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March 6

Rate my librarian

Is there a website where you can rate who is the best librarian and who is the worst librarian at your public library especially here in Toronto Canada? I want to express my favourite librarian and my worst favourite librarian. Also, is there a way that you can know who are the librarians working at your public librarian? Please and thanks. Donmust90 (talk) 02:07, 6 March 2017 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 02:07, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I suppose Yelp or something like that could allow for it. But I would hope that good sense would prevail over something that could be potentially libelous. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 03:04, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Why would you even raise that as an issue? There are forums where people rate every professional from doctors and teachers (ratemyprofessors.com) to prostitutes. Libel has never come up with any of them. --Viennese Waltz 08:49, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything that turns up on the internet. But if a librarian sees an entry someplace that says, "This librarian sucks and should be fired", that could be grounds for a libel suit, especially if the librarian gets fired because of it. (Of course, there's still the old adage, "Never sue - they might prove it!) ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 13:05, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Yeah, you're kind of missing my point there. In the entire history of the internet, has any libel suit ever been brought against someone expressing an opinion on a professional person such as a doctor or professor? If not, then it's not an issue and you shouldn't even be posting it. If you don't know, then you still shouldn't be raising it. --Viennese Waltz 13:57, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Yes. And also yes. --Jayron32 15:25, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Waltz, popehat.com over the years has (iirc) mentioned many defamation suits over things like Yelp reviews. —Tamfang (talk) 10:17, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Donmust, why don't you send a card of thanks to all the librarians, perhaps with a mention of the individuals who have been particularly helpful. Public libraries are a wonderful resource that we are in danger of using (in the UK, suspect it applies to most developed countries), and their staff will appreciate a pat on the back. I hppe that none of the librarians are really, really bad, but if they have done something out of order then there would be a complaints procedure. Itsmejudith (talk) 11:13, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Can anyone decipher this sign?

Whilst on my travels, I found this sign Arcanus hortus I've got as Latin for mysterious garden, but the squiggles underneath baffle me... If as I suspect it also means mysterious garden,then what language is it in-doesn't appear to be Arabic? Lemon martini (talk) 17:26, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Where did you take the picture? ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 17:53, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

The car number plate is British, and the rubbish bins are marked South Hams District Council (in Devon) - which makes me suspect that the squiggles may be some sort of alchemical or pseudo-magical script. Wymspen (talk) 18:31, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Yes, it would help to know exactly where you took it. Then you can go to google street view and look at the whole building afresh. Maybe, it is a rear entrance to a restaurant of that name or something and the frontage gives a telephone number (or a neighbouring building shows a telephone number). If so 'just' phone and ask for more info. After all, for someone to deploy such a script, they must a sense of humour and welcome WTFDTM questions. Alternatively, pop a letter into their post box (shown on the gates) containing a self-address post card (and email address) asking for an explanation to aid your further edification. It could be a court-yard type of flat/apartment conversion. Hence the name (as it is out of sight).Say that, because the floor is not the typical cheap concrete hard standing but an expensive stone floor suggesting a Des Res behind those wrought iron gates.--Aspro (talk) 20:10, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Interestingly, this is about the only Google hit for the phrase "arcanus hortus". --jpgordon 20:22, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Des Res? "something" Residence? †dismas†| 21:36, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Desirable residence - UK expression for a posh pad. Wymspen (talk) 21:52, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. That was my leading theory. †dismas†| 21:54, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Looks to me like Arabic copied out by someone ignorant of Arabic. (Reminds me of hanzismatter!) —Tamfang (talk) 10:20, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

It's South Brent in Devon-pretty much opposite the Post Office and it's just a standard residential house-that's all that's visible from the road-there's no signs or anything similar...I did wonder if it's some sort of gardening business given a.the Latin inscription and b.it's not that far from Totnes,where every other garden grows something to cure some bit of your anatomy/soul/realign your balance with Mother Earth... I used this translator which gave me the exact Latin wording. Lemon martini (talk) 00:13, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

The Latin might be intended to mean "secret garden", but as Tamfang said, the rest is surely pseudo-Arabic (hmm, that article is not quite relevant, but close enough). Adam Bishop (talk) 11:29, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

@Adam Bishop: - the term in currency seems to be faux-Arabic -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 12:50, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Posting at the languages ref desk might get a better response? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:33, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

The "Arabic" appearing to include two 'alifs with dots above, I suddenly wondered if this might be disguised English. I can see the word on the left (which would be the second word if it were Arabic) as "Will", so I suspect it's a name. Unolbi? --ColinFine (talk) 18:16, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Think realistically, the ball's back in the OP's court now, to deposit a letter in their post box, if he wishes for a resolution to his musings.--Aspro (talk) 23:17, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Two fat ladies

I'm trying to understand the difference between fat and calories here. Say two women (identical twins) both weighed the same. One of them ate a diet purely of sugar (high in calories) and the other ate purely lard, fat and cheese (high in saturated fats)

