Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 September 24

= September 24 =

Facebook question
Does Facebook have a "log" application or feature that allows you to see who has visited your profile and when? Thanks, anon."" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.19.23.161 (talk) 00:32, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * No, as that would be all kinds of privacy violations. The developers might track that sort of thing, but I doubt it.  Neil   ム  15:06, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * That wouldn't be any more of a privacy violation than the sort of logging most websites do on their visitors. You make it sound like there's a law against such monitoring; there isn't. --24.147.86.187 05:01, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Why does Japan hate Dragon Ball GT?
Why does Japan hate Dragon Ball GT? I mean it was cancelled after only 64 episodes. The show was shown after Z ended and at the time GT aired, the Dragon Ball series was VERY popular. So why did they cancel it? Did Akira Toriyama like GT? Or did he hate it as well? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.189.57.235 (talk) 01:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe in Japan they know how to cancel a show just when they run out of good material for it (rather than one or two seasons later as seems to be common in North America). Or maybe they decided the rest of the story would be better presented in other media (as seems to have happened when Serial Experiments Lain got only one 13-episode season). Neon  Merlin  03:18, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually, many anime are 13 episodes long; it's a pretty standard run, called a "course". Gunslinger Girls, Record of Lodoss War, Niea_7, and Haibane Renmei are examples; KareKano has a doubled length at 26 episodes, also common; I think it might be the length of a full TV season in Japan. Some of this is discussed at Television season. --Masamage ♫ 05:27, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Where do video game cheats come from?
They seem to appear out of no where. Where do they come from? How do people find out about them? Im guessing that the developers send them to video game sites, but im not sure.--Coasttocoast 02:22, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, as far as the (in)famous Konami Code goes, according to our article, the developer put it in to test the game and then never took it out. How people found out about it, I'm not so sure.  Dismas |(talk) 02:36, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I would guess that the cheat code in Contra, at least, was put in intentionally. The game was way too difficult to play with only three lives. I'd surmise that the programmers gave the game a default of three lives so it would be consistent with the coin-op version but ensured that the "secret" code was disseminated through official Nintendo guides and the like. -- Mwalcoff 02:44, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I would disagree with the assertion that it was "way too difficult" to play without a cheat code. After using the 30 lives cheat code for some time, I eventually found myself only using one or two of those lives.  So the cheat code became pointless to input.  Being one of the early games, the enemy became really predictable because their placement and timing never changed.  Dismas |(talk) 04:50, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

I guess you were a much better Contra player than I was. -- Mwalcoff 09:21, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Cheat codes get put in so (obviously) the developers, testers and the like can playtest the game as much as needed right through. Sometimes, cheat codes are revealed when you complete the game (and then obviously, get passed around).  Other times, people figure them out themselves.  And yes, sometimes developers release them for the reasons above, or one of the hundreds of playtesters, who are usually not employees, pass them on, as they don't have anything to lose.  Neil   ム  11:46, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Some (eg, the famous JUSTIN BAILEY cheat from Metroid) come from the fact that early systems used procedurally generated passwords to save data - if you knew the algorithm behind the password, you could then work backwards and find a password which gave you infinite lives or max-ammo. Others, such as the Chris Houlihan room in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past are easter eggs, created by the programmers either to hide their names within the code, or to provide a bonus for dedicated players to find. The ones that appear on websites are generally found in one of three ways: 1) The developer releases the cheat codes (Maxis does this with The Sims 2, to make it easier to play the game in non-linear fashion), 2) The cheat is found by accident (such as the Sequence breaks in the Metroid series), and 3) The cheat is found, generally by more dedicated hackers or gamers, by searching the source of the game or messing about with the game in debug mode (see POKEs as cheats and the glitches in Pokémon games). Laïka  20:32, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Free Radical Design, developers of the hugely popular Timesplitters series, insist there are cheats within their Timesplitters 2 game. However, they refuse to release the relevent information, claiming the cheats should be hard to find!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.6.88 (talk) 12:27, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm an actual game developer - so what follows is not speculation - it's the honest truth.


