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Revision as of 22:19, 12 December 2014 editSluzzelin (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers34,746 editsm Ratmir's part in Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila: Why sung by a woman?: as pointed out by the OP!← Previous edit Revision as of 22:48, 12 December 2014 edit undoTamfang (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers57,210 edits coffee skit: new sectionNext edit →
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::Most likely it was a direct reference to Williams, as it was a national news story in the day (partly because Williams was also the first black Miss America winner). --''']]''' 20:18, 12 December 2014 (UTC) ::Most likely it was a direct reference to Williams, as it was a national news story in the day (partly because Williams was also the first black Miss America winner). --''']]''' 20:18, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
:::Ah, I see. Wasn't reported in my neck of the woods as far as I know but it makes sense. Thanks all :) ] (]) 20:45, 12 December 2014 (UTC) :::Ah, I see. Wasn't reported in my neck of the woods as far as I know but it makes sense. Thanks all :) ] (]) 20:45, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

== coffee skit ==

I think this brief audio skit is the one titled "My Husband" on '']''.

: "My husband is very particular about his coffee ... I'm not saying he'd lock me in the basement or push me down the stairs if I didn't make a perfect cup of coffee ..."

] is the husband, according to my aural memory. Who's the wife? —] (]) 22:48, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Revision as of 22:48, 12 December 2014

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December 6

"...There is a long way to go there is a long way to come... Saturday night"

Hi there,
I'm looking for a song that contains those words, I believe it was recorded in the last decade:
"...There is a long way to go there is a long way to come... Saturday night"
Thanks.Exx8 (talk) 00:25, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Could be the 2005 song "Sunday Morning" by David Francey, or the 2007 cover by The Rankin Family? The lyrics aren't exactly as above but the chorus is somewhat similar. --Canley (talk) 00:41, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
No, unfortunately, these aren't. From what I've heard, the song is sung by a male.Exx8 (talk) 01:56, 6 December 2014 (UTC)
George Harrison, by any chance? Evan  20:28, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

bicycle extra

I remember watching The B.R.A.T. Patrol. Two brothers rode a custom-made bicycle with a sidecar. Bug did the driving, while Squeak rode in the sidecar. Together they called it "The B.R.A.T. Mobile". Is sidecar the right description or something else should be the right one? Anyone know?74.66.90.189 (talk) 08:16, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes. See Sidecar. ←Baseball Bugs carrots13:48, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

Thank you so much74.66.90.189 (talk) 06:06, 7 December 2014 (UTC)


December 7

Porn films and prostitution

Can someone explain to me why actors in adult porn film (who are paid money to have sex) do not run afoul of prostitution laws (in the USA)? Thank you. 2602:252:D13:6D70:D9F4:A874:9EE3:65BF (talk) 17:00, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

The answer is "because the laws do not treat it that way". Laws are created by people for various reasons, and they didn't think to ask you about your own unique perspective on what is, and is not, consistent among various laws. The issues surrounding sex and the law are complex; if you want to become more familiar with what Misplaced Pages has to say on the subject, you could read Pornography#Legal_status, and Prostitution#Legality. The best article is probably Sex worker which covers a wide variety of occupations in the sex industry, and covers the various laws regulating them. Also, it is helpful to remember that "the law" is not as simple as "a list of things you can and cannot do". Laws are subtle things, and there's a wide variety of ways that laws can be written, enforced, prosecuted, etc. Defining what "prostitution" is, who gets "punished" for the crime, etc etc is not as simple as "people who have sex and exchange money go to jail". It's FAR more complex than that, as all laws are. Read the above articles, and do some Google searches and familiarize yourself with the complexity of the issue. --Jayron32 18:16, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
This question has come up at least twice before, see here and here. Also The Straight Dope covers it here. --Viennese Waltz 19:29, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
From the cynic's POV, the government considers all financial activity to be a sin, unless they get a cut. It's quite difficult to ensure that they will get a cut from prostitution, since there may only be two parties involved, and if they don't tell the tax man, nobody will know. Porn flicks, on the other hand, involve hundreds or thousands of people, including the distribution chains, so it would be hard to hide that from the taxman. Therefore, they make that legal, and take their cut. StuRat (talk) 19:56, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

