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April 3

Highest value of n in the expression "n^th Battle of x"

What is the highest value of n in the expression "n^th Battle of x" for a) the First World War, and b) any other war in which battles are conventionally numbered, and in both cases what are the values of x? I know that the Isonzo goes up to 12. Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 11:26, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Twelfth Battle of Isonzo may be the largest such number; doing a Wikipedia search for "thirteenth battle": [1] turns up basically nothing. --Jayron 32 12:34, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

They may have decided to skip that one because 13 brings bad luck. --Lambiam 15:45, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If they don't have to be real, Coruscant has a lot more than 12 battles. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 13:47, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Real for me please. DuncanHill (talk) 14:03, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's a Fourteenth Siege of Gibraltar (1779 to 1783), does that count? All fourteen sieges are listed in List of sieges of Gibraltar and Template:Sieges_of_Gibraltar and Category:Sieges of Gibraltar and each has their own article. – b_jonas 13:20, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh that's good, thank you. DuncanHill (talk) 14:03, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ruby Green Smith

Could someone with access to US genealogical sources please check and cite:

The name of the mother of Ruby Green Smith (wife of Dr. Alpheus W. Green)?
~~If the mother's surname was not Bell, why was RG Smith known as Ruby Green Bell?~~
The date of Smith' marriage to Albert William Smith (1856-1942)?
The years of birth of their children?
[adding] Who was her first husband ("Bell") and when?

Thank you. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:34, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing: Where've you got the Bell from?Neither of the sources used in the article for the sentence "Smith was born as Ruby Green Bell on January 6, 1878, in Indiana, the daughter of Dr. Alpheus W. Green and his wife" mention Bell. DuncanHill (talk) 12:16, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's why I'm questioning myself; she was named as Bell in her 1904 work, and referred to as such in the 1908 paper, as well as other sources (some of which also refer to her as "Ruby Green Bell Smith"). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:21, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Findagrave [2] shows both parents and indicates that her maiden name was Green. Her spouses surnames were Bell and Smith. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:22, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. This also suggests that two of her children were with her first husband. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:01, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[ec] In fact, on checking, I now see the 1908 paper says "Mrs. R. G. Bell (now Mrs. R. G. Smith)". Article duly amended. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:28, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The marriage years are given as 1897 and 1905, respectively. Further checking on that could be needed. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:03, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

She was earlier known as Mrs. Ruby G. Bell,^[3] so presumably her first husband had Bell as his surname. --Lambiam 13:19, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

While the Findagrave page inked above answers many of my questions, it's not considered citable on Wikipedia; we still need sources that are. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 12:33, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

At least it's something to go on. You might be able to get a trial subscription to Newspapers.com and look up some stuff. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:02, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Everyone has newspapers.com thru WP:Library.

"Smith-Bell Wedding". The Evening Mail. Stockton, CA. August 19, 1905. Wed. of this week at Stanford
"In Memoriam, Mrs. Alpheus W. Green". Tri-County Banner. Knightstown, IA. December 15, 1922. Marcella Jane Hayes
"Noted K.H.S. Grad's Death is Reported". Tri-County Banner. January 19, 1961. Howard Bell of California
Ruth Althea Smith Ludlum (Robert Phillips Ludlum)'27 Dorothy Smith Raynolds '21[4]
Ruth B. 1924 Stanford D. December 1975[5]
Dorothy D. June 20, 1938[6]

Attempting to link to those first three items yields the message "To view this link you need to be an eligible library user. Please login to continue." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:31, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

However, there is a publicly-viewable "clipping" of the first item: [7] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:38, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Pigsonthewing:, you've got access to those articles don't you, or need them mailed? Couldn't find a date for Bell wedding or year of birth for the daughters from any of the obits. fiveby(zero) 16:30, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

ambassador to Luxembourg

The list of ambassadors of the United States to Luxembourg says:

From 1923 until World War II the ambassador to Belgium also served as ambassador to Luxembourg.… After World War II, the United States returned to appointing the ambassador to Belgium concurrently as the ambassador to Luxembourg. Since 1956 the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg has been appointed separately…

However, that page's list of ambassadors to these countries does not match the list of ambassadors of the United States to Belgium.

