Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2013 February 7

= February 7 =

Vulcan nerve pinch in Dr Who
Tonight in the gym I was watching some episodes involving the first Doctor, a sequence called The Aztecs. At some point Ian Chesterton performed a maneuver that looked virutally identical in execution and effect to the Vulcan nerve pinch. Looking at the respective wikis for the shows I find that the Dr Who episodes were from 1964, but the first time Spock did his special thing was 1966.

The precedent is mentioned without other comment in our article on the Vulcan technique, but I'm curious whether there's any other evidence for or against the proposition that Roddenberry/Nimoy copied (consciously or otherwise) the earlier show. --Trovatore (talk) 11:16, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The Vulcan nerve pinch article you mention has lots of information, including that the idea was devised by Nimoy, some speculation that it may have been influenced by the "karate chop" concept that was popular at that time and a mention (and even a photo) of Chesterton. If there was a knocking-out meme in those days, it seems reasonable enough for two different series to apply it in a way apt for specific characters: as the article points out, Nimoy came up with the idea when he rejected the idea of Spock being as violent as the script called for. --Dweller (talk) 12:42, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I suppose it's not completely out of the question, but it seems like a fairly specific step from "you can knock someone out by hitting the base of the neck" to "you can knock someone out by pinching the shoulder". I'm skeptical of the idea that Nimoy's was truly an independent invention (though he may well have thought it was).  But he must have been asked about it at some point &mdash; if anyone has seen such an interview, I'd be interested to know. --Trovatore (talk) 19:10, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Nimoy was seriously considered as the director of a Dr Who movie in 1996 - which suggests he has/had at least some interest & knowledge about Dr Who - but that's flimsey evidence about whether he'd seen that specific show 30 years earlier. SteveBaker (talk) 14:46, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * True. --Trovatore (talk) 19:10, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Active Shooter Drills at a University
Due to recent high-school shootings, my University is starting to do "Active Shooter" drills. I do not intend to start debate here, but my personal curiosity wonders if this is reasonable, since almost all shootings seem to be at high-schools. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the person's age and maturity or what, but it has entered my mind as a possibility.

My MAIN question: When was the last time there was an active shooter on a UNIVERSITY campus WITHIN the United States?

Also if possible, what are reasons for staff to believe this is seriously possible when the latest event happened at a completely different level of education institution probably around 1000 miles away?

(Sorry but i personally think its an over reaction, i hear rumors the president is blaming video games instead of looking into the psychology of students who go violent, so I'm thinking the staff of education institutions are freaking out!)

Thanks for any help in knowing the history of University shootings, and the thought process behind these latest actions by University staff. :) 137.81.118.126 (talk) 15:37, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * The single most-deadly mass shooting incident in the US was the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Helping debunk the notion of "age or maturity" is the 2010 University of Alabama in Huntsville shooting, where a faculty member murdered colleagues during a meeting.  A perusal of our list of school shootings in the United States finds dozens of university-level shooting incidents over the past 20 years.  Shooting incidents are not confined to schools, and those which occur at schools are not confined to high schools. &mdash; Lomn 15:39, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * You might also want List of attacks related to post-secondary schools, which lists two attacks in the United States in 2012 (one of which was the Oikos University shooting in April). Hut 8.5 17:08, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * If you "do not intend to start debate here", you would perhaps be more believable if you had not said "i personally think its an over reaction". --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  17:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Just for the record, I don't think there is any evidence of Obama "planning to blame video games". This might be an unfortunate reference to his gun control plan including funding and removing legal restrictions for research into all possible causes of violence, which includes video games. 46.30.55.66 (talk) 17:32, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

I must agree to your replies that operhaps some of my personal beliefs could have been omitted. I wrote a little hurriedly, and i apologize for this. However, i would like to respond to the reply of Lomn. I do recall Virginia Tech, now that you mention it. However, looking at the list of shootings you have supplied, i had no idea that so many shootings occurred at the university level. Is this a matter of me being ill informed and not keeping in touch with the news as i ought to, or is there perhaps a reason why high school shootings seem to show up all day on tv when they happen, and there seems to be less mention or coverage on university shootings?

