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March 18

plant protein

Healthy diet#Others

In 2022, the American Society for Preventive Cardiology defined a healthful dietary pattern as a diet consisting predominantly of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, plant protein and fatty fish with reduced consumption of saturated fat, salt and ultra-processed food.

What do they mean by "plant protein"? 193.116.250.82 (talk) 12:17, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

If you follow the link in the article, you will find this [1]. --Viennese Waltz 12:58, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

March 19

Down the road

Here's an unlikely scenario: Let's say a woman named Alice is 9 months pregnant and is in a car on the right side of Canusa Street with her husband, Bob. Suddenly, Alice is about to have birth, so Bob quickly rushes to the nearest hospital. Unfortunately, Bob panics and swerves the car left, and exactly halfway between the road, their baby is born. All of the passengers survive.

With that said, is the baby American, Canadian, neither, or both? TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 05:46, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

The yellow line down the middle seems to be about 3 or 4 inches wide. A car is a lot wider than that, so any car that is "on" the centre line must have some part of it on one side, and some part on the other. But that's just the car. What is the location of the humans inside? It's possible that all of them could be on one side of the line, if, say, Alice was sitting in the back seat behind Bob. Without further information it would be impossible to tell. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 06:36, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

Babies tend not to be born in an instant, and even if they were there would be more pressing concerns than its nationality. See Birth aboard aircraft and ships for similar scenarios. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:44, 19 March 2025 (UTC)

There's uncertainty about the exact position and the officials only have the parents' word stating it was either this side or that. The most likely outcome is that the parents can choose, and would normally choose the side giving least bureaucracy; pragmatic officials wouldn't mind. If the parents are Usan or Canadian, they will normally pick their own side. If there are formal border checks (apparently the case today), those may be relevant too.

Such streets with a border running down the middle or along the edge of the street, with houses on both sides, are pretty common in Europe; I count around 30 towns with such streets in Belgium alone. European countries however tend to run on jus sanguinis principles and have mostly open borders, avoiding the issue. This makes Canusa Street's claim on the friendliest border in the world questionable. It must be the typical American hyperbole. PiusImpavidus (talk) 12:44, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

Line house [2]. 2A00:23C7:E197:1C01:D411:6500:B0F3:68E2 (talk) 14:34, 20 March 2025 (UTC)

How can a border street be "in Belgium alone"? —Tamfang (talk) 04:57, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Belgium and The Netherlands contain a number of enclaves of each other, some of which have further enclaves within them; see Baarle. Thus some of these Belgium–Netherlands borders are, overall, within Belgium. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.64.108 (talk) 08:38, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

March 23

Transcontinental countries

Are Armenia and Cyprus transcontinental countries? They can be considered both European and Asian countries, but if they are European, all of these countries is part of Europe. If they are Asian, all is part of Asia. Are such countries considered transcotinental?

--40bus (talk) 23:30, 23 March 2025 (UTC)

The Armenia article says it's in west Asia. The Cyprus article says it's geographically in west Asia but culturally and politically European. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:25, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Although the historical Armenia Major was definitely an Asian country, some definitions locate current Armenia in Europe. For more, see Boundaries between the continents § Asia and Europe.  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:02, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

In antiquity, the world was thought to have a central sea (the Mediterranean), with some islands in it. This was surrounded by three continents (Europa, Asia, Africa), separated by narrow stretches of water, and that was surrounded by the ocean. So, Armenia was in Asia and Cyprus wasn't part of any continent. It turned out that the division between Africa and Asia along the Nile didn't work so well, so it's now commonly drawn along the Suez Canal, which is artificial. It also turned out that there's no connection from the Northeast of the Black Sea to the ocean, so people tried to draw an arbitrary boundary from the Black Sea to the Arctic sea, typically via the Caspian Sea and the Ural Mountains. It's poorly defined though, with 4 major variations between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and many minor variations on those.

