Revision as of 20:58, 27 January 2016

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

• WP:RD/M

Main page: Help searching Misplaced Pages

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

January 22

Uses for a 36"x36" plastic tub.

OK - I need to buy a bunch of 36"x36" square plastic tubs - between maybe 2" and 6" deep - watertight - don't need a lid or anything. Preferably fairly cheap.

Sounds easy? Nope.

Trouble is that it's tough to search for (Google sees "36x36 plastic tub" as finding anything with 36, plastic and tub in it - so I get 36x24", 36x30", etc).

I tried looking for large litter trays, cafeteria table cleanup trays, under-bed storage bins...you name it.

So...what other uses can we think of for a large plastic tub that I might Google for?

TIA!

SteveBaker (talk) 04:19, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

You might try "storage containers" or something like that, omitting the dimensions at first. You might also try contacting your local Lowe's or Home Depot or similar store and see what sizes they have and/or could get. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 06:30, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah - I'd tried that. Storage containers seem to be designed to fit through doorways easily - so none of them ever have both dimensions bigger than around 24". DIY stores have round ones for catching water from leaking hot water tanks, galvanized metal pans for mixing plaster in - some plastic ones with about a 1" rim around the edge (not quite sure what those are for!) - and some gardening pot stands that have a bunch of holes in the bottom. Nothing that quite fitted my needs. Very frustrating! SteveBaker (talk) 15:20, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

As for the search, I'd try including the word "square". StuRat (talk) 07:27, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I would call that a tray, rather than a tub - a search on "square industrial plastic tray" might be helpful. This UK firm sells one that's 1 m x 1 m x 12 cm, which is fairly close to your requirements - I'm sure similar non-metric sizes are available in the USA. Tevildo (talk) 08:42, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Searching for 36x36 tray in Google gave me a number of relevant hits. These seem pretty pricey, though. Matt Deres (talk) 14:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Aha! Yes - "Drip tray" or "Spill tray" seem to be the magic phrases. OK - now I see stuff on Alibaba for <$10. I dunno *what* Acklands Grainger are thinking with charging hundreds of dollars for a simple plastic tray! Probably a typo or something. Anyway - Alibaba to the rescue. Many thanks guys - I bow to your superior Google-fu! SteveBaker (talk) 15:20, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• Not to disagree with anything above, but just what are you planning in using these trays for, and do they actually need to be square? I have found you can buy 6" by 18" by 36" trays as great containers for paperback sci-fi novels at most local hardware depots, like Lowes or even Walmart. μηδείς (talk) 18:51, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I do actually need them to be more or less exactly 36"x36" and square. Trays/boxes/containers with one dimension well under 36" are really cheap and easy to find. So far, the cheapest 36"x36" container that I've found costs $80 - but 24"x48" under-bed storage boxes can be had for $10. Weird. SteveBaker (talk) 01:19, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Have you considered making them yourself ? You have fabrication equipment, don't you ?

If not, another thought is the water tray below a square planter. If you can buy those separately, I bet they would be less than $80.

Another term to search for seems to be "flood table". This one is $91, but seems to be what you want: . Here's one for $40, although it doesn't look very flat on the bottom: . Also, these may have drain holes in them, which you would need to plug. StuRat (talk) 01:30, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

That grow tray looks like it could work...and at $40, it's half the price of the nearest alternative! Many thanks for find in that. It looks like it's intended to drain water downwards into that central channel - and the round thing in the middle could be a removable drain plug...but I think that could work. Many thanks! SteveBaker (talk) 14:51, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

We did (briefly) consider manufacturing something ourselves - but it really needs either vacuum forming or injection molding. Doing an injection mold for something that big requires truly gigantic machinery and molds that cost a small fortune. Vacuum forming thin plastics is do-able - but not with plastic that's thick enough to be stable over such large dimensions. So, no - this is something we have to buy from outside. SteveBaker (talk) 20:22, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

It's interesting that searching for "3x3" (implication: feet) instead of 36x36 (implication: inches) produces an entire set of different, but equally useful, results! Just points to how primitive search engines still are in many ways! SteveBaker (talk) 14:56, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Excel

The chances to win in a dice game is represented by the following formula:

p−1+p−2+…p−(p+1)

p×h

Where p is the number of sides on the player's die and h is the number of sides on the house's die. For example, the chances of a player with an 8-sided die beating a house's 10-sided die is 25/80 (draws force a re-roll).

