Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 March 18

= March 18 =

which airlines normally have destination Toronto to Sydney and Sydney to Toronto
Which airlines normally have flights from Sydney, Australia to Toronto, Canada and from Toronto to Sydney? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.155.121 (talk) 00:48, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * According to our article Toronto Pearson International Airport, Air Canada is the only airline with regular direct service between those two airports. Marco polo (talk) 01:41, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * This site lists eleven, and [the site's users] "...most frequently choose to fly from Toronto to Sydney with either Air Canada, Qantas Airways or Cathay Pacific Airways". However, Air Canada is the only non-stop carrier listed. —: 71.20.250.51 (talk) 01:52, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Worth noting is that even the 'direct' Air Canada flight includes a fuel stop in Vancouver (YVR). Looking at the available online schedules, it's a nominal half-hour stop to top off the 777's tanks before continuing in the same plane under the same flight number; in practice, the typical time between arrival at YVR and departure seems to run closer to two hours.
 * In terms of total travel time, there's not a huge difference between the 'direct' Air Canada flight and one of the alternatives that makes a single connection at LAX. Mixed blessings all around, though&mdash;going via LAX means having to deal with U.S. customs, but you get to stretch your legs before the long trans-Pacific segment; going via YVR is slightly faster, and Air Canada tends to be more pleasant than United, but 22 hours is a loooong time to spend on one plane.  Individual mileage and preferences will vary.  TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:42, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

French fire-safety standards


This image appears to illustrate some sort of French fire-safety standards, using monkeys in tuxedos as examples. Any idea what specifically it's talking about, and/or what an UP is? The upload summary, the current description, and the current category aren't that helpful, but there's no other information. Nyttend (talk) 01:53, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * UP = "unité de passage" ("unit of exit width" or something like that), defined as ... ehm see link, or your post, defined differently for the first three factors of 1, 2, and 3. ---Sluzzelin talk  02:01, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I guess the idea is that you can have a degree of overlap after the first one, and more after the first two? After all, monkey 2 and all the monkeys after him carry shorter canes, so they don't quite need as much room as monkey 1.  Thanks for the explanation.  Nyttend (talk) 04:05, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I hope none of the monkeys get singed by the fire! {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 14:21, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Very droll. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  19:28, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I've been waiting patiently for the French monkey punchline; meanwhile ..."le singe est dans l'arbre" ? —:71.20.250.51 (talk) 20:26, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Naughty monkey. It deserves to be spanked.  :)  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:53, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Mais, ou sont les passageurs? Le baggage?  Ils sont ici, dans le mouton de ciel! (Avec Les singes capitulards fromangeantes!)11:12, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Minor clarification but as per the image, the definition of 1 and 2 is different from 3 and the rest. 3 is specified seperately, but uses a specialised case of the same definition used for 4 or more. The effect of the definition is that for 1 you have 0.90m, for 2 you add 0.50m to that, for 3 you add 0.40m to the previous total and for 4 and more you add 0.60m for each new person. Or alternatively, 1 person needs 0.90m, 2 people need an average of 0.70m per person and 3 or more need an average of 0.60m per person. (Although as stated by others, due to overlap it's probably a bit simplistic to view it simply as the average.) Nil Einne (talk) 16:26, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

WW II special services production
AS A CHILD IN Vallejo, Ca, during WW II the "military" staged an elaborate re-production of an amphibious invasion of a pacific island using the local high school football field. The "island" had complete foliage, sand, grass hut quarters, observation tower and uniformed "Japanese" soldiers. The attack featured blank firing weapons and "bombardment" explosions and the good guys prevailed, complete with raising a victory stars and stripes. This was all staged at night for effect and the full community filled the stands. Can you locate any details of this special services production?


 * How did this child in Vallejo come to be known as the "military"? —Tamfang (talk) 19:10, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * You might have better luck with the Vallejo Community Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vallejotogether —71.20.250.51 (talk) 19:19, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I did a quick Google search, but didn't find anything. Alansplodge (talk) 16:05, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Spanish gold in the 1600's and 1700's.
Clearly the Spanish were hauling massive amounts of gold from South and Central America during the 1600's and 1700's.  How were they getting it? I can't seem to find any detailed description of how they did that!

We hear stories of them forcing the local people to give up all of their gold ornaments, etc - holding hostage their rulers in exchange for rooms full of the stuff (and then killing them anyway) but surely that was only a sustainable way to get gold for a relatively short number of years...they were hauling boatloads of gold back to Europe for over 100 years.

What happened after that initial theft? Did they mine it? Pan rivers for it? Also, did they use their own workers, or pay the local people to do the work - or maybe employ slave labor?

If they were mining or panning for it - are there any good paintings or reconstructions of the equipment they used - any description of the techniques they employed?