Türkiye is according to every definition partially in Europe and partially in Asia, so it's transcontinental. Cyprus is depending on the definition in Europe or in Asia or in neither, but not in both. Armenia is in Europe or in Asia, but according to most sensible definitions not in both. I don't think one could consider them transcontinental. Although, as a minor variation on the boundary along the Aras river, one could claim only some of the westernmost parts of Armenia are in Asia. Georgia and Azerbaijan could be transcontinental, depending on your definition. PiusImpavidus (talk) 12:20, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

If one takes the Suez Canal as the dividing line, Egypt is transcontinental. By most definintions, Russia is also partly in Europe and partly in Asia. And if one includes the Overseas departments and regions of France, which politically "have exactly the same status as European France's departments and regions", then France is transcontinental, too. Deor (talk) 14:53, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

And I see we have List of transcontinental countries. Deor (talk) 14:57, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Previously discussed at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2009 April 1#Armenia, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2009 August 22#Truths which are allegedly created by opinions about what the truth is, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 December 9#Easternmost country in Europe?, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2012 September 26#Muslim dominated neighbourhoods in Europe, Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2013 April 22#Euro. 2A00:23D0:EC9:4101:8D7A:1710:8AA6:4B30 (talk) 17:02, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

March 24

Extra electricity on the grid

You run a small power company with a power plant that generates 100 MW. If you could somehow know that your customers demanded 100 MW at certain times of day and 50 MW at other times, you'd generate those amounts at those times. However, you can't know this, so you always have to generate at least a little more to avoid brownouts. (1) Aside from estimates derived from experience, and real-time data generated by monitoring demand, how can you know how much power to generate at any given time? (2) If you generate 60 MW when your customers are using just 50 MW, what happens to the excess? Do the lines resist the excess power, causing it to be radiated as heat? Is the power plant physically unable to generate more than the demand, so the plant spends more input energy (e.g. you burn more coal than needed) than needed to match demand? Is the excess used to charge giant batteries, which are then used when the power plant isn't running?

I've read Load management, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. As far as I can understand, in load management, the power company reduces demand by somehow disabling some customers' electrical devices, but this seems to have effects comparable to brownouts, so probably I'm fundamentally misunderstanding the article. Nyttend (talk) 10:09, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Electrical transmission is effectively instantaneous (the electrical energy powering your light now was (e.g.) thermal energy in a steam turbine a few milliseconds ago), so a utility doesn't generate excess capacity in anticipation of a rise (but it might ready additional capacity in anticipation). Supply must meet demand in real time. The rotational inertia of the rotors in thermal generators provides inertial response (they're effectively flywheels), smoothing out brief blips in the mismatch between supply and demand. Longer-term changes (more than a few seconds) must be managed actively by grid balancing, where the grid manager actively brings online additional supply (commanding the online generators to supply more, or less) and later ordering additional generation online (batteries, stored-hydro, peaker plants) or load-shedding. An important element of this is interconnection, where local excesses of generation or demand can be ameliorated by sharing with a larger grid. So even if that local mom-and-pop power company has 100 MW of generation and rarely anticipates its local customer base wanting more than that, it will still seek an interconnect with its neighbours, so it can exploit them as a huge sink of both supply and demand. Almost everyone gets their power from a supplier that is connected to their regional/national/transnational wide area synchronous grid, providing a high-degree of interconnect. It's much more difficult to manage the stability of an isolated microgrid (an "island grid"). -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 12:01, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

I should note that a regional interconnect has lots of other benefits too - it allows an open market, it allows large and expensive baseload suppliers (like nuclear stations) and cheap but intermittent renewables to interoperate (and sell into one another's market), and it allows reliable supply during long-term outages (so MomNPopCo can take their 100 MW plant offline altogether, so they can service it, as long as there is sufficient interconnect capacity to cover the shortfall - they will plan this downtime with the grid manager, so the grid and the remaining generation capacity isn't overtaxed). But even if none of these were an issue, the simple fact of the grid being there makes it very valuable for local supply stability. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 12:12, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

When a power station produces 100 MW for its consumer and the consumer only uses 50 MW, the excess power simply flows to a different consumer on the same grid. A different producer may decrease production or a different consumer may increase consumption. It works out technically, but economically it's not so nice, as the wrong bills may be send.

So, economically, the industrial producers, industrial consumers and retailers create contracts. Basically futures contracts, specifying the power to be delivered/consumed at a particular section of the grid during a particular 15 minute interval at a particular price. Such contracts can be created a year in advance or just half an hour. Small consumers and producers (households with solar panels) are usually not involved in such contracts; they only deal with the retailer. Producers then produce as agreed, consumers consume as agreed, retailers hope their estimates were good and the grid stays more or less in balance.

