Random Questions Thread

Oh, really? I thought everyone knew. No, I'm not a sci-fi fan, it's just that I've been visiting Small Reference Pools, Genius Bonus, and Viewers Are Geniuses pages far too often.

edited 14th Apr '11 9:28:12 PM by dRoy

Ignore this; see the General thread.

edited 16th Apr '11 4:35:23 AM by JHM

I have a quite wierd question, how tall is a Standard Poodle (the largest breed) when standing on its hind legs, measured to the top of its head. I also wonder, how old would a boy of that height be.

(I have Prince Rupert of the Rhine's alleged shapeshifting dog Boye as the (extremely snarky) TeamPet/NonHumanSidekick and I want to know how old I should portray his human form.)

edited 15th Apr '11 10:11:09 AM by TheBorderPrince

Ideally, you should portray his human form as being of the human equivalent of whatever age he is in dog years. But having a short Little Miss Snarker sounds amusing.

According to the American Kennel Club's breed standard for the standard poodle, they have to be at least 15 inches tall at the shoulder. Their body is likely to be longer than that, so I'd say they might stand at around three feet or so. And a child that size would probably be somewhere around 4-6 years of age.

15 inches is the absolute minimum height at the shoulder for a standard poodle; anything less than that is a miniature poodle. Most Standrads are considerable taller than 15 inches — between 22 and 25 is the average.

If you take a look at this picture,◊ and sort of mentally stand that poodle up next to his handler, the top of his head would be about even with the man's shoulders, or a little higher. Assuming that the man is of average height (5'10 or so,) that makes the poodle somewhat over 4 feet tall when standing on its hind legs.

Or better: this video — you can see how tall the poodle is compared to the kids he's playing with:

edited 15th Apr '11 8:32:24 AM by Madrugada

Thanks Madrugada! That was helpful, especially the video. I might be bad at estimating someones age, but I think those kids are somewhere around 10 old. By the way, is it a coincidence that the long-haired kid happens to have the same haircut and haircolour as Boye's human form...?

His age in dog year? Boye is a Familiar who have been around at least since a few years before the EnglishCivilWar...

edited 15th Apr '11 9:59:08 AM by TheBorderPrince

I'd say that the kids are between about 8 and 10.

edited 15th Apr '11 11:09:35 AM by Madrugada

One of my friends' mothers has a standard poodle that's large enough to put its paws on an adult 5'6" woman's shoulders and lick her face. It might be able to do that with taller people.

What does it feel like to be knocked out? Specifically, from a head injury.

It feels like waking up with a headache, no clue where you are, and - at least in my case - a fuzzy feeling in your mouth. Also, I had the dim impression that I was very warm when I was out.

edited 16th Apr '11 4:41:22 PM by Pseudonym

I will tray agin on here

Harley Quinn and Batman are going to have a little girl together in my story, but I am clueless as what to name the goofy genies.

Whatever you want. Jester? Black Humor? Charles?

I ment her real name but I like those thanks

babynames.com

You know just clicking letters on that sight only just ocired to me.

Nocole Wane aka Black Comic or Dark Comic.

Are we allowed to post questions for fanfiction here?

^ Sure, Why Not?.

Where can I find a place to look up naval officer/shipman ranks in 1600s Britain & her colonies? Wikipedia has modern ranks, were they the same 400 years ago?

Also, would a navy ship have these positions? I feel like they would still have a first mate, boatswain, etc. in addition to the usual military officers but I'm not sure.

edited 16th Apr '11 10:34:03 PM by melloncollie

This says that uniforms were only introduced in the 1700s, so prior to that there wouldn't be such.

Seems to be some useful stuff here, too. Interestingly, up to the late 1600s, "captain" was the title of the commander of the soldiers on board, while the command of the ship was held by the "master". The two positions were combined in the late 1600s.

A lot of the ranks appear to be later than your period; most of them are there in Napoleonic times, but not so much earlier.

In many respects, the merchant seaman positions in that document are older than the naval ranks, and many of them remain as job descriptions even in the modern Navy.

edited 16th Apr '11 10:46:12 PM by Morven

I guess I could bump up the date a hundred years, it's not really that important.

Thanks Morven. Reading now.

I hope were allowed to ask about fanfiction, that is what I have been doing the whole time. Expect for my Bigfoot question.

Holy crap, why has noone ever written A Nightmare On Elm Street/Inception fanfiction?

My vampires all turn into one thing at will (mostly animals, but one of them broke the pattern by turning into fog) that at least tangentially is related to their personality. But I'm stuck on one character Orsino. He's a timid avoidant guy who he starves himself and is probably only a few steps away from self-flagellating whenever depressed. The narrator compares him to a kite, but I can't imagine what even vague use being able to turn into a kite would have (the story is not particularly comedic).

Very small bat? Very small fish? Chinchilla?

I think he should be a mouse.

HISHE's sort of done it. They're animation, though.