Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 May 19

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

May 19

Bird Poo

Why do birds line up their poop in my backyard? They dont poop it in a straight line. They carry them onto my deck and line them up manually. What causes this behavior/why do they do it?

Probably if they poop when they are perched on the edge of your roof above the deck, the general outline made by their scat will resemble the shape of the edge of your roof. V-Man - ^T/_C 02:01, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Many birds protect the young in their nests by carrying the nestlings' feces away from the nest area. If the droppings are a golden colour that might be grackles or robins trying to hide their nest site from would-be predators. Bielle 02:53, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe they're sending you a hidden message. Break out the tin-foil hats! Clarityfiend 21:58, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Manual vs Automatic

How much faster is a car with manual transmission compared to the same car but with automatic transmission in terms of acceleration? Can an average human shift gears faster than the high-end automatic transmissions found in modern high-end sports cars? Thanks. 74.14.72.139 02:35, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I think an automatic could hit the ideal shift points more precisely, but there are two other considerations that make the manual faster:

1) The automatic transmission system adds quite a bit of weight to the car, slowing it down.

2) Most automatic transmission systems are not tuned for maximum accel, but rather for some compromise between max accel and good fuel economy. StuRat 04:40, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Manual gearbox for sure. In addition to the weight and tuning issues, a proficient driver with a performance clutch and gearbox can definitely shift faster than the automatic. Also the ability to double clutch the manual keeps the engine up in its power band. The technique is also useful when cornering at speed. 161.222.160.8 04:59, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Um, that's sort of beside the point. Any transmission (manual or automatic) strives to keep the engine in its power band! (Some do better than others, of course.) Double-clutching is fine & dandy, but you can get by without it: if you don't mind waiting for them, your synchronizers will take care of a downshift almost as well as an upshift, and of course an automatic transmission needs neither synchronizers nor double-clutching, and can downshift with impunity.

The principal inefficiency in an automatic transmission is in the torque converter, which IIRC wastes about 4% of the power being transmitted through it. But this affects fuel efficiency more than it does "top speed". —Steve Summit (talk) 05:16, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Aren't some "automatics" nowadays not true automatics, but manuals that are controlled by computers? I think the Smart uses something like this. I'd think this would give the best line between the two extremes -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 06:13, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The efficiency loss in the torque converter is a big factor, as mentioned about. Also, typically an auto may have fewer gears than a manual, so the manual may also provide better acceleration for that reason. Then again, a modern auto can generally shift faster than a typical driver. I think the difference in real life will depend on lot on what specific car you're comparing. And yes, there are some modern transmissions that are mechanically like a manual, but still shift automatically. Friday (talk) 19:17, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The problem with an automatic (any automatic) is that it doesn't know what's about to happen - it can't see a corner coming or know that you are thinking about overtaking that annoying truck that's right in front of you. It can't read your mind. That means that manuals will always have the advantage in general driving situations. Most automatics eat engine power - but every year they get better. Paddle-shifted automatics are a reasonable compromise - and the up-market ones are pretty fast and are probably the way of the future. But for daily commutes - being able to double-clutch and heel-and-toe it through corners in a lightweight front-wheel drive car mean that you'll have to pry my stick-shift out of my cold, dead hands though - driving stick is just so much more fun. (Ob. links to Mini Moke - by far the most fun street-legal "car" on the planet, Mini the second most fun car - and MINI (BMW), almost as much fun, but practical.) SteveBaker 01:32, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

What are the advantages of double-clutching? Jamesino 02:45, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

If you don't have a synchromesh gearbox (for example, if your vehicle is very very old), avoiding horrible grinding sounds. Otherwise the realistic advantages are slim to none on the upshift, and a little smoother downshift. I double clutch on the downshift but usually don't bother on upshifts. -- mattb 02:52, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah - I agree. For details of how this helps, check out Double clutch. If you don't have synchro's then double-clutching (or double-declutching if you're British) is a vital skill - but cars have had synchromesh since the 1950's or so - and double-clutching is an almost obsolete skill for everyone except race car and big truck drivers (some big-rig trucks don't have synchros because they wear out faster than unsynchronised gearboxes). My 1963 Mini has synchromesh on all gears except 1st. This is really annoying because in modern cars I like to drop into 1st gear as I roll to a stop at traffic lights or junctions. This bad habit causes a terrible grinding/grating noise every time I forget and do that in my '63 Mini. The 'official' way to drive that car is to stay in 2nd gear until you come to a dead stop and THEN drop into 1st. But I never remember to do that for the first couple of stop-lights when I havn't driven the car for a while. Argh! SteveBaker 13:54, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Acceleration of a car

