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The Wikipedia Reference Desk serves much the same function as a library reference desk. Do you have a specific question that you want answered by Wikipedia? Then ask below! To request that a complete article be written, go to requested articles.
If you know an answer, give only a very limited answer on this page. Just post a link to the Wikipedia article that contains the answer (although you might have to supply a few missing details, relevant to the specific question, here on this page).
Old questions and answers will be removed periodically. You can browse old questions and answers in the Reference Desk archive.
Non-reference questions will be moved to more appropriate pages.
- Brett's question about setting up a wiki moved to Wikipedia:Village pump
- Muriel Gottrop's question about Macedonian phalanx moved to Talk:Macedonian phalanx
- Translation question moved to Wikipedia:Village pump
- Linnaean taxonomy question moved to talk:Scientific classification
Does anyone know (or know of a page that might help) what, if any, were the more humane approaches taken towards slaves in Rome between 2BC and 2AD? For example any legislation or general attitudes... Thank you for any assistance. Paul, 15:15 April 10, 2003
- you could start by looking at slavery, which has a section on "Slavery in the Mediterranean World". Try asking at talk:slavery, if you haven't already.
- Hi Paul. Are you studying Classics? ;-) Swing by your library and borrow An Introduction to Roman Law[?] by Barry Nicolas. It's an excellent overview of Roman law, and has some good bits on the legal and social rights of slaves. -- Stephen Gilbert
What are the consequences of taking the Truth Drug with alcohol and in a party environment?
Many thanks in advance for your feedback on this.
Simbasoko@hotmail.com
- "The" truth drug? I thought there were lots... anyway, isn't alcohol a truth drug as well? In vino veritas and all that. :) Martin
Does anyone know a Japanse local government unit, 郡 should be translated either county or district. My Japanese-English dictionary shows both. -- Taku 05:23 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)
- You may find your answer on this page (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/afaq/addresses). It has a lot of information about the Japanese address system, with English equivalents. kwertii
Can someone with good knowledge of electrochemistry please help with the vague fuzziness in electrode about anodes and cathodes, reduction and oxidation, and the fuzziness in related articles about anions, cations and their relationship with electrodes? The Anome 07:58 Mar 27, 2003 (UTC)
- I think these articles have all been sorted out. I removed the self-contradictory bits from electrode and made the definitions explicit. The article has been stable for a couple of months. (One user disputed it but I convinced him that the article was right.) Anode and cathode are now just redirects to electrode. Anion and cation are redirects to ion, which has a correct definition. -- Heron 20:59 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Hello! I'm new to Wikipedia but so far it seems very useful. My question is for someone with Ancient Historical knowlege. Could the Spartan foriegn policy in the Classical Period be described as 'consistent' and if so how far you would judge it to have been a success. I realise that this is a broad question but any help would be much appreciated (perhaps even just a further website). Many thanks in advance, paulolliff@hotmail.com
- Whether Sparta's foreign policy was consistent or not is really a matter of interpretation, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions. Take a look at History of Sparta. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that's the best Wikipedia can give you; our coverage of Greek civilization is a bit spotty. -- Stephen Gilbert
I've just acquired an encyclopedia called The Oracle Encyclopædia. Nearly everything I know about the work and its editor is in the the stub article I created for it. My initial web search only turned up that Eastwick's wife, Mary Eastwick[?], was a novelist who had the same publisher. I'll be bothering my university librarians when I have the time, but until then, does anyone know anything about this work? -- Stephen Gilbert 19:15 Apr 12, 2003 (UTC)
Could somebody tell me the origin of the phrase "I'm verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves."? I know it's from a movie, and is now a catchphrase on bulletin boards. Also, does "verklempt" actually mean anything in any language? If so, what and in which? ThirdParty
Someone has given an answer at http://pub122.ezboard.com/fwordoriginsorgfrm7.showMessage?topicID=493.topic - Brettz9 20:34 May 2, 2003 (UTC)
- Verklemmt is an actual German word that is still in use, and means shy, self-conscious, repressed. Verklempt sounds Yiddish to me, and probably has a similar meaning. Here's a page (http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/coffeetalk/) about the SNL feature that seems to have popularized the phrase. --Eloquence 01:16 May 6, 2003 (UTC)
Does anyone come up with a good translation word for a Japanese word 支庁 or 庁 as administrative units? It seems usually
- Branch office
- Branch of the Prefectural Government
- Subprefecture
- There are two distinct meanings to 庁:
- When referring to a political division, Chinese use "subprefecture" for 庁 (traditional: 廳; simplified: 厅) as well.
