Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2010 June 4

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June 4

Aki Kaurismaki

It looks like no character ever laughs in his films. Are the Finns so grim?--117.204.80.156 (talk) 01:16, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

We have Category:Finnish comedy television series, so presumably not. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:45, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Ties in American sports leagues

How would a tie affect standings? Like after an tied NFL overtime quarter or a NBA game goes on for too long... hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 01:45, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

There's no tying in baseball! (Also see Overtime (sports) as Comet Tuttle suggested previously.) Clarityfiend (talk) 02:05, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

In those sports that allow it, it counts for more than a loss, less than a win. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:57, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

For NHL tie points and scoring, see National_Hockey_League_rules#Scoring_and_winning. Everard Proudfoot (talk) 06:32, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

In the NFL, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss for each team. Incidentally, List of NFL tied games says there have only been 17 tie games in the NFL since 1974, when the one-overtime-period rule was adopted. Because it is awesome, I must mention a related concept: There are special, very detailed rules at this page to decide which team gets to go to the playoffs if 2 teams have equal win-loss-tie records at the end of the regular season. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:19, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

The NFL has changed their overtime rules during the playoffs. Even though there was sympathy towards making those changes in effect for regular season games, it was voted down during this off-season. Everard Proudfoot (talk) 20:59, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

While most other countries would gladly end a regular league game in a draw, the irrational American hatred of ties (it's like kissing your sister, goes the famous proverb) means nearly every sports league will go to length to resolve a tie.

The only major sports league to still have ties is Major League Soccer, where ties count as one point as in the rest of the world -- of course, there are those who want to institute overtime or a shootout to break ties, but MLS know if they want to become relevant as a world-class league they can't afford to do this, lest Europeans see the league as different.

As stated before, ties are not possible in the MLB, although in the Japanese league games are tied after 12 innings and playoff games are tied (and therefore a replay is required) after 15 innings. In Japan, ties are essentially ignored and do not help or hurt a team.

Weekly PGA Tour events go to a sudden death playoff. This involves playing a set of three holes (usually the 16th, 17th and 18th holes), and any players who do not have the lowest score are eliminated after each hole. The winner is considered the winner of the tournament; in other words, there is no monetary or FedEx Cup points stigma attached to winning a tournament via playoff. For majors, The Masters Tournament does a sudden death playoff (the last one was in 2009); The Open Championship mandates a "mini-round" of four holes, and the lowest aggregate score after those four holes wins (the last one was in 2009); the U.S. Open requires tied participants to play another 18 on Monday, then a sudden death playoff is done if there is still a tie (the last one was in 2008); and the PGA Championship does a "mini-round" of three holes in the same manner as the Open Championship. Again, the winners of these are treated the same as if they won normally. Xenon54 (talk) 21:31, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Nice answer, Xenon54! I think it's also important to note that Major League Soccer originally had shoot-outs somewhat like hockey does, and experimented with tie-avoiding methods, before finally caving and aligning with the rest of the footie world. 61.189.63.191 (talk) 00:08, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Try cricket! Test matches can end in a win (and therefore loss for the opposing team), a draw (where the game ends and a team has not completed its innings), or a tie (where the game is completed wIth each team scoring the same number of runs). Matches can also be abandoned, awarded as a win by the umpires, and even conceded by a team. Tea and cucumber sandwiches anyone? Moriori (talk) 21:52, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Tied games were once fairly common in major league baseball (3 World Series games and a couple of All-Star Games ended in ties) and also in football (American style, both college and pro). Once lights were standard in baseball and suspended-game rules expanded, ties (which were usually caused by darkness or weather) became rare, although they are still possible under particular circumstances. The NFL and colleges have taken different approaches to resolving ties. In both sports, ties were originally disregarded in the standings but counted in the stats. In baseball, they are still disregarded in the standings, but in the NFL at least, they count as half a win and half a loss, as was mentioned earlier. The nature of basketball makes ties unnecessary, as the overtime periods are short and ties are usually resolved in 1 or 2 overtime periods. While ties are acceptable in the regular season, obviously you can't have a one-game matchup in post-season end in a tie, because there has to be a resolution. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:34, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

What is the name of that piece of music that HowTheWorldWorks plays at the start of every single one of his videos?

