Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 January 6

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January 6

When the smile doesn't reach all the way to the eyes

A common phrase in fiction to indicate insincerity is "Her (or his) smile didn't reach all the way to the eyes." Is there an image available online, photo or painting, which illustrates this? Maybe in some manual for salesmen, actors or politicians showing the same person smiling "genuinely" and in the false way described. Is this insincere smile different from the grimace exposing maximum teeth used by models in ads for dentists who use bleach, braces or tooth veneers to "make your smile perfect?" In a Google Book Search, there was a precursor in 1914 "Kingdon's lips continued to smile, but into his blue eyes crept a hard look.." ("Rex Kingdon in the North Woods," by Gordon Braddock, page 60). A closer version of the phrase turned up in fiction from the late 1930's: "Keep your chin up, "he said and tried to smile. It didn't reach his eyes, however.." (Danger in the Dark, Mignon Good, 1937, p 233) It was quite the present cliche by 1947: "Rush smiled but the smile didn't reach his eyes," ("The fall guy," by Joe Barry, 1947, page 7). It continues in excruciatingly common use today. I counted 136 occurrences for 2008 alone. What exactly is lacking in the eyes or the rest of the face? Or is it just a phrase they love to write, without having a clear idea of what they mean? Edison (talk) 00:15, 6 January 2010 (UTC) Edison (talk) 00:15, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Here are some smiles. But this smile (thankfully not illustrated) is a cut above the rest. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 00:29, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

The eyes are not open as wide in the "sincere" smile illustration. Is that the much cliched difference? Edison (talk) 01:05, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

A recent ref desk page discussed the question of a "simper", which is kind of like what Thomas is suggesting. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:36, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

I think the "contempt smile" is a good name for that smile. Imagine one catty high school girl saying to the other, "oh, I'm so glad to hear you're dating my ex-boyfriend," wearing a contemptuous, fake (mean) smile. A smile with a clenched jaw is kind of how I imagine it works. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:54, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes used to have such a smile. It was a very quick, though strong, upturn of the corners of the mouth with his lips closed. In his case it was his "I am superior" smile. That "smile that doesn't reach the eyes" is a literal expression. Smiles that are insincere or pasted on for reasons not associated with pleasure/joy/friendship involve mostly the lower half of the face. (There are grimaces that involve the eyes, certainly, but either they are wide, wide open as in surprise/shock or tight closed as in pain.) It is very difficult for anyone to control consciously the tiny muscles around the eyes that cause them to crinkle gently in a way that follows naturally in a "real" smile. So, if the eyes are not "involved" in the way we normally associate with a smile, then the smile lacks warmth. If you are interested in seeing what the eyes do tell you, personally, here's a test that might be useful to you. Bielle (talk) 03:41, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Jeremy Brett seemed to have a brief rictus rather than a disarming and natural smile. The "test" results in "Page not found." I am so amused that my mouth is smiling, but my eyes are not. {On other occasions, my eyes smile, but my mouth is noncommital). Edison (talk) 06:15, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Leave off the "|": Bielle coded it like an internal link. Try test. I got 30 :) 86.178.73.74 (talk) 23:04, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

I was hoping for some screen shots from Batman Begins where he puts his insincere grin to good use, but here's Cillian Murphy's "smile that doesn't reach the eyes grin" and a more authentic one. Matt Deres (talk) 04:18, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

There's a recent TV ad, maybe for an appliance, in which twin girls give their mother and exceptionally faky smile, between frowns. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:20, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Isn't Mona Lisa's smile usually described as "enigmatic", at least in part due to her eyes? --Dweller (talk) 10:00, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

What is lacking are microexpressions that accompany a genuine emotion. These are caused by facial muscles that most people can not control, but everyone can see when they're there or not. --Sean 15:22, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Some more easily than others, I expect. Edison (talk) 16:11, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Personally I have always been irritated by this old saw and have always thought that it had little basis in reality, and that it was a lazy stock phrase used by lazy writers. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:24, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

