Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 April 22

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 22

Analysis of the theme music of Dallas — a request

The other day I got a tune stuck in my head. It was the theme music from the TV series Dallas. I'm not an artist, but I find that music feel-good and catchy. I don't know whether that's because it's familiar and it reminds me of a certain period of time, or whether it has good artistic qualities.

To me, the structure of the composition seems quite simple. A basic unit consists of only a few phrases, and it's repetitive.

If it's not too much work, can someone versed in music give an analysis of that theme music, for my enlightenment? I want to know, as seen through the eyes of someone educated in music: what are the structures and musical features that are identifiable, and how they relate to moods and emotions; where the composition stands in terms of artistic qualities among other contemporary ones in the same genre; and anything else remarkable.

Thanks in advance! --98.115.39.92 (talk) 12:20, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Interesting question! For reference and convenience, here [1] is the song. I too like the song, and sometimes it pops in to my head after years of absence. Dallas_(TV_series)_in_popular_culture#Opening_title_sequence shows that it has been referenced/parodied in many places, though it's not clear how many of them also used the music. On a quick re-listen, it's got way more funk/disco influence than I remembered. Also a prominent key change. Hopefully someone else can give us more detailed analysis :) SemanticMantis (talk) 13:42, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Oh, this guy [2] is a professor of music theory and he wrote here [3] about how much he liked the Dallas theme song when he was young, how it influenced him, etc. So I bet if you emailed him and asked nicely for his thoughts he would share them. If you try that and it works, please report back :) SemanticMantis (talk) 13:46, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Sounds like a Disco number. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:40, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

The Dallas Theme Tune from 1978 is an example of film music by Jerrold Immel. It is a march in F major key as follows: F B♭ F D2 F B♭ A B♭ G F B♭ C D C B♭ F2. AllBestFaith (talk) 23:45, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Hollowed out tree

While on my walk this morning, I came across this tree that had been hollowed out by something. The hollow is about 3' tall, about 8" deep, and maybe 4-6" wide. The tree is about 10' off a dirt road. The tree is across the road from one of the few houses on the road. What is the reason why this was done? Who would have done it? It's not my property, so I'm not looking to blame anyone or anything but it just seems very odd. Dismas|^(talk) 12:47, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Could be the start of a tree sculpture - though it is probably more normal to do that to dead trees. 81.132.106.10 (talk) 14:13, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Very odd indeed. It's not even clear if human or non-human in origin, though I suspect human, if only because few if any non-human animals want to eat heartwood or sapwood inside a healthy tree. I suppose it's possible there was some sort of insect nest in there that some critter went after, but that would mean there was an extant cavity prior to excavation, and it doesn't look that way. I suggest leaving a note or knocking on the door of the nearest house, they may well be making a canoe or something :) SemanticMantis (talk) 14:43, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Is it on private property? Maybe you could ask the landowner. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:38, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

It is. Though, if I'm right about the property lines, I've never even met the owner. So, walking up to their house and asking them "What's the deal with your tree?" seems a rather strange way of introducing myself. :) Dismas|^(talk) 22:32, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Just be friendly and say you're curious about the tree. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:46, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

I had an ominous thought. Looks about the right size and shape to hold a long gun. Why would somebody need a temporary spot to store a long gun ? Maybe so they can grab it after they go into the woods with somebody who wouldn't have accompanied them into the woods if they had a gun with them. StuRat (talk) 23:11, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Say what?????--TMCk (talk) 23:21, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Dick Cheney comes to mind. :-) StuRat (talk) 05:10, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

I got my answer!! I talked to my neighbor across the road whose land is adjacent to the land that this tree is on and he said that the hole is caused by a pileated woodpecker. And if you Google "pileated woodpecker damage", you will find lots of images that are similar to mine. So, maybe I'll add the image to the article for the bird. Dismas|^(talk) 17:39, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Holy jackhammers! That is one bad-dude woodpecker. In the WP article, there's a picture that suggests the kind of number that bird can do on a tree. It's interesting that the bird is apparently smart enough to leave the tree standing. It would also be interesting to know if a tree can routinely recover from that kind of trauma. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:14, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

As long as the tree doesn't fall over, or freeze in winter, I'd expect that it could survive, as long as there is some path from the roots to the leaves, through the live parts of the tree. Cutting a ring just under the bark seems to kill trees rather effectively, though. StuRat (talk) 22:58, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

In the wider scheme of tree things that is not serious damage and the tree is almost certain to heal the active outer layers. look at this for more serious damage where trees have survived. My admiration is with the bird. Richard Avery (talk) 07:07, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Finding the tile with most amount of adjacent already generated tiles.

