Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 July 5

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July 5

Foreign Aid

Which countries do not receive foreign Aid? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwestgate (talk • contribs) 00:45, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean foreign aid from a specific country, or from any country? Over what time period? I am sure that every country in the world has accepted aid from another country at some point in its history. Plasticup ^T/C 03:42, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

What kind of foreign aid? Developmental aid, disaster aid, food aid, military aid? The U.S. received disaster aid in the form of search and rescue teams, etc, during Hurricane Katrina a few years ago. Would that count? The U.S. provided a military presence in Iceland from 1941-2006. Would that count? Rmhermen (talk) 13:35, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I think we can safely say that countries that don't exist anymore no longer recieve foreign aid. --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 16:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

NCHS Life Tables

I'm sorry, currently? I'm curious because in my research I want to compare it to national debt. Economic Aid.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Dwestgate (talk • contribs) 05:07, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

When are there no tables past 2004? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikindeling (talk • contribs) 04:32, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I accidentally delete a friend on YouTube and I added the user back

I accidentally delete a friend on YouTube. I was rushing and thinking about the OU (kosher). I accidentally click the "Remove Friend" buttin and I addedthe user again. I'm afraid the user will reject (denied) me. What should I do? Should I pray for the user to add me again? Jet (talk) 04:46, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well if they are your friend why not call/speak/email/text them and explain this. I'm sure anyone who is a friend wouldn't consider this anything more than a little odd - it's hardly like it takes effort on their behalf. ny156uk (talk) 07:53, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If I may be so bold, I feel our friend Jet is a member of the well known and well loved Reference Desk band of trolls. See Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 January 1#How to be a YouTuber's friend when s/he denied me to be her/his friend on YouTube? for a similarly silly question. These sorts of questions amuse me, but I doubt other Reference Desk regulars appreciate them.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 17:59, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Really? Jet has an extensive history of contributing the main space it appears. Perhaps we should give him/her the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s/he is simply confused by the YouTube layout? --S.dedalus (talk) 05:23, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Couldn't get a answer on Humanities or Entertainment

Is 大戲, or Cantonese opera, in A flat Major?68.148.164.166 (talk) 06:06, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried the language desk? Julia Rossi (talk) 00:29, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

That sounds to me a bit like 'is rock music in A flat major?' If all the songs in the entire genre are in the same key you'd think that would be significant enough to be in the article. Nevertheless, I learned the music from the soundclip in the article enough to know the key, and it's C# Major Pentatonic. -LambaJan (talk) 18:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

(This was left on my talk page but I thought it belongs here, so I moved it. -LambaJan (talk)) Yes, you would think that if all the songs in the entire genre are in the same key would be significant enough to be in the article, but unfortunately, some articles are terrible, and they don't list information like that, for whatever reason. Maybe because the contributors of the article did not bother to include information (like the aforementioned information) for their racist agenda, who knows.68.148.164.166 (talk) 06:29, 11 July 2008 (UTC)68.148.164.166 (talk) 06:31, 11 July 2008 (UTC)68.148.164.166 (talk) 06:32, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Please assume good faith. The quality of the articles is increased when people who are disappointed by their quality fix them. I'm not aware of any racist agenda on the part of any editors on the Cantonese cultural pages but I would be much happier knowing that if that is going on it's counteracted by other editors who use sourced facts to fight bigotry. That's the beauty of Wikipedia. If there's a racist agenda in a traditional encyclopedia you have almost no power to change it. Over here you can let your voice be heard. -LambaJan (talk) 13:30, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

child development

pyshical,social and cognitive aspects of growth of a child aged between 2-3yrs ——— —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.220.225.10 (talk) 08:22, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they definitely all exist. That is, if you mean "physical". I'd suggest you have a look at some of Wikipedia's articles on the subject, such as child development. Either that or actually ask a question. Grutness...wha? 09:01, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Garden Party Games

We are organising a traditional English garden party and would appreciate suggestions for activities suitable for adults. Along the lines of: guess the weight of the cake; how many sweets in a jar; what is the time on a watch sealed in a package. In each case the winner takes the item as a prize. Thanks in advance for the (hoped for) avalanche.86.209.28.131 (talk) 14:59, 5 July 2008 (UTC)DT

Instead of "guess the weight of the cake", why not have "guess the weight of the hostess"? (Prize: the hostess). Or maybe you don't want to go down that road. ;) You could try pass-the-parcel (prize: whatever's in the parcel), or croquet (prize: the croquet set, though it might not be easy to get hold of in the Paris area). Also, here's a link to games played at Butlin's in the past.--87.252.35.195 (talk) 18:29, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If you play at garden parties, you might want to consider this article.