Let's assume they both eat equal quantities. Which one would come out heavier. I'm confused. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.104.156.150 (talk) 18:04, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Our article on Food energy gives some general figures, showing that fats have the highest number of calories per gram. Dbfirs 18:27, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

This very experiment was recently shown on TV with two men, Chris van Tulleken and his identical twin brother Xand van Tulleken. I am sure it is online. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 19:38, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

I saw that programme, but I regret to admit that I've forgotten the conclusion! Dbfirs 20:56, 6 March 2017 (UTC)

Sugars and carbs make you fat. Fats clog your arteries. Which way you gonna go?213.205.192.167 (talk) 00:20, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

And sugar/carbs causes type II diabetes. You gotta die of something... --Jayron32 01:40, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

The causes of T2D are not fully understood, Jay. There are some known risk factors, but it certainly is not as simple as what you said. -- Jack of Oz 09:33, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

The causes of nothing are fully understood. Acting on pure omniscience is not a luxury we have given that we live a limited lifespan anyways. --Jayron32 11:37, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Everything causes cancer.--WaltCip (talk) 13:05, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

How would you measure equal quantities? Weight? Volume? Calories? Itsmejudith (talk) 16:19, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

March 7

TechShop

Are there currently any companies which directly compete with TechShop? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:348A:C4E6:44A4:A8FF (talk) 04:56, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Hackerspace may be a good place to begin your research. --Jayron32 11:35, 7 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:2974:99FA:2AAB:8C86 (talk) 04:43, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

March 8

Top 500 most important bilateral relationships

As a side project I'm thinking of creating an index to rank the world's top 500 most important bilateral relationships of the almost 40,000 that exist between UN member states. I don't have a precise definition of "important" other than to refer to the common sense of the word in this context. My encyclopedic question is what kinds of data are available and would make a fitting contribution to ranking countries? Trade volume between countries first comes to mind. Foreign direct investment too (but that's more difficult to sort data as offshore jurisdictions muddle the figures). More creatively the number of times in the past 10 years that the word "conflict" appears in a news article about the two countries out of the total number of articles mentioning the two countries in that same period as queried from a news database? Any other ideas? Also could subjective evaluation contribute to such an index?

Muzzleflash (talk) 12:48, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Other commonly used measures would be number of visitors from country A to country B; number of foreign students and/or other temporary residents; amount of development assistance; number of high-level visits (may be more difficult to find figures on those). --Xuxl (talk) 14:30, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Geographic distance is certainly important, particularly for small nations, as 2 small nations which border each other will almost certainly have more interaction than 2 on the other side of the world from each other. Of course, this stat causes the stats you really care about, so you might skip measuring this stat and just go on to measuring the final stats, unless you need to use this stat to filter out the unlikely candidates (distant, small nations). StuRat (talk) 15:12, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

For trade This report from the WTO has lots of good statistics, including major bilateral trade partnerships and the volumes traded. --Jayron32 15:21, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

All really good contributions thanks. Something that is very hard to measure is what allies some countries have and how committed those allies are to protecting their friends / clients / vassals. Like using the proposed data would not allow for the Armenia - Azerbaijan relationship to make the top 500 but that conflict could draw in Russia and Turkey in a a war.

Often mentioned conflicts make a relationship more important for the world. The most often mentioned possible conflicts make relationships extremely important. Is there a simple mathematical formula that would give much more weight to the most frequently mentioned possible conflicts in news articles over the past 10 years? Muzzleflash (talk) 18:01, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

Sure..., if only we could catch international politics and potential conflicts into a simple mathematical formula... Jahoe (talk) 01:06, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

There are also collaborative bilateral relationships of a military nature. The UKUSA signals intelligence collaboration between the US National Security Agency and the UK GCHQ goes back to World War II. In general, the United States and the British Commonwealth collaborate on many military activities (the Five Eyes intelligence collaboration can be considered a US-Commonwealth collaboration). Australia and New Zealand also collaborate militarily on occasion (as late as 2006 in East Timor) as the ANZAC forces. loupgarous (talk) 22:21, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

March 9

Renting a lathe

Does anyone happen to know of any place around the San Jose area (other than TechShop) where I can time-share a metal lathe? Because I've been doing this at the TechShop for my project, but the problem is, half the time their lathe is not working right! Right now 2 of their lathes have an inop Z-axis sensor (which they said will take at least until April to fix), and the other one (in Redwood City) has an inop coolant system (which they're not planning on fixing at all)-- and since my project requires very high precision, this makes all of them unusable as far as I'm concerned. Thanks in advance! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:54E6:7BBC:ADED:E845 (talk) 02:31, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Does this help? I want to avoid sending business to anyone in particular, but there are likely some businesses there that can help you. --Jayron32 02:41, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Thanks! One question, though: Can I use the equipment at that location, or will I have to take it home with me and install it? Because I don't have much space in my garage, y'know! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:1C73:84FD:3547:DED8 (talk) 04:56, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

