Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 January 5

= January 5 =

Missed BBC3 i-player programme
Hi each and a Happy New Year to all of you. Question, my wife and I were away from home around Christmas and today were told by a friend that I had been in a spoof interview broadcast I think on Boxing Day last. I have tried to find it on BBC3 i-player but understand that only goes back 7 days. I remember the spoof interview as my wife and I had been shopping at the Britannia Quay Shopping Centre in Edinburgh a few weeks earlier and would love to see the clip. The producer at the time promised to let me know when to expect it being broadcast but I suspect we were on a cruise when and if they called. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks 77.99.122.161 (talk) 05:07, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * You can search the Radio Times listings to see if you can spot the show you appeared in. The page for Boxing Day is here, although I scanned through the listings for that week and didn't see anything on any of the main channels that matched your description. Can you remember any more about it, like the subject you talked about?
 * If you do manage to find the show you were on, and if it does turn out to have already disappeared from iPlayer (you're correct that most shows only stick around for 7 days), then your options are limited. It might be repeated sometime, either on the same channel (in which case it will most likely reappear on iPlayer) or somewhere else. Many BBC shows end up on Dave (TV channel) or Gold (TV channel). It might also come out on DVD, if it was a part of a series. Many BBC videos can be found at the BBC shop, although they may be cheaper elsewhere.
 * Finally, if all else fails, those who make a 'significant contribution' to a BBC show may request a copy. The details are available here, but be warned: it is somewhat expensive! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 11:59, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Might it have been this show or something similar? I would normally suggest posting a plea on various web forums asking if anyone had recorded your show, but I doubt if such a show broadcast at 03:00 after midnight would have many people pressing the record button. But that show seems to be one that will be repeated either on BBC or elsewhere in the future. Good luck. Sussexonian (talk) 14:12, 5 January 2013 (UTC)


 * If all else fails, try youtube... There's a LOT of BBC content on there (not all of it legitimately added by BBC, but they haven't challenged it)... gaz hiley  11:46, 7 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Hi each, I just want to thank you all for your interest and helpful suggestions. I followed them all up but hit a brick wall with each of them but thanks anyway. I did, however contact the shopping centre management and they have promised to get me the name of the programme producer so that I can make contact and perhaps obtain a copy of the clip. So, once again, thanks to everyone and also to Wonderful Wikipedia. 77.99.122.161 (talk) 00:15, 8 January 2013 (UTC)

Some stuff about national bias in the List of best-selling music artists
I must say that I am very suspicious of your list of the best selling artists of all time - not that I think that anyone has purposely done anything wrong but the results are so skewed that they seem highly questionable.

Virtually every artist listed is American and virtually every artist is contemporary and did not start their career until the 60's.

I remember reading once that the best selling artist of all time was an Indian woman unknown in the west. I have no idea if this is true but if Bollywood rivals Hollywood in world wide appeal, it seems reasonable that Indian singers might rival American artists in world wide sales. Obviously artists from Japan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines could have long strings of hits without selling a single English Language record in North America.

By the same token, it seems strange that Frank Sinatra is the only performer who started before the mid fifties and who is on your list. I am thinking for instance of Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians who were stars from WW1 until the 1970's and (according to Wikipedia) sold between 100 million and 300 million records but I am sure that there are other early recording artists who are not getting their due.

Most people didn't have television to entertain them at home until the mid-50's and (from what I have read) many people didn't even have home radio sets until the 30's but did have phonographs starting over 100 years ago so it makes sense to me that in the first half of the 20th century a popular artist with popular songs could sell hundred million singles even at a time when people in North America were poorer and less numerous - no competition in terms of home entertainment.

I am guessing that part of the problem might be that in the past artists focused on selling singles and you are not counting singles and that whatever criteria you use to determine what is a certifiable sale are biased to exclude almost all record sales before 1955.

I know that you want to have a clear and objective way to determine what is a true sale but if this creates a huge bias against foreign artists and pre-1955 artists, then the whole exercise becomes meaningless. I think that you need to consider changing your criteria to better reflect the entire history of music and the entire globe.

Otherwise, your results look far too much like the typical results that would come when an average young (under 50) music fan of limited musical knowledge decides to sit down and list the "greatest artists of all time" - it is understandable when an average individual casually making up such a list happens to come up with a list almost entirely made up of post-1960 American artists plus Frank Sinatra (because every knows Frank) but it just seems quite absurd when a serious study comes up with such results - I really just can't believe that not just the top few but basically all of the best selling artists of all time for the entire world are recent American artists selling virtually all of their records in the U.S.. Sort of hits me in the same way as lists that purport that the "most beautiful" ten women in the world all happen to live in one city (Los Angeles) and all have the same job (actress). Wikipedia is great but you really don't want to look that silly - I hope. It's a big diverse world out there and it has been around a while and certainly didn't begin in 1960. Thank you.