OK. Thanks. Let me add to my original question, then. Let's say that we have a situation of a "real" prostitute and a "real" customer (not a porn film production). Can't the parties just get a cell phone and take some pictures and/or videos while they have sex, and call this "porn" as opposed to a prostitution/sexual tryst? Wouldn't that "shield" all prostitutes (and their customers) from ever getting charged with a crime? 2602:252:D13:6D70:8CCD:4766:E3A7:FE93 (talk) 00:42, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Like Jayron says, sex is complicated. Laws are complicated. Combining complicated issues is complicated. Ten people could try it your way and wind up with ten results, depending on their particular complicated combination of police, witnesses, lawyers, judges, juries, reporters, PR people and dumb luck. If you're a teenager, recording anything might get you out of the john frying pan, but into the kiddie porn fire. It's a fine line, on top of another fine line, and why we really can't give legal advice.
On a general level, keeping anything on your phone makes it far more likely to be found (by various people) than if it wasn't. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:14, December 8, 2014 (UTC)
Whenever you think of a trick like this, remember that judges are humans and not robots. They will apply common sense to situation and usually take a pretty dim view of things that are obviously simple dodges. 75.69.10.209 (talk) 01:41, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Yes, judges are humans and not robots. But, that does not necessarily matter. Oftentimes, their hands are tied. They must adhere to the "letter of the law" (whether they want to or not), despite their being human and non-robots. 2602:252:D13:6D70:9862:BE5A:30A:900C (talk) 19:41, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Not nearly so much as people like to imagine. Setting up your phone in a hotel room and vaguely mentioning that you're "making porn", will not get you treated the same as a professional porn producer with a real intent to publish. The judge will laugh at you if you try that dodge. 75.69.10.209 (talk) 06:05, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
Not sure I agree with that. The judge may want to laugh, but perhaps the law won't allow him to act in the way he'd like. It all depends on what the definition of "making porn" is. Porn does not necessarily have to have widespread distribution. I can see that a case can be made that simply taking one photo or taking one video amounts to "making porn". I bet that if some random individual took one single sexualized photograph of a child, that single photo would amount to "making porn" (child porn) (even if he was just keeping it for himself and not intending to distribute the photo). So, the judge would have a hard time defining what is and what is not covered under the umbrella "making porn". 2602:252:D13:6D70:E495:3612:7A98:C932 (talk) 07:42, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
Further to the answers above: In some jurisdictions, paying people to have sex in pornographic films has been held to be prostitution or pandering, while in others it has not. For example, the California Supreme Court has held that there is no prostitution or pandering. People v. Freeman, 46 Cal.3d 419, 758 P.2d 1128 (1988). However, a lower New York court has held that the hiring of actors and actresses for the purpose of engaging in filmed sexual conduct constitutes prostitution. People v. Kovner, 96 Misc. 2d 414, 409 N.Y.S.2d 349 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1978). As one might expect with this state of affairs, commercial pornography now is produced in California but not in New York.
As for getting around the prostitution laws by making pornography: First, it's far from clear that this would work, unless the resulting film were actually edited and released to the public, which would be an expensive proposition. In addition, most people who hire prostitutes are eager to keep that fact secret, not to make a permanent photographic record of the event. John M Baker (talk) 02:08, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
That's sort of my point. They don't want to get arrested and have their name in the paper and on public display through the court process. If a cop tries to arrest them, they simply show the cop the cell phone photo/video. And the cop says, "Oh, OK, this is pornography, not prostitution. So, you guys are all clear. I won't arrest you after all." It would basically be a "get out of jail free card". Thus, the prostitute and the customer have kept the fact much more secret than had they been arrested. 2602:252:D13:6D70:9862:BE5A:30A:900C (talk) 19:44, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Also, I doubt very much that the film has to be edited and released to the public. I doubt that that is a "requirement" to label something as "legitimate" porn. I am sure that there are many legitimate porn movies that get made and, for whatever reason, never make it to release. (Just like any normal non-porn movie.) 