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May 23

Is this bitcoin mining company using at least 1% of the electricity generated in China?

"Bitmain, a Chinese bitcoin miner and designer of chips, made $4bn last year" [1]

Bitmain's facility is in Dalad Banner, Inner Mongolia. They had a payroll of only 50 at that facility according to a NYT article in 2017. Considering the lack of overhead except for electricity and amount of profit, it's possible to imagine they consumed tens of billions of dollars of electricity in a year.

Was this one company using 1%+ of China's electricity last year?

Muzzleflash (talk) 13:01, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

You appear to be confusing a company that makes money selling hardware for bit`coin mining with a company that makes money mining bitcoins. Bitmain is both. You also appear to be confusing companies that do mining for themselves and companies that run mining pools. Bitmain does both, and "how much of the computing power is their hardware as opposed to others contributing their devices is unknown."[2] --Guy Macon (talk) 15:32, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

At the very least there is a huge facility in Inner Mongolia owned by Bitmain. And according to the Economist article most of Bitmain's earnings are from mining it does directly. This makes it possible to roughly assume the $4 billion profits figure is in the ballpark of what is earned by Bitmain from mining directly rather than selling hardware. Muzzleflash (talk) 22:43, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

The Economist has no way of knowing how much of the computing power is their hardware as opposed to others contributing their devices. Show me evidence of a power plant in Inner Mongolia capable of supplying 1%+ of China's electricity to one location and I will at least conclude that your theory is plausible. Right now you are making too many assumptions. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:24, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Maternity leaves

I have some questions regarding maternity leaves.

• Do maternity leaves start before the childbirth? Has there been a time where the mother predicts inaccurately the baby's due date and thus, the baby comes out earlier or later than expected so the mother either has to give birth while at work or has to waste a couple of days of maternity leave?
• Given that maternity leaves are about 3 months long, does that mean the new mother has to wean the child by the end of the 3 months?
• Can the new mother extend the unpaid maternity leave a bit by consuming earned vacation leaves, extending another 3 weeks using paid vacation time? Alternatively, if the mother wants to breastfeed her young for a whole year or two, then she may exit the workforce and become a stay-at-home mother?
• Suppose the mother wants to return to the workforce ASAP, because her husband doesn't make enough income to support the whole family. If she leaves the child at Grandpa and Grandma's house, then will the breastmilk stop producing during work hours? Or does the new mother have to keep track of time and make sure to wean the baby within 3 months?

SSS (talk) 21:09, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Please specify which country/jurisdiction you are asking about. The regulations and policies vary widely. Thanks! 70.67.222.124 (talk) 21:13, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

The first two questions do not seem to be concerned with legal regulations and policies. The third question seems to be a local policy question, so that can be omitted. The last question seems more related to biology, whether human females would stop lactating anytime they wish. SSS (talk) 22:03, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean. Maternity leave is strongly dependent on legal regulations and policies and local norms. In NZ paid parental leave is going to slowly increase to 26 weeks but the OECD average is 48 weeks. [3] Paid parental leave isn't quite the same thing as maternity leave since again, depending on location regulations, policies and norms, it may be possible for the father or some other caregiver to take some of that leave. But you mention 3 months which is clearly a short time in OECD terms considering that the former 18 weeks in NZ, which is longer than 3 months, was for good reasons considered short.

I suspect your source is referring to the US. It's often remarked that the situation in the US is quite limited especially for those in low-wage jobs [4] probably at least in part due to few legal requirements hence why Trump's proposal received some attention despite still being very limited [5].

With such a short period, it's reasonable that the mother may wish to take as much of it as they feel they can after the pregnancy rather than before. It's mentioned in my first source how the first 6 months are considered important by WHO guidelines implying that even with the future 26 weeks in NZ, there may still be a desire to minimise the time taken beforehand. And besides the parents wishes, again precisely when it can start will depend on local policies, regulations and norms.

