Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2006 September 8

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September 8

SCRIPTS

Are there any good places or websites I can go to buy Hollywood scripts? They don't have to be original, but I want to become a collector. I already have 4 from eBay. And also, what was the most popular movie Eddie Murphy was in?

Thanks

Possibly Beverly Hills Cop? By what criteria are you judging popularity? He was also pretty popular as Donkey in Shrek.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:33, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Just basically the most seen movie Eddie Murphy has been in. BEverly Hills Cop is great! Also, does anyone know about the scripts?

Well I tried this and got some sites that look good. You could try variations on what I entered. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 13:05, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

The cheapest solution would be to copy the script yourself. Which should be a cinch if you're a big fan, with a photographic memory.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  13:18, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Eddie Murphy's highest-grossing movie (in the US at least) appears to be Shrek 2, which made $436,471,036 [1] -Elmer Clark 01:37, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Need help in geography of Netherlands

I was given an address:

'S Gravenenhage,

2572 HX,

The Netherlands

I interpret that The Netherlands is the name of a country unknown to an ignorant person like me. Perhaps 2572 HX is their zip-code.

Question-1: What is 'S? Does it mean SOUTH?

Question-2: What is "Gravenenhage"? Is it the name of a state (or province) of Netherlands?

Question-3: What is the relationship between Gravenenhage and Den Haag? Is Gravenenhage a small part of Den Haag? Is Den Haag a small part of Gravenenhage? Are they two nearby cities?

Question-4: If Gravenenhage is a small part of Den Haag, then would it be better to write

'S Gravenenhage,

2572 HX, Den Haag,

The Netherlands

Thank you in advance for your help. I tried several chat rooms without getting anywhere. Twma 03:14, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Though I know nothing about the Netherlands, it seems you must have made a spelling mistake? 'S-Gravenhage is The Hague in English. The 'S appears to be the possessive particle, so it means the same as "de" in many romance languages, or "den" in Dutch, hence you get the common name "Den Haag" from "Den Gravenhage".  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  03:26, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• The address is incomplete 's Gravenhage and Den Haag are the same, but the adres doesn't contain a street or house number. A real Dutch address should look something like this (wihtout my sig of course):

Kerkstraat 1,

2572 HX, Den Haag,

The Netherlands - Mgm|^(talk) 04:50, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe 2572 HX is a famous postal code... like 90210?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  04:54, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

So the correct address should be

street name, number

2572 HX, Den Haag

The Netherlands

Thank you very much for your help. Twma 05:12, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• This might help: [2]. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 05:30, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Your example certainly answers all my questions already. Thanks with appreciation. This site is better than many chat rooms in Europe. Twma 06:05, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Note that ZIP Code is a US term, the general term is postal code. StuRat 06:33, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

After edit conflict:

A zip postal code for a country? Funny, I heard someone suggest that in a US film the other day and wasn't sure if it was meant as a joke. And now you. Are you from the US too perchance?

Freshofftheufo, that full name would be 'des Graven Hage' (the earl's hedge - don't ask), not 'den Gravenhage'. Also, see Den Haag.

Jpgordon, that address you linked to has the countryname in German, so Twma, don't copy that bit. Oh, and note that you wrote 'S Gravenenhage. Make sure you take out the stammer. :) DirkvdM 06:40, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I assumed that den had the same meaning as 'S, and I've no idea where des came from, but that's good because that means I wasn't lying when I said I knew nothing about Dutch! Maybe I'll tackle it as my 5th language. ...right after I figure out how to communicate with the trees!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Too late to do anything now. Final decision has been made under time pressure. Just wish me luck with your blessing. Thanks to all again. Bye. Twma 06:05, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

'Den' is an antiquated version of 'de' ('the'). 'Des' (or 'der') means 'of the'. As in 'the hedge of the earl'. It's also rather antiquated - not sure if it's still official Dutch, but it's still used in a lot of expressions. Or names, like mine - van der Made. DirkvdM 07:53, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

About Edit Wars

I have painstakingly written and re-written the section on the IAU definition of Planet in the article on Pluto many times. Each time, someone has reverted it. It seems that they have no feelings for anothers work, even fair compromises.... I was wondering if someone could talk sense into them? (They left their edit tags on the bottom of the talk page) Alphabetagamma 04:12, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

P.S.: It seems that I have won this edit war for now. Alphabetagamma 04:13, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• I think the following comment was the problem:

The above text was copied directly from the IAU website (http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0602/index.html) at 3:50 8 September 2006 (UTC).

