Miscellaneous desk
< July 31	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	Current desk >

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.

August 1[edit]

chess games having lion and eagle as chess pieces[edit]

chess games having lion and eagle as chess pieces — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.247.217.17 (talk) 02:23, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are you asking about a chess set using those pieces in place of the regular pieces (king, queen, rook, bishop, night, or pawn) ? If so, what about it ? Do you want to find one like that ? StuRat (talk) 02:28, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See Fairy chess piece. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:39, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.247.217.17 (talk) 03:02, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The lion and the eagle are national symbols of Britain and France respectively. Do you want some sort of military chess set? I vaguely remember a set issued by Franklin Mint commemorating the Battle of Waterloo that used lions and eagles for the rooks.--Ykraps (talk) 08:04, 1 August 2015 (UTC) Here it is [1][reply]

This one? Alansplodge (talk) 15:59, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

money scam[edit]

I have been visited by an ad which I believe to be a money scam, but you don't have any reference to it: My Online Empire; or as onlineempiremaker.com. Could you inform me more about this? 2602:306:833D:8830:B051:982C:8AB:6FCE (talk) 09:22, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia often lacks articles about scams, because our policy is that we can only have an article when reliable published sources exist to back it up. In this case no published sources seem to exist. I can't see any direct evidence that it is a scam, but it would make sense to be cautious about giving them anything of value. Looie496 (talk) 12:44, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find any real information about it that isn't provided by the company or someone working for it. There are an awful lot of "is it a scam or DOES IT WORK" blog posts and videos out there which include an affiliate link (i.e. they profit from telling you it works if you join the program through them). It's also hard to find out what it even is beyond generalizations about working from home over the Internet, being your own boss, getting extra money, requiring no experience, and other work-at-home scheme (or get-rich-quick scheme) cliches -- some even talk about "my secret" and have very long sales pitches that say nothing about the product (a technique also employed heavily by multi-level marketing schemes like Amway and Cutco).

Following one of the links takes me to a page that just says "Free Software Automatically Creates Money-Making Websites in Minutes - DOWNLOAD NOW".

Aha. So it's going to (a) create some awful websites stuffed with ads and who knows what kind of sketchy business and (b) almost certainly impact your computer somehow -- otherwise the websites could simply be created on the web.

Hopefully I'm not overstepping the "advice" aspect of the reference desk, but based on everything I see: do not download that software. — Rhododendrites ^talk \\ 16:26, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Parisian Circular Billboards[edit]

Do those round billboards with the fancy roofs like this http://www.natgeocreative.com/comp/IR9/971/1119130.jpg have a special name? --TrogWoolley (talk) 20:17, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Advertising columns (French: Colonne Morris, German: Litfaßsäule). Rmhermen (talk) 20:43, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Thank you --TrogWoolley (talk) 12:52, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Aren't they also pissoirs? DuncanHill (talk) 14:01, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Public toilets are sometimes circular and have advertisements on them, but they're also quite a bit larger than a regular advertising column. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:00, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Who was Morris? Alansplodge (talk) 22:13, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Gabriel Morris, according to the article on advertising columns. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:20, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Why do newscasters (and others on TV) need makeup?[edit]

I guess I can already anticipate words to the effect "without it, their face would get washed out by the lights" etc.. I'd appreciate specifically sources that actually show examples of what a newscaster or guest on a live TV show looks like both with and without whatever non-cosmetic makeup one often sees the aforementioned people getting before they go on camera to see what such washing out actually looks like. 75.75.42.89 (talk) 21:28, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In the early days, at least, the studio lights were very bright, and the makeup helped reduce the glare off their skin. That's also why they wore shirts with light colors rather than pure white. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:31, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Here are four examples:TV stars pose without makeup for Children In Need campaign. You can use goolge images yourself to see what they look like on screen. To my mind they look more human but slaves to the make-up industry. So do they really “need” make-up? (the wife does - otherwise she'll scares the living daylights out of any callers to our door)--Aspro (talk) 23:52, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

