Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 January 7

= January 7 =

Anybody got a weiner in their hand?
My wife and I were just discussing the possibility of finding a store that actually sells the buns and hot dogs needed tp make foot-long chili dogs. It seemed unlikely any of our small town grocers would have that, and I suggested we just make them out of normal hot dogs strung together since you can't really lift one up anyway. An argument ensued on how many dogs it would take. I was thinking the average hot dog is about 4 inches, my wife thinks it is six. And then of course the math changes if it is the "bun length" kind. If we don't get an answer we'll have ro go out int he cold and actually buy some hot dogs, and I don't want to do that today. Anybody got a hot dog and a tape measure handy? (and yes, I already checked at the hot dog article, it mentions normal weights but not length.) Beeblebrox (talk) 00:21, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I have two kinds: Oscar Meyer all-beef franks, at 4.5 inches, and Oscar Meyer bun-length all-beef franks, at 6 inches. -- Jayron  32  01:10, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * So we're both right. To a married guy that's a close to winning an argument as you can hope to come. Beeblebrox (talk) 01:17, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * A very wise person once said that a married man can be either right or happy but never both at the same time. Never have truer words been spoken.  I'm glad to have provide a moment, however brief, of marital peace for you and your wife!  -- Jayron  32  01:48, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * By the way, if what you think is four inches, your wife thinks is six, then you have really found the perfect woman for a wife. Nudge nudge wink wink.  -- Jayron  32  01:50, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * You just got a genuine "laugh out loud" from her when I read that remark aloud. Beeblebrox (talk) 02:32, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Did she then say, "Yeh, six inches. Right. I wish!"  ?  --  Jack of Oz  [your turn]  07:36, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Unfortunately, your frankenweiner won't be able to maintain stiffness in the middle, making it more difficult to handle. You'll need to support your buns at both ends, rather than just  grabbing your wiener in the center, so it won't go limp.  Also note that real foot-longs are usually thinner, as a wiener that long and also thick may be too much meat for anyone to swallow. StuRat (talk) 23:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * I wonder why we're talking about wine merchants or wheelwrights when probably we mean to be talking about German sausages named after Wien (= Vienna), the capital of Austria. :)  --  Jack of Oz  [your turn]  23:57, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Perhaps because people can't spell? I even get 20 thousand Google results for "Seig hiel"... J I P &#124; Talk 07:14, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Familiar Expressions
What does the Expression Lay of the Land mean ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.53.110.147 (talk) 05:35, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Literally, it means "what shape does the land take", and likely comes from land surveying. However, it is idiomatically used to mean "What is our current situation?" in modern English.  If someone says "I'm going to check out the lay of the land", they mean they are going to analyze their current situation.  -- Jayron  32  05:48, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * If you want a reference here's one (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs). --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:54, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * ... or see lay of the land for some usages. In the UK, it is more usually "lie of the land", but the meaning is the same.    D b f i r s   18:48, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * And here's an alternative definition. StuRat (talk) 23:01, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Need word
hello,

I am searching for a word describing the position of arms of sprinters. If they run, their arms are stretched towards chest, their hands are strectched and their fingers are squeezed. How do you call this? Thanks.-- ♫GoP♫ T C N 13:04, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Sports' coaching site Brainmac gives a pretty thorough description of the correct technique here, including the motion of the arms and how to hold the hands, but doesn't seem to give a specific name to how the arms are held or moved. Colloquially I've sometimes heard the term "pistoning" used, but I can't see any source or regular use of this term, and in fact it sometimes seems to be used to refer to the action of the legs rather than arms. --jjron (talk) 13:16, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I thought it might be called "arm action" and several web pages seem to agree with me. See Arm Action – The Easiest Way to Faster Running, Speed Training: Arm Action, Arm Action for Speed, Case Studies of Asymmetrical Arm Action in Running. Alansplodge (talk) 17:07, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Please calculate the cost of shipping container homes?
As of the present-day, that is.

Given that they're more easily expandable by stacking atop or aside one another, coupled with an epic surplus of shipping containers collecting at many shipyards around the country, I know this must be the way to go.

For the standard 40'x8' shipping container module, if I wanted to start with 6 containers (3 in the basement and 3 on the first floor, with one first-floor container being a reserved space for the garage), how much would each cost to obtain and ship to a destination in Kansas, and then turn into a fully-fledged home? By the way, I would prefer to make bracings, walls and etc. out of anything sturdier and more fireproof than wood. Thanks.


