Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 August 2

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August 2

Olympic pools heated?

Are the swimming pools in the Olympics heated? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:18, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

FINA regulation 3.14 for Olympic events is the same as 2.11, which states the temperature should be between 25 and 28 degrees.[1] Clarityfiend (talk) 03:44, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

If 78-80 degree Fahrenheit is considered heated, then Yes.

http://www.solarattic.com/files/DictofTe.pdf (page 2 from here). Futurist110 (talk) 03:45, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

That is 77F-82.4F, still a little cool, I think. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:51, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Compared to what, Bubba? If a pool requires any heating to make it be a certain temperature, then ipso facto it's heated. Whether that's an individual's idea of cool or warm is a different question. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 05:20, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Are you saying 77 Fahrenheit is cool? When I was a child, I slept in a soggy shoebox, and had to eat ground glass for dinner, both ways, up hill. μηδείς (talk) 08:54, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

That actually seems too warm, to me. That would be fine for just splashing around, but those athletes are working hard, so cooler water would probably be appreciated, and keep them from overheating. StuRat (talk) 09:06, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Public baths in Britain often (used to?) have a digital temperature read-out near the entrance (I'm talking about Olympic-style straight-up-and-down swimming-in-lanes pools here, not the 'fun-park' type with flumes and jacuzzis) and my recollection from my childhood is that the 'norm' was somewhere around 21 centigrade (70F), and it'd often be nearer 19 (66F). If it got up to 23 (73.5) you'd be looking forward to a nice warm swim, so 25-28 seems like bloody luxury! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:26, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Apparently performance levels for elite swimmers go up with temperature. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8350604 - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:29, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

To a point. (While swimmers might move pretty fast at 100°C, they would stop moving fairly soon.) StuRat (talk) 09:33, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

closing unhelpful bickering over use of units in various nations
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
26 degrees is the standard for competition pools. I shouldn't have to mention that it's Celsius, since that's the standard for the Olympics, and in all but three countries in the world. HiLo48 (talk) 10:45, 2 August 2012 (UTC) One of those three countries happens to comprise a large portion of the editing populous on Wikipedia, so it's helpful to distinguish between Celsius and Fahrenheit.--WaltCip (talk) 14:34, 2 August 2012 (UTC) I could translate if I could be bothered. Can Americans? And why should I translate? None of the, presumably American, editors above who used only Fahrenheit temps bothered to translate what they wrote to the international standard form, and the form used officially at the Olympics, which is what the OP asked about. HiLo48 (talk) 20:26, 2 August 2012 (UTC) Closing this. Let's not do this anymore, mkay? --Jayron32 20:34, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

26 degrees is the standard for competition pools. HiLo48 (talk) 00:22, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Unheated pools in England are uncomfortably cold even in the height of summer. I've been in an unheated pool in August which was actually painful on entry and while breathing out was ok, breathing in again was a bit of a problem. Alansplodge (talk) 12:32, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

human potential/development

*Dear Sir or Madam, I am from the uk and I am intrigued by the programmes that you run out in the usa. For instansce, there is a true account of a young man in his teens who wanted to become a basketball player.He was only four foot and a half in height. The coaches, seeing how passionate he was about becoming a basketball player, decided to take him through a training programme. By the end of four months he had become six feet in height: the ideal height to be a basketball player. There was somekind of mindpower technique involved in the programme. Could you please expand more on this,please? I never hear about programmes like this over in the uk. Is it something that is very common in the usa?212.219.231.1 (talk) 11:12, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Firstly, this is Wikipedia, the encyclopaedia anyone can edit. We don't run any sort of sports programmes. You may have come across one of our articles about the subject. Secondly, no "mindpower technique" is going to increase anyone's height by 18 inches, if at all. Can you refer us to where you saw this "true account"? Rojomoke (talk) 12:57, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

:I could be wrong, but I don't think the OP is under the misapprehension that we run sports programmes. I take the 'you run out in the States' to be indicative of an assumption that Wikipedia is primarily US-based. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 22:58, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm also rather skeptical of this supposed "true story". From the sound of it it sounds like it's either greatly exaggerated or complete fiction. --Martyk7 (talk) 17:04, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

LOL! and a gold star to boot. μηδείς (talk) 05:37, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

FWIW the OP has an interesting editing history. Richard Avery (talk) 10:15, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Most useful free sites out there

What are the most useful free sites out there besides Wikipedia and its sister projects and YouTube? Futurist110 (talk) 19:53, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

You've been hanging around here long enough to know that we cannot possibly answer that question without knowing your areas of interest, at the very least. What's useful to me might be complete rubbish to you, and vice-versa. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:32, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Define "useful"? I find www.imdb.com and www.allmusic.com to be useful for pop culture stuff, www.tvtropes.com some people like. Google is fantastically useful, and free. If you like sports, ESPN.com is good, and some historical sites like baseball-reference.com and its sister sites are good for American sports research. I'm an American football nut (the kind with the oblong brown ball) and one of my favorite free sites is The Helmet Project which is a great example of a very narrow and very deep project. It also depends on what you mean by "free". Do you mean free as in speech or free as in beer? --Jayron32 20:38, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