As mentioned below, we're also talking about 'paid' leave here. Again unpaid leave may be an option but again how much of an option this is will depend on local policies, regulations and norms. Some jurisdictions may guarantee a period of unpaid leave. (I.E. It has to be offered on request with the job having to be held open probably with very limited exceptions.) Others may not, so it will depend on local norms and the specific employer. (Often large employers are better, but not always. To a point, a higher salary often also means better other conditions.) And there are all the additional complications like part time work, contract work and zero hour contracts.

You also mention paid vacation time. Again local regulations, policies and norms will influence how this interacts with any paid parental leave. Notably you mentioned 3 weeks but why? In NZ you're entitled to 4 weeks of annual leave in a simple situation [6] and as our article illustrates that's often the minimum (e.g. required in the EU) but some countries have 5 weeks or more. (5.6 weeks in the UK.)

Nil Einne (talk) 08:40, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

I would add that while not just a jurisdictional thing, age of weaning does tend to vary depending on several factors including local norms. Nil Einne (talk) 08:40, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

There's some more discussion of the situation in NZ here [7]. BTW I see you mentioned the mother returning to work because her husband (not sure why you assume she must have a husband) doesn't make enough. This makes me thinks you're only considering unpaid leave which isn't really the norm in a lot of the OECD further highlighting why your dismissal was wrong. For clarity, I'm not saying financial stress isn't possible since even in places with paid leave guarantees, it may not be the full salary or even close to it depending on the salary. E.g. in NZ the maximum is currently NZ$$538.55 a week before tax [8]. In the UK it's evidently even lower after 6 weeks £145.18 per week [9]. Still the aim of such schemes tend to be to reduce the chance that financial stress will force an early return and there may be topups from the employer again depending on local norms etc. Incidentally, while investigating the UK I made up this case [10] which gives some info on how things work in the UK including the guaranteed starting dates for leave for that scenario. I should also clarify that while sometimes the guaranteed leave may be shared in some fashion between parents, in other cases it may be a separate entitlement. Nil Einne (talk)

2. mother can express milk and put milk in the fridge

4. milk doesn't dry up when mother expresses milk
Sleigh (talk) 22:13, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

At the end of her maternity leave, the mother may have access to other forms of leave, such as long service leave, or leave without pay. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:39, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Regarding the milk issue, see breast pump. I have not met a mother who has not used one. It's fairly standard in the developed world for women to pump milk as needed; even when both my wife an I were at home, she would pump so there would be excess milk, so that I could handle night-time feedings and give her a rest for a bit. --Jayron32 11:43, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

I revise my question. Now, I just want to know whether or not women generally wean the infants at the end of the maternity leave (however long it takes, depending on local regulations). So, if the local regulation says 3 weeks, then the mothers have to wean at 3 weeks. If the local regulation says half a year, then the mother has to wean at half a year. But regardless of the local regulation, the mother has to wean the child off her milk when the maternity leave is up. Otherwise, wouldn't she produce milk during inconvenient work hours? SSS (talk) 17:59, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

" . . . wouldn't she produce milk during inconvenient work hours?" I myself (male) produce urine during work hours, but dealing with it is not a problem. SSS, You seem to have some peculiar notions about milk expression: it doesn't squirt out of its own accord according to a set timetable; it is mostly released when the nipple is stimulated by the suckling of a baby, or by the suction of an artifact such as a breast pump, which latter can be done in privacy if and as necessary. It is usually expressed involuntarily in any quantity only if neither of these methods are being used. Moreover, there is generally a transition period during which lactation tapers off; it doesn't normally stop abruptly (there is no effective and safe way of making this happen), because weaning an infant is itself a prolonged process of overlapping nutrition, not an instant change from milk to solid food. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.221.82.140 (talk) 18:50, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

As far as I know, there are no laws mandating breast feeding for any length of time. Some women are unable to breastfeed, or find it very difficult to do so, and start babies on infant formula shortly after birth. Regarding age when weaning occurs, this page has a huge amount of data on the subject. --Jayron32 18:05, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

