Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 June 14

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June 14

renting a house

Is there any guideline for the rental price of a house based on its value? For instance, a rule of thumb like monthly rental should be 1% of its value? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:32, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Well I googled and found that is about right [1]. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:34, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

1% doesn't work in Detroit, where a house might be worth only $10K, and nobody charges only $100 for rent. StuRat (talk) 01:49, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

That's amazing, Stu. $10K wouldn't even buy you a toilet in Australia. (USians, read "bathroom".) -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 06:18, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

According to this article: [2], there are 2300 homes for sale here for $10K or less. So, move to Detroit and bring all your friends. :-) StuRat (talk) 04:52, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't understand why they're not snapped up literally within minutes of hitting the market. Unless there were extremely serious structural/environmental hazard etc issues with them, why are they still unsold at that insane bargain-basement price?-- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 08:41, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Lots of reasons:

1) Lack of jobs in the area.

2) High crime rate.

3) Neighboring abandoned homes/crack houses.

4) City income tax.

5) Detroit may soon go into default, meaning they may not be able to provide basic services, like police, fire protection, and trash collection. These services are already rather "iffy".

6) It's an almost exclusively black area, and many whites would feel uncomfortable here. StuRat (talk) 16:16, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

I see. I still think that entrepreneurs are missing some golden investment opportunities, but what the hell do I know about money? Thanks. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 02:53, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

Well, a brief perusal of Craigslist reveals that there are some cases of even less than that... but I agree there is probably a limit to that model. It doesn't imply that the model doesn't work in most situations. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:55, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

It says "after six months the rent will increse to $500.00 per month" in the ad.Anonymous.translator (talk) 02:30, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

The ratio of the value to the annual rent of the house is called "price to rent ratio". There's no agreement as to what price to rent ratios should be, and they vary a lot from place to place and from time to time. You can find statements to the effect that a price to rent ratio below 10 is a strong "buy" indicator, meaning that you can make money by buying houses and renting them out. However, in practice, the ratio below 10 is indicative of a seriously depressed market like Detroit, or a place where you find lots of renters who can't afford to buy houses at any price, possibly because they are illegal immigrants. Highly desirable markets have high price to rent ratios, sometimes as high as 30.

You can understand some of the logic behind price to rent ratios by thinking about prospective buyers, renters and investors. In a normal real estate market, price to rent ratios can't fall too low, because, at some point, it becomes possible for investors to buy up properties, to rent them out, and to make strong return on their investment. Even subtracting maintenance expenses and taxes, a price-to-rent ratio of 10 means that the investor will see about 8% annual return on his money, not including potential appreciation of the property. In the investing world, that's really good money. (Long-term U.S. government bonds currently pay less than 3% annual across the board.)

On the other hand, if it's too high, people stop buying and choose to rent instead. The buy vs. rent calculation works differently for a person who intends to live in the property, because people are willing to pay extra for living in a house that is their "own", and because they usually get to deduct mortgage interest from their taxes.

As you can see, it's a complicated story, it depends on the demographics of the area, on local taxes, on expected appreciation/depreciation of local real estate, you have to look closely to understand all the nuances.--Itinerant1 (talk) 06:13, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

This is known as the Price-to-Rent ratio (or P-R ratio), although it's usually expressed in terms of how many years rent adds up to the price of the house. According to this article, the average ratio across the US in 2010 was 18.8, meaning the average monthly rent was about 0.5% of the value of the house, but in different areas of the country the average ratio varied between 12 and 36. 59.108.42.46 (talk) 06:20, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

When I was in the residential rental business, we looked to buy houses using that very 1%-per-month rule. While the rent itself was a market factor where a landlord had little control, I could control what I bought, and if I couldn't get at least 1% of the purchase price per month in net rent, then the purchase made no economic sense to me. Bielle (talk) 06:46, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Reformed household names

I was listening to something on NPR tonight and Ice-T was talking about how he had a criminal past and now he's legally doing pretty well for himself. So that got me thinking, who else was a criminal in early life and then reformed to become rather famous? Use your own definition of famous if you want. Basically, I'm looking for people who would be rather well known such as celebrities, authors, etc. I'd be interested in reading their articles. Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 04:30, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Greg Mathis of the court TV show Judge Mathis. StuRat (talk) 04:53, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

As far as rappers go, you have a shorter list to find rappers who never had any trouble with the law. StuRat (talk) 04:54, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Tim Allen spent hard time in jail for being a drug runner. --Jayron32 05:16, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Arthur Koestler spent time in detention in three countries: Spain, France and the UK. Later he set up the Koestler Trust to help ex-prisoners. Later still, he killed himself. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 06:15, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Koestler was a political prisoner in Spain, and a wartime detainee in France and the UK. I don't think he would be described as a criminal by most people. Valiantis (talk) 01:47, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Jean Genet comes to mind. Deor (talk) 06:41, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

