Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 January 20

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January 20

Russian A-Level course in Liverpool

Are there any schools near Liverpool, England which offer Russian as an A-Level subject? I'm trying to pick a 6th form and Russian would decide it for me, but Liverpool Council and Edexcel (only exam board that does Russian) both refused to tell me. Thanks! 89.195.90.196 (talk) 01:59, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Why on Earth would they refuse to tell you? Perhaps they couldn't be bothered to find out, or perhaps they were having a joke at your expense ("we could tell you but it's a KGB secret"), but I would try asking them again. Failing that, you could try phoning the schools themselves - here is a list of secondary schools within 25 miles of Liverpool. Astronaut (talk) 02:57, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Cowley Language College offer Russian language classes but it's unclear from their website whether these are at A-Level, they're in St Helens. [1]] Nanonic (talk) 03:41, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Very few schools are able to offer Russian at A-level because there is minimal demand. The City Council will be aware of past curriculum statements from its schools, but could not guarantee that these will continue in future years since such minority courses often depend on a single teacher of the language. Each school sets its own curriculum. Similarly, the examination board will know whether the school has been used as a centre for the examination, but not whether the course is actually taught there. Your only options are the individual websites where they usually give a list of subjects at advanced level, or individual telephone calls. As Nanonic suggests above, a Language College is likely to offer a wider choice of languages, and some might have an arrangement with a local university to enable you to attend A-level Russian lessons there (paid for by the school) whilst studying your other subjects at the school. Dbfirs 08:28, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

As an aside, if you want to study Russian language at university, it is possible to do so without Russian A level: it would be good, however, if you were to prove that you can study at least one language at A level, so don't limit yourself too much at this stage. --TammyMoet (talk) 10:30, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Broughton Hall High School had a teacher who spoke Russian and wanted to teach it when I was there in 1989-1991. You might want to ask them. --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 16:35, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Places founded by Trojans

Hi. I've learned that according to legend Brutus of Troy founded Britain, and Aeneas founded Rome. Are there any other empires, countries, or other notable places that Trojans founded according to legend? This is not a homework assignment, I'm just curious. 169.231.9.45 (talk) 04:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

The mythical founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were allegedly Aeneas' grandchildren somehow descendants of Aeneas. I don't think you can give him credit for "founding Rome" and the articles are more careful to say The journey of Aeneas from Troy, (led by Venus, his mother) which led to the founding of the city Rome, is recounted in Virgil's Aeneid. Unfortunately, I have nothing further to add besides that clarification. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 07:54, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

For the alleged line of descent from Aeneas to Romulus see Latin kings of Alba Longa#List. Alansplodge (talk) 22:10, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight begins (in Jessie L Weston's translation), "After the siege and the assault of Troy, when that burg was destroyed and burnt to ashes, and the traitor tried for his treason, the noble Æneas and his kin sailed forth to become princes and patrons of well-nigh all the Western Isles. Thus Romulus built Rome (and gave to the city his own name, which it bears even to this day); and Ticius turned him to Tuscany; and Langobard raised him up dwellings in Lombardy; and Felix Brutus sailed far over the French flood, and founded the kingdom of Britain, wherein have been war and waste and wonder, and bliss and bale, ofttimes since."--ColinFine (talk) 08:38, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Snorri Sturluson begins his prose Edda with a euhemerized account of how the Norse gods were all refugees from Troy. Algebraist 13:12, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

• Antenor: Patavium, Cyrene, Sicambria or Venice.
• Aeneas: Lavinium.
• Helenus and Andromache: Buthrotum.
• Acestes: Aegesta

—eric 00:03, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

THERAPEUTIC JURISPRUDENCE

CAN THERAPEUTIC INTERGRATION MAKE A DIFFRENCE? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.56.174.43 (talk) 15:36, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

To what?Froggie34 (talk) 15:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

[Irrelevant question by 117.197.254.247 (talk) 15:57, 20 January 2010 (UTC) removed. Reasons: 1) Not relevant to this thread; 2) Request for opinion.] --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 16:21, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Is your question related to Desegregation busing in the United States ? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:28, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

ER / M*A*S*H Inspired (bit depressing) Question

I've been watching M*A*S*H and ER recently and they got me thinking (morbidly). Hawkeye sometimes says that the survival rate in their hospital is 97% (that's leaving their place alive) and similarly in ER whilst there are deaths a very high percentage of the people survive (at least to beyond the ER remit). The question...In your average sized (Uk) hospital what are A) Survival % for their ER (i.e. survive to leave ER) and similarly what sort of number of deaths are they getting on average in the hospital per week (or year). Bit depressing but I started thinking about whether your average Nurse will have seen 100s of people die in their duties or more like 10s. I guess it varies by department but any sort of info/links would be greatly welcomed. ny156uk (talk) 21:25, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

You should be aware that in a typical ER most of the patients are slips and falls, or people worried that their flu might be something worse, not gunshot wounds and cardiac arrests. Having said that I don't know what survival rates are. I would expect them to be high. DJ Clayworth (talk) 21:28, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Surprisingly hard to find good data (much easier to find the cost of an ER visit). Children's Hospital of the Universith of Zinjiang claims a 99% survival rate [2]. DJ Clayworth (talk) 22:51, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

This article puts the survival rate of ER patients with traumatic injuries at around 95% (scarily you are twice as likely to die if you don't have insurance). DJ Clayworth (talk) 22:54, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Cool that's some good info on the first 'part' of what I was thinking about, the other bit is...what sort of volume of deaths occur in an average (uk if possible) hospital per week/year. I can see that there were 509,090 deaths in England & Wales in 2008 (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/bdths0509.pdf) and i'm guessing a large amount occur in a hospital, but not sure what sort of volume that equates to. Apparently there's around 1,100 hospitals in England so that would be (ignoring the obvious massive flaws in the following assumption) 509,090/1,100 = about 462 deaths per hospital per year - or a bit more than 1 person dieing per hospital per day. (Yes I appreciate the morbid-ness of this question!). ny156uk (talk) 23:12, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

And you've got to remember that the ER is not a real place for sick people to stay -- it's a point of entry. Really sick patients will be admitted, as will people that need major surgery (e.g. for bone fractures, etc.). The ER nurses won't necessarily see all the sick people dying. But they will see many of the cardiac arrests not make it, but then again, they're already dead. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 00:22, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Anecdotally: My wife was an operating department Nurse in the UK - and an OR tech in the US over 25 years. She tells me that she probably saw 500 or more deaths over her career - a very rough estimate obviously...but from hearing her conversations in the evenings, she took deaths pretty seriously to heart and I'd agree that she saw maybe one or two deaths per month in general surgery. But the hospital ran three shifts and had multiple operating rooms - so the numbers would be more like maybe one death per day in that entire department. She doesn't think from her experience that the US and UK numbers differed noticeably. She was more than happy to give it up though. SteveBaker (talk) 00:23, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

See the article about triage that when it is invoked for major emergencies affects the in-treatment death rate. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:24, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Weird fruit

The main fruit in this picture is dragonfruit, but what's the scaly green thing to its left? --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 22:43, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I believe it is something of the genus Annona; were I pressured to guess, I would say it is the fruit of A. squamosa. Intelligentsium 22:53, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Concur, it's a sugar-apple, see for example File:Sugar-apples 5, Taitung County, Dec 06.JPG. Nanonic (talk) 23:00, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Brilliant. Thanks. --HughCharlesParker (talk - contribs) 23:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Let there be no reference here to an old tragic song by Billie Holiday. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:19, 21 January 2010 (UTC)