Practically, the predictions aren't perfect. Production from wind and solar varies randomly with the weather (weather forecasts are getting better; the 30 minute forecasts are particularly relevant here), when overtime is required in an important football match, the post-match power peak is delayed and occasionally a technical malfunction causes an entire gigawatt of production to drop offline in a second.

Big producers constantly adjust their power slightly above of below the contracted levels to keep the grid steady. If there's too little production, the voltage drops slightly, current from the spinning generators increases, the electromagnetic torque increases and the generator, which has a lot of rotating inertia, slows down and its phase begins to lag behind the ideal. The power station (thermal or hydro) responds by increasing the mechanical torque driving the generator to keep the frequency of the power grid within narrow limits, so that all generators on the grid remain in phase. In central Europe, the frequency is between 49.8 and 50.2 Hz, but most of the time they manage to keep it between 49.95 and 50.05 Hz. There're always big generators spinning at idle, which can be moved to full power very rapidly. Solar panels have no such inertia and wind turbines have inertia, but can't use it, so they're bad for grid stability – in addition to their random fluctuations.

When adjustments can't be made fast enough, it may be necessary to cut consumption. Power companies have agreements with some big consumers, like aluminium smelters, that they can be forced to idle power at moments notice. In an emergency, an entire subgrid with a large shortage can be kicked offline, causing a blackout.

Afterwards, those who deviated from the agreed production/consumption pay those who fixed it. PiusImpavidus (talk) 15:01, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

As to question (1), when power demand increases, the voltage drops. The voltage always fluctuates in time but is kept within a narrow band. If power demand gets too high, the voltage threatens to fall below the minimum and the operator knows that it is time to crank the power supply up, either by generating more power or by getting power from outside.  ​‑‑Lambiam 22:26, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Voltage is important, but practically the frequency is more important and kept in a narrower band (0.4% versus 10%). The generators of the AC power grid are designed to provide the right voltage whenever they spin at the right frequency. Some tuning is possible by varying the stator field and using tab changing transformers at the distribution end. PiusImpavidus (talk) 11:48, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

The load can be expressed as the electrical conductance $G$ of the circuit. It is related to the power and voltage by the equation $P=V^{2}G.$ If the load goes up, the voltage can only remain constant if the power goes up.  ​‑‑Lambiam 12:53, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Isolated power companies

I completely forgot about the existence of power grids. Makes sense; the whole thing can collapse, but that's rare. Let's say you're on a remote island (e.g. you're running Connect Saint Helena Ltd.), and you have the challenges of the microgrid that Finlay McWalter mentions. If your customers don't need 100% of the power you're generating, what happens to the extra? If your operators are capable, I suppose they can shut down some diesel generators or run them at a lower speed, but since distribution is effectively instantaneous and operator reactions aren't, you'll have brief times when there's too much production. When that occurs, what happens to the extra if you don't have big battery chargers? It doesn't just disappear; I can't think of anything except resistance or an automatic inability to produce too much. Nyttend (talk) 22:54, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

You could always use it up in some 'unnecessary' but non-polluting way, like boiling a very large tank of water (i.e. a giant kettle – "Free tea, everybody!").

More usefully, the excess can be used to store energy in other forms. One method in daily use in the UK (and elsewhere) is to pump water from a lower reservoir to an upper one; later the water is released back down through turbines to generate electricity at times of higher demand: see Pumped-storage hydroelectricity. Currently, pumped storage can return more than a gigawatt of power to the GB's National Grid, which also uses some grid batteries.

Similarly, the excess can be used to power electric crane or elevator systems that, for example, raise and stack large concrete blocks into towers; lowering them back down later generates electricity in the same way that Regenerative braking in Electric or Hybrid Vehicles recharches their batteries. Various pilot plants are being trialled for this, but I don't know if any are yet in regular use on any national grids. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.64.108 (talk) 02:34, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

But what happens to it if you don't do any of those things? I'm not asking for suggestions on how to store it — I'm asking about the underlying electrical principles. Nyttend (talk) 05:00, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

What may happen is that as less current is drawn from the generator, there is less load on the motor driving it, the motor speeds up, which will increase the frequency, and voltage. The higher voltage will cause some appliances to use more power. But hopefully some speed feedback will govern the motor, some power will transfer to rotational energy, more friction will waste energy, and less fuel will go into the motor. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:38, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Saint Helena has 6 diesel generators and some intermittent renewables.