How can I make the numerator function in Excel? Thanks, Schyler (exquirere bonum ipsum) 18:27, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

This should be moved to computing or mathematics, Schuyler, as they are much more proficient in answering such questions than we are here. μηδείς (talk) 18:43, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Simplifying, your numerator is (p-1)+(p-2)+...+(p-(p-1))+(p-p)+(p-(p+1)) = (p-1)+(p-2)+...+1+0+(-1), the last three terms cancel out and you end up with (p-1)+(p-2)+...+2. This is just the sum of an arithmetic progression, with a first term (p-1), a last term 2, and the number of terms being p-2. The sum is therefore (p-2)(p-1+2)/2=(p-2)(p+1)/2. The way you would type this into excel, assuming "p" is entered into cell A1, is "=(A1-2)*(A1+1)/2. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 18:52, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• If draws are re-rolled, shouldn't the denominator be ${\displaystyle p\times (h-1)}$? So the result is ${\displaystyle {\frac {p(p-1)}{2p(h-1)}}={\frac {(p-1)}{2(h-1)}}}$.—Tamfang (talk) 02:36, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

• But more generally, someday you may have a formula that can't be expressed in a closed form, and then you'll have to write a macro. (I wrote an Excel macro once, in ~1989. It found the simplest rational number between two given reals.) —Tamfang (talk) 09:02, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Question about my taxes

I'm a 25-year old single male in Texas with one W2, no dependents, very basic tax return with no surprises. But I'm a little confused at the final numbers TurboTax is giving me. I made $3429.50, and I had $114.62 federal income tax withheld and no state tax withheld. TurboTax says that means I get a refund of $376. How can I get a refund higher than the amount of tax withheld? I thought tax withheld meant "money from your paycheck your employer sent to the government for taxes, and because of erring on the side of caution it's often a bit higher than it should be." Then your refund is the amount of tax withheld that shouldn't have been. Am I completely wrong in my definitions? 2605:6000:EDC9:7B00:E017:92A9:4BB5:AD1D (talk) 19:52, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

We can't give legal advice, but you should look at tax credit and see if you have any that are "refundable", meaning they can be paid even if they exceed your tax liability.

You might consider looking into the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program to see if you can get free advice. --Trovatore (talk) 20:15, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

TurboTax has a great community forum to ask questions, they're usually answered pretty quick, I used it several times. Raquel Baranow (talk) 20:46, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Based on the information you provided it sounds like you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is a "refundable" credit, as Trovatore mentioned. So, the government is giving you money, in contrast to simply refunding money you paid unnecessarily. You're right, in general, about withholding. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 22:10, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Did Nixon "accept" his pardon?

Per our article on Burdick v. United States, associates of Gerald Ford claim that Ford carried an excerpt from the decision in his wallet, the part about how accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. The implication is that Ford was justifying his action to himself, by making Nixon implicitly confess.

But it seems to me that there's a kind of obvious logical hole, namely that Nixon never had to "accept" the pardon at all. Burdick says that a pardon has no effect unless introduced in court, but because of the pardon, there were never any court proceedings against Nixon. And in fact, by Ford's stated rationale, that was actually the whole point; he thought such proceedings would be too distracting and damaging to the country.

So, the question, right, I'm getting to the question. Did Nixon ever, by any affirmative act, "accept" Ford's pardon? I suppose you can say that he could have actively refused it, and didn't, but that's a different question; I'm discussing only acts, not omissions. --Trovatore (talk) 22:55, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

An excerpt to Nixon's response to Ford's pardon of him is included in the Misplaced Pages article Richard Nixon. It has sources which you could seek out to find the full response. --Jayron32 23:17, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, thanks, I expect that's the most explicit thing there is going to be, if there is anything. In the excerpt in the article, Nixon doesn't really mention the pardon per se.