How strange. Do you often find it hard to tell if people are lying to you? 86.178.73.74 (talk) 22:55, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know why most people don't take this too seriously, but I've noticed this phenomena myself. When a person smiles sincerely, his/her eyes will light up with a kind of happiness that I find hard to describe, while "insincere" smiles often leave the eyes looking cold. Try to think of Lucius Malfoy's smiles in the Potter movies (insincere), and the smile Potter gives when he manages to catch the Snitch in the first movie (very much sincere). One could argue that the "sincerity" is subjective, but that would be beside the point... La Alquimista 12:19, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Difference between Cinemax and Imax

I was looking up the places where they're airing Avatar in Kolkata, and I found the newspaper using "Cinemax" and "Imax" to describe two multiplexes in Mani Square. As far as I know, there's only one plex there :AerenR IMAX.... Can anyone tell what the difference is between these two?? 117.194.226.110 (talk) 11:40, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

The Cinemax website appears to explain this - the multiplex is in the Mani Square mall; it has several screens operated by the Cinemax chain, and one Imax screen which seems to be operated seperately. Warofdreams talk 12:59, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

eyebrows color

I've often heard the phrase "does the carpet match the drapes" when people are referring to my dyed red hair, so I was wondering if eyebrow color always matches pubic hair color? Or can they be different­ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.145 (talk) 14:04, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Head, eyebrow, and pubic hair can all be three different (non-dyed) colors, although more likely than not any given two will pretty much match. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 14:59, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Is it common to dye the carpet to match the drapes? Edison (talk) 16:10, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Not common afaik, but then again I'm not the one that should be answering. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 18:04, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

As a somewhat-pedantic note, "any given two will probably match" is the same as saying "all three will probably match", and I don't think that's what you're going for. I expect that "at least two will match" is more accurate. Math bit: if two and only two of three match, the probability of any given two matching is only 1/3. — Lomn 16:10, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, I sort of meant as "on a given person, two are likely to be the same" but in the end I'd have to say you're right. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 18:04, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

We have an article called Human hair color but that article appears to be solely about the color of the hair on one's head (unless a knowledgeable editor would like to go and redress the problem). Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:23, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Pubic hair as a reference to a book. ~ Amory (u • t • c) 23:25, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

If you will go to the Talk page of the article on hair color, you will find that some of us have observed that the mustache, sideburn, eyebrows, and eyelashes all can have different colors - naturally, and without having to resort to dyes. Not to mention the hairs inside the nose, and on (and in) the ears. Similarly, I imagine, the color on the upper leg as opposed to lower leg, as well as hair on the shoulders or back (for those men who tend to be hairier than most). My grandfather had red hair, his kids did not, and when I allowed my beard to grow in the 1980s and 1990s, it was red on the side, blondish on the mustache, and light brown on the chin. And yet I have dark hair. Well, now that it is the year 2010, and the hair on the top of my head is starting to go grey, but what the heck, it was an interesting experiment that took decades to conduct. You'd think more people had enough self-control that they could do an experiment of this nature. Dexter Nextnumber (talk) 07:30, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

C.S. Lewis records in a letter of 27 April 1956 to Laurence Krieg: I had [chicken pox] long after I was grown up and it's much worse if you are a man for of course you can't shave with the spots on your face. So I grew a beard and though my hair is black the beard was half yellow and half red! You should have seen me. Marnanel (talk) 21:18, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

speedometer out on 2000 Grand Marquis

What could be wrong if the speedometer, the gas gauge, the oil gauge and all other gauges on the dash are out on a 2000 Mercury Marquis? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.95.255.182 (talk) 15:03, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

It's crashed. 78.146.51.13 (talk) 15:26, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

My best guess is a blown fuse. But as always, don't take random people's word for it- find a mechanic that you're happy with. Altho, if it really is just a fuse, that's meant to be very easily user-replaceable and would be quite cheap. Friday (talk) 15:35, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