If you don't know what I'm talking about, visit [1] and watch the start of any of his videos.--Wikinv (talk) 03:33, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

It sounds like a generic piece of stirring current affairs music. They're all pretty similar, I suppose you can buy one off the shelf for use as a theme. It reminds me somewhat of the Channel 4 News theme, for instance, to which Bill Bailey once set the lyrics "things are bad, things are bad, really bad..." (or was that Panorama, or the old ITN theme?) 81.131.25.201 (talk) 06:54, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

The Adventures of Pinnocchio

Are there any sites where in I can watch the full movie of The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996 film)?

Future thanks!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.55.167.81 (talk) 06:36, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

If there are any, they would be of dubious legality, and we wouldn't help you there. You could always, you know, buy it. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:58, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

It's also available on Netflix. Though not as a stream but you could have the DVD sent to you. Dismas|^(talk) 11:18, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Script for an epic movie 'BIRDS OF PARADISE' finished with lyrics(open to editing)

'BIRDS OF PARADISE' is the story of the rich sea captains who sail the Islands and by luring the natives on board and then luring them into the ships' hold, the capture of many Kanakas is successful. The Kanakas are sold as slaves. It is one time that several native women are accidently captured. BIRDS OF PARADISE spands the lives of several families. The charactor of Jason, the ship's owner, my partner and I visioned Brad Pitt and Renemae the captured native girl Angelina Jolly. The Cruise family and Nicole Kidman's family could all play the many characters. Having no idea how to promote my partner's and mine, 'BIRDS OF PARADISE' seeing George Miller on TV I thought I would enbolden myself to go to his sight and promote our epic (stated so by Rosemary Stern, agent for Paramount Studios who has waited ten years for some financial companies to come to the party. If you are unable to help us could you suggest someone. 'Our BIRDS OF PARADISE' script,(200+pages)is worth at least looking at it.) Shirley <email removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.79.24.151 (talk) 10:19, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

I have removed your email address; we do not answer by email and it will only attract spam.
We cannot help you market your script, either. You need an agent for that. Your local library will offer writers guides which list reputable agents. Some warnings: Do not submit it to anyone who charges a reading fee or asks any money up front; remember than money should always flows to an author, not away. Do not pay anyone to list or publish it (these are usually scams). Check the career success of any agent you approach (if they have no real history of sales, then they are unlikely to sell yours. You might find it worthwhile to join a local writers group for support, constructive criticism and advice. Gwinva (talk) 10:31, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Original Empire State of Mind Chorus

As my SwissAir flight landed and taxed towards the gate, the plane's sound systems played a slow, non-hip-hop version of Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind that featured a woman vocal singing the chorus (Alicia Key's part). Most of the lyrics were the same as Jay-Z's version and Google searches will turn up only the Jay-Z version of the song. Does anyone know the name and singer of the slower version? I'm not sure which version came first. thanks. Acceptable (talk) 13:48, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

That's probably Alicia Keys' own version of the song, Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down. Adam Bishop (talk) 14:16, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that version just had a piano as a backing instrument, I think. Chevymontecarlo 16:27, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

That's it! Thanks guys. Acceptable (talk) 21:33, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

QI - the stone that always ends up on the same side

A while ago I remember seeing an episode of QI, which featured a cut-glass stone/paperweight thing, which had the unique property that no matter how you put it down, it would always rotate to be on the same axis. What was this called, and are they commercially available for purchase? pushthebutton | go on... | push it! 19:15, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Gömböc - available for purchase from this site. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:23, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