Still, if anyone knows of any other sort of overt act by which Nixon could be said to have accepted the pardon, I would be interested to know about it. --Trovatore (talk) 00:35, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

President Ford Pardons Richard Nixon from watergate.info has the full text of Nixon's response, which includes "In accepting this pardon, I ..." jnestorius 23:16, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Ah, very good. Thank you. --Trovatore (talk) 08:00, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

That was quite excellent, I am glad to have read both speeches. Thanks, User:Jnestorius. μηδείς (talk) 02:42, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

January 23

Immigrant spouse naturalisation in Israel

The article Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law says that Israel currently bars nationals of a few hostile countries, most significantly the Palestinian Authority, from being automatically naturalised when they marry an Israeli citizen. It doesn't say if these people can still live in Israel with another type of status, or if they can request to be naturalised with a realistic chance of success. Does anyone know the facts please? 94.12.81.251 (talk) 11:23, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Matters of residency and temporary vs. permanent status are handled by the Ministry of the Interior (Israel)#Responsibilities (official website in Hebrew and Arabic). "Family reunification" is a consideration but no guarantee of either residency or citizenship for a non-Israeli marrying an Israeli citizen of any nationality, while Israel's Law of Return covers applications by those of Jewish ancestry. An application by an individual coming from an area designated as "hostile" would presumably provide a great deal of supportive, documented evidence that "the center of life is in Israel" and posing no security risk. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel offers this extensive article, "Denial of Citizenship," with relevant information under the headings “'Humanitarian Exceptions': The Violation of the Right to Family Life" and "Difficulties in the Formalization of Status of non-Jewish Spouses." ACRI and other local civil rights and human rights organizations in Israel would be knowledgeable about the history and present circumstances of such applications. -- Deborahjay (talk) 14:06, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Toyota model

What model is this Toyota? I saw no inscription on the front or back. Thanks in advance. Brandmeister 16:22, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Toyota MR2. Rgds ✦ _hugarheimur 16:29, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Hint for future reference: Click on the thumbnail. Scroll down to the Summary section. Read the Description. ―Mandruss ☎ 14:49, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

I now see that you added that Description after receiving the answer from Torana. Never mind. ―Mandruss ☎ 15:09, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

January 24

Azad Hind

I was reading our article about Azad Hind and I wondered what was the projected territorial extension of their version(s) of Independent India. Was it to encompass all of British Raj, comprehensive of the newly created State of Burma? What about Sri Lanka/Ceylon? Were Nepal and Bhutan ever considered? Thanks! --151.41.173.96 (talk) 13:00, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

The Japanese sponsored another anti-British force in Burma called the Burma National Army, so I expect it would have caused something of a conflict if Azad Hind had tried to stake a claim there. Alansplodge (talk) 17:47, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

There is a set of Azad Hind stamps, printed in Germany during WW2. Two values feature a map of their intended state, which clearly does not include either Burma or Nepal. The lack of a land boundary, and rather ambiguous shading towards the edge of the design, makes it harder to say if Ceylon was intended to be part of the territory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.131.178.47 (talk) 10:45, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

NYC–Tokyo flight route

According to Google Maps, the great-circle distance from New York to Tokyo is about 6,700 miles (10,800 km). This arc heads NNW out of New York and almost reaches Prudhoe Bay, skirting the Beaufort Sea. Do non-stop airliners fly this route? Has anyone reading this ever flown the route and seen the Beaufort Sea out the window? ―Mandruss ☎ 14:44, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't know but as an aside, you might be interested in Polar route. Dismas| 15:09, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

http://www.flightradar24.com is a web site that displays the actual routes taken by many airline flights, if the airplane carries an ADS-B transponder. If you search for a particular flight number (say, JL 3 or JL 4) it will display a list of dates and if you select one of the dates in the past then it will show where that flight went. I tried a few dates, looking at both eastbound and westbound flights, and in every case the route was well south of the great circle. From the routes I saw, I would conjecture that they choose routes that do not pass over Russia; perhaps the Russians don't allow such overflights. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 05:37, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, I noticed later that the arc passed right down the middle of Kamchatka, and I thought of KAL 007. Thanks for the info. ―Mandruss ☎ 07:27, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Such flights can and do take a great circle route way up there to the north but sometimes they take a more southerly route. I suspect the jetstream makes a big difference because it's best to fly along it or across it and not against it. Flightradar is a great app and website by the way! Flights between the US west coast and Dubai often take the great circle route over the pole but sometimes go much further south. Thincat (talk) 17:21, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

January 25

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Is anyone still searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370? It's not clear to me from the article. And who is paying for the search?--Shantavira| 16:43, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, there are three ships looking for the aircraft, see here. There is information on who is paying for the search at the foot of this page. --Viennese Waltz 16:56, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Language

I have a question and don't know where else to turn. Hopefully you can answer or direct me to someone/somewhere.

