Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 June 17

= June 17 =

Height/weight and falling over
If a tall person and a short person both fall over at the same time does the tall person get hurt more because he's higher off the ground? Also does a fat person get hurt less than a skinny person because the fat cushions the fall, or does he hit the ground with more force because he's heavier? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 07:37, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Ooh can we try this at home? :) Lemon martini (talk) 11:59, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * The Wikipedia article Falling (accident) deals mainly with persons who fall from a height above ground. The OP asks about falling over which can happen in many ways so we cannot say categorically who would be injured most. The linked article notes that older men when matched with women of identical height, weight, and age, on average, performed better in balance and reaction time; this may cause differences in falling injuries. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Both having a higher mass and a higher center of gravity (which goes along with being tall), create the potential for more serious injuries. Toddlers, with both low mass and low center of gravity, rarely seriously injure themselves, despite falling over constantly. StuRat (talk) 13:24, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * While adults tend not to fall over as often, they don't usually suffer any significant injuries either. (The exception being the elderly, who are less able to withstand the forces of landing.) --Tango (talk) 13:27, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * The height matters most and yes fat will cushion your fall. The inactivity caused by falling over and breaking a hip is extremely dangerous for the elderly. The modern love for concrete floors and a hard surface in public buildings is deadly. Dmcq (talk) 14:10, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Very strange New Zealand flag


Our shop offers prepaid phone cards and there's a little leaflet showing all the countries and their phone costs,with a little flag next to each country.However,the New Zealand one is not our normal flag,but what appears to be a red,green and blue(I think)tricolour with a yellow disc on with some sort of tree.I'm from NZ and I've never seen it before-any ideas what it is and why it's taken over?I'd try and post it up,but it's rather on the minute side Lemon martini (talk) 12:03, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * It sounds a little like the flag of Chatham Island as depicted in our List of New Zealand flags, but the red would seem to rule this out. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 12:40, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Also sounds a little like the flag of Eritrea, although that's a long way from New Zealand. --Viennese Waltz talk 13:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * And the flag of Lebanon, from 1920-1943, was a tricolor with a tree, but no yellow disk. The colors were red, white, and blue, though:, with green only on the tree. StuRat (talk) 13:18, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * This site is excellent for identifying flags, but I can't find anything to meet the description. Ghmyrtle (talk) 13:31, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Wasn't that the flag Aragorn used in the movie?   I don't think you can credit phone-card companies as particularly reliable sources for stuff like this.  could be a regional flag, or (as I noticed in google) an official flag for one of the government offices of positions.  -- Ludwigs 2  20:18, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds a bit like the Namibia flag (right). Anyway, they've undoubtedly put the wrong image in...either mistaken someone esle's flag, or put a company logo in.  What brand phonecards are they?  Gwinva (talk) 22:51, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Lot's of countries start with "New", they must have chosen the wrong one! Check out this flag. APL (talk) 05:51, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

That's it---the New Caledonia flag!!Somebody must have pressed the wrong button to select it.It's PDSA/Nomi phones and I thought at first it might be some Maori group flag but I'd never seen it before and in its microscopic form on the leaflet,it looked some sort of tree or tower on it.On closer look it appears to be some sort of funky design rather like a soyonbo I shall go investigate further !Thanks folks. Lemon martini (talk) 12:10, 19 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Flag of New Caledonia says: "The yellow disc is a representation of the sun and the symbol upon it consists of a flèche faitière, a kind of arrow which adorns the roofs of Kanak houses thrust through tutut shells.". PrimeHunter (talk) 03:14, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

GPS coordinates for all US counties
I don't know where the appropriate place to ask this question is, so I'm starting here. If I need to go to Village Pump, or Help Desk or Bot Request, just tell me.

