Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 April 9

= April 9 =

Transgendered novels
Can you recommend anyone non-explicit novels that have a transgendered character as a main character? Thanks! Neptunekh2 (talk) 04:38, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The only one I can think of off hand, that I have read, is Raptor, by Gary Jennings, however like most of Jennings work it is quite sexually explicit. -- Jayron  32  05:38, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Transgender publications has a few novels listed, though they don't mention how explicit they are - you may have to look up book reviews/summaries somewhere like Amazon to find that info. Avic ennasis   @ 09:53, 5 Nisan 5771 / 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * The eponymous hero of Virginia Wolf's Orlando: A Biography actually becomes (by some magical process) a woman. Inhabitants of Iain M. Banks' The Culture can wilfully change (biological) gender, although this is a minor part of any of the novels (but I've not read them all).  I don't know whether such complete biological change counts as "transgendered" in terms of your question.-- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:32, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Drifting a little further away from realism, Ursula K. Le Guin's novel The Left Hand of Darkness portrays an entire planet whose (human) inhabitants spend most of their time neuter, and periodically may become either sex depending on external factors. The protagonist of Samuel R. Delany's novel Triton has a sex change, which in his future culture is almost as easy as having a tattoo. Michael Moorcock's multi-novel near-future character Jerry Cornelius can change sex (and colour) at will. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195) 90.197.66.111 (talk) 17:34, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Sex changes are similarly casual in John Varley's Steel Beach and (iirc) The Ophiuchi Hotline. See also Greg Egan's "Oceanic (novella)" and Schild's Ladder. —Tamfang (talk) 03:12, 11 April 2011 (UTC)


 * The Danish Girl, a fictionalized account of Lili Elbe got some good press when it came out. I haven't read it so I can't comment on the content but I wouldn't expect it to be very sexually explicit. --JGGardiner (talk) 20:38, 10 April 2011 (UTC)


 * There's Trans-sister radio, by Chris Bohjalian, which I don't recall being very explicit (but I read it a while ago). Other titles that I haven't read, so can't vet, include Bye-bye black sheep, by Ayelet Waldman, Cotton, by Christopher P. Wilson, Scott Free, by Vin Packer, and A secret woman, by Rachel Pollack.  Go to Worldcat and do an advanced search for 'transsexuals' and 'fiction' in the subject, and a list of 225 titles comes up.  --some jerk on the Internet    (talk)  17:02, 11 April 2011 (UTC)

John Mauchly, pronunciation
How do you pronounce the name of John Mauchly. the first syllable as in ouch?--117.204.82.2 (talk) 09:08, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I think a more accurate pronunciation would be mocklee, but the ck sound would be as in loch. However, he seems to be American so it would be however he wished to pronounce it! --TammyMoet (talk) 09:54, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

--TammyMoet (talk) 09:52, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, Gene Mauch's name was a homophone of "mock". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 10:09, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
 * WP:RDC might be a better desk for this question. I've heard "Mauch" (in Mauchly) pronounced like in (pardon) "debauch", but don't know if that's how he pronounced it himself.  There are probably older computer people still around who knew him (he died in 1980), thus the RDC suggestion.   75.57.242.120 (talk) 19:32, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Auction tips
I was at an real estate auction today and I was the highest bidder. They weren't many people bidding anyway, but there were at least 50 people who looked through the house. However the owner was way too greedy he wanted a lot more. They tried to convince me to increase, but every time I increased they raised their expectations. So I got annoyed and rejected them, and I don't think many people wants that house seeing as only 4 (including me) of 50 people bidded. I'm not very experienced with this stuff, like how to out smart your opponent bidders and deal with greedy owners. Does anyone know of any source that can teach me? I'm in Australia so a source dealing with the Australian market will help me better. Thanks in advance. Money is tight (talk) 13:07, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Auctions must be specified at the outset as to whether they are "with reserve" or "without reserve." If "without reserve" then the high bid wins, so the auction you went to must have stated "with reserve."   Generally licensed autioneers will not let the owner increase the reserve during the the suction.  They may simply act as though the reserve were an "absentee bid"  but if you see the owner bidding, you have a legitimate gripe against the auctioneer.  The owner, if the auctioneer simply accepted his bids (which is not generally ethical), would be treated like any other buyer, and would still have to pay fees and commissions on the sale.  Collect (talk) 13:37, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * LOL @ "suction", is that when they suck money out of your wallet ? StuRat (talk) 17:36, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * The most important thing about auctions is to figure out your maximum bid BEFORE bidding starts, and stick with it. You don't want to start feeling competitive with another bidder during the auction and say "darn it, I'm gonna win, no matter how high I have to bid !".  You might also want to hold back on bidding until it appears that nobody else will.  If you seem too eager, then others might think the property is more valuable and bid more. StuRat (talk) 17:36, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Our OP is in Australia, as I am. Sadly, real estate auctions are the subject of frequent "exposes" here regarding the many forms of corruption and stretching of the rules associated with them. It helps keep real estate salesmen among the ranks of least respected professions. My approach is to avoid them completely. HiLo48 (talk) 23:28, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Silver 18/10 small pot
Have what appears to be an old silver small coffee pot. Stamped on bottom MOD DEP 53190B/62 produced by Balzano Italy INOX 18/10 Anyone know what I have here, how old ? What the numbers mean etc. ? Not a clue as to what this is. Was going thru some old familey things and found this. Very heavy for it's size. About 6" tall with larger rounded bottom, brass handle ? Any info appreciated. Pot of gold here? Thanks, Barry — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beamer50 (talk • contribs) 14:29, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * This presumably should be Bolzano. Inox 18/10 refers to stainless steel with 18% chromium and 10% nickel.  --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 14:48, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * I confirm Inox means stainless steel, short for inoxidable. Richard Avery (talk) 18:44, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * "MOD DEP" will be short for modele deposee (or equivalent in Italian), which means registered design - the numbers following will be the registration number of the design. DuncanHill (talk) 11:47, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Phony psychics and mediums...
...i.e. the ones who use cold reading to make it appear to the punters that they really do have 'powers', whilst knowingly doing so with the intention to mislead people for profit. Where exactly do these people learn how to do this? Are there 'psychic schools' or organizations that the general public aren't really supposed to know about that teach these techniques?

I'm curious because there seems to be so many of these folks about. It seems a bit unlikely to me that they all independently just 'figured it out'. How do they actually get into that line of work in the first place? --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 21:19, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * There are subcultures where this is part of a normal education, such as carnies, grifters, some Gypsy families, etc. Also, there are books, which may be intended to debunk psychics, but they can also be used to learn how to do it yourself.  You could also work for somebody else who does it, and learn from them.  Also, it's not really rocket science, so figuring it out on your own isn't that hard.  For example, saying you see somebody with a C in their name isn't much of a risk, if there are dozens in the audience, and dozens of dead loved ones to which that might also refer, and especially if you stretch to include C-sounds, like K and S.  StuRat (talk) 21:26, 9 April 2011 (UTC)


 * If you Google psychic school I predict you will find the answer.--Shantavira|feed me 05:47, 10 April 2011 (UTC)


 * Simply learning to be observant is often enough. like grift everywhere, the trick is to dangle something juicy and watch for the tiny telltale signs that someone's hooked themselves.  -- Ludwigs 2  14:41, 10 April 2011 (UTC)