You appear to be labouring under some misapprehensions which admittedly the current terminology does not help. The World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of an infant's life; to the best of my knowledge, this has always meant no other substance (water, formula milk, pablum, etc.) but I am not clear whether WHO means "only directly from the mother's breast". Some babies are fed by wet nurses (I worked on that article and yes, if you check the references, it is still - or once again - a thing). Some mothers exchange or sell their milk - not just to human milk banks but informally e.g. by eBay. And the word "wean" can mean different things to different people: are you using it to mean "cease lactating" or "cease bringing the baby to the breast"? It is certainly possible to feed an infant on nothing but the mother's milk, even if she is away at work. (See for example the US military's policy on breastfeeding as an active duty soldier.[11]) Jayron32 said above that all the mothers of his acquaintance use breast pumps; that is in my experience an American perspective[12]. The use of pumps is not widespread in many countries - here is some global industry data. US law, which grants its citizens the least maternity leave in the world, requires companies to provide lactation rooms for employees to pump, not places to which babies may be brought (as in other places and times). "Historian Jill Lepore argues that the "non-bathroom lactation room" and breast pumps generally are driven by corporate need for workers rather than mothers' wishes or babies' needs." You wrote "the mother has to wean the child off her milk when the maternity leave is up" - no, that's not the case. If the infant has begun to accept what are called "solid foods" (but are in reality mush), then a six- or nine- or twelve-month old can be breastfed morning and night (i.e. before and after the mother's work day) and eat "solids" and/or formula milk in between. The mother's milk production waxes and wanes in tandem with her infant's needs. It's like any other organ emptying and filling; think of stomachs and bladders. Adults plan around bodily functions and are not controlled by them. Breastfeeding isn't an all or nothing deal. Like a lot of human life, it's flexible. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 19:11, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

References

Sting credit card numbers - have they ever been tried?

I just got a call from the usual sort of scammer who has an apparently local number who tells me that they have an urgent message about my credit card account... I assume that if I stayed on the line, eventually I'd be presented with an opportunity to enter my credit card number, verification code, expiration date, etc., all in the name of "security". And then, ay caramba, a withdrawal might show up on the account! But I don't actually know because given I'm not going to give them a number there's no point to be made.

Still ... in theory, it should be possible to have a known invalid card number and data from some credit card company that, when all used together, causes them to give the appearance of a valid account, while they report that regrettably the credit limit is reached, server is temporarily down, some other excuse. While setting off an instant notification that the number is a scam and allowing the company to take some action. Of course, one could give a credit card number that fails the checksum scheme or otherwise doesn't exist, or is on some public list of sting numbers if it existed, but then scammers could look it up and know. Instead, it seems like an Irate Citizen would be best served by requesting his or her own special sting number from a company, then perhaps even submitting reports when they use it and with whom they shared it "just to confirm for security reasons".

Such a thing would seem in any given company's best interest ... but has it ever actually been implemented? Wnt (talk) 21:27, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

This was suggested five years ago in the FTC Robocall challenge.[13] You can do 90% of what you suggested with a prepaid credit card that has a couple of cents left on it.

Alas, it won't help. The way credit card theft works is that the crooks get a bunch of credit card nummers (and associated names, SS numbers, etc. if they can get them) then sell the entire set of stolen cards on the black market all at once. If they can, they sell the whole thing to a single customer. If the price isn't right, they sell sell them one at a time on the dark web. Once someone starts using the numbers, the clock starts as the credit card issuing banks begin investigating. Once they've identified where the breach occurred they figure out when the crooks started stealing the data, make a list of all potentially stolen cards, notify the customers, and disable the stolen cards. The stolen cards are now worthless. This all happens way faster than you can submit a report. --Guy Macon (talk) 22:53, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

Bollocks. Andy Dingley (talk) 22:18, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

• It might be better to have a government-operated sting operation that creates bogus customers using bogus names and real credit card numbers. When called by a scammer, provide the info and then do a real-time traceback when the scammer uses the number. Same for e-mail scammers. -Arch dude (talk) 23:24, 23 May 2018 (UTC)

