Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 July 18

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July 18

Ethiopian Wolf Picture

Does anyone have a copy/link to the original version of this [1] portrait of an Ethiopian Wolf. It was based off a picture in National Geographic a while back, I think. 67.169.56.232 (talk) 00:23, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Meaning of the Proverb

Can any one tell me the meaning of the proverb/idiom "As good as a mile!" its origin and where to use that? --202.83.165.250 (talk) 03:59, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

This would get better/more responses on the Language desk. Dismas|^(talk) 04:05, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Recorded in Remaines, concerning Britaine, William Camden, 1605 as: An inch in a miss is as good as an ell, and a 3 December, 1825 entry in Sir Walter Scott's journal: "He was very near being a poet—but a miss is as good as a mile, and he always fell short of the mark." Smith, William George. (1935). The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs.—eric 04:52, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

"Close only counts with horse-shoes and hand grenades." (Nearness to the target helps to win in the game of horse-shoe tossing, and in the military tactic of handgrenade throwing). If a bullet misses, it just simply misses, and the target is not inconvenienced by being torn asunder or affected in any way at all. A bullet missing by 1/2 inch is equal to a bullet missing by a mile, as if it had been fired in the opposite direction from the target. Edison (talk) 05:02, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

So, it means that, in this case, coming close to the goal isn't good enough. For example, a doctor almost saving a life isn't of much value. StuRat (talk) 16:41, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Compare also two other sayings: "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile" (alsdo originally 'ell", IIRC), and "to miss something by a mile". In both cases the word "mile" ios simply used to mean any arbitrarily large amount - as is the case here. Grutness...wha? 01:40, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

But note that 'as good as a mile' is not an idiom: the phrase is 'a miss is as good as a mile'. --ColinFine (talk) 00:19, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Blue chip client base

Does anyone know what a blue chip client base is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.213.240.1 (talk) 11:11, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

A blue chip stock is that of a large company with relatively large shareholders' equity relative to its assets. Your client is an entity you do business with. A client base is a set of clients you regularly do business with. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 11:18, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

To summarise, it means "our customers are successful companies". Itsmejudith (talk) 13:19, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Or at least their blue chip client base consists of large, successful companies. They may also have a "fly-by-night client base". As long as those customers pay up front, they could still be a source of profit. StuRat (talk) 16:36, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Important question

Does someone feigning Munchausen's syndrome have Munchausen's syndrome?

Adambrowne666 (talk) 11:43, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

How would someone feign Munchausen syndrome? Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:08, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

By falsely claiming you have it ? I don't think this would actually qualify as having it, as that requires actively causing symptoms by harming yourself (or others, in the "by proxy" variant). Merely claiming to have a disease you don't have is hypochondria. StuRat (talk) 16:29, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Hahahaha, awesome. I'm cracking up just trying to figuge out how to approach this question. This reminds me of the Liar's paradox. --Shaggorama (talk) 16:17, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I think yes, because in order to fake the syndrome, you have to be faking illnesses. Well, technically you have to be faking faking an illness, but fortunately for our brains there's no practical difference. --Masamage ♫ 16:21, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, there's a (somewhat subtle, but really pretty major) difference between faking something for fun, or for attention, or whatever other reason as a conscious and deliberate choice ("well, I got an hour to kill and I'm an idiot, so what the hell, might as well mess with some doctors"), and doing so because you have a strong psychological need or compulsion to do so. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 17:02, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Why would you go to a mega concert?

Why do people go to megaconcerts like U2 and the like? Isn't it like watching television if you are not in the front?

Mr.K. (talk) 11:47, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Largely for the atmosphere, also because it is an event to attend. Watching something on tv is enjoyable, but going out the house and having a night-out watching it will be a different experience. So you watch it on the tvs there? So what - you're still at the concert, you're still hearing it live (rather than through your tv) and you're still experiencing the atmosphere/excitement of a live-concert. I can honestly say that i've seen comedians live that were amazing, but on tv come across terribly. Tv coverage is great and i'm not going to say it's 'worse' than being there, but it is definitely a different experience. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:54, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

A comedian in a small room is definitely something different. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 12:12, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Granted, not the 20,000 seat stadium affair that you're getting at but comedians do play large halls that seat a couple thousand people. Those in the back can't see the expression on the comedian's face which is, at times, part of the humor of the comedian. And people still attend, the shows still sell out, partly due to the experience of going. Dismas|^(talk) 16:31, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Mario Shindou

What is the difference between "Super Mario 64" and "Super Mario 64 - Shindou Edition"?

The "Shindou" edition was a Japan-only release of Mario 64 that added Rumble Pak support. Fribbler (talk) 13:18, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Overfed. See Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Avril Vandal and this diff. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:35, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

September songs

Why do many songs have the word September in them, like Green Day's "When September Ends" or Evan Taubenfeld's "Best Days of Our Lives" and various other songs which I can't remember?

