Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 August 25

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August 25

Can I really not visit Zanzibar?

I've had a hankering to travel to Zanzibar for years. I liked the sound of a place that was a little off the beaten track but still tourist-friendly, with history, nature, and gorgeous beaches all in one place. Now I'm finally in a financial position to start putting such a trip together, and I read that Zanzibar has banned all gay and lesbian tourists. Does this really mean banned, as in, if I go I will be serving 7 years' hard time in a Tanzanian prison? Or does it just mean that, if I go, I have to leave my rainbow t-shirt at home and refrain from making out with girls while I'm there? How foolish would I be to carry on with my vacation plan? -FisherQueen (talk · contribs) 00:07, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, you have to ask yourself how they'd know. If there is no way - then they're hardly going to be able to investigate! I just wouldn't make a big show of it if I were you. Anyway - we're not supposed to answer legal question here. "Ask a lawyer". SteveBaker (talk) 00:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Exactly, SteveBaker. Zanzibar says that gay and lesbian sex is criminalised. Unless you're wearing your rainbow shirt and making out with your girlfriend/the local women, there's little way to tell - it's not like it's on your passport. However, as a practical (and totally not legally related) suggestion, I advise caution. With a Sunni majority (and some hard feelings about Freddie Mercury (RIP)) flamboyance is probably best kept to a minimum. Otherwise, I'd say, enjoy your trip! Steewi (talk) 01:10, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

They might describe it as tourist-friendly, but the rate of crime there is high, and on the increase [1], so your sexuality may be the least of your concerns. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

As Steve points out we can’t give you legal advice, but as a general social point of view. . .The thing is, homophobic laws like that are often based on the assumption that being gay or lesbian is an “abominable act,” not an identity. Excerpts from the Qur'an seem to support this view: "Do ye commit lewdness such as no people in creation (ever) committed before you? For ye practice your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds." ^{[7:80–84 (Translated by Yusuf Ali)]}. This point of view is often something along the lines that all people are considered straight unless they “choose” to have sexual relations with a member of the same sex. From this perspective it seems likely that such people might not think of considering a person to be homosexual unless they had specific proof of such an action.

Grimly the Qur'an says later on “If any of your women are guilty of lewdness, Take the evidence of four (Reliable) witnesses from amongst you against them; and if they testify, confine them to houses until death do claim them, or Allah ordain for them some (other) way. If two men among you are guilty of lewdness, punish them both. If they repent and amend, Leave them alone; for Allah is Oft-returning, Most Merciful.”^{[4:15–16 (Translated by Yusuf Ali)]} --S.dedalus (talk) 01:43, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Can I point out one other consideration? Everybody here is thinking about what happens if you get "outed" and arrested. But consider what a law like that also does if, say, someone else finds out and wants to hold it against you (extortion, blackmail). Consider what happens if, say, you do wear your rainbow shirts and etc. and then get robbed—will the police take you seriously? Will they care? Laws like this end up having far more ramifications than just the act they outlaw—they make it so that people who would be found guilty of them end up essentially outside the law, unable to report crimes, etc. Personally I would avoid it. One bad situation or bad choice and you could be in a nasty situation, even beyond the question of getting persecuted by the law itself. Once you're on the criminal side of the line a lot of other bad possibilities open up. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:10, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

For a specific example of that, consider what happened to Alan Turing, a brilliant man who was one of the founders of computer science. He reported a theft from his house, and mentioned to the police that he suspected the involvement of a man who had been his lover. England then had a law deeming homosexual acts to be "gross indecency", and Turing was apparently surprised to realize that this would be now be enforced against him. He was sentenced to "chemical castration" hormone injections and apparently committed suicide some time later. The play and TV-movie Breaking the Code dramatizes the story. --Anonymous, 04:11 UTC, August 25, 2008.