 * Sure we put development hacks into the game when testing (Just last week I put one into the game I'm working on right now to switch between daylight and night so that I can test my lighting code) - but there is no way these would get accidentally left in the code to be activated by weird button combos. That might have happened years ago - but not these days. We have proper development consoles with much more elegant ways to turn these kinds of things on and off from a PC hanging off the back.  So I have a little control panel that pops up on my PC while the game is running on the console - it has a simple Windows dialog box with check-boxes and sliders and stuff - and in there is the box that sets my day/night setting.  The place where the PC plugs in doesn't even exist on the Xboxes and Playstations they sell to the players (the Xbox-360 on my desk looks way different from the ones you can buy in stores and my PS-3 is a monsterous ugly black thing with huge noisy fans that's designed to be mounted in a racking system).  The software that does all the work of communicating out to my PC is compiled out for 'Retail' builds of the software - it's only there in 'Development' builds.  Even if I did want to do it with the joystick - there is no way I'm going to press "left-right-circle-circle-up-down-A-B-A-B-triangle-fire" and enter in a cheat code using the joystick every time I want to try my lighting code!


 * The real reason that cheat codes are in there is to get free advertising. You ship the game - it's new - all of the game magazines review it - you get tons of free publicity.  Then, a few weeks later, it all goes cold.  They have nothing new to say about the game and you have to pay through the nose for publicity.  So when you write the game, you quite deliberately design in some cheats, some easter eggs - all manner of little things.  Now you can "leak" a bunch of cheat codes to the magazine a few weeks after launch and they will write ANOTHER piece about your game that describes the cheat codes.  You can even do this a more than once - first some cheat codes - then some easter eggs - then maybe a hidden level.  Then you can sell the 'strategy guide' - which has a few more that you maybe didn't tell all of the magazines about.  It's all part of the marketing game.   The idea that one a piece of 'developer code' could make it out into the launch title and be "discovered" by a player is ridiculous - that may have happened 10 years ago - but not these days.   It might be that the codes are 'leaked' to players in order that they get out to blogs or whatever - but that's just a viral marketing tactic.


 * It's possible that an easter egg might be snuck into a game by one of the programmers - but it's increasingly unlikely - and it would be strongly disapproved of because of the risk that it might prove offensive or somehow destroy the game design. Doing such a thing would get you fired in some games companies.  Those easter eggs that DO make it into the game release would be closely guarded secrets between the programmers so they could impress the muggles with magic at parties - it's REALLY unlikely that you'd find one in a magazine.


 * SteveBaker 17:46, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * On the latter point, Cf. the Hot Coffee minigame controversy debacle. --24.147.86.187 14:25, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Secular use of the Discordian calendar
Have there been any serious proposals to replace the Gregorian calendar with a version of the Discordian calendar (possibly with St. Tibb's Day moved and the names changed)? The latter seems to have several of the advantages over the former sought by calendar reformers -- the five seasons all have the same number of days, each day of the year is a fixed day of the week, and five is easier to divide by than seven. Neon Merlin  03:15, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * By "serious" do you mean "seriously made" or "taken seriously"? —Tamfang 06:57, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The Egyptian calendar is the closest that I'm aware of - that had 36 10-day weeks, with 5 "wandering days" left over at the (you may wonder why they didn't use 73 5-day weeks, but apparently it made the sums easier for the 10-fingered innumerate peasants). This calendar was then reformed into the Coptic calendar, but the Coptic calendar doesn't skip leap-years divisible by 100 but not 400 (as our calendar does), and no longer uses weeks (instead, as far as I'm aware, they just call each day "n month", as in "16 Paremhat"), so it doesn't have enough useful features. Laïka  21:37, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

