Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 September 2
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September 2[edit]
What's orange?
142.116.194.246 (talk) 05:08, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- You could try asking its uploader, Kbnomula (talk · contribs), although he hasn't edited in over a year. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 05:40, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- I found this map, which looks quite similar, except the countries that are orange are just part of the majority that require visas. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:33, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- A sample of some orange countries in the table below has Russia, China, Brazil & Chile all being "Visa required". I haven't bothered checking the others. -- SGBailey (talk) 11:51, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- The image is used in the section Jordanian passport § Visa requirements, in which the caption states:
- Visa-free for passports for public affairs
- I'm not sure of the meaning of "passport for public affairs", a category also mentioned in our article Chinese passport. --Lambiam 19:20, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
Billiards and snooker trickshots[edit]
If the great champs are so good at trickshots in the pool, billiards, snooker, nineball varieties, why do we so rarely see them? -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 13:56, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- Should clarify. Why do we not see them in real play more often. -- Cimon Avaro; on a pogostick. (talk) 14:02, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- A few thoughts on snooker, focused specifically on the top-level professional game. Many trickshots require extremely precise positioning of the balls (sometimes multiple balls) which are very unlikely to occur during the "real play" of a standard frame. When an opportunity does arise to play something that could be considered a trickshot, two things might put a player off. First, if a frame is still "live", such a shot may be considered far too risky, with a good chance of losing the frame if the shot was missed. If the match is close, this could clearly be disastrous; but even if one player is well ahead in frames in the match, losing a frame could suddenly bring about a shift in momentum. I can't think of how many matches I've watched which have featured some sort of dramatic comeback after a "turning point" like a single missed shot, but it's a lot! Second, if the player is well ahead in the frame, taking on a trickshot for the sake of it might be considered showboating, which may be popular with the audience but might be considered a little unsporting (in a game which is considered particularly "gentlemanly"). I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of other cue-sports editors such as Lee Vilenski and BennyOnTheLoose. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 14:41, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- Most of the above. Snooker isn't really all that closely associated with trickshots, although players such as Mark Williams, Judd Trump and Ronnie O'Sullivan will absolutely do shots that are over the top once a frame is won. Trump especially is well known for playing a shot from the black around six cushions to the yellow for instance. However, these sorts of shots are generally reserved for exhibition matches. Professional play is for both ranking points and money. There's also a historical practice that sportsmanship would avoid showboating. Let's not forget O'Sullivan was once repremanded for playing a series of shots left handed in the 90s once he had won a frame, despite being ambidextrous.
- A few thoughts on snooker, focused specifically on the top-level professional game. Many trickshots require extremely precise positioning of the balls (sometimes multiple balls) which are very unlikely to occur during the "real play" of a standard frame. When an opportunity does arise to play something that could be considered a trickshot, two things might put a player off. First, if a frame is still "live", such a shot may be considered far too risky, with a good chance of losing the frame if the shot was missed. If the match is close, this could clearly be disastrous; but even if one player is well ahead in frames in the match, losing a frame could suddenly bring about a shift in momentum. I can't think of how many matches I've watched which have featured some sort of dramatic comeback after a "turning point" like a single missed shot, but it's a lot! Second, if the player is well ahead in the frame, taking on a trickshot for the sake of it might be considered showboating, which may be popular with the audience but might be considered a little unsporting (in a game which is considered particularly "gentlemanly"). I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of other cue-sports editors such as Lee Vilenski and BennyOnTheLoose. Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 14:41, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- Pool is more closely related to trick shots, but this in its competition status would be artistic billiards. Nine-ball especially is unlikely to have any shot be made intentionally harder due to how it easy it can be for a good player to break and run.
- In short, if you were in a competition, you wouldn't want to give your opponent a chance if you didn't have too. And, players do showboat (or at least in modern day) when matches are won and in exhibitions. It's also something that is loosely tied to hustling. If you'd like to see some competitive trick shots, I'd recommend the World Artistic Billiards Championships and the short lived World Trick-Shot championship in the 1980s. Although the latter is more of a stand-up routine with trick shots encorporated. Lee Vilenski (talk • contribs) 16:58, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
- If a trick shot were a shot that's legal and useful in playing a match, it wouldn't be a trick shot. It would just be a good shot. Say, if your opponent hid your object ball behind other balls, and you had to bounce the cue ball off multiple rails, and you make a choice on how to hit it based on what's most likely to be beneficial. Sink it, combo it, snooker them, whatever. Invent a scenario as complicated as you like. If it works, it's pretty tricky, but is it a trick shot? The thing about trick shots is that they're reverse engineered. Usually you think of a result and you hit your balls. When designing a trick shot, you observe what the balls do when you hit them a certain way, then work backward from there. Position the balls so they will do things that seem unlikely when you hit them that way that you've come up with. And these trick shots aren't hard. You can make all kinds of trick shots that require no more than hitting the ball straight. Or as simple as nailing a draw or follow shot. Doesn't take too much practice. But breaking a rack of balls? It's like shuffling a deck of cards. That scenario for the trick shot isn't gonna come up, just like you're not gonna shuffle a deck so it comes up with what you need to do a card trick, by chance, during a poker game. Temerarius (talk) 15:02, 5 September 2022 (UTC)
- For the same reason that the major players on the AND1 Live Tour in Basketball rarely, if ever, play in the NBA. While both versions of the game can feature exciting and highly skilled play, the skill-set necessary for the kind of 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 streetball seen on the AND1 Tour do not directly translate to five-on-five, full-court play as seen in the NBA. --Jayron32 12:28, 6 September 2022 (UTC)