Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 May 4

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May 4

parag parikh is no more

pl change the profile — Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.118.69.145 (talk) 04:35, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I am sorry to hear of Mr. Parikh's passing, but he does not seem to have a Wikipedia page, so I'm not sure what change you're asking for. --Trovatore (talk) 04:48, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

He got at least a wikipedia user page entry, User:Pusillanimous/Parag. --84.58.192.211 (talk) 08:36, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Boarding schools

I am curious, if you are on a boarding school and skip class one day, won′t school staff send for you or start searchinġ about you? 46.198.31.136 (talk) 12:01, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

They would be negligent if they didn't - see In loco parentis. Alansplodge (talk) 17:56, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

In one case that I know of a few decades ago, two students had stated that they were running away. The result was that warrants were used for civil arrest of the students in Delaware. One of the students returned to school in one or two weeks. The other student never returned, but went across North America to Oregon, lived by odd jobs (illegally, being under working age), and eventually got a GED. Juvenile runaways are one of the few situations in which civil arrest is still applicable. (Wikipedia doesn't have an article on civil arrest, but it is a largely but not entirely obsolete procedure where a person can be arrested other than on a true criminal charge.) Robert McClenon (talk) 18:20, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I think the term you are looking for is Citizen's arrest, and Citizen's arrest in the United States indicates that there are many situations where a person may arrest another, where the arresting person is a private citizen and not an agent of the state. --Jayron32 18:25, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Robert is talking about a different concept: runaway minors being detained by the police simply for running away from home, which in itself is not a crime in many jurisdictions. I am not sure of the correct terminology for such detentions (civil "arrest" is unlikely to the preferred term at least in US in recent times). Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act may provide a starting point for further research, although the OP should be aware that none of the responses should be read as qualified legal advice especially for the system in Greece (where the IP geo-locates). Abecedare (talk) 19:20, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I would like to point out that my question did not concern runaways or serial truants, but merely the person who once decided not to go to class this morning and just that. Will or will not the staff try to find him? 46.198.31.136 (talk) 03:46, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Attendance policy and practices, other than at the individual school level, may be mandated by some supervisory authority over boarding schools for the particular jurisdiction involved. Check the Ministry of Education for the locality in question. -- Deborahjay (talk) 07:05, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Have to agree this would depend significantly on local practices etc, and may be the schools policies as well. To give a related example, in Malaysia I think for many if not most non boarding schools, if someone is absent even from primary school the absence will be marked, and they may punish the student and/or contact the parent if the student doesn't bring Medical Certificate the next day they attend, but the school won't generally contact the parent the day of the absence. In NZ for non boarding schools, you're generally expected to inform the school of any absences by the day before if possible, and if not the day of the absence before they are expected. And failing that, I believe it isn't uncommon for the school to call, or nowadays may be SMS or email the parent [1]. Truancy officers etc may look for students skipping school, and also follow up with parents and students where needed [2] [3] [4].

That being the case, the answer would likely be some boarding schools would and some wouldn't. E.g. [5] has someone saying it was easy to skip class because they are in a boarding school. Meanwhile, I don't think skipping class without a good reason is likely to be an option at schools like this [6] [7] [8] although whether that's mostly because they look for you when you aren't there, or because they come to the dorm room and kick everyone out may vary.

Nil Einne (talk) 16:06, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Gender disparity at home

I live in a household with 6 females; 3 sisters, a niece, a mother and an aunt. I'm the only male. I heard that living in such a high gender disparity household has a psychoanalytic affect on you. Is that the case? If so, would that be notable enough to create a wikipedia article over it? 84.13.58.38 (talk) 12:26, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I used to share a house with 7 women and I was the only man. It didn't have any affect on me, although I was the envy of my friends. They didn't understand that the novelty of seeing the women going to the bathroom in just their undies, wore off very quickly. --TrogWoolley (talk) 14:56, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