137.81.118.126 (talk) 18:08, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Without a detailed review, my main thought is that the combination of guns and minors will draw additional media attention -- "someone fired a gun at a middle school" is a bigger story, in terms of media coverage, than "someone fired a gun at a grocery store". See, for example, Slate's ongoing "how many people have been shot since Newtown" piece, which, among other things, highlights just how many gun deaths don't make national news.  My guess is that non-mass shootings at the university level (where few if any involved are minors) lands closer to "grocery store" than "middle school" on the media coverage scale.  In terms of preparedness, though, they're all "active shooter" scenarios, and the same rules for "what do you do if you hear gunfire?" will apply. &mdash; Lomn 19:03, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

This evidence confirms my suspicion. Thank you everyone for helping me to understand the reality of the situation, it allows me to appreciate these upcoming drills a lot more. Honestly when i started this post i felt they were vastly an unfounded waste of time... and now i can see that it isn't so much so. Thanks again and have a good day!

137.81.118.126 (talk) 19:25, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * With them arming the lecturers I suppose we can now look forward to more cases like in Huntsville. I hope not too many of them think their students are driving them over the edge by texting during lectures. Hopefully this should at least improve student behaviour! Dmcq (talk) 14:25, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Stridulum?
What is the name of that gizmo that ancient peoples used to clean themselves with? I believe the romans rubbed olive oil into their skin and used a bladed gadget to scrape the oil (and therefore, the dirt) off. I thought it was called a "stridulum" - but we have no mention of such things here on Wikipedia and Google doesn't find anything obvious. SteveBaker (talk) 17:15, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * It's a strigil. (I googled for "skin oil scraper".) Looie496 (talk) 17:38, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Argh! I was so close!  (A stridulum turns out to be the scrapers that grasshoppers have on their legs to make their characteristic sounds).
 * Many thanks!
 * SteveBaker (talk) 17:57, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

'Synchronous Conferencing'
Or online chat groups in more common terms. I want to set one up so members of my club can talk to each other easier, rather than sending individual emails, but I don't know where would be best to go. I have heard good things about these IRC programs, but when I tried myself, I found it difficult and complicated to get set up and to use. I want something simple, free, and easy for anyone (or at least those invited in) to join, but yet also something that looks reasonably nice and professional unlike some I have seen that are bright and cluttered and childish in appearance. I've tried searching on this site and elsewhere, but I can't seem to find anything I want, so I thought I might get further asking other people who may have experience with some nice websites or services.

many thanks,

79.66.102.111 (talk) 18:32, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Skype is free (for calls to other Skype users), easy, and allows group calls of up to 25 people simultaneously. See .  -- Jayron  32  19:54, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Its a possibility, but skype does require each person to sign up and create an account first, that much effort might dissuade some people from bothering. 82.132.236.20 (talk) 16:55, 8 February 2013 (UTC)


 * They're the people who expect to walk into a bank and walk out with a mortgage without ever becoming customers of the bank or even providing any information about their financial circumstances, or even identifying themselves. --   Jack of Oz   [Talk]  22:09, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Google groups hangouts also offer a nice video conferencing feature...but you still have to sign on. I don't think you're going to find one that DOESN'T require a sign-on - and if you did, you wouldn't like it because those kinds of system rapidly fill up with spammers and other noxious low-lifes.  You really don't want someone adding in a video feed for fake penis enhancement products into your video conference...and that's exactly what would happen if it was open to all without some kind of identification. SteveBaker (talk) 16:44, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I was meaning a text based chat rather than video, but I guess the point about spam still stands. That's why we used to use chatzy, the only way of getting into the chat is with a link to the page it's on, but the site looks a little informal, maybe not suitable for this club, and it doesn't seem to work right on my phone, meaning I wouldn't be available whilst out and about. 79.66.104.214 (talk) 12:38, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Have you considered using a twitter feed instead? SteveBaker (talk) 16:42, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

FAA EXAM
What are the basic requirments to right FAA exam? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jissel (talk • contribs) 19:02, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Which FAA? Which exam? Dismas |(talk) 19:40, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Knowing how to spell might be on the list. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Well for the Angolan Armed Forces I'd guess passing a fitness examination would be the main thing but they probably have enough people currently with having to integrate former UNITA members. Dmcq (talk) 13:56, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Shadowjams (talk) 09:15, 9 February 2013 (UTC)