2602:252:D13:6D70:9862:BE5A:30A:900C (talk) 19:47, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Your point really underestimates the practical difficulties of using a supposed pornography exception to the crime of prostitution. First of all, a police officer would not simply accept the pornography defense, especially if the pornographic film were merely recorded on a cellphone. It would be a matter for a judge to decide, which would mean that a court record would be created. And, on the facts you posit, the judge would probably not accept the defense either, on the ground that it is not bona fide pornography. Second, the parties probably have strong reasons not to want a photographic record to be created. For example, suppose that the movie were found by the customer's wife or girlfriend, or by the prostitute's parents? This might create more real-life problems for them than a criminal conviction would. Third, prostitution stings usually target the prostitute (the offense is understood to be completed when the prostitute accepts money to perform sexual acts). However, your scenario would require the customer to go to extra trouble to go through the motions of making a pornographic movie; why would he do that? John M Baker (talk) 00:29, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Yes, clearly there are practical problems. I was basically suggesting this: A prostitute and a customer engage in their (illegal) sexual tryst. Before it starts (or while it is transpiring), they can take one or two quick photos or videos. In fact, the people in the photos or videos do not need to be identifiable. Let's say that the photos or videos only capture their bodies and not their faces (or such). After that "task" is done, they can get on with their sexual tryst. And if a cop tries to accuse them of prostitution, they can fall back on their "get out of jail free card" (the pornography defense). Now, by the way, I don't think that the word "pornography" necessarily means professional films that are distributed in the way that we would normally think. There are a lot of sexual web sites where "regular" people (amateurs) post their sexual photos and videos. (They are not professional porn actors making a professional porn film.) So, the word "pornography" can apply to amateur porn as well, I would guess. So the people caught in the prostitution crime can (and, actually, are) creating amateur porn. Which they can choose to post on line or not. So, I would think that this "amateur level" of porn is still pornography. And I think an argument can be made that it is "real" pornography (just like a professional porn film with professional porn actors). And it could be a viable defense to a prostitution charge. And, by the way, I am sure that at the beginning of the sexual tryst, the parties can say "I am not paying you for sexual acts; I am paying you to perform sexual acts on film" or something to that effect. In fact, they can say this on film as "proof" that this is legal porn and not an illegal prostitution tryst. Yes, of course, this is all a sham. That's the whole point of going through this charade. But, by the letter of the law, I still think it should work. Maybe the very first time that it is challenged, some court can create the precedent that "yes, this counts as porn and is not illegal under the prostitution laws". After that court decision (precedent), all future illegal sexual prostitution trysts would be "safe" to engage in (if these precautions were followed). 2602:252:D13:6D70:9C1A:FE01:F6AF:13E8 (talk) 15:00, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Your scenario gives a huge amount of weight to an essentially irrelevant act, which is the actual sex. Police in the United States have no real interest in arresting consenting adults having sex in private, even if money changes hands. When they arrest a prostitute, the illegal act has been consummated once the prostitute has accepted money to have sex; they don't wait for the sex itself to occur. When they arrest a customer, it's generally for solicitation of prostitution, and the illegal act has been consummated once the would-be customer has solicited someone to have sex with him for money. (Customers are almost always male, but prostitutes can be either male or female.) By the time actual sex begins, if the prostitute and customer haven't been arrested, they won't be.
I suppose you could revise your scenario and ask if the prostitute or customer could instead solicit to make a pornographic movie. As far as the prostitute is concerned, this would probably prevent him or her from getting any business, so it's a nonstarter. I don't know if it would work for the customer, but my guess is it would not. The police would probably arrest the customer anyway, on the theory that it's part of their mandate to clean up the streets, and the judge would probably rule that it was in reality a solicitation of paid sex and the customer was not a bona fide filmmaker. But, hey, try it and see! Let us know what you find. Incidentally, I understand that there is a genre of pornography in which real-life pornographers approach random women on the street and pay them to have sex on film, but that these encounters are faked and the actresses have already agreed to participate. John M Baker (talk) 16:05, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Yes, you are correct. I agree that it is the monetary exchange, not the sex, at which point the crime is committed. (Perhaps you misread or misunderstood my post.) And, yes, the scenario would change to the initial act being "hey, can I pay you money to have sex on film for a porno movie that I am making?" versus simply "hey, can I pay you money just to have sex?". 2602:252:D13:6D70:2078:B4FB:B208:EE94 (talk) 22:16, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