Indeed, doubly sad and grotesque since Alan Turing arguable played the greatest single role of any individual in defeating the Nazis (by helping to break the Enigma machine code). However I’m not sure if that is really relevant to this question. An “international” is less likely to persecute too heavily by a friendly nation. See Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case. --S.dedalus (talk) 06:13, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I was in Zanzibar a month ago. The beaches are gorgeous and the history is unique although be warned, it is highly touristy. There is now even a street of boutique-looking shops (Kenyatta). Homosexuality is illegal and there is a vocal Islamist presence. There was supposed to be a celebration of native son, Freddie Mercury, but Islamist pressure ended the planned affair. But it will not be at all foolish to go. Unless you are visible in your demonstration of your identity, no one is going to know. But if you are very worried it might better suit the purpose of a vacation to go somewhere where you will be more relaxed. Southeast Asia has plenty of history and superb beaches. Besides Zanzibar wasn't much of a party spot. Lotsofissues 08:05, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

To be blunt, I highly doubt Zanzibar has laws against lesbians and gays. The vast majority of laws are against the act (i.e. sex or perhaps even touching, kissing, close contact, etc between people of the same sex), not the person. Locals may sometimes be persecuted on suspicion, but even this is actually a lot rarer then people seem to suggest. Zanzibar probably doesn't want tourists who break their laws, hence gays and lesbians who bring partners (although I suspect they will usually turn a blind eye to this provided you aren't to open about it) and particularly those who involve locals may find themselves in prison (although probably not for long, these sort of things tend to result in the people being deported quickly). But since it sounds like this is not your plan I don't think you will have problems. The issue of blackmail/extortion is not going to arise if your not planning on doing anything illegal since the police are not going to care what you do in your home country and are liable to arrest the person harrasing the tourist. I'm with Steewi here, I would be more concerned about other things like general crime rather then concerns of the way you'll be treated because of your sexuality. Nil Einne (talk) 21:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

My point exactly, just better put by you Nil! Thank you, --S.dedalus (talk) 05:32, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Mozilla and BBC RSS Feed

Why, by default, is my Mozilla Firefox web browser subscribed to the BBC news feed, a UK company, when Mozilla is US-based? Out of all the news agencies, why BBC? Nothing wrong it, but I'm just curious. Acceptable (talk) 01:11, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps Mozilla is aware that there isn't a US news network worth subscribing to. ៛ Bielle (talk) 01:37, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Are you in the UK? Firefox can certainly detect your location. Algebraist 01:39, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The BBC is a highly respected broadcaster, particularly with regards to news, around the world. See BBC World Service. --Tango (talk) 01:46, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I live in Canada. Acceptable (talk) 01:52, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm in australia and I get the BBC feed by default. I'm happy with it, I'd have probably signed up to it without firefox's help. Well done Mozilla for having the sense to pick a reputable broadcaster. 144.137.206.217 (talk) 10:28, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

International Olympic Committee

What would be some requirements to get a job working for the IOC? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.61.95.232 (talk) 01:14, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Here is the relevant page on their website. There's no jobs available now though. Algebraist 01:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Labor Day

Who changed the positioning of Labor Day this year and why was it done? 69.146.1.37 (talk) 02:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Since you're spelling it Labor and not Labour, I'm going to assume that you're talking about the American holiday and not any of the others of similar name. Our article about Labor Day points out that it's been on the first Monday of September for quite some time. This years occurance is no different. Dismas|^(talk) 02:31, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I was born on Labor Day. Apparently my mom didn't enjoy the irony. Plasticup ^T/C 12:52, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Medal percentage

What percentage of all athletes at the 2008 Olympics won at least 1 medal? Nadando (talk) 02:52, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

You could calculate this yourself, it's pretty simple (though time consuming) math. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 03:15, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

With enough research, you could probably find the number of medal winners and the number of competitors, then it's just a simple division. You'll need to decide what to do about teams, though - do they count once per team or once per person? --Tango (talk) 03:59, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Members of a medal-winning team get a medal each, so I think it's clear enough how to count them. I don't know where to find the data to answer the question, though. The 2008 Olympics article says there were 10,500 athletes and 302 events, so if there were no teams, no ties, and no multi-medal winners then 906/10,500 = 8.6% of the athletes would have won medals; but that's clearly just a rough approximation. --Anonymous, 04:18 UTC, August 25, 2008.

