Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 October 3

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October 3

Three questions:

1) What are the main wind directions at Palm Springs, California?

2) Where can I find out information about the times of sunrise and sunset and the angle of the sun at different times of the day and year there?

3) What is meant by the architectural term 'raumplan'? I have looked everywhere I can think of and have found no definitions. Is it even a real word?

148.197.121.205 (talk) 20:07, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

(1) According to this site, the prevailing wind in Palm Springs is NW throughout the year.

(2) Google "local sunrise sunset calculator" and you'll find a few. I've used this one before and it gives sun angles too, but it's not the only one out there.

(3) "Raumplan" is a German word meaning "room plan" or "layout diagram of the rooms in a building". See the description of this file on Commons for a use of the term.

- Karenjc 20:19, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Does that mean the wind comes from the northwest or goes to the northwest, I can never remember. The impression I was given before was that raumplan was a style of designing a building, though noone seemed to know exactly how that would work. 148.197.121.205 (talk) 20:29, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

ad 3: In particular, Raumplan is a term used by Adolf Loos, Frank Lloyd Wright and others to strees that they were planning in 3 dimensional spaces (space = German Raum) and not in 2 dimensions of classicistic architecture. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 20:32, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Sunset is kind of an ill-defined concept in Palm Springs, though, since the town is at sea level and 11,000 foot San Jacinto Peak lies directly to the west, right at the edge of town. Looie496 (talk) 21:02, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

It's not sunset just because the Sun goes behind a mountain. Sunset is computed with some sort of notional horizon, maybe based on the geoid or something like that. This makes lots of sense, actually, because the brightness of the sky depends mainly on that, not on whether you happen to be in a mountain's shadow. --Trovatore (talk) 21:12, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Is there any way of finding out when the sun does go behind the mountain, though? I am sure it would have some effect. 148.197.121.205 (talk) 08:53, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, that is going to depend exactly where in Palm Springs you happen to be. Googlemeister (talk) 19:41, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

In response to your earlier question about direction, the wind direction is the direction the wind is coming from (ie. in this case the prevailing winds comes from the NW). - Akamad (talk) 14:10, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Blowing up a caravan

Various shows have destroyed caravans in a variety of spectacular fashions (Brainiac: Science Abuse, Top Gear...). I'm wondering what would be needed to do this? Like, if I was to try it, I'd need permission from someone, right? Would I need some kind of licence for handling explosives? What else would need to be done in order to legally blow up a caravan? And as a side note, how much might this cost? Vimescarrot (talk) 21:32, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I have little hope of being able to answer your question under any circumstances, but certainly far less if you don't say just what you mean by caravan. To me a caravan is a group of vehicles traveling together (more or less a synonym of convoy). In that case the cost would depend, among other things, on just how many vehicles we're talking about. --Trovatore (talk) 21:57, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Oh crap, now that song is playing in my head.... --Trovatore (talk) 21:59, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

(Note: In UK-style English ;) a "caravan" seems to be a kind of RV.) WikiDao ☯ (talk) 22:02, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Apparently a travel trailer is the preferred term. Mikenorton (talk) 22:14, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I had images of the shelling of the Iraqi retreat to Basra, during the first Gulf War. Blowing up that caravan no doubt cost a lot financially, in addition to making me sick to my stomach, although apparently it was within the traditional law of war. --Trovatore (talk) 22:17, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

You would need an explosive licence. [1] Think currently it is about £500 per year. Also, police and the aviation authority will need to be informed if your pathological hatred of the mobile home is going to result in a really big bang. --Aspro (talk) 22:13, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Here is a list of fees for licences from the Health and Safety Executive:[2] Your local council and fire brigade will also want to know what you might be storing in the cupboard under the stirs, or wherever you are intending to keep the stuff until required.--Aspro (talk) 10:07, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Cupboard under the stirs sounds particularly sinister. Itsmejudith (talk) 13:29, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the help. Vimescarrot (talk) 18:43, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Government hierachy for four different countries

We would like to know the government hierachy for these four countries, from lowest power to the highest, for example:

United States has mayor, then governor, representative, senator, and president. Sorry if we missed anything, I was just trying to make an example.

