Hi all,

I have a character taking a train from Kiev to Kolomyya, Ukraine, and I'm trying to figure out what she would see as the train approaches the station in Kolomyya. At the moment I have this line, which is based off of several searches in Google Images, Flikr, Photobucket, etc.

"The rolling farmland outside the window gradually sprouted buildings and turned into the less savory view that always seems to characterize the portions of cities near railroad tracks."

Long shot, but is there anyone here who has entered Kolomyya by train? Am I reasonably close, or completely off base?

Thanks!

Where: Commack (Long Island), New York. US
When: Main Character was born in the mid-1950's to Italian-American family. Story takes place in 1985.
Situation: Main character is having a conversation with a colleague from Chicago about sports teams that they cheered for as kids.

My character was born in the mid-1950s and lived in Commack, NY until he was 18. Would he have been a fan of the New York Giants football team, even if they had didn't make the playoffs from 1964 to 1980? Or would he have been a Jets (Titans of New York) fan even though the team didn't exist until 1960?

What about baseball? In the late 1950's, both the NY Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers moved out West. The NY Mets didn't actually start playing until 1962. Would he become by default, a Yankees fan?

From my research, I know that a Yankeets/Jets fan is a rare combination, since the Jets and the Mets are considered more of the "working class" teams.

As far as my Chicagoan, I know that North Siders are generally Cubs fans and South Siders are generally Sox fans. If my MC lived in Philly, it wouldn't have been a problem either.

Research: I checked the tags for 1960s, sports, new york; http://forums.newyorkjets.com/showthread.php?t=2777; Wikipedia: NY Giants, NY Yankees, NY Jets, NY Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers. Google: sports teams in NYC, traditional fans. Other: fan blogs, etc.

It's yet another deeply disgusting insect question! My apologies in advance.

Setting: Horrific alternate universe/hell dimension with a serious pest control problem.
Googled: Insect digestive enzymes, insect vomit, etc. Much of which yielded gross results, but not the gross results I'm looking for.

( cut for squeamish )

Alright, so.

Current event summery: Apocalypse is being had. A gifted priest and a demon travel from Japan to Israel and along their way aid those who need to get to sanctuary points and spread Word. They've made it through China and just hit Long Son, Vietnam. The next sanctuary point is St Josephs Cathedral in Hanoi. There's a small school that has been kept together under the protection of a passed Matyre. Within are a little over thirty children and a few parents who, unlike other times have not been found by another guiding angel and need to be taken from Long Son to Hanoi.

Requested information: What is the general distance between Long Son and Hanoi and how long would it take to walk it? Minding that there are children, shit's flying everywhere, everything is in a fighting messy chaos, fire, doom, etc.

Googled: Looked up, or tried to, distance between Lang Son and Hanoi. And failed. I found some blogs though that said it took two days or so biking. I am denser than a block when it comes to Atlases and reading the distance ratio but I think it's about 100Miles. Also, my friend said that it's about 5H's on a train. Not sure what his sources are on that one, but.

I think a reasonable guess would be a week, or somewhere around there. I'd like a little more input on this decision, however.



Thanks in advanced peeps.

Setting: Strasbourg (France) and Kehl (West Germany), 1950's to the present.

Searched: Copious use of Google Earth and Google Maps; Perry-Castaneda map library via UT Austin; Lonely Planet Guidebook section for Strasbourg and Alsace; Lonely Planet board searched "Strasbourg"; googled "maps", "Strasbourg", "bad/rough/dangerous areas"; Wikitravel. Also looked at what crime reports were available, without much enlightenment. Haven't checked to see if there's a "crime" section in the local paper, but my French probably isn't up to the challenge.

Question: I've turned up some anecdotal evidence that Hautepierre is a rough area now; Wikitravel also indicates that areas to the south and west of the main city are depressed areas, but this last is rather vague. (Elsau? Further out?)

Personal experience suggests that the area around a university is always seedier, but that doesn't seem to be the case in Strasbourg--at least according to Street View.

Via Google Earth, I did turn up signs of graffiti and abandoned lots and warehouses near the port, along the east bank of the city. Still, I could use some more concrete information.

So--where are the rough areas in the cities of Strasbourg and Kehl? I understand that "rough" is relative, here. Nonetheless, there must be somewhere in the city that isn't safe at night!

Bonus Question: What about ethnic neighborhoods? I'm told the area around the Synagogue has a concentration of Jewish businesses and services; I've also seen Neuhof and Neudorf typed as "historically ethnic," though bless me if I can find the source now.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can provide!

Setting/Timeframe: Unspecified "medieval" semi-fantasy

For plot-related reasons, the following needs to happen in my story; woman is pregnant, miscarries either in the second or third trimester, is unable to conceive afterward. My questions are as follows:

1. What would cause the miscarriage?
2. What would cause the infertility? Would it be the same thing as what caused the miscarriage? 2.5. Or is it conceivable that, in a setting with extremely crude medicine, she could either catch an infection or have scarring from delivering the fetus?
3. Is this scenario even plausible in the first place?

