Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2009 June 11

= June 11 =

Employment earnings - paycheck exposure to other employees
Laws regarding a person's earnings (paychecks) available to all other employees within the company - Lack of confidential protection on the data base - which enables all employees to access your earnings. ? What are the laws regarding employers who do not protect your personal earnings based on commission sales from other employed pesonnel.

HELP, thank you


 * In which country? Astronaut (talk) 13:02, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

In France almost every salary, etc., is public property. They have no concerns about privacy on such matters, neither on age. It is routine to be asked one's age on one's birthday. Even tiny children ask the aged. Healthy in many ways.90.0.5.203 (talk) 14:36, 11 June 2009 (UTC)DT


 * Management pay and bonuses have to be disclosed in the financial statements of companies traded at the stock exchange.71.236.26.74 (talk) 14:46, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

In Norway you can see what everyone in the country earned and how much tax they paid in a particular tax year just by typing their name into an online query. Everyone does this as soon as the figures come out each year, special deals with particular employees don't stay secret for long. On the whole this transparency is a good thing IMO, even if it's a little disconcerting the first time a colleague quotes your earnings at you. Mikenorton (talk) 15:29, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You don't say where you're at, as noted above. In the US, I have not heard of any state that regards your salary or bonus as a protected piece of personal information that the company is prohibited by law from disclosing (whether intentionally or accidentally).  It is certainly very standard for companies to keep this information confidential, but it's not a requirement &mdash; I seem to remember that in the early days of NeXT, everyone earned the same salary and knew about it, for example.  The main beneficiary of compensation secrecy is probably the company.  Anyway, if you're in the US and you're looking at how to retaliate against someone who screwed up and released your commission numbers, you can look up information on employee privacy at your state's website, but I expect that the most you can aim for is if this violated a company policy on keeping commission numbers secret, if the company happens to have such a policy.  Tempshill (talk) 22:12, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Finding short-term work experience
I'd like to arrange short-term unpaid work in order to fill small gaps in my skills. The things I was thinking of are operating a proper switchboard, and working with SAP (business information system). I've been a receptionist, library assistant, and secretary of a student society, so I would be able to do other office based tasks. Are there any websites where I could find employers willing to do this, or if not can anyone recommend the types of business that might respond to a speculative offer? They would have to be within cycling distance of Liverpool, England, because I can't afford to spend money on commuting.

Also, is there anything similar for translation work, where I could offer to translate things free in exchange for a reference? 86.166.68.203 (talk) 16:39, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you concerned working for non-profits? In both cases you're more likely I'd imagine to find non-profits willing to let you do that sort of thing than private companies. You might try checking Action Without Borders for something like what you are thinking of, or at least a list of companies/groups in your area that might need such services. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:40, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * There's only one project in Liverpool on idealist.org, and it's for full-time students which I'm not. But thanks, that site is exactly the sort of resource I'm looking for. Signing up there now & will try to post an offer of help :-) 86.166.68.203 (talk) 23:36, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You can often do this type of work for free by volunteering at a charity for example. However, there are many secretarial employment agencies which will place you with companies on a short term contract basis and you'll get paid for your efforts.  Astronaut (talk) 23:35, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * The impression I'd got about temp agencies is that they only place people who did exactly the same job before and are 100% competent. Companies wouldn't pay through the nose for a temp and expect to have to train them. I will ring up some agencies and ask, but they aren't really in the volunteering business. Thanks anyway, 86.166.68.203 (talk) 23:40, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Does Liverpool have a site for free ads like Craigslist, or a free ads paper? You might try that.  proz.com is a forum for translators, but that might be too advanced for your requirements.  You might also find this useful .  So might this  do check whether it is phony though. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 04:46, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Translator's Cafe is excellent for finding freelance work as a translator. All of your work would be done over the email so you can work from home. Most of the work there is paid, but you will also find unpaid work if you really want it. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 13:56, 13 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Many councils in the UK have a volunteer bureau, which exists to match you and an appropriate organisation. You tell them what skills you need to work on and how far you are willing to cycle, and they come up with a list of suitable unpaid jobs. Your closest one appears to be Volunteer Centre Liverpool. As for translating, you can do that online, and build up a profile as a prompt and reliable collaborator. How about starting with Wikipedia in your target language? BrainyBabe (talk) 22:01, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Ideas for environment club activities
I need ideas for a school environment club's activities. I have been searching the internet for a while but I haven't found anything interesting and applicable. The school is located in the city, nowhere near forests etc, so I have to throw out suggestions about protecting wildlife or planning trees etc. Students in the school also do not seem to be very interested in environment issues so we need an interesting way to introduce an event for everyone to "want" to join. The purpose should be about raising awareness and actions about protecting a city environment or reducing wastes. Also the projects should cost reasonably (not too much!); we are sponsored by the school but funds for clubs are of course limited. Could you please offer some interesting ideas? Thanks very much Wikipedia! 117.0.41.153 (talk) 16:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmm not sure how hard this would be, but perhaps you could make some do it yourself wind turbines? There are lots of instructions on the internet of varying diffulty/cost, running the gamut from ones like this and ones like this.  It seems quite possible to make them on a small budget, but I don't know if they'd be particularly useful once you'd made it.  TastyCakes (talk) 17:08, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * And here is a wind powered composter. TastyCakes (talk) 17:09, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The trouble with making things like home-made wind turbines is that it gives the impression that you are working to help the environment - whilst actually damaging it still more! If you make a turbine and it doesn't make practical amounts of energy for you (trust me - it won't) - then the energy and materials you consumed in making it were wasted.  Even commercially manufactured small-scale wind turbines have been shown to be an utter waste of materials...some of them require control electronics that actually consume more power than the windmill generates!


