Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 May 21

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May 21

Online University Theses

I would like to know if there is a theses portal like the Canadian Theses Portal for theses published from American, British, French, or Spanish (from Spain) universities.

If not, I would like to know if there are online theses databases for the major universities of the world?

I am inquiring about this matter because I would simply like to peruse some university theses.

Thanks in advance.

Je voudrais voler, comme un oiseau d'ailleurs

it means it likes the taste of its dick b/c it has the same smell as the dick make sense, what does "a bird of wing" mean? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe "wingéd bird"? Corvus cornix 23:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Ok I've just listened to the Enya version of Only If and I really doubt if that's proper French, especially with the way she say it (like American). --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:21, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Enya is Irish, why would she speak French "like an American", whatever that means? Corvus cornix 17:45, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Well it's like someone trying to do a bad American accent, for instance she says "vou-dray" and "vo-lay". --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:02, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

"I would like to fly, like a bird from elsewhere, from elsewhere" Rhinoracer 12:15, 22 May 2007 (UTC) 12:05, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Global Warming

Ice Age. Are we to one close?

No, although a shutdown of the thermohaline circulation near Greenland could result from glacier melt water introduced into the North Atlantic due to global warming. If this happens, it could significantly cool Northern Europe, due to the loss of the North Atlantic Drift branch of the Gulf Stream. See shutdown of thermohaline circulation. StuRat 07:33, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes we are quite close to one. We are at the end of the last one. Thats why all the glaciers are melting

Second Life Rape

Whats this I hear about someone being raped on second life? Was it some major hack or something? Or was it a figuratively raped?

Some paedophiles were creating little kids as characters and selling them to other paedophiles. See [1] 131.111.203.154 09:38, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

You might be referring to this story of a "rape" of a player in the game. --TotoBaggins 01:51, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

total institutions

Is this a sociological question?

Is this a question at all? JackofOz 12:56, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

No, but this is an answer. </ancient Oxford joke> Algebraist 17:22, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

We actually have an article, total institution, which answers the non-extant question. Nimur 14:35, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Blair + Bush = Hitler

Some time ago on TV, I saw this billboard which had a picture of Blair + Bush = Hitler. It was Tony Blair's face + George W. Bush's Face = Adolf Hitler's face. Is there any way that I can find a picture of it on the internet?

Maybe try Google's image search? Dismas|^(talk) 01:50, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

CROSSWORD CLUE

Help. Two clues to one answer: Beauty specialist. Company's encountered multinational article - one will make you look good. 11 letters. Thanks in advance.86.202.156.216 10:36, 21 May 2007 (UTC)DT

Cosmetician (company's = cos; encountered = met; multinational = ici; article = an).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:18, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Brilliant... many thanks.86.202.156.216 13:38, 21 May 2007 (UTC)DT

I don't get the multinational = ici part. But otherwise...Brilliant Zain Ebrahim 14:53, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

ICI. --Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:55, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh ok. Good one.Zain Ebrahim 15:10, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Imperial Chemical Industries - a major British company that has long since developed into a major world entity.86.194.250.165 14:22, 22 May 2007 (UTC)DT

wikipedia & spelling errors

What percentage of wikipedia articles contain obvious, easily correctable spelling errors? It seems like every time I hit random article, I find a new typo--69.118.235.97 15:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

• Um, well, y'know, if we had the technology to count them automatically, we'd have the technology to fix them automatically... --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:29, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I hope you're not counting color/colour, tire/tyre, etc. as typos and correcting these. Putting regional spelling differences aside, I think most pages acquire their spelling mistakes over time as they are edited by less-careful editors and as they are vandalized with the vandalism manually edited-out again rather than simply being reverted.

Atlant 15:57, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Don't worry, I'm not changing things to/from British/American English, I'm just fixing obvious typos such as becaues --> because etc..--69.118.235.97 17:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