By useful, I meant useful for any area of interest, whether I or someone else is interested in this area. By free, I meant a website that anyone can access at any time without ever paying for it. As for my fields of interest, I am very interested in United States, Israeli, and Jewish demographics. I am also interested in history, politics, current events, and especially current and historical maps (including those pertaining to demographics and demographic data). You can look at my Wikipedia profile for a little more details. Futurist110 (talk) 21:34, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

If you like maps, there's a great repository of digitally scanned historical maps through the University of Texas library system. I've used it for years, and it is a great site. See here for the home page. --Jayron32 02:59, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

I mean free as in gratis, meaning for no cost. Futurist110 (talk) 21:36, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Haaretz(www.haaretz.com) is a free Israeli current events site that I've found to be pretty reliable. --M@rēino 21:54, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Remember: The reference desk does not answer requests for opinions. I would say this question falls into that bucket. RudolfRed (talk) 23:15, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

He's looking for helpful reference sites. I would say that is exactly what the reference desk is for. --Jayron32 03:01, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Based on your preferences... I'll comment on your talk page. --Activism1234 23:41, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

I've found Weather Underground's Braille Page to be useful in getting my current local US weather and forecast fast, without ads and animated maps wasting my time (it's not really Braille, it's just easy for screen readers to handle). The Weather Channel purchased Weather Underground recently, so it may have all that crap added soon, but I hope not. StuRat (talk) 04:37, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Is there a free website similar to Social Explorer? Social Explorer is amazing, but a large part of it is not free. :( Futurist110 (talk) 04:53, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

WormBase is the most useful free website in my utterly objective opinion. Someguy1221 (talk) 05:36, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

WormBase talks about worms, though, not American (human) demographics. Futurist110 (talk) 02:03, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Someguy1221's reply was I think indented at your original question (it gets confusing because of your poor followup indenting) and in any case appears to be directed at your original question. I don't know whether they saw your clarification, but either way you can't exactly blame them for answering your original question, particularly since, at others have said, you've been here long enough to know what an incredibly poor question it was. Nil Einne (talk) 15:29, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Indira Gandhi

Nehru went to Gandhi since Gandhi was his mentor. I also understand Gandhi adopted Feroze just to avoid the inter religious marriage and that is how he got Gandhi surname. They are related in that sense.

Was Indira Gandhi related to Mohandas Gandhi? --108.206.7.65 (talk) 23:22, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Not that I can tell. Gandhi is a pretty common surname in India. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was not happy his daughter was marrying Feroze Gandhi, and he sought Mohandas Gandhi's help in dissuading them. Just why he went to Mohandas is not clear, but there's no family connection between Feroze and Mohandas mentioned in the article. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 23:38, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Nope. They had the same last name, but weren't related. --Activism1234 23:40, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

No, of course not. She was daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, as told above, the first Prime Minister of India. Nehru was a brahmin. She got the surname "Gandhi" after marriage to a man named Feroze Gandhi. But even Feroze was not a born 'Gandhi', which is a Bania caste. He was, I think, a Parsi and was forced to embrace Hinduism on the condition that he wanted to marry the famous Hindu aristocrat's daughter. "Gandhi" was the most dignified and holy surname then ( as it is now ). Many men who had to embrace Hinduism, through Shudhi mostly, used to acquire this particular holy name.124.253.94.87 (talk) 00:15, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Not sure why you say "No, of course not". Without knowing the story you just gave, it would be quite reasonable to suppose that two Gandhis who knew each other quite well were related. Quite a few of them obviously are. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 00:24, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

That depends on what exactly you mean when you say "related". In the OP question the terms means "related by blood", which was definitely not the case, as even a kid in India will tell you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.253.92.103 (talk) 00:38, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

How do you know that's what the OP meant? I was hoping to discover some familial relationship between her husband Feroze and Mahatma Gandhi, such as uncle-nephew. That would make her related by marriage to Mahatma, in my book. You've now made it clear that was not the case. I was simply wondering why you came out with "Of course not". The OP asked a reasonable question, and I've known various people who always just assumed that they were in fact direct blood relatives. (Not everyone in the world is lucky enough to be a kid in India.) I was actually very surprised to find no denial of this in our articles. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 00:58, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Everyone is related if you go back far enough. Was she a close relative of Mohandas Gandhi? As other users here have already said, No, she wasn't. Futurist110 (talk) 01:08, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

The bite response by 124 was unnecessary and wrong. It's a totally reasonable assumption to have made and the question was appropriate for this page. --Dweller (talk) 10:18, 3 August 2012 (UTC)