James Ellroy and Edward Bunker. ---Sluzzelin talk 07:00, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Going back a bit further, there's Eugène François Vidocq. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:06, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Stephen Fry spent three months in prison for credit card fraud when he was 17. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 08:47, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

The British actor Leslie Grantham spent ten years in jail for murder prior to his TV success. --Colapeninsula (talk) 08:57, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Not exactly what you were looking for, but William S. Burroughs accidentally killed his wife. --Viennese Waltz 09:18, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Merle Haggard spent some time behind bars, including San Quentin. The story goes that he decided to reform after watching Johnny Cash perform there. Cash himself had been jailed a time or two. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:27, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Charles Colson, Watergate conspirator, later Christian leader and founder of Prison Fellowship Rmhermen (talk) 12:59, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Professional basketball player Allen Iverson served time for "maiming by mob" and was sentenced to 15 years in prison at the age of 17. He was later granted clemency and his conviction overturned. (Note: I found this while looking through our article List of professional sportspeople convicted of crimes. It is sad that most of those on that list committed their crimes during or after their playing days. Perhaps this question is the start of a "counter-list" article.)    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 13:09, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Baseball player Ron LeFlore, various drug charges as a youth. Was discovered by Billy Martin while playing baseball in prison.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 13:19, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Anne Perry a mystery writer now living quietly in England, was Juliet Hulme of the Parker-Hulme murder in New Zealand, an offence committed when she was 15, and for which she spent 5 years in prison, being too young for the death penalty. Bielle (talk) 15:58, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I'm thinking of John Profumo, who became infamous in the 1960s in the UK for various activities including political corruption. After his release from prison he threw all his energies into Toynbee Hall. I'd like to think he redeemed himself somewhat. --TammyMoet (talk) 16:44, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Profumo never went to prison! He had to resign as Minister of Defence after it emerged he'd shared a mistress with a Soviet military attaché and he'd lied about the matter in the House of Commons. He was disgraced (a minister committing adultery and lying about it was still considered genuinely disgraceful in the early 1960s) but he had committed no crime. So he wasn't a criminal and in any case, as a cabinet minister, he was clearly "famous" before the scandal. Valiantis (talk) 23:22, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

Lying to the media, adultery, unfaithfulness etc are as nothing, compared with misleading the parliament, which is an extremely grave offence in the Westminster system (and I'm sure in other legislatures too). Members are given parliamentary privilege, which means they can with impugnity say things that if said outside the house could land them in legal hot water, such as making slanderous comments about other people. The quid pro quo is that statements made in the house can't be gratuitously offensive, must not breach unparliamentary language and other standing orders, but most particularly they must in all circumstances be true, to the best knowledge of the speaker (small s). Even inadvertently making an untrue statement to the house can have serious consequences if not corrected at the earliest opportunity - let alone actively lying to the house, as Profumo did. That was his greatest blunder. His sleeping around was mildly shocking by the still pseudo-Victorian standards of the day (whereby nobody really minded what you did in private, as long as you didn't tell the public about it), but it alone would not have been his undoing. His sharing of a mistress with a Soviet diplomat was bad luck; nobody has ever suggested he engineered it in order to pass secrets to the USSR, or even knew about it before it was too late, or that any actual breach of security ever occurred. It did fatally compromise him, and there was no way he could keep his portolio of Minister for War under those circumstances, but even it would not necessarily have spelt the permanent end of his political career. He was the one who made sure of that by his decision to lie to the House of Commons. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 02:49, 17 June 2012 (UTC)

How about Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness? There are lots of other examples of people previously associated with political violence (or non-violent activism under totalitarian regimes) who have moved into (more-or-less) mainstream politics. 81.98.43.107 (talk) 22:11, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

George W. Bush, see Early life of George W. Bush#Alcohol use and DUI arrest, Jimmy Boyle (artist), John McVicar, Jay-Z, Malcolm X, Afrika Bambaataa, Greg Mathis and Kweisi Mfume. I got the last ones from Top 5 Criminals Who Turned Their Lives Around. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 03:07, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Greg Mathis was the very first answer to the OP's question. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 04:39, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Yep. I need to read gooder. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 13:41, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Australia is doing rather well for itself these days. --Jayron32 04:42, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Touche', Stu.  :) Thanks for the links everyone! Dismas|^(talk) 04:54, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

skin care

if someone's managed to leave their skin dry and scarred and lacking sensitivity from too many burning hot showers, is there anything they can do to help it recover? I suggested something like vaseline, but I'm not sure that would help. any other ideas here?

