Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2007 December 26

= December 26 =

Smallpox erradication and the soviet union
I'd like to know more about the soviet union's involvement in the struggle to erradicate smallpox. The article on smallpox seems to indicate they had a significant participation, but fails to state so, so I'd like to get the information to put it there. Cold Light (talk) 03:47, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * The book you need is Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox by Jonathan Tucker, which details not only the Soviet contributions to smallpox eradication, but also their quest to mix smallpox with other bugs. A scary book indeed, and painstakingly researched. Among the key figures in the eradication program was Dr Viktor Zhdanov, then deputy minister of health for the USSR, who addressed the World Health Assembly in Minneapolis in 1958.  He proposed a 'Soviet-style' five year plan to eradicate the disease.  The USSR had eliminated smallpox by 1936 despite being little better than a third world country in terms of transportation and infrastructure, having poor quality vaccines, and having to service a huge, ethnically diverse, territory.  Just the kind of expertise you'd need if you were trying to remove smallpox from Brazil or India.  The USSR also pledged to donate 25 million doses of vaccine.
 * Unfortunately, the WHO was not interested in getting rid of smallpox at the time, but was rather caught up in the expensive American plan to wipe out malaria, which was eating up $13 million of the $30 million total budget for the WHO. Essentially throwing the USSR a bone, the WHA agreed in 1959 to finance the Soviet smallpox program with a budget of only $300,000 per annum.
 * The story is long, complicated, but quite worth reading. The Soviets always made the smallpox program a top priority, forcing the issue when nobody else was too interested. I can't type out all the details (read the book!), but the program was largely their baby; they provided the proposal, the blueprint for vaccination schemes, and continually pushed it onto the front of the agenda. It's a bitter irony that the same country that pushed for smallpox eradication the most also mucked about with such evil uses for it. I'm sure cynics would suggest the two programs were actually wed together, but I don't think that was necessarily the case. Matt Deres (talk) 16:54, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Ooh, and here's something else. The USSR was the chief provider of the vaccine, but it was determined that their vaccines were actually substandard. When Donald Henderson (an American and another key player) went to Moscow to discuss the problem, the USSR completely overhauled their program to surpass expectations. The WHO considered a vaccine of 100 million vaccinia particles per mL to be effective - the Soviet labs began churning out vaccines that were ten times that concentration.  That meant they would still be potent even after losing some of the effectiveness due to heat. Just what was needed as the WHO prepared to tackle Ethiopia and India. Matt Deres (talk) 17:04, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added the Tucker title to the "Further reading" section at Smallpox. Could you expand the section there on eradication, along the lines of what you've reported here? --Wetman (talk) 15:00, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Angela Lansbury - Contact Information
Dear Reference Desk, Thank you for taking my question. Eric Skoglund mentioned you may be able to help me. As a fan, I would very much like to contact Angela Lansbury. Do you have any contact information or could you send me to someone who would know how to contact her? Gratefully Yours, Jimdando (talk) 18:41, 26 December 2007 (UTC)Jim Dando Jr.
 * I'm sorry, but we're not the Yellow Pages. We do not provide such information. A  ecis Brievenbus 18:46, 26 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Try contacting her agent. Good luck finding out who her agent is. Rfwoolf (talk) 19:12, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you, however, for an extremely polite, if somewhat unusual, form of question. Bielle (talk) 19:42, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

You might try this: http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0001450/agent. It's imdb's agent contacts program, which is a pay service, but is free for 14 days. I've never used it, so I don't know how useful it is. That link would go to the Angela Lansbury contact information that they might have (there's no guarantee that they have it). Corvus cornix talk  20:32, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * A snailmail address, apparently for her agency, is in The Celebrity Black Book. All power to Google! --—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk  -  23:43, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I suggest we leave it at this, if just per WP:BLP. Helping the user in finding an answer to his question is fine, but let's respect Angela Lansbury's privacy. Not every reader may have noble intentions. A  ecis Brievenbus 23:51, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * It's not a privacy violation to point out published information about how to contact a celebrity's agent. I hope Aecis was saying that we should not go beyond that. --Anonymous, 10:42 UTC, December 27, 2007.