Atlant (talk) 21:03, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Charades is very traditional, and similar guessing games, such as pictionary, human putty, and so on. Steewi (talk) 00:31, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

I might be a bit late now, but I would suggest a tombola, there isn't a specific article and indeed what is in the raffle article isn't quite what I think of as a tombola, but it is common in fetes in England. In brief, it is similar to a raffle but the selection of prizes are allocated to specific winning tickets prior to the draw (prizes are generally smaller than in a real raffle though, bottles of wine, cakes and books are normal). People then pay a fee to draw a ticket from a hat. If the number drawn matches the number allocated to a prize then they win that prize. It is basically the same as a raffle but the prizes are won instantly, rather than waiting for a draw at the end of the day. According to raffle they are also a way of circumventing licensing laws!Franmars (talk) 10:27, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

How much money will a music artist typically make off an album?

For example, 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' sold 12 million units worldwide, and is $9.99 on iTunes. How much money out of that $120million (if its the same price everywhere) does 50 actually see? How much does a music artist typically make from the sale of an album? Thanks. 70.105.164.43 (talk) 15:11, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, first of all, whatever 50 Cent makes off an album of his, it's probably not going to be what a typical artist makes from an album. There are a number of reasons for this, the chief among them being that 50 Cent is not a typical artist; he is -- at least in terms of popularity -- an exceptional one. Secondly, much of the sales took place outside of iTunes, and a new album in the stores tends to cost more than $9.99. It's also possible that the royalties are different for an online sale than they are for a store sale. Thirdly, to (kind of) answer your actual question: I don't know exactly how the royalties for sales work out for artists, but of course the idea is that the artist gets a percentage of the sales. However, there are a lot of factors that affect this.

Naturally, the percentage varies depending on how good a deal you've got (50 Cent presumably has a pretty good deal, at least these days, as he's a very popular artist and therefore has obvious leverage in negotiations), but in addition to that, the actual performer isn't the only one getting a cut of the profits. Usually, the person who wrote the song also gets one, and so does the producer, and as it's not uncommon for there to be numerous song writers or performers on a CD, things can get a little complicated, with lots of people getting little slices of the profit. So a big factor in this is how much of the actual creative work the artist is doing himself. I wish I could provide you with some typical numbers here, but, well, I can't; I tried to look things up, but couldn't find anything definite.

Also, bear in mind that a successful album also spans singles and music videos, which can be a pretty significant source of income, and all sorts of merchandising, which tends to bring in a lot of money for successful artists. These things go beyond the scope of your question, but you may want to take them into consideration anyway. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 19:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Although I too, can not give specific numbers, most artists that are signed onto a record label receive only a small portion of the total revenues from the album sales; the producers receive most of it. On top of that, the artists themselves have to pay for recording time and all sorts of other expenses that further allocates the revenue towards the producers. That is one of the reason you see so many rap artists, like 50 Cent, creating their own "mini-record label" within a larger record label in an attempt to generate a larger stake in the profits.

50 Cent, specifically, owns G-Unit Records, which, I believe, is further owned by Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records, which is further owned by Interscope Records, which is owned by an even higher parent company. As a result, I would imagine 50 Cent would receive a larger portion of the album sales than artists such as Clay Aiken, whom, I believe, do not own their own record companies. Acceptable (talk) 04:27, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

One indicator of how little artists actually receive from digital downloads is the Radiohead experiment. They put their album up for sale on their website, and they let the user choose what he wanted to pay for it (including not paying at all). They had it up for two months. Read what Thom Yorke had to say about the experiment:

In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever — in terms of anything on the Net. And that's nuts.

Indeed it is. --Oskar 16:11, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

It's worth bearing in mind digital downloads come in various shapes or forms. iTunes for example is extremely large and have significant clout meaning that they can afford to dictate their terms including taking a significant proportion of the profit. Smaller sites in generally probably can't afford to and so may have to give the artist a larger share of the profit (however this may mean fewer total customers for the artist so it's not necessarily better for them). Clearly selling your songs directly means you only lose out on whatever PayPal or whoever your payment processor takes (but unless your already a big artist it may be hard for you to get people to even visit your site so no one may notice the songs you're selling) Nil Einne (talk) 07:28, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Flashes from Zen Vision W

The flashes from my Zen Vision W, which I told you about earlier, are real, not my imagination. I've just seen one while looking directly at the device. The screen flashed a solid light gray for about a tenth of a second, while the device was turned off. What is the cause of this? JIP | Talk 17:33, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

So the backlight turned on by itself? --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:43, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Seems like that, yes. And it turned off by itself immediately afterwards. JIP | Talk 18:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to direct you to the science desk - where the 'flashing light experts' hang out.. One moment please...