When you see in advertisements where the manufacturers are saying for example "The Buggati Veryon can go from 0-60 mph in 3.2 seconds". How do they exactly time that? Do they rev the engine to 6,000 RPM and release the clutch while in 1st gear? 64.230.43.77 02:48, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I'd expect the wheels to spin if you did that, which, contrary to every bad car chase scene ever filmed, both slows the acceleration and makes the car difficult to steer. StuRat 04:36, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

They time it how you'd expect; they put the car on a racetrack and a driver drives it. If you think 3.2 seconds sounds improbable, the Veyron has an 8L engine which produces around 1000 horsepower: that's twice the horsepower of a current model Freightliner semi-trailer, and as much as some railway locomotives. FiggyBee 06:29, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

It is however done under ideal conditions (e.g., racetrack, dry conditions, driver only in car) by a professional driver, who will drive in whatever manner will get the best time. Your average driver on the street is unlikely to be able to match these figures. --jjron 14:09, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

When you're talking about a fast car, traction is almost always the limiting factor in low gears. In some cars they may use a very aggressive launch similar to what you've described, but in most cars this would be counterproductive since static friction is generally greater than sliding friction and excess wheelspin gives you a sliding friction situation. A better way to measure overall acceleration of a car is to look at the quarter mile trap speed, since 0-60 measurements are so traction-dependent. Friday (talk) 19:13, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Check out the Ariel Atom - it's street-legal in most countries, costs only $50,000 and does 0-60 in under 3 seconds! But it doesn't need an exotic engine - it has a really conventional supercharged 2 liter Honda Civic engine reaching about 300hp. It's all about power to weight ratio. Going with increasingly huge engines in order to get more power just makes it harder to tires to grip hard enough. The trick is to dramatically reduce weight - that lets you use a smaller engine, lighter transmission - which in turn saves more weight. They measure 0-60 times as you'd expect - with an electronic timer. With sub-3-second 0-60 cars, the problem is that it's not really humanly possible to shift fast enough to achieve those times and automatic transmissions waste a lot of engine power. The Atom can theoretically do 0-60 in 2.8 seconds - but 3.0 is (I believe) the best anyone has driven it in practice. SteveBaker 01:19, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

The traction component is so important that some vehicles will accelerate faster from 60-120 than from 0-60. The reason is that they have wings which will give them additional downforce for better traction at higher speeds.

Why would the wheels spin if the clutch is depressed? Jamesino 02:42, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

No - the wheel spin happens when you have the engine revved fairly high and you let the clutch out suddenly. The engine wants the car to be going a lot faster than it is - so the wheels spin. That's generally a bad thing because the rubber in the tires has a lower coefficient of friction when slipping. SteveBaker 13:12, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

The Veyron has Launch Control and an automatic clutch (well, actually two of them). So anyone can achieve a blisteringly quick 0-60 time with no skill whatsoever. Best username yet 13:46, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

On my car (check out the photo in the info-box in MINI Cooper'S) the 'traction control' system stops the wheels from spinning by limiting the throttle when it detects that the (driven) front wheels are rotating faster than the (free-running) rear wheels. This is completely effective in preventing wheel-spin when you do an overly enthusiastic launch. However, to get the best 0-60 times you need to turn that system off (there is a handy switch for that!) because in preventing wheel spin, it is being overly cautious and is cutting the engine power for too long. However, I'm sure the system in the Veyron does it right. Without such an automatic system, getting the advertised 0-60 time in a stick-shift car takes practice. When I first got my MINI, there was this freeway on-ramp that was perfect for practicing 0-60 launches - dead flat, no traffic. I'd take it every morning - using a cheap G-tech accelerometer to figure out my 0-60 time. Getting the shift points at just the right RPM and getting the revs matched through each shift was a tricky thing - but I was eventually able to do significantly better than was claimed in the cars' manufacturer specification. It's tough to do though - without regular practice I doubt I could come within a half second of the 'official' number anymore and things like the air temperature and pressure change the optimum RPM's to shift at - which can easily make a half second difference on a 6 second run. SteveBaker 13:12, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