It's not so clear - while they get a physical medal each, they're only counted on the medals table once. --Tango (talk) 04:20, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

No need to go that far, Tango. We're talking about individual people who competed at the Games, whether in individual events, team events, or a mixture. If 100 people attended, and 65 of them came home with at least one gold, silver or bronze medal around their necks, whether from individual or team events, that it's true to say that 65% of them won a medal. -- JackofOz (talk) 06:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

There's a list of medal winners at List of 2008 Summer Olympics medal winners. All you have to do is count them, ignoring repeats. Algebraist 11:38, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Ah. I count that article as showing 2,056 actual medals awarded to 1,885 distinct individuals. This count is based on the assumptions that (1) the formatting of the wikitext is consistent throughout the article, allowing it to be mechanically collapsed into a list of names, (2) each wikilink to a multi-medal winner is rendered the same way each time, rather than using alternate forms of the name, and (3) there are no cases of a failure to disambiguate two medalists of the same name. The article also says that "approximately 11,028 athletes were expected to participate". Well, if 1,885/11,028 is correct, then that would be 17.1%. --Anonymous, 21:45 UTC, August 25, 2008.

Wool coat

Where can I get a nice looking wool coats in a European style? All I can find are pea coats, but I’ve seen nice intellectual looking casual wool coats warn by guys (single-breasted coats I believe). --S.dedalus (talk) 03:35, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried looking in Google images with the search parameters mens+wool+coat+-pea ? Click on photos you like, and chances are good they come from commercial websites with catalog service. -- Deborahjay (talk) 15:37, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

If you have a G-note to spare, how about this cashmere one [2], or is it too conservative for you? ៛ Bielle (talk) 02:23, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

MAny game companies leave ESA

Who do you think will be the last remaining ESA member and why? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 04:13, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

We can only speculate, and the RefDesk is not the place for idle speculation. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 04:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Then where is? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 06:23, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

A forum for discussions on ESA, whatever that may be. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:48, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't necessarily have to be a forum for discussion ESA, any forum for general discussion on the gaming world would probably accept a question of the sort. No where on wikipedia though. In any case, your question appears to have started off from the wrong premise. Some companies have left Entertainment Software Association but a large number including most of the biggest remain members Nil Einne (talk) 21:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The answer is that ESA would collapse long before they got down to having a single remaining member - hence there won't likely be a "last remaining member". The "why?" is therefore likely to be a meaningless question. SteveBaker (talk) 19:14, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

How to eliminate sweat odours from earphones  ?

I use the same pair of in-ear earphones in the gym. Lately, the headphones started giving our a bed sweaty smell. Is there a way to clean/eliminate this smell without damaging the earphones ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ronbarak (talk • contribs) 05:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The smell could be from bacteria feeding off sweat that builds up in your ears. Are they earbuds (plug-in) or headphones (cover the ear)? I suggest taking them off momentarily every ten minutes or so, between sets. This will let your ears cool down, and the bacteria won't find your ears as inviting. If it's just sweat, then removing them between sets and wiping the sweat off with a towel might help. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 08:01, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

My father used to be a pilot - their headphones have elasticated cloth covers over the cups that can be removed and washed. Failing that, a LIGHT spray with an antibacterial spray onto foam parts or a wipe with an antibacterial hand wipe ought to solve the problem. If the plastic part with the holes leading to the actual speaker parts are visible - then you should block those with something before you spray anything because the spray could easily penetrate through and produce deposits on the delicate moving parts that would mess up the sound quality. SteveBaker (talk) 13:40, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The OP said they were in-ear phones, ie earbuds.

If they have foam covers, there's not a lot you can do - a sponge like that will be great for soaking up sweat and harbouring bacteria. If they're hard plastic, then Steve's idea of an antibacterial wipe sounds like a good one. 81.187.153.189 (talk) 17:23, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The foam covers are usually replaceable. I haven't looked for a while (I use big headphones now), but I remember seeing packets of replacement foam covers for purchase in the hi-fi store. The covers will probably go over most buds (in-ear phones) and can be switched when they get a bit gross. There may be some sound loss if you use them, though. Steewi (talk) 04:53, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Applause/Applaud

Say if there was a sign on a show telling you to clap, would the sign be Applause or Applaud? 220.244.78.217 (talk) 05:49, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

ask on language desk. 89.243.144.88 (talk) 07:33, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I've only ever seen APPLAUSE. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 07:50, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Presumable "Applaud" would sound too much like command "Applause" is a statement of what might be appropriate at this point in time - and therefore seems more like a suggestion to the audience. SteveBaker (talk) 13:30, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Thirded. --Masamage ♫ 21:57, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Two phone numbers for same place in early days?

