Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 February 28

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February 28

help ("to the moon and back")

a friend told me she liked me "to the moon and back" i honestly never heard this before and would like to know the meaning. can anyone help? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Willyjhopuky1 (talk • contribs) 05:18, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It's a common term of endearment that just means "I love you a whole lot". I believe it originates from the children's book Guess How Much I Love You. --Jayron32 05:29, 28 February 2013 (UTC) --Jayron32 05:29, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Not quite what Jackie Gleason meant when he said "To the Moon, baby !". StuRat (talk) 05:35, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

And here you were hoping she was going to moon you twice. StuRat (talk) 05:35, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

I made the title actually useful. StuRat (talk) 05:35, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

• The phrase appears in American Idol winner Scotty McCreery's (obnoxious) song called I Love You This Big, which might be where she heard it. Looie496 (talk) 16:27, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Need Help Identifying Jacket

Hi everyone,

I recently went on holidays and I lost a jacket which was loaned to me by a friend. I feel particularly bad about it as I promised I wouldn't lose it, so not only do I want to replace it but I want to have a replacement ready by the time I tell him it's lost.

The good news is that he's uncontactable for the next few weeks, so I have plenty of time to buy and ship a new jacket.

The bad news is that I have absolutely no idea what brand the jacket is.

The only information I have is:

• these photos of me in it - Jacket Photos

• it was gifted to him by family in Shanghai

• it had gold Chinese writing on the inside underneath the collar

Does anyone have any idea how I can find out what brand this jacket is?

Thanks! 124.184.229.18 (talk) 11:51, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

That's probably impossible to figure out, unless those jackets are internationally distributed. If there is any chance at all, it would be very helpful to know the material the jacket is made of -- it can't be discerned from the photos. For what it's worth, I think this would probably be describable as a padded men's penguin jacket with epaulets. Looie496 (talk) 16:16, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Pop-up for fundraising

When I entered your website today a pop-up came that asked for a donation of R25 and said something about a R300 donation. Is it authentic or a scam. If you need a donation could I request an e-mail form you to one or both my e-mail adresses

I am most willing to donate as I have to daughters that benefit from your website.

Regards Louis — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.135.15.11 (talk) 15:51, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It's probably a scam. Wikipedia is not currently fundraising, and wouldn't use a popup in any case. If it is possible for you to recite the exact text from the popup, that might be useful to know. Looie496 (talk) 16:23, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Just go to the top of any page and click on Donate to Wikipedia which will take you here. μηδείς (talk) 16:42, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Mysterious convoy moving through north london today

At about 1pm today I saw a very very large unmarked bottle green lorry without windows but with some sort of lights or reflectors along the top and with a police escort. It was moving north along the a41 in London. I was at a junction where the police stopped traffic in all directions so that no other cars were near it and the lorry could keep moving. Any ideas what it might have been? Am curious as the vehicle and convoy was unlike anything I've ever seen.

I was wondering if it might have been a nuclear arms or nuclear waste convoy so looked at Nukewatch Uk's guide on how to spot a nuclear weapons convoy http://www.nukewatch.org.uk/spot.php but it doesn't match the entire description. There was no multiplicity of vehicles spread out over several miles – just one enormous completely unmarked lorry with a police escort made up of cars (one in front and behind I think) and motorcycle outriders who seemed to be changing position throughout the convoy.

Thoughts welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.98.252.48 (talk) 20:41, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

No idea what it was, but next time take video. thx1138 (talk) 20:58, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Possible that it was just a "abnormal load", apparently ([1]) a police escort used to be required for all of them, but some still do have one. --Jac16888 ^Talk 21:59, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

It's very unlikely to be nuclear material. Britain's only nuclear weapons are the W76-alike warheads carried on Vanguard submarines. These are manufactured and maintained at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Berkshire and are transported by road, in those convoys your link describes, to HMNB Clyde in Argyll, where they are integrated with Trident missiles and loaded into submarines; it would be a bizarre detour for a route from Berkshire to Scotland to go into London at all. All of the UK's other nuclear weapons, ending with the WE.177, have been returned to Aldermaston and have been dismantled (presumably the pits are still sitting in some big scary building there). Nuclear fuel elements are made at Sellafield and are transported by rail to reactors around the coast; spent fuel elements are returned the same route [2]. The casks do travel through cities (because that's how the railway network works) by train, but again there's no reason they'd move one by road anywhere near London. US GLCMs were deployed in Berkshire and Cambridgeshire, and one might occasionally encounter them roaming the lanes there; but they were returned to the US in 1988 (and again you'd never see a GLCM TEL convoy in Finchley). Earlier US/UK systems like Thor were gone decades before that. It's much more likely that it was a steal-able, valuable cargo like gold or silver bullion, diamonds, negotiable items like bearer bonds, or paper currency. Depending on its route, it could have been going to or from Heathrow or Luton airports. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:19, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Possibly the movement of bank notes or gold bullion to, or from, the Bank of England? On the other side of London, you sometimes see similar convoys on the M11 motorway from the place where they print banknotes at Debden. I found "Bank of England used banknote armed convoy" and [3], also [4]. Alansplodge (talk) 00:52, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