On a much more basic level, I got a call about ten years ago which started "I'm from Cardholder Services--". Since I didn't have any cards at that point, I took great pleasure in interrupting the call right there, saying "I don't have any cards, so I know you're lying", and immediately slamming down the phone... -- AnonMoos (talk) 07:59, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Rachel from Cardmember Services (who calls me every few months) may be a crook, but she's not representing herself as acting for the issuer of your card: she's inviting you to switch your debts from that card to one with (for now) a lower rate. (I'm not sure about this, because when I press 9 to speak to a human they always hang up on me; I haven't any cards either.) —Tamfang (talk) 06:34, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

I have since searched for Rachel+services and read a webpage of the Federal Trade Commission that says "Rachel" seeks to charge you a fee to do what you could do yourself, like attempt to negotiate a lower rate with your present lender. It also says that many boiler rooms use the same "Rachel" recording. —Tamfang (talk) 21:35, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

It was a person on the other end of the line, not a robocall. I admittedly didn't listen to the pitch, but I was quite confident that they would want me to read out a card number over the phone (something that I basically never do -- except when calling airline company reservation sites many years ago -- and I didn't even have a card at that point). AnonMoos (talk) 17:43, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

May 24

Anti-fraud laws and magic

Do anti-fraud laws cover magic that only steals from society a tiny amount of inflation? They don't have to but if they aren't lawyery enough one could argue that putting a fake gold nugget into the Indian in the Cupboard cabinet and selling it wouldn't be fraud since it's real gold. Is it allowed to ask a genie to make you win a huge bet at a casino? Is it illegal to ask a genie for tomorrow's lottery numbers? Or just to win money with them? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 15:34, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

As per our article, magic is a performing art designed to entertain by staged tricks or illusions. And as per our other article, inflation is a sustained increase in price levels over a period of time. Did you have a serious question? DOR (HK) (talk) 16:52, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

If he does, it will be his first. --Jayron32 17:41, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Yes but when I see fiction I sometimes notice a character could've used their powers or magical object or wish quota to make gold, transmute to it or duplicate anything. And then wonder if the laws of this world are broadly worded enough to proscribe that (whether by wording any prohibition as broadly as possible out of habit or just accidentally having a certain word choice (i.e. the definitions section of a gold sale law says "gold is a mineral of the atomic number 79" and mineral had an official definition in that jurisdiction that says it's a natural resource that.. which accidentally explicitly excludes supernatural gold) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:07, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Being as how there's no such thing as supernatural gold (nor anything else), there's no need for real world laws to deal with it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:37, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

And inflation may not be the correct economic term for increasing the amount of gold in circulation (obviously only by mining/recovery or possibly nuclear physics in this universe) but doing that doesn't help the commodity's purchasing power/trading power, just like counterfeiting. Too many people counterfeiting could cause detectable inflation so couldn't it be argued that anyone who faked even 1 banknote caused some inflation? (however miniscule) "Gold inflation" i.e. isn't talked about much but the gold per human is growing very slowly since humans have mined for millennia and the low-hanging fruit is long gone. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:53, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Asteroid mining. The prices of some "guaranteed safe" commodities may fall like no one has ever imagined. The diamond cartel has been incredibly effective at keeping synthetic diamonds under control by hook and crook, mostly crook, but I don't think that real amounts of metal brought back by people who can get spaceships approved by regulators are going to fall to any similar means, especially since there's no gold cartel as organized and powerful as de Beers. Wnt (talk) 15:08, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

You may be confusing inflation (increasing the money supply more rapidly than the supply of stuff to buy with it) with debasement (diluting precious metals in coinage). When Spain imported silver and gold from the New World, the result was inflation, although the metals were real. —Tamfang (talk) 06:24, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Transmutation is possible by nuclear means. It used to be that transmutation to produce gold was something of a joke, since the only known way to do it was to start with platinum, but recently platinum has actually been cheaper than gold and so I can't rule out that someone somewhere is doing so. Which, if they can actually avoid leaving radioactive contaminants at least, should be entirely legal. Whether it is economically feasible is another question.

