Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 August 1

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August 1[edit]

Mafia Opinions on Mafia in TV and Film (or other gangs)[edit]

I was watching Law and Order reruns today and a plot about the mob got me wondering what actual Mafia members think about their portrayal in fiction. I realize that there is, probably, not a ton of info out there, but I would be surprised if this has never come up in an interview, or biography, or some such (not just crime stories, but also regarding movies that portray them as zany, like Analyze This). I know that MS-13, supposedly, took issue with a film about them. Finally, is there any info out there relating to other gangs? I could imagine that some would enjoy the spotlight and mythology that pop culture can create, on the other hand, I imagine some would be extremely upset. Thanks for any help:-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 05:51, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

They apparently love The Godfather to the point of imitating the traditions depicted.[1][2] Clarityfiend (talk) 06:30, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Phoenixia1177, google/bing searches would actually preform just as good or better on this, I can't recall the source but I believe it was some FBI task force guys that admitted that most mobsters they ran across were ticked that the "syndicate" didn't "get a cut" of all those film profits. Would it be the mob if they weren't figuring out how to turn a buck on something more? Market St.⧏ ⧐ Diamond Way 10:27, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

A few wordles (A type of riddle)[edit]

I got a whole heap of these as a task from a maths teacher, and you get a prize of you get all of them. They are supposed to form familiar phrases or places. I'm stuck with the following:

First One: R+I÷S×K

Second One: For $ale 100 years

Third One:

LOSS + LOSS

Fourth One:

One Other

One Other

One Other

One Other

One Other

One Other — Preceding unsigned comment added by Charlotte Tame (talkcontribs) 08:46, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ok I'm a loser at riddles. Are we allowed to answer this? Cos we ain't getting the prizeBonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 10:19, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the second was obvious to me. Dismas|(talk) 12:50, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I've heard the fourth one before, struggling to recall the answer... ☯ Bonkers The Clown \(^_^)/ Nonsensical Babble ☯ 12:59, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
It's just six of one, half a dozen of the other. First and third could be a calculated risk, and capital losses.--Shantavira|feed me 13:27, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

key[edit]

Hello, what is this key's name ? 198.105.124.127 (talk) 23:03, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone with perfect pitch around here? I'm merely relatively perfect. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 23:55, 1 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
This key is between F major and G-flat major. This key doesn't exist ? 198.105.124.127 (talk) 01:09, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Well, not in the standard scale used in Western music. But, just as there are an infinite number of numbers between 1 and 2, there are an infinite number of notes between F and G-flat. Some music uses half-tones and quarter-tones, but the capacity of the human ear to perceive small differences between notes is limited, so there's not much point going much further. Suffice to say that an F sounded on my piano will not be precisely the same note as an F sounded on your instrument. They should be close, but will almost certainly not be as close as all the instruments of an orchestra should be to each other. It will depend on the tuner, the tuning paradigm used, the weather, the time since last tuned, the quality of the instrument etc. To you, my F might be 5% of the way towards your G-flat, so you'd have to come up with some way of naming my note with reference to your note. But to me, it's just an F. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 04:08, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, this song is in the key of F major. Darorcilmir (talk) 05:20, 2 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

According to my analysis, the song uses A432.6 tuning and is in F#/Gb major. If you have a electronic keyboard that uses A440 tuning and lets you adjust the tuning in cents, you can set your keyboard to −29 cents and play in F#/Gb major. --Bavi H (talk) 01:08, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
More details:
On many instruments, the A above middle C is 440 Hz. In this system, you're right, the song is between F major and Gb major. If you can tune your keyboard so that A above middle C is 432.61 Hz, then the song will fit into the scale of Gb major.
On electronic keyboards, there is often a tuning setting that lets you shift the tuning of the entire keyboard. This tuning setting is usually a number from −100 to +100, with 0 being the default tuning (A = 440 Hz).
  • If you set it to −100 all the keys are one semitone flat: When you press the C key, you will hear the sound of B.
  • If you set it to +100 all the keys are one semitone sharp: When you press the C key, you will hear the sound of C#.
  • If you set it to other numbers, you will hear pitches "in between" the standard pitches.
If you set the tuning setting to −29, this will be very close to A = 432.61 Hz tuning. Then you can press the notes in Gb major and they will match the song.
--Bavi H (talk) 02:09, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Symbols for flat and sharp[edit]

Editors, there is no need to substitute b for , and # for . Below the edit window, you can select "Symbols" and click on and and to enter them where your cursor is in the edit window. If you are preparing your text offline for copying and pasting, you can refer to "Unicode block" and then "Miscellaneous Symbols" and then use the hexadecimal codes 266D and 266E and 266F, which produce, respectively, and and .
Wavelength (talk) 02:35, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
As a point of order, you may have missed the possibility that your audience doesn't care. Instructions to fix problems people don't believe are problems are unlikely to modify behavior. --Jayron32 02:41, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Good advice. You can also type {{music|flat}}, {{music|sharp}}, {{music|natural}}, {{music|doubleflat}} or {{music|doublesharp}}, which produce , , , double flat, and double sharp respectively. -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 02:46, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Put off-topic discussion under a sub-heading. --Bavi H (talk) 04:01, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]
I do care, but consider this: Those symbols show up as boxes in my browser, so I figure they might also appear incorrectly to others. Also, search engines typically don't understand the correct symbols, but can see instances of b and #. So, although they're less precise, I normally use b for flat and # for sharp because they might be more accessible to people and more visible to search engines. (I notice the macros Jack of Oz mentioned do appear correctly in my browser and use characters for sharp, flat, and natural, but have additional styling that seems to help my browser display the characters correctly. I might consider using them in the future, I'm still undecided about giving up search visibility.) --Bavi H (talk) 04:01, 3 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]