Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 March 8

= March 8 =

Userboxes for going gafia?
Do we have any userboxes for going gafia? Or are the Wikibreak ones the closest that we have? Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 03:34, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Probably not - but userboxes are incredibly easy to create. All you need is an appropriate image. SteveBaker (talk) 05:06, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Are there any good images hosted on Wikimedia Commons of "walking away in the sunset"? If there are, I might be tempted to make a "going gafia' userbox. Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 05:13, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * "Going gafia" is an odd expression. Maybe you should give us the IPA for it, and it could make more sense. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:28, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * I'd never heard/read it before either. This says that it's an acronym (from my reading of the OP's question, I'm guessing I have the same "gafia") for Getting Away From It All.  I'd appreciate an IPA as well since I pronounced it in my head like gaffer but I suppose it could be pronounced like mafia.  Dismas |(talk) 06:44, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * It rhymes with mafia, yes. /ˈɡɑfiə/. It means "to leave a community so as to focus on real life". Tharthandorf Aquanashi (talk) 13:44, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Given that spelling it out would say "going getting away from it all", this would be essentially an example of RAS syndrome. As to the original question, if there are no exact matches, the editor could create one. Users create new userboxes all the time. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:01, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * WHAAOE: GAFIA. I've never before encountered it outside SF fandom. --ColinFine (talk) 18:37, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

How to find info on doctor convicted of Medicaid Fraud in NY
A general practitioner I would rather not name for BLP reasons was convicted in Manhattan Supreme Court of Medicaid fraud in NYC in 2012 and sentenced to 2-6 years. I'd like to find out his current status regarding incarceration, and how to get information on his prior practice and current licensing status, as well as a way to find out where he is currently incarcerated, if he still is. Would anyone have any idea as to how to go about this? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 03:42, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * There might be some helpful info here. As for the other stuff, I'm afraid I'm not sure. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie &#124; Say Shalom! 17 Adar 5775 04:05, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Thanks. He's not even named in the list, which I assume means his license itself is revoked. μηδείς (talk) 16:00, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Tenerife airport disaster
How many of the 61 survivors of the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster are still alive today? D.M. Krol (talk) 04:23, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * It would take a great deal of research to answer definitively, but you could get a rough estimate based on the the elapsed 38 years. If you know the ages and genders of the survivors at the time, then a better estimate could be made. StuRat (talk) 13:29, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * That's not what he asked for. If you don't know the answer, don't post anything. --Viennese Waltz 09:03, 10 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I must have missed where that rule was made here, VW.217.158.236.14 (talk) 14:14, 10 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Me too-'I don't know the answer,but here's a site that should help you with finding out-or try contacting these people as a starting point' is perfectly valid.There has never been a rule here that if you can't give a specific exact answer immediately,you should not be allowed to post at all.And may there never be.Often one person will give a site,someone else will suggest something else and we get to the answer together. Lemon martini (talk) 14:40, 13 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I pointed out that they won't be likely to get an exact answer, and explained how they could go about getting an approximate answer. That's the best answer we can possibly provide, short of doing weeks of research to track down each and every survivor, which nobody here will do.  StuRat (talk) 20:06, 11 March 2015 (UTC)


 * I don't know if there's a comprehensive list, but googling the subject yields some anecdotal results. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:57, 10 March 2015 (UTC)


 * The KLM flight had families on vacation, with 52 out of 235 of its passengers being children, but all 248 on board were killed. The survivors were all on the Pan Am flight, which, according to our article, was mostly booked by retirees, with only two children on board.  The survivors of the Pan Am flight may have been biased toward the younger passengers.  But if we assume a survivor was 65 he'd be 103 today.  Even if he was 45 he'd be 83 today.  Best bet is there are very few left. μηδείς (talk) 00:23, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

US railroads and locomotives
I live outside Pittsburgh. Here, our railroads are a mix of CSX (previously P&LE) and NS (previously Conrail, prepreviously Penn Central, preprepreviously Pennsylvania Railroad), like lots of areas in the East. Lately, I've been seeing numerous yellow locomotives intermingled with the NS (I can't remember if they're BNSF or Union Pacific), e.g. a four-engine train will have three NS units and one "foreign" one, while today I saw and photographed a train on the CSX tracks with one BNSF engine and one not-yet-repainted AT&SF locomotive. What's going on? Has BNSF bought trackage rights in Pennsylvania? Have these railroads somehow had to lease BNSF units? Are they buying engines and not bothering to repaint them? Or is the answer something that would only be known by a corporate insider? Nyttend (talk) 06:28, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * You might have more luck at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Trains. Alansplodge (talk) 11:21, 9 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific have formed a joint intermodal operation for cross-country shipping. The operation is named EMP. See here and here.  → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 22:28, 9 March 2015 (UTC)
 * But it sounds like they cooperate on using the containers, not on using locomotives. Nyttend (talk) 00:45, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Faecal transplants treatment but between species
This is definitely a science topic. I'm moving it to WP:RDS, because people there might have a better idea of the answer. Nyttend (talk) 17:35, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Is this a piece of an in-sink garbage disposal?
Image. The household in-sink disposal was clunking something around when I turned it on, and I retrieved this (after unplugging the unit of course). I've never seen anything like it. No one else around to ask just yet... the machine has since sounded strange and not smooth operating, but maybe that's because this thing bent something? Maybe time to get a new disposal unit? – Kerαu noςco pia ◁ gala xies 19:13, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * It might be a shear pin. Oor article on them isn't very great, but look at split pin to see how they are fitted. They connect the grinder to the motor's shaft, and are designed to snap if the grinder jams, preventing damage to the motor. TURN OF THE POWER before doing this test. Does the grinder turn with a little resistance? If it's jammed or turns freely then the pin may have snapped. LongHairedFop (talk) 19:24, 8 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Interesting, thank you. It definitely matches the gross innards (color of metal) of the grinder, which now seems to run raggedly. I may just buy a new one (shopping online now). – Kerαu noςco pia ◁ gala xies 19:29, 8 March 2015 (UTC)
 * If it's only the pin that's broken, you can certainly buy a replacement split pin at any decent DIY store - and they are easy to fit. The big question is whether the motor itself, or the bearings inside the beast were damaged.  Once you have it pulled out from the sink, you could try pulling the blade off and see whether it runs smoothly without it.  If it does, then for a buck or two you can get a replacement pin - and for the 30 seconds it would take to replace it once the unit was removed from the sink - I'd say it was worth trying it to see if you can fix it.  But if a bearing is shot - then maybe  you're right and replacing the entire unit would be the best plan. SteveBaker (talk) 18:49, 9 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Sounds like a good plan, to me. Even if you could repair it, and it was undamaged, it's still probably at the end of it's life expectancy if pieces are falling out of it. StuRat (talk) 18:44, 9 March 2015 (UTC)