Whenever demand drops, the current supplied by the generators drops too. This reduces the electromagnetic torque that slows the generators, so they tend to speed up. There're some big flywheels attached to the generators, so they only speed up very slowly. Which is good, because the generators have to spin in phase with the AC power grid. Then the engine governor reduced fuel flow to the diesel engine, which reduces the mechanical torque driving the generator, getting it back the the right speed and phase. When the 6 diesel generators aren't exactly in phase, the one running slightly behind experiences less electromagnetic torque, the one running ahead experiences more electromagnetic torque and they get back in phase (but make sure such variations are damped).

The renewables just monitor the phase on the AC side of their inverters and inject as much current as they can in phase with the voltage.

When demand is low enough, some of the diesels can be disconnected from the grid and shut down. Renewables can also be shut down.

Generating a high fraction of the power from intermittent sources makes it very hard to stabilise the power grid. You can make it better (but this isn't commonly done yet) by making the renewables actively control the phase of their output, instead of just following the power grid, and giving them reserve power. For solar power, that means providing less current than they can in current sunshine, converting the difference into heat; for wind turbines that means spinning too fast for the current wind speed and blade pitch, making the blades inefficient. PiusImpavidus (talk) 12:29, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Quiet! Hospital

In old cartoons and other comedies, you sometimes see signs such as "Quiet! Hospital Zone" or some such. I assume it's more commonly seen as comedies as it's usually played as the restriction the comedy must work against. A Google image search suggests that these are not merely inventions for entertainment: Here is an example from Shutterstock. I've never seen one in real life and the need for one baffles me. When I search for quiet hospital I get results that are the exact opposite: hospitals are too noisy and it's detrimental for all concerned.
So where did this trope come from and what was it specifically meant to do? I mean, I get that's it's supposed to keep things quieter, but what noise qualifies as too much and what would actually be impacted? How common was this? Matt Deres (talk) 18:56, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Noise makes it harder for nurses to hear monitors and for patients to sleep. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 19:30, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

The pictured sign is a formal road traffic sign that can be used in prosecution of objectionable use of car horns or sirens though presumably ambulances are excepted. Philvoids (talk) 20:01, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

From traffic codes in Asheville, NC: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/ashevillenc/latest/asheville_nc/0-0-0-12493

And from noise ordinances in Wilson, NC: https://library.municode.com/nc/wilson/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIIICOORSUGEOR_CH24NO_S24-6PEMESOPRDE

Note that the Wilson ordinance specifically forbids "the creation of any excessive noise on any street adjacent to any school, institute of learning, sanitorium, hospital or church during services, which interferes with the work or worship in any such place or institution." --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 20:51, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Such signs ([3], [4], [5]) used to be common, at least in Europe. Noise increases stress; lack of stress is beneficial to the reconvalescence of patients, With better sound isolation (such as by double pane windows), the urgency of traffic-noise abatement has become less.  ​‑‑Lambiam 22:53, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Most road signs are supposed to instruct my behaviour: don't go in excess of this speed, don't park here, etc. Apart from discouraging live concerts beside the ER, how are citizens supposed to follow the instruction? The noisiest stuff you're likely to get is construction (which you can't really do with silenced jack-hammers) and traffic (which again, is kind of not controllable by individuals). I guess the signs made more sense when hospitals weren't enormous buildings the size of villages and patient and pedestrian were in closer proximity. Matt Deres (talk) 19:54, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Apart from honking – some drivers use the rule, "if you can see any other car, however distant, honk!" and in some places I've seen cars on automatic honking, even while waiting for a traffic light – there is also the macho act of revving the engine, which on some types of vehicles, especially motor bikes, produces a deafening noise that is still loud from hundreds of metres away.  ​‑‑Lambiam 10:11, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Matt Deres, I don't know if it's in the MUTCD, either the basic US version or the Canadian derived form. (Except for a mention on a list of approved abbreviations, I don't see anything hospital-related in the full online MUTCD.) But I know I've seen these signs in real life; there's one on a state highway by the hospital where I was born, although I can't provide Street View imagery because Street View is unexpectedly sparse in that city. Nyttend (talk) 21:52, 24 March 2025 (UTC)

Signs like this represent a car horn. One way to have a quieter hospital area is asking/ordering motorists to not use their horns. However I don't remember seeing one live since decades ago. As others have said, ambulances are often hospital-based and they can be very noisy.