kashrut

I was surprised to find my cough-drops marked "(U)D", meaning certified as kosher and classified as dairy; I expected "P", neutral. Which of these ingredients came from an udder? : Menthol, glucose syrup, eucalyptus oil, flavoring, honey, sucrose, water, yellow no. 5 (tartrazine), soybean oil. —Tamfang 05:41, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Possibly this product's manufacturing process involves equipment also used for dairy products. If further clarification is required, try contacting the authorizing rabbinate's consumer relations service. -- Deborahjay 07:09, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

They don't tell you what the "favouring" is; it could include traces of milk byproducts such as lactose. Laïka 09:46, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

why ducth men are most found in ocean bussiness?

As i am a good observer and reader i have found and read that most of the dutch men are found in ocean bussiness such as ocean race or in pirates role. as i am a journalist i am writing on ocean race if you find and clue regrading this please reply—Preceding unsigned comment added by Rhutu dave (talk • contribs)

I was under the impression that the British are more historically known as the great sea-faring race.Otherwise,I really don't understand your question.hotclaws 08:36, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

There have been many great seafaring cultures at different points in history, from the Phoenicians to the Romans to the Portuguese to the Spanish to the Dutch to the British. Only landlocked countries seem to be permanently excluded from this club. StuRat 19:01, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

This assertion suggests a title for an alternate history story: Hibernia Rule the Waves. —Tamfang 20:26, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Hibernia (Latin, prob. from hibernus, wintry) is Ireland, not Holland. Vultur 05:37, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

And also not Phoenicia or Rome or Portugal or Spain or Britain. So? —Tamfang 08:17, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry. I thoguht we were still discussing the Dutch. Vultur 13:22, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The Dutch have always been a sea-going race, but so have several others, especially those with an extensive ocean shoreline, good natural harbours, and a plentiful supply of timber. You might want to read our articles on piracy, yacht racing, and the Flying Dutchman.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:10, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

For some more historical context, the articles on Dutch Revolt, Dutch empire, Dutch East India Company, Dutch West India Company and further links from these articles might be helpful, though perhaps a bit tortuous in answering your question. ---Sluzzelin talk 12:34, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

IIRC, the Dutch had been a sea-faring race before the British, the British became a great naval power only after the Dutch.Coolotter88 01:05, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Poem sample from "Sheila"

The Jamie T song "Sheila" features a sample of a play or poem, read by someone with a strong RP accent, which goes "Good Heavens, you boys! Blue-blooded murder of the English tongue!". What is this taken from? The NME review of the song claims this was taken from the Betjeman poem "The Cockney Amorist", but this line itself doesn't occur within the poem (although other lines from the song do). Laïka 11:23, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

That sample does sound different from the Betjeman sample. Haven't had any luck locating it, the closest I get are the lyrics "cold blooded murder of the English tongue" from the song Why Cant the English? (My Fair Lady) and the term blue murder. You could ask the man himself, this site Jamie T has links Mhicaoidh 01:58, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

This site [1] has the unsubstantiated comment "That's the lyrics to the original, as it was in the first place. When it got released as in single in 2007 the lyrics had change from "Heavens what a noise, cold blooded murder.." To "Good heavens you boys! Blue blooded murder.." 'cause Jamie T got in trouble for taking it straight off a Sherlock Holmes film" Mhicaoidh 10:13, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

highly specialized bibliographies

How do I go about submitting bibliographic materials I have collected over the past half century of academic studies?rich 12:06, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, Wikipedia has a policy against original research, so you need to keep that in mind before even begining. Wikipedia is not a place for breakthrough work. That aside, if you have bibliographic information to add, you add them to the articles about the subjects. If the subject does not have an article, then you will need to create one, assuming that the subject is notable enough to be featured in an encyclopedia. --24.147.86.187 13:16, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Wikiversity might be a good place for that type of material, as original research is welcomed there. StuRat 18:50, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

It's from "My Fair Lady" , Professor Henry Higgins says it to describe Eliza Dolittle's accent when he first meets her.

requesting info on "the algorithm" used to generate marketing names for drug companies

Levitra, Viagra, Protagra, Procylex, Sporanox, Ambien, Seldane, Prilosec, Equanim, Vivitol, Telavor, Tramadol, Panadol, Vulviax, Puselan, Lugubri, Immovex, Zybane, Provox, Symbiax, Amevive, Procrit, Raptiva ...

