Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 September 21

= September 21 =

Vernon Circle, Canberra - who was it named after?
Who was Vernon Circle – the road that surrounds City Hill, Canberra, Australia – named after? Mitch Ames (talk) 06:50, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * According to this site, it's named after Walter Liberty Vernon. Tevildo (talk) 08:47, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Confirmed by the ACT Environment and Sustainable Development website. (If the link doesn't work (and I suspect it might not), just do a search on "Vernon Circle" on their home page). Tevildo (talk) 08:53, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I've created a stub article with the above refs. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:30, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Is it true that Fifty Shades of Grey has caused increase in interest in bondage, BDSM, and fetish among young Americans?
Is this true? I heard this. Zombiesturm (talk) 20:04, 21 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Yes? What sort of reference would you like for this?  Mere common sense would indicate that since the Lord of the Rings movies increased interest in hobbits among young people, 50 would do the same for its subject matter.  But I doubt we've got any peer reviewed sources. μηδείς (talk) 20:16, 21 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Certainly there's been a reported increase in the sales of sex toys, ropes, bondage equipment etc, as a simple Google search reveals. The Rambling Man (talk) 20:23, 21 September 2014 (UTC)


 * According to sales statistics (or according to what Women's Health reports on them): yes and beyond (though no proof for causality). "In 2012 alone, sales of whips and teasers increased by more than 50 percent and sales of pleasure beads (like LELO Luna Beads) increased by more than 200 percent! Then, once people were ready to explore past the BDSM trend in 2013, LELO saw sales of couples massagers and wearable toys (like LELO Tor 2) increase by 82 percent." ---Sluzzelin  talk  20:28, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Neat. Thanks. Zombiesturm (talk) 21:25, 21 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Where does Sluzzelin's link say anything about demographics? The only ones I ever hear talking about that book are the middle-aged. That could be confirmation bias, though. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 00:50, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree that the source doesn't say anything about age. But lacking detailed demographics by age, it's a decent start. It also doesn't really consider the fact that the company LELO as a whole may well have been growing at the same rate for a several years, or that the industry in general has been growing for the past ~15 years, not just the past ~3. Still, it's some evidence that the books have had an impact on interests/habits. As Medeis points out above, that's pretty much expected for any sufficiently popular work.
 * That being said, if anyone is interested, there is some academic research on the topic. This one is scientific, and focused on women aged 18-14 years . Here are some others that are tangentially related to the OPs question, but do focus on '50 shades', and have a more literary/humanist methodology  . SemanticMantis (talk) 16:11, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * 18-14? Should we assume you mean 18-24? In any case, even if the increase in sales is due to it being a growth industry, still the key component of the OP's question is "among young Americans". I don't know what he means by "young", but could supposed 18-24. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:29, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, if you'd clicked on the link, you'd see the article says 18-24, and could be certain that I mis-typed. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:20, 23 September 2014 (UTC)
 * That link looked suspicious to me. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:48, 24 September 2014 (UTC)

Another result of all this, is that it has put Thomas Tallis's rather wonderful Spem in alium at the top of the UK classical music charts in 2012. Alansplodge (talk) 12:46, 24 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Hope in onion? μηδείς (talk) 02:53, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * ¿Qué? Alansplodge (talk) 10:19, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Sperm in garlic ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:30, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh I see. As in Allium. Alansplodge (talk) 14:54, 25 September 2014 (UTC)