(There are several discrepancies; I'll list just one: On the Luxembourg list, Perle Mesta is listed as ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, 1949–1953, but on the Belgium list we have Robert Daniel Murphy (1949–1952) and Myron Melvin Cowen (1952–1953).)

What's going on? Is one of the articles mistaken? Which one? Or am I misunderstanding something? 2A06:C701:4EFC:E700:AD66:9E54:3D1A:85DE (talk) 18:47, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The statement "Since 1956 ..." appears to be wrong. The article on Perle Mesta only has her as "United States Ambassador to Luxembourg", no mention of Belgium. The Luxemburgish article lb:Perle Mesta explicitely states that she was the "first ambassador to Luxembourg after WW2 because until 1949 the American embassy in Brussels took care of Luxembourg as well". Unfortunately, unlike the statement in list of ambassadors of the United States to Luxembourg, this comes without a source reference. I cannot check the reference given in the latter article as it's behind a pay wall, but somebody else might. --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:16, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The history website of the State Department has Mesta only as ambassador to Luxembourg.^[8] --Lambiam 19:54, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Edgefield Obelisk, Sheffield

By Hoar Stones Road, near Low Bradfield in Yorkshire, is an obelisk known as the Edgefield Obelisk. Pictured here, and this is its Historic England list entry. The story is that it was erected in 1832 in memory of a child who had drowned in the brook. Do we know anything more about it or the child? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 21:18, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to have had a triple function

As a memorial
As a barrier to prevent a repetition
As a secure means of access to the spring to those wishing to draw water, provided by the construction of an access hut with a door [9]. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C6:2417:3101:AD9A:B452:AEC:F991 (talk) 13:56, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

So far I've found nothing at all about it, apart from some tweets and Geograph entries, and reference to Redfern, Roger (2005). Portrait of Bradfield Dale. The Cottage Press. ISBN 0-9547605-2-2.. I can't find anything in the British Newspaper Archive, although there are numerous references to the land thereabouts being sold at various times. No mention of a drowned child in 1832 either, tho' one not far away was drownded in the flood of 1864. I've looked at old OS maps too, and although they shew a building there, there's nothing to say "monument" or "obelisk" or "pump house" or any indication of a spring or a brook. DuncanHill (talk) 14:09, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No knowledge, but you might be interested in Coal-tax posts, where an urban legend to that effect circulated but wasn't true. Blythwood (talk) 21:51, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Bradfield Dale#Farm buildings cites OCLC 431112573 also. fiveby(zero) 01:01, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 4

Could Japanese war crimes justify the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

No questions for opinions in the Reference Desks Cambalachero (talk) 17:29, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Could Japanese war crimes, such as the Nanking Massacre, the Bataan Death March, the Sook Ching, the Manila massacre, the Parit Sulong Massacre, the Shinyo Maru incident, the Kaimingjie germ weapon attack, Unit 731's human experimentation etc. justify the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? 95.144.204.68 (talk) 14:30, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The A-bombs were dropped in an effort to end the war, and it worked. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:31, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Even though the A-bombs were necessary in ending the war, could the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Empire of Japan really justify the deaths of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 95.144.204.68 (talk) 16:23, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Under what ethical system or moral code? If you believe in collective punishment, sure. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:44, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think the OP is missing the point… the decision to drop the bombs had nothing to do with punishing Japanese war crimes. The question is asking us to connect two things that are not connected. Blueboar (talk) 17:12, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Blueboar, I know that the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had nothing to do with punishment for Japanese war crimes but people mostly use the Attack on Pearl Harbour to justify the A-bombings instead of Japanese war crimes. After reading about the horrors of Unit 731 and the Nanking Massacre, some people may argue that Japan deserved worse. 95.144.204.68 (talk) 17:28, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The actual justification was that if the US hadn’t used them, they would have had to invade the main islands of Japan… and based upon the experience of the Battle of Okinawa it was thought that doing this would have taken years and resulted in HUGE amounts of death and destruction. The decision to drop the bomb was (and is) actually justified as a way of saving both American and Japanese lives. Blueboar (talk) 17:41, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Osaka Castle