The secondary issue is one of First Amendment free speech rights, at least in the US. People do have a right to make a film without censorship by the US government (the MPAA is a private organization) and determining where the line is between say softcore pornography and general adult-level entertainment is not that easy. The US commerce clause regulations against economic liberty have much lower standards of reviews than those that relate to a first amendment grounds and thus, barring people from particular conduct such as "Don't pay someone to have sex" is more likely to pass the rational basis review than "Don't pay someone to be filmed having sex" would passing strict scrutiny (fair warning, Constitutional law was not my best subject so contact a knowledgeable lawyer and not any lawyer). -- Ricky81682 (talk) 12:10, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Here is a comic strip about this very topic: Dinosaur Comics. 2602:252:D13:6D70:C924:1C9D:6B8C:1764 (talk) 15:36, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Porn films and auditions

Does anyone have any idea as to how actors in adult porn films audition to get the roles? Thank you. 2602:252:D13:6D70:D9F4:A874:9EE3:65BF (talk) 17:00, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

I suppose they could bring in a "portfolio" of pics or films of them having sex, if they haven't done a porno before. However, low budget porn flicks probably will take anyone reasonably attractive who claims they will do what is asked. If they don't, then they will be replaced and will not be paid, so it's no huge risk, maybe an hour's time paid to the crew. StuRat (talk) 19:49, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
Surprisingly, I actually have knowledge of this. Typically, if you're a first-timer, you'll send in an application to whichever porn studio seems to be a fit for you (most porn sites, especially gay male porn sites, have 'want to be a model?' as a prominent link on their pages). This application will usually include photos, full body, clothed and nude. For men it'll include flaccid and erect shots. If they like the look of you, you'll be brought in to do a screen test. Sometimes on your own, sometimes with an experienced performer. For female performers, basically all you have to do is be hot (for whatever value of hot is applicable to that studio) and able to fake convincingly for camera. Male performers obviously have another, um, bar to clear.
StuRat, it's really rare to go to a full shoot without having done a screen test first. In California (where the majority of the Western world's porn is produced), everyone working on the shoot is unionized just the same as all the TV and non-porn-movie crews are. They're cheaper, yes, but there are still going to be minimum calls and such, and with porn being on a tiny shoestring at the best of times the last thing you want to do is waste an hour of your crew's time. More often what happens is having to perform a scene in the studio's offices (it's about as literal a casting couch as you can get) with someone holding a camera and the director directing. If you're a guy and you can't make things, uh, happen then you're not getting called back. Women just have to fake convincingly enough to sell a video. Ipsissima Verba (talk) 20:42, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
So the audition/"screen test" involves the actor literally having sex with someone while being filmed? 2602:252:D13:6D70:D9F4:A874:9EE3:65BF (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 20:45, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
Depends on what they're being hired for. A man auditioning for hetero porn, yeah most likely that's what's going to happen. The director needs to know that the guy can get it up under pressure with totally uninterested people watching, after all. For male or female performers doing solo perfomances, often just masturbating to direction. For women it'll depend. For specialist porn, it'll really depend on the specific acts being requested. Probably the best way to think about it is like any other film performance: the director/producer/studio needs to know that you can deliver what they need delivered when the camera is rolling. Ipsissima Verba (talk) 23:15, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
Some studios specialize in a casting genre. Newbs (real or imagined) go through the photos and screen test, ostensibly to get a part in a movie featuring an actual location or stars or plot, then the "audition" itself goes on sale. Turns out a significant portion of porn fans don't need bells and whistles, or the rest of the cameraman's body. See Czech Casting (safe for work if you work in porn). InedibleHulk (talk) 23:28, December 7, 2014 (UTC)
Can I just say that that has to be the most awesome "Safe for work" disclaimer I have ever seen? Well played, Hulk, well played. - Eron 17:51, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
There's a lot of porn purporting to be "casting auditions" for new stars. I wonder if they're scripted performances and the actual casting occurs earlier. If so, it'd be interesting to see the difference between the real porn auditions, and the porn auditions porn. 75.69.10.209 (talk) 23:57, 7 December 2014 (UTC)
From a friend of mine who has done gay 'casting' videos: they are usually just as scripted as any other porn. I mean, again, you need to know that the guy in question can actually deliver before you start paying for everything. Real porn auditions are pretty boring: "do this, now do this. Do this." Same as filming porn--it's a lot less exciting than it sounds. Ipsissima Verba (talk) 00:12, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
It brings a whole new meaning to the expression "rise to the occasion". Clarityfiend (talk) 09:17, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
A very small few (usually the "other" person in a celebrity tape) got famous through full-on amateur, where auditioning consists of (maybe) asking your partner(s) if they mind the camera. Even then, there are 6 Reasons Homemade Porn is a Worse Idea Than You Think. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:27, December 8, 2014 (UTC)