I need the algorithm that will allow me to automatically differentiate the "suitable" marketing names from the "unsuitable" ones, as well as allow me to generate all the remaining names that will be used in the future until this particular naming convention becomes extinct. Thanks. NoClutter 15:02, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

There's no algorithm per se; the drug company is allowed to call the drug whatever they like, so long as it doesn't clash with anything else, is short, and doesn't promise anything or state anything (Rogaine was originally called Regain, for instance, but this was considered too leading).[2] This article covers the thought behind drug naming nicely; there's a bit of science (Liptor is a "Lipid regulator") and part psychology (Serafem, an anti-depressant for women, is a pun on "Seraphim" and "fem"). For their uncopyrightable generic names however, drugs are named by United States Adopted Name Council or by the International Nonproprietary Name council of WHO based on the functional groups present in the chemical, with an arbitrary string of letters to differentiate it. The WHO has a list of the stems used for naming, the "Stem book". This shows all the different stems which can be used. For example, Ibuprofen contains a -profen group, and the "ibu" is then a string of letters, picked at random, to differentiate it from Odalprofen, or Bakeprofen, or Flurbiprofen. Laïka 16:33, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Very good answer. Rfwoolf

Additionally, names are rejected as unsuitable if they clash with preexisting trademarks (in theory only for drugs or other medical-type stuff, but in practice for well-known trademarks in general too). Further they'll do a search to see if the proposed name is, or sounds uncomfortably like, an unsuitable word in one of a large name of world languages - so if you decided you wanted to call your new drug Faenpik, you're probably going to have to call it something else in Norwegian. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:59, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I believe Dilbert once came up with an algorithm for something similar, the names of companies after mergers. It randomly combined names from astronomy and electronics and then checked against a database of existing names for clashes. Thus, the old name after the merger of Pathways Electronics and the E-Tech Management Group (Path-E-Tech Management) was replaced by the new name, the Uranus-Hertz Corporation. StuRat 18:39, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

...thus creating an untranslatable comic strip! A.Z. 19:51, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

That's an interesting point. I wonder what they do when a comic relies on humor that only works in English, do they place a rerun in foreign language translations on that day ? StuRat 06:50, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

No, the usual approach is to just "localize" the joke to reflect the domestic language and customs. Perhaps the most striking example of this can be seen on DVD releases of American television shows (many of which feature French and Spanish overdubs).

For example, if you watch A Fish out of Water (Family Guy) on DVD in English, one joke depends on a main character being humiliated because everyone except her (even the janitor who speaks only Spanish) has plans for spring break. If you watch the same episode in Spanish, the joke is changed. The janitor speaks an apparently "Arabic-sounding" mixture of gibberish that does not appear to match any real language.

This is an interesting issue which is touched-on in various WP articles. (See e.g., Asterix and Hofstadter.) dr.ef.tymac 15:05, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

I was searching for the Portuguese translation of the said comic strip. I didn't find it yet, but here is a page where someone asked the same question asked here and someone answered the same thing that StuRat answered. A.Z. 21:37, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, finding out how they translated the comic strip turns out to be an impossible task for me. Maybe I should ask on the reference desk? A.Z. 21:49, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Music and such

Ok. So, in music, we have 14 major scales, one each starting on C,C#,D,D#,E, and so on, going up in steps WWHWWWH. Each has certain sharps or flats - the C scale has none, the G scale has a B flat, if I recall correctly. There are 7 possible sharp key signatures, 7 flat, and one natural, or 15 total. How are there more key signatures than major scales, and which key signature does not correspond to a major scale? --ST47Talk 17:02, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