There is the story about gold steal from this castle by Kajisuke (梶助) in 1740. Please, can you find more information using these Japanese sites: 1, 2, 3. Thank you very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.103.158 (talk) 18:12, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you enter a URL into https://translate.google.com you can translate a webpage from one language to another. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 13:56, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe, someone of you can translate it and edit those information in that wiki page? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.239.132.101 (talk) 16:12, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Ah I see. The Reference Desk is not the right place for a request like that. As explained on the help page, there are two things you can do if you want information added to a wikipedia article.

If you spot a problem with an article, you can fix it directly, by clicking on the "Edit" link at the top of that page. See "edit an article" for more information.
If you don't feel ready to fix the article yourself, post a message on the article's talk page. This will bring the matter to the attention of others who work on that article. There is a "Talk" link at the beginning of every article page.

The Reference Desk is only here to help you find sources if you want to edit the article yourself. But you already have your source. So you need to follow step two and post your request on the talk page of Osaka Castle instead of here. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:23, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This tells us that the chap in question's name was Kajisuke Nakama (中間梶助), and that he made off with 4,000 ryō, if that's any help. --Shirt58 (talk) 🦘 05:45, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 5

Slavery and colonial rule

Moved from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science

Normally we beleived all European countries were involved. But I think some East European countries never had slavery in Africa and colonial rule in America.

Is there any European country which never had any history of violent campaigns against natives of Africa, Americas, Australia, New Zealand.

English, French, Spanish were worst with Belgium.

Why Spanish ruled countries are third world like Cuba, Mexico unlike British areas like USA, Australia, Canada? Grace Ilunga (talk) 07:15, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You forgot the Germans who were rather beastly to the natives. Alansplodge (talk) 15:52, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

During the Spanish colonial period the natural resources of Cuba, Mexico, and other Spanish colonies were exploited for profit, through the cheap labour of enslaved or indigenous people. No surplus wealth was locally invested and these countries missed out entirely on the Industrial Revolution, which had run its course by the time they succeeded in gaining their independence, often after long wars. When independence arrived, the vast majorities of their populations were uneducated and illiterate. After that, the United States took over the role of Spain of extracting wealth from its sphere of influence; see Informal empire § United States. --Lambiam 10:19, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding Eastern Europe: Russia at first was not involved in the Americas because it was busy establishing a colonial empire across Siberia; though it did eventually run out of Asia and establish its own North American Colony. The Duchy of Courland (modern Latvia) established a colony in Tobago, see Curonian colonization of the Americas. I don't know that Poland-Lithuania ever directly got involved in colonizing the Americas. The Austrian Habsburgs had only a small colony in the Indian Ocean, see Austrian colonization of the Nicobar Islands. --Jayron 32 13:24, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I asked this in wrong place. I should have asked here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grace Ilunga (talk • contribs) 15:09, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Scandinavian countries and Baltic states? Plus I'm pretty sure Andorra and Liechtenstein kept their mitts clean. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:33, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Erm, Swedish overseas colonies and Danish overseas colonies (Norway was not independent until 1905, unless you count their colonisation of England). Alansplodge (talk) 15:46, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget San Marino and the Vatican City State. --Lambiam 07:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