A few businesses in an old phone directory I saw recently had different numbers listed - here, in the middle of this page is an example of what I mean. (http://distantcousin.com/Directories/OH/Canton/1914/Pages.asp?Pages=584)

Why would this be? Did this represent two different switchboards? Within versus outside of Stark County, perhaps? I don't know if it would be the latter, because not every one had both. The article on telephone numbers seemed to indicate it might have something to do witht he switchboard, though.Somebody or his brother (talk) 14:11, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

They're labelled "Bell" and "Stark", which suggests to me that the two telephone networks weren't joined at that time so if you wanted people with either company to be able to call you, you needed a line with each. However, our article on Bell labs says they were only founded in 1925, but the name may have been in use before then. I don't know who "Stark" would be, presumably some local network. --Tango (talk) 17:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

(Edit conflict) This is only speculation, but I wonder if at that time the area had two competing phone companies which didn't interoperate. To receive calls from all its potential customers, a business might get phones from both companies installed, which would naturally have different numbers. So if you the customer had a Bell phone, you could call them on 1234, if you had a Stark phone it's 5678. It fits the facts, but as I say a total guess. I suggest you wait and see if someone can provide a more factual answer :-) 81.187.153.189 (talk) 17:20, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I was researching based on the same assumptions as above, but I also noted that Canton Ohio is in Stark County. That fact didn't lead me any further toward an answer though. I'll also note that there was some sort of "Bell Telephone Company" since at least 1879, according to the American Telephone & Telegraph article, Bell Labs came later. --LarryMac | Talk 18:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

My guess would be Bell System number and non-Bell number. The Bell telephone system in the early days refused to cooperate in any way with non-Bell exchanges, as in making long distance connections. The non-Bell phone system might have offered lower rates for local subscribers. An interesting piece of Americana. Edison2 (talk) 05:04, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Footnote: When Woodrow Wilson became president in 1913, his attorney general advised AT&T that they were likely in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Department of Justice started proceedings, but it was settled out of court when the head of AT&T committed to (a) sell the bulk of its Western Union stock; (b) purchase no more telephone companies without the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission; and (c) allow other companies to interconnect. After this, the need for homes to have multiple systems became a thing of the past. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 15:01, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Hindu Unity

Hindu Unity is blocked in India, but why Hindu Unity is not blocked in Vatican City and in the United States despite the fact it puts Pope John Paul II, The New York Times, Pervez Musharraf and Sonia Gandhi in their "hit list" as "evil forces that are against the Hindu people"? Why the US allows hate sites like this? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 16:24, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The US and most of its people believe that Freedom of speech is a fundamental right, and vital to the health of a democracy. APL (talk) 16:51, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

This is not about freedom of speech, this is about prevention and legislation against hate speech. See Freedom_of_speech#Limitations_on_freedom_of_speech. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 17:28, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Personally I am not a fan of censorship in any form, but it is worth noting that even in the United States some forms of hate speech are allowed. Censorship in the United States: it is legal to express certain forms of hate speech so long as one does not engage in the acts being described or urge others to commit illegal acts. Plasticup ^T/C 17:36, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Hindu Unity urge people to kill the above mentioned persons. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 17:38, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Also, calling Sonia Gandhi "evil" and "enemy of Hindus" is defamation. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 17:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

First amendment, man. Plasticup ^T/C 18:46, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

See First_amendment#Libel.2C_slander.2C_and_private_action. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 18:53, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Hey, don't argue with us. Wikipedia's Reference Desk does not make or enforce the law. APL (talk) 18:56, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Besides, The site in question seems to resolve to an Israel IP address. APL (talk) 18:59, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

How many sites do you think you could find belonging to US citizens hosted on servers within USA that say X is evil and the enemy of Y? (Pick your own "X" and "Y") I guarantee there are thousands - perhaps tens of thousands of them. Can you ban one site like this and not the others? On what grounds? How many of these are sued for defamation in a given year? (Hint: None of them) Would you ban my website if I said "George Bush is evil and the enemy of the American People"? Where do you stop? Do you ever stop?

"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -- John F. Kennedy

SteveBaker (talk) 23:05, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Actually, as I understand it, George could theoretically sue you for that, but as a "public figure" he would have to prove actual malice — either that you knew he was not evil or was not an enemy of the American people, or that you made the claim with reckless disregard for its truth. I would guess, though I'd just be speculating, that the more public the figure, the higher the bar for that showing, to the point that it would probably be impossible for George Bush. I also vaguely recall that there's another principle in slander law, or libel law, or both, that makes it more difficult to prove slander/libel if the speech in question was merely insulting without making specific definable claims, but I'm not sure of the details there.

