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:I googled "{{websearch|army policy notifying next of kin}}" to find it. --[[User:TotoBaggins|Sean]] 17:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC) |
:I googled "{{websearch|army policy notifying next of kin}}" to find it. --[[User:TotoBaggins|Sean]] 17:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC) |
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::Thank you very much. Greetings --[[Special:Contributions/84.56.72.16|84.56.72.16]] ([[User talk:84.56.72.16|talk]]) 18:04, 15 November 2008 (UTC) |
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= November 15 = |
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Revision as of 18:04, 15 November 2008
of the Wikipedia reference desk.
Main page: Help searching Wikipedia
How can I get my question answered?
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- We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
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How do I answer a question?
Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines
- The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
November 9
Child labor laws in Ohio?
Would anyone be able to tell me the maximum number of hours a sixteen-year-old can work in Ohio during the school term? --Brasswatchman (talk) 01:56, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Researching and telling you the law would be legal advice which is wisely forbidden. I will explain how you may find the answer for yourself. If you go to Findlaw.com and choose the professional version, select Ohio under Statutes. Once you are there search for "Child labor laws." This will tell you the statute. There may be court cases (I'm certain that there are) interpreting the statute. Check for Ohio cases. Also, google for local law libraries, usually law schools or county court houses, and see if there is public access for pro se (self represented)clients. If there is, a law library can help you find the information. The law librarian cannot give legal advice. I've beem impressed with how willing the librarians are to assist the public. Other laws may impact the relevant statute so a lawyer is the best way to get a comprehensive, correct answer. I'd telephone the local school board, too.75Janice (talk) 02:32, 9 November 2008 (UTC)75Janice
- Actually, researching and telling him the law would not constitute legal advice anymore than discussions of anatomy constitute medical advice. Legal advice would mean that you are, um, advising him on a course of action. Merely pointing out the text of a law doesn't really constitute legal advice... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:44, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- To the contrary, identifying and picking specific law out of the often complex, convoluted, and large universe of laws within a jurisdiction is a primary function of legal advice. Trickrick1985 (talk) 16:55, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Just look it up. Title 41 of the Ohio Revised Code, Chapter 4109: employment of minors. Took me 90 seconds to find it. And I don't live in Ohio. --- OtherDave (talk) 02:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- (restored) Just to be clear, I'm not asking for the purpose of seeking legal advice. I'm asking because I'm writing a story with a sixteen-year-old protagonist, and I'm trying to figure out whether or not he'd be allowed to work 40 hours or not during the school year. And - according to OtherDave's link - it looks like he'd be limited to eighteen hours a week. Thank you all very much. I really appreciate the help. --Brasswatchman (talk) 02:50, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
For the record, no one else decides whether or not I believe something is legal advice. In my prelaw days, I believed everything on its face was clear only to cringe throughout law school as I found out that it is rarely as simple as I thought. I will always err on the side of caution. Sometimes it not worth trying to help me when other members are nasty. I'm not referring to you, Brasswatchman.68.81.42.66 (talk) 05:23, 9 November 2008 (UTC) 75Janice
U.S. Federal Personal Income Tax Revenue
I'm trying to find a table(s) that shows the total amount of Federal Personal Income Tax Revenue paid by taxpayers in various income brackets. The information in "income tax" shows rates, history, legal authority, etc. but nothing about the revenue raised.
I'd appreciate it if you would point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
John J. Landers Bethesda, MD —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.178.166.177 (talk) 04:00, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- It looks like the first one on this page might be what you're looking for. I didn't look too closely, but I'll bet you can get what you're looking for from one of these NByz (talk) 06:01, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Independence of Cambodia and Vietnam
Why did France just allow Cambodia to remove itself from the Empire? I understand they fought for Algeria because it was so extensively populated by French but that's the same case with Vietnam. So why was there such a long struggle?
Lotsofissues (talk) 06:25, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- If you're interested in the Cambodia question, there's Colonial Cambodia; for Vietnam there's First Indochina War and more. Historians please, Julia Rossi (talk) 10:55, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
1969 Moon Landing
How was it possible to film Neil Armstrong's first step off the spacecraft onto the moon from a camera positioned several metres away from the spacecraft? Did the spacecraft have a robotic arm to put it out there? Also, when the spacecraft takes off again shortly after, why does the camera follow it from the 'land' and part of the way up into space? Did it have a motion sensor? I am not talking about conspiracies here, I am wondering if there may be a rational explanation assuming the landing was true.--ChokinBako (talk) 13:44, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know for sure, but I expect the camera was on one of the landing struts, they probably extended a fair distance from the hatch. As for the takeoff, they would have been able to calculate what speed the craft would move, so it wouldn't have been difficult to set up the camera to pan up at the right speed. --Tango (talk) 14:08, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- just so you know, the real conspiracy is that although mankind went to the moon, it wasn't when the world was told it was: at that time it was just staged. you can look into it if you don't believe me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.124.214.224 (talk) 14:14, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Apollo_Moon_Landing_hoax_accusations - Kittybrewster ☎ 14:20, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- That article is about as good as International_law_and_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict. Take it with a grain of salt the size of your head. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.124.214.224 (talk) 14:26, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- You are welcome to improve it with reliable sources. Kittybrewster ☎ 14:31, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Or you know I could just write in a lake with a stick. If you want to know what I mean, just fix the obvious problems with either article. You'll be reverted within the day.
- You are welcome to improve it with reliable sources. Kittybrewster ☎ 14:31, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- That article is about as good as International_law_and_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict. Take it with a grain of salt the size of your head. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.124.214.224 (talk) 14:26, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Apollo_Moon_Landing_hoax_accusations - Kittybrewster ☎ 14:20, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- just so you know, the real conspiracy is that although mankind went to the moon, it wasn't when the world was told it was: at that time it was just staged. you can look into it if you don't believe me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.124.214.224 (talk) 14:14, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- At the risk of answering the question... see Apollo TV camera - it specifically states, "For each lunar landing mission, a camera was also placed inside the Modularized Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) in Quad 4 of the Lunar Module (LM) Descent Stage, so it was capable of broadcasting the first steps of the astronauts as they climbed down the ladder of the LM at the start of the first moonwalk/EVA." -- kainaw™ 16:24, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
On another point, there was no broadcast of the Apollo 11 lander taking off; this was done for one or more of the later missions. I don't remember the camera rotating upward but it would have been easy enough to arrange if they wanted to go to the trouble. --Anonymous, 20:27 UTC, November 9, 2008.
- The famous video of the LM lifting off comes from the Apollo 17 mission. The camera used was the one on the Lunar Rover, which was left parked several meters away from the LM for the specific purpose of seeing the liftoff. The camera was controlled by a technician at Mission Control in Houston. (See the video here.) — Michael J 19:32, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Collective Unconscious
Could anyone recommend some good books on Collective Unconscious, please? --BorgQueen (talk) 17:49, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Of course, we all could. Unfortunately, the Collective of WP referential deskopedians has succumbed to sudden unconsciousness. Medical advice is required urgently! Aaaaaarghhhhh...
- As to your question: I suggest The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious (Collected Works of Carl Jung Vol.9 Part 1) as a starting point. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 21:34, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- As well as the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's Psychological Types, the article gives this reading list:
- Jung, Carl. (1970). "Psychic conflicts in a child.", Collected Works of C. G. Jung, 17, Princeton University Press, (p. 1-35).
- Whitmont, Edward C. (1969). The Symbolic Quest, Princeton University Press.
- Gallo, Ernest. "Synchronicity and the Archetypes," Skeptical Inquirer, 18 (4). Summer 1994.
- As well as the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's Psychological Types, the article gives this reading list:
Come to think of it, the article could be better and seems skewed to ADHD in children but not clear why...
- Details for Cookatoo's ref is The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. (1981 2nd ed. Collected Works Vol.9 Part 1), Princeton, N.J.: Bollingen. ISBN 0-691-01833-2 Julia Rossi (talk) 23:28, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Anything by Edward Edinger, from The Ego and the Archetype to Alchemy and Psychotherapy.MelancholyDanish (talk) 16:02, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanish
Goering's Desk
In H. R. Trevor-Roper's book, The Last Days of Hitler, he describes Goering's desk as "twenty-six feet long, of mahogany inlaid with bronze swastika, furnished with two big golden baroque candelabra, and an inkstand all of onyx, and a long ruler of green ivory studded with jewels" (p. 23)
Does anyone know what happened to this desk? Does it still exist? Jacobsen's Ladder (talk) 19:01, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to this page, it is in a fancy New Orleans house. I imagine some modifications were made. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:48, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Help thinking of an original name for a website about the british monarchy...
Any creative, modern ideas are welcome. Preferrably domains that aren't already taken! :) Thank yooouuuu! --217.227.102.7 (talk) 19:04, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- That's not really what the ref desk is for. However, my advice would be to think about what makes your site unique (if there isn't anything, then there's no point making the site!) and choose a name based on that. --Tango (talk) 19:29, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Casket Letters. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.171.56.13 (talk) 19:30, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
The Trial
In Kafka's The Trial, why does K refuse to leave the village even though the end result of such an action would clearly save him a great deal of trouble? Vltava 68 (talk contribs) 20:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- It would also have saved Kafka the trouble of writing his novel! With Kafka there is little point in looking for rational explanations. Just go with the flow of absurdity. Emma Dashwood (talk) 07:02, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think Vltava 68 should have written The Castle instead of The Trial; the plot doesn't match with the trial. 203.188.92.71 (talk) 09:26, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Vltava, do you mean The Castle? Antandrus (talk) 16:54, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, I typed The Trial by accident as I read it very recently. Vltava 68 (talk contribs) 08:41, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think it depends on how you interpret the book. Since you just finished The Trial you will remember the metaphor of Before the Law, where the man from the country petitions for admission to the edifice guarded by the Gatekeeper, who will not let him in. (It's in the section "The Cathedral", spoken by the priest.) I think The Castle picks up at this point: K is the Man from the Country, petitioning for entry: he will not leave since "this door was meant only for you", and now he knows it. In The Myth of Sisyphus, if I remember correctly, Albert Camus suggests that The Castle is about the longing for Divine Grace. He can't leave -- staying in the village, attempting to contact the Castle, even though it is a mystifying, remote bureaucracy uninterested in him, is what he must do. Antandrus (talk) 03:12, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Come to think of it, it is mentioned in the same chapter (by the priest, I think) that the man from the country actually has a choice whether he waits for the door to be opened. Same situation for K the Land Surveyor, I think. Vltava 68 (talk contribs) 09:12, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Update - Census and the Oregon Trail
This is an update of a question asked a few months ago. It was asked about how they counted people in the West. Actually, according to an e-mail I got from the Census Bureau after a couple months, they didn't really bother with that; their concerns were more for established places, even if they were just territories, and established people. A good point was made that people on the trail might settle anywhere, bound for one spot and then deciding to put down elsewhere. So, there were no people who just wandered the Westward trails just counting people.
There were people in the territories, though, that counted established people. You can read a few interesting remarks if you scan the census pages at a library somewhere; like for instance in Montana in 1870, where the official remarks about how he'd been told of how many had come and gone, and whether anyone died in the last year, and would even write there were "very few here but Indians in this whole area," or words to that effect.
Just thought I'd post for future reference. If the original was in Miscellaneousinstead of here, feel free to move it. I forget where it was.Somebody or his brother (talk) 20:58, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
rewriting request
Can someone who speaks good English read International_law_and_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict fast and rewrite the intro paragraph to conform with this guidline Wikipedia:Lead_section. Thank you very kindly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.124.214.224 (talk) 21:02, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Reference desk is not the place for asking this question. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 21:54, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Go on the article's talk page to make that request. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 22:07, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Absurdism
Besides, Absurdism...what other (if any) Philosophical Concept(s) are/is relative to both Existentialism & Nihilism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by L3tt3rz (talk • contribs) 23:30, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- Doing your own homework, for one! Belisarius (talk) 11:05, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Surely not doing your own homework is more appropriate to the topics. Atheism, anti-foundationalism, fictionalism, relativism, empiricism, instrumentalism, skepticism, or anti-realism may be relevant. However, existentialism takes many forms, so not all topics will be relevant to all existentialists. Nihilism is an even vaguer concept, so you should probably decide what exactly you mean by nihilism (moral? epistemic? other?) and go read the relevant entries. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 17:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Corruption
Hi, I have some questions regarding government and administrative corruption. I have always heard liberal-democracies have more administrative corruption than single-party states. Is it true? China is a single-party state, but corruption in China is growing in an alarming rate.
- Can anyone please provide some information regarding the situation of government corruption in North Korea? I have heard the North Korean administration and its people work like robot and any deviation from state policy can result in death, and if this is the case, administrative corruption will be very low in North Korea.
- Were there administrative corruption in Germany during Hitler and in U.S.S.R. during Stalin? If yes, then were those level similar to present day liberal democracies like Venezuela or Unites States? If there were corruption in Hitlerite Germany and Stalinist U.S.S.R. with strict law enforcement, what may be the reason behind it? The article Political corruption states lack of government transparency is a cause behind corruption, but it does not cite any reference for this and does not explain it in detail. If lack of government transparency is the reason, then why there is corruption in liberal democracies? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 23:34, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- What are we defining as "corruption"? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:52, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- The use of governmental powers by government officials (mainly low and middle ranking government officials) for illegitimate private gain, primarily in the form of bribery. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 23:57, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
- This has been a major topic in development economics. The World Bank, especially, has become actively involved, recently denying or limiting loans to countries with high rates of bribery and cronyism. This [[1]] study seems to try to address your question using modern data. It uses correlation analysis between "corruption" and "government size" or "liberty." It's $30 through that site though. Maybe you can find it through a university's "academic paper" account (if you know someone who has one.)NByz (talk) 01:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Be careful not to confuse a rapid rise in corruption reported by the media with a large amount of corruption. Sometimes, releasing controls over media outlets permits a lot more reporting of the same amount of corruption. DOR (HK) (talk) 03:24, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'm surprised by and question the "always heard liberal-democracies have more administrative corruption" premise. Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index shows just the opposite for bureaucratic corruption. Interestingly, Swedish, Australian and Canadian businesses were more likely to pay bribes in developing countries than Taiwanese, South Korean or Chinese!? Saintrain (talk) 02:22, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
November 10
Polish Prisons Conditional Release
An acquaitance of mine who is in prison in Poland says that he is going to be released on "licence". What does this mean and or actually entail? He has also applied for parole as a separate application so it is not parole as we would know it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.187.116.223 (talk) 03:34, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know about Polish law, but English law has a similar sounding concept. If you read Polish, there is this category over at the Polish Wikipedia. Astronaut (talk) 18:27, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Is you acquitance arrested and awaiting trial or already covicted? If he is already covicted he probably is talking about "Warunkowe przedterminowe zwolnienie"[2] (literally "conditional preterm release") which is a conditional parole of a convicted person. He is released from prison under the conditions that he will follow the rules of the parole. Since Polish prisons are overcrowded conditional paroles are very common. Read articles from 78 to 84 from one of the unofficial English translations of the Polish Penal code for details [3] Mieciu K (talk) 23:36, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
God's fate
Did God quit, or did he get fired? 38.117.71.221 (talk) 06:48, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Clearly you have not heard the news: God is dead. Emma Dashwood (talk) 06:55, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I hear that the other guy is shacking up in Perth Belisarius (talk) 11:01, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- He is still on the throne; He simply chooses to give us people free will to choose to do what's right, follow Him, etc.; that way, we're not a bunch of mindless robots doing things because we have to, instead we follow Him because we want to.209.244.187.155 (talk) 13:15, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Or because we're not too keen on fire and brimstone... --Tango (talk) 13:27, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- He is still on the throne; He simply chooses to give us people free will to choose to do what's right, follow Him, etc.; that way, we're not a bunch of mindless robots doing things because we have to, instead we follow Him because we want to.209.244.187.155 (talk) 13:15, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- What would you do in his place? He decided to help people by answering their questions anonymously on the internet. :) Dmcq (talk) 14:39, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
The question presupposes that there is / was a god. DOR (HK) (talk) 02:25, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- There was a GOD (talk) until a few years ago but he was then forced to go incognito as His Name was found to be provocative. Wikipedians are responsible for his fate. Dmcq (talk) 01:56, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks, that answers the original question: God is neither dead nor fired, but merely incognito ! DOR (HK) (talk) 09:38, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hang on,I thought God was that stranger on the bus trying to make his way home Lemon martini (talk) 12:06, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
conflict..help
can anyone help me find the definition of 'literature of resistance ' or 'literature of conflict' and any information/link to its history? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.128.4.231 (talk) 08:02, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- The best I can imagine, a great book about resistance literature: [4]. --Omidinist (talk) 11:23, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Dear Sir, i have already tried that one. I want something specific about the definition and History —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.128.4.231 (talk) 12:47, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Queen dowager - exist anymore?
