Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 December 22

= December 22 =

Nature novelette, Rabit is eaten by snake, is eaten by bird....
Before junior high, in the late 70's, I was assigned to read a novelette that began with the birth of a rabbit clutch, one of whom was then eaten by a snake, which was run over by a car, and eaten by a badger, and so on, and so forth, with the exact series unclear to me given the length of time, except for the certainty that it began with a rabbit clutch. Can anyone identify the book? I have searched google to no avail. It was one of the first things I ever read in school that grabbed my interest, although it also disturbed me at the time. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 03:20, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Not sure about that, but I know an old lady who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:05, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Same theme, yes. But more like the kiddie horror version.  I remember becoming quite disturbed that just as you were sympathizing with the next animal it would be killed.  Could have called the book Road Kill. μηδείς (talk) 17:01, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * OMG there is even a wikipedia article on the old lady who swallowed a fly! Now I know where my uncle got that song from! Sandman30s (talk) 09:29, 24 December 2012 (UTC)
 * We we taught that song in elementary school as part of the curriculum. μηδείς (talk) 17:45, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

When's the next end of the world?
Well, we survived yesterday. Phew. So when is the next one predicted? By whom? And do we have an article on it? HiLo48 (talk) 04:08, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Category:Apocalypticism and Eschatology might provide some good bed-time reading. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  04:17, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events. Shadowjams (talk) 05:08, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * The Apocalypse came and went, and I didn't even get a T-shirt? "I'm with Stupid" seems appropriate for the 1 in 10 who thought something might actually happen. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:11, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Where are the studies that explain why so many people believe this stuff? HiLo48 (talk) 15:10, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Why are people interested in disasters in general? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:24, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Boredom and anticipation (emotion)? 88.112.41.6 (talk) 17:40, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Purely anecdotal, but a lot of folks I know interested in the apocalypse either do not want to take responsibility for future generations (except maybe their own descendants), or they want a regime change of some sort (which is the standard explanation). Ian.thomson (talk) 15:43, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * To answer the OP's specific question: May 19, 2013, by Ronald Weinland. Tevildo (talk) 19:16, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * Ah yes, that's what I was after. And I can remember the radio broadcasts from the Worldwide Church of God from my youth. Thank you. I guess the end of the world will be his get out of jail free card. HiLo48 (talk) 23:02, 22 December 2012 (UTC)


 * You will all be dead first. μηδείς (talk) 23:05, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't like the phrase 'End of the World". It cannot actually end. It's like saying my computer table will end. How can that happen? It's a physical object, and physical objects don't just end.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  07:05, 25 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Not just vanishing in the twinkling of an eye, no. But If I took your table and threw it into a furnace and watched it burn to ashes, you could say the table has ceased to exist, even if all the molecules and atoms survive.  The table has lost its internal integrity.  That will one day happen to the Earth, and to all celestial bodies.  -   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  08:02, 25 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I agree, but I think this is a linguistic problem (and could be asked on the language desk). I think "Destruction of the World" would be a better phrase. "End of Civilisation" or "End of Life" would work, because both are processes, which have (inevitably) an end. Physical objects do not, even though they can be destroyed and cease to exist in their original form, but they don't 'end'. "My computer table just ended" just sounds ridiculous. This is just me. And Happy Christmas, Jack.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  08:18, 25 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Yuletide felicitations to you too, Kage Tora. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  08:21, 25 December 2012 (UTC)

Light rail costs in Ireland and England
I want like to find out the cost or price of each light rail tram car or set for public transport in Ireland or england--176.61.87.228 (talk) 23:09, 22 December 2012 (UTC)tom newton
 * Do you mean Great Britain as oppsed to the Republic of Ireland? England is much more densely populated, and hence the cost of transit much cheaper. μηδείς (talk) 23:39, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I believe the OP is asking about light rail trams (the type of vehicles which would generally be called streetcars in the US) which generally only run in urban areas so the population density of countries as a whole is of little relevance to the cost of journeys on such vehicles. In any case, Britain is widely claimed to have the most expensive train fares in Europe   - though this mainly refers to mainline/heavy rail rather than trams - so I'm not sure any conclusions can be drawn on transport costs based on population density. There aren't currently any light rail systems operating in Scotland or Wales (though one is in the very long process of being built in Edinburgh, so the question was correctly formulated as far as naming geographical areas too.


 * I also believe the question is not about the cost of fares, but about the cost of the vehicles ("the cost or price of each light rail tram car or set"). Perhaps the OP could clarify this. Dublin's Luas system uses a similar type of vehicle to those used in various English cities (and indeed many other European cities) so I think the OP is asking for the purchase price of the tram vehicles of the type used in England or Ireland rather than a comparison.


 * To attempt to answer the question I'd point to the article on the Midland Metro which includes the information that a new fleet of 20 Urbos 3 trams was ordered this year at a cost of £40 million. (These are a different design to those that run currently but not radically different). The same make of tram was ordered for the Belgrade tram system in Serbia at a cost of 70 million euros for a fleet of 30  in 2009, and for the Nantes Tramway in France at a cost of 22 million euros for a fleet of 8. This would give a unit cost of around £2 million / 2.5 million euros. I am assuming this is not a straightforward cost per vehicle, but also includes some element of a long-term maintenance contract. Valiantis (talk) 04:23, 23 December 2012 (UTC)


 * You are correct, density is important, all other things being equal. But overhead, union costs, regulation, etc., will vary by jurisdiction, and with stateo monopolies there's no need to pass on real economies to the customer.  (It's also curious whether you mean British rail is actually more expensive to run, or less subsidized for the individual rider.)  In the US you get subways in large cities, and more successful passenger rail in the east coast, with passenger rail running at a huge perennial subsidized loss everywhere else.  Even then these systems, from Amtrak to NJ Transit to the subways run by the NYMTA, all regularly run at losses.  The losses are just less in the northeast corridor than compared to elsewhere. μηδείς (talk) 06:13, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
 * The short answer is: both. See Rail transport in Great Britain for an introduction to the complex woes of the world's first railway network. Itsmejudith (talk) 09:41, 23 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, Medeis, I think you're wrong on this. The customers are typically local government transport operators, while the suppliers are private companies - European trams are largely a competitive market between companies in France, Germany, and Italy (Alstom, Siemens, and Ansaldo). -- Arwel Parry (talk) 02:47, 24 December 2012 (UTC)
 * In 2007 the Irish Rail Procurement Agency ordered 26 trams for the Luas at a cost of €73 million, giving an average costof just over €2.8 million . It's not clear whether those were for the 3-car trams for the Red Line or 4-car ones for the Green Line, or a mixture. -- Arwel Parry (talk) 02:37, 24 December 2012 (UTC)