Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 July 28

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July 28[edit]

I don't know where to put this...[edit]

Can someone help me with my question here? HaGamal 09:40, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like Julia has already answered over there - but maybe they could better help you over at humanities? If you want to know how many letters are in the name, we can help. Or how the name relates to the heat death of the universe, we're all over thatOops, thought I was at SciRef :) :) Franamax (talk) 10:00, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

mh.se[edit]

where is .mh.se eg if .co.uk is the uk, .eu is the eu and .co.za is South africa, .co.sa is south america then where is .mh.se —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 11:27, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You should probably read Top-level domain and Country code top-level domain. In short, it is the final set of characters - in your case .se which is of importance, and the answer is Sweden. --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:35, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
And www.mh.se was the domain previously held by the Mid Sweden University before they moved to their current domain. 86.21.74.40 (talk) 11:39, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Neither South America nor the EU is a country. .sa is actually Saudi Arabia; .eu does not exist. (The EU does have a domain, but it's .eu.int.) --Anon, 15:11 UTC, July 28, 2008.
.eu does exist since 2005 /Coffeeshivers (talk) 15:44, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well, dang! Thanks for the correction. --Anon, 07:37 UTC, July 31.

hayward ca land and residential[edit]

I cant seem to find anything on hayward ca and the history pertainig to the land and residents of hayward ca.I live here and i would like to know about the houses and land.I want to know about the houses ive lived in.Sometimes I think its haunted and when I try to search for info I cant find anything.I type addresses and nothig.Ive typed cherryland nothing ive typed old newspaper arcticles and I have to pay please help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.164.85.77 (talk) 11:41, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Our article on Hayward, California has a history section — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs) 11:45, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WWII[edit]

Having done some extensive research into the subject, it would seem to me that alot of survivors of the death camps claim to have had Ukrainian guards watching over them and participating in the killings. So, the article Ukrainian-German collaboration during World War II is a bit disapointing in this field. I wish to know who, what, where, when, and how ukrainians came to be guards at Auschwits and other places, they were/are not german? any info in this field would be greatly appreciated. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 14:34, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They were probably kapos—prisoners used to guard other prisoners, something quite common in the Nazi concentration camp system, as well as in other regimes of repression. Make one group of occupied and persecuted people watch over the others. Of course with Ukraine it is complicated, given that they had the Nazis on one side and the Soviets as the other, so how "persecuted" any given Ukrainian felt by the Germans (compared to previous persecutions by the Russians) varied quite a lot. But any of them at Auschwitz were probably there as prisoners themselves. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:49, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thabk you but no, I am not talking about Kapos, I wish to know about Ukrainian Wafen SS guards, as mentioned in books such as we wept without tears or Shoah Thanks again —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 15:22, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
This article (from www.auschwitz.org.pl) indicates there was little if any Ukrainian participation at Auschwitz. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 17:17, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Follow these links to Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec, where you'll find particular mention of Ukrainian guards. They may have been civilian employees rather than Waffen SS personnel, if that matters. Those Nazi extermination camps are all situated on Poland's eastern border (as Auschwitz is not), near Ukraine, which may account for some of the ethnic makeup of a particular camp's guard staff. Consider, too, that there's not likely to be much in the way of testimony from camps that had so few survivors (e.g. Belzec had 2 Jews known to survive out of "at least 434,500 murdered" there). Note that Wikipedia pages on Holocaust topics have little detail (if such pages exist) compared to what you can learn from library or even Web research. -- Deborahjay (talk) 20:23, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
N.B.: Upon rereading the original query, I became aware of the phrase, "...a lot of survivors of the death camps..." -- so I focused my initial response strictly on Nazi extermination camps though by definition these had paltry few survivors. If you extend your search for testimony and documentation of Ukrainian guards at other types of Nazi concentration camps, including those described as "forced labor" camps, you may find more material. -- Deborahjay (talk) 20:33, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The Trawniki concentration camp's training program for camp guards (to be deployed elsewhere) specifically mentions the "conscripted civilians... primarily young Ukrainians ..." to take part in Operation Reinhard (involving the three extermination camps I linked above). -- Deborahjay (talk) 20:42, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
John Demjanjuk's complicated and ongoing story comes to mind. Rmhermen (talk) 21:21, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

canoeing safety[edit]