Google and Wikipedia are of no help, as my question is far too specific, and the wikipedia articles are all assuming the pregnancy is taking place in modern day.

I have the day off! Sort of!

There is a staff meeting tonight so I have to go in for that from 6-9 (hopefully not longer) but I have the rest of the day to myself. The rest of my schedule is a lot of opening shifts (Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), one closing (Wednesday), and Tuesday off.

Anyway, I do have a few things to get done today.

- bake bread thing that will be my lunch for the week
- do the dishes
- put clean laundry away
- any other cleaning if I have time/energy

Where: Northwest Territories, Canada
When: 1970, 1998 or '99
Googled: "northwest territories changing birth certificate", but I really have no idea how to phrase this properly

This is about a fandom character, but is only for my own personal head-fanon, not for a story or anything.

The character in question, who is only known by her married name in canon, was born in 1970 to parents whose spouses had both recently died. She was probably brought up to believe she was the posthumous daughter of her mother's husband (who'd actually died at least four months prior to her conception).

Regardless of whose name was put in the "father's name" field (I think either the mother's dead husband, or - if she thought someone would catch on to the discrepancy or had a crisis of conscience - nothing at all), I figure this character was given her mother's surname at the time of the child's birth, which was almost certainly still her dead husband's last name.

In 1998 or '99, when we actually meet this character in canon, during the course of the episode she learns who her actual biological father is.

Now, after all that, my question. After providing proof of her newfound paternity (timing evidence, DNA tests with canon half-brother, etc.), would this character be able to change the surname on her birth certificate from to match her bio dad's? I know, with proof, she could probably correct whose name, if any, is on the "father's name" field. But she wouldn't want to give up her married name to legally change her surname to her bio dad's, so that leaves just the birth certificate.

I suspect the answer is "no", she wouldn't be able to change the surname, but it never hurts to ask.

Setting: A large city in the northeastern United States, modern day
Searched: "scurvy," "scurvy symptoms," "scurvy treatment," "scurvy effects," and so forth.  Multiple articles on Wikipedia and a few online medical encyclopedias.

A young man in his late teens becomes so involved in a project that he neglects his diet over an extended period of time, and contracts scurvy.  His symptoms eventually become bad enough that he goes to a doctor, receives a diagnosis, and recovers by resuming consumption of Vitamin C.  My questions:
1. How long from the initial presentation of symptoms will they become severe enough to convince a person who makes a habit of neglecting his health that he needs to see a doctor?
2. Will symptoms completely vanish after he begins taking Vitamin C, or will there be some lingering effects?

Edit: I know that even fast food has enough Vitamin C to prevent scurvy.  I am still researching exactly what he will be eating (my top candidate at the moment is Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts, which I have confirmed have no Vitamin C), but I will make sure that it is something that would actually lead to scurvy.  He essentially locks himself into his room with a stockpile of insert-non-perishable-food-substance-here for weeks at a time.

I have a character in a modern setting who is trained as a nurse, but has been hired to fill the medical-officer's position on a small special-ops team. It would be helpful to know what, specifically, would be different in her training and medical knowledge-base vis-a-vis what one would expect of someone who had trained to qualify as a doctor.

She is by and large not actually working with living patients in this position (it's a Torchwood fic, the medical officer's main duty is dissecting dead aliens so it's not like they're gonna sue if she's learning on the job), but there will be moments when she's also called on to serve as a field medic, and I'm not quite sure where her "right, off to hospital with you" breakpoint is going to be in relation to the injuries/conditions her predecessor was capable of treating on-site. She does have the advantage that said predecessor hasn't, um, actually left, as such, and would be available to advise and talk her through procedures she may not have the exact skills for, if they're close enough to the range of what she may be trained for/capable of -- setting bones? Minor sutures? What does she know, and what does she know that she doesn't know and needs to outsource? It's the gap between the two specializations that I see as a potential source of plot-points, and I'm not quite sure how to even begin Googling that...

What would cause pain/discomfort in a kidney, that wouldn't show up on a kidney function blood test?

I need it to be something that wouldn't be discovered right away. So far, I'm thinking of a benign tumor. Would a benign tumor impact the results of a kidney function blood test?

Search terms: kidney disease, kidney ailments, kidney function blood test, kidney ailment not showing up on blood test, kidney damage, hidden kidney damage, underlying kidney damage, underlying kidney disease, benign tumor in kidney, benign tumor kidney test results, blood test results benign tumor, kidney blood test results benign tumor.

While searching with these terms gave me lots of information, I could not figure out the answer to my obscure question.

*EDIT* Preferably a condition that would not show up on a urine test, either. Something that can only be found via ultrasound. Character is a wizard whose magical aura disrupts medical machinery, but ends up having a kidney problem that would have been fine had they been able to see it, but since they can't do imaging on him all they have to go on is blood/urine tests, which show up clean. That's why I was thinking along the lines of a benign tumor, because a malignant one would probably show on the blood test.

So, would a benign tumor impact the results of a blood test?