Precognition is also generally reckoned as legal - I have seen news stories about lottery winners who openly said that they had remembered the winning numbers, and they were not prosecuted. (Few countries actually appreciate the danger involved in such a phenomenon, and witch trials are rare outside of Africa, at least as far as anyone knows; and there they are just random mob persecutions anyway, as they've probably always been) Wnt (talk) 15:05, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Now you've got me casually wondering about a kid book I once read. Someone plants a $10 bill in the back yard and it sprouts into a money tree. The family(?) initially hesitates to spend the leaves, but they do seem to be real (complete with distinct serial numbers), so .... Eventually, though, someone is shocked by a TV news report about arrest of some counterfeiters, showing one of the fake bills, which has the same LEGAL TENDER language as those from the back yard – and (iirc) destroys the tree. —Tamfang (talk) 06:24, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Well, laws on counterfeiting are pretty expansive -- typically it is a crime even to pass on counterfeit bills, even if you yourself were the victim of some schmuck who spent it at your hot dog stand. By now the intellectual property freaks probably have things at least as expansive for their overpriced purses and crap. But gold is, well, gold. How can people feel confident in their fiscal reserves if they have to wonder about what poor slave mined it out under armed guard in the Congo? It is, well, fungible. Though occasionally it is radioactive gold and hilarity ensues. [14] Wnt (talk) 22:59, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

I’m not sure how this silly question got sidetracked onto the subject of mineral supply, but the amount of zinc, iron, gold, silver or $10 bills is not inflation. As per Inflation, it is a sustained increase in price levels over a period of time.DOR (HK) (talk) 08:43, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

What is a correct and not too long economic term that could take the place of inflation? The word inflation is wrong but you understand the analogy? One of the simplest things that can cause the sustained fall of money's purchasing power which is inflation is an increase in the supply of it. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:13, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

DOR_(HK) -- When a currency is based on a precious metal, and the supply of that metal suddenly increases due to a gold or silver rush, then that can absolutely cause inflation. We have an article on the "Price revolution" caused by Spanish importation of gold and silver in the 16th century. During the 19th century, when stable Western countries were usually on the gold standard, there was an overall long-term deflationary effect, briefly counteracted by various gold strikes... AnonMoos (talk) 17:27, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

See also Cross of Gold speech. Wnt (talk) 23:02, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Anglicizing New Testament names

Why are New Testament names Anglicized? Why is Yeshua translated as Jesus (in English and "Hay-seus" in Spanish)? Why are the names of Yeshua's Disciples Anglicized (except Judas, who was a "bad guy"). Finally, what would the correct (non-Anglicized) names of the Disciples be? 69.42.176.50 (talk) 17:23, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

The translation of names into other languages goes back to the writing of the bible itself, and carries on through every translation into every language. English is not special in this regard. The original New Testament was written mostly in Koine Greek, and the original authors used the name Ἰησοῦς Χριστός (transliterated Iesous Christos) and not the Aramaic words Jesus and is disciples would have spoken amongst themselves. Wikipedia has an article titled Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament if you want to get deep into the weeds on this one. The notion of preserving the original pronunciation and spelling of a name, rather than translating it, is a relatively new concept; certainly not much older than a hundred years, which is why English language texts about historical figures tend to use English names for them, while modern figures we tend to preserve their name; that's why the Dutch king is named Willem-Alexander, whereas his great-great-grandfather is known in English as William III. The reason why this was done with names in the New Testament is because this is what has always been done, by every language, in all of history, until very recently. --Jayron32 17:39, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Also, regarding the last question, on the original names of his disciples (by whom I presume you mean the 12 Apostles), the original Aramaic and/or Hebrew names (where known) are listed in the first line of every Wikipedia article on them, for example Simon Peter was called ܫܸܡܥܘܿܢ ܟܹ݁ܐܦ݂ܵܐ or Shemayon Keppa (Keppa is related to Cephas, which is also sometimes used in some parts of the New Testament alongside Petros) Just go to each Wikipedia article, and each will tell you the original names, both the Aramaic name and the Koine Greek name. --Jayron32 17:51, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Awesome! Thanks. I should have known the information was already here! 69.42.176.50 (talk) 19:06, 24 May 2018 (UTC)69.42.176.50 (talk) 19:07, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