The countries I need to know are Germany, China, Russia, and Japan. 64.75.158.193 (talk) 22:00, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I don't think your question completely makes sense as stated. I know of no hierarchy that puts congressional representatives in the United States above state governors. They have different functions; there's no chain of command. Also, clearly, the governor of (say) California has much more power than your average representative, perhaps more than any single representative. --Trovatore (talk) 22:22, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps what the person is trying to say is that the U.S. has local (municipality/town/township/county), state and federal governments. The question may be what the equivalents are in those other countries. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:58, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

I think so, too. Though I'm not sure if a representative really is "above" a governor in U.S. states. Anyway, for Germany it would be: Bürgermeister (head of a municipality) / Oberbürgermeister (for cities) - Amtsdirektor (in the states BB and SH) / Amtsvorsteher (MV and SH) / Bürgermeister (RP) / Samtgemeindebürgermeister (NI) / Verbandsgemeindebürgermeister (ST) - Landrat (head of a rural county) - Regionalverbandsvorsitzender (in the state BW) - Regierungspräsident (in the states BW, BY, HE and NW) / Präsident der Landesdirektion (SN) - Regierender Bürgermeister (Berlin) / Bürgermeister (Bremen) / Erster Bürgermeister (Hamburg) Ministerpräsident (all other states) - Bundespräsident / Bundeskanzler. The corresponding administrative divisions are: Gemeinde - Amt/Samtgemeinde/Verbandsgemeinde/Verwaltungsgemeinschaft (in some states) - Landkreis - Region (BW only) - Regierungsbezirk (in some states) - Land - Bund. Some states/towns/cities also have structures on the sub-municipal level. 195.88.117.149 (talk) 09:59, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Or they might me talking about the protocolar order of precedence. — Kpalion^(talk) 07:46, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

There's a more fundamental misunderstanding here too, because it's confounding State and Federal authorities. Within the state system there's a distinct hierarchy, and within the federal there is too, but comparing the two is a bit of apples to oranges. Shadowjams (talk) 07:59, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Well, the OP's assumptions are more confused than that. Even within the state and federal governments, there is full seperation of powers in the United States. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are coequal branches of government, with different spheres of operation. Thus, the President is not above any congressman or senator in the United States. The President is above other members of the executive branch, such as cabinet Department heads, but he has no authority over Congress, and is not "above" them. It is a lateral relationship. The same sort of relationships exist between state Governors and state legislators. Furthermore, there is not a clear supremacy of the federal government over states in many areas. Certain powers are expressly reserved for the states. While the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution has made the states subject to certain provisions of the Constitution (specifically the Bill of Rights), there are still LOTS of things that the United States Congress is prohibited from legislating with regard to states. Sometimes, Congress will find loopholes around these restrictions (see Power of the purse), but at least in principle, there are things that state legislatures can do which Congress cannot, so it is inappropriate to place Congress over the State legislatures in terms of heirarchy. --Jayron32 03:25, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

In addition, the OP should realize that in the U.S., there are similar offices on the local and state level that "equate," if you will, with senator, representative and president on the federal level. States not only have governors, but also senators and (except for Nebraska), members of a second body who go by various names such as state representatives or assemblymen or something else. Cities not only have mayors but also city councils or some such body, and some cities and towns have no mayor or council at all, but are governed by multi-person boards (often called commissioners or freeholders) who have combination executive/legislative powers. — Michael J 12:50, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

In addition, many states have county executives, and in New York City, there are borough presidents. 216.93.213.191 (talk) 22:47, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Pencil smudging

When we draw or write with pencil, pencil smudges are always a big eyesore for me. Why is it that pencil marks always smudge off? Is there any way to prevent this as much as possible? 64.75.158.193 (talk) 22:07, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Aww crap!!! I put "Pencil smuging" instead of "Pencil smudging"!!!! Lol... 64.75.158.193 (talk) 22:12, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Are you using an HB or softer grade pencil?--Aspro (talk) 22:18, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

See Pencil#Grading_and_classification. Harder leads will produce less smudging. Dismas|^(talk) 00:00, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Yup, that's so. With any grade of pencil, the biggest single smudge-culprits are probably your own hands. Keep them as clean as possible, and blow off excess pencil dust away from the paper before it accumulates. You can additionally protect drawn pencil lines against accidental writing/drawing-hand smudges if you cover your drawn or written lines over with clean tracing paper; that gives you a smudge-free and translucent hand-rest. Drawings, especially those using softer leads, can also be fixed once finished. Haploidavey (talk) 00:38, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Being left-handed in a culture that writes from left to right (and vice-versa) is a problem for smudging because you're always dragging your hand over what you've just written. Assuming the majority of Arabs and Israelis are right-handed (because the majority of humans are), they might have an inbuilt culturo-orthographic problem here, but I've never heard any complaints. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) 01:48, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Not that I frequently write in Arabic, but it's not difficult to do right-handed. I usually end up tilting the paper slightly so my hand doesn't get anywhere near the ink/pencil, just like left-handed people do when writing in English. Adam Bishop (talk) 15:09, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes, come to think of it, it would be absurd to think they're still grappling with this problem thousands of years after the introduction of writing. That's what comes from applying a Western paradigm (mine) to an Eastern circumstance. Scrap my comment above. -- 202.142.129.66 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 22:40, 5 October 2010 (UTC).