If I am on a river Grand river Brantford Ontario and a lightening storms hits there is no place to get out where is the safest place to be? on the middle of river keep moving or close to the shore and keep moving If I can find a clearing no trees and can get out is that wise? thank you Hutch co—Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.247.207.202 (talk) 15:19, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Get out of the boat and off of the water. I don't know of any significant stretches to the Grand that would be completely lacking in a place to bring something as small as a canoe ashore. With all the towers and tall trees, it's not particularly likely for lightning to hit you (it's not like a lake where everything is flat except for you in your boat), but it's still a needless danger. Water is also a fine conductor, so the lightning would probably not have to hit you directly to affect you. There are all kinds of houses along the river; if you don't fancy carrying your canoe back to your pickup point, some kindly soul may agree to let you sit the boat in their yard for a bit. Matt Deres (talk) 17:17, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Architect of holy family church[edit]

i am a priest of holy family church. i am going to build a new holy family church . i want the pictures of holy family church and also the pictures of altar. i want a beautiful architecture of holy family church. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.244.252 (talk) 15:32, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Search the web for pictures of churches and altars. Your primary requirement would seem to be an architect.--Shantavira|feed me 16:33, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Holy Family is the name of many churches. We have article on some: Cathedral of the Holy Family, Church of the Holy Family, Holy Family Catholic Church. Rmhermen (talk) 18:19, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cycling[edit]

Just enjoyed the Tour de France on Eurosport. Two questions, please. Riders have earpieces (no mikes?). To what are they listening ? Most days a small group breaks away and can build a substantial lead. But it almost always is caught. Why do they do it ?86.209.155.16 (talk) 16:07, 28 July 2008 (UTC)DT[reply]

Riders' earpieces go to a team car. They tell the riders time between the groups, distance to sprints, feed zones, etc. Riders break away from the peleton on flat stages because they want to win, but they know they can't sprint. Breakaway specialists like Sylvain Chavanel and Nicolas Vogondy can keep up fast speeds to get away from the peleton, but can't sprint. Stages 18 and 19 were both won by breakaways, as were basically every mountain stage. Paragon12321 (talk) 16:23, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
The riders have microphones as well as ear pieces. The microphones are clipped to the inside of their jerseys'. That's why you sometimes see riders speaking into their jerseys. As for your second question, in addition to what Paragon12321 said, some also do it to get some TV exposure for themselves and the team (in addition to the sponsor). - Akamad (talk) 03:28, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks90.9.214.160 (talk) 14:29, 29 July 2008 (UTC)DT[reply]

Speed dating...[edit]

I'm not sure whether to put this on the Humanities or Mathematics desk, so I'm placing it here. I know how speed dating works, but what if it's held for homosexuals? In a normal speed date, each man will only meet women and each woman will only meet men. So if we have n people (n being an even number), then the total number of meetings is (n/2)² = n²/4 (assume an arbitrary man/woman and cycle him/her through all the women/men - the other men/women will follow behind). In the homosexual case, though, we can not risk an arbitrary bipartition. So each participant will have to meet each other participant, making the total number of meetings n(n-1)/2 = n²/2 - n/2. Is something like this done in real life? How is it handled? JIP | Talk 17:28, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know how or even if such things are done in real life, but I see no reason why everyone must meet everyone else. If you want to do it that way, though, it's exactly the same as organising a round robin tournament. --Tango (talk) 17:55, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I thought, that since in conventional speed dating each man meets each woman, and vice versa, then the homosexual case should be no different - everyone should meet everyone they could potentially be interested in. Only this time it's almost twice as many meetings. JIP | Talk 18:22, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Well, bear in mind that every participant doesn't have to meet every other participant. I mean, if you speed date 20 people, that may mean that there are 19 others that you didn't get a chance to speed date, but 20 is plenty as it is. Guaranteeing that everyone meets everyone might indeed prove to be a little problematic, but if, say, half of all the people involved meet each other, and then those halves are split again, that's going to be a lot of dating. And if a participant is left feeling that they didn't get a chance to talk to someone they really would've wanted to talk to, hey, perhaps they can muster the energy to walk up to the person and say that they'd like to grab a cup of coffee or something. I doubt this is really a problem for anyone... though admittedly the puzzle of how to conveniently organize the thing so that everyone can meet everyone is interesting. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:40, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If I were pedantic I would challenge the premise we can not risk an arbitrary bipartition. If I were cynical I would point out that homosexuals in Western societies have much greater problems than the mechanics of speed dating. But I am not... wait a minute, I am both pedantic and cynical. So there you have it. Plasticup T/C 00:59, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I have a solution that works if there is an odd number of tablesdoesn't work. It'd be interesting to see if there's a solution that also works for an even number of tables. --Random832 (contribs) 20:26, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Round robin tournament#Scheduling algorithm gives a way. --Tango (talk) 01:57, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I asked the question on the xkcd forums and basically got a solution equivalent to the same answer, so yeah. --Random832 (contribs) 03:57, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What jobs can you do with foreign languages[edit]