Don't know if this would be a math question or computer one, so I am posting on miscellaneous.
Anyway, I am creating a Markov chain map generator, and while deciding what is the tile of the map that I will generate at some moment, I decided to look for the one with most amount of already generated squares [diagonally adjacent count too and borders count as already generated adjacent tile], and then generate this tile based on all his adjacent squares.
My current method of finding the one with most amount of adjacent tiles work like this:

0-An tile can be of an type, 1, 2, 3, 4..... this means the tile type (grass, water....), or can be of type A and B, if an tile instead of being of type 1, 2, 3.... is of type A or B, this means the tile is not generated it. 0.0-All tiles are initially start by being type A, since they arent generated yet. 1-Search all tiles for the one with most amount of already generated adjacent tiles. If tied, pick an random one between the ones with most amount of already generated adjacent tiles.
1.1-Lets call the tile you found, X
2-Create an empty list called C
3-Look at all tiles that are adjacent to X and find the ones that are of the type A. Add those tiles to list C and change their type to B.
4-Search the tiles on list C for the one with most amount of already generated adjacent tiles. If tied, pick an random one between the ones with most amount of adjacent tiles. Again, lets call this tile X.
5-Remove tile X from list C
6-Go to 3

Anyway, is there some way to speed up this process? Is there some mathematical thing or whateaver, that will allow me to discover in a faster way, the tile with most amount of adjacent tiles?201.79.79.177 (talk) 13:35, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Sorry I don't have time to help right know but I suspect the subreddit /r/roguelikedev [4] could help you out, they frequently deal with various aspects of procedural map generation. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:44, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

What is this thing in clothes:

http://imgur.com/a/Q1CCZ So basically after I do some 'research' on costumes I found that kind of weird nice open sleeve thingy, look at the imgur album link, one is from GOT Joffery and the other one is from Armstreet, does that kind of thing have any real names? 139.193.217.38 (talk) 16:16, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Open-arm or Paned sleeve type.--TMCk (talk) 18:15, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

I think the term you're looking for is "hanging sleeve". It's mentioned in Sleeve#Types of sleeves. I don't think those are paned sleeves. -- BenRG (talk) 18:17, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Right. Some kind of hybrid. Here's an old painting (incl. sources) with sleeves that come closest to the OP's pic. The book source simply states "open sleeve".--TMCk (talk) 18:34, 22 April 2016 (UTC)--TMCk (talk) 18:30, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Non office jobs

What sort of jobs are non office based and involve helping people without having to do manual labour? I can't think of many. 2A02:C7D:B907:6D00:7C3E:51DC:B30:429C (talk) 16:25, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Interpreter? SemanticMantis (talk) 16:53, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

The primary sector might not involve too many people, while the secondary sector might involve too much labour, and the quaternary sector has a lot of offices. Many things in the tertiary sector fit the bill, though you may have to walk around a bit as well as sell your soul. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 16:55, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Oh there's actually a short way to say "those people that are values-less spineless self-serving semi-psychopathic stereotypical lawyer "conscience"-like doublethink like spokesperson for a jerk, marketer and similar? What'd I tell you about extroverts? Marketing in a boring market like Coke vs. Pepsi U.S. is like the Thirty Years War, it lets people get rich from doing something bad or useless (war/making people have fake undeserved emotions for Coke or Pepsi so you can get money), has to be as much of a tax on the useful budget (making soda/farming and reproducing) as that can bear (or the other side will get more of the pie), tries to tear down an almost identical and evenly matched opponent without actually believing that big gains or losses could happen any time soon, is a stalemate, draws from the same talent pool (Americans/Germans), has no hope of winning honestly (by fighting better (i.e. inventing the rifle)/making a better product and spreading the word) and is only done to keep treading water. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:16, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

While the sort of sales job you can walk into, no questions asked, right after not graduating high school, is likely to be very scammy, you might want to consider more skilled sales careers. The sort where you really are advising the customer, because it's a complex field and they need a bit of a steer to understand what they really need. Business IT, for example. Of course, there will be a desk based element to it... 82.6.151.23 (talk) 18:50, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Emergency services (but maybe not firefighting)? Nursing? Personal caring? Therapists? Counsellors? --TammyMoet (talk) 18:24, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

There's quite a bit of heavy lifting involved in care work, with many patients having restricted mobility and needing lifted in/out of beds, baths and wheelchairs. In the UK at least, it's also very badly paid because the care sector mostly depends on inadequate government grants. 82.6.151.23 (talk) 18:50, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Working in care homes will give you access to specialist lifting equipment, and some long-term disabled people have these too, so the lifting is reduced or assisted. --TammyMoet (talk) 20:26, 23 April 2016 (UTC)

Inner city coach or teacher. School crossing guard. Suicide hotline worker might be in an office but isn't very stereotypically office-y. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:19, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Kremlin church services

The Moscow Kremlin contains three cathedrals and several churches, but does the Orthodox Church still hold regular Sunday liturgies in any of them? Your articles don't seem to say. I'm Orthodox myself, will be going inside the Kremlin for the first time this Sunday, and I'd like to take part in a service if I can. I've been to St Basil's in Red Square before, and I'm aware that is now a museum. 82.6.151.23 (talk) 17:31, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

The Cathedral of the Annunciation is now a museum, so no services there. [5]

The Dormition Cathedral, Moscow has, according to the Russian Wikipedia article, "divine services on certain days with the blessing of the Patriarch" (with the help of Google Translate). Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

The Church of the Twelve Apostles seems to have a service once a year on 13 July. The Cathedral of the Archangel according to our article, "After 1992, the building was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church and occasional religious services resumed".

I haven't had a lot of luck so far - you could really do with somebody who can read Russian. You could post a message at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Eastern Orthodoxy to see if anybody there can help. Alansplodge (talk) 15:53, 24 April 2016 (UTC)