It's Kind of a Funny Story (film) (Starring Zack Galifianakis))

Is it possible to compare and contrast this film to all the other films that have been made? For example Wizard of Oz....Sling Blade.. and others? --Allin Bagsnott (talk) 21:58, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

How similar are their respective plotlines? Even if they're not, you can take the approach that Siskel & Ebert used to talk about. Films tend to fall into genres. So for a given film, one important question is the quality of the film within that genre.Baseball Bugs carrots23:07, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

The Wanted( music group)

Can anyone tell me who the brunette is in the video "she walks like Rihanna" — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.133.136.221 (talk) 23:15, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

Regarding Viz_Media

I can't stream the new Sailor Moon viz dub online because I live in Canada. Is there a website where I can and does ViZ Media have a contact email address? Venustar84 (talk) 23:34, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

They have a contact feedback form on their website. If you go here, there's a feedback button on the top bar of the site.
A lot of companies use systems like that for feedback now. It cuts down on spam and such. 75.69.10.209 (talk) 23:59, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

December 8

What kind of casualties did the Jedi Order face in the Clone Wars before Order 66?

Throughout many of the works concerned with the Clone Wars, there is constant refrain of heavy casualties suffered by the Jedi during the War, with the Order stretched thin in numbers, and even young padawans being deployed to War.

As such, is there any other G-canon (The Clone Wars cartoon, perhaps?) or lower-canon source which gives

1) either any numbers on the the casualties suffered by the Jedi before Order 66 eliminated 99% of them?

2) or, indirectly, any numbers on the Initiate + Padawan (+ Service Corps?) population of the Jedi, which we could then take to be about equivalent to the presumed CW casualties pre-Order 66. Ram nareshji (talk) 12:24, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I highly recommend the Star_Wars:_Clone_Wars_(2003_TV_series), available here on YouTube . It was created by the people who did Samurai Jack, and has a much better than the other tellings of that story, IMO. Anyway, there are rather few Jedi deaths in that series, though there are rather few Jedi. I always understood it to be that there were just too few Jedi, not that their death rate was that high in CW battles. Quite the opposite, we Mace Windu and other take down whole regiments of bots while suffering nary a scratch. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:06, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Part of the problem with these stories (of ANY part of the canon) is that they only follow a tiny subset of people in the galaxy. There are 1 trillion people on Coruscant alone, according to official canon; there's likely quadrillions of people in the civilized galaxy, so it would not be impossible to consider that there were 1,000,000 Jedi among that population, at least at the height of their strength. 1,000,000 out of 1,000,000,000,000,000 is still only one in a billion. One really needs to get into the numbers here to get a sense of how many people we're talking about. --Jayron32 17:47, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
Yes, that's kind of what I was getting at, that Jedi were a relatively small group even at their peak. Anyway, I recommend the Wookieepedia for anyone who wants detailed numbers on anything Star Wars related. Unfortunately their page on Jedi Census phenomenon is not about the number of Jedi in the SW universe . SemanticMantis (talk) 19:58, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

December 9

Endless Love (song)

Who was the piano player who sang Endless Lovein the 1981 film by the same name ?--KAVEBEAR (talk) 03:20, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Maybe Penelope Milford? --Jayron32 13:12, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

I enjoy reading the synopsis first; any comments?

I enjoy reading the synopsis before the begin, so How does Anyone feel about that? Is anyone Mad at Me? Does anyone Feel like Laughing? Is anyone Feeling that It's weird for Me to Read the Synopsis beforehand?(50.173.3.162 (talk) 17:16, 9 December 2014 (UTC)).