I'm trying to get a list of the GPS coordinates for every county in the US for a personal project. Of interest may be Category:Counties of the United States by state which has a category for each state which contains the counties. Each county's page should contain the coord template. Any help would be greatly appreciated.» NMajdan · talk 16:03, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I just happen to have the very list you are looking for on my user page. Go to "county table". (Caution - it is a lengthy page, so it may take a while to come up.) ... Also see the discussion of this at the Infobox U.S. County talk page — Michael J  20:39, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Wow. Do you also have the entire wombat genome in there, somewhere ? :-) StuRat (talk) 12:07, 18 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much.» NMajdan · talk 18:24, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Whipcar
This scheme enables hirer to rent a car belonging to renter. If renter has Kensington London residents permit and congestion charge, can he let renter use them within the rental and charge more as a result? Or is that somehow a breach of a law? Kittybrewster  &#9742;  16:13, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Without getting involved in speculation or legal advice, I have found two things online that may be relevant. Whipcar themselves have a Q&A facility here  so you might be able to get an answer that way.  Secondly, if you read the application form for the congestion charge Residents' Discount here, it states in page 7 line 4: "You cannot transfer your Residents' discount to another person."  That would seem to be pretty clear.  The Whipcar scheme is unlikely to be mentioned within the existing rules because it wasn't in operation when they were written, so for a definitive answer you're probably better off asking Transport for London directly (and I bet I know what they'll say ...)  Ka renjc 17:11, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Artist (Oils)-Abstract-Lived in France
Can you tell me anything about an artist: Sydney Madison who painted abstract modern art, in oils, who lived in Paris, France?≈≈≈ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.4.240.158 (talk) 16:23, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * ArtPrice lists only one "Madison", first name "Corinne", so "Sydney Madison"'s works do not sell at auction. Googling also came up blank. Sorry, but I couldn't find anything to help you. Perhaps someone else will have better luck. Bielle (talk) 03:34, 18 June 2010 (UTC)
 * Do you have any more information, such as a date? Or at least a timeframe?  Zoonoses (talk) 00:46, 21 June 2010 (UTC)

Canned fruit packed in juices
When I buy cans of pineapple and cans of pears, they're always packed in pineapple juice and pear juice respectively (I try to avoid the syrup), but when I buy cans of peaches, they're always packed in pear juice. Why aren't peaches packed in peach juice? I'm in the USA, if that matters at all. Nyttend (talk) 17:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)
 * I've just checked the tin of peach slices in my cupboard (in the UK) and their {they're} in pear juice too. I don't know why, but I guess it's either because pear juice is cheaper or because it makes for nicer tinned peaches (either taste or texture - peach juice tends to be very thick, maybe that makes it unpleasant). --Tango (talk) 17:12, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Yahoo Answers isn't an authoritative source, but this answer here to a similar question suggests that peaches are expensive and produce little juice, whereas pears, grapes and apples are cheap and produce quite a lot of juice.  Canning your expensive peaches in cheap pear juice thus keeps costs down; pear juice is described as the most "neutral" of the three cheaper juices, so presumably it has the smallest effect on the flavour of the peaches.  Ka renjc 17:20, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I also found this page. The manufacturers boast that their fruit is supplied in its own juice, including peaches.  The copy seems to imply that this is not the usual situation with canned fruit, and that the brand in question is a premium one, which would tend to support the Yahoo Answers reasoning.  Ka renjc 17:25, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Karenjc is correct. That is why they are packed in pear juice. It is much cheaper and doesn't change the flavor of the peaches all that much. The same way that fruit juice is mostly apple juice. Most "fruit juice", if you look at the ingredients, it's mostly apple. As well as "grape cocktail" or any of the "cocktail" juices that you see in the grocery store. It's just a marketing gimick to sell the apple juice and charge more for it by adding 10% of a fruit that has a much stronger flavor, like cranberry. So it taste like other fruits, but it's really mostly apple or white grape. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.218.50.226 (talk) 20:38, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * I can't stand those things. The apple comes through pretty strong, and I really don't much care for apple juice (which I also think is pretty low on those phytochemicals you're probably drinking the fruit juice for).  Try real cranberry juice.  It takes a little getting used to, but once you do you like it (or at least I like it).  The only thing is it doesn't have much vitamin C, so you need to get it from somewhere else, or else stir a little of the C powder into your cranberry (because it's not sour enough on its own :-). --Trovatore (talk) 22:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * In my experience anything labeled "cocktail" is fake juice; just corn syrup, water, and dye, with perhaps an insignificant portion of real juice so they can say "contains real juice !". When they say "100% real juice !", that's when you get mostly apple juice with a dash of whatever type of juice you think you are really getting.  Only when they say "100% cranberry juice !" (or some other type) are you really getting over 99% of that juice.  Note that, even though they said 100%, it isn't, since it still contains preservatives, etc.  You'd have to go to an organic juice to actually find 100%.  Juice is an exercise in deception, at least in the US. StuRat (talk) 11:56, 18 June 2010 (UTC)


 * "Why does Ocean Spray call their juices Cran-raspberry and Cran-apple ?"..."Because Crassberry and Crapple didn't test well with the focus group." :-) StuRat (talk) 12:00, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

World cup soccer 2010
Yellow card

Do players who receive a yellow card in the group stage begin the final sixteen with a clean slate?

Jazzyizzy —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jazzyizzy (talk • contribs) 17:38, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * No. According to this newspaper article, the slate is wiped clean, but not until after the quarter finals.  So yellow cards stay on a player's record until teams have qualified for the last four.  Ka renjc 17:57, 17 June 2010 (UTC)