I googled my question and could not find an answer. And since I am retired and the kids are gone, I don' have that resource.

And since your org deals with languages I hope you can help.

I am digitizing some love letters from my grandfather/grandmother from around the turn of the 20th century. I know some of the spelling and terms have changed but one particular word keeps coming up. They keep using the word "unte" and I believe they mean "write". Reminds me of a bank back home that used "trvst" for 'trust'.

Have you seen this abbreviation for the word 'write'?

Love your web site. tks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.72.150.11 (talk) 18:55, 25 January 2016‎

Could you upload a sample of that writing? It might just be a peculiar style. As an example, I've seen handwriting from that era where there was an out-of-place lower case "f", until I realized it was a fancified lower case "p". If you count the "humps" in "wri", you'll see that it could possibly look like "un", especially if they fail to dot the "i". ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 19:09, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

• Yes, the mere fact that handwriting looks like unte when it should mean write is not surprising. The User who asked this question geolocates to Virginia, so he should try going to the local library and asking them for direct help, or, as Bugs said, for them to help him uploading an image here so we can see it. There have also got to be plenty of antiquarians who might help, so if the Original Poster lets us know what big city is closest to him we can probably tell him whose help to seek. μηδείς (talk) 22:10, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

If you look at our article about cursive handwriting then at the top there is an example of Spencerian script. The letter r is written starting high and finishing low, whereas in the other script at the time, the Palmer method, the r starts and finishes high. The more modern D'Nealian cursive seems to give yet another form for the r. Could it be something like this that makes for the appearance you are describing? Thincat (talk) 16:57, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Here's another example where something looks like an out - of - place lower case "f". I won't say what it is since you may like to puzzle out what it is yourself. Note also the use of "v" for "u" previously remarked on . 86.154.83.95 (talk) 17:26, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

January 26

Law: Is there any legal system in which the dead can inherit?

For example: A boy, whose divorced parents are alive, has already died. Once one parent - having assets - dies, can the dead boy - inherit the assets - and consequently pass them on to the other parent (although the parents are divorced), in any legal system? HOTmag (talk) 10:36, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

In the literal sense, it wouldn't be logical. Let's call A the owner of the property who has died, and B is the putative heir, who has also died. In a legal system where B would be able to inherit, it must recognise the dead as being able to hold property. But if the dead can hold property, why would A's property be passed on? It would just stay with A. So you wouldn't have inheritance at all.

Or, are you asking a more nuanced question? Let's say A is the testator and B is the designated heir. A dies but B has already died (or dies after A's death but before the estate is distributed). You could ask, at that point do you transfer the property to B's estate to be distributed according to B's will or intestacy rules, or do you treat A as intestate because B is already dead? I can see how different legal systems might come up with different answers. But is that what you are asking? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 12:01, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm asking from a practical point of view, rather than from a logical one, so I really meant the second option you've suggested. Just to make things simpler, let's assume no will has been made, so the intestacy rules only - should be applied. Now let's have a look at the following case: A boy, whose divorced parents are alive, has already died. Once one parent - having assets - dies, can the dead boy - inherit the assets - and consequently pass them on to the other parent (although the parents are divorced), in any legal system? HOTmag (talk) 13:34, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

In Swedish law, in the above situation the grandchildren of the deceased would inherit. You could take it to mean that the dead child inherits and immediately passes the assets on to his or her children, but it's not correct to say that the dead child inherits anything. Both in inheritance law and tax law the inheritance is considered to pass directly to the grandchildren. (I don't think "bequeath" is the right word here, since to me it implies a deliberate action.) If there are no grandchildren (or grand-grandchildren etc.) the inheritance goes to the parents or siblings of the deceased and so on. In the situation you describe with the divorced parents the other parent won't inherit, except by testament of the deceased. Sjö (talk) 17:07, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

In other words, the Swedish law is not the legal system I'm looking for.