 * If you want your club to ACTUALLY help the environments then think you should concentrate on things around you that will actually make a positive difference. Perhaps do an energy "audit" of your school - where is energy used - is there any wastage?  Do people leave lights on when they needn't?  Is the school switching to energy efficient lighting like CFL's when old lightbulbs burn out?  Are heating and air-conditioners properly adjusted?  Could ceiling fans cut down on wasted energy?  Is your school adequately insulated?  What temperatures are present in roof-spaces - would attic fans improve energy consumption?  Could you plan more efficient ways for students to get to school - perhaps you could organize a car-pooling system?  Encourage bicycling to school?  How is waste from your school disposed of?  Does waste paper get properly recycled?  Does left-over food from school lunches get composted or thrown into the trash?  Are there local pig farms or other places where these scraps would actually be worth something?  Are pencils more "green" than ballpoints or felt-tipped pens?  Are chalkboards better or worse than modern dry-erase white-boards?  Would it be better for the school to distribute laptops and electronic books than paper books?  How much energy are kids wasting with cellphones when there might be a better way to communicate in school?


 * Look at any and every place where things (people, food, electricity, paper, books, furniture, waste heat, waste materials) goes into or out of the school and ask whether that could be done better. I guarantee you'll find several - perhaps lots - of things that would either cost nothing to implement - or which would actually save more money than they'd cost.  If you can get those things to change then you'll have made a positive difference - and that's a wonderful thing.  Take your group of enthusiasts - form them into groups of two or three and have each group take a piece of the problem to produce ideas from.  After a couple of weeks, collect together these ideas and figure out which ones you're going to try to fix.  Assign fellow students to doing publicity, for liason with school officials, etc.  SteveBaker (talk) 20:08, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Just because you are in a city doesn't mean there is no wildlife to protect or places to plant trees. You don't say where you are, so I don't know what kind of wildlife you could be take an interest in, but you would be surprised how much wildlife you can find in the middle of a city. As for planting trees - there isn't much point planting them in a forest, it's already full of them, planting them in the city can be far more beneficial. Depending on where you are, they can prevent erosion, make more efficient use of rainfall, keep the area cooler, etc., etc.. --Tango (talk) 20:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * You could organize a bicycle race or a 5k running race to get funds, and then use those funds to do some of the things mentioned above. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:43, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure the age of the student's involved, but I went to a mixed recycling sorting plant last year which I and the other visitors found fascinating. It was through my university environmental society, although I was the only undergrad, the rest being staff or post grads everyone found it very interesting and the site seemed to have the facilities to explain to younger audience (also, some of the staff were shockingling ignorant of recycling). So, I would recomend a recycling plant, especially if the area has mixed recyling (as in, cardboard, glass, steel, aluminium, paper etc etc) is all collected together, because they just JCB it all in and then you walk around and see how all the fragments are separated and see how polythene bags get everywhere. Which has some pretty cool and big machines, and you get to wear a hard hat. There is some great technology in place - imagine infrared lasers measuring density of material passing below and directing jets of air to make some refuse jump a gap while letting others drop down a hole. I can't tell where the OP is from, but this was in central london, and they gave the impression there were lots about, in the UK there are apparently only a few places that can recycle tetra packs, but I bet they have cool stuff to see there aswell.
 * Another idea which would be cool would be an industrial composter where they can take literally anything of organic matter and make it into compost, I'd like to see that... Also, just because you aren't near a forest doesn't mean you are not near a wetlands reserve... MedicRoo (talk) 22:40, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh, and the purpose of the trip to the recycling plant was to try and encourage the staff to sort out how they would implement recycling on the campus, for instance, if its not mixed recycling you need to know what you can put in what recycling bin, and note that not all plastics are the same, and contaminants are bad.