Hello! I wonder about something. Is the title Queen Dowager used anymore about a king's widow in Europe? It seems, that nowadays, you ave replaced it with the title Queen Mother. Is that true, or is the title still used in some countries? If it is abolished, then why? And when was the title abolished in the different monarchies? When did each country have its last Queen dowager? When did England? It seems, that in history, the title Queen dowager was much more normal than Queen mother. Perhaps England is an exeption, but in regards to other countries; is this a new title? I hope someone want to answer! --85.226.43.6 (talk) 10:33, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think the term still exists. See Queen mother. It looks like a Queen mother is a special case of a Queen Dowager. If, for example, the King died without issue, his wife would be Queen Dowager, but not Queen Mother (she might be Queen Aunt, if such a title existed, which I don't think it does). --Tango (talk) 11:37, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Tango beat me by about a minute. Countries could drop the title, but there'll always been a need for a term to indicate "queen consort, now a widow." --- OtherDave (talk) 00:55, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thank you! Is there someone with the title "Dowager queen" in Europe at present? Are there any queens now who will recieve this title when they are widows? I just have the impression, that this title is now considered unfashionable. --85.226.43.6 (talk) 11:35, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'm not sure about current dowager Queens, but the following will become them in the event their husband predeceases them: Queen Paola of Belgium, Queen Sonja of Norway, Queen Sofía of Spain and Queen Silvia of Sweden (I just went through the list of current European monarchs, selected those that were Kings and found out who their consorts were). Whether any of them will use the style "Her Majesty The Queen Dowager" (or similar), I don't know. They all have issue (that is, children) so unless something happens to them the Queen will be Queen Mother and is probably more likely to use that style (or the equivalent). The reason the style Queen Dowager isn't seen much is probably because Queen Mother is preferred, so Queen Dowager will only be used if she didn't have any (surviving) children which is probably quite rare (Monarchs generally choose to have children to continue the line, rather than having a sibling inherit). --Tango (talk) 13:40, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I looked through the list of European monarchies. Queen Fabiola of Belgium appears to be the only surviving consort of any past monarch – unless we count Anne-Aymone Giscard d'Estaing, Danielle Mitterrand and Bernadette Chirac (wives of former co-princes of Andorra). —Tamfang (talk) 03:03, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
Yes, I understand... I have noticed, that in the 19th century and before, widowed queen consorts were always called Queen Dowagers, wether they were mothers of monarchs or not. But in the 20th century, no one have been called dowager Queen; In Denmark, for example, all queen dowagers have been called "queen" as widows as well. I suppose no one have to deal with the question at present, as they could all be called queen mothers if they wish. That title seem not usual in other European countries, but perhaps it will be. In Sweden, no one have had the queen dowager title since 1913, and I very much doubt it will ever be used again. My guess is that it is considered old-fashined nowadays and will never be used again, even by a childless king's widow. No European country seem to have used it since World War II at least. I wonder when it was used last. Anyway, its an interesting question! --85.226.43.6 (talk) 19:41, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Not just old fashioned, but positively pejorative. Calling a woman a dowager these days is akin to calling her a harridan, curmudgeon or battle axe. I think of people like Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest as played to peerless perfection by Dame Edith Evans in the 1952 film. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:59, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Where do you get that from, Jack? I'm sure our local widowed duchess is known locally - including by the present duke's office - as the dowager duchess. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:28, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Indeed, I think the term is still in use generally, it's just with Queens that it seems to have gone out of fashion. There isn't really an alternative for other members of the aristocracy. "Duchess Mother" doesn't exist as a style to the best of my knowledge, and you very rarely see people referred to as "Duke/Duchess [First Name]", it's always "Duke/Duchess of [Place]" so you can't use a different first name to distinguish between the two Duchesses. --Tango (talk) 00:40, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- OK, you're right, Tagishsimon. I was thinking of the word "dowager" in reference to a cantakerous and domineering elderly female (not necessarily either a widow or a member of the aristocracy/royalty). -- JackofOz (talk) 14:01, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Where do you get that from, Jack? I'm sure our local widowed duchess is known locally - including by the present duke's office - as the dowager duchess. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:28, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Who's your "local" d-duchess? —Tamfang (talk) 03:47, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
Longest court-action in british history?
For inscrutable, six-degrees-of-wikipedia reasons, I wound up at the article McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel. In the opening paragraph, it states that the case "lasted seven years, making it the longest-running court action in English history". Surely that's not true. I mean, hello, Jarndyce v. Jarndyce? Yes, I realize that was fictional, but it was based on real cases that dragged on for decades in the court of Chancery, was it not? Doesn't the article really mean that it was the longest criminal case in the UK? And is it? Because seven years doesn't seem to be that long? I mean, hasn't there been like some corporate case where some building company poisoned thousands of people with asbestos or something? Those cases drag on forever! It seems strange to me that 7 years would be the longest criminal trial in all of English history. I mean, that's a LONG history, after all. Belisarius (talk) 10:55, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- The McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel wikipedia article's statement is justified by this: [5] and this:[6]. But again, there is this: [7]: a case that ran for 43 years, it says. But most related searches do return only the McDonald's case as results. I guess we need a legal history expert on this one (which, unfortunately, I'm not; excuse me if I muddled matters up further).Leif edling (talk) 12:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Additionally, you may take a look at this :[8].
It's stated that : "But the so-called "McLibel Two" refused to pay at the end of the 314-day libel trial - the longest civil or criminal action in English legal history. " Leif edling (talk) 13:03, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Another example of a long-running court case involved the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways (the "Met" and the MDR or "District"), the private companies that built the train route then called the Inner Circle and now the Circle Line of the London Underground system, in 1863-1884. The existence of two separate companies was intended as a short-term tactic (hence the deliberately similar names), but it didn't work out that way and they became bitter rivals although they had to operate the Circle jointly. Or as H.P. White put it in A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 3, Greater London (1987 edition, ISBN 0-946537-39-9): "though respectively controlled by two personal enemies, the two London companies were locked in indissoluble wedlock sealed by the ring of the Inner Circle."
- The District owned the south side of the Circle from Gloucester Road in the west to I think Tower Hill in the east, the Met owned the rest, some trains were operated by each company, and they had agreements on how to split the revenues and expenses. But in 1884, without Parliamentary authorization, the District built their own tracks (the "Cromwell Curve") alongside the Met's tracks from Gloucester Road to the next station, High Street Kensington. They then routed their own trains over these tracks (originally in both directions of travel, even though this meant crossing over the Met's track twice) and claimed a corresponding adjustment in the revenue from the joint operations. And according to White, "the dispute dragged on until 1903, when the courts ruled that the Cromwell Curve was not part of the Inner Circle and thus that the District could not claim mileage for using it."
- --Anonymous, 17:57 UTC (copyedited later), November 10, 2008.
- I think the confusion here is between a case (.i.e.: the whole action) and a trial. the case, to me, includes appeals, retrials, etc.; I can see that as the longest trial, but I would replace "action" with "trial." However, that's just how I'd do it; Wikipedia may have its own way to use such terms, including the possibility that the "trial," in UK language, is the "action." And, anything after could be some other term.209.244.187.155 (talk) 13:20, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I agree, a trial is a particular part of a case. The case also includes all the discovery, etc., that goes on before the trial, in addition to the various things after the trial that you mention. --Tango (talk) 13:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Tichborne Case used to be cited as the longest trial in UK history, although it may have been surpassed now. There were 2 trials: one to establish the claimant's identity, which lasted 10 months and resulted in him being exposed as an imposter; and his consequent perjury trial, which lasted 6 months, the judge taking 18 days just to sum up. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:49, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
Browsing Microsoft's digitized books?
Is there a website anywhere, where it is possible to browse the list of Microsoft's digitized books (I mean the ones available for free), in the same way that one can browse Project Gutenberg? Thanks 78.146.19.86 (talk) 14:36, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- [9] says that Microsoft stopped digitizing books in May or June 2006, and also took down the book site., after digitizing 750,000 books and 80,000,000 journal articles. See also Live Search Books . The Wikipedia article still says Live Search Books offers content from a number of sources. But if you click the link to "Live search books" at the bottonm of the article, you get a "The page requested was not found." Is the Wikipedia article in need of updating to the events of 2 years ago, or are the Microsoft digitized works still available somewhere? Edison (talk) 17:38, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- AFAIK, the Internet Archive has copied of public domain texts scanned by MS, and anything else is not available.
The article almost certainly needs an update.Done --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:25, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- AFAIK, the Internet Archive has copied of public domain texts scanned by MS, and anything else is not available.
Mergers & Acquisitions
What is the common goal of all mergers and acquisitions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Poppazoid (talk • contribs) 16:54, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- The common goal is to answer the homework questions that your teacher has given you yourself by doing your own research on the topic. Perhaps Wikipedia's article on Mergers and acquisitions would be a good place to start, though I would also recommend reading the class notes that you wrote down the day your teacher discussed this, and also to read through your text book; those sources given directly by your teacher are likely more focused on answering this specific homework question than anything else... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 16:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- To make the merger/acquirer look good. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:12, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Follow on question from Queen Mother/Dowager
Hello I notice from the article referred to in the earlier answer, GB seems to have had 3 queens alive at the same time in 1952 - 3: Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, widow of the late king George VI, and Queen Mary, widow of the late king George V. Indeed, I remember seeing a picture of both old Queens (so to speak!) at the Coronation of Elizabeth II.
What title did Queen Mary adopt on the death of her son George VI? She was now no longer the Queen Mother. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.108.144.235 (talk) 20:29, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to our article, she never was "the Queen Mother" but was Her Majesty Queen Mary after her husband died until her own death. (Mary_of_Teck#Queen_Mother) Rmhermen (talk) 21:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Our Queen Mother page says the same. Here's a contemporary source: BBC transcript of newcast of George VI's funeral on Feb 15, 1952. "Dressed in black, the Queen, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal were in the first carriage….George VI's mother, Queen Mary, watched from Marlborough House." WikiJedits (talk) 21:30, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- And that was the photo you remember. She did not attend Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation because she had died 10 weeks earlier. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:38, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think Queen Mary would have been Queen Dowager (and even Queen Mother at one point), but as long as she was referred to as Her Majesty Queen Mary, rather than just Her Majesty The Queen then there was no need to disambiguate it with "Dowager" (or "Mother"). --Tango (talk) 23:04, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Indeed. The reason for the common use of the title 'Queen Mother' was that calling her simply 'Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth' would have been too confusing. Algebraist 23:39, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- Our Queen Mother page says the same. Here's a contemporary source: BBC transcript of newcast of George VI's funeral on Feb 15, 1952. "Dressed in black, the Queen, the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal were in the first carriage….George VI's mother, Queen Mary, watched from Marlborough House." WikiJedits (talk) 21:30, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
- The last time Queen Dowager was formally used was between 1837 and 1849, when Queen Adelaide adopted the title "Her Majesty the Queen Dowager". Queen Alexandra - who had a bit of a problem letting go of her status in the first place - decided to be known as "Her Majesty Queen Alexandra", and Queen Mary followed suit. Queen Elizabeth adopted Queen Mother because her daughter was also an Elizabeth (as referred to above). Best, PeterSymonds (talk) 13:45, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I remember a bit of dialogue from Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina where, when Victoria becomes queen,
Queen Adelaide announces "I shall be the Queen Mother", only to be told by one of her courtiers that she wasn't even the Queen's Mother, let alone the Queen Mother. Or something like that (it's been a long time).her mother announces "I shall be the the Queen Mother", only to be told by one her courtiers that she could not be the Queen Mother because she had never been a queen. Instead, she would have to be satisfied with being the Queen's mother. Whether this has any relationship to what (if anything) was actually spoken, I could not say. -- JackofOz (talk) 22:52, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I remember a bit of dialogue from Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina where, when Victoria becomes queen,
(<--) Yes indeed. Queen Victoria's mother was a rather ambitious lady, especially in the first few years of Victoria's reign. She did indeed want to be known as Queen Mother. This was not uncommon; mothers of Sovereigns have done this in the past. Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, referred to herself as QM, and often signed "Margaret R[egina]", despite not being a Queen herself. PeterSymonds (talk) 17:41, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
November 11
Quotation marks in the Bible
Most translations of the Bible don't use quotation marks; it isn't just the King James Version. Even modern translations of the last 50 years don't use quotation marks. Why?--Psuit (talk) 03:51, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know why the Bible in Basic English [11] doesn't use quotation marks whereas the NIV does.--Psuit (talk) 04:17, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- It's because there are no quotation marks in the original languages in which the Bible was written. This is only occasionally confusing, as in John 3, when no one is able to discern where Jesus finishes talking and John picks up. MelancholyDanish (talk) 08:17, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanish
- Why, you just look at a Red letter edition and all is made clear, as to which words were, in the opinion of the scholars advising the publisher, spoken by Jesus. The first of these was published in 1900. Edison (talk) 17:28, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
Orwellian Rhetorical Devices
I've just written an article for my campus newspaper on the contentious issue of freedom of speech, suggesting that as we can trust President Obama not to misuse his authority as president, his second act (after the passage of the delightfully named Freedom of Choice Act) needs to be jailing political extremists. I explained that he needs to frame the matter as one of protecting our First Amendment rights. "Obama needs to go before the nation and explain that radical extremists threaten the integrity of our First Amendment rights by corrupting the purity of our freedom of speech... In any society where subversion and radicalism are tolerated for any great length of time, the end result is a loss of civil liberties, as the ruling authority swoops in like an eagle to crush the radicals. This simply cannot happen in America, and we will not let it happen, not while we are free. Ring the alarum-bells throughout our mighty land, and let the people know this for a fact: if freedom of speech does not remain pure, it cannot remain free. Remember that. You remember that."
So in the process of writing the article I realized that I'm really fond of these Orwellian rhetorical devices. President Bush (or President Bush's friends) were really fond of using them as well, I've noted, and Sarah Palin had a fun time during the election trying to convince her audiences that the media was violating her "first amendment rights" by asking her questions. See the brilliance of it? My question is, can you tell me the writers who have used these devices the most? George Orwell of course is the first who comes to mind, but Jonathan Swift is his accomplice in crime in this respect.
Oddly, the place where I've seen them employed the most, if you can ignore the political distortions of the last eight years, is Christian end-times fiction. There's a series of books called the Christ Clone Trilogy, which was never as popular as Left Behind, alas, whose Antichrist is such a clever rhetorician that all of my friends who have read the novels have complained to me that Christopher Goodman almost made them want to follow him. He manages the massacre of 14,000,000 religious extremists, and while this would be a wildly implausible circumstance in almost any other novel, and while I probably number among the people who would be killed if this ever actually happened, in the course of the third novel I found myself half-cheering for their swift demise. The author is a political science professor (who ran against Al Gore for the Senate in 1980 and lost), and who's worked with the CIA, so he understands propaganda and knows how people can be manipulated into doing things.