Btw, by "child" I meant a boy/girl, i.e. a very young person who has no children. Due to your response, I've replaced "child" by "boy", and "bequeath" by "pass on" (thanks). HOTmag (talk) 17:15, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Maybe in the Philippines, where divorce is (often) not recognised, but that wouldn't be via the boy. There might be jurisdictions where the divorced partner can make a claim against the estate, but I don't know of any where the dead boy would be a factor in the claim. Dbfirs 17:33, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Well I can think of one example. Chinese law (both People's Republic of China and Republic of China) have a concept of "inheritance by subrogation", which works in that way, i.e. if the first heir dies earlier, it is that heir's heirs, rather than the deceased's second heir, who steps into the shoes of the first heir. However, the application of the doctrine is limited. It only applies to the children of the deceased and their descendants. So if the child is already dead, I think it would be the grandchildren who inherit, rather than that child's divorced surviving parent. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 17:47, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Passing the assets on to the grandchildren, whether in the Chinese Law or in the Common Law or in the Continental Law or whatever, does not prove that their dead parent really "inherits". That's why I'm talking about a "boy" rather than about a "child": As far as I know - no boy can have any children, so if the assets had been passed on to the boy's divorced surviving parent - this could have proven that the dead boy had really "inherited" (probably). HOTmag (talk) 18:16, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Passing the assets on to the grandchildren, does not prove that their dead parent really "inherits", because they would have inherited anyways - even if no will had been made. That's why I'm talking about a "boy" rather than about a "child": As far as I know - no boy can have any children, so if the assets had been passed on to the boy's divorced surviving parent - this could have proven that the dead boy had really "inherited" (probably). HOTmag (talk) 18:59, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't quite understand what you mean by "proof" that the dead child inherited. Although the Chinese law operates in the same way as continental law, in legal doctrine it works differently. In legal terms, the child's rights are subrogated to the child's heirs; the grandchildren inherit because they have been subrogated, not because they are themselves primary heirs. It so happens that in Chinese law this right of subrogation extends only to the child's children, but as a matter of law it is subrogation nonetheless - the statute says so in black and white. Had the right of subrogation extended to the heir's parents, legally speaking the mechanism would be no different. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 19:24, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

(EC) This seems to be getting offtopic but I guess it depends what you mean by "boy". Under many definitions a 13 or 12 year old male would be considered a child or boy and there have definitely been reports of boys that age becoming fathers. There's much more likely to be doubt over the father than the mother. so it's difficult to be certain which ones are true, but it's likely some are. (E.g. although I'm not sure if we can trust the various sources, this case claims DNA tests .) While puberty generally begins at an older age for boys, we are talking about averages here. It's possible some cases like had DNA tests to, it's just not part of the public record which is intentionally slim. In any case, if the person doesn't have children than it doesn't matter whether they are a boy or a 80 year old women based on what you seem to be asking. Nil Einne (talk) 19:34, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Population uncertainty

The US Census Bureau, the Population Reference Bureau, and the United Nations all publish estimates of current total world population. At present, these estimates agree within about 1.3% (100 million people). That seems remarkable narrow given that the undercount in the US Census alone was previously estimated at nearly 2% , and many countries probably put less effort into demographics than the US does. In the recent past there were other population estimates that disagreed by as much as 15%. Do any of the organizations estimating total world population provide an official estimate of their uncertainty in determining the global population? If so, is it possible to say which countries contribute the most to the total uncertainty in global population? (Presumably due to a combination of large population and relatively poor accounting.) Dragons flight (talk) 15:23, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

I agree that those results are suspiciously similar. The question you should be asking yourself here is whether these agencies are in fact relying on the exact same underlying data. If they are, then you'd expect them to have the exact same answers - and now we have to explain the 1.3% discrepency. Those kinds of small differences could simply be due to the exact way they use that data - or perhaps on the date they picked it up. Suppose (for example) some countries had reported current population data and others had somehow missed the deadline when the UN picked up the numbers - then the late data arrives and the Population Reference Bureau have better numbers. Since each agency only reports annually - you could see how they could be 'off' by a percent or so. SteveBaker (talk) 20:15, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, it is not all that surprising that estimates of the world population have a lower relative uncertainty than national population estimates. If you add 100 quantities with the same Standard deviation, each quantity having a 10% uncertainty, the total will have an uncertainty of just 1%. This is because errors tend to cancel each other out statistically. - Lindert (talk) 13:20, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Cost of Living in Poland

