Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 June 17

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June 17

similarities or something else?

While I was trying to keep up with the events surrounding Travis (chimpanzee), I suddenly remembered the 1986 film Link. By any chance, could the plot in Link have been similar to what set Travis off?24.90.204.234 (talk) 05:13, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

No, Link is a work of fiction, which is a technical scientific term for "shit someone just made up". The Travis incident antedates the Link film by over 2 decades, and the film has no connection to any actual incident. The Travis tragedy is a sobering reminder that undomesticated animals remain a danger to people even after years of training; unlike cats and dogs and horses and animals like that, which have been speficially bred for thousands of years specifically to be able to interact in a social manner with people, Chimpanzees are not so bred, and thus can behave unpredictably, even when born and raised entirely in captivity and in contact with people. Chimp psychology is still something that is not fully explored, and it can sometimes be unclear why these animals go "bad" in this manner; that they do so in unsurprising, however. --Jayron32 05:26, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

You mean "postdates"? And it is possible that the plot of Link could be similar to what happened with Travis (if we knew what the plot of Link was). The question wasn't whether they were actually connected, which of course they aren't. Adam Bishop (talk) 07:55, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't seem likely. Never seen the film, but The few online descriptions I've found of the film involve a chimp who somehow learns that he's scheduled to be put down and, not surprisingly, turns to violence to prevent it.

I can't find any indication that Travis was going to be put down. Seemed like quite the opposite. APL (talk) 23:04, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Old tune

I probably frequent this page more than I should, but here's a question about something else. In Family Guy, there's a recurring gag in which a 1920's vaudeville performer steps randomly into the picture, fast-talks some lines, then fails at a stunt. After that, he says "Play me off, Johnny!", and a man at a piano starts to play a tune. The tune is the same every time. If anybody's heard it, and knows exactly what I'm talking about, could they give me the name of the tune? 2D Maestro ^{Who's Jake?} 12:48, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

It appears to be "Galloping Gertie" by Sam Fonteyn. Steve ^T • C 15:07, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Broadcasting rights

Why aren't there separate broadcasting rights for the four Home Nations? --84.62.204.133 (talk) 17:07, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Why should there be? --Tango (talk) 18:57, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

For which event? With the exception of listed sporting events, events organisers can sell broadcasting rights as they wish, and given that most of the main broadcasters cover the entire UK (and ITV doesn't split easily along national lines in Britain), and they keep the same schedule across the UK for much or all of the day, I imagine that there is more interest from them for bidding for the entire UK, rather than separately for each Home Nation. The article which I linked earlier does mention a 2009 proposal to change the protection so that certain events would be guaranteed to be free-to-air only in certain parts of the UK, but that idea was abandoned. Warofdreams talk 19:03, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Why aren't South Tyrolian residents allowed to subscribe to German-language pay television? --84.62.204.133 (talk) 08:18, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Buying an xbox 360

Hi im looking to buy an xbox but i dont know what to buy. i DO NOT want an xbox that will get the red rings so i wont get the older ones that came out before they fixed the problems (for the most part). i also dont need one that is more that 60 gigs but i want one with more than the arcade which has only 527mb of storage. I am considering the arcade with an external memory unit but the external forms of memory (flash drives, harddrives, etc) are quite expensive and defeat the purpose of geting the cheap arcade. basically i just want a Medium sized memory (30-60gig.) a newer version (to lesson chance of red rings) no specail offers (getting 2 free games with purches of system etc.) Preferably not rephubished, and all that for as low of a price as possible. thanks --99.89.176.228 (talk) 21:25, 17 June 2010 (UTC) And if it helps at all i dont plan on downloading anymovies but i might download games and i will get xbox live. i only want enough memory to store all my saved data, maybe a few downloaded games, and anything i might need to use xbox live.i have a wii and i have downloaded games and i curently have no memory at all left i have had to deleat certain things to make room and i dont want to have to do the same for my xbox. thanks for the help --99.89.176.228 (talk) 21:42, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Did you see the new announcement from the E3 trade show this week? The new 360 is shiny black, 250GB hard disk, built-in Wi-Fi (unlike the older Xbox, for which it was a $100 addon), and Microsoft says the new one is quieter; and it's US$299. This amusing cnet article notes that if your new 360 does fail, it won't literally have "red rings of death" because it'll now use a combination of various green lights to tell you it has fried. But I do expect its reliability to be better than the older Xboxes. Anyway, if you do need Wi-Fi, then I think the new Xbox is a better bargain than buying an older Xbox with a small hard disk and having to buy the Wi-Fi adapter. If you don't need Wi-Fi and plan to use an Ethernet cable to connect, your plan to buy a 360 with a small hard disk is probably fine. I share your concern about reliability and make sure you find out exactly what the warranty is before you buy (especially if you buy refurbished, or if you buy a used one). Comet Tuttle (talk) 03:39, 18 June 2010 (UTC)