Lastly, I remember a little movie we had to watch in elementary school, that was based on a short story by [[James Clavell]. It was called The Children's Story and, along with The Wave, it demonstrates the power inherent in the manipulation of language better than almost anything else I've seen or read.
So, any others? All recommendations are appreciated! MelancholyDanish (talk) 08:17, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanish
- This is not a question. It is political soapboxing, and as such should be deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.254.147.52 (talk) 11:29, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Alright. What political point, exactly, am I trying to make? That political dissidents should be rounded up and jailed? That all Christians should be executed? You've done a very fine job of missing the point.MelancholyDanish (talk) 15:58, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanish
- There is no real soapboxing going on here; one should assume good faith. :) Even easier when there is a real question apparent, although the question (or call for examples) is difficult. 80.202.246.253 (talk) 18:04, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thank you. In the words of T. S. Eliot, "It is impossible to say just what I mean." I'm sorry if my examples only obfuscate the question.
- Oh, and incidentally, if it's really that hard to see the sarcasm in my "opinions," then I may be in more trouble than I know. MelancholyDanish (talk) 19:03, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanishMelancholyDanish (talk) 19:02, 11 November 2008 (UTC)MelancholyDanish
- Your entire first paragraph is just an excuse to reproduce the polemic from your high-school magazine. Similarly, the section about the Christ Clone Trilogy seems to be rather more about sharing your various opinions with us than it is about asking a question. In fact, I'm at a loss to see how you can deny that you are using the Ref Desk as a soapbox. Malcolm XIV (talk) 19:23, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Although I can't answer the question, nice writing and tip on the Christ Clone Trilogy. Do you have a blog? :D You should get one if you don't. Leave a message on my talk page if you do. Also, read The Library of Babel and you do not have to sign your comment more than once. Just put a space and then four tildes (~~~~). Any successive edits do not require extra signings. Mac Davis (talk) 23:12, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Youth violence
Duplicate thread deleted—see Wikipedia talk:Reference desk#Deleted "Ways to Reduce Youth Violence" -- BenRG (talk) 15:55, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
prominent leader for Sunni and Shi'a community in Lebanon
Who are the prominent leaders for Sunni and Shi'a Muslims community in Lebanon, like Druze prominent leader is Walid Jumblatt? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.204.75.110 (talk) 16:07, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fazlullah is the prominent leader of Lebanese Shiites; and Saad Hariri is the Sunnis' prominent leader -- though there are some others too who claim these titles. --Omidinist (talk) 04:18, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Nabih Berry leader of the Amal party and Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah are both considered the political leaders of the Shi'a community. Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah is considered as their religious leader. Eklipse (talk) 20:37, 16 November 2008 (UTC)
Royal British Legion - inappropriate photo?
I do not want to make a political comment. However, I'm sure that a vast majority would be astonished to find a photo of former Prime Minister Tony Blair wearing a red poppy the least appropriate person to appear on the Royal British Legion page.
Comments please.
My suggestion is one of the elderly WWI veterans or a Chelsea Pensioner wearing a poppy. I don't yet know how to go about this and if anyone would like to take it over, please do so, otherwise I will attempt a change - if this permitted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Segilla (talk • contribs) 16:36, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- The correct place to ask questions about the The Royal British Legion article is that article's talk page : talk:The Royal British Legion. The use of Tony Blair's photograph was probably to illustrate the success and high profile of the 'poppy appeal' fund drive. It is not intended to illustrate the Royal British Legion as a whole. Feel free to change it if you feel some other picture illustrates the "Poppy Appeal" better. APL (talk) 16:58, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
What does the captain of a carrier get paid?
I have been trying to find out what captains of aircraft carriers are paid, but have had little luck. I know that the American Nimitz class is (or sometimes) commandeered by Rear Admirals. I found out that these made $660 a month in 1943, but I do not know if I can simply turn those dollars into present dollars, and retain some sense of validity. Any help is greatly appreciated! 80.202.246.253 (talk) 18:09, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- Aircraft carriers may be commanded by Rear Admirals, however if he commandeered one, he would likely stand trial for mutiny!!! However, the info you are looking for can be found here: U.S. uniformed services pay grades, which states that a Rear Admiral, who is pay grade O7 or O8 (depending on which "half" of the rank he is), gets paid anywhere from $7234.50/month (for an O7 Rear Admiral with less than 2 years service) to $12,551.40 per month (for an O8 Rear Admiral with over 38 years of experience). Cheers. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 19:13, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- The battle group is commanded by a Rear Admiral. The captain (CO) of the carrier is a separate position. Captain on the USS Ronald Reagan (an actual O-6 Captain), and separately the commander of Carrier Strike Group Seven which includes the Reagan (a Rear Admiral as above). SDY (talk) 14:52, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- How Much things cost in 1943:
- Average Cost of new house $3,600.00
- Average wages per year $2,000.00
- Cost of a gallon of Gas 15 cents
- Average Cost for house rent $40.00 per month
- Bottle Coca Cola 5 cents
- Average Price for a new car $900.00 [12] Mieciu K (talk) 00:06, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hunting down nazis: priceless Belisarius (talk) 17:26, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- That's rather interesting although not surprising (to me at least). The average cost of a new house is 180% of the average yearly wage (I guess that's before tax?). I'm pretty sure the gap is a lot wider now. (And even worse here in NZ but I digress.) Incidentally, are those averages the mean or the median? Nil Einne (talk) 10:49, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
post-election campaign funds
Hello, now that the US presidential election is over, I wonder what generally happens to whatever money each campaign has left. Surely there must be some money left over. Is it generally turned over to the political party, or donated to charity, or what? Thank you. LovesMacs (talk) 18:23, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- This says you can donate it to a charity or a political party. Just no personal use (this means you, Sarah). Clarityfiend (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Also, the Obama team has a huge job ahead of them before he takes office. He's got something like 2,500 positions to fill in government, and he has to find the right people for them, and for the senate-confirmable ones, he has to vet them. I hear he's got something like 450 people on staff doing this, and other things he needs to do to prepare (like, you know, come up with actual policy and stuff). Congress kicks in a few bucks for this, but a lot of the money comes from donations and the campaign(which is why people still get email begging them for cash). Belisarius (talk) 17:24, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
What's the Latin tag?
A friend recalls, on a university bookstore t-shirt, a Latin tag to the effect "In all the world [there is] nothing like a book". Does anyone recognize the tag? Does is sound like Erasmus?--Wetman 19:31, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
in toto orbe nihil simile libro, maybe? never heard :( --PMajer (talk) 21:11, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't know it either but while searching for Erasmus quotes I found one page that claimed he said "women: can't live with them, can't live without them." Stupid Internet! Adam Bishop (talk) 01:50, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Wasn't it Isaac Newton who said, "Women: can live without them"? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:08, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
November 12
74.14.117.196 questions
These all look like home work questions, and we don't tend to answer such things, though we may provide some pointers. I've pushed your questions down a heading level and inserted my own first level heading. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:01, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I, for one, encourage the answering of all homework questions (I wont be the one to do so though). I believe it can only lead to my children having a competitive advantage in the job market in the future. 38.112.225.84 (talk) 01:37, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Having other people do your work for you does not give you a competitive advantage over the long term. Having one's own skills is far more beneficial. Teach your children that and they'll be better off. Give a man to fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 05:20, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- It is as important to know how to obtain information from others as it is to be able to find out the knowledge for yourself.194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:18, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- You missed the joke: answering the homework questions of others will harm them, leaving 38's more virtuous children ahead. —Tamfang (talk) 07:09, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Ha! Haha! I'm using that joke.
- But also, I don't think we should have a problem with linking them to the proper articles and remind them to use the search feature. Mac Davis (talk) 22:44, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Unfortunately the IPs appear to come from different locations. If they didn't there would be an obvious retort Nil Einne (talk) 10:42, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Having other people do your work for you does not give you a competitive advantage over the long term. Having one's own skills is far more beneficial. Teach your children that and they'll be better off. Give a man to fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 05:20, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Athenian
How was the Delian League transformed into the Athenian Empire during the fifth century B.C.E.? Did the empire offer any advantage to its subjects? Why was there such resistance to Athenian efforts to unify the Greek world in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 00:37, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Deltan League became the Athenian Empire when they bought out their rivals with large stock options. Another advantage they offered was frequent flyer miles. There was lots of resistance because people at Dalta thought the Athenians had really dumb looking uniforms.
- Yes, please copy all my answers, you will learn a valuable lesson if you do :-) (insert corny, evil laugh)Somebody or his brother (talk) 13:06, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Peloponnesian War
Why did Athens and Sparta come to blows in the Great Peloponnesian War? What was each side's strategy for victory? Why did Sparta win the war? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 00:39, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thucydides has quite a detailed answer to your first question, and will help with the second. Algebraist 01:04, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Sparta won because that's what it says happened in the history books. They came to blows over who had the coolest looking official seal. Athens lost breecause they adopted Harold Stassen as their role model, while Sparta countered with the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
- I should add, if this is really the creator of Zits looking for ideas by seeing how poeple would answer, Hi, I love your comic strip.Somebody or his brother (talk) 13:03, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Hellenistic and Classical Age
How does Hellenistic art differ from that of the Classical Age? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 00:41, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hellenistic art could only be painted by women named Halen. yes, please copy this answer. You will learn an important lesson if you do. :-)Somebody or his brother (talk) 12:59, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hellenistic art has hell in it; classical art has ass in it. Matt Deres (talk) 17:52, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Athens, Sparta and Thebes
Between 431 and 362 B.C.E., why did Athens, Sparta and Thebes each fail to impose hegemony over the city-states of Greece? What does your analysis tell you about the components of successful rule? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 00:45, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Urinalysis tells me that good rulers do not test positive for drugs. (A mondegreen if you didn't know. :-) They each failed to gain hegemony because the BCS system was so bad it couldnt' even find a true number one back then.Somebody or his brother (talk) 12:48, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Alexander the Great
How and why did Philip II conquer Greece between 359 and 338 B.C.E.? How was he able to turn Macedon into a formidable military and political power? Why was Athens unable to defend itself against Macedon? Where does more of the credit for Philip's success lie-in Macedon's strength or in the weakness of the Greek city-states? What were the major consequences of Alexander's death? What did he achieve? Was he a conscious promoter of Greek civilization or just an egomaniac drunk with the lust of conquest? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 00:52, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- For your last question, see false dilemma. Algebraist 01:05, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Of course we have articles about all of these that might be a good place to start. Delian League, Peloponnesian War, Hellenistic Greece, Classical Greece, Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon...I don't know if we have one about the Athens/Sparta/Thebes question though. However, the better answer would be to read your text book... Adam Bishop (talk) 01:56, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
The answers your teacher wants are in your textbook. If you crib answers from the internet, it will be pretty obvious. I say this as a teacher who has gotten kids kicked out of school for copying history homework answers off the internet. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 05:21, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'll give you answers :-)
- He did it because it was there. he actually wanted to conquer San Marino but it wouldn't be there for centuries, and he'd have to go through Italy to get to it. As for how, he hired a bunch of knights. There were so many knights it was always dark there, so the people couldn't see to fight him. This should help answer your other questions, too, about how it became a formidable power and why Athens couldn't defend itself; it was too dark.
- The credit lies in his ability to smash boards with his head. (Why do you want a lie for an answer? :-)
- The major cons4equences of Alexander's death: 1. He was pushing up daisies. 2. He never got learn who won Super Bowl III (he wouldn't have lived long enough anywa.) 3. A bunch of other stuff happened.
- He achieved world renown as a conqueror, and really bad smelling armpits because they didn't have deoderant. No, he was not drunk with lust of conquest - the drunk one was his cousin, who loved to dress in purple and went by the name Alexander the grape.
- I hope your teacher reads these in class; it will be a very valuable lesson. :-)Somebody or his brother (talk) 12:57, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- What is this, Mad Libs? If you're going to give intentionally incorrect information, you first need to be funny. Adam Bishop (talk) 14:18, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- oops, I found some of it funny... Julia Rossi (talk) 22:27, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- What is this, Mad Libs? If you're going to give intentionally incorrect information, you first need to be funny. Adam Bishop (talk) 14:18, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
How does he look like
How does a Moor man in Mauritania look like? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 01:00, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Take a look through Category:Mauritanian people and it's various sub-categories. However very few of the individual people articles have photographs. Astronaut (talk) 05:16, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- This set of photos includes several photos of Moors in Mauritania. Marco polo (talk) 02:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Afro-Arab
Which Arab countries have black population? in your article Category:Afro-Arab says so but I need to know which country has the most and which one has the least. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.117.196 (talk) 01:06, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- My guess would be that Sudan would have the largest black Arab population. Wrad (talk) 03:55, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
homosexual African-American & homosexual White American
How many homosexual African-Americans and homosexual white Americans are there in the U.S.? 72.136.111.205 (talk) 04:42, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- More than elsewhere. {rimshot} —Tamfang (talk) 07:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that the incidence of homosexuality varies from "race" to "race". People of certain cultures may be more open about it than those of other cultures. The numbers would be proportionate to the relative numbers of African-Americans and "white" Americans. -- JackofOz (talk) 07:37, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to the article on African American, in the 2000 US Census there were 36.6 million African Americans living in the US. Estimates to the number of gay people in a population vary, but usually stated as 2%-7%, which would mean that there are something like 700,000-2,000,000 gay African Americans in the US. Note though that this is an imprecise calculation, it doesn't take into account homosexuals living as heterosexuals, and completely disregards the Kinsey scale. There are probably many, many more that are bisexual or have homosexual leanings, the 2-5 part of the scale. Belisarius (talk) 17:20, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Kinsey Scale doesn't imply normal distribution. However, you're right in that there're probably a lot more people living homosexually than will admit so openly, especially given common biases in African American culture. You might be able to find some data on openly homosexual people (1-2% of men, 2-3% of women, if I recall the number correctly). Steewi (talk) 00:15, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I didn't mean to imply that the Kinsey Scale is normally distributed, I just meant that that 2%-7% refered to the more extreme ends of the scale, and that more people in the middle, that might not be 100% homosexual, but could easily fall in love with someone of their own sex. Belisarius (talk) 05:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Kinsey Scale doesn't imply normal distribution. However, you're right in that there're probably a lot more people living homosexually than will admit so openly, especially given common biases in African American culture. You might be able to find some data on openly homosexual people (1-2% of men, 2-3% of women, if I recall the number correctly). Steewi (talk) 00:15, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to the article on African American, in the 2000 US Census there were 36.6 million African Americans living in the US. Estimates to the number of gay people in a population vary, but usually stated as 2%-7%, which would mean that there are something like 700,000-2,000,000 gay African Americans in the US. Note though that this is an imprecise calculation, it doesn't take into account homosexuals living as heterosexuals, and completely disregards the Kinsey scale. There are probably many, many more that are bisexual or have homosexual leanings, the 2-5 part of the scale. Belisarius (talk) 17:20, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Don't assume that the US consists only of white and black. Another lead is down-low and Men who have sex with men in general. BrainyBabe (talk) 12:09, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
US one-party state
I just read that the US is now effectively a one-party state, because the same party has the president plus a majority in both the house of representatives and the senate. How uncommon is this? I am surprised at the lack of info on past US elections on Wikipedia. We love lists, don't we? So why can't I find a list showing all the elections? (Even the Dutch elections are covered a whole lot better on the English Wikipedia.) Amrad (talk) 10:05, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Uh..... that's an extremely misleading usage of the term one-party state. A one party state is usually used to describe a state where only one party is allowed to form the government which is definitely not the US. The US isn't even close to a Dominant-party system yet (a country where realisticly only one party can form the government) IMHO. I'm not sure why you think we're lacking info on US elections. We have an article on every Presidential election from 1789 to now Template:U.S. presidential elections, the same for the Senate Template:U.S. Senate elections from 1908 (I think this is the beginning, the Senate members used to be elected by the state government rather then directly by the people of the state IIRC), and the House from 1789 Template:U.S. House elections. If you want lists, we have a bunch of stuff like List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin, List of United States presidential election results by state (and while not strictly election related List of United States congressional lists) and Category:Lists relating to the United States presidency may interest you). Our Template:U.S. gubernatorial elections is somewhat incomplete but wasn't what you were discussing. We also have an article on each Congress from the first Template:USCongresses. So really, I personally strongly suspect our coverage is far better then that of Dutch elections, although I've never looked at Dutch election articles extensively. As for your specific question, according to History of the United States Democratic Party, the Democrats has the same control from 1992-1994 (and actually for the 40 years preceding 1994 except 1981-1987 they had both houses so any Democrats presidents during those 40 years would be the same thing). According to History of the United States Republican Party, the Republicans had control of both houses from 1994 to 2001 then 2002 to 2006 and since Bush took control in 2000, they had all 3 in 2000, losing the Senate in 2001 to 2002 (I can't recall exactly but I think one Senator abandoned the Republican party, I'm sure many articles mention it somewhere) and then regaining it until 2006. It does note that their gains in 2002 were somewhat of an oddity since "This marked the first time since 1934 that the party in control of the White House gained seats in a midterm election in both houses of Congress" Nil Einne (talk) 12:14, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- There's also a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth among Republicans and conservatives -- the ones who keep chanting that the U.S. is really a center-right nation -- because Karl Rove's dream of a permanent Republican majority has turned out to be...premature, at the least. One effect has been a great deal more fretting about "one-party rule" than you heard when the GOP was in control of the presidency and Congress. I recall Speaker Dennis Hastert's notion that legislation could come to the House floor only if supported by "the majority of the majority." In other words, a bill supported mostly by Democrats, with enough Republicans to give it a chance of passing, would be stalled the leadership because it wasn't supported by at least half the Republicans.
