Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 October 4

= October 4 =

Mineral Rights
How dose a property ower find out if they have mineral rights on their property. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.3.83.193 (talk) 00:06, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm fairly certain that a similar question was asked a few months back. I'll see if I can find it in the archives - unless you beat me to it. :) ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:14, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * First off, this would be country specific - different countries treat property ownership differently. But assuming you're talking about the US, mineral rights will likely be spelled out in the title to the property. This may be a bit tricky to interpret, as depending on jurisdiction, there may or may not be the assumption that the mineral rights pass along with the property. (So a title that doesn't explicitly mention mineral rights might mean different things state to state.) Another option is to look at the deeds for the property, and see if/how mineral rights have been transferred - especially useful if you can look at the chain of ownership back to the original land grant. All of this is made easier by contacting the local land registry - for a fee, they should be able to assist a person in tracking down property rights. Though be advised that different states have different land registration systems (see Recording (real estate), Torrens title, Deeds registration, etc.). If you really need to know, it's probably best to talk to a local lawyer who does real estate transactions. (They likely have a flat fee for doing a title search.) -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 00:48, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Not just country specific, in the U.S. it's state specific. For example, mineral rights [and oil and gas] are a discrete section of the Texas Bar Exam. It's a huge area of law. Classic common law held that the land owner owned mineral rights below their parcel, however that's an incredibly simplistic answer in light of all the variation, case law, etc. Some states actually have recording laws for mineral leases, if I remember right. Only way a land owner can really know is to consult a lawyer. Shadowjams (talk) 03:23, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

slang
anybody know what "uber" means? also, i was reading a blog post. the person said "i'm gonna sit around with friends this Halloween and talk about historical events on oct 31st, goo history!" what does the last part mean? thank you, 70.114.254.43 (talk) 06:17, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing but I reckon oober is a re-spelling of Über. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  06:21, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I assume the 2nd part is a misspelling of "Go history !", which is a cheer for history, meaning they are a fan. StuRat (talk) 06:53, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

i meant "uber". sorry. 70.114.254.43 (talk) 07:00, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * 'Uber' means 'over' or 'higher' in German, so generally it is used by gamers, at least, to mean 'really good', or 'extreme'.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  07:13, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * In German, it's "über" with an umlaut. Famous usages are Nietzsche's Übermensch (quite literally "superhuman") and "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", the first stanza of the old German national anthem. Contrast the Nazi Untermensch. "Uber" without the umlaut is somewhat analogous to a reverse Heavy Metal Umlaut. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:17, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Of course, but on Anglophone keyboards, there is no umlaut, unless you press ALT+220	on your numpad with numlock enabled. Most people can't be bothered with that (or plainly just don't know what the 'dots' represent), so don't do it.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  08:25, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I use a US keyboard on a PC under Red Hat Linux and produce Umlauts without Numlock or the keypad. And I use a US keyboard on a Mac and produce Umlauts even though my MacBook does not even have a keypad (or Numlock). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:43, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I use a Hungarian keyboard on a Dell Win7 lappie, which has a u-umlaut key on it, | in fact two of them (one is actually a double acute accent), so ner-ner-nee-ner-ner :)   KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  10:48, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Another method is to keep a file handy which already has common diacriticals, so you can just copy-and-paste:
 * áÁ éÉ íÍ óÓ úÚ ñÑ ¡¿ - àÀ çÇ èÈ - âÂ êÊ îÎ ôÔ ûÛ - äÄ öÖ ß üÜ
 * ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:53, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Or on MS Word, you can go to "Insert Symbol" and select the letter with diacritic that you need from the "Normal text" font. Alansplodge (talk) 21:03, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * "I meant "uber". Sorry. "Uber" is the same thing as "über". You native English speakers just aren't used to that in the rest of the world, accent and umlaut marks are actually used. Thus, "uber" is just a form of "über" that is easier to type on English/American keyboards that can't be used to type a "ü" letter. (I can't type one on my keyboard with a single keypress either, I have to use - what, the shock - two keypresses: first to type the umlaut mark, then to type the "u". I don't know how I'm going to be able to put up with this.) J I P  &#124; Talk 18:49, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't know what all this blather about umlauts is about. The very first respondent here did spell the word with the umlaut.  I must remember to send him a barnstar.--   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  20:06, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * I got the impression that the OP thought "uber" and "über" meant different things. J I P  &#124; Talk 03:48, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * This confusion was caused when the OP changed their original spelling of "oober" to "uber" and also apologized for the misspelling, leading those new to the thread to wonder what they meant, since the "oober" had been excised, and draw the false conclusion that they were overly umlaut-conscious. StuRat (talk) 06:07, 6 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Well it was obvious to me after some mometary confusion (but I never thought umlauts were at issue) from reading the early part of the thread (JoO clearly noted the misspelling) having never seen the original post, but I do agree the OP's modification and failure to clearly specify they had done so was a recipe for confusion. Nil Einne (talk) 06:19, 6 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Use Urban Dictionary if you ever need to know slang. 65.95.21.169 (talk) 13:33, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Or the Ürban Dictionary.   KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  15:09, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * An uber is someone who ubes. —Tamfang (talk) 19:59, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Cheers, Tamfang. I might spend the weekend 'ubing', then.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  07:12, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Similarly, and with the same etymology, an over is one who oves, and a super is one who supes. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:49, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

