Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 October 28

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Miscellaneous desk
< October 27 << Sep | Oct | Nov >> October 29 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.



October 28[edit]

Judge Judy episode[edit]

In which Judge Judy episode did Judge Judy ask someone to spell the word "white" and he spelled it "wight"? Thank you. Futurist110 (talk) 04:14, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's pretty obscure. Have you tried Google? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc?carrots→ 12:42, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've just had a go with Google, and although I can't pin down the exact episode, it appears to have screened in early August 2004, and I've found a forum where the case in question is referred to as the "Nasty Away Message" case. AlexTiefling (talk) 12:53, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • If she asked him to spell /waɪt/ instead of /hwaɪt/, wight was the correct spelling. Given she's from NY I expect that was the case--she got it wrong, not he. μηδείς (talk) 16:09, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You haven't understood what is meant by the IPA, Bugs. Look again. It's not the distinction between wight and right, but the distinction betweenwight /waɪt/ and white /hwaɪt/, which are pronounced differently except in certain dialects. Many blacks and Southerners distinguish the two according to the IPA I gave, most white New Yorkers do not. See which-witch merger. μηδείς (talk) 16:42, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Under what conditions would someone in that show bring the actual word "wight" into the discussion? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:54, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If she up and asked someone who distinguishes /w/ from /hw/ to spell /waɪt/ it would be the only proper answer for him to give. You don't second guess the judge. μηδείς (talk) 17:34, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Given the typical nature of the parties at her courtroom, it seems unlikely. However, the only way to know for sure would be to find a youtube and/or a transcript of the episode, so that the context would be clear. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc?carrots→ 18:52, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Wight and White are homophones in the UK, on the Isle of Wight anyway. Alansplodge (talk) 18:55, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
not in all of the UK, in parts of Scotland they are different. -- Q Chris (talk) 18:58, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I stand corrected. Alansplodge (talk) 13:57, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
[1] -- Jack of Oz [Talk] 22:11, 31 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for all of your help. I think that the woman's name in the trial was Kimberly Kulick or something like that while the man was her enstranged boyfriend. Futurist110 (talk) 18:32, 3 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unknown Landscape[edit]

I found this picture in a maze of old folders on my old hard drivehttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dE5bqc5jtwI/Tpc1TXHs8_I/AAAAAAAAAKo/-DRS_u9O4mY/s1600/01698_betweenthemountains_1920x1080.jpg. Reverse searching doesn't really give me anything except for a million wallpaper sites. What's the landmark/place that it was originally taken? It's definitely been altered, but still looks quite stunning.

Thanks in advance, 27.32.104.185 (talk) 08:57, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A bit of googling states that it's a photo by Giovanni Di Gregorio, and calls it "An old abandoned house. Behind it the mountains of Gran Sasso, in Abruzzo." Could be. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:56, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
This looks like it's the original. The caption says it's near "the road that leads from Città Sant'Angelo toElice" - Cucumber Mike (talk) 13:44, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! The original is better I think :) -27.32.104.185 (talk) 11:29, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Funnily enough, the wallpaper version appears to be in natural colour, and lacks the watermark (without having cropped it out), whereas the watermarked version is almost certainly in false colour. I wonder if both versions derive from an earlier copy? AlexTiefling (talk) 11:36, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
This looks like the original: [2] AlexTiefling (talk) 11:38, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
That includes a link to the artist's page which links to the above 500px site. I'm guessing the artist uploaded them to both sites (they commented in the interfacelift site). It seems clear neither came from the other directly since one lacks the watermark or any sign of it (well I didn't look that closely), and the otheryet it is cropped more (but not enough to cut out the watermark). The original as it were is I presume still in the artists's collection although the original of 27's is likely the interfacelift one. Nil Einne (talk) 16:35, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
BTW, if you look at the author's profile on the 500px site, most of their images have similar colours. They look fairly typical of artistic High dynamic range imaging processing to me (as our article mentions 'HDR is also commonly used to refer to display of images derived from HDR imaging in a way that exaggerates contrast for artistic effect') and in one of them HDR is even mentioned in the comments. So most likely there isn't even really one original image but multiple ones with different bracketings. Although whether the interfacelift image is one of the bracketings or is also a processed HDR of the originals but without the exaggerating effect I can't say although it does seem to have fairy good dynamic range, but given it's still 24 bit I doubt you can be sure.Nil Einne (talk) 16:44, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

New WP developments[edit]

Hello,

I'm doing a school presentation, and looking for information on new developments concerning Wikipedia. I seem to recall reading about some collaborative effort with some commercial information resources, but I'm not finding this information anywhere, can you help me?.