--Error (talk) 00:44, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Apparently, this poster was very common in Spanish waiting rooms during the 1970s and 1980s. People talking and playing in the room could be heard by the doctor and the patient during the procedure.

--Error (talk) 00:44, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

It brings new meaning to "Silence! I keel you". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]}

March 25

CA and CA

What's Canada's closest equivalent to San Jose, California? TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 03:43, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Do you want the largest city in northern Canada? Or something with a similar meaning like Saint-Joseph-de-Madawaska, New Brunswick? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:55, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Or do you mean a city that's at the south end of a bay? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:34, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Or a city more populous than its more famous neighbor? —Tamfang (talk) 04:59, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

Ottawa has a very similar city population, by number. 207.11.240.2 (talk) 11:15, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Vancouver has some tech, a reasonable climate, and plenty of diversity. If they could find a way to double the homeless rate and triple the crime rate, it would be very similar to San Jose. I just checked, but I'm having trouble finding videos about people in Vancouver opting to leave their car windows down and trunk open so criminals can see that everything inside has already been stolen. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 12:16, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

I mentioned this to a coworker and I was told that "The Good Doctor," which is set in San Jose, is filmed in Vancouver. I'm sure there are many other examples as I know Vancouver has been used as a standin for San Franciso, New York, Moscow, Mumbai, Tokyo, and many other cities. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 17:42, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

You really need to clarify which, for you, are the most significant aspects in considering similarity.  ​‑‑Lambiam 12:25, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Moose Factory, Ontario. --Trovatore (talk) 17:53, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Not a lot of people know the way to Tuktoyaktuk. Clarityfiend (talk) 15:52, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

finding mailing date of a letter

I've just (in Monday's mail, March 24) received a letter (bank account notification) dated March 13 on the notice itself. That would mean 11 days in transit from New Jersey to California, not good. The upper right corner of the envelope sayss "Presorted first-class mail US postage permit # xxx" and there is no cancellation mark or Intelligent Mail barcode (IMBC) that I can see in visible light (I have a UV flashlight around here somewhere so will try that when I can). Any idea what is going on here and if there is a way to tell when the envelope was actually given to the USPS? I have another letter (different bank thing) that nominally also took a long time in transit, which does have an IMBC, but the IMBC article doesn't say anything about containing a date. It's pretty surrising though that postal pieces aren't marked by the USPS.

Generally, is there a sense that first class USPS mail has slowed down a lot? The other bank told me 5 to 7 business days and it really did take that long. I'm used to maybe 3 day delivery. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:96C0 (talk) 07:03, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Update: I tried the UV light (365nm) and it doesn't show any markings on the envelope either. Still have to try the other envelope with the IMBC. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:96C0 (talk) 07:24, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't seem odd to me. On March 13, it is written. Sometime in the next 24 hours, it goes to the mail room. That is March 14. The bank is closed March 15, 16, and 17. On March 18, it is bundled up in outgoing mail and dropped at the post office. On March 19, it has been sorted and put in the mail. Standard 3 days for transfer covers March 20, 21, and 22. No mail goes out on March 23. On March 24 it is delivered. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 12:10, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Do they still have mail rooms? That sounds so 1980s. What I would expect for a modern bank is this:

The bank writes a lot of letters. Most are entirely computer generated. Once a week, those letters are sent electronically to a printing company. The printing company forwards the letters to some of their printworks; for example, letters to the West Coast go via the Portland printworks and letters to the East Coast via the Syracuse printworks. The printworks, operating 24×7, print the letters, often (but not this time) including the proper barcodes or other sorting codes and put them in the envelopes (which they print too), all fully automatic. The letters are printed in sorted order, so no physical sorting is required. The printworks may even have letters from other senders, which all get sorted together electronically before printing. This truckload of letters, all sorted and from different senders, is delivered at the mail company's sorting centre. Sorting is easy now: just a single merge with all other mail, then splitting for separate distribution centres, where it's made ready for final delivery.