You might know this but Old Testament names weren't immune, Elijah was Elias in some Bibles. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:07, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

And apparently Eliyahu in the transliteration of the original Hebrew. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:14, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Correct. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:31, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

To answer the first question, the names aren't Anglicized, they're Hellenized (because Greek seemed to the writers like the best medium for outreach), and Latinized a few centuries later, and subsequently used by people who were not interested in how Latin (let alone Greek or Aramaic) was pronounced back when. — What I find especially weird is that there apparently exist recent Bible translations (in e.g. Polynesian languages) in which the names used are based on English pronunciations adapted to local orthography. —Tamfang (talk) 06:13, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Why the worry just about the New Testament? The Old Testament has the same issues. Yitzchak->Isaac. Bilam->Balaam. Pinchas->Phineas. Yishaya->Isaiah. Iyov->Job. Avshalom->Absalom. Eisav->Esau. Yael->Jael. Kayin->Cain. Hevel->Abel. Achashverosh->Ahasuerus. Etc Etc. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 13:29, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

To what extent is marriage a public commitment?

When two people get married according to all the proper laws, how easy is it for members of the public to ascertain that they are in fact promising to make a life together? In other words, can a public figure (elected or just notorious) conceal a marriage, or the identity of their spouse? Let's start with UK, US, Canada, Australia. There is a British politician whose name escapes me; she tried to conceal her new wedding ring from a reporter, who asserted that he could just FOI it. Is that true? And there's self-proclaimed "dangerous faggot" Milo Yiannopoulos, who apparently got married to a man in Hawaii[15], but won't say who. Is that legally allowed? I thought the whole point was that marriage was a public commitment. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 23:44, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

Historically, even though the Church would accept a marriage as valid purely on the basis of "well at least the husband said so", they still wanted a big heads up for them and everyone else. This site (dealing with American law) says they're supposed to be public record, though some courts may ask who you are and why you need the info. Ian.thomson (talk) 00:09, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Marriages in America, as with births and deaths, are public records, but the extent to which other parties can inquire about them is a matter of the individual states' laws. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:34, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

We often hear of some celebrity "marrying in secret", presumably to avoid the media turning up in droves and spoiling the event. Well, maybe the media wasn't informed, and maybe most of the person's family and friends were not invited, but nobody ever truly marries "in secret". There are always at least 5 people involved: 2 witnesses, a celebrant, and the 2 people marrying. Then, as BB says, the records of the marriage are public. (True, if you have no information that Celebrity X has married, you'd hardly be searching public records to find out, unless you had a special reason.) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 03:34, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Follow-up: Maybe the phrase I need to query is "public record". If marriages are a matter of public record, then how does the public (i.e. the media) find out about them? I'm not interested in how they scoop the wedding ceremony for photos, but how at any point afterwards they ascertain that A really did marry B, and thus has X for a father-in-law and can hope for their children to inherit some of Z. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 15:56, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

The rules for public records vary from place to place. In some plases, it's on a need-to-know basis. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:02, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

In California, there are two ways to get married, Public and Confidential. A confidential marriage does not require any witnesses, and only the married couple can obtain copies of the license. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 15:28, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

This story about Milo Yiannopoulos is fairly legit [16] and our article doesn't have the name. One problem in this case is that Yiannopoulos was actually opposing equal marriage recently, so conceivably the ceremony could turn out not to be a standard wedding and he might say he simply doesn't believe in that or something. It is still surprising to me that nobody in the media has managed to run down who "John" is. Wnt (talk) 11:23, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Some theories turn up on Google, but nothing confirmed. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:26, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