I mean translator, interpreter, foreign language teacher, and what else? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talkcontribs) 18:55, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any job which involves working with people in other countries, which includes lots of jobs in any multinational corporation. --Tango (talk) 19:04, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Many help-desk and order-desk type jobs require or prefer bilingual staff members, especially if you speak the "other" language in a bilingual society (like Canada, for example). Many government jobs in Canada also prefer or require staff that are bilingual. Matt Deres (talk) 19:23, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You could have interest in a career as a multi-lingual porn actor, synchronising orgasmic squirts into, say, sign language for the blind, Latin for the (oh God, here he goes again)... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 19:34, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You're going to translate to sign language for the blind? I don't know if that will work. Coolsnak3 23:44, 28 July 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coolsnak3 (talkcontribs)
Could be as simple as a farmer needing to talk to his field hands/migrant laborers. Rmhermen (talk) 20:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps some sort of work in an embassy? An ambassador? Useight (talk) 21:57, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You usually don't start as an ambassador, but you could certainly get a job in an embassy. You could work with aid organizations; they often need translators. If your second language is Spanish you could work for most companies that operate in South America... or North America, these days. Multi-national companies are where the bi-lingual money is, and with some luck they'll pay you in Euros. Plasticup T/C 00:53, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you want to specifically work with the languages themselves, translation, interpreting and teaching are the main ones, yes. Consider also linguistics, which is studying the inner workings of languages. If you work with a specific language, say, Spanish, it can be combined with another interest within the community of speakers. For example, it could be combined with community work (counselling, financial advisory, new immigrant resettlement), foreign aid (development, medical care, etc.), teaching (for example, in a bilingual or international school, teaching maths or science in French), law (for multinational companies) etc. Governments often need language specialists for the current 'important' languages. In the US, currently these are Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Farsi/Dari and Chinese. These people work in Foreign Affairs, Defense, Immigration, Customs, as well as the more 'secret' departments, such as the CIA, NSA, etc. Here in Australia, there is a big need in Defense for specialists in Arabic, Chinese, Tetum and Indonesian, as well as general linguists and cryptographers. Cryptography is another area you might find interesting, especially if you also like maths and/or computer science. Multinational corporations and internet companies often need additional help in language processing (translation, culturally and linguistically adapting software, expansion into new markets, etc.). Steewi (talk) 01:16, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Interpreter, tourism worker etc. I think most personnel on aircraft must be at leastbilingual.Avnas Ishtaroth (talk) 05:55, 29 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If by "personnel on aircraft" you mean flight attendants, then multiple languages is definitely a plus. For the actual flight crew, only English is required. FiggyBee (talk) 04:34, 30 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that is what I meant, I couldn't think of the term. ;)Avnas Ishtaroth drop me a line 01:05, 31 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How about foreign correspondent (journalist) ? DOR (HK) (talk) 04:22, 1 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

main page[edit]

on average, how many people are viewing the main page per second? 79.76.186.83 (talk) 20:23, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

According to Talk:Main_Page#Results_of_main_page_traffic_experiment there were about 60 million hits over 7 days (I've no idea the source for that, though, so take it with a pinch of salt). That corresponds to an average of about 100 hits a second. --Tango (talk) 21:43, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]