Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2009 November 24

= November 24 =

Looking for US Ski Resort snow depth graph over the ski season, not just the maximum
I have seen graphs in the past on the web (though I cannot remember where) that showed snow depth for US Ski resorts over time from say November to June, and then has a comparison with the historical average base.

So it's NOT just the maximum depth for the whole year, but on a daily or weekly basis, so I can see for example if the snow depth will be better in late December as opposed to late March, based on the past average.

Could you please help me to find such a graph with a link to the website?125.27.15.221 (talk) 00:21, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

All aboard for Dorton Winsland
I was travelling on a train to Moorgate (in London, UK) last week via Highbury & Islington and, when the train stopped at Highbury & Islington, a guy asked me if the train was going to, what sounded like "Dorton Winsland". His accent sounded as if he could perhaps be from Germany. I couldn't really help him, except to say that it wasn't going there, before the doors closed. I am just intrigued as to where he wanted to go, and I wonder if anybody could suggest the location that I so obviously misheard. Thanks. TrainTraveller (talk) 02:00, 24 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I love this question!


 * Not very hard, though, as it was very likely to be a station reachable from Highbury & Islington without changing... such as Dalston Kingsland. --Anonymous, in Canada, 05:10 UTC, November 24, 2009.


 * Good call. So the German (?) passenger had found his way to the Northern City Line platform, when he really wanted to be on the North London Line platform. Gandalf61 (talk) 10:52, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

In Belgium, once, I was sitting on a train that was about to depart the station, non stop for Antwerp. A bloke got on and asked me in French if the train went to Anvers. I replied, in my dreadful French, that I didn't think so. He got off. When I got to Antwerp and saw the signs on the platform, I felt both stupid and remorseful. --Dweller (talk) 13:34, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Why should we give a second thought to a stranger who we will likely never encounter again? Bus stop (talk) 14:05, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Some people don't like to cause trouble or inconvenience to others, even inadvertently. On the other hand, some people do. FiggyBee (talk) 17:02, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I think I'm (still, some years on) more bothered about that episode than many incidents of lack of thought that have affected people I know and like, or even love. I'd hope the guy either never realised or just thought "bloody tourist". What bothers me is that he might have thought I did it deliberately. I'd love a chance to put it right. Maybe in another life. --Dweller (talk) 17:08, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * It is possible that something good came of him missing that train and he is now thinking how fortunate he was on that particular day &mdash; how a chain of unexpected events led to something wonderfully fortunate in his life, and he now wishes he could thank that stranger who seemed to have set that chain of events in motion. All aboard for Dorton Winsland! Bus stop (talk) 18:07, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * BTW, next time I need a fictional British railway station (which happens more often than you might think), Dorton Winsland is so it! :D FiggyBee (talk) 19:53, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Why, Bus Stop? Put yourself in the shoes of the French tourist, and ask yourself whether you'd prefer to be given helpful information or unhelpful information.  -- JackofOz (talk) 20:20, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * JackofOz -- We can assume the French tourist assumed good faith, and understood the faulty response as inadvertent. He might even have been an editor of the French language Wikipedia. Perhaps Dweller noticed the bloke operating a laptop open to a page of Wikipedia, even in the middle of an edit. All aboard for Dorton Winsland! Bus stop (talk) 00:03, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Charles Aznavour
I would very much like to have an address to which I can send a letter to Charles Aznavour, the French singer, and to his agent for the purpose of attempting to commission him to write a song for me, not for any commercial reason but for a purely personal one. Any help that you will be able to provide toward that end will be immensely appreciated. Thank you. (personal information removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.39.128.175 (talk) 02:52, 24 November 2009 (UTC) Added new section. Matt Deres (talk) 03:35, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I've removed your personal information; you don't want that stuff floating around on the internet, do you? If anyone can answer you, they'll reply here. Matt Deres (talk) 03:36, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * See Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009 February 23. Nanonic (talk) 03:45, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Tracing "Unknown" cell phone number
Someone called me on my cell phone with an "Unknown" phone number. I did not pick up the phone because didn't know who was calling and the caller left no voice message. When I try to call back I just get a "Warning, Unknown" error message box. Is there a way to trace these types of calls? 70.171.22.194 (talk) 04:52, 24 November 2009 (UTC)PhoneDude