If one prefers the idea of weaponry shipments, one might imagine (as I did) that after the British Army deployed Starstreak (missile) systems on top of residential properties in central London to defend the Olympic Games (as a last line of defence - there were also Rapier (missile) systems, Typhoon jets, etc), they secured them in some London barracks as the simplest option as soon as the Games finished. Then at some later point they realised the equipment was still sitting there, and either wanted it back in their usual storage places for such things (none of which are in central London), or wanted it for training somewhere else, or wanted to send it somewhere for a practical reason (e.g. to reinforce the defences at RAF Mount Pleasant).

So they loaded it up in some appropriate lorry and then asked the police to provide an appropriate escort. Since one doesn't want man-portable anti-aircraft missiles falling into the hands of bad people, an appropriate escort would have included an armed police officer in each of the two police cars. (I don't have specific knowledge of this so I don't know if this is a common approach or if such security is normally provided directly by the Ministry of Defence anyway - but I have dealt with convoys with slightly lower threat levels, and this would be an appropriate precaution in my view.)

All of the Rapier systems used at the Olympic Games would have had their own dedicated transportation systems, and were deployed in open land so could simply be transported away by their usual transportation systems, directly to their usual storage sites, at an appropriate time.

To add a not entirely similar incident, one evening I was driving to an event in Suffolk, when I was suddenly halted by a convoy of fast-moving police vehicles, with a large unmarked SUV in the middle of their convoy, who decided they had right of way even though I was quite sure that I did. I was most puzzled by this, but decided not to ram the leading police vehicle and then have my insurers sort them out later. The convoy duly went on its way, still very rapidly. Later I read in the news about how a small group of Iranian or Iraqi migrants (whichever country most alarmed the Americans at the time) had stowed away inside lorries, hoping to reach the UK. Unfortunately for them, they ultimately chose (perhaps somewhere in France or the low countries) a lorry destined for a U.S. airforce base in Suffolk. (I suppose I will admit that the airbase in question probably no longer housed nuclear weapons.) Their tumbling out of the lorry on its arrival provoked a minor security scare, and thus (perhaps) a fast-moving convoy towards somewhere the British police felt better able to deal with matters. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 22:21, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

REFERENCE TO WEBSITE/NAME needs a look into if still operating PLEASE from a wikipedia donator

hello..........

I was referencing an item I used recently.....then I did a Wiki look.........found the info but I think it needs an update as far as IS THIS ITEM AND IT'S LINKS STILL VIABLE.........

THE ITEM IS: Wigix (and its' current website links)

Can someone look into it please from Wikipedia and look into getting UP TO DATE INFO PLEASE for instance IS THIS SITE STILL WORKING TO-DATE? 2/28/2013

Thank you........a Wike Donator — Preceding unsigned comment added by Usaf.anderson (talk • contribs) 21:50, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

The article is Wigix. Their web site is nonresponsive, and as far as I can tell they have not had a presence since some time in 2010. However I can't find any statement that they have gone out of business. Apparently this was a Chinese company that was trying to establish itself in the US -- possibly it still exists as a Chinese entity. Looie496 (talk) 23:30, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

Need help from fellow Montrealers/Quebecers

I got two questions:

1. Can anyone recommend a good non-Asian buffet? I was looking for Newport buffet, but strangely enough I can't find any open locations.
2. Can anyone explain to me why some restaurants close on a Tuesday? This is a baffling mystery to me.

Thanks in advance. 70.55.108.19 (talk) 23:10, 28 February 2013 (UTC)

for #2, either because there isn't enough business on that day to justify staying open, or because the employees need a day off. Family- and individual- owned joints with not many employees tend to do this for both reasons. I have no reference, though. Mingmingla (talk) 01:54, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Also for #2, do a Google search for "Tuesday slowest night at restaurants" and there will be plenty of sources. Basically, it's slow for a combination of reasons. So why not close? The restaurant likely saves money not paying staff, heating ovens, etc. when they don't have enough customers to justify it. Dismas|^(talk) 02:03, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

For your first question, I'm not sure that we currently have a regular editor from the Montreal area, so you might try a search like this one and go by the reviews. Sorry that my search includes some Asian options, but it also includes a number of non-Asian ones. Marco polo (talk) 23:48, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

You can try Askalo at http://montreal.askalo.ca.

—Wavelength (talk) 00:00, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Already found one, thanks. 70.55.108.19 (talk) 22:32, 2 March 2013 (UTC)