- Party discipline among the two major U.S. parties is also more a theory than a practice -- e.g., Joe Lieberman, who was the Democratic nominee for vice-president four years ago, actively campaigned for McCain/Palin. (Yeah, yeah, he's an "independent.") Committee chairmen in the House and the Senate have a great deal of power, and the president doesn't always have many ways to sway them. A challenge for Obama will be managing the conflicting agendas of longtime liberal Democrats and newer more conservative ones like Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. --- OtherDave (talk) 13:22, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- The complaining is not just among Republicans. Historically, whenever the same party has controlled the White House and the Congress (regardless of which party it is), economic growth has slowed, unemployment has risen, and real wages have fallen. Wikiant (talk) 13:26, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
I'd agree with Rove that most people in the US are of a center-right persuasion, but I think the question is more where the center is. The US is farther right than Europe, at least as I understand it, but why are they the center? As a follow-up-esque question to the OP, there's a bit of a perception that in recent years that politics is moving away from the middle and that some increase of Political radicalism is happening? SDY (talk) 14:42, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I love articles like that: "If we ignore anything that doesn't fit with the conclusion that I want to push, the data backs my conclusion completely!" -- kainaw™ 15:12, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Just looking at the conclusions of the first few paragraphs, I have substantial doubts about the article. That people don't know what party is more conservative may indicate that they simply don't care about politics, not that they know the "other side." To be more formal with the questions, though:
- 1. Is there any evidence of increasing radicalization of US politics?
- 2. Is there evidence that McCain intentionally abandoned the moderate vote? (i.e. leaked memos, emails, and other documents, not the conclusions of pundits).
- 3. What, if any, rigorous definitions are there for a "center" in US politics?
- In all cases, I'm looking for political science answers and neutral data: Declarations against interest, numbers from at least nominally neutral organizations (i.e. at least somewhere between Fox and MSNBC) and "big picture" academic speculation, not blogs and pundits. If there are no answers along those lines, so be it. SDY (talk) 15:56, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Just looking at the conclusions of the first few paragraphs, I have substantial doubts about the article. That people don't know what party is more conservative may indicate that they simply don't care about politics, not that they know the "other side." To be more formal with the questions, though:
- The lastest exit polls, all over the news and interweb, say that 22% of US voters identify themselves as "liberal," 44% call themseleves "moderate", and 34% say they are "conservative." For conservatives, this indicates a center-right nation. For liberals, this indicates that the average American is too stupid to know that he's a liberal. ;-) 71.72.148.80 (talk) 00:38, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- To me it indicates that whoever did the survey was too stupid to ask a question that actually results in meaningful answers. Self-identification works well for things like race which experts agree is a pretty meaningless concept (so if you really want statistics on it, self-identification is your best option), it doesn't work for political opinions. --Tango (talk) 00:58, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The lastest exit polls, all over the news and interweb, say that 22% of US voters identify themselves as "liberal," 44% call themseleves "moderate", and 34% say they are "conservative." For conservatives, this indicates a center-right nation. For liberals, this indicates that the average American is too stupid to know that he's a liberal. ;-) 71.72.148.80 (talk) 00:38, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- It's pretty obvious you don't like the results, which has resulted in you saying some silly things. :-) The poll did produce a meaningful result -- how people identify themselves on a simple political spectrum -- but of course a more detailed survey would produce more useful data. And experts do not agree that race is a "pretty meaningless concept"; the biological validity of race is now doubted, but as a social construct, it's anything but meaningless. 71.72.148.80 (talk) 01:33, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- It isn't a very meaningful question. Though it seems useful to politicians decided whether or not to use the word liberal, which I'm sure is very important. It's a bit better in context. 71.72... here is obviously going on about the results from the "Edison Media Research" exit polls as reported by the AP and CNN.
- There are some surprising (to me) results. 76% of voters attended college, but only 44% of voters graduated college. That seems like a pretty wide split. It also amuses me that among this year's voters there are more conservatives than liberals, but more democrats than republicans. APL (talk) 04:03, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Moses's Egypt?
Where can I find a good definition of the term Egypt when used in Exodus? It's certainly not the modern country Egypt. It was the name of a rule or civilization or country back then. Do we know which specific date or pharaoh Moses interacted with?
I'm trying to figure out what the name these Egyptians themselves would have given to themselves as a people or to their nation.--206.248.172.247 (talk) 12:23, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Exodus#Dating the Exodus has some information on when the Exodus might have happened, if indeed it happened at all. Algebraist 12:41, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
So I'm looking at Egypt between 1500 and 1200 BCE. New_Kingdom_of_Egypt--206.248.172.247 (talk) 13:29, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Tradition generally holds that the unnamed Pharaoh in Exodus is Ramesses II, though documentary evidence is sketchy. That the Exodus is undocumented by non-Hebrew sources is unsuprising. The Hebrews were a relatively small group of people; and were likely not recognized by non-Hebrew peoples as distinct from any of a number of other Canaanite tribes, such as the Philistines. Slave revolts were not uncommon in Ancient Egypt; and The Exodus, while a defining moment in Hebrew history, probably doesn't rate as much more than a blip on Egyptian history. The basic theme of the book (member of enslaved class rises to high government official and has a positive impact on his own people) occurs multiple times in the old Testament, cf. Joseph, Daniel, etc. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 21:28, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to our article Ptah, the likely name used by New Kingdom Egyptians for their country was Hat-ka-Ptah (pronounced haht-kah-ptah)—"the house (or estate) of Ptah." This name was the basis for the Greek place name Aigyptos, which later morphed into our name Egypt. Marco polo (talk) 01:48, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Fastest growing sorority?
I'm trying to find the fastest growing sorority in the U.S. I did a quick search on google and there are a few that mention it but I don't exactly trust the sources. Help would be very much appreciated. 71.244.5.124 (talk) 17:36, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
descendants of ancient famous figures
Do they know the lineage of any ancient kings, emperors or other famous or important people? I know this Italian guy who swears up and down that he's a direct descendant of Julius Caesar and I can't convince him that no one knows that for sure. 63.245.144.68 (talk) 20:47, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- There are no well-established descents from antiquity. That doesn't stop people from believing in them. There are some reasonably well-proved descents from persons living as early as 400 if you accept Irish chronicles as sources, but none dating back to Caesar. I suspect you'll never convince your friend, though: if you lower your standards of evidence you can claim descent from almost anyone, including fictional figures like Wotan, Adam, and Eve. - Nunh-huh 20:54, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'd say that Wotan or Adam and Eve are mythological figures rather than fictional ones. Malcolm XIV (talk) 21:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Descent of Elizabeth II from the Franks is an interesting read. --Cameron* 21:37, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Many Jews claim descent from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. Wrad (talk) 21:40, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Descent of Elizabeth II from the Franks is an interesting read. --Cameron* 21:37, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- There is apparently a pretty good line of descent from Confucius, but descent from Caesar would be very difficult to prove conclusively. Steewi (talk) 22:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Part of the reason he says he's descended from Caesar is because Roman Mythology says that Caesars family were descendants of the goddess Venus, so he thinks he can say he's descended form the Gods. Not that he actually believes this, he says it sort of tongue-in-cheek, but it would be cool if he could prove that. 63.245.144.68 (talk) 22:21, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'd say that Wotan or Adam and Eve are mythological figures rather than fictional ones. Malcolm XIV (talk) 21:07, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- If someone from 1000s of years ago has descendants alive today, chances are most of the world population is descended from them (bar a few isolated tribes somewhere possibly). At the very least, if Julius Caesar still has living descenents then anyone native to western Europe is probably descendent from him. Assume his lineage has doubled every generation and generations average 25 years that means he should have about 22000/25=280~=1024 descendants by now. Seeing as the world population is about 6.5x109, you can see that there has clearly been such an enormous amount of inbreeding to the extent that almost everyone will descended from him by now. --Tango (talk) 23:18, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- I claim direct descent from Mitochondrial Eve, so there. 38.112.225.84 (talk) 23:27, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Kohanim claim direct descent from Aaron. Queen Elizabeth II is supposedly descended from Mohammed. ([13]) Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 00:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
OH WOW!! Does this mean I can trace my lineage back to Caesar and therefore the gods too?! :D BAD ASS!!! I'm gonna tell everyone I know that I'm a demigod. (Of course, I won't bother to tell them that they are too...) 63.245.144.68 (talk) 05:16, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, if you think about it, every one of us is descended from people who are utterly lost to history because they only started keeping records relatively recently. But some of them might have been kings in their own time. No matter how far back you can trace your most distant known ancestor, they had parents, and they had parents ... and so on, back at least 80,000 generations. Whatever we know of our genealogies is just the tiniest tip of the iceberg of our actual history. -- JackofOz (talk) 05:32, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- FWIW I have the same family name as a notable writer from over 1,000 years ago. Since the name is somewhat uncommon, I've often wondered how I could find out if we are distantly related? Astronaut (talk) 16:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- It's difficult to trace genealogies precisely that far back, but the general principles Tango alludes to above mean it's very likely you're descended from whichever of his relatives have surviving descendants at all. Algebraist 16:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, Mikhail Lermontov claimed to be descended from Thomas the Rhymer a.k.a. Thomas Learmont following the same principle...AnonMoos (talk) 12:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- FWIW I have the same family name as a notable writer from over 1,000 years ago. Since the name is somewhat uncommon, I've often wondered how I could find out if we are distantly related? Astronaut (talk) 16:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Often, people use a book named something like "Famous Descendents of Charlemagne" to trace lineage to notable people. The problem is that the book was created, not for accurately defining family lines, but for allowing those who paid nicely to have a book that shows they are descendent from royalty. I've looked at it and it claims I'm descendent from British, French, Norwegian, and Turkish royalty. So, you can see that it is important to take lineages of long ago as best guesses, not facts. -- kainaw™ 16:22, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- There's no way of verifying a descent from Julius Caesar - he only had two children mentioned in ancient sources - his daughter Julia, whose onnly child was stillborn (she died in childbirth), and his (probable) son by Cleopatra, Caesarion, who was murdered on the orders of Augustus while still a child. Caesar is supposed have had numerous affairs, but any other illegitimate children he may have had have gone reported. Brutus, the son of Caesar's mistress Servilia Caepionis, is likely too old to be Caesar's son, but Servilia had other children who could conceivably have been his - but even if you could trace your descent to any of them, you couldn't definitively claim to have been descended from Caesar. --Nicknack009 (talk) 17:16, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Apparently one of my late great-grandmothers was an exiled Nepalese princess. Avnas Ishtaroth drop me a line 00:49, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
A lady who my brother worked with was part of the exiled Eritrean royal family and supposedly is related to the Pharoahs. 63.245.144.68 (talk) 13:45, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
what is the period of time the supreme court hears cases
is the period of time an hour?
is it something else?----
- What do you mean, the time between when one case stops and the next starts? I doubt there is a set period. --Tango (talk) 23:20, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
If you mean how much time is allotted for oral arguments, the Supreme Court web site states that hearings are scheduled for one hour,(I assume the time is split between the parties) and two cases are scheduled daily when the Court is in session. There is no set time for reaching a final opinion. I assume that when all the opinions (majority, plurality, concurring, dissenting) are prepared, the decision is announced and explained by one of the justices. The Clerk's Office releases the opinion the same day. 75Janice (talk) 23:53, 12 November 2008 (UTC)75Janice
- Yes, the time for oral arguments is split evenly between the two parties (and believe the time the judges spend asking them questions from the bench counts as part of their time; does anyone know for sure?). - Jmabel | Talk 00:09, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hard to tell what's being asked here, but the Supreme Court of the U.S. is prescribed to start a term on the first Monday of October. So the 2008-2009 term began on October 6th and it sounds like that when a term ends, so the Justices can take off on other gigs or vacation or whatever, is not prescribed and varies somewhat but is usually mid summer, sometime around July or August. 38.112.225.84 (talk) 01:58, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- It may help the OP's understanding to mention that the Supreme Court, like other appellate courts, does not hear cases. It considers appeals from lower courts. No new evidence is presented. Instead, advocates for the two sides present briefs and other documents either in support of the ruling of the lower court, or in an effort to have that ruling overturned. Most of the real work goes into these documents. As Jmabel points out, the oral argument time is brief, and talkative justices (some of them making points to one another in the form of questions to the attorneys) can gobble up a lot of that. The justices (and their clerks) spend a great deal of time going over documents presented on both sides, and more time drafting the court's eventual decision. Even a straightforward case like Feist v Rural Telephone Company 499 US 340 (1991), which dealt with copyright, resulted in a thirteen-page decision. Virtually every paragraph contains references to two or three other cases. --- OtherDave (talk) 03:05, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hard to tell what's being asked here, but the Supreme Court of the U.S. is prescribed to start a term on the first Monday of October. So the 2008-2009 term began on October 6th and it sounds like that when a term ends, so the Justices can take off on other gigs or vacation or whatever, is not prescribed and varies somewhat but is usually mid summer, sometime around July or August. 38.112.225.84 (talk) 01:58, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Run on a currency?