 * Also, could always ask the school to set aside some quite place of their grounds to make a wildlife garden, there is health and safety issues if you have a pond, but it would fun and get people involved. Also, if you put up bird boxes, and you can get neat little cameras relatively cheap, install them in the box and then you could have the footage shown to people, the success of BBC's spring watch will mean you will get more support that will allow you to do some better more environmental things. I'm going to burst with ideas a lot now...MedicRoo (talk) 23:15, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The thing with environmental efforts is that lots of things that look good at a glance turn out to be ineffective or counter productive if you look at the big picture. Wind turbines were already cited above.  Recycling is another one of those red herrings.  Apart from the fact that some collection authorities ask people to wash plastic containers before recycling, they also use municipal mains water for both plastic and paper recycling.  Producing tap water consumes quite a bit of energy.  So the question whether you come out ahead environmentally isn't that easy to answer.  In this light trash prevention is the better option.  What you might try is to do a trash monster.  You can either use school waste or ask club members and/or fellow students to bring in their washed plastic containers and waste paper.  You then use that to construct a dinosaur or similar shape. (Get an instructor to give you a hand with the design.)  Making paper-mâché will let you create a shape and keep your teetering pile of waste from collapsing and creating a hazard or blowing away.  You can then gather ideas on how to reduce waste and apply those.  Create a "post waste reduction" monster to display next to the original one.  If your club's efforts were effective that one should be significantly smaller.  Select one item from the trash pile each week and see if there is a good reason for using it (there sometimes is) and what would be the drawbacks and benefits for replacing it with something else or doing without.  That way your club members will not fall prey to the frustrations of finding out that your "environmentally friendly" fad got shot down by environmentalists as being all but friendly (OR been there, tried that) .  Before encouraging students to ride their bikes to school you should make sure that can be done safely.  Make a map of the area showing bike paths and sidewalks that could be used.  Then see which students have schedules that would allow them to ride together.  Contact the city and find out what offices would be in charge.  Then try to get some teachers or school administrators to back your plan and contact the city officials together.  You could push for more bike paths and permission to use the sidewalks during certain hours.  Get the police to do a bike safety presentation/inspection at your school.  In the city it might be easier and more efficient to encourage carpooling or expand the bus route with students on the expanded route paying a small fee for use of the bus. (Your club could do the math to make sure that both the gas savings for parents and the higher costs for the bus add up to savings)  Have a look at class schedules. If they need tweaking so that students can share rides and use the bus you could talk to the administration.  (OR one of our schools created "bridge classes" where students were supervised by teachers and did their homework or some extracurricular activities. An enthusiastic home economics teacher offered cooking classes and was amazed by the flood of boys applying ;-)  Create a Questionnaire for parents what they'd like to be assured of when car-pooling.  Then do "Carpool etiquette" fliers or print "car pooing agreements" for parents to sign.  (That way you keep things from falling apart because of things like the vegetarian mom doesn't want her kids to ride with the mom who fetches burgers after school.)  See if the school council, city authorities or an insurance company can help with insurance issues.  (One of the big obstacles to carpooling with kids.)  You can see there's a lot to do to get just that going.  Your club can create a page on your schools website and display the environmental

Pick something common that is sold or used at your school, such as individual plastic bottles of water, soda, etc. Research how many are used, and the amount of waste generated. Look at how long it takes for the raw materials to decompose. Now that you have a reference point (tons of waste per year x number of years to decompose), figure out how to reduce the total. For example, selling reusable canteens with the school logo on them would not only raise some money but also promote the use of reusable beverage containers. Oh, and thanks for giving a damn! DOR (HK) (talk) 08:26, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Try growing some vegetables, eg tomatoes, peas. This could lead to thinking about pesticides, food-miles, etc. You do not even need a garden: large tubs or grow-bags will do. 78.147.146.107 (talk) 21:12, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Body proportions
While a number of body proportion calculators exist on the internet, I've not found one that gives me all the information I want. A male has the following dimensions (all in inches, except weight, which is in pounds):