During the 1960 U.S. presidential election campaign, the two main candidates (Senator John Kennedy and Vice-President Richard Nixon) met in a series of debates. It says here that after the first debate, radio listeners tended to think Nixon won, while TV viewers clearly favored Kennedy—and one reason was Nixon's poor makeup job. --65.94.50.73 (talk) 03:38, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Richard Armour joked that Nixon's makeup man's regular job was mortician. According to the article, Nixon refused makeup, and looked pretty rough. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 03:45, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's not exactly what it says. Someone insisted he have some makeup, but... see the article. --65.94.50.73 (talk) 18:58, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Oftentimes, on TV news, you will see the newscaster interview the "man on the street" or even interview, perhaps, a politician (mayor, governor, senator, etc.). The newscaster is likely wearing make-up, while the interviewee is not. And I have never noticed any glaring difference in their appearances on the TV set. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:42, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Outdoors or in the TV studio? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:38, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. I was thinking of outdoors, when the reporter just grabs a random man off the street and asks him a question. But, you got me thinking about the studio. When they interview a guest in the studio, do they apply make-up to that guest as well? I am guessing "no", but who knows? In other words, assume that it is not a famous person or a politician (i.e., one who excessively cares about his looks and appearance and, thus, will probably request make-up). So, the reporter brings into the studio some farmer to talk about his farm. Do they have that farmer undergo a make-up session before they film him? Does anyone know? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:09, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

No, but they seem to have the power to require interviewees to show how well they can walk before they sit them down to demonstrate how well they can talk. Anything's possible. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:16, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From a beauty perspective, some makeup contains reflective particles so it gives the illusion that the skin is flawless, rather than full of wrinkles and blemishes. A sort of physical form of airbrushing, if you like. --TammyMoet (talk) 10:13, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This conversation brings another thought to mind. On reality TV shows, they certainly don't use make-up, correct? How about game shows (on the average-person contestant, not on the show's host)? In all those situations, I never notice any difference in the appearance of the people with versus without makeup. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:42, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If I remember correctly, I did get a little touch of makeup for Jeopardy. Clarityfiend (talk) 19:39, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Some newscasters also have skin conditions they cover up. For example, Lee Thomas, a Detroit TV reporter, has vitiligo. Here he is without make-up: [2] and with: [3]. (I suppose you could call this cosmetic make-up, but when it rises to the level of a medical condition, I consider it more like a prosthesis, an extension of the person to add something that is missing from their body, in this case pigment.) StuRat (talk) 16:39, 3 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

OR: Yes, guests MAY be made up. Of the guest refuses, no big deal. But, my experience has been that the show's staff (assistant producer, usually) will try to get a (say) talk show guest to accept make-up. DOR (HK) (talk) 12:25, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt all the members of the studio audience of a show like Oprah or Sally Jesse Raphael or Donahue (I don't know any currently-running shows) got make up but the host probably did. (Do they still go into the audience and give them the mic to ask a question?) Find a show like that and pause it while the makeup-ed host stands next to the unmakeup-ed audience member. 20.137.7.64 (talk) 12:49, 4 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you wear green lipstick on the news, your lips will disappear (and it's not professional, anyway). Not as common a problem as missing bodies, though. InedibleHulk (talk) 07:16, 5 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Old Friend[edit]

I'm looking for an old college friend Libby edinboro state university class of 1966 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.17.66.46 (talk) 22:21, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This is an encyclopaedia reference desk, and finding people is rather outside our remit. Beyond suggesting the obvious - a Google search - there isn't much we can do to help. AndyTheGrump (talk) 22:26, 1 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

You could try contacting the university's alumni office, and ask if they can forward a letter to her. This, of course, assumes that she has kept in touch with the University. Otherwise, LinkedIn or Facebook searches are probably your best bet. If Facebook doesn't find her on the first attempt, search for other mutual friends, after a while FB seems to understand who you are looking for. However, as you are both approaching retirement, it might be hard to find her. LongHairedFop (talk) 19:21, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If she's changed her name by marriage, that might make the search that much harder, but she may not have. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:14, 2 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]