The last line of Invergordon Mutiny says
- "The Invergordon Mutiny caused a panic on the London Stock Exchange and a run on the pound"
I know what a run on a bank is, but what does a "run on the pound" mean? --Carnildo (talk) 23:29, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- Much the same: the value of the pound against other currencies falls. I'm assuming currency exchange rates were not fixed in that period. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:34, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- People rush to exchange their pounds for foreign currency which appears less threatened. Wrad (talk) 23:35, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
- In that period, would they have been exchanging their pounds for foreign currency, or for gold? Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 00:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Foreign currency, mainly, there isn't enough gold to buy gold with it all. When people trade foreign exchange they don't generally own the currency they're trading, they borrow in one currency and use that to buy another currency, the amount of money you actually need to have in your account (called the margin) is pretty small (10% is common [ie. if you have $10,000 in your account you can buy $100,000 worth of foreign currency], sometimes less, probably much less for big institutional investors [since they're low risk - at least they were a year ago...]). --Tango (talk) 00:45, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Also, I should say, you don't necessarily have to buy and sell currency in order for it to be a run on the pound, selling things valued in pounds (UK based assets, mainly) and buying things valued in some foreign currency has the same effect. --Tango (talk) 00:47, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Foreign currency, mainly, there isn't enough gold to buy gold with it all. When people trade foreign exchange they don't generally own the currency they're trading, they borrow in one currency and use that to buy another currency, the amount of money you actually need to have in your account (called the margin) is pretty small (10% is common [ie. if you have $10,000 in your account you can buy $100,000 worth of foreign currency], sometimes less, probably much less for big institutional investors [since they're low risk - at least they were a year ago...]). --Tango (talk) 00:45, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- In that period, would they have been exchanging their pounds for foreign currency, or for gold? Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 00:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- People rush to exchange their pounds for foreign currency which appears less threatened. Wrad (talk) 23:35, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
November 13
Babylon as a symbol of "orgiastic decadence"
What does orgiastic decadence mean? Elchananheller (talk) 00:29, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Orgiastic means "pertaining to an orgy". And also decadence. Adam Bishop (talk) 00:53, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Any relation...?
Hi all - does anyone here know whether rock musician Eddie Vedder is related to 19th century symbolist artist Elihu Vedder? I haven't been able to find a source which mentions a possible connection, but thought someone here might have some idea. Thanks in advance, Grutness...wha? 01:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'd infer yes from this but in exactly what way, I don't know. --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:03, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- This geneology: [14] confirms that Eddie Vedder, through his mother Karen Lee Vedder, is related to Elihu Vedder the painter. Following BOTH of their lines back, the closest common ancestor for both of them was one Harmen Albertse Vedder, one of the original settlers of New Amsterdam, who migrated to what is now Schenectady, New York from Amsterdam, Netherlands. H.A. Vedder was Eddie's 10th generation ancestor, and was Elihu's 5th generation ancestor, making them 4th cousins, 5-times removed. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:51, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
This book title
I remember reading the wikipedia article for this book a long time ago and I want to buy it. I remember some guy murdered his friend with a shovel or something. He goes to hang out in a police station or something and finds a city inside a giant cave. I remember that the constable had all sorts of witty wordplay. Then in the second half of the book he dies and repeats all his adventures as a ghost with the murdered friend. Anyone have an idea? .froth. (talk) 02:40, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- I'll take a punt on The Third Policeman. --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:48, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Two hours of googling couldn't turn that article up.. I was searching "shovel" instead of spade, "constable" instead of policeman, "cave" or "cavern" instead of underground chamber.. THANK you ! .froth. (talk) 02:59, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- I feel that Flann O'Brien would appreciate that sort of google-fu :) --Tagishsimon (talk) 03:03, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Two hours of googling couldn't turn that article up.. I was searching "shovel" instead of spade, "constable" instead of policeman, "cave" or "cavern" instead of underground chamber.. THANK you ! .froth. (talk) 02:59, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Back from the dead
Someone goes missing, is declared dead, their will is executed, and then they turn up alive. What happens? --Carnildo (talk) 02:52, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- There are a number of instances of this, and it much depends where it happens. In undeveloped countries, there are cases of these people being treated like zombies and stoned. In developed countries there is a lot of red tape to go through and it's sometimes impossible to be officially recognised again. I don't have immediate access to sources, but this sort of thing is often reported in Fortean Times. If they have commited pseudocide they usually end up in jail.--Shantavira|feed me 09:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- There's also List of premature obituaries and the John Darwin disappearance case in the U.K. Darwin was arrested for fraud along with his wife after turning up in 2007. Both received prison sentences in 2008. Idaho-an Jeremy Bass has to prove he's alive here[15] after a mixup. Julia Rossi (talk) 09:21, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
What a terrible article! (pseudocide). You've written more than the article says. Actually let me copy what you've written into the article -- i hope you don't mind! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 03:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Can you help me find the original projections of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace
duplicate question removed --Tagishsimon (talk) 03:01, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Role of the Israeli prime minister
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am currently doing a school project on Israel, more specifically its political system, and I was wondering: what is the role of the prime minister in Israel ? I have found information on the role of the Knesset (declare laws, dismiss the prime minister, etc.) and the President of Israel (ratify laws approved by the Knesset, meet foreign dignitaries, etc.); but my search for information about the PM's duties remains unfruitful. Most of the information that I find is related to the history of the position. Rachmaninov Khan (talk) 03:23, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The PM leads the government meetings and is in charge of the work of government in general, he takes over the role of resigning ministers, he decides the government agenda, and has final word in foreign policy decisions. (My translation of the Hebrew entry)Elchananheller (talk) 05:56, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- While Prime Minister of Israel isn't very helpful, most of the information at Prime Minister is relevant. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:54, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Calling Joe de Maistre
Yo, I'm intending to expand the Joseph de Maistre and have a question about how to refer to the cantankerous old git when omitting his first name. Is it "de Maistre" or simply "Maistre"? I have seen both conventions used in the literature, and am wondering which would be more proper for our purposes. Any informed response appreciated, the skomorokh 05:51, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- To me, "de Maistre" sounds more formal and is therefore preferred here. The one time it's abbreviated in the 1911 Britannica article, it uses "de". (But de Sade truth is, there doesn't appear to be a strong consensus.) Clarityfiend (talk) 06:22, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Rather than inspecting our gut-feelings for the answer, as the US President does, let's note clearly that the comte de Maistre is referred to as "Maistre", just as the marquis de Lafayette is called "Lafayette": Try saying, "De Lafayette, we are here!" See?. --Wetman 06:39, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Je ne parle pas 18th century mannerisms, desolee. Is "de Maistre"/"Maistre" not then a surname but rather a title of sorts, "head-dude of Placename", where Placename thereafter serves as a metonym? the skomorokh 06:43, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Nor me, but conventionally the Australian artist Roy De Maistre is referred to as "de Maistre", fwiw. Maybe it's just Australian-style. Why the capital D in the article title, I've no idea. Julia Rossi (talk) 09:31, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Even stranger still that he is the son of a chap called "Etienne L. de Mestre". Immigrant populations have a tendency to disregard the mannerisms of their ancestral homelands, so I'm not sure how much of an indication Roy's example is to us...unless that is he styles himself as "Roy, comte de Maistre...'just call me de Maistre'"! the skomorokh 09:37, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Portia de Rossi is referred to as "de Rossi". You would expect to find people like Herbert von Karajan (who's referred to as "Karajan") and Hans von Bülow (who's referred to as "von Bülow") under K and B respectively. Dutch people whose names start with "van", who are referred to as "van ___", are categorised under the final name (e.g. Eduard van Beinum is found under B), except for Vincent van Gogh, who appears under V rather than G. Why we make an exception in his case I've never quite worked out. -- JackofOz (talk) 14:55, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- von Braun, von Neumann,
van Johnson... My personal theory is that people add the extra bit to emphasize the person's significance. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:05, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- von Braun, von Neumann,
- Portia de Rossi is referred to as "de Rossi". You would expect to find people like Herbert von Karajan (who's referred to as "Karajan") and Hans von Bülow (who's referred to as "von Bülow") under K and B respectively. Dutch people whose names start with "van", who are referred to as "van ___", are categorised under the final name (e.g. Eduard van Beinum is found under B), except for Vincent van Gogh, who appears under V rather than G. Why we make an exception in his case I've never quite worked out. -- JackofOz (talk) 14:55, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Whose system are you discussing, Jack? Because in American alphabetization, they would all be under "v". In Dutch ordering, the tussenvoegsel would always be ignored. Rmhermen (talk) 16:03, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The de may become an integral part, particularly of a non-aristocratic name, as Dupont. To appear to be knowledgable if one really isn't might be pretentious. If one actually is an Ochs von Lerchenau, then to insist upon correctness might make one a figure of comedy. But it is "the luck of the Lerchenaus" not "the luck of the von Lerchenaus", and even an American will hunt in vain under D for Lorenzo de' Medici. --Wetman 21:22, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Really, Rmhermen? Are Herbert von Karajan and Ludwig van Beethoven really listed in the V section of an American encyclopedia? I wonder. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- In Britannica Online, Ludwig's listed under the Bs. Ernst van de Wetering, a Dutch art historian, is in the Vs, as are Belgian priest and academic H.L. Van Breda and Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebel. So it goes. --- OtherDave (talk) 03:15, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I find it quite odd that Britannica (a formerly British publication now headquartered in Chicago) follows neither the Oxford Guide to Style nor the Chicago Manual of Style's guidelines [16] but its own mismash. (Diemen, Anthony van for one Dutch explorer; van Neck, Jacob for another near contemporary) Rmhermen (talk) 06:28, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Charles Dickens Quiz Question
I've got a very vague quiz question I can't find an answer to elsewhere on-line & I don't have time to read the complete works of Dickens so I wanted to ask if anyone can answer the question: "According to Charles Dickens 'who was willing'?" Thanks
- See "Mr. Barkis" in David Copperfield (novel)#Characters in David Copperfield. Deor (talk) 12:42, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Thanks AllanHainey (talk) 14:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
first world war and Vatican
Did Vatican join the first world war? Was there any war that this country join? If yes, please explain a little about that. Thank you. 114.58.129.58 (talk) 12:34, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Holy See (which at that point was of unclear status, having lost almost all its territory to Italy but not yet acknowledging this fact; see Prisoner in the Vatican) took no part in the first world war. The Vatican has not taken part in any wars since, and indeed has almost no military. Before the loss of the Papal States, the Papacy took part in lots of wars over more than a thousand years of history. Algebraist 13:08, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Vatican is not a country. It is a city-state. There is a big difference there when discussing foreign relations (such as going to war). As far as joining a war, a military is required. It is not reasonable to claim that a country with absolutely no military involved in a war has "joined" the war. The Vatican has a ceremonial unit of the Swiss guard. It is not for combat. It has a police force that is not used for combat. All true military defence is provided by Italy. Basically, if your intention is to claim that the Vatican is the only country never to go to war, you will have redefine "country". -- kainaw™ 13:15, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The article cited above by Algebraist is a good place to start; as noted between 1861 (when the modern nation of Italy was born) and the 1929 Lateran Treaty, the status of the Holy See was in question. Between those years, there really wasn't a Papal States as we come to understand it; the Roman Question was left unresolved however, for all intents and purposes there was no secular state between those years. Also, it should be noted that the "Vatican City" is really just a small complex of buildings in Rome. It covers just over 100 acres, or 44 hectares. By comparison, London's Hyde Park is 390 acres, and New York's Central Park is 843 acres. The entire population of Vatican City consists of ordained clergy who handle the daily administration of the Catolic Church. There are a handful of non-clergy employees: accountants and other minor clerks, a few police officers, and the ceremonial Swiss Guard, which while an official "armed force" really just wear goofy outfits and stand around. The Vatican has no military force, and could not actually be involved in any war in any meaningful way. If we answer the question literally; the territory of the Vatican during WWI was a de facto part of Italy (even though it was "officially" an unresolved issue), and so it "fought" on the side of the Allied Powers during WWI. However, if we consider that the Catholic Church did not officially endorse either side during WWI, and essentially The Vatican = The Catholic Church, then one could also claim that it was neutral during WWI. In any event, it isn't really an answerable question, because, as kainaw notes, the Vatican is not really a "country" in the classical sense... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 13:29, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Swiss Guard: "really just wear goofy outfits and stand around"? Then what are there "SIG P225 pistols and SIG SG 550 assault rifles" and head of state protection training for? Rmhermen (talk) 15:48, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
OK, fine, "really just wear goofy outfits, carry big guns, and stand around". As the Swiss Guard are all first active-duty military of the Swiss, they do have extensive military training, but they are really just an honor guard, and they are trained and prepared to defend the pope. But they aren't a "military force", and are not organized or prepared to undergo military operations of any sort! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 19:52, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Offensive operations, no. (They are not commandos, and there are not enough to do much) Defensive operations, sort of. (In an emergency, I think that they would be able to shed the "goofy" uniforms for bullet-proof vests etc. and put up a pretty effective last-ditch defense...those guys train a lot.) —Ed 17 (Talk / Contribs) 20:00, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, declarations of war is a fairly offensive act; no one declares war and then sits back and waits to be invaded. Yes, the Swiss Guard do have the training to handle themselves in a gunfight, and could probably be expected to defend the territory of the Vatican in an organized manner should it come to that. However, to consider them a military force on par with that of any other sovereign nation is stretching it a bit. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 20:15, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Offensive operations, no. (They are not commandos, and there are not enough to do much) Defensive operations, sort of. (In an emergency, I think that they would be able to shed the "goofy" uniforms for bullet-proof vests etc. and put up a pretty effective last-ditch defense...those guys train a lot.) —Ed 17 (Talk / Contribs) 20:00, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Standing around is what being a bodyguard is all about, most of the time. They are of course ready to defend the pope if it becomes necessary. Algebraist 15:53, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- They wear Goofy outfits? Like this [17] ? That's one dangerous group of men. Malcolm XIV (talk) 20:00, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Being a city-state with almost on military is no guarantee against declaring war. San Marino declared war on the UK in WWII. - Jmabel | Talk 17:50, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- San Marino, at 23.5 square miles, or 15,000 acres or 6000 hectares, making it 150 times the size in area of Vatican City. Its population of 30,800 is about 36 times the size of the Vatican's. Plus, since San Marino's military defense is, by treaty, handled by Italy, it's declaration of war on the UK was merely a formallity; Italy had declared war itself, and San Marino was powerless not to declare war. It really should be noted that the Vatican City really is a sui generis creation. There is no other "sovereign state" like it in the world. Even really tiny countries like San Marino or Liechtenstein, or true "city-states" like Singapore don't compare in any meaningful way. Remember, the entire "state" is a dozen or so buildings, a few gardens, and a big plaza tucked away on a hill in Rome. To attempt to fit it into the standard model of what a "country" is expected to do is simply silly. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 20:05, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The closest parallel to the Vatican's status I'm aware of is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Algebraist 03:23, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
The Vatican also has thousands of missals they might find useful if war broke out. Edison (talk) 19:59, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thousands of missals!!!! ROFLMAO.... That's fucking brilliant... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 20:08, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- And that fool Stalin only asked about the divisions. --- OtherDave (talk) 03:18, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Bengali Christians and Buddhists
Is there any Christians and Buddhist presence in West Bengal and Tripura like Bangladesh? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.204.75.30 (talk) 14:08, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to the 2001 census, Tripura at that point had a population 3.2% Christian and 3.1% Buddhist, while West Bengal was 0.6% Christian and 0.3% Buddhist. This compares with Bangladesh census data of 0.6% Buddhist and 0.3% Christian. Algebraist 14:18, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
there are factions of buddhists that they call them as "Baruah's" or "Mog's" and seem to have lineage towards bangladesh and are sparsely scattered accross assam and have a very little presence in states like delhi as well and their language sounds like an extract ob bangla itself.but with the recent influx from bangladesh the muslims have superceeeded them by leap and bounds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vikram79 (talk • contribs) 19:17, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Educational background of Sara Palin
I can not find information on Palin's education. Did she graduate high school, college or have and advanced degree? How did she rank in her class? If she went to college, what was her majors and minors? Can she use a computer, cell phone, fly an airplane, etc? What is her IQ? Dawgrg (talk) 17:04, 13 November 2008 (UTC) Rick
- → Sarah Palin#Early life and education. Grsz11 →Review! 17:07, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- She attended a number of colleges, each for a fairly short time, before finally graduating. No explanation has been printed for her moving from school to school. Edison (talk) 19:57, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Jim Jones Massacre
When all those people died, how were the remains handled? I cannot believe the mammoth job to organize and dispose of the bodies somehow. I'm sure it took days to clear up. Does anyone have any information on this? --12.170.106.12 (talk) 19:43, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Our article on Jonestown does contain some information about what became of some of the bodies. About 70 were examined by a medical examiner, so one assumes these were removed to a morgue somewhere, and 7 were returned to the U.S. for a more formal autopsy. As far as the other 800+, it doesn't say, but they must have been disposed of somehow... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 19:49, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Looking for Fairytale or other stories..