Hello. I'm a 25 year old Indian woman who is thinking of moving to Poland. I've been doing some research on the internet regarding the cost of living in Polish cities, and it would be wonderful if someone on this reference desk could tell me what a middle-tier working woman (staying in a single-room apartment or a studio) should be prepared to spend per month for a comfortable life. I'm fresh out of college, and my requirements aren't much. I need to save up for further studies in the future. What is a reasonable monthly expenditure for such a person? Thanks in advance! (The city I'm looking at in particular is Gdansk.) 103.18.75.48 (talk) 19:42, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Do you have family already in Poland who you would be moving to live with, or a job offer from a Polish employer willing to sponsor a work permit? I don't think you would be granted a residence permit otherwise. If you have the right to live in Poland, this forum thread gives some comments on living costs: 94.12.81.251 (talk) 10:42, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

And to be clear the type of Visa you need is for the Schengen Area, to enter Poland, see Visa policy of the Schengen Area. You may need more if you plan to stay for a long time, and even more permissions if you plan to work.--Lgriot (talk) 20:55, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

January 27

Since when is a pilot called the Captain?

When did airlines adapt the lingo previously used for the shipping industry and why? The major pilot being called Captain, landing strips being called airports, etc. Joepnl (talk) 02:33, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

In the OED Online, the earliest use cited for "airport" or "air-port" is in 1902, but that one refers to a city that is served by aircraft. The next citation, however, is from the London Times in 1914 and it has the modern meaning: "every town of importance will need an air-port as it now needs a railway station."

In the OED Online, the first citation for "captain" in reference to a pilot is from an international conference in 1929: the passage refers to the "captain and crew" of an airplane.

Of course, this does not tell us to what extent other usages competed with these at different times. --76.69.45.64 (talk) 05:56, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

How many cities were served by aircraft in 1902? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 17:09, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Dirigibles? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:46, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Airships didn't really get going until after the Wright Brothers. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 18:54, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

I will note that the captain of a ship is never called the pilot. The captain of a ship may take on a pilot in approaching or leaving a harbor or in transiting a strait. A maritime pilot is a mariner who is an expert on a particular body of water. To be sure, when the pilot is on the bridge, they are the master of the ship in the same way as the captain otherwise is. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:56, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I recall one case where the pilot was so incompetent that, fearing for the safety of his passengers, the captain took over. 188.220.211.30 (talk) 18:13, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

IIRC, the Captain of a ship is responsible for it, even when his first-mate (and he's off-duty, sleeping), or a harbour-pilot is at the tiller. LongHairedFop (talk) 19:07, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

EO claims the term "airport" dates to 1910. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 18:54, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

That's when Bader Field, outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, opened, but it wasn't called an airport until 1919. Dbfirs 19:02, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Lowest temperature of Dubai

Hi!
What's the lowest temperature ever measured in Dubai?
Calviin 19 (talk) 16:59, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

According to our article on Dubai#Climate, it's 6.1°C (43°F). Warofdreams talk 17:14, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

It's here. But is it the record?--Skyscraper1996 (talk) 17:52, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Am I being scammed?

So I was in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I while am at a mall, I meet this guy. He claims to be a professional poker player. We start talking about my situation, and he says he's going to give me $1,000. He gives me a $1,000 poker chip. Later, he says he asks what kind of bills I have, and he volunteers to pay off my credit cards. I'm a little skeptical, but the payments from his bank account cleared on two of the three credit cards he paid off for me. One of them, American Express, reversed the payment saying that Bank of America returned the payment because the account number was wrong, which may have been an honest mistake on my part typing in the account number or could be a tell tale sign I'm being scammed. This man says he is giving me $70,000 out of over $300,000 he made in poker winnings and that it's going to be wired into my bank account. We've been hanging out like friends the last couple days. Now, here's what worries me: he's asking me to take out a cash advance on one of my credit cards and send him money via Western Union, he asked me to borrow the American Express card (which is now frozen up) and he would mail it back to me, and he asked to borrow my rental car for a few days. I know the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" and I am very familiar with advance fee fraud, and this is beginning to remind me of the old 419 scams. Problem is, I've already given him some money from cash advance and he's asking for more. So my question is, what can go wrong, and should I report this to the Las Vegas Metro Police as fraud or be happy that someone generous wants to help me? Reference Desk Fan (talk) 20:58, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

• Pages automatically checked for accidental language links
• Misplaced Pages resources for researchers
• Misplaced Pages help forums
• Misplaced Pages reference desk