Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 April 3

= April 3 =

What movie did I see?
I recorded it several weeks ago but now that I've deleted it I don't know how to look up information about it. Searching using the information I'm providing doesn't give the kind of results I want. The one location in the film I remember was Sulphur Springs, but any search that includes that gives me numerous results for a real place with that name. The villains appeared to be from the Middle East and some were black. They had a nuclear bomb which they intended to use on New York City. Four Americans were being held prisoner, and were to be executed, and our heroes were sent to save them. One (who was black) was informed by telephone in the middle of his wedding. All but one were captured and were scheduled to be executed, but one learned of the former prison at Sulphur Springs where the people might be persuaded to attack the fort where the prisoners were being held. There was a tunnel which our hero found by crashing a diplomatic event and stealing blueprints. Otherwise, the colorfully dressed soldiers defending the fort would have easily defeated them. O'Reilly was the film's comic relief but imdb didn't list this particular O'Reilly when I did a character search there.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 20:04, 3 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Nuclear bomb + football makes me think of The_Sum_of_All_Fears_(film), but I'm not sure if the rest fits. RudolfRed (talk) 21:14, 3 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but that's not it.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 21:24, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 * American Ninja 4: The Annihilation? - JuneGloom    Talk  21:46, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 * That's it! Thank you.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 15:22, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

Watching a show online
Where can I watch the TV series Viper online? It was a show similar to Knight Rider, that ran from 1994-1999. I don't want to download anything, and it must be absolutely free, like YouTube and Hulu (which it's not on). Please ask if you have any questions. Thanks. Allen (talk) 21:59, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Doesn't anyone have an answer for me? Allen (talk) 19:24, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Since watching tv online for free as you're asking to do is illegal, I suspect not, however it's easy to find the answer if you just do a few searches-- Jac 16888 Talk 19:32, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * What do you mean, "watching TV online for free . . . is illegal"? What about Hulu, Vudu, and the other legitimate sites? Are you thinking that I meant watching live TV? No, I meant watching video files (episodes of TV shows). Allen (talk) 19:57, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * What it comes down to is who owns the rights to the series and whether or not they choose to make it available to services like Hulu and Netflix. If someone posts episodes on a sharing site like BitTorrent, that could be copyright infringement and you could be sued for downloading it (although the person offering it would be a much more likely target). Admittedly, this is veering towards giving legal advice, something we're not supposed to do. As to watching episodes that someone posted on YouTube, the worst that could happen is YouTube pulls the file because the copyright owner complained. Lastly, as to where to find it, a few Google/Bing searches might turn up some thoughts. -- McDoob  AU  93  20:15, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I already looked and looked and looked on Google, but I can't find any reputable site that doesn't require a download or trick you with a "free" version just to turn around and try to charge you money. Allen (talk) 22:02, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The only thing I can come up with is there's no demand for the show to be released to DVD or online. You might want to try contacting the production studio and seeing if there are any plans to release the series to an online streaming service like Hulu, Netflix or Crackle. -- McDoob  AU  93  00:26, 5 April 2012 (UTC)

NCAA basketball rules
I've always wondered why the rules of NCAA college basketball are different from NBA or FIBA rules. For example, they have two 20-minute halves instead of four quarters of 10 or 12 minutes or they have a 35-second shot clock instead of a 24-second shot clock. Wouldn't it have been much easier if they used FIBA or NBA rules, or is there a particular reason why their rules are quite different from the usual? Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 23:37, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
 * You might as well find a sport where the rules are the same and ask the question from that direction. See baseball rules and American football rules.  The rules are different in college versus pro in both those sports as well.  Dismas |(talk) 00:45, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * At least College football has the same number and length of quarters as the NFL. And baseball's rules have not really changed that much and are not too different from the rest. Narutolovehinata5 tccsdnew 00:50, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Basketball has changed a great deal over the years, and various governing bodies have tweaked their rules to suit their needs - as with other sports. There didn't used to be a shot clock in NCAA at all. That was added to keep teams from stalling for long stretches. The NBA adopted the shot clock long ago in order to encourage scoring. The 24 seonds was based on someone's calculation of an average number of shots in a game. The 35 seconds, as with the different arch of the 3-point shot, was considered to make more sense for non-professionals. College ball has almost completely eradicated the center jump, which used to be done every time there was a jump-ball situaton. In the NBA players retire after 6 fouls rather than 5, due to the greater length of the game. On and on it goes. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 01:56, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * In all American sports, every level of the sport has different rules: High School rules are generally governed by the NFHS rules, and those are different from the NCAA rules which a different from the pro leagues. In lower levels, for example, the rules are much stricter for issues related to player safety (pitch count maxiumum for pitchers in baseball, for example) and the length of the games is often shorter.  As players bodies muture, and the players skill level becomes distilled to players of greater and greater skill, the rules of each successive level reflect that.  That's why the NBA has longer games, shorter shot clocks, and further 3-point lines than NCAA, players are better trained, more skilled, and are professionals performing their chosen career.  In the NCAA, very few of the players are expected to be pro players, it is amateurs, there's a lower skill level, players are still developing physically, etc.  I mean, that's why in the NCAA teams play 30ish games, while the NBA has an 82 game season with a 4-round playoffs of 16+ games.  Its the same with the length of the games.  -- Jayron  32  03:42, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * I would hope that the NCAA players having to devote at least some of their time to homework and studying would have some bearing on the number of games they fit into a season as well. They are in school after all, even though that seems to be forgotten by some players.  Dismas |(talk) 03:45, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * That's kinda my point. -- Jayron  32  04:32, 4 April 2012 (UTC)


 * It's even more complex than the OP realizes. For example, the OP should read Three-point field goal for a history of the varied usages of it, from early experiments to adoption by the ABA, then later by the NBA, then still later by other leagues, individual college conferences and finally by the NCAA overall. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:44, 4 April 2012 (UTC)
 * The article History of basketball could be more detailed than it is, but it's interesting to note that Naismith's original rules (many of which are still in force) originally called for two fifteen-minute halves, no quarters. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if college merely extended the half from 15 to 20 minutes, while high school and pros adopted quarters. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:56, 4 April 2012 (UTC)