I am looking for a fairy tale or any other story (don't remember) in which there is some mystical world/land in which only comes to life whenever the main character shows up and then freezes or ceases to exist once the main character leaves.... thanks in advance.--12.170.106.12 (talk) 20:18, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
Thats a tough one, but I think the dragon in Puff,_the_Magic_Dragon kinda counts.
A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, jackie paper came no more
And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, puff could not be brave,
So puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!
--Jabberwalkee (talk) 01:48, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Joe Biden endorses...
Before he became the pick for VP, did Biden endorse Obama only, or did he first endorse Clinton, and then later changed his endorsement to Obama? Also, if he only endorsed Obama, did he do this before or after Clinton lost? ScienceApe (talk) 21:06, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- May 27 2008 [18] said: "Biden, who has not endorsed a candidate after dropping his own bid earlier this year." Clinton conceded on June 7 [19] so I guess Biden made no endorsement before that. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:27, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- June 7 2008 [20] said: "Biden, who has not endorsed a candidate after dropping his own bid earlier this year." Clinton conceded on May 27 [21] so Biden made no endorsement of her. would have made more sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 03:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Um except the reference which said Biden had endorsed no one was from the May 27th. Clinton conceded on June 7th. (Per the references.) We obviously don't no for sure that Biden didn't make an endorsement between May 26th and June 7th but given Clinton's campaign was already considered dead by all and sundry then, it seems rather unlikely. Obviously this is just a guess, hence PM said so and perhaps you can find a reference after June 7th but since this was what PM had and given the details, it seems unnecessary Nil Einne (talk) 11:01, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
(Newspaper) layout: why this?
This is probably a trivial question, but still one I couldn't find an easy answer to. Why are newspapers layed out the way they are, with columns tastefully arranged on the page? Why not just have everything top-to-bottom, left-to-right, sorted by descending importance, pictures on the sides? Wouldn't this actually be easier to read while still properly directing attention? In general, how much of layout is objective? Is there active research to what's easier to read and does this influence design, or is it mostly tradition and instinct and what people are used to?
Again, it sounds like there should be some beginner's book on something that explains this, but I wouldn't know where to start. Pointers are welcome. 82.95.254.249 (talk) 21:56, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The (somewhat trivial but correct) answer is that newspapers are arranged as they are because that is what appeals to the readers. If, for example, readers found that having articles ordered by importance was useful, then newspapers that were so arranged would garner a larger market share (on average) those that weren't and would eventually replace the non-arranged newspapers. Then we'd be asking why are all newspaper articles ordered by importance. Wikiant (talk) 22:05, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- It should be noted that, often (but not always) in the U.S., where there are two competing daily newspapers, the layout is often quite different between them, perhaps as a sort of branding. Consider the Boston Globe vs. the Boston Herald or the New York Times vs. New York Post vs. New York Daily News, or the Philadelphia Inquirer vs. the Philadelphia Daily News. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 22:19, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Historically, newspapers were laid out in columns because the manual method of selecting type and building up the article was easier with narrow with blocks. Headlines - using larger type - could be wider. The same thing applied when pre-cast type changed to hot metal type. It is only since the advent of computers that freely chosen layout has been possible. Also there have been many studies into how people read and it turns out that llong line lengths are less readable than medium length ones (you have to move your head or eyeball excessively) whilst very short ones also have a problem in that words don't comfortably fit and the flow gets broken up. -- SGBailey (talk) 23:56, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Another reason is marketing: if every front-page story starts at the top of the page and continues down past the halfway point, then when the paper is folded in half and stacked or placed in a vending machine, people will need to buy it if they want to finish reading the stories. --Carnildo (talk) 23:58, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Also, the way they're laid out allows multiple stories to appear on the prominent page-one-above-the-fold spot, so even if the the #1 story doesn't grab you, one of the lesser ones might. --Sean 00:57, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Also, they need to fit articles around advertising space, which is usually more of a priority than whatever news they pull of the wire. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:08, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- To answer your last question, tradition and expectations (not instinct) influence newspaper design (as well as other periodicals) in an extreme way. They do push the boundaries on occasion but generally it is a pretty conservative field. Part of what drives the tradition (and expectations) are the practicalities listed above. It is certainly not the case that people want to read wide pages of small text, which is what a newspaper would be if it were the way you described. It's incredibly hard to keep your place in such things—it's easy to get lost in the middle of a paragraph or to jump from the end of a line to the wrong beginning of a line. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:18, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Unless I've missed it, no-one above has mentioned another obvious advantage of columns, which is that it becomes difficult to read text that's in a block that's significantly wider than x-times the height of the font. In turn that's because it's more difficult for the eye to spot where the next line begins. You can check this out for yourself by printing a block of single-spaced prose on A4 paper. At 12-point or above, one column that is the width of the page is fine. But anything 9-point or below becomes far easier to read if you spread it over a few columns. AndyJones (talk) 13:48, 14 November 2008 (UTC) PS Sorry, I see SGBailey did actually touch on this. AndyJones (talk) 13:50, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Very interesting, AndyJones. I'd never quite realised that before, but I'll keep it in mind. It will, of course, depend on which typeface you use: Verdana 12 is a lot bigger than Times New Roman 12, which is why I almost always use Verdana 10 in my private writings. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Factors that Affect Air Fuel Price in India
Is the air fuel price increasing in India now? If so, are the insurgent separatist groups that operating in the Northeast(Assam), affecting the price of air fuel in India or is there not enough oil to supply the demands in India? Sonic99 (talk) 22:11, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to this recent article air fuel prices are falling in India, as one would expect, since air fuel is made from crude oil, whose price has been falling for several months. It is unlikely that insurgent groups in Assam would affect the price for air fuel, except perhaps locally within Assam. India's main refineries, which produce its jet fuel, are located along its coasts, far from Assam. Marco polo (talk) 02:33, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I heard that Assam provides like 30% of the crude oil in India. Since insurgent groups are attacking oil refinery, it would have an effect on the price of the jet fuel. India would have to pump more oil from other areas of India. Sonic99 (talk) 21:05, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Anthropocentric viewpoint and animals
I have three questions:
- why there are so limited number of political parties for animals?
- why these parties have so limited public support?
- I want to know the names of some persons who have philosophical works from non-anthropocentric viewpoint. The only person I know is Pentti Linkola who supported the Holocaust with the logic it helped to maintain the ecological balance by reducing overpopulation. Are there past or contemporary philosophers like him? I did not find any more name in wikipedia. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 22:16, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Please don't harangue the Reference Desk volunteers. The Reference Desk is not a soap box.--Wetman 22:22, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- What you are talking about? I was reading the article Pentti Linkola and found it to be interesting. His viewpoint is out of mainstream, and my question is if there are others like him. If you do not know anything on this topic, do not engage in this thread. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 22:35, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- I agree. Otolemur asked legitimate questions, he was not delivering a speech. Please be civil to other users Wetman. ScienceApe (talk) 00:19, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- What you are talking about? I was reading the article Pentti Linkola and found it to be interesting. His viewpoint is out of mainstream, and my question is if there are others like him. If you do not know anything on this topic, do not engage in this thread. Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 22:35, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- (a) There are a lot of charities and other organisations that work for the welfare of animals. Few are political parties. Most have some elemnt of political lobbying. (b) They have limited support because, generally, humans are more interested in things relating to humans, animals are secondary. Many political parties have a view on animal welfare, but they aren't animal welfare parties. (c) Can't help. -- SGBailey (talk) 23:51, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- When animal rights and philosophy appear in the same sentence, Peter Singer springs to mind. Algebraist 00:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Does Peter Singer's views strike you as non-anthropocentric?--droptone (talk) 00:19, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- You might be interested in the article on specieism. 38.112.225.84 (talk) 01:18, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Perhaps the answer to the first two questions in the original post is this: there are still far too many human beings in need of help, and so parties and individuals prefer to put their scarce resources into more productive endeavors.DOR (HK) (talk) 07:27, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
The second question probably answers your first question. Politicians are in the business of getting elected, so anything not likely to increase those chances is unlikely to flourish. Lack of public support is probably caused by confusion, both in the sense of people not being sure they want to support something that can be a very nuanced topic and also in the sense that people are often unsure of their own opinions on it. There's a delicate balance of the objective, the ethical, and the subjective there that often leads to strange situations. If you ask a question like, "Do you think it's wrong to experiment on animals?" or "Do you think it's ethical to eat animals?" you'll get the usual yeses and noes, but also some shockingly strong responses both ways, which sound more like someone trying very hard to convince themselves their opinion is correct. I imagine that's a difficult topic to build a platform on; one step the wrong way and you're not simply out of line with what some people want, you're out of line on a topic where opinions carry a lot of emotional baggage. Much easier to pound the podium about abortion or gay marriage, which will also be emotionally charged but also more binary. Matt Deres (talk) 21:31, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
I remember a thing called the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Should turn up on a Google search. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.234.6.82 (talk) 08:57, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
UK Gold state coach
How are the paintings and the gold leaf on the state coach protected from the elements. For example if it was raining and the state coach was going to open parliament or something, what would stop the watercolors from being damaged? --Thanks, Hadseys 22:58, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The Queen usually uses the Irish State Coach for the opening of Parliament. The Gold State Coach has only been used three times during her reign: for the Coronation, and during the Silver and Golden Jubilees. I would assume that the paintings on the side (which are not watercolours) are varnished. Malcolm XIV (talk) 23:40, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- The putty on the windows at Chatsworth House is covered in gold leaf because it protects better than paint. Kittybrewster ☎ 17:39, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Did whites participate in the Biafra war?
I wonder if any white soldiers/fighters participated in the Biafra war? Perez del Toro (talk) 23:54, 13 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yes. Our article Biafra War mentions that foreign mercenaries were involved, including Count Carl Gustaf von Rosen. Algebraist 00:18, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
November 14
US State Legislature Control
I was looking for updated information on which parties control which legislatures. Most of the information on Wikipedia does not seem to have been updated since the election, and it's been difficult to find a concise summary of the results on Google. Maybe I'm missing an obvious source, but any help would be appreciated. NoIdeaNick (talk) 00:23, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Did you try the National Council of State Legislatures? -- Mwalcoff (talk) 00:26, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks a ton, that's exactly what I was looking for. 24.136.14.105 (talk) 05:16, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
famous schools for the gifted
first of all, we don't seem to have an article school for the gifted. secondly, are there any famous ones, with like famous alumni. did any really famous people in the world originally go to a school for the gifted. thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 03:02, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- See Talented and Gifted, a disambiguation page that will likely lead you to where you want to go! --Jayron32.talk.contribs 03:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- The fact that you had to tell me how to get to the article seriously reminds me of http://www.uttyler.edu/faculty/amendoza/Pictures%20and%20Stuff/Far%20Side--gifted%20school.jpg —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 03:11, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
what's the wrongest anyone's been?
What's the wrongest anyone's been. I don't mean like understandings that are so off they're "not even wrong". Instead I mean, like Columbus thinking he was in India. That type of wrong. I'm thinking of candidate answers that killed 3,000,000 people. Any takers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 03:33, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Like a single person, or perhaps an entire societal attitude? Cuz leeching and blood letting were accepted medical practices for hundreds of years, and likely killed more people than the disseases they were supposed to cure. Famously, George Washington died after an intesive combination treatment that involved leeching, bloodletting, and highly toxic levels of mercury treatment. There is some speculation that poor people in the 18th century may have had longer lifespans because they could not afford such "medical treatments." --Jayron32.talk.contribs 03:43, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- World War I was supposed to be "over by Christmas", they were pretty wrong about that. Adam Bishop (talk) 03:54, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Did anyone predict that Tommy Atkins would play football with the Hun by Christmas? —Tamfang (talk) 09:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- List of incidents famously considered great blunders may be of interest. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:13, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- What a great article. It gives "further reading" references to some books on this very subject, too, such as Wrong! The Biggest Mistakes Ever Made by People Who Should Have Known Better. --Masamage ♫ 08:55, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- It is indeed a great article, but don't tell the deletionists, or they'll be onto it in a flash. One of my favourites, not listed there, is the affair of the Hitler Diaries. --Richardrj talk email 09:02, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- What a great article. It gives "further reading" references to some books on this very subject, too, such as Wrong! The Biggest Mistakes Ever Made by People Who Should Have Known Better. --Masamage ♫ 08:55, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Last words of General John Sedgwick at the Battle of Spotsylvania (1864): "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." Antandrus (talk) 05:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Likewise, Terry Kath, original guitarist for the famed band Chicago, noted to his friends "Don't worry, it's not loaded". He pointed the supposed empty gun at his own head and, well, he was wrong... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:25, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Some general, I've forgotten sent his supply train across a big river where the enemy was, so that they enjoyed all his supplies. A military plan devoid of any hint of correctness. Edison (talk) 06:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- More recently, George W Bush being so sure Iraq was involved in 9/11 he was prepared to order an invasion, leading to a pointless and almost unwinnable war that has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and seriously damaged the USA's reputation around the world. Astronaut (talk) 08:48, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I wouldn't necessarily say that the reasons for the Gulf War arose out of a mistake. Bush wasn't the sharpest knife in the box, sure, but he was surrounded by advisers and there are plenty other geopolitical reasons for the war. --Richardrj talk email 08:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Embarassing declarations include the British Prime Minister in 1930's, Neville Chamberlain who irrepressibly waved a peace agreement signed by himself and Herr Hitler containing the resolution to commit to peaceful methods, calling the moment "peace in our time". And the salesperson who told me a few (hundred?) megabytes were all the memory my first computer (and I) would ever need! (though that doesn't involve a squillion deaths, the computer didn't live long). Julia Rossi (talk) 09:57, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Its worse than that MS-DOS, the original precursor for Windows, had a real limit of 640 KB of memory access (that's 640 KILO bytes). The reason supposedly was that Bill Gates believed, quote "Nobody will ever need more than 640KB RAM" see: [22]. The quote is possibly apocyphal, but the 640 KB ceiling was real. It was so rediculous, that for generations of MS-DOS and early versions of Windows based off of it (like Windows 3.1) developers had to work some pretty silly kludges into the software to access any memory over 640 KB. Meanwhile, Mac-OS and Unix were happily accessing any amount of memory you had on your machine.
Its probably the earliest example of how MicroSoft could create an inferior product with rediculous limitations, and yet through sheer force of market dominance, force it down our throats. The company has been doing things like that now non-stop for 20 years. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 11:11, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- </soapbox> --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Its worse than that MS-DOS, the original precursor for Windows, had a real limit of 640 KB of memory access (that's 640 KILO bytes). The reason supposedly was that Bill Gates believed, quote "Nobody will ever need more than 640KB RAM" see: [22]. The quote is possibly apocyphal, but the 640 KB ceiling was real. It was so rediculous, that for generations of MS-DOS and early versions of Windows based off of it (like Windows 3.1) developers had to work some pretty silly kludges into the software to access any memory over 640 KB. Meanwhile, Mac-OS and Unix were happily accessing any amount of memory you had on your machine.