- The first two definitions are used to describe another meaning of 庁, namely, a government branch. The usual Chinese translation is "department." --Menchi 21:30 May 5, 2003 (UTC)
- Thanks a lot. Subprefecture seems fine. -- Taku 00:57 May 6, 2003 (UTC)
i was searching the web for specific info related to fully automatic gun laws in the US. i was particularly trying to find info as to when "machine guns" were banned in the US, but i keep finding info only about the 1994 semi-auto ban. on one of Wikipedia's pages, i found "Assault weapons ban (USA)" which stated that fully auto weapons were banned in 1933. however, when i click on the link for 1933, i didn't find any further data on the subject. perhaps i missed it? can someone please help me find out more detail about this gun ban? please email me at bbc@infinitygames.com when you find an answer. thanks a bunch! 8-)
- There's a reason you couldn't find it; the date is wrong. You're looking for the National Firearms Act of 1934. See <http://www.gunrunner.com/NFA>;.
I am doing a research project on the downfalls and problems of the stock market (business and investor side), can anyone help me? It'll add a source for me :)
- Well, stock market has a little, but it's pretty rough and only covers the United States. Small articles exist for stock market crash and stock market bubble, both of which are generally considered problems. Stock market downturn of 2002 provides a recent example. You can also find some related material in Great Depression and Efficient markets theory. Finally, see the Wikipedia:Readers' FAQ for info on how to cite Wikipedia in a paper. -- Stephen Gilbert 23:23 May 8, 2003 (UTC)
- Thanks a lot
Who do we have here who is good on insects? In particular pond insects in the UK? I have a funny creature I can't identify, I'll upload a drawing. -- Tarquin 14:57 17 May 2003 (UTC)
Juuitchan wants to know the difference between straw and hay; in particular, how to tell them apart.
- I don't think I've ever seen real hay, but I'm under the impression that it is a more delicate material than straw. Hay is animal feed, but from what I know of straw, most animals would balk if it were put in their feed troughs. -Smack
Ship buffs: I wanted to know the power rating of a nice, powerful nuclear power plant, presumably from an aircraft carrier, and perhaps one from a submarine too, to add as an example for orders of magnitude (power), but I've been through pretty nearly all the U.S. aircraft carrier pages, checked the ships' own websites when they had external links, and haven't come up with a thing other than "two A4W reactors". Is the information classified or something? I wouldn't have thought so. If not, does one of you have a power rating of at least one aircraft carrier/submarine in any of your references? -- John Owens 21:06 22 May 2003 (UTC)
- While I'm at it, on the off chance one of the ship people pops a head in here, check my recent addition of the volume definition of ton. I'm not quite clear on just when it measures volume of displacement, volume of capacity, and plain old mass. -- John Owens 12:37 24 May 2003 (UTC)
- And here I didn't even know I was supposed to be watching this page! :-) Googling '"aircraft carrier" horsepower' turns up a random assertion that Nimitz'es are 260,000 hp, and http://www.dresser-rand.com/newsroom/pr/archives/nptnews.asp says "more than a quarter-million". On ton, there have been different systems in the past, but these days it's volume of displacement, assuming 35 cu ft / ton of water. Stan 07:46 27 May 2003 (UTC)
Hey Library Reference Desk! I have a HISTORY reference question: where might I find detailed county-by-county results for past U.S. Presidential elections? My specific question is New Jersey Counties in the 1860 Lincoln/Douglas contest, but I'm sure I will have other uses for the answer to the originla question. I'll even make an article on it, if I can find out where to get the info. Many thanks in advance... ArloBee 20:12 25 May 2003 (UTC)
- here's a first try...[1] (http://elections.harpweek.com/4Overview/overview-1860-1.htm) says that 109 of 147 counties in the Mid-Atlantic states voted Republican. You could email webmaster@harpweek.com and find out where they got the numbers Kingturtle 20:32 25 May 2003 (UTC)
- Thanks Kt. I just queried the Lib of Cong site a couple of ways and found:
- Did a little more poking around: this is a body of and enormous amount of original research. I will be respecting his copyright! :-) ArloBee 21:21 25 May 2003 (UTC)
In an aqueous solution of, say, a lead compound, why don't all the lead ions sink to the bottom? I suppose that lead is only denser than water because the atoms in solid or liquid lead are packed tighter than the molecules in water, but to me it seems unlikely that all the ions and molecules in a solution have exactly the same density. What is it that keeps them all afloat? -- Heron