And the Balkan states, except perhaps for the Ottoman conquest of Egypt and subsequent control of the Mediterranean shore of Northern Africa. --Lambiam 07:37, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Also Malta and Switzerland. --Lambiam 07:44, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Malta was a British colony until 1974, by which time acquiring colonies was not really a thing. Switzerland famously lacks a navy. Alansplodge (talk) 15:46, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you are talking about slavery in general then I doubt that there is a country in the world that is not guilty of buying, selling and trading slaves in its past. Likewise few countries have not at some point in their history attempted to subjugate their neighbours, except where an insurmountable barrier has prevented it. If you are ignoring non-African slaves and only concentrating on the Atlantic slave trade, then of necessity the maritime shippers must be coastal states with a significant merchant marine. Even in this restricted sense you need to consider the whole business of enslaving and the subsequent travel to the coast which again relied on those with the capability to perform these deeds. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 07:45, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you go back to the Middle Ages and beyond, most present-day countries did not exist as political entities. I don't think Iceland engaged in slavery in modern history, except as a victim of slave raids. --Lambiam 16:53, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'd have to research it to be certain, but IIRC Viking culture included slaves, so I would guess that they had slaves there at least at the time of settlement. If anyone can confirm of deny, please jump in. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 17:07, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, of course; see Chapter 20: "Slavery in Northern Europe (Scandinavia and Iceland) and the British Isles, 500–1420" in The Cambridge World History of Slavery, volume 2. The Norse settlers were predominantly men, while some 60 percent of the female population was Celtic, coming from Ireland or Scotland (see Demographics of Iceland § Settlement). It is widely accepted that not all came to Iceland of their own free will; undoubtedly many were sex slaves. But by the end of the 12th century, slavery on Iceland had ended, centuries before the modern era. --Lambiam 17:56, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

We're only disagreeing with "in the past" != "modern era". Iceland though is a poor example for another reason: it is one of the few old countries that has managed to maintain it's national identity, even with a period of foreign rule. The Althing claims to be one of (if not the) oldest parliaments in the world, though clearly from 1262–1800 it came under varying measures of Norwegian then Danish control. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 21:30, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Would you say that Malta has been guilty of buying, selling and trading slaves in its past? Ancient Carthage traded in slaves, and the Punic settlers of Malta used slaves as a matter of course, many of which undoubtedly were bought or sold. But is the Republic of Malta in a meaningful sense a descendant of the Malta from before the Second Punic War? To make statements about the past behaviour of countries meaningful, there needs to be some continuity of the countries as political entities, which is why I suggested limiting the period of consideration to modern history, the period following the Middle Ages. With that limitation, Iceland is a most excellent example. --Lambiam 07:13, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

For the question "Why Spanish ruled countries are third world like Cuba, Mexico unlike British areas like USA, Australia, Canada?", the mistake is in seeking answers in history. The reasons for a country to be successful or a failure are not things that happened centuries in the past, but about the way the country is managing things now (or perhaps "now and in the recent past"). No country has guaranteed prosperity nor is doomed to poverty because of its origins. For example, China was a country-sized slum under Mao, but since then they changed their policies and now they are a world superpower. In the other direction, Venezuela used to be the richest country in South America, and after so many years of Chavez' and Maduro's economic terraplanism they descended to be the poorest one in just a couple of decades. Cambalachero (talk) 19:53, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Some things that happened did not happen "centuries in the past". The stranglehold of the US on many Latin American countries lasted till well after WWII, less than a century ago. Cuba remained a virtual colony of the US until 1959. The military coup of 1991 in Haiti, overthrowing Haiti's first democratically elected president, would not have been possible without the tacit support of the US. In general, the US is happy to support brutal dictators, not only politically but also with military aid, as long as they guarantee American corporations the freedom to exploit their countries' natural resources and keep the profits. Also today, a disproportional part of the profits from Latin America flows to American companies. --Lambiam 23:46, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