You're not supposed to copy text directly from websites, that is a copyright violation. Also, the section in question is supposed to be a summary of the main article about the decision, not a fully detailed one. - Mgm|^(talk) 04:44, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

And that last bit at least was pointed out to you at the talk page too. DirkvdM 06:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Edit wars are not for winning. You should not enter into one at all. If you find that your work is reverted, your first action should be to raise it on the talk page, and try to reach a consensus. Notinasnaid 09:02, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

featured article

there is a featured article on fyodorovskaya icon, i am pretty sure i have seen this picture in a church in poland just out side Katowitse. Wanted to drop a note on the talk page but the option was not there.

I am not sure what you are asking. If you wish to discuss the article, just go to Talk:Theotokos of St. Theodore, and click on "edit this page".--Shantavira 09:18, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

please suitly emphazi your question --frothInClassRightNowAndNotLoggedIn

emphaSi? Is that a briticism? 惑乱 分からん 18:08, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Whatever do you mean? :) --Froth 19:57, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I meant emphaZi had teh suitly misspell! 惑乱 分からん 12:39, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

This confusing joke has now been suitly nominated for deletion; see Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:Suitly emphazi. Sandstein 21:19, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

MOH FRONTLINE

Hi I have just completed Medal of Honor Frontline on the ps2 and am wondering if there is any other way to unlock the cheats other than the passwords found in the magazines and on the net? I have already looked on Gamefaqs and other gaming sites but they only have the passwords. I am looking to see if they can be unlocked through the game like the first two MOHs, any help appreciated.

You could use a PS2 Action Replay to unlock things in games, or whatever the thing's called (I still call them all GameSharks) Luigi30 (Taλk) 12:12, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Any computer that you need external hardware to hack the memory is not worth supporting - anyway if you want cheats try PC games, they've traditionally had more diverse and powerful cheats than console games (excluding of course goldeneye!). Meanwhile I'll continue evangelizing PC gaming anytime the topic is even remotely related --Froth 20:00, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I play both, and there are certain genres I would never use a console for, and certain genres I would never use a PC for, and genres I use both for. (eg Rayman is the only good platformer on the PC (and non PC-exclusive), and it's tough playing FPSes on a console, with the exception of Goldeneye 007.) ColourBurst 00:58, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Size of pages

Is there any way to determine the current size of a page without waiting for the '32k warning' maessage in the edit window?--Light current 15:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Cut & paste the text from the edit window into something that'll do a character count; Word or a good text editor. Or into web-based counting tool such as Cut & Paste Character count --Tagishsimon (talk)

How about if you right click on the page then click "properties"? A blank Wikipedia page seems to be about 1kB so deduct that. Of course if there are pics on the page they will make a difference which you don't want to include. --Shantavira 17:35, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I dont get any size indication. Im using Cologne blue skin.--Light current 17:38, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it depends on your browser. That's standard in IE for all web pages as long as you click a blank area.--Shantavira 19:44, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

IE?! >:( shame on you .. in firefox, its in View Page Info in the page context menu (right click). Right below encoding and above referrer. RD/Misc is 114.83 KB (117,589 bytes) right now. --Froth 20:03, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• I must have altered my Firefox copy too much. Apparently I have no such context menu item. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:41, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Right click in any white space on the page, then select view page info. Just like IE except it has a different name (Properties in firefox views the properties of the element - image, button, or in this case the body of the document). It's not likely that you configured it out. Maybe you just misread what I said? It was a bit unclear --Froth 22:33, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

If you haven't configured it out, have you now figured it out? :) DirkvdM 08:04, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

eggs and soldiers

My 4 year old daughter would like to know where the term eggs and soldiers come from after having her eggs and soldiers for breakfast this morning. I have searched on the web to no conclusion-help,any ideas,many thanks,Denise

Yup, I got nowhere too, except a suggestion that it was because lines of cut toast looked like ranks of soldiers - "crispy strips of buttered toast were lined up like little soldiers"; and another that when dipped, the yolk formed a soldier-like helmet. There might, I suppose, be some connection with Humpty-Dumpty, who could not be put back together by all the kings's horses & men ... sadly just speculation, no well referenced information --Tagishsimon (talk)