The "Naked at school" dream
What do dreams about being naked at school mean and why are they so common? --124.254.77.148 04:37, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Fear of embarassment? Maybe there's a sexual element.. the child's mind trying to explore the unfamiliar of sexuality, and picking a familiar environment. IINAP --⁪frotht 06:44, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Please see my comment at Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/Professional advice. --  JackofOz 02:10, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * None of this is officialor expert, of course, but I don't think it's sexual; I think it's about embarrassment and exposure. When I have this dream, I come to school clothed, get overheated during class, and remove something, only to realize that this is socially inappropriate. I then have to try and put my clothes back on without the teacher or anyone else noticing my error, which may or may not work. (Once I didn't notice until all my clothes were gone, and I had to trace back through all my classes naked, picking up a shirt here and a sock there, while all the seated students sniggered at me.) -Masamage ♫ 05:20, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think there is any solid evidence that dreams mean anything whatever. That hasn't stopped a lot of quacks from making a lot of money 'interpreting' them for people - but there is no solid science out there.  I strongly suspect (without evidence) that the best analogy for what's going on is that it's like 'defragging' the hard drive in your computer.  Memories are being cleaned up and rearranged for easier storage and processing...but unlike a computer, where programs that are using those files can't run when the drive is being defragged, your brain can't entirely switch off - so instead we sleep through the process.  Generally, all of the sorting out is finished before we wake up - and all memory of the chaotic mess that was being made during cleanup is tidied away.  However, if we happen to wake up before the process is complete - then what's in our short-term memories is a mixed up chaotic mess with snippets of random memories all mixed up together.  Fortunately, short term memory fades quickly so the mess goes away with little residual consequences.  I have no evidence but it's a better explanation than all of the other bullshit explanations about Jungian symbolism. SteveBaker 19:08, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Lack of solid evidence and your own personal theories notwithstanding, you wouldn't ever go out on a limb and say that a particular dream you've had appeared to be a specific manifestation of, say, stress at school/work? I'm not at all into dream "interpretation", Jungian or Freudian, but the emerging science of dreaming is interesting and there are multiple suggestions on the "purpose" of dreams; some or all of which could have merit. Regardless, I used to have "anxiety" dreams about missing a test or some school related failure, the "meaning" of which seemed fairly unambigous: I was stressed about school/finals. However, the recurring dreams of riding large boats through dark watery tunnels is another matter... :) 38.112.225.84 15:10, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It's just as likely though that those anxiety dreams are because the memories that your brain is reorganising in the days before finals are the ones most pertinent to up-coming events - and the thoughts you've been having during the days leading up to them. So general information about how to avoid school-related failure might be the thing that most needs to be cleaned up in the nights before the big finals exam - and cleaning memories specifically relating to your worries could also be a part of the process.  To stretch the computer analogy, when you defrag your drive, the files that are most likely to be moved are the ones you've been writing to since the last time you defragged.


 * Dreaming clearly absorbs a lot of energy - and the need to sleep in order to do it is a VAST risk to most animals. Evolution would not stick us with such a vastly expensive, risky and seemingly useless activity if there wasn't a really critical function that these dreams serve. Worst still, if we don't wake up during or very shortly after REM sleep - we don't even remember the dream.  So we know that remembering or being consciously aware of having dreamed isn't the important thing - because the vast majority of them are not even noticable.  We also know that if these things were there to guide us or predict something then we wouldn't need psychologists to explain them to us!  My dogs dream (that much is obvious if you watch them run, bark, sniff and such as they sleep) - surely they aren't analysing their dreams to any useful degree.  We know that if you interrupt someone's sleep so that they get plenty of rest - but get no REM sleep (and hence they sleep without dreaming) that they gradually become confused and forgetful and eventually die.  That strongly suggests that dreaming is performing some crucial brain-related function.  To use the PC analogy once more: Just as your (MS-Windows) PC will run slower and slower if you don't defrag it once in a while - your brain suffers horribly if it doesn't get to reshuffle stuff more or less every night. SteveBaker 17:18, 26 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It's simply not true that in order to remember your dreams you need to be awakened during or shortly after REM sleep, Steve. Many people always or nearly always remember their dreams on waking in the morning, long after REM has passed - and in many cases they can remember multiple dreams they had during the night.  It's true that waking during or shortly after REM sleep will give you a much better chance of remembering what's just been going on in your head, but it's certainly not always necessary.  --  JackofOz 04:53, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