As opposed to after 1959, when Cuba became a virtual colony of the Soviet Union. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:44, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The balance of the economic value of the relationship with the Soviet Union was much more favourable to the Cuban side. It is unlikely Castro, who favoured independence, would have entered into this relationship if the US policy of isolating Cuba had not forced him to accept Soviet economic and military aid. --Lambiam 15:32, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The imprisonment of the entire population of Cuba was just fine and dandy, right? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 17:25, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's the left-wing narrative. Most coups were part of larger conflicts between factions inside the country, with both the United States and the Soviet Union using them as part of proxy wars (or proxy conflicts). Left-wingers prefer to forget the Soviet side of things and the local contexts to ease the anti-imperialist narrative. Cambalachero (talk) 16:48, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's also the concept of "being born on third base and claiming you hit a home run". Starting with better conditions makes the effort necessary to advance to the next level much easier. Societies with an advantage have an easier time maintaining and expanding that advantage; especially when that advantage was gained and is in large part maintained at the expense of other societies. It does all well-and-good to spend centuries exploiting the resources and manpower of a part of the world, and then when it becomes less politically expedient to keep doing so saying "You're independent now. It's time to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and join the rest of us". "Now and in the recent past" ignores that now not all societies are on the same footing, and in the recent past they were not either, and in the recent past to the recent past they were not either, and so on and so on. Expecting any point in history for a society to just magically "skip ahead" in development level is silly. --Jayron 32 11:14, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Jayon32: Colonialism did cause huge problems in some cases -- for instance, there were only a single-digit number of Congolese with college degrees when Belgium declared the Democratic Republic of the Congo (later Zaire) independent, and of course this was only a little more than 50 years after the Congo Free State mass brutalities. It's also semi-notorious that India de-industrialized under British rule (went from a cloth exporter to a cloth importer). However, many Arab countries (except Algeria and Syria) had a comparatively somewhat brief and light experience of colonial rule, yet many of their rulers never seem to tire of incessantly blaming colonialism for every single problem in their countries, even 70 years after the colonialists left (though by now many others find this to have become rather tedious, including a few Arabs). AnonMoos (talk) 13:21, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

A difficult past is usually just a convenient excuse for populists to justify their failures. The past may have been hard indeed (if it's not exaggerated to make a point), but if you place things in order, abandon the notions of economic terraplanism and embrace instead the methods that actually work, then you can see a dramatic improvement of things in just a few years. AmonMoos has just mentioned India, who suffered much worse during their colonial times than the Spanish south american colonies... and yet, just compare the current wealth of each one. India is one of the highest-growing economies, and Argentina has inflation above the 100% (no typo there). And what causes it? Why does Argentina have such high inflation? Is it because it used to be a Spanish colony 2 centuries ago? Is it because there was a military dictatorship half a century ago? Is it because some wrong side prevailed in some historical conflict? Is it because someone else wants to see Argentina being poor and sent a biblical plague? No: it is because the state wastes many times the money it generates, prints money to compensate, and generates inflation as a result. If Argentina sees the errors in their ways, ceases to waste money in unprofitable nonsense, and gets a reasonable balance of finances, inflation will decrease. Cambalachero (talk) 15:15, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The specific example of Argentina presents different issues; if we're talking why one country has a specific economic problem, then yes, we can cherry pick examples of, for example, why Argentina largely fucked itself in recent decades out of it's own economy. Argentina is not particularly representative of all formerly colonial countries. Economically and historically it is more like the U.S. and Canada in terms of its colonial history than it is like, say, the Belgian Congo or Vietnam, for example. There's really two completely different historical timelines for what we call "colonialism", but they are really two different things. There's the "Exterminate the natives and move a bunch of Europeans" model of colonialism, and there's the "Bring a small number of well armed Europeans in, essentially enslave the natives to do the hard work of extracting raw materials from the ground, and then when it becomes inconvenient to do so any longer, abandon them to their own devices". Argentina's colonial history is much more of the former than the latter. People who had the economic resources and fucked themselves over is a different kind of history than people that never had them. Argentina is especially held as a historical paradox and an outlier; figuring out where Argentina went wrong tells us nothing about what happens in other historical examples. Until the first half of the twentieth century, they looked more like the U.S. or Canada in terms of their economy and society than did, say, the Belgian Congo at that time. So, your example is bullshit. Argentina is an example of a country "born on third base and decided to steal second". It's a terrible model for understanding the economic harm that colonialism did to most of the world because Argentina was never really that kind of colonialism. --Jayron 32 17:26, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Tax revenue in Argentina is about 11% of GDP, compared to 21% in the US. If they could increase the effective tax rates, there would be no fiscal deficit, but this is a political non-starter. --Lambiam 17:27, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Argentina is just one example. The point was that an economic problem like inflation has only economic causes and that those causes are grounded in the world of today and the recent past. If you have a financial deficit and make up for it by printing more money, the currency will decrease in value and there will be inflation. That would happen in countries that used to have benign colonial rules, countries that used to have brutal colonial rules, countries that are colonies right now, metropolis owning colonies, countries with no history of colonialism, and even the future base on Mars. Cambalachero (talk) 18:04, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Cambalachero -- India didn't become "one of the highest-growing economies" until the 1990s, and it still lags behind China in a number of aspects... AnonMoos (talk) 02:29, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, Argentina's GDP per capita is still three times higher than India's, and also higher than China's: List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita The latter two only have a larger total economy due to their much higher populations... Roentgenium111 (talk) 14:21, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've found an article about coups in Africa in the post-colonial era.^[1] One of the interesting points the article makes is that coups have been more common in Francophone than Anglophone countries.