It seems plausible that for most of the 11 days transit the letter hadn't been printed yet. PiusImpavidus (talk) 14:46, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Anecdotally, yes, USPS is getting slower. I had a packet of urgent paperwork show up 3 weeks after the sender called me to say it was in the mail; and I've had some issues with recurring checks (due the first of each month and mailed by my bank the 20th of the previous month) sometimes not showing up until as late as the 10th of the month (a decade ago I would have them mailed the 25th and they would always arrive on time). -- Avocado (talk) 12:55, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

On 13 February I received a letter from the tax service in my country, dated 28 February. Their letters travel back in time.

I've no experience with the USPS. I do know that big senders sometimes make a deal with the mail company. Big senders can send enough mail for delivery on a single day that the distribution system gets overloaded. So, in exchange for a reduced fare, they agree that the mail company can hold the mail for a while (for some popular quarterly magazines even three weeks) to even out the load on the distribution system.

Lowering delivery frequency to increase the amount of mail per unit distance of street also reduces the travel time per piece of mail for the delivery person, increasing efficiency for the mail company. As the amount of mail is decreasing, such tricks get interesting.

Add to this the usual cost-cutting regardless of quality. It will backfire, but only after the CEO has left for her next job. PiusImpavidus (talk) 13:47, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

Distinct lineages of the same surname

In genealogy, what is the usual way of distinguishing (or labelling) between unrelated lineages of a single surname - say, in a situation when a particular John Smith, his parents, grandparents, etc. belong to a different lineage of Smiths, distinct from all other Smiths? I know that for nobility such distinction can be drawn via personal coats of arms (say, for Lipnicki it's Junosza coat of arms), but don't know other ways. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 17:17, 25 March 2025 (UTC)

"I am Psmith, one of the Shropshire Psmiths." - P. G. Wodehouse in Psmith, Journalist (1915) 213.143.143.69 (talk) 15:01, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

"The name's Twillie, Cuthbert J. Twillie, one of the old Back Bay Twillies." - W.C. Fields in My Litle Chickadee. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:17, 26 March 2025 (UTC)

In the UK, if they are part of a noble or gentry family, the options would include their relationship to a particular peer/baronet or to a particular place (either as broad as a county, as above, or as narrow as a particular house). You might be able to say that a particular Howard is, for example, "of the Dukes of Norfolk" or "of the Howards of Castle Howard". Proteus (Talk) 12:49, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

The families themselves, inasmuch as they feel a need to distinguish themselves from similarly surnamed families, can use any method that works for them, such as by a geographic origin, as in the examples in the above replies. In most cases families are not notable and its members generally cannot trace their ancestry back more than two or three generations, so a Mr. S. Holmes living in Baker Street, City of Westminster, may have no idea whether he is from the same family as a Mr. T. Holmes, Oxford Street, City of Westminster.

Interest in the genealogy of non-notable families is a relatively recent phenomenon, mainly exercised by amateur genealogist, themselves family members. When family trees of unrelated subjects that are namesakes are published (usually on the web), the families can be distinguished by the respective earliest members with this name in these trees. I do not think there is some specific agreed convention among professionals.  ​‑‑Lambiam 12:53, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

March 28

Chess variants, mating material

On a chessboard that is made into a torus, klein bottle, or projective plane, how much mating material is needed against a lone king? For example, is 2 rooks with the king enough? Or 2 queens, or more?Rich (talk) 07:00, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

If there are no "walls," two rook and a queen will do the trick. Think of mate near the center of the board. DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 01:46, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Finding pages in the wayback machine

Hello friends. A website called projectrungay.blogspot.com used to review the American TV show Project Runway. In the wayback machine, I can see reviews made August 3 to August 7 2010, for Season 8. How do I find posts made for the following episodes in the rest of August, Sept and October? The next list I can find is only for Oct 13 to 17. Didn't know where to ask this so asked it here but feel free to move if there is a better desk. And thank you for your help. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 18:57, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Here you can see all dates in 2010 when the Wayback Machine archived a copy of webpage http://www.projectrungay.blogspot.com/. As you can see, it was not archived from August 8 to October 17.  ​‑‑Lambiam 21:23, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