Its probably the earliest example of how MicroSoft could create an inferior product with rediculous limitations, and yet through sheer force of market dominance, force it down our throats. The company has been doing things like that now non-stop for 20 years. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 11:11, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Embarassing declarations include the British Prime Minister in 1930's, Neville Chamberlain who irrepressibly waved a peace agreement signed by himself and Herr Hitler containing the resolution to commit to peaceful methods, calling the moment "peace in our time". And the salesperson who told me a few (hundred?) megabytes were all the memory my first computer (and I) would ever need! (though that doesn't involve a squillion deaths, the computer didn't live long). Julia Rossi (talk) 09:57, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I wouldn't necessarily say that the reasons for the Gulf War arose out of a mistake. Bush wasn't the sharpest knife in the box, sure, but he was surrounded by advisers and there are plenty other geopolitical reasons for the war. --Richardrj talk email 08:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Actually, the 640k thing was somewhat reasonable within the parameters of the original Intel 8088/8086 chip hardware architecture -- the chip had 20-bit memory addresses, which only allowed for 1 megabyte of directly-adddressed memory. Of the sixteen 64kbyte "segments" in this 1 megabyte range, the IBM-PC architecture reserved two segments for ROM-BIOS, two segments for device BIOS, and two segments for memory-mapped video, leaving ten segments (640k) for main memory. The problems started when PC operating systems continued to be based predominantly on a "real-mode" 8088/8086-compatible architecture for over ten years after the introduction of the IBM PC (despite often running on 80286 and 80386 chips), so that programs ran up against the inherent limits of the 8088/8086 architecture. Reserving fewer segments within the 8088/8086's 1 megabyte for BIOS and video memory (i.e. establishing a 704k limit or 768k limit or 832k limit in place of the 640k limit) would have delayed the day of reckoning only rather briefly.
- The real problem was that the Intel 8086 could have rather easily supported 24-bit addressing, which would have allowed a 16-megabyte addressing space. This decision to have a 4-bit shift between memory "offset" and "segment" on the 8086 (and so 16-byte memory "paragraphs") instead of an 8-bit shift between memory "offset" and "segment" on the 8086 (and so 256-byte memory "paragraphs") was apparently made by relatively low-level people at Intel ca. 1977 for immediate narrow technical reasons, but has had very major consequences for the history of microcomputers (see http://groups.google.com/group/alt.folklore.computers/browse_thread/thread/11741a79f76a671a etc.) -- it's very dubious whether there would be a Microsoft operating system oligopoly today, if the 8086 had had 24-bit memory addressing instead of 20-bit... AnonMoos (talk) 12:45, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Confession time here: in my first job I had to write a report comparing the then newly-released 8086 and the Zilog Z8000 microprocessors. My report contained the immortal words "I can't think of a reason why any microprocessor would need more than one megabyte of RAM". DJ Clayworth (talk) 22:28, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Most of humanity today and throughout history has believed and acted upon a belief in a god or gods.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:24, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- And they'd all be wrong, would they? I'm interested to know how you can be so sure. --Richardrj talk email 13:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- That discussion cannot take place here (and such discussions rarely bear fruit) but if you really want to know, we should do so by email. Even your or my talk page would be a poor place if this was going to be discussed in any detail.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:35, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- And they'd all be wrong, would they? I'm interested to know how you can be so sure. --Richardrj talk email 13:20, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Most of humanity today and throughout history has believed and acted upon a belief in a god or gods.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:24, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thomas Midgley, Jr. probably indirectly killed more people in the last 90 years than many others in history. Nanonic (talk) 13:52, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- This was not the "wrongest" anyone has ever been, but it makes the list somewhere and it was fun to watch: The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault. cheers and happy weekend to all, 10draftsdeep (talk) 15:34, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- He also saved an impressive number of lives: CFC-based refrigerants were much safer than the ammonia-based refrigerants they replaced. --Carnildo (talk) 23:13, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- We must include the blunders of Mao Zedong, who, between the The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, killed tens of millions of his own people. During the "Leap", he encouraged farmers to abandon farming and build backyard steel mills. This resulted in starvation due to a lack of food, and useless, low quality steel being produced by melting down existing high quality steel products like plows. Then, during the CR, he encouraged mobs to execute anyone with an education, thus draining the nation of a generation of potential scientists and teachers who could have improved China's economy, status, and power. Only after Mao died and a new generation could be educated could China climb out of poverty. Stalin also killed tens of millions, but most were intentional, the result of genocide committed by starving ethnic groups he considered to be of questionable loyalty. StuRat (talk) 17:12, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, I agree. In the history of enormous, colossal, catastrophic blunders, very few things can measure up to good ol' Chairman Mao's absolutely idiotic Great Leap Forward. I've been racking my brains, and while I can think of a number of other mistakes that have changed the course of history forever (Pompey's decision to force Ceasar to stand trial, thus bringing the Roman Republic to an end, for instance), but nothing has the quite the combination of being A) preventable, B) predictable, C) mindnumbingly stupid and D) unimagniably catastrophic like the Great Leap Forward. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 15:03, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Adolf Hitler's decisions in 1941 to expand World War II have to rank highly. First he went to war against his former ally, the USSR, even though he had not, as he originally intended, defeated Britain first. Then after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he decided to get in on this as well by declaring war against the US, while still at war against both Britain and the USSR. The three opponents together did a far more effective job of finishing off his regime than any one of them might eventually have managed to do alone.
Also in World War II, consider the US decision to develop nuclear weapons. It made sense from the perspective available at the time -- there was no question that if Hitler got them first, the war was lost. But in retrospect we know that there is no way Hitler was ever going to get them, and the US was the only country that could have afforded so much money in wartime for a project that might come to nothing. We can't know how history would have unfolded if they had not decided to try it, but there seems at least a chance that nobody else would ever have been willing to. Now, the number of people killed by nuclear attacks has not yet reached into the millions, but there are still a helluvalot of those things out there waiting to go off. --Anonymous, 05:15 UTC, November 14, 2008.
- It's hard to tell if the US nuclear weapons program was a blunder or not. Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union were all working on them, and although nobody would have had weapons in time for WWII, the Soviet Union would probably have produced their own weapons in the mid-1950s. With only one side having nuclear weapons, the most likely outcome would be Soviet domination of Eurasia, with a strong possibility of a large-scale nuclear war at some point. --Carnildo (talk) 23:24, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Mother of all battles. Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 23:36, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I assume you mean that invading Kuwait was an error for Saddam, as it led to both Gulf Wars and his eventual trial and execution. The first Gulf War seemed successful for those nations which opposed Iraq, in that they evicted Iraq from Kuwait and weakened Iraq's military, with minimal casualties on their side.StuRat (talk) 04:20, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the computer memory infills because I couldn't find it in the pedia and it's interesting to see how people such as the salesman simply carried/y on imparting the authoritah of hearsay. Does misleading millions of people count? Re Great Leaps Forward, there's also Robert Mugabe (allegedly) and others who claim progress at the expense of millions of lives. Julia Rossi (talk) 08:46, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Capital Adequacy Ratio
Am searching for the differences of Bank of International Settlement (BIS) ratio/Capital Adequacy Ratio(CAR)/Risk based capital (RBC) ratio. No clear answer to this question tru Google or en.wiki, anyone here can help me out? Tks. --Loihsin (talk) 08:35, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
the shifting sands of the census
I'd like to get the US census numbers that were used to determine representation in each cycle. I suspect that most listings of state populations in today's reference books do not reflect the 3/5 rule, nor the exclusion of "Indians not taxed" where that was applicable. Where should I look? —Tamfang (talk) 09:39, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Any source which has the separated-out demographic Census tabulations (not just a simple overall total population count) would enable you to perform your own calculations. Why not start at the official site http://www.census.gov/ ? AnonMoos (talk) 09:58, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Origin of the verb 'To stonewall'
Hello Wikipedia,
I've leart a new word today courtesy of an american friend -to stonewall, meaning to refuse to cooperate ("I stonewalled to buy some time"). I'm just wondering what the origins of this word are? Is it a reference to the stonewall riots adn the gays who refused to cooperate or walls made out of stone i.e. immovable objects)? Also, do we know when it first entered the language so perhaps we can deduce some sort of motivation (i.e. why not 'to brixton' or 'to brickwall'). Hope this all makes sense!
Thanks, 82.22.4.63 (talk) 12:47, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- This is a possibility:Stonewall Jackson, cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 13:57, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- It almost certainly is; the term derives from Jackson's tactics in one of the early battles of the American Civil War, if I recall correctly. the skomorokh 14:01, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- (after edit conflict)The Online Etymology Dictionary says "Metaphoric use of stone wall for "act of obstruction" is first attested 1876; stonewall (v.) "to obstruct" is from 1914" so we know it's not related to the 1969 riots. I have not located anything with a more specific etymology, and nothing pointing directly to Mr. Jackson; you might want to move this question to the Language Reference Desk. --LarryMac | Talk 14:05, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
(multiple ec) The evidence in the OED suggests that the word's use as a verb was originally cricket slang, "to block balls persistently, to play solely on the defensive," with the first citation being from 1889. It rather quickly came to be used to refer to a political tactic, "to obstruct business by lengthy speeches or otherwise" ("orig. Australian, now chiefly N. Amer.", says the OED, with a first citation from 1914). It's clearly a reference to behaving like a literal stone wall, with its capacity to block access or movement and to cause missiles to rebound. It's now used in the general sense of "to obstruct", of which I suppose obstructing by refusing to cooperate could be considered a specific form. Deor (talk) 14:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- (multiple edit conflicts) The Wiktionary entry on it (here) has a Wikipedia reference box to the Stonewall riots. However, I think the use of the term dates back much earlier, and the current use of the term dates back to the events of 1969. Of course, I could be wrong. --Sky Harbor (talk) 14:10, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- According to First Battle of Bull Run#Battle, footnote 19, Brig. General Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr. said "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall", giving Stonewall Jackson his nickname. So, the term was definitely in use from then on that to mean "a person providing an obstruction". The term may have been in use before that, as well. StuRat (talk)
Before the Civil War, "Stonewall" generally referred to a wall made of stone. During and afyter the war, it typically recalled Jackson. Sports figures named Jackson often used it as a nickname. The use of "stonewalling" as a description of withholding information from a legal inquiry achieved great prominence during the Watergate investigation of abuses by the Nixon administration in the early 1970's. Nixon himself was ultimately heard on tape telling his aides "to stonewall it." "Stonewall" became a "catchword" of the Watergate case [23]. Edison (talk) 18:28, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
A comment on "stonewalled to buy". I've never heard it used quite like that. Maybe "They wanted me to buy it, but I stonewalled", or "I resisted buying it", but not "I stonewalled to buy it". -- JackofOz (talk) 21:47, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Demographics of the Market Street/Civic Centre area of San Francisco
In this article about the distribution of votes for and against the recent California Proposition 8 (2008) in San Francisco, CA, the San Francisco Chronicle shows this map. The article's point (which didn't come as a surprise to me) is that support and opposition for this proposition was much more strongly correlated with race and religion than with the traditional (economic) divide of opinions. I understand why Chinatown and Visitacion Valley (which have high proportions of Asian Americans) are strongly in the yes camp, and in general one can say that the SE area (below 280) has a higher proportion of African, Asian, Hispanic, and Pacific-Islander Americans than do the other parts of the city. That leaves two anomalies. The first (the big block out west, at Lake Merced south of Sloat) seems largely to be the zoo and golf course, so I'm not concerned about that. What I don't understand, and what I'm hoping someone can explain, is the Precinct 6327 block (Civic Centre / Market / northern SoMa). From my (not terribly recent, not terribly detailed) visits to that neighbourhood it seemed to be an odd mixture of retail, highrise high-end residential, and yet homeless shelters, drug dealers, and porno stores. So what demographic characteristic does this precinct have (and what differentiates it from its much more "no" oriented neighbours)? Or is this, like the zoo precinct, just an artifact of a precinct that has very few voters? Thanks. 87.115.8.152 (talk) 16:07, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- The highrise high-end residential towers there are probably the bulk of the voters in that precinct: the Four Seasons, the Museum Tower, the Paramount. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 16:49, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I think that there are also less glamorous apartments at the Folsom Street end of the precinct that probably have a large Asian (especially Vietnamese) population. Though I agree that most of the actual registered voters probably live in the luxury condos. Marco polo (talk) 04:15, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Is it vandalism?
In which jurisdictions is it considered vandalism to destroy one’s own property in anger? Bwrs (talk) 04:14, 25 September 2008 (UTC) (Moved from Talk:Vandalism)
- Aside from being specific to a jurisdiction, it may also be specific to the type of property. If I set my house alight, even if I don't want or don't call the fire department, someone will, if for no other reason then to protect adjoining lands and property. Arson is arson almost everywhere. In fact, if my means of destruction of almost any personal property is fire, I'd better have a permit, or that will likely be illegal, too, though I don't know about a specific charge for vandalism. Blowing things up -even if owned by you- is generally frowned upon across the world.៛ Bielle (talk) 19:36, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- It may depend on how you do it. If you set it on fire or blow it up, the authorities would obviously have an interest. But if you dismantle it brick by brick, as long as you do it in a way that doesn't render it structurally unsound and in danger of collapsing and killing any occupants, that might be more acceptable. Not legal advice, just a private thought made public. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:43, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Another possible issue is that some kinds of property are protected by law. Here in Toronto the city has strict regulations about the destruction of large trees. Many places have protection for buildings designated as having historic status. And so on. --Anonymous, 02:40 UTC, November 15, 2008.
What is meant by Bhakthi yoga?
What is meant by Bhakthi yoga ?Definitions,general principles, philosophy&practice.Now a days what is the importance of yoga?“ —Preceding unsigned comment added by GEENA SAJITH (talk • contribs) 18:12, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- See Bhakti yoga and the other articles linked therein. Deor (talk) 19:11, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Reference - Nonverbal communication - psychology
Hi everyone, does anyone know of a psychological study where people would disregard any negative verbal information as long as the visual information was positive eg smiling? Any help would be much appreciated, many thanks! 82.47.58.246 (talk) 19:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Hindostan, BS
What does BS stand for? Kittybrewster ☎ 21:17, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- What's the context? I tried searching that term and didn't get many hits. Is it notation in a genealogical record? Laenir (talk) 21:45, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yes. It is in 1881 English census. Presumably British Something. Kittybrewster ☎ 22:34, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- British subject, perhaps? Algebraist 22:46, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Oh yes. Of course. Silly me. Thank you. Kittybrewster ☎ 22:57, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- British subject, perhaps? Algebraist 22:46, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yes. It is in 1881 English census. Presumably British Something. Kittybrewster ☎ 22:34, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Spiriting informants
What is a “spiriting informants”? I need for translate Counterintelligence Corps (United States Army) in it:Counter Intelligence Corps. Sorry for my bad english. Thanks.GJo (talk) 21:47, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- You're misunderstanding the sentence. The full text is 'One of CIC's operations in post-war Europe was the operation of a "rat-line" - a conduit for spiriting informants and defectors out of the Soviet Zones of Occupation to safety in South America, via Italy, with false identities paid for by CIC.' Here 'spiriting' is a verb and 'informants' is a noun. An informant is someone in eastern Europe passing secret information to the US, while to spirit, in full to spirit away, is 'to remove without anyone's noticing'. Algebraist 21:53, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Ok, thank you.GJo (talk) 21:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Drugs to fight boredom at work?