My own hypothesis is that British colonial systems tended to establish fairly robust administrative and legal systems in their colonies, compared to weaker governance in French colonies (rule by administration versus rule by force). These colonial systems basically formed the foundation of post independence governance systems, thus influencing their (in)stability. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 08:41, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ "What is behind the spate of coups in West Africa?". New African Magazine. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2023.

Jackrabbit drives

Hello! I can't find any article on the jackrabbit drives in the United States, especially those during the Dust Bowl (1930s). Is there any existing article in Wikipedia concerning this? Ifteebd10 (talk) 10:25, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

No, but there could be a Jackrabbit drives article; "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anybody can edit" (including you!). There seems to be sufficient sources out there. 136.56.52.157 (talk) 10:41, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

By Wikipedia policies, the article title would more likely be singular (without the final -s). AnonMoos (talk) 02:29, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Like a beetle drive or a whist drive? DuncanHill (talk) 14:11, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, no. See:

"Jackrabbit Drives". Kansapedia. Kansas Historical Society. April 2015. --136.56.52.157 (talk) 18:01, 6 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Giant Baba and Rikidozan

Please, can you help me to translate from Japanese to English the six pages on this site about Giant Baba's childhood? Moreover, there are also more information about Rikidozan's family and early life that nobody had translate yet: 1, 2, 3. You can write all in my talk page. Thank you very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.239.132.101 (talk) 16:09, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Hirohito

After the war's ending, he was forced by the Americans to repude his divine nature as monarch and to form a Constitution. However, was he continued to consider himself a descendant of Amaterasu and then a divine monarch until his death? And what though all the defeated Japaneses about that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.118.15 (talk) 18:14, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The declaration in question is referred to as the Humanity Declaration, the Wikipedia article has some information on the Japanese reception of it. --Jayron 32 19:08, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

According to Hirohito "Hirohito was however persistent in the idea that the Emperor of Japan should be considered a descendant of the gods." I have no idea what the people thought, but since it is a Shinto belief, one might assume that followers of Shinto agreed. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 19:15, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 7

CIA's "approved for release"

For some reason The New York Times article on the CIA website has the "approved for release 2010/04/26" stamp. What's the point of it if the information was published in the publicly available NYT which by definition is not classified? Brandmeister^talk 16:55, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The document presumably needed some sort of indication that it had been internally reviewed. 136.56.52.157 (talk) 22:35, 7 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify the above answer, it seems likely this document was classified or at least considered something that might need to be classified by someone at the CIA. It therefore needed some sort of formal review before it could be released no matter that what it contains seems innocuous. I assume that this hard-copy was part of a set of other documents used for something and the annotations/underlining was probably performed by a CIA agent or some official.