Please see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science#Flashes from Zen Vision W. Good luck87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:33, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Weekly Universe

Is there a article on the article Weekly Universe?65.173.105.131 (talk) 19:24, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you searched for "Weekly Universe" and came up with nothing, I guess not; if it's of enough notoriety to be included in wikipedia (in other words, something enough people would find noteworthy, etc.) then cretae one.209.244.187.155 (talk) 19:54, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

ferdinand maximillion, i have one of his walking sticks.

hi there, im new to your site and found lots of information on maximillion, my quistion is i have one of his walking sticks do you know who would be interrested in it, ie a musume. if you can help please let me know many thanks. terri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.201.125 (talk) 19:26, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

To which "Ferdinand Maximilian" do you refer? We have articles on five or six people with that name. Fribbler (talk) 22:49, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Additionally, if the person in question is of suitable historical significance for his walking stick to be of interest to a museum or a collector, you should also make sure that you have some way of proving that it is, indeed, his walking stick, as opposed to any other walking stick from the appropriate era. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:44, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

If you know which Maximillion, you can contact the curator for that century's artefacts. Some museums have periodic times (such as once a month) when the public can bring along stuff to be identified or assessed. If he's a VIP he might have a museum in his name somewhere. So yeah, contact your museum, Julia Rossi (talk) 03:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

If the querent talks about Ferdinand Maximilian I, last emperor of Mexico, then Miramare in Trieste is the only museum. Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City is today the Historical Museum. The man is buried in the local Imperial Crypt in Vienna and, of course, there is Manet´s painting of his execution.

About half a year ago there was an exhibition where it said that he gave a - well, royal - tip to the solders entrusted with this final task.

And here I am, answering questions for free on the the WP:RD when I could make a maxi million in maxico. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 15:34, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

hi there, thank you all for your responces.yes it is ferinand maximillion 1 it has his crest and the man fom the antiques road show confirmied it. he was very pleased.thanks for your help. terri —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.212.21 (talk) 21:24, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Women bodypainted topless

Why do so many female body painting models (not all of them though) go topless while being painted? The idea is to present the most of one's body to be painted, not necessarily all of it. They're already wearing panties while painted, surely a thin top covering just enough of the breasts to be decent wouldn't hurt the effect that much? JIP | Talk 19:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

• Killjoy. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 20:55, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

You may be missing the point, which is simply that body painting is about painting the body, not tops -- small or otherwise. Whether that's a reasonable distinction or not can be argued, of course, but then you might just as well ask why some people want to play specifically a Fender Stratocaster rather than, say, a Gibson Les Paul, even though you can play the same songs on just about any guitar: the answer is simply that the end result or the process itself is different, and details tend to matter quite a bit in art. Also -- I know I'm stating the obvious here, but anyway -- people like titties, and a lot of people like showing their titties, either for fun, for art, or for money, or all three. That's by no means a factor in all cases of topless body painting, but it's certainly one in a lot of it, especially when done for commercial purposes. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:18, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

The Captain speaks the truth. Also, in some cases there's an artistic point to be made about the nature of the naked human body. I've seen several body-paintings that look just like clothes if you don't look closely (and then suddenly, it's like, "Hey, an areola!"). This gives the artist a way to comment on nakedness and the clothedness. Mostly, though, it's about the honkers.--Oskar 22:36, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, this sounds reasonable. I am by no means advocating women covering up their breasts while painted, I was merely asking. (Hey, as a man, what do you think I would think?) I have seen body painting in two different places: at the World Bodypainting Festival in Seeboden, and at the Health & Beauty Fair in Helsinki. Female models go topless in both places, but in Helsinki they are more shy about their breasts until they are fully painted. JIP | Talk 18:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Visiting U S need to buy oxygen Maryland area. Resident of British Columbia

I'm hoping to visit my great niece for four days July 31 to Aug. 3. I'm 91 and use oxygen therefore can only go if I can buy the commodity and have it delivered I will of course get a doctor's prescription, if in the event I can't buy it then I shall have to cancel air and accommodation and probably never see her again.. I would deem it a favour to be advised of the cost, thank you in advance. C. Baker —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.69.101.26 (talk) 21:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

There appear to be a number of firms providing home care medical equipment including oxygen. Here is a contact for a company which serves Maryland, having a medical branch in Linthicum Heights, MD 21090 (sorry, I am European and know nothing about the state).