Well, "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is autobiographical, and concerns an event that happened in September. But there are surely lots of songs about lots of months; you may be experiencing confirmation bias. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:00, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, there are many months mentioned in songs. "November Rain" by Guns'n'Roses, "October" by Dolores O'Riordan, etc. Dismas|^(talk) 13:39, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Overfed. See Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Avril Vandal and this diff. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:35, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

September Sun by Type O Negative on thier latest album Dead Again, I think the common usage of this month has to do with the end of summer and the coming winter, in the northern hemisphere, used as a metaphore for the ending of a relationship, as most songs are about love, or about the ending or death of some other thing. Type O negative also did October Rust —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 16:09, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree with 193. But why did nobody mention September? -LambaJan (talk) 17:52, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Try http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~msmith03/songtitles/songmonth.htm -- SGBailey (talk) 23:06, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

"Longer than I remember/longer than last September (Brian Eno, "By this river"). Yes, all months are used, but September is used perhaps more than most - and my guess would be because of the connotations the month has (in the NH at least) with autumn, a time long associated with wistfulness and memories. The full lyrics of Simon & Garfunkel's "April come she will" make use of this link between autumn and wistfulness well, for instance. It's interesting that many of the songs mentioned above using other months use October - similarly associated. (oh - "January rain", Hunters and Collectors; "February", The Chills; "April sun in Cuba", Dragon; "May 1, 1990", Adrian belew; "Last day of June', Neil and Tim Finn; "July", Babybird; "August was a heavy month", Bob Geldof; "October", U2; "November", David Kilgour, "December", Teenage Fanclub... not to mention my own "Cold July rain" :). I found tons of marches, but none of them referred to the month. Grutness...wha? 02:02, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

A brief check of my iTunes songs (21,626 at the time of checking):

• January — 3
• February — 3 (2 + 1 for the French "février")
• March — 0 – 4 (difficult to tell if the context means the month or the music/walk, the "march" — 29 results total)
• April — 4
• May — 6 – 7 (difficult to tell if the context means the month or the verb, "may" — 23 results total)
• June — 11 7 – 11 (difficult to tell if the context means the month or the female — 12 results total)
• July — 8
• August — 3
• September — 9 (8 + 1 for the French "septembre")
• October — 3
• November — 9
• December — 11

There is a tie between December and June with 11 each, and September is tied in third with November. − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 09:18, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

September is also the month when American kids usually go back to school after summer vacation. Hence the oldie "See you in September," used in commercials for the National Football League not too long ago. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 01:35, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

You forgot The Twelfth of Never (which may or may not be my birthday).  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 23:00, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Some of those titles June may have been referring to a woman named June. -LambaJan (talk) 16:35, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

You're right. I've edited the numbers − Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail )

As Dean Martin once quipped, "June is busting out all over. June ought to get a bigger dress". -- JackofOz (talk) 23:15, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Any castle people in the house?

Can anyone recommend a castle in (preferably southern) Germany that has guest rooms besides this one? I'm looking for a room for two adults in mid August. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 20:12, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Richard I spent an enjoyable holiday in Dürnstein and paid a measly 150,000 marks. You may like to contact user:Ferkelparade, user:richardrj or user:Sluzzelin, all residents of the Deep South. Enjoy your time in Europe, we´ve got more trees than Vermont but no moose... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:32, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

PS: User:Angr is a neighbour from Richmond, NY but lives in Berlin. She may have some contacts, too. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:43, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

http://www.castle-hotel.de/ near Heidleberg -- SGBailey (talk) 23:04, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I like how that website uses the pre-1801 version of the flag of Great Britain to indicate the English language. —Angr 09:09, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Say what? I live in Berlin, but I am neither from Richmond, NY, nor a she. And I'm afraid I know absolutely nothing at all about castles in southern Germany. I'm familiar with Schloss Charlottenburg and Sanssouci but AFAIK neither of them has guest rooms available. —Angr 08:08, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, thanks for reading... I'll check out the hotel that was suggested. Thanks again, Dismas|^(talk) 17:47, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Business Select Travel

For those of you who have traveled on the US airline southwest airlines and have purchased a business select fare i have a question to ask. The airline provides a free drink on boarding the aircraft however i have no interest in having it. Would i be able to skip the drink and just board the plane like normal. I think what counts here is that you paid a high fare to get a good seat. They offer this drink to you as a perk but i just want to skip that.--logger (talk) 21:19, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

You can probably just tell them you don't want the drink and they won't give it to you. 80.123.210.172 (talk) 21:36, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Ask for a nonalcoholic drink. Airplane air is very dry; you'll probably be glad to have a glass of water or orange juice or something like that. —Angr 08:10, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree. You won't get the price of the drink back anyway, so get yourself a nice nonalcoholic drink. It can also help to cool you down when they leave you sitting in the plane for an hour without A/C. StuRat (talk) 15:33, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Psychology