- Water is a polar molecule so it forms relatively strong intermolecular bonds with ions. Water molecules essentially attach to the ions and act as one large ion/water thingamajing. Basically the same thing soap molecules do to grease. This is the reason that ions are formed in the first place, the polar water molecules attach to the atoms in an ionic compound and pull them apart. Iammaxus 20:48 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)
I see. Thanks. So the 'ion/water thingamajing' has the same density as water. -- Heron 21:03 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- nope, it'll be denser. This is why you float on the Dead sea: high concentration of ion/water thingamajing, only in that case the ions are Na+ Cl- -- Tarquin 21:57 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- its denser than water, but the entire solution is denser than water, thats why the ions float Iammaxus 02:07 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Heron originally asked "why don't all the lead ions sink to the bottom". Off the top of my head, I would say diffusion. Random thermal motion of the lead particles tends to make them evenly mixed throughout the sample, and swamps the gravitational effect. It's the same reason the air in a room doesn't settle to the floor, leaving vacuum at the top. If the lead ions were much, much heavier, they would sink towards the bottom. The bottom would become positively charged, eventually repelling additional lead ions. -- Tim Starling 08:05 11 Jun 2003 (UTC)
as heard on US tv shows, what are "cooties"?
- It's a derisive term used by children toward other children who are odd or strange, a sort of social mechanism by which the "in" crowd can identify the "out" crowd: The "out" crowd is said to "have cooties". Most children will not understand the origin of the term, only that it's a bad thing, and that "cooties" are contagious: if you hang around with other children considered to have "cooties", you'll wind up with "cooties" (and therefore in the out group) too. The origin is in head lice, for which "cooties" was a slang term when they were more prevalent. -- Someone else 20:44 15 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- Was also used by grade-school boys speaking of girls and (I think) vice-versa, irrespective of in-ness and out-ness, sometimes qualified as "girl cooties". We didn't know what cooties really were (must have been a sanitary bunch), but a single touch was considered sufficient to pass them on, which led to variants of tag-type games. Stan 21:14 15 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- I'd see this as a manifestation of 'outness': for boys of certain ages, girls are intrinsically "out"<G>. I imagine girls might also use the term of boys... -- Someone else 21:25 15 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Does anybody here know where can I get more information and biographies on Suheir Hammad[?], the Palestinian-American poet who wrote 'First Writing Since'? A Google search yielded very limited information. I'm more interested in biographies and I can't seem to find them on the net. -Zaim
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The circular saw is persistently listed on timeline of inventions as being invented by Samuel Miller[?]. And yet I have a distinct memory of reading that it was invented by someone of the female persuasion, in some religious utopian community or other. Can't find my source, and it is driving me crazy. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo stick 17:52 23 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- About a dozen Googles (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&q=%22Tabitha+Babbitt%22+%22circular+saw%22) say it's Sister Tabitha Babbitt of the Harvard Shakers's work in 1810:
- After watching the brothers sawing, she concluded that their back and forth motion wasted half their effort, and mounted a notched metal disc on her spinning wheel to demonstrate her proposed improvements.... Sister Tabitha intended the blade to be turned by water power.
- Source: Alic, Margaret (1986). Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science From Antiquity to the Late 19th Century, London, The Women's Press.
- Hypatia's Heritage (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0704339544/qid=1056618726/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_2/102-3809511-2325754?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) is 230-page. Apparently, the author is not a historian, but a biochemist. And she claims that Moses and his wife operated a medical school in Egypt. The Amazon has 2 reviews (a hating man, and an adoring woman. Both American).
- Despite it being written in sto.. I mean, book, its authencity is still questionable.