March 29

Forward flight booking

[6] What is a forward flight booking? Is the same as "onward"? I.e. would a forward booking from Canada to the US mean the final destination is someplace like Europe or Asia? I think the point of the tweet is that Canadians are trying to avoid the US because of US shenanigans scaring foreign potential visitors. The tweet shows the number of such bookings dropping drastically between March 2024 and March 2025. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:B745:42AD:D0FF:174 (talk) 19:46, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

It means: securing a booking in advance, for a known price. The entity doing the booking may be a travel agency, wanting to hedge against a possible future price increase, for example because they want to advertize a travel package with a stated price and need to know its cost price to be certain of a reasonable profit.  ​‑‑Lambiam 22:47, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Futures trading. 2A00:23C7:C9B7:A01:68B1:562A:5DCE:A157 (talk) 09:39, 31 March 2025 (UTC)

I feel compelled to add that Sleep is a powerfully addictive drug, because it keeps me from starting my job in the morning and earning $200+/day, but how do I add that fact without making it sound vandalistic?

As a Doordash driver (AKA Dasher), I could start as early as I feel like, so if I start early in the morning, and work 'til after sundown, I could make over $200/day.

But sleep feels more powerful and addicting than Meth (though I've never had meth in my life) so that's why I only woke up at around 3:30 PM. Now I'll be lucky to only make $100 today.

So even though the prospect of making over $200 day is pretty alluring, that's if I get up early, but since sleep overpowers me into continuing to sleep and therefore make less money in the day, I'd say it's THE most powerfully addicting drug that I've ever had the misfortune to get, whether I wanted it or not.

So how can that fact get on the Sleep article without seeming like vandalism to regular editors? And could this fact be added to the Doordash and/or Dasher articles as well? --2600:8803:1D13:7100:D796:EF69:D100:A98E (talk) 21:40, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

All material in Wikipedia must be verifiable. Your testimonial to the effect of sleep does not meet this essential criterion. Apart from that, I see several other serious problems. (1) Abstaining from sleep will cause your early demise. Sleep, just like oxygen, is essential to human life; neither qualifies as being "addictive", or even as a drug. (2) Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Anecdotal evidence is in general not encyclopedic material. (3) A connection to DoorDash or other similarly operating companies is accidental and tenuous – similar sleep problems will get one in much more serious problems in regular jobs. BTW, have you tried going to bed earlier? If you go to bed at midnight and then sleep till 3:30 PM, this could indicate a serious medical condition – go and see a doctor.  ​‑‑Lambiam 22:39, 29 March 2025 (UTC)

Disclaimer: Self-anecdotal reply – Delete post if thought appropriate.

It's easy to disrupt normal sleep patterns. Mine are, but it doesn't hugely matter since I'm retired and live alone, and continue an interest in astronomy, which being semi-nocturnal helps.

Nevertheless, disrupted sleep is (I am well aware) harmful to long-term mental and physical health.

It might be helpful to you to re-train your sleep rhythms (as I am currently doing). Wake yourself up an hour before dawn, and go outside for an hour (maybe take a brisk walk) – the blue-rich natural light will create an anchor point for your circadian rhythm; then eat breakfast, if you habitually do.

Carry out your chosen daily activities, and aim to go to bed about eight hours before the next dawn. (You may wake half-way through the night needing to urinate – do so and go back to bed, you may not even remember doing so the next day.)

Rinse and repeat. Trying to go without less than 7 hours sleep per 24 (individuals vary somewhat with their personal requirements, and with age) is a recipe for disaster.

[Edited to add] Driving while sleep-deprived is extremely dangerous. It's very easy to fall half-asleep in your comfy car seat and fail to steer correctly or brake, etc., when you need to – I did it myself once (40 years ago) when I had had to finish a job overnight and then deliver the results by car, and came very close to crashing. Never again. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.64.108 (talk) 08:43, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

That's especially true when driving at night. Driving during the day, you've got the sunlight to kind of keep you awake. Not at night. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:38, 31 March 2025 (UTC)