Height: 69 Collar: 14.5 Chest: 37 Bicep: 11.5 Forearm: 10 Wrist: 6.25 Chest: 37 Waist: 30 Hips: 34 Inside leg: 31/2 Thigh: 21 Calf: 14 Weight: 144

Firstly, the calculator at suggests that both the calf is about 3 inches larger than expected and the thigh is 2.25 inches larger than expected. While I know that these calculations are only rough guides for classical artwork, and the person in question is not a piece of classical artwork, is this really larger than normal? Secondly, are the person's legs longer than average and chest smaller than average? (again, I realise that there is a great variety, but...) I ask as the person in question often has difficulty in finding clothes that fit without looking slightly odd. Also, is a foot size of UK 6.5 - 7 (about 25 to 25.5 cm I am told) particularly small? --80.229.152.246 (talk) 17:23, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not too familar with the bicep, thigh, calf, forearm, & wrist measurments, but I think this individual sounds a little thinner than the UK average. Judging on the availability of clothing in the UK, my own OR suggests the "average man" is 5'9" tall with a 15"-16" collar, 40"-42" chest, 30"-32" waist, 30"-32" inside leg, and takes a size 9 shoe.  Better developed calves and thighs could be explained by sports such as cycling, skiing, etc.  Astronaut (talk) 00:06, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * What you are looking for is Clothing sizes rather than whether your measures are average. Our pages mostly cover the US from what I've seen, but things apply similarly elsewhere. Much to manufacturers' chagrin human bodies don't come in molds.  Apart from differences between males and females there is a wide variety of measurements.  Other than tailored clothes, mass produced clothing is made to adequately fit a certain range of shapes and measurements.  To allow for some wider variations industry has created Petite sizes (aka. short sizes) and Plus-size clothing.  Within the standard industry measurements for the country in question each manufacturer adjusts their patters to their own specifications.  They also use the upper, lower or median standard measurements for their designs.  So you might fit better into clothes designed for a different country or made by a different manufacturer.  Certain styles (e.g. pleats, stretch fabric, A-line, raglan sleeves etc. ) fit some people better than others, so maybe you've just been shopping in the wrong type.  If you can't find an adequate fit, there's lots of places that offer alterations and some retailers even offer it in-store.  ( OR a male friend with a bodacious behind found to his surprise that some women jeans fit him better than male cuts.  He is very grateful for online shopping.  Even sewing patters for people sewing their own clothes differ between countries and companies.  Some Chinese manufacturers are having trouble with the size of American and European biceps and their clothing frequently ends up in close-out sales and Dollar stores.  In shoe sizes there is even less standard specification.  There are wide and slim sizes available at specialty footwear stores, but you are just as likely to find a fitting pair from some standard source after shopping around a bit.71.236.26.74 (talk) 00:33, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks very much for the info. In particular, the OR that the 'average man' has a chest of 40"-42" seems to match with my own experience, which is a bit of a pain for the person in question. --80.229.152.246 (talk) 20:53, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Old Chinese custom?
When I was growing up my mom had a rule that nobody in the household could wash their hair when it was someone's birthday. The same rule applied when it was Chinese New Year. I have spent years trying to find out why. Is this an old Chinese custom or superstition? What was it's origin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.55.215.69 (talk) 18:45, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The tradition of not washing hair on Chinese New Year is attributed to a desire not to wash away the good luck that the New Year brings. I'm guessing that not washing hair on a birthday has similar origins. Mikenorton (talk) 19:53, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Chinese New Year's is everyone's birthday: www.danwei.org/china_information/chinese_new_year_and_chinese_s.php. DOR (HK) (talk) 08:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