- --Menchi 09:20 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Simultaneous German pronunciation
Were W and V pronounced the same in Middle High German? (See Talk:V)
--Menchi 02:06 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)
What is this all about Hi im a little confused on what this page is for, can i ask any guestion or only guestions regarding world events and or common knowledge. JS
- Any question at all, since Wikipedia aims to be a summary of human knowledge. See Wikipedia for more. Of course, the answer to many questions is "We don't have any information at this time." :) -- Stephen Gilbert 20:47 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)
A Maratta painting
I'm looking for a high-resolution, color version of this picture:
It is by Carlo Maratta[?], and the caption only says "destruction of pagan art". From the paper it is reproduced in it might be inferred that it is in the Vatican, but I'm not sure about that. Any art history buffs have an idea where to look? --Eloquence 20:54 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- My 1000-page Art History book only has a photo of the façade of St Paul's Cathedral designed by Maratta. --Menchi 21:20 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)
- Could this be his "Constantine destroying the Idols"? If so, it's in the Baptistry of the Lateran in Rome, but I can't tell you where to find a picture of it. He's alternately spelled "Maratti", as though one name weren't hard enough to look for<G>. -- Someone else 01:30 2 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- Try getting Zerschlagung heidnischer Bildwerke translated. -Smack 01:33 4 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- That would be "Suppression of Heathen Idols", which is why I think it may be the painting in the Lateran -- Someone else 01:38 4 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Calling European-history buffs French Revolution
I had half a mind to rewrite the article myself, but then I saw a long comment on talk: that contradicted much of what I thought I knew. I replied, unaware that the user who had made the comment had since been banned. So I'm trying to find out whether or not I really have my European history all wrong. -Smack 22:01 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Transport phenomena contrasts diffusion and radiation, but none of these three articles makes it clear what the difference is, and how to know if you're looking at one or the other. Is there, in fact, a principled distinction here? --Ryguasu 23:46 1 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- The problem here is that "radiation" is not defined in Wikipedia, in the sense used by transport phenomena. The nature of the difference depends sensitively on which definition you choose to use. Suffice to say that here, radiation is visualised as a one-way motion of particles, whereas diffusion is random motion in every direction. If you allow for "radiation" in the reverse direction, then indeed the distinction is blurred. -- Tim Starling 01:06 2 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Scientific classification vs. Linnaean taxonomy moved to talk:scientific classification
Calling European-history buffs again
My new page (really too wimpy to be called an article) Rurik Dynasty has a list of rulers from that dynasty, compiled from two separate lists in Rulers of Kievan Rus' and List of Russian tsars. The problem is that there's an approximately 150-year gap running from the 12th to the 13th centuries. I was wondering if someone had a list handy from which I could fill that gap. I already searched the 'pedia to find the two rulers at either end of the gap, but came up blank. -Smack 07:25 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)
Citric acid Apparently, UK pharmacies control the sale of Citric acid; citing that it can be used in the manufacture of a drug. Which one, and how?
What is a Hat Trick in ice hockey? Does anybody know?
- A hat trick is when one player scores three goals in a single game. I don't see an obvious place to work it into the ice hockey right now, but I'll see what I can do. -- Stephen Gilbert (a friendly neighbourhood Canadian)
- don't other sports have hat tricks[?] too?
- I'm not allowed to say, because it's not in Wikipedia....... Nope, I can't help it. Cricket. It's when a bowler gets three out in as many balls. Two in a row is a golden duck[?]. -- Tim Starling 14:41 6 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- I think a golden duck is when a batsman was out first ball (needn't necessarily be the same bowler as took the previous wicket). --Camembert
- Yes, a golden duck is when the batsman gets out on the first ball faced. This event often corresponds with two in a row out. But a hat trick is generally considered an achievement of the bowler, not the team. -- Tim Starling 14:59 6 Jul 2003 (UTC)
when speaking of perfume, etc, what is a base note[?]? -- Tarquin
- I don't wear it, but my perfume-wearing friends told me base's the thing that stays with you the longest, deepest. And there's also heart note (medium), and top note (light). It has to do with the adhesiveness of the chemical that attach to skin or hair even after the liquid evaporates. Parallels to the stickiness of resin, oil and water, I suppose. --Menchi 21:16 6 Jul 2003 (UTC)
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