Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2008 August 17

= August 17 =

Wii
Why was the Wii released in North America before Japan? After all, all of the other Nintendo consoles were released in Japan first. Les Games (talk) 04:07, 17 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't know this for a fact, but it probably had a lot to do with making the console available for Thanksgiving, which is traditionally associated with a pretty ferocious shopping day in the States. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 10:57, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Olympic winners
Do Olympic winners get something else other then medals, from the Olympic committee? Thanks--Shahab (talk) 07:26, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think they get anything else from the IOC, but the national Olympic committees, or if it's their governments i guess, might give them what ever they want &mdash; chandler &mdash; 07:35, 17 August 2008 (UTC)


 * That's an interesting question as I would think they should get some sort of certificate as formal proof that the medal is theirs, since their name doesn't appear on the medal itself. Otherwise what solid evidence do they have that they are entitled to the medal?--Shantavira|feed me 08:41, 17 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I suspect they get their details logged in official-records, and perhaps a certificate too. Do their medals get engraved? Also I know a lot of sponsors give away things to home-nation medal winners such as a car-company giving them a free car if they get gold (that way they get a bit more advertising and at a cheap cost) or things like that. ny156uk (talk) 10:26, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

The top eight finishers in every event receive a diploma marking their achievement. In addition, the top three receive medals. (See The Modern Olympic Games, page 11.) The Organizing Committee establishes a Roll of Honour listing all diploma and medal recipients, and the names of all medal winners are permanently displayed at the main Olympic stadium. (See The Olympic Charter, Article 58.) - EronTalk 21:20, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Update - Transatlantic sailing record.
How can a new important sailing record be included in your pages ? I think this should be included - should a new page be created for Thomas Colville ?

Thomas Coville, a French single handed sailor has recently broken the broken the single handed record for crossing the Atlantic. He left Nantucket on the 9th July 08 and croosed the virtual finish line on the 15th July. The single handed sailor and his 32 meter Maxi-trimaran "Sodeb'o" took 5days 19hours 29minutes 20seconds to sail 2987 nauticl miles at an average speed of 20.87 knots. These facts can be verified on page 58 of "Voiles et Voiliers" No 451 September 2008 www.voilesetvoiliers.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidwood62 (talk • contribs) 08:03, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * You have a point, there should be an article on Thomas Coville (note the correct spelling of his surname; you inserted an extra L). There already exists an article in fr wiki (fr:Thomas Coville). His record has not yet been ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council so I suppose that is why this record is not yet listed in our article Single-handed sailing but you can raise it on the Talk page of that article. Plenty of English-language references from searching Google; for example:  . --Cinematical (talk) 02:00, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

"LOLA", a song or lyric within a song.
does wikipedia have forums where members discuss what they want to know? is it o.k. to ask for information here? -

i am looking for a song which may or may not be titled "lola', but has the term within the song..

NOTE: this is not the song by "the kinks"; this is not the song by "superbus"; this is not the song by "dana international"; this is not the song in the musical "damn yankees".

this is a song possibly from the 30s or 40s.. it is mostly an instrumental, but has the one lyric "lola", that i know of.. i have not found this song anywhere, nor have i even heard it all the way thru, just once.. it is (at least partially) on a comedy album by the smothers' brothers, from the 60s ("curb your tongue, knave!").. the music sounds like a violin is being plucked, one note at a time in an upbeat tempo, followed by a singer saying, "lola".. this is all i know.. thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Remoat (talk • contribs) 09:26, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * If my memory of more-than-40-year-old Smothers Brothers routines is reliable, I believe the song you are thinking of is the old standard "Nola" (1915). We don't have an article on it, apparently, but you can hear the music and read the full lyrics by clicking on the appropriate links in the first entry here. Deor (talk) 13:49, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I now see that we do have an article about the piece's composer, Felix Arndt, which links to the same site I directed you to above. Deor (talk) 14:04, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

from REMOAT THANK YOU, THANK YOU.. this is what i was looking for.. i hope i can find a source for downloading it.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Remoat (talk • contribs) 21:11, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Help with unknown film
I recently saw a gay themed filmed which I can't remember the title of. It was about two brothers who stay up in a mountain lodge retreat. One of the brothers has been corresponding with a prison inmate who later shows up at the place with another ex-convict. The two ex-cons have come to collect their stashed cash but unknown to one of the brothers, one of the prisoners was communicating on the others behalf. It ends up with a couple (I think) of deaths. Anyone with any ideas? Thanks Kirk uk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.82.79.175 (talk) 10:43, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

James Bond
Which James Bond films have the most deaths featured in a Bond film? David Pro (talk) 14:44, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * My guess would be Moonraker with the big space battle at the end of the film. - X201 (talk) 15:48, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * There are plenty of Bond movies where Bond escapes from the villain's lair just before it is destroyed, and without knowing how many people Blofeld (or whoever) had working for him that's hard to calculate. If you want to know about on-screen deaths I suggest a happy couple of days with a complete Bond DVD collection and a freeze-frame DVD player. Let us know what you find. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:17, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Getting an Official Site back on the bands page and unblacklisted
To the powers that be-

My name is Brian Gray, I am the webmaster for the Official Green Day Fan Site at www.GreenDay dot net (apparently the URL is blacklisted.)

I have run the site for the band for almost 10 years, and they constantly keep in communication with updates, journals, and family pictures.. I had posted a link to our site on the "Green Day" page - EXTERNAL LINKS in the past, but some jokesters repeatedly took it down saying "no fan sites."

