Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 February 8

= February 8 =

Contacting British MPs
I'm not sure where best to ask this.... I know how to contact MPs one by one. Let us say for the sake of argument I want to write a paper letter to each of them. (Free postage to their common address at the Houses of Parliament!). Is there some simple and easy way to acquire a database or spreadsheet of all their names, constituencies, and contact details such as email and phone numbers (maybe even constituency office addresses)? BrainyBabe (talk) 09:33, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * They work for you has a list of the current MPs here, however it doesn't have details of their parliamentary or constituency offices. You probably want the CSV version, which is the first of the 'relevant links' in the right-hand column. CS Miller (talk) 09:54, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * The UK Parliament's web site lists all of the MPs and their constituencies here. Clicking through each name (though laborious) will provide you with correct forms of address and, in many cases, the address and telephone numbers for their local constituency offices. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:23, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Can you tell us why you want to do this? (Or is it a hypothetical question, seeing as you say "for the sake of argument"?). I suspect that individual MPs don't usually have the time or resources to deal with unsolicited correspondence from people other than their own constituents. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 14:48, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Perhaps Brainy wants to write them letters of thanks for doing such a jolly splendid job (collectively). --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 19:55, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, that would be it. Jolly splendid chaps, all of them -- or not, as the case may be. But thanks for the tips. The RefDesk has lots of splendid chaps and chapettes, none of whom fiddle their expenses, as Wikipedia wisely doesn't pay us any. BrainyBabe (talk) 15:20, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, why not just send all the letters to the Houses of Parliament? --Anonymous, 06:13 UTC, February 10, 2011.

Surely I would imagine all MPs would have an email in the form joe.bloggs@commons.gov.uk -simply change the name and send it as a bulk email.

And just because BrainyBabe doesn't get paid,doesn't mean there aren't ways.I submit for the use of my impressive brain,and for my time,and for the ultra new keyboard I use in order to edit Wikipedia and the top-speed computer needed to avoid edit conflicts.If you know the right people,you too can be a Wikimillionaire... Lemon martini (talk) 14:54, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Source of work
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_learning

Can anyone tell me the original source? Section starting "Under certain circumstances, the instructor can do little, if anything, to inspire................." In section Readiness - paragraph 2 Thanks. Will Patterson (email address redacted)

It has started some interest in my students (a lot more than I expected!) Edward Thorndike has emerged as favourite but this section has not actually found anywhere yet. William Patterson (talk) 09:50, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * It looks like it's verbatim from John L. Nelson's The Beginner's Guide to Flight Instruction (1990) . It looks like a violation of copyright. ---Sluzzelin talk  10:50, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Specific scifi short story
Not sure if this is the best desk, but here goes... A few years ago I read a short story in a collection of recent (I think) scifi short stories, and now I can't find it. It was a story set in a future where most women only had periods when they were trying to get pregnant, and otherwise they just received some long-term medication via a shunt (?) and never had to worry about their cycle. The story revolved around a group of women in an extended family meeting with (I think) the youngest member of the family, who had joined a group that said menstruating was a beautiful, natural thing, and she was planning on removing her shunt. The older women were horrified, and explaining to her how ridiculous it was to choose to have a period every month. It transpired that the youngest woman (who had never had a period) didn't realise it would involve bleeding!

Please help me find this story, I laugh a little whenever I think of it and am smiling right now! I'd like to look the author up and see what else she's written. 86.162.68.36 (talk) 10:40, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I think that would be Even the Queen by Connie Willis.  Ka renjc 11:39, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * It is! Thank you very much. 86.162.68.36 (talk) 12:07, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * You're welcome :) -- Ka renjc 14:45, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Having no menstruation isn't science fiction. It is certainly possible. See Extended cycle combined hormonal contraceptive. 93.95.251.162 (talk) 15:09, 8 February 2011 (UTC) Martin.
 * Indeed, but the (not) novel phenomenon of 'periodlessness' for some individuals wasn't itself the point of the story. Connie Willis [OR warning!] generally focuses on aspects of culture or society as affected by hypothetical changes in technology (in its broadest sense) or simply by temporal cultural development, not on the technologies themselves. In this case she was examining the scenario of a future in which, for some time, no women (in the culture depicted) had had periods. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 15:30, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Indeed. I myself am starting on a course of only having to experience 2 periods a year, and choosing when those are, which is much better than a flying car. But that isn't no periods, and it isn't a world in which the default is nobody having periods, and it isn't an amusingly written story. 86.162.68.36 (talk) 18:27, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

William Courtenay b circa 1341
He was Archbishop of Canterbury 1381-1396. He was born in a village near Exeter...Which one? Kennford (talk) 11:21, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, he came from Exminster. Warofdreams talk 12:30, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * This review of a 1966 biography by Joseph Dahmus agrees. This page says "born in the parish of St. Martin's, Exeter, England, c. 1342" - the parish church of Exminster is St Martin of Tours. Alansplodge (talk) 12:45, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * ...but there is also a St Martin's Church actually within the city centre of Exeter, so there could be some ambiguity or uncertainty. Exminster is a few miles outside the city itself.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:15, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, maybe. But another vote for Exminster here with copious sources listed at the foot of the page. Also this exerpt from Magna Britannia; "(Exminster) was afterwards in the (demesne of the) Courtneys, Earls of Devonshire, who had a magnificent mansion at this place, in which Archbishop Courtney and his brother Sir Peter... are said to have been born". Alansplodge (talk) 22:58, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Me again - I have amended the Exminster and William Courtenay pages to reflect these references. Alansplodge (talk) 23:56, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Mercedes Benz?
The automobile company Mercedes-Benz is named after two separate people, Mercédès Jellinek and Karl Benz. But has there ever been a woman who was actually named Mercedes Benz? J I P &#124; Talk 18:54, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes. Also "Mary Christmas" and many other "cute" names which mean (?) parents have stuck on kids. "Mercedes" is not a rare first name for a girl.  Collect (talk) 21:57, 8 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Benz being quite a common surname in Switzerland (over 2,000 entries in the electronic phone book), I expected to perhaps find an example of a Mercedes with a Spanish maiden name having married a Herr Benz. I found no such example, but I did in fact find a Frau Benz whose middle name is "Mercedes". ---Sluzzelin talk  14:42, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * This man is named after another motor company. DuncanHill (talk) 22:59, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * There is the wonderfully named technology writer Mercedes Bunz. the wub "?!"  17:05, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

irony
what is wtrong with the page? And can you give me humourous examples thereof please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.89.16.154 (talk) 19:40, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Who claims there's anything wrong with the page? --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  19:46, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Humor is highly subjective, but one comic story which is basically the template for irony is O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi". It is not a long story, but it is worth reading and if you understand how irony works in that story, you should understand irony pretty well.  -- Jayron  32  20:41, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * The article, however, has a lot of what is assuredly "original research" therein. Much of Twain's work is ironic - such as having Jim be the genuinely smart person in "Huckleberry Finn" etc. which Huck (the narrator) appears totally oblivious to. Collect (talk) 21:54, 8 February 2011 (UTC)


 * It is created by Wikipedians to be asked by Wikipedians to be answered by Wikipedians. 64.75.158.193 (talk) 13:33, 10 February 2011 (UTC)