I hope a local USian across the pond can advise you on the cost. A Californian supplier charges around USD 60, but this clearly depends on the volume. I hope you will enjoy your visit with your grand niece. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 22:34, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest a google search for medical oxygen and the name of at least the county that your great niece lives in. Im sure you will be able to find a supplier. But really, you would have to contact them first. If you cant find a supplier online, I would recommend calling the hospital nearest your daughter, and Im sure that they could give you some options.--omnipotence407 (talk) 03:15, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Come on, oil don't come in "barrels" anymore, do they?

Why do people measure oil prize in barrels? It makes no sense to me, oil hasn't come in barrels since like the There Will Be Blood times, has it? I mean, you get it out of the ground, into a pipeline, into a tanker, then to a refinery, from there to tank car and finally to a gas station. I probably got that chain wrong, but the point is: at no point in the chain is the oil in a barrel, right? So why are people reporting "Oil hit $100 a barrel!" instead of reporting "Oil hit 85 cents a liter"! (or, if you're a silly American, "Oil hit $3.22 a gallon!")? I realize that it's a tradition, but it's not like we prize the cost of wheat in sheafs. --Oskar 22:31, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well wheat is priced in bushels as far as I know. Another outdated measurement. And diamonds in carats. I'd say changing to litres, although it would make sense, would be very disruptive as people are used to hearing about the 'per barrel' price. Fribbler (talk) 22:47, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

When oil refineries buy oil on the wholesale market, they buy it by the barrel. It is a good standardized unit of measurement that lets us compare prices across many decades. It also abstracts the price of the raw commodity from "retail effects" that might distort the price at the pump and not reflect the underlying value. Plasticup ^T/C 22:52, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

But you could still compare it to old prizes, a barrel is simply 117.35 liters (or so google tell me). And the liter is also a very good standardized measurement, since we use it for, you know, everything else. And also, tankers (boat or car) presumably have a capacity measured in a regular volume measurements, and pipelines in liter/[some time unit]. Same thing for refineries. Doesn't measuring oil in an artificial unit that hasn't had connection to the real world for half a century just make everything more cumbersome? There seems to me that there is a whole lot of converting from barrels to liters and back to barrels for no good reason. --Oskar 23:04, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I dunno. It's really no different than someone selling paper by the pallet or eggs by the dozen, is it? -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, eggs come in discreet units, so there's not really a unit that makes sense. And paper actually come on pallets (unlike oil). But I guess you have a point, commodities come in many strange units. --Oskar 01:26, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean when you say a barrel is an "artificial unit". It, at least, refers to actual containers that existed at one time, unlike the liter which really is artificial. I suspect that the continued use of the barrel as a unit of measurement in the petroleum sector is due to path dependence. Since nearly all of the infrastructure (tankers, refineries, pipelines, commodity markets) is measured in barrels, very little conversion has to take place and changing the whole system to metric would be expensive and disruptive without much benefit. --D. Monack | talk 02:58, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I in turn don't know what you mean when you say "the liter ... really is artificial". The litre not only existed at one time, but still exists, and is in very wide use. (Except in certain countries, where, despite not using it, they've chosen to change its spelling to liter.) -- JackofOz (talk) 15:23, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if artificial is the right word (I would use "abstract"), but barrel is much more concrete in the sense that barrels are standardized in terms of shape and size. A litre is like an inch or a pound; it doesn't look like anything in particular. Oil barrels were created first and the unit of measure was derived from that whereas a litre is just the volume taken up by a kilogram of water; it's not based on anything else. Matt Deres (talk) 15:42, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. This isn't really relavent to your question, but err, since when is oil 85¢/litre "expensive"?! We here in Canada pay on average roughly the equivalent of $1.40 USD per litre, and there's more fuss over it in the US, where it's cheaper, than in Canada! In Europe, they pay roughly the equivalent of over $2.00 USD! Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 19:50, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. The current Canadian average price for oil, by the way, is equivalent to ~$163.80 per barrel (or $5.30 per gallon). Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 19:53, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

They're talking about unrefined crude oil. I suspect you're thinking about some sort of processed oil product, like gasoline or heating oil. APL (talk) 20:56, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Standardisation is the reason. WP has an unhelpful article (for this purpose) on Standardisation in oil industry. Basically, the hassle involved in changing the unit would offset any good that may come off it. Players in the Petroleum industry and commodities-trading industry (see Commodities market and Commodities exchange) use the barrel as a unit of measurement which imho gives it a very tangible "connection to the real world". A futures trader would be more interested in the price per barrel. Also, quoting the price of brent crude in litres wouldn't be very helpful because people who buy/sell petrol in litres (e.g. the retail market) don't buy brent crude and don't all pay the same price. They only look at the oil price to gauge the relative value of oil to determine what might happen to the the price they pay. I can't see how much good will come off changing the unit for this purpose. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 13:27, 7 July 2008 (UTC)