I've never had a "naked in school/at work" dream. But I have had many dreams where I am at a swimming hall or other place with public showers, and then realise I have forgot something at home, and go fetch it naked, or wearing just a towel. I've also had dreams of walking all the way from Kamppi to Haukilahti without wearing shoes. In late autumn. This was years before I actually did it (wearing shoes and in the middle of summer though). J I P | Talk 17:20, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

today's slashdot quote
...is "Quark! Quark! Beware the quantum duck!" This gets tens of thousands of google results yet I can't find an origin. What's this from? DS9? --⁪frotht 06:42, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The joke "How does a quantum duck sound? Quark, quark!" is decades older than DS9, I'd say. —Tamfang 06:57, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * If you ask on the scieece desk someone might be able to trace it's origins to a science lab somewhere in the 1970's...(but if i'd quacked that joke i wouldn't bragg about it - now i die)83.100.254.150 07:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * But why the "beware"? --⁪frotht 17:07, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It's spooky. It's both alive and dead at the same time. Or maybe it's a reference to the Jabberwock that burbled as it came. --Milkbreath 17:22, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

The moon on my birthday
Hi there, after fruitless searching I thought I'd ask you guys if you could please help me find out what the moon was doing on my birthday. Which is 25th April 1985?? (P.S- does it matter where on earth you are looking from? If so, it was Perth, Western Australia)

Thanks a bunch Mel —Preceding unsigned comment added by Melissa85 (talk • contribs) 09:46, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * This Google search links to many calculators which should show you what you want, such as or . Sadly the two sites I've linked to disagree as to the phase :( so you may have to take a consensus from a few, or find one which for some other reasons seems especially reliable. --Tagishsimon (talk) 10:07, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * it was four days after the new moon. Jon513 11:09, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * If you're asking for the purposes of astrology, note that the moon moves through about 13 degrees of the zodiac per day, so the time of birth is important. At midnight (00:00 hrs GMT) on 25 April 1985 the moon was at 27 degrees of Gemini. By the end of the day (24:00 hrs GMT) it was at 10 degrees of Cancer. (Those are the signs of the zodiac, not the constellations, which are different.) And yes it does make a difference where you look from, because of parallax. An ephemeris will only give you geocentric positions for the moon. Unless the moon is overhead, the parallax effect can make a difference of up to about 1 degree either way.--Shantavira|feed me 13:14, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I just looked it up at Sky and Telescope, and got a different result. From midnight to dawn on April 25, there would be no moon in the sky over Perth.  From dusk until it set around 9 pm, the new moon was in Gemini. --M @ r ē ino 15:57, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Physicals
Why, particularly in movies set in American high schools, does a doctor cup someone's balls and ask them to cough? There's nothing in coughing about this, as far as I can tell. Neil  ム  10:32, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * They don't "cup" anything, as far as I know. I am not a doctor, and I don't play one on television. They are feeling for hernia at the place where the testicles descended in infancy. Coughing increases the pressure inside the abdomen, allowing the doctor to feel to what extent the stuff inside is able to get out at the weak spots. If you watch a lot of movies set in American high schools, you will see all sorts of salacious behavior, but this isn't that, usually. You should see Rock and Roll High School if you haven't already, by the way. --Milkbreath 10:52, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * It's usually whenever there's a physical, for football players and the like. It seems to be a pretty standard thing, and has appeared in lots of movies.  So it's to check for hernias?  Thank you.  Neil   ム  11:12, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * It's a hernia check. Physicals are often required before entering high school here in the U.S.  Some schools don't require it on admittance but do if the person is joining some sports team.  Though generally, to keep the paperwork easier to maintain, they just require it for everyone and don't have to worry about whether this person or that person had their physical.  Dismas |(talk) 20:52, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Awesome, I had been wondering about that too and never thought to ask here about it. Thanks Neil and answerers. :) --Masamage ♫ 05:15, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Joe DiMaggio
You do realize that Joe DiMaggio batted and threw right handed and played center field, don't you? What you have on his listing really makes Wikipedia look REALLY bad. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.193.141.173 (talk) 11:00, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your suggestion. When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills.  New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to).   --Dweller 11:01, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * The article says he bats right handed, and played center field, and has done so since April 2002 .  Neil   ム  11:03, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