thanks all. 70.114.254.43 (talk) 22:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Can I just say I love you guys?!! If I was in a situation where I was allowed to Laugh out Loud without it being noticed I was on here instead of working, I would... I love the humour on this desk - makes me realise that I'm not the only one with my particular sense of humour... Keep up the good work - a barnstar to you all! gaz hiley  11:41, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Hey! This is a serious place. No laughing aloud allowed. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:49, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, a noisy noise annoys an oyster. Keep it in your shell, mate. We'll tell no-one.  KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( TALK )  14:27, 5 October 2012 (UTC)


 * Not even Herman's Hermits. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  21:48, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Plumbling
Imagine there is a plug (5cms thick) with a diameter of 20cms stuck somewhere down a horizontal pipe of diameter 22cms and that the pipe is about 60ft long and accessible from both ends, but the pipe is not quite straight such that the plug cannot be seen nor pushed out with a long enough stick, and there is a 5cm T-shaped piece of metal on one end of the plug. How would someone, like a professional plumber, get that plug out of there? (It went down the pipe originally due to water pressure - but continued attempts to use water pressure to shoot it all the way through have failed). Thanks, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.95.21.169 (talk) 13:30, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * With a Plumber's snake. -- Jayron  32  13:51, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * The snake could reach it, but removing such a plug might be more difficult than your typical clump of hair. We weren't told what the plug is made out of, so dissolving it with chemicals might work, depending on the material.  If all else fails, a plumber might cut through the pipe with a torch, remove the plug, and weld it back together.  (Some type of a video borescope with an attached micro-drill would be the ideal solution, but I doubt if many plumbers have the attached drill part.) StuRat (talk) 05:20, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Articles Understandability
I was just wondering why so many of wikipedia's articles are so hard to understand. Examples are Equity (finance), Complex number and even Quantum mechanics? I cannot understand much in these articles. Could they perhaps be written more simply, as on simple english wikipedia? 92.0.121.34 (talk) 18:34, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * See Make technical articles understandable
 * and Category:Wikipedia articles that are too technical.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 18:46, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * See Village pump (proposals)/Archive 35.
 * —Wavelength (talk) 18:48, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
 * There are introductions to some articles that are extremely complex (Introduction to quantum mechanics, for example). You can see a list at Category:Introduction articles. Unfortuantly, this does not encompass all of the technical articles on Wikipedia. Livewireo (talk) 20:27, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

burning stuff
how long will oil last in an oil lamp (at one Candela)? also, I'm gonna try to make some incense for a friend for Christmas, any ideas on how to go about it? and can one ask about five questions in a row on here? thank you, 70.114.254.43 (talk) 23:01, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * On the last question:
 * It's OK to ask a short series of related questions in the same thread.
 * If they're unrelated questions, make them separate threads, each with its own header.
 * There's no formal limit as to how many questions one person can ask. But if you were to post 100 questions at the same time or over the course of a day, we might suspect your bona fides.  --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  23:13, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

got it, thanks. 70.114.254.43 (talk) 23:24, 4 October 2012 (UTC)


 * No idea but I'm thinking that it would depend on what you were burning.
 * Google "making homemade incense". There are a number of how-tos on the Internet and likely a few books.
 * There was one person who would post questions because they thought that if we didn't have questions to answer, we didn't have anything else to do. That's not true.  We answer questions because we're generally helpful people with some knowledge about various things.  We're just volunteers.  If we're not answering something, we're off doing something else.  Dismas |(talk) 05:06, 5 October 2012 (UTC)