I was completely unaware of this term until reading this question, and I feel I've been deprived lo these many years. We don't seem to have an article on Eggs and soldiers, so, the toast is cut into strips; how are the eggs prepared? --LarryMac 18:00, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Boiled eggs. And the bread isn't always (and shouldn't be, for me) toasted. violet/riga (t) 20:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

I might be way off, but I came to think of French Toast, which is named akin to "poor knights" in several languages of Northern Europe (likely calqued); British English Poor Knights of Windsor, German Arme Ritter, Danish/Norwegian Arme riddere, Swedish Fattiga riddare, Finnish Köyhät ritarit. 惑乱 分からん 18:06, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Still not an answer to the original question, but in my fascination, I found this article which has a nice picture for ignorant Yanks such as myself. --LarryMac 18:16, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

The OED doesn't record this colloquial usage in print until 1966, but it must have been around for some time before then.--Shantavira 19:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Dipping white bread in eggs? Honestly it's revolting --Froth 20:05, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

There's a fan site but they use toast, bloody heathens. And just in case the soldier cutting machine in LarryMac's link was not enough there is always this. And the I've used the term since I was a kid which would put it before 1966. On the other hand there is this. CambridgeBayWeather (Talk) 23:46, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Surely toast has a practical advantage over untoasted bread in its rigidity. With fresh bread it would get pretty messy, one would think. Then again, war is messy, so maybe thats appropriate. Rockpocket 06:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

My mother used to make little deep fried bread triangles to go with pea soup. She called these 'soldaatjes' or 'little soldiers'. Too similar to be a coincidence, but Googling it doesn't give exactly this variety, although something similar also seems to go well with spinach. And I now remember a smaller variety is also served with gazpacho. That article says it's not necessarily made of tomatoes and that "bread is the ingredient that really identifies a gazpacho". So my mother unwittingly made gazpacho. DirkvdM 08:24, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

I have never heard of such a thing, without looking it up. --Proficient 03:49, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

military salute

I think the military salute which is used by many soldiers of a different countries has its origin. I want to know the country of this origin & how it began.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.200.102.42 (talk • contribs)

Salute may be of value to you. Dismas|^(talk) 20:07, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

See Emission theory (vision) and Salute#Military_Salutes -- The origin of this salute is unknown. One theory is that it came from Roman soldiers' shading their eyes from the intense light that was supposed to shine from the eyes of their superiors (see emission theory (vision)). Another theory is that it came from when men-at-arms wore armor--a friendly approach would include holding the reins of the horse with the left hand while raising the visor of the helmet with the right, so that one could be recognised. A third theory is that the salute, and the handshake, came from a way of showing that the right hand (the fighting hand) was not concealing a weapon. The most widely accepted theory is that it evolved from the practice of men raising their hats in the presence of officers. Tipping one's hat on meeting a social superior was the normal civilian sign of respect at the time [1]. Repeated hat-raising was impractical if heavy helmets were worn, so the gesture was stylised to a mere hand movement. --Froth 20:09, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

name of cities

I find that in your pages cities like Assab, Barentu and Ghindae are found in Eritrea. Is there any one who can tell me the meanings of these names and their origin?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.200.102.42 (talk • contribs)

You might get a better answer at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. User:Zoe|(talk) 23:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Animal/innovations

I heard that the innovation of Airplane is derived or based from the nature of birds. If that is true, are there any other innovations which are created on the basis of animals nature?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.200.102.42 (talk • contribs)

Aeroplanes are not really based on birds - birds have wings which flap, and they have feathers. However to answer your question: yes, many inventors take inspiration from nature (can't think of any examples at the moment). —Daniel (‽) 19:49, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Here's one I know off the top of my head: the teardrop hull shape of modern submarines is directly copied from the body shape of large whales Raul654 18:32, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

• radar and bats-hotclaws**==(82.138.214.1 20:00, 8 September 2006 (UTC))

What bats have is sonar. Sorry, more accurately, echolocation. Anchoress 23:28, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

• yes but wasn't radar based on how bats echo-locate? hotclaws**==(82.138.214.1 09:23, 9 September 2006 (UTC))

No, radar uses radio waves, sonar/echolocation uses sound waves. Anchoress 18:28, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Military camouflage, antibiotics, dams... Rockpocket 06:19, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

As Daniel said, the notion of flying got its inspiration from birds, but the actual implementation is very different, especially with a helicopter. Giders, however, function very similar to the way, say, vultures fly and the use of updrafts may also have been gleamed from birds. I wonder if man would ever have thought of the notion of flying if it hadn't been for birds (natura artis magistra).