It used to be the case that people would worry about the lack of a male role model, though I don't know how in vogue that is with psychologists these days. If you type in male role model in Google, you get a variety of perspectives. I'm actually a bit surprised we don't have an article at male role model, given the had wringing that went on. I'm not a psychologist or sociologist, but I get the feeling that it's much less of a concern these days. Probably ties in with acceptance of gay marriage in some ways. BTW, I think you wanted the word "psychological" in there; "psychoanalysis" is the therapy you'd get if things went poorly. Matt Deres (talk) 19:04, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

You better go to the gym and start 'pumping' up/exercising/body building mate, your strength might come into play when troublesome activities appear, from outsiders... -- Mr. Prophet (talk) 05:36, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Look for studies done on the effect of birth order on personality development, where sex, number, and ages of other family members are probably noted as contributing variables and may be cited as additional factors of influence. These studies might provide useful references and language for further searching. -- Deborahjay (talk) 07:17, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

• This issue was a pre-internet late-80's meme, Russell.mo, so I am not sure if you will find much. Other than having his menstrual period synchronized with the rest of the household, I don't remember any actual memorable effects. From personal experience, my father had two brothers and no sisters, so his mother was the only woman, and she ran the house with no opposition. Later, when my father had to deal with living with only females in the house he spent a lot of time working out of state. μηδείς (talk) 00:03, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

It's all in your mentality, three/four things create such issues, 1) You might turn gay because of two much famine activities surrounding you, therefore you stay away, 2) You might become a protector and stay (I have for my two sister-cousins for almost 8 years, disregarding my aunties narrow-minded thoughts about her two daughters and me, 3) You might become an assaulter/rapist (what my auntie thought of me and use to hit me with her narrow-minded thoughts indirectly, for 10 years), 4) Like me, can't handle women mentality in general (I would rather stab myself/die than understand a woman's emotional feelings no offence to woman mentality in general). Not all men are the same, same goes for women. The way us men dislike some aspects of women, I'm guaranteed women do the same to/for men.

In OP's case, (no offence), it sounded like he is having mental issues (No: 1) so I advised No: 2. We can of course make him understand what he truely wanted to know, like the way Matt stated, but someone has to give a positive way of thinking things (what Matt also done with the words 'male role model'), otherwise his mentality will stick to the way it shouldn't have to be... We can only help ourselves/others or avoid a 'silent, deadly, effective' situation in order to help ourselves/others... -- Mr. Prophet (talk) 07:15, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Dear OP, write the article if you possibly can as it will give us Wikipdeia users a clear understanding of the issue(s), also don't forget to research on 'male role model'. It will also be good/great if you redirect them to the 'male role model' page or right in simple lines, with the knowledge you acquired, in the page you would like to create, how to overcome such issues... -- Mr. Prophet (talk) 07:38, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Local municipalities in the various United States

Hello. I am trying to compile a database of local municipalities throughout the United States. I am interested only in subdivisions that have actual governmental functions, not those created by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes. However, I get confused as to the type of local municipalities in some states. For example, in Pennsylvania, the entire state is divided into counties, and further subdivided into municipalities (which can be cities, boroughs, townships, or one town. There is no part of the state which is not in one of these municipalities. However, I understand that this is not true in other states. Am I correct? Are there states in which there is area under jurisdiction of a county (or its equivalent) but is not further subdivided? (And I know that Alaska calls its county-equivalents "boroughs", and part of the state — the so-called "Unorganized Borough" — is actually just state territory not in any borough.) Also, the names of county subdivisions are different in each state: villages are legal entities in New York, but not in Pennsylvania. Is there a source that can tell me what types of subdivisions exist in each state? Again, I am not interested in census designated places as they have no function. Thank you.    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 14:53, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