That's an incredible article -- to think that after millions of years of humanity, someone has invented a new shape with properties never before seen! -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:07, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Why get so excited? Its merely a Roly-poly toy with a sharp edge on the upper part. Dull and uninteresting. The RPT does exactly the same. Makes me wonder if some sneaky promotion for the Gomboc product is being done. If the appeal is that it is a uniform material, then I expect that 2/3 or 7/12 of a sphere with a long thin pencil-shape sticking out of the top would do exactly the same. 92.15.0.59 (talk) 11:25, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, Ghmyrtle. pushthebutton | go on... | push it! 11:40, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

It's not just a Roly-poly toy. It is a big deal that it's a uniform density. Additionally, it't a convex shape: your sphere-with-protrusion is not. If you allow concave shapes, the problem becomes trivial. Yes, it's only a big deal in a nerdy, mathematical way, but that's still a big enough deal to sell toys. Is it a "gimmick" to appeal to the nerds in the population? Buddy431 (talk) 16:37, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

British TV nature programme

This is quite an obscure question, but here goes anyway. When I was a child, in the mid/late-1990s, I watched a television programme (I can't remember if it was a one-off programme or a series) on a British TV channel (can't remember which one). It had a name like "The World we Never See" and featured things such as an ichneumon wasp boring into a tree trunk to inject its eggs into a beetle grub, salmon spawning, microscopic creatures, bees flying in slow motion, a chicken embryo developing with part of the eggshell removing so its progress could be recorded on film, and so on. The "hook" of the programme was that all of the phenomena featured were impossible to observe in natural conditions, and the events were instead filmed in artificial scenarios (for instance, the ichneumon wasp bored into a staged piece of wood that was cut so that its cross-section (and thus the grub inside) was visible, instead of a natural tree trunk. Does anyone else remember this programme, and if so, what was it called, what channel was it aired on, and when was it broadcast?--Midgrid(talk) 20:21, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth showed some of these scenes, and it was advertised as showing animal behaviour never before caught on cameras, or, as Attenborough apparently phrased it "In the past, in order to get close to something, you had to pour light on it; so much so you were at risk of frying the thing - and you certainly inhibited natural behaviour," [2]. This doesn't quite fit your description though, as it was filmed after the 1990s, and wouldn't have shown a chicken embryo. That would have been in The Life of Birds which was filmed in the late 90s. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:46, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, but it definitely wasn't one of David Attenborough's programmes. I would even hazard a guess that it was shown on ITV or Channel 4, but I'm not certain.--Midgrid(talk) 22:52, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

(Ok, sorry, as a non-Brit, I didn't know better) ---Sluzzelin talk 22:58, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

No problem! :) --Midgrid(talk) 23:16, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Microcosmos? Can't remember if the specific content fits, sorry. Oh, there's a 1994 documentary called "The Invisible World" - "A National Geographic video about the world invisible to the unaided eye". I bet it's that. 81.131.34.204 (talk) 03:56, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Neither of those, sorry.--Midgrid(talk) 11:10, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

I can remember it - but am equally clueless as to the title! I don't think it was ITV, probably C4 or the BBC. DuncanHill (talk) 11:27, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

The pdf document here has a lot of useful info, including (at page 237) a list of documentaries produced by the BBC Wildlife Unit. The one that stands out for me as matching most of your criteria (no chickens though) is Alien Empire (p.262) from 1996 - about which there is some more information here. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:35, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks for that! Unfortunately it isn't Alien Empire (which I also remember watching), nor any of the other programmes mentioned in that list.--Midgrid(talk) 12:40, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Well, at least that rules out the BBC pre-1996! Could it be any of these? Ghmyrtle (talk) 13:12, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Found it! I found a reference to the programme ("The World You Never See") on this nature cameraman's CV, and some Googling led me to this page: [3]. It was actually broadcast in 1977, so it must have been a repeat!--Midgrid(talk) 13:35, 5 June 2010 (UTC)