You will need to contact the companies and ask them. MarnetteD|Talk 05:19, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Will do! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:4014:3962:946C:2AF1 (talk) 07:48, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

• If it's high precision work, employ someone to do it, on the same lathe they're used to working on day-in-day-out. You won't achieve good results on a rented lathe (they're rarely in good condition), or on a lathe you're unfamiliar with. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:38, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

  True, in that case you'll want to look for a machine shop or job shop. --Jayron32 14:46, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Actually, so far I have achieved extremely high accuracy even with that worn-out lathe they had at the TechShop -- in fact, on turning the short end I had achieved accuracy in the Z-axis beyond what the manual said was possible on that machine! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:9031:2E93:E491:EE2 (talk) 08:13, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

• I presume this is a follow-on from WP:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2016 September 10#Machining Andy Dingley (talk) 17:41, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

Yes it is indeed! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:9031:2E93:E491:EE2 (talk) 08:13, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

3D Printer

Wishing to buy a 3-in-1 (metal, wood and plastic) cutter and curver (and so on).

Important: Capable of creating straw style holes...

Q:

1) Do 3D printers come with tools, like things you get with the sewing machine…?

2) How long will it take to learn its software? I'm planning to use it at home and self-publish my artifacts.

116.58.204.231 (talk) 17:18, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

• No such animal (as a useful machine). Any "combination" machines are a bit like Dr Johnson's comment about a dog walking on its hind legs: it's not that it does it well, but that it can do it at all.

It sounds like you're looking for a machine that can:

• Cut like a laser cutter
• Machine large soft materials like a CNC wood router
• Machine metals like a CNC mill
• 3D print, probably filament plastics
• Bend plastics like a hot wire bender (which admittedly I do on the laser).

My suggestion would be to find your nearest Hackspace and to try and get some hands-on experience with the machines there. My own buying advice (for lasers at least) is:

• Don't buy one, use someone else's.
• Don't buy one until you've used one.
• Don't buy a brand you haven't used.
• Don't buy from anyone further away than you can go and shout at.

For things like subtractive CNC machining, there's a big difference between a CNC router (large sheets of plywood) and a CNC mill (smaller pieces of metal). There are very few hobbyist CNC mills around - most metal-cutting "mills" are more like small routers here, using high-speed spindles and router cutter geometry. Even the standard hobbyist model engineer import milling machine is slow-spindle speed, high-load cutting, thus almost never used with a CNC conversion. There is a lot of non-obvious subtlety here, so get hands-on practice before buying anything.

For 3D printing (Misplaced Pages has no useful coverage on the topic), then a machine like a RepRap Ormerod is about the best hobbyist machine, and also very cheap (£500). But this is way behind a commercial machine, either a £10k plastic powder or a £¼M metal powder machine. Yet you can use machines like that (and for much less trouble) by bureau printing through Shapeways or iMaterialise.

Andy Dingley (talk) 17:33, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

A month ago the Computing ref. desk had a 3D Printer question with the same spelling of "wood curving" (carving?) from an IP user. Misplaced Pages has articles 3D printing and a book about 3D printing. Blooteuth (talk) 18:41, 9 March 2017 (UTC)

and same kind of confusion of 3D printing with machining. Asmrulz (talk) 06:04, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Glowforge can sell a laser cutter as a "3D printer". Andy Dingley (talk) 22:06, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

March 10

Multiple sexual partners?

So hypothetically, a woman has unprotected vaginal sex with several men. My question is what factors would determine which man would likely be the father to the child. Let's assume the woman the woman does end up pregnant in keeping with the question. Also, all the men had normal fertility. Would say, sperm count/competition be the most crucial aspect? OR what? -- 37.239.96.144 (talk · contribs) 20:37, 10 March 2017‎ (UTC)

Motility could well figure into it. ←Baseball Bugs carrots→ 20:47, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Fertility#Male fertility says that the age of the man matters for sperm count (so "normal fertility" varies). Advantage to the younger man.

Also, different men of the same age can have different sperm counts while still having "normal fertility".

I would think there would be an advantage to the man who had sex at the time of the woman's monthly peak fertility, which is from 5 days before to 1 or 2 days after ovulation. (See Menstrual cycle#Fertility.)

Controlling for the above, is there an advantage to the man who was first (or maybe last)? It seems that I've read about that for non-human animals, but I can't recall where. Loraof (talk) 21:39, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

You may be thinking of a mating plug. Our article sperm competition is also of relevance to the OP. CodeTalker (talk) 21:48, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

It has been suggested that the shape of the human penis evolved to displace previously deposited semen. Matt Deres (talk) 04:26, 11 March 2017 (UTC)

March 11

• Misplaced Pages resources for researchers
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• Misplaced Pages reference desk