You are correct that the Census Bureau has a term "county-equivalent", which is the next subdivision below the state level, and that terminology for smaller subdivisions vary greatly from state to state. I don't know if the Census Bureau provides a database specifically of incorporated municipalities (as opposed to CDPs), but they probably do, and you might pursue that. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:10, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Not all divisions in Pennsylvania have home rule. See Home rule in the United States for a general overview, and Dillon's Rule in particular. For Pennsylvania, List of municipalities in Pennsylvania is a good place to start. Many municipalities in Pennsylvania have no home rule, and thus are civil townships in function: they are not independent governmental units, and services provided at the town level are subordinate to the County. The only part of the U.S. which is fully incorporated (that is, where all the land is part of a municipal corporation) is in New England, where the basic local government unit is the New England town. Within New England, only Maine has sizable land or population not living under a municipal corporation; New Hampshire and Vermont have a few tiny slivers of land (with VERY tiny populations, if any at all) also uncovered by municipal corporations, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island are fully incorporated. AFAIK, those three states are the only three states where every bit of land is governed by a fully functioning, chartered municipal government. New York and New Jersey have a similar situation as Pennsylvania: there are lots of different kinds of municipalities, and while the state is technically fully covered, some of those municipalities do not provide complete local government services. Other than the North East, however, most U.S. states have large amounts of unincorporated land, with municipalities limited to covering urban areas of defined population density (many of these may be small indeed, but only cover built-up areas, not including rural land). --Jayron32 15:11, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Government functions aren't evenly distributed either. In Illinois, counties provide police service to unincorporated areas, in Michigan, the state does. In some states county police provide service to the entire county including the incorporated areas. Rmhermen (talk) 18:06, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Jayron's answer sums up the situation very nicely, but I would point out that counties in Connecticut and Rhode Island lack governmental functions. They may be administrative units for some departments of state government, but they do not have their own governments. Their municipal functions are handled entirely by their constituent towns (and cities). The same is true for most counties in Massachusetts, while the remaining counties in Massachusetts have only very vestigial governmental functions, mainly limited to the court system and public records. See Administrative divisions of Massachusetts. As for the other states, our articles on each state describe its internal subdivisions to some extent, or link to articles that do. I believe that all of our articles on counties and county equivalents list the municipalities within those counties' boundaries. Marco polo (talk) 18:21, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

To the contrary, Jayron is rather badly wrong for us here in Pennsylvania. Our townships are full-fledged municipalities, just like cities, boroughs, and the town. Moreover, townships can have home rule, just like cities and boroughs can, and some municipalities of all three types don't have home rule; see Home Rule Municipality (Pennsylvania) for details. List of municipalities in Pennsylvania is a good place to start for us; the whole state's been incorporated since 2004, when the last unincorporated place, the East Fork Road District, got merged with an adjacent township. Meanwhile, in some states, the civil townships are basically just county divisions; this is the case for my native Ohio and most of the Midwest (I don't know about MI or MN townships, or WI towns; they may have a bigger presence than most other states' civil townships), but not in most of the rest of the country, because the non-northeastern states without civil townships basically don't have anything at all in places outside cities/towns/villages except for the county government. In parts of the Midwest, there aren't townships; much of the Dakotas is unorganized territory, and much of Nebraska and southern Illinois has no townships, with the area instead being divided into precincts. Hawaii's on the extreme opposite side from Connecticut and Rhode Island — the counties are literally the only local governments in the state, and there aren't even local school boards to elect! Nyttend (talk) 02:53, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

PS, Michael J, see United States Census of Governments, a Census Bureau publication. They're the best source for this kind of thing. Since it's only conducted every five years, they may be out of date, but not badly; very few places incorporate or unincorporate in the typical year. Nyttend (talk) 02:59, 8 May 2015 (UTC)