Thank you for your time,

AGA — Preceding unsigned comment added by24.161.61.75 (talk) 19:02, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well recently we have had Wikipedia:Article Feedback_Tool/Version 5 introduced. Wikipedia:United States Education Program has been running for over a year and is now introduced to Canada and Egypt. Some references sites or information sources have made content available to Wikipedia users, eg Wikipedia:HighBeam Wikipedia:Credo accounts Wikipedia:Requests for JSTOR access Wikipedia:Questia. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:03, 31 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What city in the united States has the most centenarians (people over 100)?[edit]

What city in the united States has the most centenarians (people over 100)? Neptunekh94 (talk) 19:11, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unless there's any reason to believe the age distribution is skewed in certain places, the answer would be the city that has the most people (of all ages), which I assume to be New York, depending on your definition of city. -- Jack of Oz [Talk] 19:18, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
We do have a List of the verified oldest people, (unfortunately not sortable). List of supercentenarians from the United States may be of help, as it gives the state of residence (but no city). This article on the 1990 census (centenarians) has 10.1% in CAL and 8.4% in NY. Again, there are no figures based on cities of residence.
I can not find a city based listing which would give an answer to your query. Age distribution DOES seem to be skewed, as evidenced by the example of Florida. The last reference by the US Census says that whilst lots of "the younger old" move to FLA, the "older old" seem to return to their state of birth. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 20:04, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
To get you started, Philadelphia has "more than 400".[3] Clarityfiend (talk) 20:58, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Electronic fund transfer in the 1960s[edit]

Dear Sir / Madam, I am researching a book and need to understand how electronic fund transfers were made in the early 1960s. Money is being moved from a US bank account to the UK and the transfer is being made at the UK end. Both accounts belong to the same person. I would appreciate it if you could help me with some of the details i.e. Could this have been achieved with a phone call to the US by the client with the instruction to wire the funds or would it have been arranged with the aid of the receiving bank through a call or telegram? How would ID have been proven at that time? How long would the transfer have taken?86.146.226.146 (talk) 20:02, 28 October 2012 (UTC) I would much appreciate if you could find someone to help me with this as I'm having great difficulty finding out through the web. Kind Regards, Janine[reply]

see Telex--Aspro (talk) 22:54, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You might start with our article on Western Union, mainly because the Telegraphic transfer and Wire transfer articles are pretty poor, even though they are still options today. The basis is that a person identifies himself or herself to an agent or bank in Place A who then accepts the funds. The agent or banker then contacts (by telegraph, telex, cable or telephone) the agent or corresponding bank in Place B (hence, the term "correspondence banking") and on the basis of an established reputation, instructs the agent or bank in Place B to release the funds as per instructions (e.g., deposit in an account, pay to an individual). An exchange rate is agreed, and for larger sums there might have been capital controls paperwork to complete. After many such transactions by thousands of people, the two banks net out the difference between what they have sent and what they have received and at some suitable accounting point, one pays the other the difference. DOR (HK) (talk) 06:35, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks DOR. I have my scene! Cheers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by86.138.87.251 (talk) 10:00, 30 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

spinach salad with warm bacon dressing[edit]

Where did spinich salad with warm or hot bacon dressing originate? — Precedingunsigned comment added by 99.123.44.84 (talk) 23:41, 28 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

From Pennsylvania Dutch (meaning German) cuisine, and ultimately, from Germany. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 00:05, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Alton Brown explains the history and provenance of the bacon-and-spinach salad in[this episode] of his show Good Eats. --Jayron32 03:20, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]