Are there any known drugs that increase how long an employee can work before their productivity drops off due to boredom, and that do not lower baseline productivity? NeonMerlin 22:00, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- The article Uppers is an eye-opener. Julia Rossi (talk) 08:52, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- A good night's sleep. Solid lunches. Some snacks, to keep your bloodsugar up. Also, Desktop Tower Defense. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 14:48, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Nicotine. Though someone has slapped a forest of fact tags onto the Psychoactive effects section. Time to ref-hunt..... Fribbler (talk) 14:59, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
ettiquette differences?
Wikipedia has some excellent "comparison of" tables (lists). Do we happen to have one comparing the etiquette rules of several countries? If not, could I find such a table elsewhere?
I am specifically interested in: United States / Britain / France / Italy / Germany / Russia and Japan. Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.126.76 (talk) 22:18, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- I can't find a table, but you could read individual articles and make your own comparions:
Grsz11 →Review! 00:01, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Killed or wounded in Action - information policy
I hope this fits in this category! A good friend of mine is married to a US Army soldier. She is german and he is on duty in Grafenwöhr/Germany. His second deployment to Iraq is imminent. My question: Are there official guidelines how his wife (who is living in Germany outside the base) will be informed if he gets wounded or even killed. By phone? Personally? Thanks in advance --84.56.86.54 (talk) 23:53, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- He probably has better access to that information than we do. My guess would be that they would do it in person, deaths are infrequent enough that it's perfectly practical to visit each widow(er) personally, so why wouldn't they? --Tango (talk) 00:42, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Sorry, but this is not a question I would or should ask somebody who is just before his deployment, that's why I ask here. The special thing about my matter is in addition, that she does not live in the United States and is no US citizen. I agree, that she probably will be visited by military officials, but is this really the moment when she gets the message or is she informed before otherwise. Eventually the army is not informed about her whereabouts all the time. Maybe there is somebody in military duty who knows about this issue or how the army normaly proceeds. Nevertheless thanks for your fast answer Tango, greetings from Germany, --84.56.86.54 (talk) 01:18, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- You probably shouldn't ask him, but I would expect him and his wife to have discussed the matter. There's a good chance someone her will know the procedure, let's wait and see! --129.234.157.91 (talk) 14:10, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Sorry, but this is not a question I would or should ask somebody who is just before his deployment, that's why I ask here. The special thing about my matter is in addition, that she does not live in the United States and is no US citizen. I agree, that she probably will be visited by military officials, but is this really the moment when she gets the message or is she informed before otherwise. Eventually the army is not informed about her whereabouts all the time. Maybe there is somebody in military duty who knows about this issue or how the army normaly proceeds. Nevertheless thanks for your fast answer Tango, greetings from Germany, --84.56.86.54 (talk) 01:18, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- This link gives some details:
The current Army’s Casualty Notification Process for Notifying the Families of Deceased and Wounded Soldiers
The Army’s policy is to notify all Family members listed by the Soldier on the Department of the Defense Form 93, Record of Emergency Data, in a professional and respectful manner. Notification is conducted in-person, by a two-Soldier team in Class A uniform, between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. local, unless special circumstances arise.
The Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operations Center in Alexandria, Virginia, directs and oversees Army casualty notifications. One of the Casualty Assistance Centers (CAC), located at 27 geographically-dispersed United States and 6 overseas sites, will be directed to execute the casualty notification.
The goal is to notify the primary next of kin, who is the person most closely related to the Soldier, within 4 hours of the CAC receiving the initial casualty report. The primary next of kin is usually the spouse for married Soldiers and the parents for unmarried Soldiers. This procedure is directed by Army Regulation (AR 600-8-1). The only time this procedure would change is if we have exhausted all avenues to locate the primary next of kin. In such cases, we would seek alternatives (local authorities such as hospitals, police agencies, etc.) then, perhaps, neighbors. In cases where the spouse is the primary next of kin, we would complete these actions before contacting the Soldier’s parents.
The notification team consists of a notification officer and a Chaplain if available without unduly delaying the notification. The notification officer must be at least of the same rank as the casualty, and be at least a Sergeant First Class, or higher, for enlisted Soldiers; Chief Warrant Officer Two, or higher, for Warrant Officers; and Captain, or higher, for commissioned officers. If a Chaplain is unavailable, another Soldier in the grade of Staff Sergeant or higher, accompanies the notification officer.
After the primary next of kin is notified, the Army notifies the remaining next of kin listed on the DD Form 93 (Emergency Data Card). In the event the notification team cannot locate the primary next of kin, notification to the other Family members can proceed on a case-by-case basis.
- I googled "Template:Websearch" to find it. --Sean 17:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Thank you very much. Greetings --84.56.72.16 (talk) 18:04, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
November 15
Why did Western Europe take over the world?
For the record, I have read Guns, Germs and Steel and think that it does a decent job of explaining why the masters of Planet Earth were determined to come from somewhere on Eurasia. However, it falls short at explaining the takeover of Western Europe rather than, say, Arabia or China, both of which were much larger, organized, and advanced (culturally and scientifically) than any of the fledgling feudal European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. Both areas had basically all of the advantages to civilization described in Guns, Germs and Steel that Europe had, so why are Europeans and their descendents doing so much better than either modern Arabs or modern Chinese? Was it geographical factors, cultural differences, or are there distinct historical events that influenced this? 69.177.191.60 (talk) 01:05, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, Islam as a "unified force" that would take over the world was hampered largely by 2 factors, neither of which had much to do with Western Europe. First was that it was beset by political and doctrinal infighting; after a while various Islamic successors states to the Caliphate became more concerned with fighting each other than spreading the faith. Secondly, the Sack of Baghdad in 1258 by Mongol forces had a devestating effect on the Islamic empire; it was the equivalent of the loss of Rome to the Roman empire, and the Islamic world went into rapid political decline shortly thereafter. While Islam as a faith would continue to spread for a long time, Islam as a geo-political force was effectively done.
- China's sense of superiority was also probably the source of its own downfall. Rather than seeing its superior technology as an advantage to be pressed in conquering the world, it saw other, lesser, cultures as unworthy of themselves, and this led to a long period of isolationism and inward turning. Even when there was a strong, centralized, chinese state, it was MUCH more concerned with keeping ferners OUT than in conquering other lands. Plus, China for large patches of history was FAR from a unified state, like Islam, it was often reduced to a bunch of squabbling infighting fiefdoms, more concerned with infighting than with conquest.
- How do those reasons sound? --Jayron32.talk.contribs 02:04, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Another classic argument about the decline of the Islamic world (which I'm not sure I agree with) is that religious philosophies became increasingly anti-science, which stifled their status as a technical power. Wrad (talk) 02:22, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't think that geography can explain Western European predominance, except that Europe's fragmentation into islands, peninsulas, and watersheds divided by the Alps facilitated its political fragmentation. That fragmentation promoted a competition among European states that did not exist in the same way in China, where a single, central empire was idealized and existed for much of Chinese history. Even when China was fragmented, technology was seen as something rather grubby and beneath the interest of warriors and scholars. Science and technological advance occurred under the Umayyad and especially the Abbasid Caliphates, but they were not harnessed to extending the caliphate's power, perhaps because religious fervor and military prowess had been so successful at extending that power without technological enhancement. Also, Islam frowns upon the killing of Muslims by other Muslims, and this may have stymied military competition among the Islamic states that followed the devastation of the Mongol conquest. On the other hand, by the late Middle Ages, an intense rivalry had developed among the states of Western Europe. Furthermore, Western European rulers aligned themselves with the urban merchant class in a quest not only for military but also for economic predominance. This rivalry spurred Western European states and entrepreneurs to develop and adopt technologies that would give them an advantage over their rivals. It was this rivalry that spurred the development of the increasingly effective weaponry, shipbuilding technologies, and navigation skills, as well as accounting, bureaucratic, and managerial innovations that made European enterprise and civil administration more effective and efficient than its Asian counterparts. The rivalry of Spain and Portugal first with Genoa and Venice and then with each other led both to develop colonial and mercantile empires. The rivalry of the northern European states first with their Iberian counterparts and then with each other led to further technological and entrepreneurial advances, to further world conquest, and ultimately to the Industrial Revolution, which then gave Western Europe (and the United States) a vast advantage over other parts of the world. That advantage, however, has narrowed considerably over the past quarter century. Marco polo (talk) 03:51, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Another classic argument about the decline of the Islamic world (which I'm not sure I agree with) is that religious philosophies became increasingly anti-science, which stifled their status as a technical power. Wrad (talk) 02:22, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Keep in mind that Europe became dominant only recently. In the thousands of years of mankind, Europe became dominant around 1500, which is when colonization really started happening. So that's only 500 years, and already we are seeing the beginnings of that being changed. Before Europe became dominant, India, the Arab world, East Asia were the most sophisticated and advanced cultures in the world at different points of time. As for how Europe became dominant, it's because of a few reasons. One was the establishment of unified states that warred against other unified states. This constant struggle meant that each unified state tried to advance their technology and defeat the other unified state which was doing the same thing. As a result, all of Europe advanced tremendously. Europe did not invent the gun (China did), but their acquisition of it, and their utilization of it against other European states meant that all European states would start to field their own gunpowder weapons in full force. Unified states also meant that people could perform trades to earn money to buy food instead of hunting or foraging for food in order to survive. Since they didn't have to hunt for their own food, they could focus their attention on education, which in turn helped advance their civilization even further. These advances improved their power projection in the form of sea going vessels. They then traveled to far away lands and brought with them all of the advanced weapons and technology they acquired due to incessant fighting amongst each other. The Americas and Australia were relatively isolated from the Old World and did not have access to the advances in weapons and technology made there, like the gun. They also were not exposed to Old World diseases, so they were annihilated when Europeans made contact with them. European colonization was most successful in these lands because of it, and sure enough, we see the results of that still to this day. European diaspora make up the majority in these countries. Europeans colonized other lands in the Old World like India and parts of the African continent, but they were not nearly as successful because India and Africa populations were already exposed to Old World diseases, and in the case of India, was also advanced in technology, weapons, and social structure. ScienceApe (talk) 06:29, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- I don't have a long and complicated answer to these questions, but I've always been of the opinion that a big part of the reason why Western Europe and America dominates geopolitics today is the steam engine. Europe was the first to enter the Industrial Revolution, which massively increased production and GDP and thus came to dominate other cultures. Certainly, people might argue that Europe was important before that, and it was, but not necessarily much greater than, say, China. The Industrial Revolution sealed the deal, IMHO. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 14:44, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Is there such a place
As I saw in Miracle Landing, one of the passengers who boarded that fateful flight claimed he entertained at the Liki-Liki. Is there really a place called the Liki-Liki somewhere in Hawaii?72.229.139.171 (talk) 06:58, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- There seems to be a Drive in, but that is spelled Like Like. Apart from that it appears to be as real as Podunk. (The word means "tight" if you trust a dictionary. I suspect that one colloquial use describes a "red light district" establishment.)76.97.245.5 (talk) 09:53, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- These folks may disagree... --Jayron32.talk.contribs 17:36, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Why is there something rather than nothing? 122.161.173.212 (talk) 08:51, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Something defines itself against the nothing. Both are cousins of everything which, depending on your view, may include nothing or exclude it. But nothing is quite something, even having its own article. Julia Rossi (talk) 08:58, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Sticking to philosophy, while I didn't really understand that, answering all those tons of questions on the refdesk is surely giving you splendid karma, Julia 122.161.173.212 (talk) 09:02, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Whereas there is an artile about nothing there doesn't seem to any article about something (disambiguation) in the sense you seem to mean. So I have come to the conclusion that nothing exists whereas something doesn't. Dmcq (talk) 10:27, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Because if there is nothing (rather then something), then you would NOT be here asking these sorts of questions. The fact that you are here asking these questions, means that there must be something rather than nothing. 122.107.203.230 (talk) 13:57, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- As always, Google (with a little help), provides the answer. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 14:37, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
White Horses
Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speech in America. He mentioned " WHITE HORSES ". Please provide any references you have. Are the white horses part of Iranian mythology / religion, or perhaps ancient Hindu mythology / religion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snodgrass3 (talk • contribs) 14:58, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- It seems that followers of the Mahdi believe him (?) to arrive riding a white horse. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 16:05, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- The white horse has a long history, rich in mythology. BrainyBabe (talk) 17:53, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Arguments made against womens' and blacks' rights in U.S. History
I am looking for newspaper articles or other things written before women and blacks had civil rights in the U.S.A. arguing that they should not be given those rights. I don't want paraphrased quotes or anything; I actually want to see things which were written in that time with (as detailed as possible) arguments against racial and sex equality. Are there any such documents available online? - 15:03, 15 November 2008 (UTC) User: Nightvid (unregistered)
- You could do worse than starting with the Cornerstone Speech. Also, the New York Times, in a magnificent move, has made all of its articles back to 1851 available online. Just go here and search for "suffrage" in June of 1919 or "civil rights" in the Sixties. This one has some choice words on why the women of Alabama should not suffer the dangers and humiliation of being permitted to vote. Then, as now, states' rights, are a frequent high ground for anti-equal-rights folks. --Sean 17:28, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- There must also be anthologies that collected these, after the battle was (mostly) won. Any historians or librarians around? BrainyBabe (talk) 17:55, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
State of nations
Um, this is quite some question, but I thought this would be the best place to ask it as it has the most knowledgeable people who could answer it or at least guide me in the right direction. (Also please note that in formulating this question, my intention is not to sound racist or culturally insensitive, but to explore, and possibly rule out, all scientific possibilities) The question is - why are the different countries of the world in such different stages of development - economically, socially and culturally? Is there any basic set of principles that can be used to explain why, for instance, Europe and North America are economically advanced, law abiding societies with a vibrant intellectual discourse? Why virtually all of Africa is mired in poverty and warfare and has nothing much to show by way of civilizational development? Why Indians, after expounding the deepest philosophical principles in ancient times that still leave us struggling for comprehension, suddenly decided to take it easy and whithered away in a morass of apathy? What factors do we ascribe these differences to - race, climate, pure luck? And how do we take into account the apparent paradoxes - like North and South korea which share a common history and culture but the contrast between them could not be more stark. Please note that I don't want the answer in terms of historical developments ("North Korea became communist - that's why") - but what laid the foundation for those historical events - what was in the temperament of the people that precipitated or allowed the historical events to take place. I am sorry this is a very long question, but I will be deeply indebted for any clues which may help me investigate this further. Any books or literature which deals with the subject shall also be appreciated. Best regards -- ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 16:55, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- Well, lots of people have written extensively on the subject, but I would recommend a book to get you started: Guns, Germs, and Steel is probably the most recent and best known book to tackle the subject, and is a great read. Many people would recommend it as an introduction to the topic. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 17:33, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
- I agree with the previous response. Much of what makes one country succeed and another fail boils down simply to geography. In the North and South Korea example, it's due to the difference between the strict Marxist communism of NK versus the capitalism in SK, but geography explains why Korea was split in two. The North is simply closer to China, which means the Chinese reinforcements were operating closer to their home bases and were thus able to stave off US/UN forces in the Korean War. Had Korea been attached to China at the southern end, I'm sure NK would be the successful capitalist nation and SK would be the miserable failure of a communist nation. For another example, the geographic location of the US provided relative protection from the destruction of WW2, thus leaving the US in a good position to sell goods around the world to countries which had their factories and infrastructure destroyed in WW2. StuRat (talk) 17:48, 15 November 2008 (UTC)
Languages
I've moved your question to the Languages reference desk, where many knowledgeable volunteers hang out. BrainyBabe (talk) 17:57, 15 November 2008 (UTC)