• User Alansohn does a lot of work on NJ municipalities, he may have some useful knowledge. μηδείς (talk) 18:50, 4 May 2015 (UTC)
  • List of municipalities in New Jersey covers the 565 incorporated municipalities in that state and there appear to be corresponding lists for other, though not all, of the states. Alansohn (talk) 18:55, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

who help dr. ewen Cameron at mcgill

I am trying to find the list of the names of nurses who helped dr. ewen Cameron perform his experiments on mind control etc. while he was attached to McGill university school of medicine. can you help me with that? if you can locate the list and my sisters Cecelia labarge / laberge is on it that will help me understand how she felt it ok to leave me with mind scars that never heal as well as the body scars that have unless you know where they are all healed up. thanks for any ideas you can pass on john la berge — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.69.12.102 (talk) 20:05, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

I take it you mean Donald Ewen Cameron, in the MKUltra experiments. There's about a dozen boxes of declassified documents. I'm trying to find online copies myself, but so far most of the sources are questionable. Ian.thomson (talk) 20:22, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Here's a dropbox link containing scans of the released documents, found via Rationalwiki. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:36, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Is there any observable difference between foreplay and afterplay?

I was reading this 1984 article, which described foreplay as "sexual activity that occurs before sexual intercourse" and afterplay as "hugging, holding, talking, and so forth that occurs after sexual intercourse". How is that different from foreplay? Or perhaps, afterplay is merely "foreplay" that occurs after a night of passionate sex? Does sleeping in each other's embrace count as "afterplay", or does "afterplay" resemble foreplay but occurs after sex and prior to sleep? 140.254.136.157 (talk) 20:21, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

As stated on the talk page recently: "Wikipedia isn't really a good resource for subjective information regarding sexual acts and the nature of participants' pleasure. If you have genuine curiosity about various sex acts, I think you'll have better success on a dedicated forum. Fetlife, reddit.com/r/sex, or even the old alt.sex would be better venues for your questions." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:52, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

In very general terms, foreplay serves to increase libido (sex drive) and to otherwise get the participants excited and aroused. Afterplay is mostly a made-up word; the stuff going on isn't really play-like - it's quieter and gentler. The cuddling serves to strengthen emotional bonds and to help bring people down from the sexual excitement and into a more relaxed state. Sleep usually follows. Matt Deres (talk) 11:32, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Well, to be fair, "afterplay" isn't any more made up than foreplay, and they both have plenty of use in the literature. Pair bonding might also be relevant. If OP is looking for more science articles, these all [9] [10] [11] describe certain aspects of foreplay/afterplay, and some even give decent definitions. One thing that's important to keep in mind is that this is all very culturally dependent. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:01, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

• See time's arrow and showering. μηδείς (talk) 23:53, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Buy some 'smokes' and do 'two pull' passes, 'before' and 'after', saves the headache. -- Mr. Prophet (talk) 08:50, 7 May 2015 (UTC)

I have never enjoyed smoking ... tobacco. μηδείς (talk) 01:32, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

Your weren't with me, that's why -- Mr. Prophet (talk) 04:08, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

Limes

So I bought a fresh lime from the local food store to use as a garnish in gins and tonic (gin and tonics?). Not knowing anything about how to properly cut limes as a cocktail garnish, I sliced it in half and cut away a slice a bit less than a centimetre thick, and cut that in half so it would fit in my glass. The next day, I saw that the lime had already started to wilt away on the surfaces I had split open. But when I cut another slice, the part of the fruit that had not been previously exposed was as fresh as ever. Is this normal? How long do limes stay fresh in the first place? Could I prolong the fruit's freshness by putting it in a cupboard away from sunlight and artificial light, or in the fridge to keep it cool? JIP | Talk 20:24, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Lemons and limes are acidic. Some microorganisms may not find the acidic environment favorable to growth. 140.254.136.157 (talk) 20:27, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

"Gin and tonics" is fine, as tonic is not an adjective as in "attorneys general". My mother (who's been drinking them since the 60') cuts a new lime in half, puts the unused half in a small plastic bag in the fridge (the bag avoids drying) and then slices a spherical wedge for her current drink. (From the picture you posted before, she would have used twice as much gin and tonic for that much lime.) She leaves the remainder of the sectioned half in the cheese cupboard in the fridge door without putting it in a bag. The exposed surface will dry but not go bad (she buys one lime per bottle of gin) and she cuts the next slice from the dried edge, as the inside will still be just as juicy. μηδείς (talk) 21:57, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

