Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 January 3

= January 3 =

Size of the San Gabriel Valley compared to Singapore
Is the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, California, United States similar in size to the city-state Singapore in Southeast Asia? WJetChao (talk) 00:20, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Have you compared the figures for "area" given in each of those articles? --47.157.122.192 (talk) 00:22, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Singapore is 39% larger: it is up to you to decide if that is close enough to count as "similar" in your mind. Wymspen (talk) 11:58, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * When comparing the areas of things don't forget that internal water, integral external water and even those huge polygons around some territories like French Polynesia are included sometimes which can make a big difference for a small country with little land like Singapore. The most common limit of integral territorial waters is 12 nautical miles from shore (13.8 regular miles) and exclusive economic zones are often 200 nautical miles (230 normal miles). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:43, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

Veterinary ethics - when to put down a pet, how sick does it have to be
I would assume if I walked into a veterinarian's office with a perfectly healthy cat and asked them to euthanize her, they would firmly decline my request. At least I hope they would! On the other hand, I am kind of dreading a scenario where I am faced with the heartbreak and expense of keeping an extremely old cat alive and suffering as long as I possibly can. I would never want to do that either. So what are the norms under which an ethical veterinarian would "put down" an old cat? How sick would it have to be? What types of symptoms would it have to show? I live in the United States and in New York City, in case such norms differ greatly from place to place. I hope this is not a disturbing question. For the record, I am not plotting to get rid of my cat by euthanizing her prematurely; I've just been thinking a lot about and stressing a lot about what I will do at the end of her life. She is already 15 years old, and I want to know what to expect.--69.121.235.11 (talk) 18:44, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I also hope this is not construed as asking for "medical advice" for my cat. It's more of a factual question of what are commonly accepted veterinary practices in the United States. Thank you.--69.121.235.11 (talk) 18:47, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * They don't just differ from place to place, but from vet to vet. Some will euthanize a healthy animal - other's won't. A pet is property, and owners have a legal right to do what they want with their property, as long as they don't cause unnecessary suffering to an animal. There seem to be no laws saying when a vet can or cannot euthanize an animal. Some may prefer you to pay for lots of expensive medical treatments: others may be quicker to say it is time to end suffering. This looked interesting - Wymspen (talk) 19:10, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia has an article on that: Veterinary ethics. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:3410:B2CC:5D3A:A0AC (talk) 19:58, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I find it quite amusing that the article states that one of the key topics in veterinary ethics is "informed consent". My dog has to be dragged in every time, and I am struggling on how I can inform him of the benefits of inoculation. -- Q Chris (talk) 10:27, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * If you figure out how to do that, you'll make a fortune. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:00, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I found a discussion of a particular (fictional?) example here. It seems to suggest that it's largely up to vet's own conscience. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:40, 4 January 2018 (UTC)


 * If you've got a pet, you should already have established a relationship with a veterinarian, and should have a sense of how ethical they are. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:53, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

How do I edit a railway route map in an infobox?
Hello helpers,

Despite spending a lot of time searching, I have been unable to find how to amend a railway route map (the one in the infobox at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_Peninsula_Railway) -- I want to delete a station and three words. Everything I've come across avoids the question of how to edit them (in fact I couldn't find out how to create them either). Advice would be greatly appreciated! SCHolar44 (talk) 19:05, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * You can't edit the map on the article page itself: you have to edit the template. Type Template:Eyre Peninsula railway in the search box to get there. Then, it's a matter of whether you're comfortable working with tables and other types of graphics, but that particular one does not seem overly complicated. I strongly suggest you use a sandbox and the preview feature to try out your changes before messing up with the live template. --Xuxl (talk) 19:53, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You can also edit the template by clicking the "edit" link at the bottom of the infobox. --Viennese Waltz 15:01, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Many thanks, Xuxl -- all worked well. I appreciate your time and expertise.  SCHolar44 (talk) 22:39, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * This page shows icons that you can select and how to integrate them with others. It's not comprehensive but may help. Akld guy (talk) 00:42, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Also, note that any changes you make to a template may not immediately show in the article that calls the template. You can force a call by making a minor edit to the article. Akld guy (talk) 00:51, 4 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for that information, Akld. As it happened, all I needed to do was remove a couple of entries, but some time in 2018 I'll need to know how to add. And thanks for telling me about the delay! SCHolar44 (talk) 10:33, 4 January 2018 (UTC)


 * If you want to force an update the general recommendation would be to Purge the page. Nil Einne (talk) 14:51, 10 January 2018 (UTC)