Now in your homeland the law is much more favorable to plaintiffs. On the Continent it's even worse — Italy for example has criminal sanctions against insulting the head of state, and I don't think it's unique in that regard. Derives from the old concept of lèse majesté. --Trovatore (talk) 01:52, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Pope John Paul II, Pervez Musharraf and Sonia Gandhi are also public figures - so the exact same argument applies. SteveBaker (talk) 03:51, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Oh, sure, in the US. My point was that it's not impossible in principle for them to win a lawsuit, just very difficult.

Now, if the Hindu Unity site is actually calling for their murder, as Otolemur claims, of course that's very different. You do get into some difficult calls if it's only hinting at it. (Shades of Thomas Beckett.) I'm speaking theoretically here; I haven't actually visited the website. --Trovatore (talk) 03:58, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

FYI, the 'pure insult is not libelous' doctrine is mentioned (very) briefly at the bottom of Defamation#Other defences. Algebraist 01:59, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

"legislation against hate speech." is a legal affront to freedom of speech. That's pretty basic. You can't be free to express any opinion you want if expressing certain opinions is outlawed. APL (talk) 18:55, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Living in a country where they are putting in more and more laws to prevent me being perverted by evil people I feel more and more threatened by the state. I also see people making ever more stupid decisions in the interests of appearing righteous. Thank you but no thanks to you for trying to make the word safer for me by preventing me reading the rantings of this looney crowd. Dmcq (talk) 22:42, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Even if it were legal and desirable to do so, it takes a government considerable effort to block access to specific Internet sites. The Internet was specifically designed to automatically "route around damage" (ironically - by the US Military!) - and censorship appears just like damage to the networking algorithms.

It's been done in (for example) China (see Golden Shield Project - more often known as "The Great Firewall of China") - but to do so requires that government has the right to interpose "firewall" computers between the countries' internal Internet and all external networks. That requires some seriously draconian laws and a ton of money (it's estimated that China's system cost over a billion dollars) - and I doubt it would be possible in the USA because there are so many incoming and outgoing links and they are rarely government owned. Even China's system leaks like a seive - there are a ton of ways a determined resident can circumvent it - so blocking of the site has to be accompanied by laws to allow investigation and punishment of people within your country when they are found to have worked around the firewall. Even if you do succeed in blocking access to it to "normal" people, you have the problem that inevitably, people who are in favor of the views of the site - or in favor of free speech - will obtain the data from the site and put it up on a server someplace else. In the USA, people will work to bypass censorship even when the material to be accessed is largely uninteresting. To completely shut the site down would be very tough indeed. SteveBaker (talk) 22:32, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I just wanted to interject that it is amusing to have John Paul II on a hit list. Adam Bishop (talk) 03:57, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Name

Can you make a name and surname of letters AAACDGIJJNOST? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atacamadesert12 (talk • contribs) 16:46, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Depends on where you live and who you wish to recognize you by that name. See Name change. Some legal juurisditions do not allow you change your name to "nonsense", but if you don't care to legally change it you can just ask your friends to call you whatever you want. Plasticup ^T/C 17:29, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I think the original poster is referring to an anagram, actually. If that is the case, the answer is "probably yes". I mean, I can't come up with one right off the bat, but especially if the name doesn't have to be limited by ethnicity, I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 17:52, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

You can make lots of names, depending on what you're prepared to accept as a surname. First names in there include Jocasta, Jade, Jason, and Jonas.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Can sad jato jig? Jots can aid jag. Plasticup ^T/C 18:45, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

The internet Anagram server[3] has a setting for names. But most of them are pretty obscure with those letters. [4] APL (talk) 18:49, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, everyone! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Atacamadesert12 (talk • contribs) 21:48, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Hearing aids

Has anyone experience of the effectiveness of hearing aids that are incorporated in the arms of spectacles please?--88.110.157.156 (talk) 18:31, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

How is it possible to create one's own "Black Border" pictures such as the motivational ones and assorted parodies?