shopping carts
Why do most of the shopping carts in Australia (I forget what the local name for them is) have 4 wheel steering while the American version only allows the front wheels to pivot? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 19:55, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * We usually call them "shopping trolleys". Maybe because Australia's such a rugged, manly country, where 4-wheel drive vehicles are par for the course in many places.  :)  --  JackofOz (talk) 20:30, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Because the local retailer of shopping carts/trolleys only sell the 2/4 wheel steering versions in that part of the world. There doesn't necessarily have to be a reason, it could be "just so".  Dismas |(talk) 20:35, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Shopping carts/trolleys with 4 wheel steering can create an occupational hazard if you use a motorized shopping cart retriever (aka. cart pusher or cart puller). I guess the Australian version is designed for manual retrieval or their OSHA hasn't gotten to it yet. 71.236.26.74 (talk) 21:34, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Also, don't rule out simple economics: the ones with two fixed wheels are probably cheaper, and saving a buck is a very high priority in the States! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:16, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Oz OHS laws are very wide ranging and come with hefty penalties for non-compliers. The law does not need to spell out every possible individual risk that businesses need to be cognisant of.  Businesses have a responsibility to interpret the intent of the laws and apply them in every way that's appropriate to their circumstances.  But having said that, the difficulty of managing shopping trolleys with 4 independent wheels is legendary, so it's surprising that they haven't been replaced with 2-wheel versions.  --  JackofOz (talk) 23:16, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * In NZ quite a few supermarkets have special trolleys for the disabled nowadays. While these are I believe more designed for wheel chairs I presume they work with mobility scooters too. I'm surpised they're not present in Australian supermarkets. Most supermarkets in NZ do use manual retrieval, although vehicles are used in some places Nil Einne (talk) 03:40, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Count yourself lucky. Many trolleys in my experience have three wheels that will spin where they like and one that is fixed firmly so as to create an automatin 360 degree turn.86.194.122.65 (talk) 14:16, 12 June 2009 (UTC)DT
 * The store where I buy groceries seems to specialize in carts with one wheel in a shape other than circular, so it thumps on each revolution. Edison (talk) 15:49, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Revolution? Count yourself fortunate.  I used to shop at a supermarket where half the wheels barely turned at all, so you had to drag the thing around.  (And it wasn't a budget chain either.)  Gwinva (talk)

DM band?
What would someone mean when they refer to DM, probably a band. I suspect they were playing in Berlin this weekend or week, and 68000 people were there. Any of you sleuths got any leads? Aaadddaaammm (talk) 20:46, 11 June 2009 (UTC)


 * DM is an abbreviation for "death metal", a music genre which is fairly popular in some German venues. 65.121.141.34 (talk) 20:54, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * That would be Depeche Mode. Algebraist 20:55, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Here's a report (P.s. why is this not on the Entertainment desk?) - 71.236.26.74 (talk) 21:24, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * That picture is of Dave Gahan, lead singer of Depeche Mode... --Jayron32. talk . contribs 00:22, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, the question has already been answered. --Richardrj talkemail 00:25, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

The book 'Risk' by Dan Gardner and some unanswered questions
I'm reading the above book and it's pretty enjoyable but there's a series of questions that were posed to university students by a Ms Peters and I would be grateful if someone could confirm the answers. I've got what I think they are in my head but just want to check as, well, the whole point of the questions is about how the answer you 'think' is right is not (i.e. 'gut' is wrong). Anyhoo on with the questions: I'll not make myself look a fool until someone answers, then if i'm wrong i'll properly understand why and so won't feel as much of a numpty. ny156uk (talk) 21:56, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * If person A's chance of getting a disease is 1 in 100 in 10 years, and person B's is double that of person A's, what is B's risk?
 * Imagine that we roll a fair 6-sided die 1000 times how many times do you think the die will come up even (2,4,6)?
 * In the Acme publishing sweepstakes, the chance of winning a car is 1 in 1000. What percent of tickets in the sweepstake win a car?
 * Fine I'll bite:

What are the answers then? Prokhorovka (talk) 22:52, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 2 in 100? Though my gut says that is wrong.
 * Well if the die is fair then there is a 1/6 chance of each number coming up, we are looking for any of 3 numbers so the odds of finding one is (1/6 * 3=) 3/6=1/2, 1000*0.5=500. So the answer is 500 right?
 * I might be missing something about sweepstakes, but 1 in 1000 translates into a 0.1% chance.
 * Right, I wanted to answer the same as Prokhorovka because I'm so certain they are correct, but I once had a really stressful time where it was explained to me with hideous formula that the chances of flipping a coin 3 times and them being all heads would be 0.5. I have a feeling we're walking into that formula now... MedicRoo (talk) 23:10, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Odds and statistics like this get very confusing because you need to be VERY specific about what you are asking for. With the die rolls, for example, there are three kinds of odds:
 * The odds of any one number coming up on any one roll
 * The odds of a specific set of numbers coming up out of a larger set of rolls
 * The odds of an exact sequence of numbers coming up in a set of rolls
 * You have to know what you are asking for before you can answer it. For example, the odds of rolling any one number are 1/6 for each number.  However, that is a different question than asking "What are the odds that, on say 600 rolls of the dice, I get exactly 100 "1s" and 100 "2s" and 100 "3s" etc. etc."  It is this second question that requires the messy formula that MedicRoo refers too.  And, of course, there is a third question, which may be worded something like "In a set of 600 rolls, what are the odds of never rolling the same number twice".  Again, requires a completely different perspective on the odds, since now we are asking for the odds of a specific sequence, and not just on raw number of results.  --Jayron32. talk . contribs  00:20, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * In particular, #2 is the tricky one. 500 is the most likely number of even die rolls, but I would in no way claim that I "expect" 500 even rolls -- "not 500" is far more likely.  As for the others, I agree with you on #1 (2 in 100 in 10 years is a significantly different answer than 1 in 100 in 5 years).  For #3 not enough information is provided -- if the sweepstakes' tickets are evenly and fully distributed, then the answer is 0.1%.  Many such giveaways don't meet those criteria, however. &mdash; Lomn 01:06, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Let E denote "Even" on a particular roll, and N denote "Not Even" on a particular roll. The probability of getting an "E" on a particular roll is 0.5, as is the probabiliyt of getting an N. Think of a sequence 1000 letters long (something like "NEEENENENNNE....") as the result of the 1000 rolls. Let X be the number of "E"s in a randomly generated sequence like that. Each particular arrangement of Evens (E) and Not Evens (N) has a probability of 0.5^1000. For any particular value of X, there are 1000P1000 / (x! (1000-x)!) possible arrangements of Ns and Es. Thus, the probability distribution goes something like this: for any P(X=x) = 1000P1000 / x!(1000-x)! * 0.5^1000, which simplifies to P(X=x) = 1000! / x!(1000-x)! * 0.5^1000
 * To work out the expected value E(X), all you have to do is sum xP(X) over 0 to 1000, which probably simplifies to something quite simple... and eventually gets you to 500.
 * (BTW, this question probably belongs on the mathematics desk). --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 04:59, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I concur with your math, but the question isn't "what's the expected number of evens", it's "how many do you think". I don't think there will be exactly 500 evens on 1000 rolls -- the most likely single outcome is still incredibly unlikely. &mdash; Lomn 11:41, 12 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Just some more background. MedicRoo seems to be looking for a specific formula, and besides what PalaceGuard008 has provided, some other interesting reads on unexpected odds include the Monty Hall Problem and Penney's game and Efron's dice; though these involved odds of non-transitive situations (i.e. the order of events matters), but they are examples where the odds of a situation are counterintuitive.  For more on the mathematics behind the odds of long strings of events, see Bernoulli scheme and Bernoulli process and Lévy process, which are all examples of Stochastic processes and understanding each requires more mathematics background than I have... --Jayron32. talk . contribs  12:18, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

If I knew what they were called, I'm sure I could read about them...


So, what's the proper name for the signals that the dude on the tarmac with the orange sticks is giving to the pilot who's taxiing up to the gate? Do we have any pictures? Thanx, DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:14, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Aircraft marshalling. Algebraist 23:16, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
 * So rumours that they use table-tennis bats are not true? Astronaut (talk) 00:09, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Two minutes for an answer -- that has to be some kind of a record. I'd have never chanced upon "marshall" as the operative word here.  Thanks! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 00:14, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Is it the word in North America? The article mentions the signs used in North America, but the only sources cited are British ones.  --Anonymous, 05:25 UTC, June 12, 2009.
 * The article needs to be clearer on how universal the signs are. My assumption has been that the signs are universal for the same reason English is the universal language of pilots talking to ATC.  Tempshill (talk) 15:33, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you have to wear a cool hat like that to direct helicopters? 86.4.190.83 (talk) 06:25, 12 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I believe the word you're looking for is "get", not "have". -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:29, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Lollipop man? DOR (HK) (talk) 08:33, 12 June 2009 (UTC)