It would be unlikely for all the gauges or the sensors/senders to all fail at the same time, although it is plausible several instruments could have a gauge or sensor fail one at a time so that eventually none work. If they all went out at once, then a single point failure could be a fuse as stated above, and that would be the first and cheapest thing to check. Certainly a short could have caused the fuse to pop, so it might be a result and not a root cause. Fuses good? Then a connector with multiple leads might have come loose, or a ground connector might have opened so there is no return path for the current. Edison (talk) 16:08, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah - I agree. Assuming that other electrical things like headlamps and interior lights work (eliminating a bad battery or battery cable) - then a blown fuse is by far the most likely problem. A dodgy earth return is the next most likely thing - but it's way, WAY less likely. So grab your owner's manual - figure out which fuse is responsible for supplying power to the dash - replace it and all will be well (99% of the time!). SteveBaker (talk) 00:38, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

Financial bets

Why are some betting sites (like Ladbrokes) offering financial bets? Couldn't anyone bet directly with stocks (and pehaps generate some dividends?) or buy real financial products like stock options (which are regulated)?--Quest09 (talk) 19:01, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Depends on how much risk you want and how much potential for quick return. Gambling sites will generally offer a win-lose proposition, e.g. you bet whether the Dow goes up or down and if you are right you double your money, and if you are wrong you get nothing. Stock investing will generally involve buying things with the hope they go up somewhat in value but with security that even if they go down somewhat you will usually still be able to sell your security to recoup most of the investment. Hence one is high risk/high reward while the other is comparatively low risk/low reward. Dragons flight (talk) 19:23, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Spread betting works in a similar way, if I had £1,000 and a share was trading at £1, I could either buy 1,000 shares or I could buy 100 £1 units on a spread betting website.

Ignoring transcation fees, if the share price were to go up to £1.10, if I had bought shares I would now have £1,100 worth of shares. If I had bought the spread betting units I would have made 100 units * 10 points = £1,000 and have a total of £2,000. Obviously if it had reduced to £0.90 I would either have £900 if I'd bought shares or £0 if I'd used spread betting.

It's a way of increasing your Leverage_(finance).

Also, betting on markets avoids (or at least greatly reduces) transaction fees and eliminates taxes (at least in the UK where gambling is tax free) Coolcato (talk) 20:24, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to offer a flip side to the question, then: In the UK, then, for those who like to speculate on short-term movements of stocks, why would people still purchase call options and put options when they could gamble instead and the proceeds are tax-free? Is the odds payout that bad? Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:18, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Spread betting doesn't really work on an odds system, the money you make is the difference between the sell and buy price multiplied by the number of units you sell. The spread betting companies make some of their money through the bid/offer spread much like your local Bureau de change, which is often a larger spread than were you to purchase through a stock exchange.

Call and Put options are slightly different really, call options, for example only allow you to experience upside gains (an increase in share price) because if the share price on the market dropped below the price available on your option, you wouldn't excercise the option, but you would still obviously have paid an option premium for the right to participate in upside gain. Your loss would be limited to the option premium.

With spread betting, if you BUY at a certain price and the price drops, your potential loss is the current share price multiplied by the number of units you own, in other words, what would happen if the share price dropped to 0? Spread Betting would be deemed more risky. This maximum loss can be mitigated through a stop loss, where the spread betting company will automatically sell for you should the price hit a specific low, but it is possible that the share price could drop past this limit in one horrible price movement, in which case your units would be sold at a price lower than your stop loss.

Eg, you buy 10 units at 100 pence and set a stop loss at 50p. The share price dwindles down to 51p and then the company announces terrible financial results, resulting in an instant drop in the price that the markets values the shares to 20p. Oh dear, your stop loss has failed to prevent this extra risk. Your expected maximum loss of 50 * 10 = £500 is suddenly 80 * 10 = £800. You'd be pretty unlucky but it happens. Coolcato (talk) 09:47, 9 January 2010 (UTC)