Geoff — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.229.227.52 (talk) 05:11, 5 January 2013 (UTC)


 * You make a good point, but I wonder if Wikipedia is the place for "Lists of best selling..." or whether such lists really belong on the Guinness World Records site? Maybe we need to make more explicit the criteria for appearing in our lists, as opposed to GWR site? --TammyMoet (talk) 09:53, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Michael Jackson's Hairstyles
It seems that Michael Jackson has had many hairstyles; personally, my favourite was his Bad curly and long hairstyle. Like, is there any way to count the number of unique hairstyles he had? I remember watching his "short film" for You Are Not Alone. He had very short hair. Then there was his ponytail (In The Closet), his giant afro (pre-Off The Wall), long straight hair (Dangerous) etc. Is there a page on his hairstyles? Cheers. MJ Fanatic, Bonkers The Clown  (Nonsensical Babble) 07:12, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

Les Misérables (2012 film)
Just watched the new film last night. A mystery remains. Why did Fantine die? HiLo48 (talk) 09:43, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Because her dream died. Bonkers The Clown  (Nonsensical Babble) 09:51, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * If it is worth anything, according to Victor Hugo's original novel, she dies of an unspecified disease (sorry, Hugo was not specific on which disease it was). Zzyzx11 (talk) 22:09, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I'd say that is worth something. If Hugo didn't feel the need to tell us, the film is being true to the novel. I don't have a problem with that. Thank you. HiLo48 (talk) 00:30, 6 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Having to listen to Russell Crowe singing might have done her in. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:25, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
 * You may have a point. But I do hope you realise that he does have singing experience, in a Sydney rock band. Never heard them perform though. HiLo48 (talk) 00:30, 6 January 2013 (UTC)


 * I thought it was clear she died of consumption, which is what they called tuberculosis back then. (Our article Fantine says that's what she died of.)  Hugo discusses the disease at two parts in the book, although the latter discussion is not visible at Amazon--in the first it is addressed as advice to Fantine to avoid raising her blood sugar, which was known to strengthen the disease.  There used to be some stigma with the consumption, my mother is still embarrassed to mention that one of her ancestors died of it. μηδείς (talk) 17:42, 7 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I stand corrected. Medical knowledge and terms were very different 150+ years ago when the book was written, so I sometimes get confused. Cheers. Zzyzx11 (talk) 03:54, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I am not sure that counts as "correcting" so much as just explaining. Consumption was one of the major causes of death before antibiotics, and a heck of a lot of novels feature it as a factor of life, often almost unspoken, from Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain to Ayn Rand's We The Living. μηδείς (talk) 04:35, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Is there a database of lyrics with faulty language?
(for current development moved to the Language desk. --KnightMove (talk) 16:47, 5 January 2013 (UTC))

What animated cartoon is this?
There was an animated cartoon in the 1960:s (?) with a woman in a wheelchair armed with machineguns, and training asian swimmers for the olympics by having sharks in the training pool. I distinctly remember the best trainee emerging from the training pool supporting himself walking on his hands, because the sharks had bit off everything below his navel. Possibly italian produced, most likely for tv. What cartoon was that (, and is there any good link to it)?

(I thought that one was great when I was a little kid. It didn't harm me none. :-) I have failed utterly googling for it.)

cheers/Rolf

85.231.111.211 (talk) 14:47, 5 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Well, for one thing, it seems to have impaired your googling skills. The dangers of violence in cartoons should never be misunderestimated.  :)  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  21:21, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

You may be right there. Incidentally, may I invite you to a swimming contest? ;) cheers/Rolf 85.231.111.211 (talk) 12:29, 6 January 2013 (UTC)


 * That's probably Bruno Bozzetto's VIP my Brother Superman from 1968. There "Happy Betty" (the woman in the wheelchair) rules a commercial empire based on asian workforce. I don't remember the part with the asian swimmers and "the best trainee emerging from the training pool supporting himself walking on his hands, because the sharks had bit off everything below his navel", but perhaps that part was cut when I saw that film as a child. I do remember a part where workers are automatically incinerated if they spend too much time on the toilet. Does that ring a bell? — Tobias Bergemann (talk) 08:53, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you! That's most likely the one. I don't remember the part about toilets, but short clips on Youtube show both the toilet scene and Happy Betty in her wheelchair. cheers/Rolf 85.231.111.211 (talk) 12:38, 6 January 2013 (UTC)

Bourne series
I've watched and read the Bourne legacy article but I'm confused. What's the link to the previous 3 Bourne films? Is it a parallel programme to treadstone that Aaron Cross was in? And were Noah Vosen and Pamela Landy linked to Aaron Cross in any way? What about Ezra Cramer? It seemed like it was a parallel programme to Treadstone/Blackbriar and Pamela Landy etc had no link to it. 90.219.64.4 (talk) 21:19, 5 January 2013 (UTC)


 * The 2nd paragraph of The Bourne Legacy (film) covers this pretty well. Project Outcome (the genetic supersoldier project) isn't really related to Treadstone, but the investigation of Treadstone threatens to spread to expose Outcome too. So the people responsible for Outcome, who don't want to see their careers end on C-SPAN, decide close down Outcome and dispose of its product. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:49, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * So do Noah Vosen and Pamela Landy know about Outcome? And im confused about a scene when Noah Vosen calls Eric Byer and says Bournes in New York.  How is Byer linked to Treadstone? And what about Cramer? Does he know about treadstone and Outcome? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.219.64.4 (talk) 00:18, 6 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Another key difference between Treadstone/Blackbriar and Outcome/LARX is that the first two were CIA programs and Outcome/LARX were not. Vosen, Landy and Kramer were all CIA officers, and most likely had no direct connection with Outcome (or its successor, LARX). The connection is that all four programs were "Beta" programs involving genetic engineered "super soldiers"—those privy to the conspiracy (Abbott, Hirsch, Vosen and Byer) were likely aware of each other's involvement in the Beta programs, hence Vosen's warning to Byer. --Canley (talk) 05:21, 9 January 2013 (UTC)