GreenDay dot net is the OFFICIAL FAN SITE, with constant updates from the 3 band members themselves and their familys, to ban the site is ridiculous. Now I find out the entire URL is blacklisted and I can't even type it in this letter. Can someone help?

thanks in advance

Brian Gray www.GreenDay dot net —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iheartjimmy (talk • contribs) 15:33, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This is a page for general-knowledge questions. You need to go to MediaWiki_talk:Spam-blacklist. Deor (talk) 16:35, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Bo Jackson baseball card
How much is a 1990 Ace Novelty Co. MLB Bo Jackson collector pin series baseball card and pin worth? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hbsk1234 (talk • contribs) 18:34, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't have a source but based on my personal history with collecting, my answer would be "probably not much". 1990 was not his rookie year, so that removes some value.  The Ace Novelty Company is not a popular brand, in fact I've never heard of it, so the price that someone is willing to pay normally goes down because of this.  There are only a few major companies and these would have values printed in any of the popular price guides such as Beckett Baseball Card Monthly.  There are many smaller companies that print various items, such as your pin, that don't get listed in these guides.  Therefore, people don't really have a good guide to go by when buying/selling them.  Plus, they were likely made in such small quantities that it would be hard to find out what people are selling/buying them for.  So, in short, it's worth what you can get for it.  Dismas |(talk) 21:54, 17 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I largely agree with Dismas, but would add that while items of this sort are likely only considered collectible by Jackson fans, they may be willing to pay a premium to expand their collection. On the east coast, where Jackson never played, you'd probably find no takers. In the midwest, where Bo played baseball, there could well be collectors who would very much like to add your piece to their collection. If possible, I would try selling in that area. If you're not really interested in selling, but only want an idea of worth, that would also be the place to ask. For example, you could contact one of the many baseball memorabilia shops in Chicago (or KC since that's where he played that year). Matt Deres (talk) 19:33, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

What is the person that has the most gold olympcs medals in the same sport?
I want to know the person that has the most number of medals in a sport, with sport i mean just 50 metre freestyle swimmin or just 200 metre butterfly. You would problaby say michael phelps but he has many gold medals because he have gold medals in may swimming sports like 4×100 m medley relay, 4×200 m freestyle relay,  4×100 m freestyle relay.... and those are not the same sport at least in my question. Another example in that my question womans single tennis. and womans double tennis would be a different sport. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.239.4 (talk) 21:18, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't have an answer for you but it sounds like you're looking for the most medals in a single event. A sport may cover many events.  Dismas |(talk) 21:42, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * List of multiple Olympic gold medalists reveals that the answer is Aladár Gerevich, with six golds in the team sabre event. Algebraist 21:56, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * (ec)This handy list shows individuals who have won multiple medals in a single event (Some of them appear to actually be multiple event winners, but never mind that for now). Top of the list is Hungarian fencer Alad%C3%A1r Gerevich, who won six Gold medals in the sabre team event between 1932 and 1960. - EronTalk 22:03, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * That table was a horrible mess. It's now in line with the athlete's articles. Algebraist 00:43, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
 * And it's now complete (except maybe for some current stuff). Algebraist 10:17, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, i missed those articles, before asking i even tried to find them by searching some things like medal, and gold medal, but didint find, but now thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.239.4 (talk) 00:31, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Baseball appeal play scoring
In baseball, what is the batter credited with statistically if he hits a home run but is called out on appeal for missing a base? This situation occured in a rec league baseball game I was doing stats for today and I can't find it in MLB Rule 10. The appeal was at 3rd base, so does he get a double, or no hit? If it matters, it was a solo homerun with two out, and the appeal was the 3rd out. Thanks.  Bleeding   Blue  21:35, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

The batter gets credit for the last base he reached safely. In the case you describe, that would be a double. It is considered that he never reached third base as he failed to touch it. --Xuxl (talk) 12:03, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

p.s. the relevant section of the rule is 10.06 d, available here. --Xuxl (talk) 14:42, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

Bingo Night Live UK TV programme
Does Bingo Night Live have advertising breaks? I'm just wondering how it is financed if it does not have them. I have watched it briefly a few times, but I've never seen an advertising break. 78.147.24.165 (talk) 22:59, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Never seen it but its on ITV for 60 minutes so it'll have ad breaks (I'd expect 3). I think the channel gets some money for folk phoning in in. AllanHainey (talk) 09:39, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

"Never seen it...."! If you've never seen it, then what's the point of answering the question, however clever you may be? It does not to my knowledge have any phone-ins: there were none when I watched it, there were no phone numbers shown on screen, and the article does not mention any. You may be confusing it with other similar programmes. I have never seen any advertising breaks while I watched it. I'm hoping that someone who was able to endure watching it for longer than me can provide an answer please. 78.149.219.203 (talk) 13:23, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't seen it, and my answer relates to another program which I also haven't seen - so take this reply with a pinch of salt. BingoLotto (http://www.bingolotto.tv) makes its money by selling game cards before the program - BNL may be similar. -- SGBailey (talk) 16:04, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


 * If I recall correctly (and this may be wrong) Bingo Night Live operates at a loss on purpose. It was created as a way to lose the profits that ITV made from methods that resulted in the competition phone-in scandals that changed the industry recently. Nanonic (talk) 19:42, 18 August 2008 (UTC)