the former. --Yashowardhani (talk) 15:33, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't seen it, but maybe youre talking about the Aamir Khan film Taare Zameen Par. Also My Name is Khan dealt with similar stuff, but he was grown up.Lihaas (talk) 21:10, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's not any of them. I distinctly remember there was an autistic teenager. His parents agreed to have a cure tried on him, and for a while it seems as if it works, the boy turns to a math whiz, gets real famous, etc., but inside he'd become a sociopath. He poisoned his friend's dog dead, simply 'cause it irritated him; and he attempted murder to his mother out of rage. --Yashowardhani (talk) 15:33, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The BANANA movement...

This is fruitless. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:17, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

PLEASE can someone sent me Banana-Smiles???...

THANK you!!!

SPYROU Kosta - Greece - Honeycomp (talk) 14:23, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What be that? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:13, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Cute. Given that, the OP could paste it on his user page and/or someone could issue a "wikilove" with that illustration attached ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:26, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

SPYROU Kosta: I want a funny Banana-Smyleys for e-mail!!!... - Honeycomp (talk) 13:28, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean the Dancing Banana? It's available as graphic emoticon, all you need to do is google "dancing banana" + "emoticon". I couldn't find one at Wikimedia Commons, either static or animated. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:40, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Leaked RAW Script says Punk is Injured?

I came across a leaked WWE RAW script on the internet and I see the name of the wrestler CM Punk on the script, even though he has left the company. To the right, it says that he was injured, and TBD. Does this mean a return for Punk, or does this usually happen when someone leaves the company? Your friend, Billy (talk) 19:12, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

He's still under contract, just physically at home (or somewhere). So "TBD" makes sense. The script (assuming there's only one leak) was for the April 14 episode, so that answers the return question. At least for then. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:06, 1 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Also, a slash means "or", not "and". InedibleHulk (talk) 00:20, 2 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]