 * No, but if they are nuisance calls, your telephone company can trace them. In my experience most of these are marketing calls.--Shantavira|feed me 08:44, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I get 'unknown number' on my phone all the time from various callers. If my wife is at home and she calls me at the office from our landline, the caller display on my office phone reads 'unknown number'.  She is not withholding her number, of course.  Also, if I call someone from my office extension, the receiving party gets 'unknown number' on their display.  It annoys me because it means that if I call someone from my home, say, the receiving party will not know it's me, will probably think the caller is withholding their number and will not reply.  --Richardrj talkemail 08:54, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Agree with Richard -- how are marketers getting your cell number? Unknown is classic from office landlines.  DRosenbach  ( Talk 14:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I get it from my home landline as well, though, which is ridiculous. --Richardrj talkemail 14:09, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I get Spanish language taped messages on my cell phone all the time. I have no idea what they want from me.  I just hang up.  99.166.95.142 (talk) 19:59, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

what will happen if move at a speed more than that of light?
what will happen if move at a speed more than that of light??? will it affect our health anyway???can such vehicles be made in future??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.197.250.62 (talk) 13:23, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * You can't move faster than the speed of light, so it can't affect your health, and no such vehicles will be made in the future. --Sean 13:42, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The correct response would be : with current technology and rules of physics as they are currently understood, anything moving at or in excess of the speed of light (other than light) would be a violation of an apparent law of nature. Answering whether it would affect our health in any fashion is like asking if space aliens possess greater or lesser intelligence than we do -- we cannot possibly know until we meet them, if they exist.  Vehicles would follow the same line of thought.  Remember, atoms were indivisible until we divided them.  DRosenbach  ( Talk 14:04, 24 November 2009 (UTC)


 * It's odd that people always like to carefully hedge their answers to the question of faster than light travel. The scientific principles involved are every bit as reliable as most other physics principles.  Yet we don't carefully hedge our answers to questions like "Why is the sky blue?" or "Will the sun eventually turn into a red giant?" or "Is the moon made of green cheese?" - so why be so cautious here?  Relativity is very well tested - and the equations it produces have very definite consequences.


 * The answer is the clearest possible categorical "No!" You definitely can't travel faster than light - period.  We can't answer the hypothetical "What would it be like if you could?" because the math simply won't allow you to calculate the consequences of this impossible situation - you wind up with an answer that involves the square root of a negative number - which is meaningless in 'real world' terms.  The question is much like asking "What would it be like if 2+2=5?".  So - let's stop being coy - lightspeed is the cosmic speed limit - no exceptions! SteveBaker (talk) 00:27, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Probably because if you ask why the sky is blue you're asking for our current scientific knowledge. If you ask about an FTL drive you're asking about potential future knowledge. One is cut and dry, the other is by its very definition is unknowable. If, for some reason, I asked "What will scientists think about the color of the sky 1,000 years from now." and "Can NASA make an FTL drive for the shuttle right now?", you would get hedging on the sky answers, but none on the FTL answers. APL (talk) 07:12, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


 * See the article faster-than-light for a detailed discussion. While some physicists have offered theoretical methods for faster than light travel (e.g. wormhole, though it is uncertain whether they are traversable, and they may produce enormous tidal effects that would tear apart anyone travelling through them), other physicists believe the Chronology protection conjecture makes travel faster than light impossible under any conditions (basically the principle holds that the universe always intervenes to prevent travel back in time, and faster-than-light travel is equivalent to travel back in time). --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:00, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * By the way, if you have any more questions about space travel, you should ask on the Science reference desk. I also noticed on reading the faster-than-light page that quantum theory may allow things to travel faster than light as long as they don't transmit any information, which would suggest you'd get really scrambled if you made the journey.--Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:04, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * That's the key point here, the law states that information can't move faster then the speed of light, not that "nothing can" Chris M. (talk) 19:04, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * It seems at least for now, the most important thing about the speed of light is that it is also the speed of information transference, i.e. it is by definition that which cannot be exceeded. There's a metaphysical puzzle in there somewhere I'm sure. Vranak (talk) 16:56, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

"186,282 miles per second. Not just a good idea; it's the LAW !" DOR (HK) (talk) 02:41, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Rhinoracer (talk) 14:35, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * There once was a lassie named Bright,
 * Who travelled much faster than light;
 * She set out one day
 * In a relative way
 * And arrived on the previous night.

