Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 June 29

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June 29

ISIS execution video

I saw the video with the latest string of executions.

On one of the segments, men were lowered in a cage into a pool. When they came out, they had huge amounts of foam from their mouths. Why does that happen, what is this foam? I really didn't expect that at all from a drowning. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 105.98.7.243 (talk • contribs) 20:15, 29 June 2015‎ (UTC)

Foaming from a drowning victim is common, particularly I think if they were removed from the water before they stopped breathing. See [1], [2], [3], [4] (warning some of these contain images, I presume no worse then the video so fine for the OP, but perhaps not for others) for example. Nil Einne (talk) 20:48, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

So what exactly causes the foaming? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:06, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Well, when they can't hold their breath anymore and breath and exhale water, that should provide the agitation necessary to form foam. Pure water wouldn't foam up, but invariably the water will contain impurities, which do foam up when agitated. See sea foam for some specifics of the impurities. StuRat (talk) 22:12, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Try blowing water out of your mouth in the bathtub. Unless you're superman, you won't make foam. Even powerful jacuzzi jets only make temporary bubbles. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:48, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

If there's shampoo in the bathwater it sure will. And shampoo is just one of many things in water that cause foam. Somehow I doubt if ISIS ensures that the water is spotlessly clean. And even if it was to start with, it won't remain that way with all those people dying in it (see the comment below about sputum). StuRat (talk) 02:47, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Shampoo, sure. And under the right conditions, maybe a man can create organic sea foam with his mouth. But the likely answer is the usual one. And foamy lung gunk's a "typical sign of drowning". According to that source, what makes it come out of the mouth is the shift in air pressure when the torso leaves the water. Sort of like exhaling, but you don't have to be alive for this sort. InedibleHulk (talk) 04:12, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Note that mountain climbers who die from low atmospheric pressure also cough up foam during the process, in this case pink foam because blood leaks out in the lungs and mixes with air and sputum. StuRat (talk) 13:13, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

Yep. Pulmonary edema's the root of both. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:04, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

When water hits the vocal folds, you go into laryngospasm. This spasming froths up sputum from the lungs and throat. You can dry drown this way without water ever reaching your lungs. InedibleHulk (talk) 23:46, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Information about the owners of media companies

Whenever I read world news, I often check from Wikipedia who the owners of the media companies are. Recently I have found no information about it from Wikipedia. It might be accidental, nevertheless I decided to ask you to be sure. Has there been any policy change in publishing names of the owners in the articles about different companies? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andri Ksenofontov (talk • contribs) 22:28, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

Give us an example? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:30, 29 June 2015 (UTC)

The only relevant policy is that information in Wikipedia articles should be cited to reliable published sources. It is possible that names have been removed because they were not sourced. It is also possible that somebody has been going round articles removing sourced information for their own reasons. A third possibility is that you have happened to look at articles where the ownership had never been reported. We can't tell without examples. --ColinFine (talk) 08:59, 30 June 2015 (UTC)

It's also possible that our rules about biographical information relating to living persons ("BLP") is an issue here. When we write something about someone who is still alive, we're required to be extra-specially careful that what we say is correct and well sourced...so if there wasn't very reliable information about who these people are, we'd back off and remove the information. SteveBaker (talk) 02:51, 1 July 2015 (UTC)