--119.160.119.16 (talk) 18:32, 9 December 2014 (UTC)Italic text

Please read the disclaimers at the top of this page. This is not an appropriate question for this desk. This is not the place to ask people for their opinions about how they feel about what you are doing. There are many thousands of places on the internet where this would be a fine question; feel free to ask at one of those. This one little place is not it. --Jayron32 18:51, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
It's a matter of taste or personal preference. My wife likes to read previews to know what to expect. I, on the other hand, studiously avoid commentaries on films or shows that I'm interested in, until after I've seen it. In short, do what you feel like doing and don't worry about it. ←Baseball Bugs carrots21:52, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

No, it makes you extremely cultured. Opera-goers have been doing this for generations. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 02:15, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

Here's Charles Schulz's take on it.Baseball Bugs carrots08:10, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

Youth Olympic Games

What does YOG DNA mean? 47.20.45.84 (talk) 23:45, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm assuming you realise that YOG is Youth Olympic Games. According to this site, the DNA simply is the DNA of genetics. Or, if you want to be clever, deoxyribonucleic acid, HiLo48 (talk) 23:54, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
Some further explanation from the IOC - article, YouTube video. Hack (talk) 08:11, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

December 10

Has J. Michael Straczynski ever revealed the meanings of names in Babylon 5?

I like to read the various series wikias and guides as I go through a series I'd seen before, to pick up on stuff I may have missed. I ran across this on The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 for A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1:

I tried to develop a basic language structure for each of the races on B5. There are certain commonalities to the structure of names. I came up with some prefixes and suffixes, and assigned meanings to them, the same as real names. For instance, Rathenn (referred to by Delenn in "Voices") and Delenn have the same suffix, which has a specific meaning. You can break it down; Ner-oon (Legacies), Del-enn, Rath-enn, Der-onn, and so forth. The various parts do have specific meanings, but I generally keep that to myself, just for amusement.

Narn names follow a similar pattern, which I suspect has something to do with which Narn religion they/their parents followed. I remember thinking the G' in G'Kar's name may be because he's a follower of G'Quan, but it would also fit with G'Lan, so I'm no longer sure. (And if that were so, why would G'Quan and G'Lan's names follow the same pattern as modern Narn, anyway..?)

Has J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5 and who the quote above is from, ever revealed the meanings of all these prefixes/suffixes? Ram nareshji (talk) 08:20, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

  • According to Chin, Bertha, and Matt Hills "Restricted Confessions? Blogging, Subcultural Celebrity And The Management Of Producer-Fan Proximity." Social Semiotics 18.2 (2008): 253-272. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Dec. 2014, "Straczynski posts and interacts with fans in the following newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, rec.arts.comics.marvel.universe and rec.arts.sf.tv. These messages and responses to fans, dating back to 1991 are archived at http://www.jmsnews.com/. I did a quick search there for "names meanings," and a lot of results came up, but I don't know if any posts answer your particular question specifically. It seems like a good place to find such information if he's shared it, though. --some jerk on the Internet (talk) 13:09, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Abducted Lifetime Movie About Prison

Since Jack's looking for Tim who is Still alive, did Tim steal someone's Identity to inside that other Person's house or did Tim purchase a New House?(50.173.3.170 (talk) 11:41, 10 December 2014 (UTC)).

Most. Enigmatic. Ref. Desk. Question. Ever. -- Jack of Oz 19:05, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Google to the rescue! Searching on "lifetime movie prison jack tim" reveals the existence of Abducted: Fugitive for Love. (Which I am amazed to discovery does not have its own Misplaced Pages article.) I will leave it to another to try and parse the plot summary for an answer to this question. - Eron 19:35, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Question about Retaliation?

In my opinion, retaliation's wrong when the (Victim & Culprit) both have Families.

If the Culprit has no more Family, then the (Victim) or the (dead Victim's relative) has a Right to Retaliate against the Culprit by using the Process of Murder for example.

If we are not sure of the Culprit's guilt, then Retaliation's wrong even if the Culprit's an Orphan.

In the movie called Yevadu, after he pushed the Villian out of the window, how come the Girl didn't Call the Cops? It's becuz Retaliation's correct.

Is there any American Episode or Movie with my Appropriate Examples of Retaliation?(50.173.3.170 (talk) 11:46, 10 December 2014 (UTC)).