I am talking about the box on the side of the page. Not only that, Joe never played for anyone besides the Yankees. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.193.141.173 (talk) 11:04, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * The box says Joe Di Maggio, then his picture, then Centre Fielder. Below, it has his date of birth and death, then Batted: Right and Threw: Right.  Then, further down, there's Teams: New York Yankees 1936-42 and 46-51 (there was no baseball between 1942-46, guess why).  I don't understand your question.  Neil   ム  11:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * The article was vandalised by 172.135.39.234 (Talk) at 02:01, 21 September 2007. That sort of thing happens on wikipedia. Normally the damage is reverted without song and dance. --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:13, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't think that having incorrect information on which hand Joe DiMaggio used makes Wikipedia look half as bad as some of the more blatant stuff, of course. Eran of Arcadia 14:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, please do feel free to fix any blatant stuff you come across, or point it out on the article's talk page. Neil   ム  15:05, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * (nitpick) Actually, there was baseball during WWII, it's just that there was no Joe DiMaggio baseball, as he was in the military. Matt Deres 20:27, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * You are absolutely right. I've seen A League of Their Own(!)  Neil   ム  11:23, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Major League Baseball played during World War II. Just most of the players were in the service.  It's probably only because of this fact that the St. Louis Browns were able to win a pennant.  Corvus cornix 20:54, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

requesting articles?
Do you know where? --Plament 15:29, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

This is among the most admirably brief questions I have ever seen. Mad props. If you would like to request an article be created, try going to Wikipedia:Requested Articles. You can then find a suitable topic and subtopic for your article. Good luck.Deltopia 16:21, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

"Revive the Twinkie Perm"
My One True Ex has been listening to Mark Thomas's monologue My Life in Serious Organised Crime in heavy rotation, and remarked to me the other day that the one thing she couldn't make sense of was someone's demonstration to "Revive the Twinkie Pound". I took a listen and penetrated the imitation Scots accent (MT was quoting a PC Paul Macanally) to find that the concept in question was really the twinkie perm, a phrase that turns up (independently of MT) on two forum webpages, both times in proximity with "blue rinse" and a quantity of Scots dialect. Can anyone tell us more? —Tamfang 15:29, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * See Twink (home perm).--Mrs Wibble-Wobble 17:33, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

William Forsyth....
I am looking for the address that William Forsyth (1820-1902) lived at in Washington DC. I know that he was the DC survoryor and worked with Alexander Shepherd laying the sweage system in the Washington DC area. Also I would love to see a picture of his grave, and the house that he lived in. Any help that you might be able to provide me would be "very" much apprecaited. Thank you, Stephen101  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stephen101 (talk • contribs) 19:13, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Upton Sinclair..
I am looking for information about Upton Sinclair (1878-1968). I know that for a while in his life he spent in the Washington DC area. I am trying to find out where he lived during those years. Also I would enjoying seeing any kind of pictures that might be available of Upton Sinclair during thoses years. Anything that could and can be found would be great and much appreciated to be seen. Thank you. Stephen101 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stephen101 (talk • contribs) 19:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Harry S. Truman
Mr. Truman's middle name wes "S". Why do you insist on using a period after the letter In his name? His Name should read "Harry S Truman", not Harry S. Truman. Please correct this in your article on the man.— —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.110.63.149 (talk) 19:56, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * This is addressed in the article, as well as having been debated quite a bit on the talk page for the article. -- LarryMac  | Talk  20:02, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * He even signed it with a period (see image). Neil   ム  11:26, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I believe it's entirely possible to abbreviate "S" as "S.". J I P  | Talk 17:17, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Adding the American Red Cross Celebrity Cabinet Members
I was wondering if it would be possible to add all of our Cabinet Members to your site. More specifically add that they are part of our 2007 Celebrity Cabinet.