 * A ecis Brievenbus, Wikipedia is not about censorship. It is not a crystal ball in which we scry what we project to be the ignoble intentions of others. If there is a place that makes this information available then people can provide it. According to WP:BLP business addresses are allowable if a reliable secondary source has already cited them. No one here is asking for anything beyond that. Let's not be quick to assume bad faith about the intentions of a person posting a question.  S a u d a d e 7   22:56, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * If I assumed bad faith, it was not on the part of the OP, but on the part of other readers. As I said, "Helping the user in finding an answer to his question is fine, but ... [n]ot every reader may have noble intentions." This applied to hypothetical others, not to Jimdando. Fact of the matter is that we are one of the most visited websites in the world. Information is more likely to be distributed when we say it than when an obscure personal website says it, because we have an innumerably bigger audience. Angela Lansbury's private address, for instance, is not public information, and it's certainly not encyclopedic. Keeping that hidden to respect her privacy has nothing to do with censorship. Also, we are not the Yellow Pages. A  ecis Brievenbus 23:20, 27 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry if I sounded snippy. It is almost 1 am here and for some reason my neighbors are playing Elton John's "Yellow Brick Road" over and over again and it is making me cranky. Maybe if this page is as famous as you say, they will see this and turn their stereo down! Alas, this is France and they probably don't come to the English wiki! I will say that I didn't see anyone asking for her private address. Just a contact address. And I guess I thought she was notable enough to make the request non-yellow-pagey. I thought it all sounded okay! Incidentally, I just saw her a week or two ago on late-night T.V. in the (1945) version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" which is a great movie. She looked so young and innocent! Ciao!  S a u d a d e 7  23:45, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

250 pages book prize winner and finalist
Hi there, I know it's like homework but it is not. It sounds like to much research to answer this but I want to know if there any fiction book prize winner or finalist of Man Booker, Pulitzer, Giller, National Book Award, PEN/Faulkner Award and IMPAC Dublin Award that has only 250 pages only?

Please answer my questions. Thanks. The answer I want is just the books name, so I can search for it in my library. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.132.145 (talk) 23:21, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * The Ref Desk had this exact question about 10 days ago. If I knew how to check the archives, I'd give you the reference to it. As I recall, I gave you links to articles where you could find all the information except for the number of pages. I am curious as to why the books have to have "only 250 pages only"? Bielle (talk) 23:38, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Because I want to read the book of exact 250 pages. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.129.241 (talk) 20:31, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Because I want to read a book of exactly 250 pages. That's all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.129.241 (talk) 20:33, 27 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Previous question is here: Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2007 December 11. --Lambiam 00:34, 28 December 2007 (UTC)


 * First, thank you, User:Lambiam for the link. Second, my question is still hanging out there: why 250 pages? Bielle (talk) 04:21, 28 December 2007 (UTC)


 * And page counts change from edition to edition, as well. No book has a "set" number of pages—that changes depending on whether it is in hardcover, paperback, large print, a new publisher, a new introduction, etc. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 16:03, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Music video I saw
I was watching British music programme/thing e4 music on channel E4, and a music video came on where a band where running/playing about in a gymnasium style room, where gymnasts were genuinely doing gymnastics, and the band were making lacklustre attempts etc. I also note it was quite colourful.

N.B. the band were called someone and the something, and I am sure the someone's name began with T if it helps.. thanks. Christopher —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.67.160.202 (talk) 23:26, 26 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Tilly and the Wall with Sing songs along? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirTaMHAUG0 ? Great song - can't say i've seen it on uk tv but seems to fit your description ny156uk (talk) 00:18, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

That's the one, thank you very much!! Christopher —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.67.160.202 (talk) 21:04, 28 December 2007 (UTC)