Not quite sure where to ask this, might as well come here! I'm referring in the question to those pictures of an image, surrounded entirely by a black border, then one or two well chosen words to sum it up and a sentence or two underneath giving more context. There are of course thousands of parodies, this is one I have to hand as an example. [5]. I would like to create my own, using my own images, but am not quite sure how to do so. Could anyone suggest an imaging tool of some kind that I could do it with? Thanks. Caissa's DeathAngel (talk) 19:05, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Pretty much any image editting software can do that, but if you don't want to bother making it by hand you can use one of thousands of online tools. But be warned, the flashy font is no substitute for wit. Plasticup ^T/C 19:38, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

True...very, very true. SteveBaker (talk) 22:09, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for that, Steve. I can't think when I've laughed so much at a demotivational poster before! Gwinva (talk) 22:37, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Love the "Plasticups" in the image. :-) Fribbler (talk) 23:02, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Certainly those off-the-shelf tools will make one for you with little effort. But if you prefer, it's a very easy job with an image editor like The GIMP (which is a freely downloadable and v.powerful image editing tool). Make a new image - paint it black, cut/paste your image and resize it to about 80% of the size of the background - center it horizontally - and 'eyeball' positioning it vertically to leave a small black border at the top and space for the text at the bottom. Pick a prominant color from within the image for the large font text. Type in the text for the top row of words WITHOUT the first and last letter (for some reason, real (de)motivational posters always make those bigger). Pick a rather serious-looking font (Times' Roman should be fine) and crank the size up so it's about half the width of the image. Then enter the first and last letters at a font size that's maybe 40% larger than the letters in the middle. You have to drag them around a bit to get the spacing right. Finally, put the "punchline" in much smaller white lettering - centering the text between the two large letters from the title. With practice, and a little wit - you can knock one out in 2 minutes 48 seconds (I have NO idea where I got that number ;-) SteveBaker (talk) 22:17, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I've always used MS paint. --Random832 (contribs) 20:28, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

If that was a call for sympathy - you have it! Download GIMP...it's better. SteveBaker (talk) 04:25, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Or Paint.NET, which IMO is a lot easier to use than GIMP (which has its own, idiosyncratic interface). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:42, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Eeuuwww! Nasty. No decent scripting and no high dynamic range support? No Mac version - Linux version is painful. Slow C# implementation is like editing in molasses. I could go on. Also, there is a version of GIMP that has essentially the same interface as photoshop if that's what you want. SteveBaker (talk) 16:26, 28 August 2008 (UTC)

I like my own Smell

Dear Wikipedian Contributors,

I like my own person body scent. When I sleep in the same blanket for extended periods of time and my scent rubs off on it, I find that smelling the blanket full of own scent is very relaxing. Is there a name for this behaviour? Am I alone in feeling so?

Thanks. ITGSEETest (talk) 19:38, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Here's an article that discusses scents and their possible meaning. Not quite what you're looking for, I reckon, but a good read. I find (WP:OR) that most people are ambivalent/enamoured of their own smell. Possibly because we are "marking our territory" and possessions. I don't know. Maybe someone else can find a study or survey. Smell ya' later! Fribbler (talk) 22:37, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Familiarity would be part of it. The familiarity of a smell works on animals (such as a puppy feeling comforted by a blanket smelling of its owner when it goes to a new house) and probably on humans. Your own smell is around you most of the time, even if you shower regularly. Why some (many?) people enjoy the smell of their own gaseous rectal expulsions is perhaps harder to explain. Steewi (talk) 04:58, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Moving to Victoria BC and or surrounding areas

Hi......Help with finding living accommodations in houses, apartments, or senior communities for rent. I am a retired gentlemen, single and in good health looking for diverse natural habitats with people orientation. HillstreetrunHillstreetrun (talk) 22:54, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you mean Victoria, British Columbia, then check out the city's website, which provides a lot of information and links for the area, including a list of neighbourhood associations which may offer some help. Gwinva (talk) 23:03, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

A Google search for "senior communities" is quite fruitful too. Fribbler (talk) 23:06, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

I use usedvictoria.com for a lot of things around here. There are often "roomates wanted"-type ads. I warn you though, occupancy is very high here at the best of times. Also, UVIC draws in a lot of students in September; this is the worst time to find a place. You might find a good deal on anything that is unfilled by the end of September though.NByz (talk) 22:01, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Ah, if you're looking for retirement living, my grandma lives @ "the victorian" (link below). It's pretty nice. It's near [| Mount Douglas Park] and in a pretty low-density neighbourhood.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=the+victorian,+victoria+bc&fb=1&view=text&latlng=4649922984907742039 NByz (talk) 22:04, 27 August 2008 (UTC)