Note that it's a common concern that the US government and especially the CIA and other security agencies have the tendency to overclassify material. Indeed the recent controversies overclassified documents being found in the private houses or offices of Trump, Biden and Pence resulted in much discussion of this. Since putting aside what they actually had and whatever wrongs they may have done to end up in that situation or in how they responded after, many informed commentators said they weren't surprised for the simple reason that a lot of material is classified where there is no reason for it to be. This also came up with the Clinton email server controversy and many other times.

See e.g. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]. As noted in these, even various politicians like Obama have acknowledged this and there is even an act Reducing Over-Classification Act intended to reduce it.

In this case the only annotations seem to be underlining certain parts so unless it's a secret code use by a spy to their handler, I'd agree it seems unworthy of classification. However I can easily see some official or agent saying the the underlining was enough to merit classification which IMO would be an example of the overclassification problem.

Yet I can also easily see that in some cases a simple comment on a news article would mean even staunch opponents of overclassification wouldn't consider it an example of the problem e.g. 'Way too close to what actually happened, do we have a leak?'. (This may depend on whether there's a reason for what actually happened to be classified but hopefully you get the idea.) In other words, something being an annotated hard copy of a public news article doesn't mean there is nothing in there that may justify classification.

Nil Einne (talk) 02:44, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

They incarcerated it in article prison, but the parole board let it out early for good behavior. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:54, 7 April 2023 (UTC) [reply]

April 8

Rafael del Riego

In the last days of his imprisonment before the execution, he was repented for his constitutional crimes and become a catholic, even with a unuseful grace request to the king. That means he was become part of the absolutism at last minute? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.21.233.193 (talk) 09:30, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what you mean by absolutism? Do you perhaps mean absolution. Unless a priest absolved him, then I guess not, but it doesn't actually make any difference. Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:23, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The full letter who written for the king's clemence suggests that he had abandoned his constitutional's ideas and united himself to the absolutism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.15.70.154 (talk) 13:59, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It appears the OP is talking about Absolute monarchy i.e. "absolutism", not absolution. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:13, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It's clear that I'm talking "absolute monarchy".

It wasn't clear to me until I looked at the article and saw the context. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:55, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It can be doubted that he full-heartedly embraced absolutism. It appears more likely that Riego was desillusioned by the lack of popular support and had no appetite for becoming a martyr for an impopular cause. The King may also have had his doubts about the sincerity of this conversion. --Lambiam 16:49, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It seems likely that he was just trying to avoid execution, rather than a genuine change of heart, but I can't find anything to support that. This contemporaray and very partisan account suggests that his recantations were inventions of the authorities. Alansplodge (talk) 16:54, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I don't remember where, but I once read that he really abandoned all of his constitutional's ideas, becoming a catholic, and that his statement of clemency was true, even if the liberals tried to contest it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.205.47 (talk) 20:02, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Lot of good it did him. His final words should have been, "Hasta la vista, suckers!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:09, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Robespierre

Please, can you help me to find information about the full lives of Jean-Baptiste Poignard d'Enthieuloye and Louis-Pierre Hérivaux, the director and one of his teachers at Louis-le-Grand school? Thank you very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.21.233.193 (talk) 09:46, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Are you writing a historical novel? If not, is there a reason to think these people were of so much interest that their lives were documented in detail? --Lambiam 16:37, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

But can you search if there're some sites? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.136.55 (talk) 18:05, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Maisey, Maisey. Give me your answer do.

For the year 1851, Relics of Sariputta and Moggallana calls Frederick Charles Maisey a captain, Śāriputra#Relics claims he was a lieutenant, and Alexander Cunningham#Archaeology states he was a colonel. Now George Santos may claim he was the most decorated lieutenant-captain-colonel in history, but what was Maisey's real rank? Clarityfiend (talk) 11:19, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Our article Alexander Cunningham makes him be a colonel in 1837 and a lieutenant in 1851, which is stranger. Maisey became lieutenant-cornet or ensign per 9 December 1842 and climbed through the ranks, being promoted to

lieutenant per 8 September 1846;
captain per 10 November 1855;
major per 19 January 1858;
lieutenant-colonel per 25 June 1864;
colonel per 16 July 1869.^[19]