Well, the glass I used is so thin that a full slice of lime won't fit. I don't know how to cut just half of a slice, so I cut a full slice and cut that in two. I'd much rather make use of both halves than throw one away. Of the actual drink, I poured almost half of a small whisky glass of gin, and then added tonic until the glass was practically full of liquid. I assume that would make a 1:1 or 2:3 mix of gin and tonic. JIP | Talk 18:25, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

The reason only the cut portion dries out is that citrus fruits are composed of rather large cells. You should be able to see them (each looks like an elongated tear drop). The cells you cut open have lost their protective cell wall, and will rapidly lose moisture. The intact cells behind the cut layer will not. StuRat (talk) 01:47, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Those are not properly cells in the biological sense. Those are Juice vesicles. The cells are much smaller; the membranes of the individual vesicles will be composed cells, not entirely unlike your skin, but the vesicle itself is not a cell. --Jayron32 13:27, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

They also call them "pulp cells" at that link: "Pulp cells often have thin membranes, and they are less regular in shape than other plant cells". StuRat (talk) 17:44, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

One way to prolong the freshness of the lime somewhat is to (a) make sure you make the cut exactly even, so you have a flat surface on the remaining portion, and (b) put the portion cut-face down on a flat ceramic or stainless steel surface (e.g. a saucer), so that only the outer peel is actually exposed to the air: this will slow down, though not entirely stop, the 'wilting'; however you may want to trim a further thin slice of "wiltedness" before cutting your next G&T's slice. Most bartenders would also cut slices 5mm or less thick to maximize the number they get from each lime, but they will be making lime-requiring drinks more frequently that you likely will be, and want the lime to hand for when the next such drink is ordered, rather than tucked away in a fridge. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 212.95.237.92 (talk) 13:56, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Totally normal. The drying out is actually beneficial, because it protects the inner layer from drying. You could try covering the freshly cut edge with plastic wrap, or just putting it face down on a saucer as suggested above. In my experience though, it's convenient and easy just to sacrifice some small portion of the lime, though where I live (TX, USA) they are likely far less expensive than where you live (10 for 1 US$ is a fairly common price). Oh, and the correct plural is jynnan tonnyx in some places [12], and you may need to further research Douglas Adams :) SemanticMantis (talk) 14:14, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

I'd modify that a bit to say that the rapidly drying cut layer protects the lime from decomposition, as bacteria won't grow in the dehydrated pulp cells. StuRat (talk) 17:46, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

Limes are much more expensive than that in Finland. This lime, admittedly not the smallest one I could find, cost me about 0.80 to 0.90 €, alone. Lemons are slightly cheaper, but I thought I'd use a lime, as I understood that's what the original recipe calls for. However, by far the most expensive ingredient is the gin. It cost about nine times as much as the rest of the ingredients put together. By volume, it's about sixteen times as expensive as the tonic. Admittedly, I could have chosen a cheaper Finnish gin, but I thought I'd go for a genuine British gin. But the biggest reason for the price is the heavy alcohol taxation in Finland. JIP | Talk 18:25, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

If you shop in areas where limes aren't grown in the US (like the North East) they can cost anywhere from one to three limes per dollar, so about a Euro would not be considered bad from a high-end grocery store. There's always lime juice, but that removes all the fun and romance. If you follow the advice above to section the lime wedges cleanly along the fruit's axis you will not lose any of the limely goodness. μηδείς (talk) 23:51, 5 May 2015 (UTC)

In the UK, where limes have to be imported from somewhere much sunnier, they seem to be GBP 0.30 (USD 0.46) each. [13] Alansplodge (talk) 20:02, 6 May 2015 (UTC)