Are you VenusStar84 logged out? ←Baseball Bugs carrots13:13, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Who is VenusStar84? What is VenusStar84?(50.173.3.162 (talk) 17:16, 10 December 2014 (UTC)).

He meant User:Venustar84. I don't see why he suggested that the IP was that particular editor editing logged out. If you are not a registered user editing logged out, you would do well to create an account, because your IP address has changed within six hours. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:24, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
It just seems like the kind of question VenusStar84 would ask. And if Venus is editing while logged out, it gives away their IP address, or the range anyway. ←Baseball Bugs carrots22:13, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
The answer to your question, Questioner, is to move to someplace with the rule of law. In places where law rules, people do not have to spend much money making sure their homes are impossible to break into, people do not have to fear random murders, and on the other hand they don't have time to think about the need for retaliation. It just doesn't happen.
After you move to a society with a rule of law, you can always send a bit of money back, open a school or foundation, and otherwise try to help your own community become civilized. For now, your first step is to leave - and good luck. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 02:04, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Another way to look at it is with the goal in mind of minimizing the amount of violence in a society. If there is never any retaliation/punishment for violence, then you can predict that there will be lots of violence. On the other hand, extreme retaliation/punishments, like killing the entire family of anyone who slaps someone, will also result in lots of violence. The typical ancient compromise was "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", but modern punishments seem to be less severe than the crime. Case in point is the 2011 Norway attacks, where a man murdered 77 people and was only sentenced to 21 years in prison.
I don't think the rule of law is all that important in preventing violence. You can have a dictator with total power, and as long as they are benevolent, that doesn't have to lead to violence. On the other hand, many places with the rule of law, like the USA, have lots of violence. StuRat (talk) 02:20, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

"I don't think the rule of law is all that important in preventing violence" - Stu, boy have you lived a sheltered life. of course it is extremely important. if there's no rule of law, and somebody rapes your sister, there *is* no question of pressing charges. (Which requires the rule of law first). That isn't even on the table, there's no such thing. If you don't think this creates more violence in terms of vandettas, etc, you haven't seen any failed states. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 03:50, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

As for the lone Entertainment question, here are 358 answers. InedibleHulk (talk) 04:06, December 11, 2014 (UTC)
Questioner, you might benefit from reading our article Social contract. Pertinent to your concerns about retaliation, in a "civilized society" one agrees to relinquish one's rights to take retaliation in return for the assurance that Society, through the State's laws, will carry it out on your behalf to the degree agreed to be appropriate by Society. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 14:40, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
That applies if he's in a society that benefits from rule of law. His reference to the film Yevadu evoked for me that he may live in a culture where rule of law is not nearly powerful enough. I don't have a good solution for him, I'm afraid. He likes ethics, and asked about the ethics of vandettas. The ethics of vandettas are that they should not happen (an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind), and that if he enjoys living in peace and unmolested, he needs to move to a society that enjoys better rule of law. I would add that he can then work from a distance to bring some of it back to his roots. Sorry I don't have a more positive outlook for you, Questioner. I just think that it's highly possible the social contract in your part of the world isn't worth the paper it's written on :/ Move someplace where it is, and adopt the ethical values from there. Send home what you can of them. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 00:36, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

December 11

Does the Crusader skill Consecration stack?

Diablo 3 - The legendary flail Inviolable Faith casts Consecration under all my allies too.

If my allies and I are standing close together, so that the Consecration casts overlaps:

  1. Will each receive bonus healing or just the normal amount from 1 cast?
  2. For the Frozen Ground rune, will enemies be slowed beyond 60%?
  3. For the Frozen Ground rune, will enemies have multiple chances to be frozen?
  4. For the Shattered Ground rune, will enemies take additional fire damage?Ram nareshji (talk) 05:00, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
You are apparently asking about some game. It might help to tell us what game it is. JIP | Talk 07:39, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
It's Diablo III. I'm finally getting it tomorrow, will have to wait and see if I find this flail before I can be sure, but Reddit gets more into it than I ever will. Do they answer your question, Ram? InedibleHulk (talk) 07:49, December 11, 2014 (UTC)

Super Bowl LIII

Request has been discussed and dismissed previously
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Can you help me please. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.102.58.146 (talk) 21:44, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

December 12

Ratmir's part in Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila: Why sung by a woman?