For what it's worth - your experience is probably a lot worse because you are hitting 'Random article'. That will get you to a lot of articles that are so obscure that almost nobody reads them and (consequently) hardly anyone fixes them. If on the other hand you stick to actually looking up stuff that you need to know, the odds are vastly better that other people will be looking at those articles too - and spelling mistakes and typo's are therefore going to be much more short-lived. Another thing I suspect to be true is that 'Random article' has a bias towards giving you a recently edited article. I can't prove that for Wikipedia - but I run a couple of websites that use the WikiMedia software - and it's really noticable on those sites where I know which pages are recent and which are ancient. If that's true here too (and we're using the same software - so I'd expect so) - then because on the average you are seeing younger article when you grab one at random, you are also more likely to see typo's than in more mature articles. However, if everyone 'does their bit' and fixes problems when they see them then gradually this problem will go away. But it's simply inevitable that a work that's created in the way that Wikipedia is will have lots of these kinds of problems. SteveBaker 23:27, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Agree that we all need to be vigilant and fix errors whenever we see them, but I doubt it's ever going to go away. We have editors from all over the world, many of whom are not native English speakers. Even among anglophones, the educational standards to which most of them seem subject these days don't require or even strongly encourage good spelling, so the issue goes deeper than just the editors themselves. When students after 12 years of school don't know their 7 times table, or can't spell relatively simple words, and seem to know little about punctuation or syntax, there's something really rotten with the system. JackofOz 03:10, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

To be completely fair - we should distinguish between spelling mistakes caused by the author truly not knowing how to spell a particular word versus 'typos' - where the author is perfectly able to spell the word - but simply hits the wrong key on the keyboard. The latter is unlikely to be fixed by improved educational standards - although I guess typing lessons wouldn't hurt. In the becaues --> because example our questioner used, I'd be surprised if anyone thought that 'becaues' was the correct spelling - it's much more likely that typing too quickly resulted in 's' and 'e' being swapped because two adjacent fingers on the same hand hit keys with just slightly the wrong timing. SteveBaker 13:32, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

And of course there's a glass-half-empty/glass-half-full issue here, too. We could wring our hands about the problem of Wikipedia articles with spelling errors in them -- or we could celebrate the fact that, since it's the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, editors like 69.118.235.97 can and do fix these errors as soon as they're spotted. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:04, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Burglary(WHAT CAN HAPPEN)

Alright sorry for posting the question in the wrong area...........My brother was going home with some friends he was in the car asleep it was 3 males excluding him and a adult female him and the female where in the car asleep cause they were tired so the other guys decided they were goin 2 steal something out of vehicles they broke into three trucks the 3rd tim they had got caught in my brother was with them(cause they took off in the car) they took them to the jail house the girl got put in jail cause she was an adult and parents came and got the other guys....so what can happen to my brother when they go to court....

P.S. PLEASE SEND ME A LETTER BACK AT THIS EMAIL: email removed to prevent spam. Skittle 17:42, 21 May 2007 (UTC)216.206.210.163 17:36, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

WE WILL NOT SEND YOU A LETTER OR AN EMAIL, WE ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS HERE OR ON YOUR TALK PAGE. I hope that someone can offer you a little guidance, but I must remind you that Wikipedia cannot and will not give you legal advice. Good luck. Skittle 17:42, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

What do u mean legal advice? Does Wikipedia give illegal advice? And oh yeah thank you for the help (using Sarcasm)READ HOT HEAT

It means people who answer questions on this desk don't give advice on legal matters. You need to see a lawyer. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 14:17, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

We're doing you a favor by refraining from giving our *opinions* on a serious legal situation. You don't even tell us what country you're in, much less the jurisdiction, as someone's tongue-in-cheek answer about Saudi Arabia was suggesting. We are just not able to help you beyond this: go hire a good lawyer. --TotoBaggins 14:55, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

This incident happen in Gainesville,FL of the USA,the jurisdiction is very strict,They see as third times the charm.In other words if your on your third strike they give u life...but it has 2 be on the same crime. He has a Lawyer and is goin 2 court with him so......my question was is he going to get in trouble216.206.210.163 03:43, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, at a bare minimum he could be considered an accomplice, if they don't buy the "innocently sleeping in the car story" (which frankly sounds like a pretty bad defense). His best bet is probably to plead however his lawyer tells him to. --24.147.86.187 13:22, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Here's the problem folks - practicing law without a license is illegal in Florida - Wikipedia and Wikipedians are not above the law. We cannot, we MUST NOT dispense legal or medical advice. Even "GO GET A GOOD LAWYER" is beyond our limits. The only correct answer is: Sorry - we aren't allowed to answer this question." SteveBaker 23:51, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Well Wikipedia is stupid then,cause if u get in trouble/go to jail for typing some on the internet gosh they might as well legalize public excutions.....what im tryin 2 say is that wikipedia needs 2 b a little more free!