Kitutal (talk) 14:47, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Per the rubric at the top of the page, we don't do medical advice. This IMO falls into that category. Sorry. -Tagishsimon (talk) 15:01, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

even vaseline is medical now? ok Kitutal (talk) 15:35, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Yup. Care of damaged skin is unambiguously medical. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:36, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Agreed. They need to see a doctor, and since you're not a doctor you shouldn't be advising them. Itsmejudith (talk) 15:45, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I disagree that plain old dry skin is a medical issue, that's a cosmetics issue. But when it's scarred and lost sensitivity, then, yes, that is a medical issue. StuRat (talk) 01:58, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

and if they say they don't want to keep bothering their doctor, there's nothing I can do to help Kitutal (talk) 15:58, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

No, we cannot act as a substitute for this person's doctor. The numerous ethical and practical considerations aside, it's very strictly against our policy. I'm sorry. The only advice that we can give was (and is) to see a doctor if there are medical concerns. Falconus^{p t c} 16:11, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

In the UK, at least, talking to a pharmacist is another option, as is talking to NHS Direct. Not sure if that holds for USians (which for no good reason I presume you to be). --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:03, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Obvious request for medical advice. Shut it down. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:58, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

To whom are you barking your command? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 23:41, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

To you. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:47, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

What about the deck of cards?

The article Impossible bottle explains how ships, pine cones, and fruits, and pennies are done, but not sealed decks of playing cards such as the ones in the article's main picture. How do they get sealed decks of playing cards into bottles? They don't appear bent at all, though it's not an up-close picture (though one would think bending a sealed deck of cards would leave the deck pretty bent, and not actually decrease the cross-sectional area that much; the opening of the bottle in that article's picture is significantly less than what one could fold a sealed deck of cards into without permanently damaging the deck) and putting the deck around hot glass would be pretty hard to do without singing the deck at all. So what's the trick? 20.137.18.53 (talk) 16:46, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I suspect a fake photo, probably by placing the cards behind the bottles.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:31, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I think you might be right; I think that I can just make out the curve on the opposite side of the base of the bottle, meaning that the cards are not sitting on the bottom of the bottle. I'm not 100% sure, but it doesn't look right. Falconus^{p t c} 17:41, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Turns out that is a big photo if you click on it about four times. 20.137.18.53 (talk) 17:45, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

Only the sealed wrapper is fake. First put the open wrapping in the bottle. Then drop in the 52 cards individually by curling them. Finally you have some tricky work with long pincers to close the wrapping. As a result it looks uneven in the full resolution picture at the tops of the decks. (Faking as Shantivara suspects would need the card packs to be raised somehow and introduce more refractive distortion and less even lighting than we see. DriveByWire (talk) 17:51, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I see no reason to suppose that there are cards in those boxes. John M Baker (talk) 18:23, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I was going to suggest that you ask the uploader of the photo, as it is their own work, but then I realized that they aren't (he/she isn't) an active user, as they only have two contributions. 71.146.10.213 (talk) 18:37, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

I don't have an answer for the "how do they do it?" question, but about the photo in our article possibly being faked: I have no idea whether that particular photo is fake or not, but our article contains this external link to a (partly commercial) website with a huge gallery of bottles where you can see photos of decks of cards and even more improbable objects like padlocks and golf balls in bottles - they have photos from various angles for some of the objects in their gallery, so it looks like it's somehow possible (although they won't say how) -- Ferkelparade π 09:28, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Maybe they wrap the object in some heat resistant protective fabric, drop it into a wide-mouthed bottle, and then use skilled glass working to smoothly bring the opening to a much smaller neck size, then pull the protective fabric out from around the object (or not worry about the fabric and just work the glass in the case of something sturdy like a padlock). They can say truthfully all they want that the object did pass through the bottle's opening (they just don't tell you how wide the opening was at the time of passing). 20.137.18.53 (talk) 12:07, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Um -- has anyone noted that a bottom of a bottle may have been cut off and then heated to reseal the glass (same glass content would not result in a noticeable seam)? There is no reason to believe that the person took a commercially made bottle and placed the deck in it drectly <g>. Note that glassblowers routinely adhere pieces of glass without a "seam" showing. Seems quite the easist way to do it - and one which has been done. Collect (talk) 12:25, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

I can put any object on the inside of any bottle as long as it's this bottle. DriveByWire (talk) 14:27, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Hopsital

WP:DNFT
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Are hospitals in Australia tended to by kangaroo nurses? 71.146.10.213 (talk) 18:21, 14 June 2012 (UTC) What? Looie496 (talk) 18:30, 14 June 2012 (UTC) Don't feed the troll. Roger (talk) 18:33, 14 June 2012 (UTC) I'm not trying to troll, I mean that I have heard a lot about kangaroos in Australia and wanted to know. (I've also heard that they have bad medical care) 71.146.10.213 (talk) 18:41, 14 June 2012 (UTC) Yes they do and the care they provide is outstanding. --Dweller (talk) 13:18, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

lost the book I created on wikipedia

I have created a book that has about 80 pages and I can no longer find it. Can you advise me how to find it please? thank You — Preceding unsigned comment added by Artboccuti (talk • contribs) 19:13, 14 June 2012 (UTC)

You could scroll up to the first time you asked this question and find the answer I provided there. --LarryMac | Talk 19:22, 14 June 2012 (UTC)