Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2009 December 25

= December 25 =

Do you think it is likely that 24 hour garages will be open on Christmas day in the UK?
Just wondering.--Idun90 (talk) 00:09, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Like Shell, BP and so on.--Idun90 (talk) 00:50, 25 December 2009 (UTC)


 * It depends on location - 24hour motorway service stations are open 365 days of the year (thats part of their licence), petrol stations on major roads are usually open, rural and supermarket petrol stations are generally closed but those supermarket stations that offer 'Pay at Pump' are normally open, just not manned. Nanonic (talk) 01:00, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

If they are not, they shouldn't claim 24 hour. Usually, though this refers to the provision of fuel. i.e. Don't confuse a 'Garage' with a 'Filling Station'.Froggie34 (talk) 15:52, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * In the UK "garage" is often used to mean a filling station - Shell and BP are filling stations, they don't generally sell cars or fix them. --Tango (talk) 20:08, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * In the USA at least, even stores generally open 24 x 7, and advertised as such, are sometimes closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas, the two holidays where it seems like nearly everything closes except for vital services. By now, I would imagine the OP has his answer, but if it were me, I would have called my favorite gas station and/or garage and asked them what their holidays are going to be. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:14, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Are Chinese restaurants a vital service? There's a tradition for many who don't celebrate Christmas of eating Chinese that day.  And a menu that includes "Kosher Walnut Prawns" is notable, somehow. PhGustaf (talk) 20:30, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Walgreen's Drug Stores typically stay open too. I think a fair number of restaurants do open on Thanksgiving and Christmas and probably do a lot of business. I'm thinking more in terms of retail stores. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:37, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * And I'm left wondering why it matters. If they're just a standard commuter, the OP could get gas the previous day.  Or if they're a delivery man of some sort or long haul trucker, then they could probably stop at a filling station that is frequented by such vehicles and they would have a better chance of being open than a local small town filling station.  Although, I guess the point is moot now since it's Boxing Day morning in the UK now... Dismas |(talk) 05:58, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

BERMUDA TRIANGLE
can anybody say me about Bermuda triangle ??? has the mystery solved??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.197.240.252 (talk) 08:20, 25 December 2009 (UTC)(I have reformatted the question into its own section. Caesar&#39;s Daddy (talk) 08:40, 25 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you read the Bermuda Triangle article. The second paragraph seems to answer your question. Richard Avery (talk) 08:49, 25 December 2009 (UTC)


 * The 1975 book called The Bermuda Triangle Mystery: Solved pretty well demolished the various "mysteries" by demonstrating that they all have rational explanations and that many times the researchers had misinterpreted or misstated the original reports on the disappearances. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:59, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Breaking in new headphones
I've heard of people "breaking in" new headphones (or earbuds) by playing music through them for tens of hours before actually using them to listen to music. Are there objective measurements that confirm whether such breaking-in actually does anything? --173.49.78.112 (talk) 17:44, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Where have you read this? They have moving parts and it is plausible that the elasticity could change after the first few hours, but why would anyone worry about the sound not being "perfect" at first listening? I have certainly not observed any improvement over the first few hours. It smacks of an audio myth, and another website expresses doubts . Sustained high input levels can damage a speaker or an earphone. Maybe some listeners prefer the distorted sound of fried audio reproducers. Edison (talk) 02:05, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The premise sounds like bullshit to me. But why not just listen to them for a few hours and see whether the sound seems to change? PhGustaf (talk) 02:46, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If you listen to them for a few hours, the perceived sound may very well change; however, not because the headphone output changes, but rather because your auditory system adapts. --Dr Dima (talk) 09:15, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Could you help me with my searching for the following piece of information?
What is the single cheapest two-way flight in March 2010 from anywhere in Europe (preferably Eastern Europe) to Washington Dulles International Airport and back? The ticket could include a change of planes. Thank you in advance and merry Christmas to everyone. --62.204.152.181 (talk) 18:34, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You could try looking at the orbitz or the expedia websites. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:01, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * The cheapest ticket from Dulles to Europe will almost certainly not be to Eastern Europe. If you could offer a more specific destination, I could suggest economical options, including flying into a less expensive destination nearby and then proceeding by bus or train.  If it is more important for you to land somewhere in Europe than to get to Eastern Europe, then the cheapest European destination is usually London.  After some searching, the lowest fare I found to any European destination was in fact to London, to which cheapoair.com offers a fare of $581 round-trip (return)—including taxes—for midweek flights (apparently with Virgin Atlantic) during the first two weeks of March.  (As the weather improves later in March, the fares rise a bit.) When researching fares, be sure to check the total cost including taxes, as taxes can double the cost of the flight.  Now, if your destination is really the Czech Republic or Hungary or anywhere farther east, then you will spend more taking the cheap flight to London and then continuing by rail to your actual destination than you would if you took a slightly more expensive flight to an airport such as Frankfurt or Vienna closer to your destination and then continued by rail.  It might even be cheaper just to fly to the country where you want to end up.  Marco polo (talk) 23:28, 25 December 2009 (UTC)
 * You asked me to offer a more specific destination and I will do it. My destination is neither the Czech Republic nor Hungary; it is Bulgaria. And there aren't direct flights from Bulgaria to the USA. Here's what I managed to find after doing some search in cheapoair.com - it shows a cheapest round-trip flight from Sofia to Washington, D.C. and back costs $851, including the taxes. (The depart and return dates I used in my searching are just example ones.) The results from orbitz.com and expedia.com aren't very different from that. But my idea was the same as you mentioned - whether I could take a bus or train to somewhere, e. g. Athens, Budapest or even Vienna (with Vienna itself seeming to me somewhat too far away from Sofia to rely on a cheap bus ticket) and then take a direct, or, as I could imagine, not necessarily direct, flight to the USA. The question is if there exists a destination in Europe which I would spend less money to travel to by train than I would safe by flying from there to Washington. --62.204.152.181 (talk) 04:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Istanbul? Orbitz lists a roundtrip, 1-stop, single adult fair of $638, and Istanbul is only 300 miles or so from Sofia.  Certainly closer than Vienna (800 miles).  Athens is 350 miles away, and it costs $770 for the same flight as Istanbul.  I have no idea what local rail or bus is like in these areas, but if you are looking for near Sofia and cheap, then Istanbul looks like your best option. -- Jayron  32  05:16, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Belgrade and Bucharest might be other options. Cheapoair.com lists a $622 round trip to/from Belgrade, and an even cheaper possibility from Bucharest. Ansd they're both even closer than Istanbul. Grutness...wha?  06:53, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * LOT Polish Airlines has inexpensive flights to Eastern Europe. For example, they are offering round-trip flights from New York to eight Polish destinations for $390 plus fees. They don't fly to Washington, though, only to New York and Chicago. You really have to ask yourself if it's worth it, though. Krakow is quite a hike from Sofia, and then you've got to get from Queens to Virginia. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 23:01, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * You can fly from Sofia to London Luton on Wizz Air Bulgaria. Return tickets in March are from €52.  Luton doesn't serve transatlantic destinations, but a bus can take you to another London airport for a transatlantic flight - can't remember the name of the bus company or the fare, but it is not a lot.  Astronaut (talk) 03:09, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * There's something vaguely unsettling about the name "Wizz Air". They do know they're flying real aircraft, and not toy planes, don't they?  :)  --   Jack of Oz    ... speak! ...   18:39, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Indeed. The logo on their planes looks like ZZiM upside-down. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 22:37, 27 December 2009 (UTC)