Wikipedia logo font

Does anyone know what the font of the Wikipedia logo is? Or is it proprietary? I'm referring to the "Wikipedia" part, not the "The Free Encyclopedia" part, in case they're different. Thanks. - ^Рэд_хот^{(t • c • e)} 18:03, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

You may want to discuss this at the Help Desk, which discusses matters Wikipedia-related. Corvus cornix 18:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, it is 'Garamond'. I'm not a font expert though, so I could easily be wrong. --80.229.152.246 22:02, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

It is Hoefler Text. zafiroblue05 | Talk 12:19, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Pet Behavior

My puppy eats poop. I can't get her to stop - is this dangerous to her or just disgusting?

Is it a Shih Tzu? Edison 20:43, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

LOL! Sandman30s 10:14, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

If you google "Dogs eating feces" you will see many sites devoted to describing coprophagia in the dog world, and others dealing with possible cures. Bielle 21:47, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

At least it's eating its own poop, I lived with two house mates, one had a dog and one had a cat and the dog would follow the cat around like a lolly dispencer, eeeew... Vespine 22:29, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Is she eating her own poop? If she is eating other dogs' poop, she could get whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, or coccidia, not to mention a variety of bacterial or viral diseases. --Joelmills 01:16, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I remember seeing our female Irish Setter eat her puppies' feces, fairly regulary, and eagerly, with no ill effects. Motherly love. Who wields me, wields the world! 14:25, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, any parasites the puppies have they likely got from mom. —Tamfang 10:25, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Ummm, well... JULES: ... I just don't dig on swine. VINCENT: Why not? JULES: They're filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals. VINCENT: Sausages taste good. Pork chops taste good. JULES: A sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie. I'll never know 'cause even if it did, I wouldn't eat the filthy motherfucker. Pigs sleep and root in shit. That's a filthy animal. I don't wanna eat nothin' that ain't got enough sense to disregard its own feces. VINCENT: How about dogs? Dogs eat their own feces. JULES: I don't eat dog either. VINCENT: Yes, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? JULES: I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they're definitely dirty. But a dog's got personality. And personality goes a long way. VINCENT: So by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he's cease to be a filthy animal? JULES: We'd have to be talkin' 'bout one motherfuckin' charmin' pig. It'd have to be the Cary Grant of pigs. And so on. --Shirt58 12:42, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

drug testing

i'm asking a question regarding the "detection period" undering the drug test page. According to what it says now it takes 2 to 7 days for a single use of marijuana to become undetectable. I can understand that. But then it says for prolonged use it takes 1 to 2 months to get out. How is that possible? Mathematically, it just doesn't seem to work out. At the same rate of "expulsion", it would require an impossible amount of ingested marijuana for it to take months to get rid of. Does your metabolism slow down according to the amount of a specific metabolite you have inside your body? I just dont understand why it takes so long. Does the "half-life" not matter anymore when it comes to getting rid of a metabolite? But I'm just wanting to figure all this out. Thank you.

Josh24.74.20.206 21:57, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I think it's more along the lines of prolonged or chronic use of marijuana allows the drug to seep deeper into your system, that's not the scientific way of putting it but I think that's roughly what's happening. I've read that marijuana use is even recorded in your hair growth, so it is possible to measure if you have used Marijuana for as long as you have been growing your hair. Vespine 00:54, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The primary metabolite of THC is fat-solubule and is stored to some extent in fat cells. Chronic users can have stored, and released over time, enough of this metabolite (THC-COOH I believe) to cause you to fail a urine drug screen. This is highly variable, depending on percent of body fat, metabolic rate, diet, etc. --killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 01:26, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Here is a pretty good reference.--killing sparrows ^(chirp!) 02:46, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Ipod volume

Would playing my ipod on a very low volume compared to a very high volume have any noticeable difference on how long the battery lasts? 68.231.151.161 23:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

It will certainly have an effect on how long your ears will last. Corvus cornix 23:32, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Low volume should, all other things being equal, make the batteries last longer, and as Corvus cornix notes, cause much less damage to your hearing.

Additionally, yes, the difference can be noticible. -- mattb 02:30, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Yes, very much so. Headphones that don't have battery packs draw their power from the device they're connected to, so turning the volume down reduces the amount of power needed. An iPod probably has to spend power on a CPU, HDD, screen, backlight, and headphones. turning off the light and turning down the volume can have a large impact on the battery life on my nano -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 04:43, 22 May 2007 (UTC)