Why is the role of the Khazar prince Ratmir in Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila sung by a woman contralto? (And, incidentally, why are the WP articles for the poem and the opera spelled differently when the title is exactly the same in Russian?) Contact Basemetal here 11:28, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

I dunno about the first one, but Ludmila and Lyudmila are both common transliterations (so is Ludmilla), so maybe one is more common for the opera and the other is for the poem, in which case WP:COMMONNAME would result in this inconsistency? But I'm not sure if this is actually the case. Double sharp (talk) 12:35, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
See Breeches role for the tradition of having male opera characters portrayed by women (Cherubino from The Marriage of Figaro is one of the best-known examples) - the list in that article includes Ratmir. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:08, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Catherine the Great in trousersbreeches
(after edit conflict) Regarding the "why", it does seem to have been a "Russian thing" at that very period.
"Breeches parts or "trouser roles" (travesti in French) for women represented the last gasp of a tradition from eighteenth-century opera seria, opera buffa, and early Romantic opera. Central to early-nineteenth-century operas such as Rossini's Tancredi (1813), these roles were soon eclipsed by the rise of the Romantic tenor. The last truly major "trouser role" from Italian opera was Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi (1830). After that, the female singer specializing in trouser roles had to content herself with playing young boys marginal to the operatic plot, usually shepherds or pages. The two trouser roles from Glinka's operas, the orphan boy Vanya and the poet-prince Ratmir, gave the tradition a longer life, and a more central one, in Russia. Indeed, until Tchaikovskii re-conceived Pushkin's Tatiana Larina as an operatic heroine, Vanya, a youth who heroically gallops to Moscow to warn Russian troops of a threatened attack by Poles in 1612, very possibly represented the best-loved Russian operatic role for women. Perhaps Catherine the Great's fondness for donning male attire when traveling, reviewing military troops, or having her portrait painted retained its imaginative potency for early-neineteenth-century Russia."
(Julie A. Buckler, The Literary Lorgnette: Attending Opera in Imperial Russia, Stanford University Press, 2000, pp74f, ISBN 9780804732475) ---Sluzzelin talk 13:30, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Thanks. I had been wondering if there was something specific about Ratmir (in the poem or the legend) but apparently not: I hadn't noticed that both of Glinka's operas contain breeches role so it seems his operas had to have at least one. In general you'd expect a young boy not a adult with a girlfriend (but then there's Bellini's Romeo, who however is himself supposed to be very young). I sort of see why Glinka chose the non-Russian Ratmir to be his breeches role. There was really no other candidate. In the staging of the opera by the Mariinsky in 1995 (directed by Valery Gergiev) the stage director, Lotfi Mansouri had the brilliant idea to go stick a fake beard on Larissa Diadkova's face. Makes her look like a circus freak. Contact Basemetal here 14:39, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

Simpsons question

Lisa the Beauty Queen was just on and in the episode there is a line where Krusty the Clown, when referring to the pageant runner up taking the place of the winner, says something along the lines of "don't say it'll never happen. Remember what's her name...Click Click" whilst miming photography. Is this just a throwaway line or is it a reference to something in real life? I would have asked on the article talk page but feared being hit by a "not a forum" zealot. Keresaspa (talk) 19:27, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

This is the proper place for a question like this K. If memory serves the line is referring to Vanessa L. Williams who resigned her Miss America title when Penthouse published nude photos of her taken when she was young. Now that occurred nine years before The Simpsons episode and I have a vague memory that the same sort of thing happened to another beauty contest winner closer to '92. Another editor may be able to confirm that. MarnetteD|Talk 20:01, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Most likely it was a direct reference to Williams, as it was a national news story in the day (partly because Williams was also the first black Miss America winner). --McDoobAU93 20:18, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Ah, I see. Wasn't reported in my neck of the woods as far as I know but it makes sense. Thanks all :) Keresaspa (talk) 20:45, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

coffee skit

I think this brief audio skit is the one titled "My Husband" on Gold Turkey.

"My husband is very particular about his coffee ... I'm not saying he'd lock me in the basement or push me down the stairs if I didn't make a perfect cup of coffee ..."

Chevy Chase is the husband, according to my aural memory. Who's the wife? —Tamfang (talk) 22:48, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

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