Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 January 4

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January 4

The founder of the pyramid of Giza

Who was the original founder or builder of the Pyramid of Giza? Was he/she an african with kinky hair as those of Sub-saharan Africa, as Prof Deop of Senegal claims in a UNESCO publication, a series consisting of several volumes about the history of Africa? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.96.15.108 (talk) 08:38, 4 January 2012 (UTC) (Move here from the Mathematics ref desk by ToE 09:13, 4 January 2012 (UTC))

Statue of Khufu in the Cairo Museum

If you mean the Great Pyramid of Giza, it was build by/for Khufu (Cheops). I don't know about the second question. Pfly (talk) 09:19, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Our articles Ancient Egyptian race controversy and Population history of Egypt discuss the "history of the controversy" about and the the scientific evidence relating to the race of the ancient Egyptians. -- ToE 09:22, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

The problem is that modern Western black-or-white ideas of race don't correspond very well with the reality, which is that there is a gradual continuum among adjacent populations. All of the evidence suggests that ancient, like modern Egyptians fell somewhere between modern ideas of "black" and "white". Incidentally, the scientific evidence also suggests that these differences have almost no significance beyond outward appearance, with the exception of some diseases linked to specific genes, because genetic differences among different human populations are minuscule relative to the genome. Marco polo (talk) 20:14, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

In the end if what people usually mean by it is "did the Ancient Egyptians externally resemble the modern populations of Western or Southern Africa or not," and I think the answer there is "probably not on the whole, but they didn't externally resemble most Europeans either." It's a crude question in any case, born out of a debate between two very crude positions (Afrocentrism vs. White Supremacism). --Mr.98 (talk) 01:01, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

The OP's "Prof Deop of Senegal" would appear to be Cheikh Anta Diop (an extensive article), who "is regarded as an important figure in the development of the Afrocentric viewpoint, in particular for his theory that the ancient Egyptians were black Africans." His position appears to have been mainly one of challenging the traditional definitions of race which pigeonholed the African peoples "into categories defined as narrowly as possible, while expanding definitions of Caucasoid groupings as broadly as possible." He held "that the range of peoples and phenotypes under the designation "negre" included those with a wide range of physical variability, from light brown skin and aquiline noses to jet black skin and frizzy hair, well within the diversity of peoples of the Nilotic region." Later proponents of Afrocentrism appear to have gone farther, arguing "the Egyptians were primarily Africoid before the many conquests of Egypt diluted the Africanity of the Egyptian people." What study of ancient DNA that has been done (a difficult task) would appear to refute that more chauvinist position, suggesting that the modern peoples of Egypt today are largely representative of the ancient population, and that while "Egypt has experienced several invasions during its history ... these do not seem to account for more than about 10% overall of current Egyptians ancestry." Moreover, "Attempts to extract ancient DNA or aDNA from Ancient Egyptian remains have yielded mainly Eurasian DNA types from the Dakleh Oasis cemetery site (from Southern Egypt), and they show a considerable increase in the amount of sub Saharan mitochondrial DNA over the past 2,000 years, suggesting that within this timeframe there was more migration from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Nile Valley than from Eurasia to the latter." (See Population history of Egypt#DNA studies.) Diop died in 1986, well before these DNA studies were done, but they might not have changed his more moderate Afrocentric stance, in that he may not have considered the modern Egyptians any less "negre" than the ancient ones. "Diop repudiated racism or supremacist theories, arguing for a more balanced view of African history than it was getting during his era." -- ToE 03:57, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Letters in car

There are some letters in the cars i'm wondering what they stand for. I know the functions but dk on what they actually say. I know P stands for park, R stands for return. How about N, D4 (little number 4), D3 (same here) and 2, 1.174.20.91.182 (talk) 21:51, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

You're not saying where in the car you are seeing the letters, but you appear to be asking about the gear stick. Since you mention knowing that "P" stands for park, I assume you are referring to a car with automatic transmission. "N" would be neutral (no gear engaged). R would be "reverse" (not "return"). Not sure about the numbers (Except for the occational rented car, I only drive cars with manual transmission). I therefore put the letters you mention in a search engine, the first hit was an exact answer to your question, see this link. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:19, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

(ec) The Automatic Transmission article explains nicely. anonymous6494 22:21, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

In the days when there was just Drive and Low, there was a Sniglet claiming that an alternate name for the gearshift in an automatic was a "PRNDL" (pronounced pren-del). ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

D4 (D=Drive) automatic changing of first through fourth gears; normal driving position

D3 automatic changing of first through third gears; when needing more engine torque or braking at moderate speed

2 locks transmission in second gear for extra torque or braking at slower speed

1 locks transmission in first (lowest) gear for very low speeds or when towing something heavy with the car --Thomprod (talk) 23:42, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Specifically, when Thomprod says "braking", it's a reference to engine braking, a way to slow down without using the brake pedal. --Carnildo (talk) 02:15, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, Carnildo. I meant engine (torque or braking), not (engine torque) or braking. Thanks for the clarification and the Wikilink! --Thomprod (talk) 11:37, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

One quick correction a position like D2 sometimes labeled simply as 2 usually doesn't lock the transmission only to second gear, but like the D3 system you explain, locks the transmission out of all the gears above second, allowing it to change only between first and second. --Daniel 21:03, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Bugs, "R" is for "Racing", everybody knows that. Drmies (talk) 22:30, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Some of the cars I've rented recently had "B" after "D," which the manual says refers to "Braking." Apparently, "Low" or "2nd" aren't sexy enough. DOR (HK) (talk) 09:11, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Towing capacity

I have a Isuzu Bighorn, SUV, year 1992, the CC rating: 3,165cc, Fuel type: Petrol, County of Origin is Japan, Gross vehicle mass: 1,970kg, No of seats: 7. I am in New Zealand. My question is what is the towing capacity of this vehicleKansas2 (talk) 22:26, 4 January 2012 (UTC)

Not sure if this applies here, but US pickups come with light duty, medium duty, and heavy duty towing packages, often labelled 1500, 2500, and 3500. Do any of those sound familiar ? StuRat (talk) 02:19, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

Here's our article, but it doesn't seem to list towing capacity: Isuzu_Trooper#Second_generation_.281991.E2.80.932005.29. StuRat (talk) 02:37, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

This page seems to say it's 3300 kg for the SWB (short wheel-vase) and 3500 kg for the LWB (long wheel-base) models: [1]. It's just a chat room, though, so not sure how reliable it is. And, of course, whether you are going up steep hills also matters, as well as how fully loaded the passenger compartment and trunk/boot are. StuRat (talk) 02:51, 5 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but the 1997 Isuzu Trooper was rated at 5000 lbs (2270 kg) in the United States. It is the same model and generation as 1992 Bighorn, 3165 cc 190 hp gasoline engine, curb weight 1960 kg (manual). Source: autos.msn.com. They don't have data for any models before 1997.--Itinerant1 (talk) 04:34, 5 January 2012 (UTC)