Background: My wife's business (http://renaissanceminiatures.com) is to manufacture 1/60th scale model buildings, ships, etc for tabletop gamers - we're working on a series of kits for Caribbean pirate scenarios. When I researched the pirates in that area, they actually did more attacks on the Spanish mainland than in ship-to-ship attacks - so I'm interested in what a Spanish gold-production facility might look like so we can maybe make models of them.

SteveBaker (talk) 19:23, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * The Mita_(Inca) article mentions a "Potosi silver mine" which when googled for images gave some ideas. Star Lord -   星王 (talk) 19:43, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes, in one word, the Potosi silver mine. (Also, gold is often found in silver deposits.) μηδείς (talk) 20:00, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * The common people had no gold or silver as it was reserved for the ruling elite and the priesthood. The Spanish melted down gold and silver temple furniture and statues. The Spanish enslaved the locals to mine for gold and silver and worked the slaves until they died. Sleigh (talk) 22:36, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Do you have a citation for that, Sleigh? --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  22:51, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Science Show 15 March, 2014, Radio National. Sleigh (talk) 05:21, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I meant a transcript we can read for ourselves. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  09:02, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Picked up out of streams. It was placer gold: Rmhermen (talk) 15:52, 19 March 2014 (UTC)
 * From Mining Weekly - Spanish conquistadors and the looting of Mexican, Peruvian gold treasures which says; "The Incas were the great gold hoarders of America. Their treasure included objects and bullion looted from the Chimu civilisation in 1470 and also included gold that had been exploited from the alluvial deposits of the streams of Peru. It is also believed that the Incas mined gold in places such as the Curimayo valley, north-east of Cajamarca." It does seem from both theses sources that the Spanish were looters rather than miners of gold. Alansplodge (talk) 16:02, 19 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Go to the library of your local good university or purchase from Amazon and consult the book Mining In World History, by Martin Lynch, published by Reaktion Books, 2004. In it you will find a chapter that discusses comprehensively how the Spanards got gold out of South America. Here are the essentials:_
 * 1. The fist Spaniards in South America noticed the natives had a fair quantity of gold ornaments, and told every one else when they got back to Spain.
 * 2.  Spain then thought there must be large quantities of gold easy to win in South Amaerica, and despatched expeditions to get it.
 * 3.  The expeditions took by force most of the gold ornaments and then found there was no more.  It turned out that gold was not more easily mined there than elsewhere in the World - it just that the locals had accumulated all the easily won nugget and fines stuff over the centeries...
 * 4.  The demand for gold from Spain created a huge problem for the Spaniards in South America.  They could not meet orders!
 * 5.  The problem was solved with the arrival of mining engineers knowlegeable in mercury extraction.  They set up mercury extraction facilities.  Essentially, these were big shallow pits filled with ore mixed with water and mecury to form mud.  Natives were forced to tramp around all day long in the mud pits (ie slave labour), to mix it all up and give the mercury a change to absorb all the gold.  An activity which was definitely bad for the natives' health.
 * 121.215.154.87 (talk) 16:06, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Hunting for a (supposedly) disappeared Cracked article
Today Daniel O'Brien published a column detailing how he was investigated by the United States Secret Service over the publication of a satirical guide titled "how to kidnap the president's daughter", which was itself taken down (allegedly due to a government subpoena). However, I cannot find any evidence that this article ever even existed. It's a virtual non-entity on Google, and is not found in O'Brien's list of articles even as it appears in the wayback machine for any of the dates I checked. So was this entire incident, including the article itself, made up, or has the government actually done that good of a job erasing something from the internet? Thanks. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:04, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I didn't remember that until you mentioned the title, but I'm also drunk so I may not be the most reliable source on this. I didn't read it at the time because it didn't seem funny (assuming my memory is not messing with me).
 * Oh, wait here's an article about said article, from 2009. Ian.thomson (talk) 22:09, 18 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Aha, thank you Ian. That article contained the old URL, which allowed me to find wayback's copy. Someguy1221 (talk) 22:14, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I was wondering about that myself, but didn't want to dig too deep. I might need to fly one day. InedibleHulk (talk) 15:03, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Where an I find spreadsheets of random (fake) names and other personal info for data testing?
I'm in charge of speeding up the data processes at my office, and part of this involves taking long lists of names with various data and tinkering with it. I'd love if I could get long spreadsheets of just names, addresses, social security numbers, etc. of fake people just to test my programs. Is there a place I can get long lists like this? 50.43.148.35 (talk) 22:29, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * For example, this site (http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/) is great, if they had some sort of bulk download option, that'd be stellar. 50.43.148.35 (talk) 22:33, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Never mind; They've got one! Thanks guys! 50.43.148.35 (talk) 22:36, 18 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You're welcome!   (This was an easy one) 71.20.250.51 (talk) 18:05, 19 March 2014 (UTC)