• C# (7 sharps) is the same notes as Db (5 flats); F# (6 sharps) is the same as Gb (6 flats.); Cb (7 flats) is the same notes as B (5 sharps.) Which will bring us back to Do. Or 12 keys. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:26, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

If that's not clear, see key signature, where there is also an interesting summary of the mood of each key.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:33, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

It is only in the past few centuries that C# and Db came to have the same pitch. See musical temperament. You're thinking in terms of equal temperament but standard notation is more closely fitted to meantone temperament (of which equal is a special case). —Tamfang 20:31, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

The original question says there are 14 major scales, but just to clarify, there are only 12 unique sounding major scales. (The original poster may have mis-counted by considering A to G plus A# to G# to get 14, but B#=C and E#=F would get counted twice that way.) There are more key signatures than major scales because some of the key signatures sound the same (for example, C# major and Db major), as explained above by jpgordon. All 15 key signatures correspond to major scales. Bavi H 04:48, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

In brief, as explained above, look at the table here. You can see which key signatures fit the same scales. Skittle 15:40, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Voice Generation

Is there a website where you can type something out and then have a computer generated voice say it?

Yes: [3]. StuRat 19:23, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Also, Opera is a web browser which allows you to select text on any website and have a voice say it out loud. JoshHolloway 19:36, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Really ? I have Opera. How do I get it to do that ? StuRat 05:58, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

That's so cool! I wasn't the one who asked the question, but I'm definitely going to use the website. I think it might be a useful tool to help with learning English. A.Z. 19:44, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a Canadian accent, only American and British. A.Z. 19:54, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I assume you've already used Microsoft Sam. On Windows XP, you can find it either in Start>Accessories>Accessibility>Narrator or Start>Control Panel>Speech. Laïka 21:32, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

To get a Canadian accent perhaps you could run the source text through a pre-processing program to respell "house" as "hoose" and "about" as "aboot" and throw in an occasional "Eh?" Edison 22:10, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

I havent tried the one linked by StuRat, but AT&T also has one that uses their "natural voices" engine. natural voices. Also note, a google search on "Text to speech demo" will give you dozens if not more links to all sorts of companies extolling their own text to speech solutions. (See also Text to speech, Computational linguistics). dr.ef.tymac 23:25, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

accidental poisoning case: 100 killed

Hi, I bumped into this article today about a case of accidental poisoning of toothpaste. However, interestingly there is a mention of a case last year in which pharmaceuticals were contaminated with mislabled ingredients, resulting in 100 deaths. Do we have an article on this disaster? If not, where might I start looking for sources to write one myself (I can do most of the research, but I can't make out where to start - show me a few good sources and I can do the rest myself). Blood Red Sandman ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 21:12, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

[4] is a story in the NY Times abut a Chinese firm exporting antifreeze labelled as glycerine which killed a number of people when it was put in cough syrup.Stories like that could lead one to adopt a policy of buying stuff 6 months before you expect to need it, so that it will have time to get recalled if poisonous. Edison 22:08, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Broadcast zone?

When i went to the hockey hall of fame their was a place where you could broadcast a short scene from a hockey game.The video said that i can go to some kind of website where i can watch it again so if isaved it. I would like to know what the name of the website was. Thank you 4 ur time.

Are you talking about the TSN/RDS Broadcast Zone exhibit? The page says that you can see your personally made clips at hhof.com, although it doesn't give anymore specific information than that. You might consider emailing someone at the website to see if they can walk you through the process. –Pakman044 03:41, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Here's some more information: Using Google, I found this hidden page on their website. It looks like you are e-mailed a link to this page with a special code on the end that loads your video. It says the video is removed after 5 days. Bavi H 03:48, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

Bean dip

Is bean dip supposed to be served warm or cold?

    It can be served either way, although it is more common cold.

Tabbing creates that funny box, use : marks to indent your answer. Bean dips generaly are server cold, else they may be mistaken for frijoles, no articles on frijoles?!? I'm stunned.. Vespine 00:14, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

oh, sorry. thought it would do the thing that ":" does, but I guess not

No article on frijoles but frijole redirects to Phaseolus :-)