I once saw diagrams of the way copulating dragonflies interlock and a coupling mechanism of spacecrafts, which were very similar. I don't know, though, if that was a pure coincidence (convergent evolution?). I think it was developed for a space station. DirkvdM 09:26, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Please give me any other more example of innovations which are based on the notion of animals.

Tunnel boring machines are possibly inspired by earthworms.

XP

Is the abbreviation XP for "experience" in Windows XP based on the use of the same abbreviation in RPGs? NeonMerlin 18:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Sort of. XP in role-playing games is more usually eXperience points. However, I'm sure the guys at MS were influenced by the RPG use. — Lomn | Talk 19:32, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

My bet is that marketing people came up with it, and that RPGs play no role in those types of decisions. --Fastfission 19:38, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

It symbolizes the face you make when it fails on you :) --Froth 20:11, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Probably more like the face it makes when it fails on you. Vitriol 21:35, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I've always considered it funny that Microsoft chose a mocking smiley as part of their OS logo... XP 惑乱 分からん 12:17, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Probably not. --Proficient 03:50, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

tribes

which country from africa is a country with the highest number of tribes?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.200.102.42 (talk • contribs)

I think that this question is impossible to answer, because there are many different ways to interpret the word tribe. Not only that, but there is no commonly accepted way to draw lines between related "tribes" or ethnic groups. To take an example from Europe, should all speakers of German be considered members of a single ethnic group, even though they may have different cultures and may not be able to understand each others' dialects? Do we consider the people of Liechtenstein a different ethnic group from the German speakers of Switzerland, even though they speak more or less the same dialect and have similar customs? Do we consider Germans in Germany to be a separate ethnic group from Austrians, even though the customs and dialect of Bavaria, Germany, are more similar to those of Austria than to the customs and dialects of northern Germany? What about the ancient "tribal" divisions of Germany, between the Swabians, Bavarians, Saxons, etc? Are these the most important distinctions? The same questions apply in any region of Africa, but with even more ambiguity. Marco polo 19:11, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

ethnic group (nationality)

which country from africa is the country with highest number of ethnic group (nationality)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.200.102.42 (talk • contribs)

See my comments above on the lack of clear lines separating ethnic groups. That said, there is some correlation between language and ethnicity. People who belong to the same ethnic group generally speak the same language. (There are exceptions, such as people from a rural ethnic group who move to the city and raise children who belong to that ethnic group but speak only the language of the city where they were raised.) However, people from different ethnic groups may also speak the same language. (Think of the number of ethnic groups that include speakers of English.) Still, the number of languages can provide a rough measure of ethnic diversity. By that measure, according to Ethnologue, Nigeria is the country in Africa with the largest number of living languages: 510 in all. Marco polo 19:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

best computer

If price was absolutely no object, how would you build a gaming PC? Here are two "fences" I'm not sure which side would be better. BTW i don't actually intend to buy it I'm just curious :)

• 2x itanium montecito processors (dual core, 2 threads per core, 13mb cache per core) OR Some mainstream high-power single processor like AMD 64 FX (is that still in production? I don't buy amd) or Core 2 Duo
• NVIDIA's best SLI setup OR AMD's best crossfire setup

--Froth 23:12, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

yea right, there are no games that even exist to utilize even half of the power in that kind of system.

But theoretically for the kind of processing involved in games.. --Froth 23:50, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Try one of these machines. My guess is that there perfermance in a PC gaming role would be out of this world ;) TomStar81 (Talk) 07:37, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

I would think that the decentralization of components and non-repetitiveness of the operations would make supercomputers less up to the task --Froth 17:07, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

If you're looking for one of the best systems an average person can buy and get performance from, perhaps something like this would be good:

CPU: X6800 Conroe, Mobo: P5W DH Deluxe, RAM: 4 GB G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500), GPU: Quad SLI 7950GX2 or Crossfire with x1900xtx, ... --Proficient 03:53, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Money no object? I'd go with quad dual-core Opterons, 16GB of RAM split equally between all four processors, video cards capable of quad-SLI, and four Raptor hard drives set up as RAID 10. Estimated cost: $15,000. --Serie 23:53, 11 September 2006 (UTC)