 * A 2-story container home
 * A 1-story container home

--70.179.174.101 (talk) 15:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * How close are you to Manhattan, Kansas? I just happen to have a buddy there who recently imported six containers full of washlets that he'll be wanting to get rid of as soon as he moves his stock.  Who knows, he might even throw in a fixture. It could be a while, though, as they aren't selling well and he recently lost his showroom rep. You wouldn't happen to be looking for a job, would you? -- 110.49.248.121 (talk) 15:50, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Our article on shipping container architecture mentions prices from as low as $1200 (used) to $6000 (new) to purchase a standard shipping container, though it doesn't name a source. A quick search on eBay for "40' shipping container" gives quite a few options in the $2000-$3500 range, though I don't have any idea about the condition of the containers there.  This site (which links to a number of useful-looking bits of information) suggests $2900-$5000 for home-construction-appropriate used containers.  Delivery costs run from $80-$500, depending on the distance shipped.  Buying six containers together may let you negotiate some sort of volume discount for purchase or delivery.
 * In any event, your largest cost is not going to be the containers themselves&mdash;what costs real money are the interior and exterior finishings that actually make a metal box into a home. This page puts the cost of typical shipping container home construction at 10-20% below conventional construction costs, but not miraculously lower.  The containers themselves account for at most a fifth (at possibly as little as a tenth) of the final home's cost; the rest depends on the finish. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:06, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm not convinced that container home construction will only be 10-20% lower. I believe that is one particular contractor's price, and many more contractors would offer better deals. On this video, the house is $175,000. If it was built conventionally, it would have been $400,000. At 43.75% of the conventional construction costs, it is 56.25% lower. They didn't mention who the contractor was, so could anyone please find the contractor? Or any contractor who can give great deals on construction costs? Thanks. --70.179.174.101 (talk) 21:11, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Jigsaw Puzzles
Is it impossible in solving a interlocking puzzle (Jigsaw) to have the final piece of any jigsaw puzzle not fit? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elvis1857 (talk • contribs) 16:13, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Hmm, you have one gap left to fill and one piece left? So if the puzzle was made to work, and if you have done the rest right, then the final piece has to fit. If it doesn't, and the rest looks right, my guess would be that you've wedged some pieces in an area like the sky, a section of grass, a brick wall, or a big tree, where they didn't actually quite fit but their not fitting isn't totally obvious, and you've then managed to work other pieces around them that pretty much fit, until you've been left with that one spot to fill that doesn't really match the remaining piece, or may not match it at all. Therefore the final piece doesn't fit because the other pieces aren't all in the right spots. The better made the puzzle is, the less likely it is to make this sort of mistake as the pieces will fit together more cleanly. But with the limited information, that's all just a supposition. --jjron (talk) 16:31, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * It is conceivable that a puzzle could be devised that would work in two configurations, one using one less piece (though the picture might be jumbled in one case). I know there is a whole class of puzzles with simpler shapes where you can do this. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:05, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * This is O.R. but last year I helped complete a jigsaw puzzle where there were three pieces left but none of the three would fit into the three spaces left. The puzzle was closely scrutinised for errors of pieces fitting but it remains a mystery why it happened. We put it down to a mix up of pieces between puzzles, the puzzle was second hand, but it was a hell of a coincidence. Richard Avery (talk) 22:40, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * As a kid I had several puzzles, with different pictures, but all cut with the same pattern. This did, indeed, lead to mixed up pieces, so Scooby-Doo's nose would appear on Fred Flintstone's face. StuRat (talk) 22:56, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Perhaps you've got this jigsaw puzzle. Mitch Ames (talk) 00:07, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
 * The OP might have an edge-matching puzzle, where this phenomenon can occur (although I can't offhand think of an example where everything but the final piece does not fit, I'm sure I could make a contrived example up, given time). HTH, Robinh (talk) 19:16, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

Pikachu?
I wanted to add an actual picture of Pikachu on the Simple English wiki for it, but I can't. Can someone do this for me? The Pikachu Who Dared (talk / contribs) 16:18, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Uploading images and Picture tutorial might help. If not, then try asking at Help desk (this is the reference desk - we help people find things on Wikipedia rather than help people edit Wikipedia, the Help desk helps people with editing). You may also want to ask for help on Simple English Wikipedia, since they may have different policies on images than we do here (this is the full English Wikipedia). --Tango (talk) 17:18, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Simple English Wikipedia does not permit non freely licensed content. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:23, 7 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Simple English Wikipedia is a distinct project from this one, and they have their own policies, guidelines, and conventions. We here at English Wikipedia have nothing to do with them.  You can find their help desk at http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simple_talk and someone who works there should be able to help you out.  -- Jayron  32  20:35, 7 January 2012 (UTC)