Bondage
What exactly is the "bondage" mentioned, for example, at Sahrawi people? Does it match any definition given in the bondage disambiguation page? I can guess it's not bondage (sexual). J I P | Talk 19:26, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Its "bondage" as in being tied to an owner/employer. It can cover slavery, serfdom, indentured servitude etc. Fribbler (talk) 19:38, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * So, if I were to disambiguate the links to go to actual articles instead of disambiguation pages, should I use links to slavery, serfdom, etc. instead of any of the entries at bondage? J I P  | Talk 20:07, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * For now, I'd point the bondage link to bondservant. At the moment it redirects to serfdom, but pointing it at bondservant allows for the possibility of someone writing a good separate bondservant article. 86.142.224.156 (talk) 20:47, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * That disambig page isn't as helpful as it could be. Seems like it should include some basic definition of bondage, since the specific links make sense in the context of them all being about 'tied'. I'm not sure how it could best be phrased. Anyone have suggestions? 86.142.224.156 (talk) 20:44, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies, I have progressed with the disambiguation. But one particular article presents a problem: Le génie du mal. It says: "[...] placing Lucifer into bondage", where "bondage" clearly means Lucifer actually being physically restrained. However, it's not for sexual pleasure, but instead to keep him prisoner and to stop him from harming mortals. Therefore I think none of the entries on the bondage disambiguation page match this meaning. J I P | Talk 19:06, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Physical restraint would be where it should point to. It could also be added to the bondage disambiguation page. Fribbler (talk) 22:14, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Apparently it says in the source code of the Le génie du mal article:
 *  But the most apparent departure from L'ange du mal is the placing of Lucifer in bondage, with his right ankle and left wrist chained.  J I P  | Talk 06:38, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * If it's supposed to mean restraint and servitude it should say that in the text, I think, rather than expecting people to guess that from a disambiguation page. Fribbler (talk) 09:09, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm not familiar with the subject of the article enough to fix that in any better way than to change the wikilink to bondage to point to physical restraint. J I P  | Talk 19:40, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

ALT Text
Can someone please help me do alt text in February 2009 tornado outbreak? Showtime2009 (talk) 19:43, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Try the help desk. Good luck! --Tango (talk) 19:50, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I did already and they refused too. Please help me. Showtime2009 (talk) 19:53, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * They didn't refuse to help you at all, quite the contrary in fact. Here is the discussion, in case you've forgotten the tips they gave you. --Richardrj talkemail 20:12, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * But I need someone to do it for me. Showtime2009 (talk) 04:56, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Why? Vimescarrot (talk) 06:42, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I presume it's because our OP wishes to get the article through Featured Article review and that's the sticking point. In theory, in Wikipedia, if you're unable to improve something, you just relax and wait for someone else to eventually come along and do that.  But getting an article through the Featured Article process can become something of a personal crusade - and it's a very tough thing to do (trust me - I've done it twice - it's painful).  When the reviewers simply come back with some sort of vague "The alt text for the images isn't good enough" thing - it can be exceedingly hard to know what to do to fix it.  But sadly, I agree that the ref desk isn't the best place to ask this question.  The Help desk was a good choice.  At this point, I'd look at whatever WikiProjects relate to your topic and see if anyone there can help you.  I would try asking on the talk page for WikiProject Meteorology, WikiProject Oklahoma and WikiProject Severe weather - all of whom should have people with a strong interest in pushing this article to FA status and the knowledge to do what is needed.  I suppose you could also look back to see if any other weather-related topics made it through the FA process recently - then find the principle author(s) of those articles and make a plea for help on their personal talk pages.  SteveBaker (talk) 15:00, 25 November 2009 (UTC)