What is the name for the phenomenon when, as Lewis Black put it, "the guy next door to you tells you theres a bear shitting everywhere. You say "ohh, thats ridiculous", and the next day the bear is following you around." Another example would be, and I'm sure this happens to some of you, seeing a certain time, such as 9:11, when you look at the clock, as if you instinctively look at the clock at that time. Is there any documented research of this in any psychology journals? Here7ic (talk) 21:53, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

What you've got here is a case of observational selection (we don't seem to have a Wikipedia article on the subject that I can discover), or to be more descriptive about it, counting the hits and ignoring the misses. An example from my own life: because I'm a sad, sad nerd, I always chuckle a little when I happen to notice that my cell phone's time reads 13:37 -- y'know, as in "leet". If I was inclined to do so, I might think that I have some kind of a special ability to look at the time at 13:37 or, indeed, that it crops up all the time. But this is not the case. I probably check the clock about two dozen times every day, so chances are that I'm going to hit that time more often than not. Because the number is, to my sad, sad brain, chuckle-worthy, I notice it more than the other times, but that doesn't mean I factually see it more often than the other times -- meaning that seeing it feels much more significant to me than not seeing it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:12, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know which is "nerdier", having your cellphone display military time or chuckling aloud over 13:37. Hmm, the chuckling. :P Useight (talk) 00:37, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, there's nothing nerdy about using a 24-hour clock. (I mean, not that I'm pretending to be anything but a nerd, but this is not an instance of that. =)) Here in Finland we don't call it "military time", either, it's just "the time" -- most of the world doesn't really operate on a 12-hour clock, despite its prevalence in the United States, Australia and a bunch of other countries. I mean, I was probably around ten years old or so before I even understood what that whole am/pm thing was about, and it took me a couple of years to really learn which was which... -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:19, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

See Postdiction. -hydnjo talk 03:44, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

André Breton called this "hasard objectif" ("objective chance"). DAVID ŠENEK 09:28, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Postdiction! Yes. Exactly what I was trying to find. Thank you, Hydnjo. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:05, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

See Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. zafiroblue05 | Talk 18:48, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Anti-skating device

The grocery store near my house has signs up saying things like 'anti-skate devices in use, do not skate'. But the sidewalks always look completely normal to me- what am I missing and how do these things work? 70.162.28.222 (talk) 23:03, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Usually anti-skating devices are little bumps on surfaces to keep people from "grinding" on them (which causes damage to the structure, among other things). Sometimes they are added after the fact and look really obvious (like the ones on the Embarcadero in San Francisco), sometimes they are built into the design from the beginning and aren't obvious—subtle bumps or jutting structures. Those are the only type of anti-skating devices I've ever seen, anyway. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:24, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

So that's what those things are!! I've seen those at a local mall and couldn't figure out what they were for. Thanks much! Dismas|^(talk) 07:52, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

It seems to me that for the cost of those anti-skate devices placed on all the roads and sidewalks, they could have built a small skate park and donated it to the city (so they would avoid any legal liability). And having a fun place to skate might very well work better to keep skaters away from their stores, as well as being a PR bonus and perhaps tax-deductible. StuRat (talk) 15:26, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

And then the legal liability falls on the city, which is already financially strapped. The city would be likely to say, "no, thank you." Corvus cornix_talk 16:10, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

They have shield laws to protect the government from lawsuits. Otherwise they would be sued for extreme incompetence all the time. StuRat (talk) 17:37, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they could have built a small skate park, but it doesn't mean all skaters will go there. There are public skate parks (well, at least one that I can think of) in my city, and I still see skaters everywhere else. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:27, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

If you put the skate park right next to the shopping center, I can't see why kids would prefer to dodge cars and walkers. On the other hand, if they have to get to the other side of the city to get to the skate park, they may well choose some place closer. StuRat (talk) 17:42, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

These news reports disagree with your contention, Stu. Corvus cornix_talk 21:50, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

That type of link doesn't work well here. It essentially goes out and does the search again every time someone clicks on those links. Unfortunately, Google gives different results to different people doing the same search at the same time (I have no idea why) and also gives different results if you repeat the same search at different times (which makes sense). So, perhaps those searches produced some results related to skating for you, but they don't for me. StuRat (talk) 01:14, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

No, they're links to lots of reports of cities being sued, despite your contention that they're exempt. Corvus cornix_talk 01:45, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I see. Those cities are in jurisdictions that aren't smart enough to exempt themselves from the law, apparently. StuRat (talk) 02:03, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Or jurisdictions where the people are smart enough not to let the city do anything so potentially corrupt and corrupting as exempt themselves from the law. Depending on your perspective. I would add that people often continue to use public spaces for skating even when skate parks are available for a wide range of reasons, some easier to understand than others. 79.66.124.253 (talk) 16:29, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

They only have to make the argument that any lawsuit against the city is paid by the taxpayers, and the taxpayers are then happy to exempt the city from lawsuits. StuRat (talk) 15:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)