In 1888 he was promoted from lieutenant-general to general.^[20] --Lambiam 16:28, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Otto Thomas Solbrig

Spanish Wikipedia has an uncited claim that Argentinian biologist and botanist Otto Thomas Solbrig died on 7 April 2023. Can anyone confirm, with a source? Google News shows nothing. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:35, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"Murió Otto Solbrig...", has Como modo de reconocerlo y recordarlo, Fernando Vilella, docente de la Fauba que compartió varios momentos con él, compartió este texto que publicamos but main source is WP. fiveby(zero) 16:44, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The info was added by an IP in a drive-by edit. The absence of a reliable source confirming this independently make it extremely doubtful this is based on a fact. --Lambiam 16:58, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Either way..

I recall reading something in an article, something like "uncle? darwin thinks it took a lot longer, it is beautiful either way"

it was something someones mother said to them in the biography section. I thought it was john ruskin but that does not seem so. 81.214.106.156 (talk) 16:22, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Can you explain exactly what you are asking? Alansplodge (talk) 16:43, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I guess the question is, which article reported this (or something similar), and also who (presumably the mother of a niece or nephew of Darwin or else a niece of Darwin) said this, speaking to which child of hers? --Lambiam 17:09, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, forgive my incoherence. Lambiam has it correct. I tried looking through the darwin family, but my surface level search did not ring any bells 81.214.106.156 (talk) 17:11, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I also want to add that I put a ? after uncle because it may have been grandpa or something of that sort 81.214.106.156 (talk) 17:12, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

According to our article on Ralph Vaughan Williams it was his mother who said it: "The Bible says that God made the world in six days. Great Uncle Charles thinks it took longer: but we need not worry about it, for it is equally wonderful either way". Interestingly, our Darwin–Wedgwood family page shows that Darwin was RVW's great-uncle both by blood and by marriage. --Antiquary (talk) 17:23, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

thats it! Thank you 81.214.106.156 (talk) 18:11, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Contradictory information on military recruitment in "History of the United Kingdom during the First World War"

The "Recruitment and conscription" section of the article says

Higher recruitment rates were seen in England and Scotland, though in the case of the Welsh and Irish, political tensions tended to "put something of a blight upon enlistment".

But the "Regional conditions" section says

Kenneth Morgan argues that, "the overwhelming mass of the Welsh people cast aside their political and industrial divisions and threw themselves into the war with gusto." Intellectuals and ministers actively promoted the war spirit. With 280,000 men enrolled in the services (14% of the population), the proportionate effort in Wales outstripped both England and Scotland.

Both these statements are cited but they seem somewhat contradictory does anyone know if one of them isn't correct? Llewee (talk) 17:26, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Just at a glance: the first talks about recruitment. Typically this means voluntary enlistment and excludes conscription. The second says enrolled. Would this include all soldiers, including those conscripted? I don't know if this is the explanation, but it's something to start with. Conscription in the United Kingdom might lead you to more info. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 02:54, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Banknote's value

It's often stated that fiat money don't have intrinsic value, being essentially a piece of paper. But could it be argued that all banknotes (especially historic ones that are out of circulation) do have a value surpassing simple paper because of 1) multiple anti-counterfeiting features, such as distinct special paper, color-changing ink, raised printing, etc 2) consequent cost price which makes genuine banknotes more expensive to produce than, e.g. simple paper 3) artistic graphic value, similar to artworks? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 21:33, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Like most things, they're worth whatever somebody is willing to pay for them. There are collectors for such things, see: Notaphily. 136.56.52.157 (talk) 23:38, 8 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Most money is bank deposits, not physical notes and coins. See money supply. Just to pluck an example statistic: In 2010 the total money supply (M4) measure in the UK was £2.2 trillion while the actual notes and coins in circulation totalled only £47 billion, 2.1% of the actual money supply. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 02:57, 9 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 9

[1] "What is behind the spate of coups in West Africa?". New African Magazine. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2023.

[1]