The American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet was developed in 2002 as part of the Entertainment Outreach Program to help our organization highlight important initiatives and response efforts.

The award-winning combination of well-respected actors, musical artists, television personalities, athletes and other public figures are "on-call" to help the Red Cross by donating their time, skills, passion and energy for a one-year term when it's needed most.

We are grateful to these generous people for pledging their assistance and look forward to providing them with meaningful projects that inspire them while helping the Red Cross fulfill its humanitarian mission.

All of our members are listed as such:

http://www.redcross.org/news/other/entertainment/natcelebcab/2007_members.asp

To reach me - (email address removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.6.226.11 (talk) 20:59, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your suggestion! A section has been added to American Red Cross, although I have not added every name, as it would be too long for the article.  Neil   ム  11:34, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Cheque retrieval
Is it possible to cash a cheque, but then to keep the cheque for posterity. For example, if I were to earn a Knuth reward check, could I cash it in and have it on my wall, framed and virtually unmarked (I'd allow maybe some sort of cancellation stamp), or would I alas have to allow $2.56 to slip through my fingers? (In the United Kingdom, BTW) Laïka  21:10, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Check with your bank. At my bank, at least, they destroy the original check, but provide scanned images of the check's front and back. --Mdwyer 21:28, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I let the money slip past. The check is worth far more to me than the money would have been. Donald Hosek 23:18, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

The issuer of the check gets to keep the check, not the recipient, if it is returned at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Equal Enjoy (talk • contribs) 01:15, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Might I suggest you make a color copy for the wall at your local print shop/copy center and cash the original ? StuRat 02:48, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Or see if it works the other way around. :) I've been wondering about this too, because I recently received a cheque from the US for my first photo-sale (yippee!), a memorable event, so I want to cash in the money, but also keep the cheque, also because it's the first cheque I ever received (money transfers are all electronic in the Netherlands these days). DirkvdM 13:16, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * I think you've discovered Knuth's cunning plan. --Sean 17:11, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * At least here in the USA, they used to return paid-in cheques to the person who wrote them. That practice only stopped fairly recently for my bank.  Giving them back to the recipient would result in all sorts of fraudulant possibilities.  But I agree that a Knuth cheque would be worth a lot more uncashed than it's face value (a hexadecimal dollar). SteveBaker 18:54, 25 September 2007 (UTC)


 * And another episode of The Simpsons suddenly makes a lot more sense... 130.88.140.44 11:27, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Another Youtube video with uncertain music
I have another video from Youtube where the music is vaguely familiar but unknown. The music is familiar as it appeared previously in the trailer for Pearl Harbor shown here. The comments provide a probable answer for the origin of the music but my search at amazon.com did not match the answer. So, what is it? --Blue387 22:52, 24 September 2007 (UTC)


 * Wasn't the score written by Hans Zimmer? Is there any suggestion he used pre-existing music by another composer, and if so, wouldn't it have been credited as such?  The fact that it turned up in the later, unrelated, video doesn't necessarily mean that it's a non-Zimmer piece.  Mind you, we're told that "Other composers like Steve Jablonsky, James Dooley, Heitor Pereira and Geoff Zanelli work in Zimmer's studio ... composers including Harry Gregson-Williams, Mark Mancina, John Powell and Klaus Badelt are also all former members of the studio" - so it's possible that one of them actually wrote this part of the score, a score that was attributed in the movie to Hans Zimmer alone.  --  JackofOz 01:45, 25 September 2007 (UTC)