May 25

Colin Wilson's Spiderworld

Can someone please tell the correct order of all the parts included in this series ? On net info is incomplete or incorrect at most places. Thanks  Jon Ascton  (talk) 08:06, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

You'll be lucky! I've tried to work this out before to tidy up an online catalogue of Colin Wilson's books. Part of the problem is that The Tower seems to refer to two different works, one of which contained the other. The Second International Colin Wilson Conference is coming up in July, on that page is an email address for Colin Stanley, who probably knows more about Wilson than anyone, and who wrote The Ultimate Colin Wilson Bibliography, 1956-2015, ISBN 9780956866356, you might try asking him. Good luck! DuncanHill (talk) 09:45, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

a Courts and Repingtons - Wiltshire MPs and soldiers

Our article Charles à Court Repington says he was born at Heytesbury, the genealogy linked from the article as a source (though it surely fails WP:RS), says Chesham St, London. It also says his father was a Conservative MP, the article on his father Charles A'Court says Liberal, and the article on the constituency Wilton (UK Parliament constituency) says Whig. The genealogy site says Conservative. Can anyone find any reliable sources to help sort this out please? DuncanHill (talk) 09:24, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Not much help, but have you seen A’COURT, Charles Ashe (1785-1861), of Heytesbury, Wilts. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher, 2009? Alansplodge (talk) 12:15, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Bear in mind that, historically, a registration of birth told you where the registration took place, or if in a church register, where the baptism took place. It does not, necessarily, tell you where the baby was actually born. Wymspen (talk) 16:27, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Adams's Parliamentary Hand-Book calls the father a Liberal Conservative. Does that mean everybody's right? --Antiquary (talk) 17:07, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

If the terms were in lower case, I would point participants to our article on liberal conservatism. But since they seem to be party names, hard to say.

Was there a Liberal Conservative Party at some point? Or could Adams mean that the subject was part of the liberal wing of the Conservative Party? Or could it be that it was from a time when parties were not so formalized? That happened in the early US, in the First Party System, I think — we assign people retrospectively to be American Whigs or Jeffersonian Republicans or Federalists or Anti-Federalists, but these were not necessarily definite corporations with exact names. --Trovatore (talk) 17:34, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Turns out we have an article on them after all. The Liberal Conservatives are another name for the Peelites, an anti-Corn Law faction of the Conservative Party who eventually broke away to join with the Whigs and Radicals in forming the Liberal Party. --Antiquary (talk) 20:03, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Of course, Wikipedia claims that the Liberal Party wasn't formed until 1859, 5 years after that book was published. DuncanHill (talk) 20:10, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what your point is here. Antiquary says the Liberal Conservatives eventually merged into the Liberal Party, so if Repington was so described, it seems quite natural that it would have been before the foundation of the Liberal Party. --Trovatore (talk) 21:07, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

If you've looked at the book linked you will see that it describes many of the Members as Liberal, while Wikipedia will call them Whigs or Radicals. DuncanHill (talk) 21:56, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

If I remember my history A-Level correctly, during the 1830s, the modern Liberals were formed from the Radicals and most of the Whigs, while some Whigs joined the Tories to make the Conservatives. Alansplodge (talk) 08:10, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

According to Wikipedia's page on the Liberal Party "the formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859", but "as early as 1839, Russell had adopted the name of 'Liberals'" for the faction he belonged to. In other words there was a grouping of Liberals, so self-described, before there was an organized party on modern lines. --Antiquary (talk) 08:59, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Last Judgment

wp:deny
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
When will it happen?--193.163.223.192 (talk) 20:43, 25 May 2018 (UTC) At the top of the page, it says "We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate." Ian.thomson (talk) 20:47, 25 May 2018 (UTC) but but ....this question has been answered here before --193.163.223.192 (talk) 21:06, 25 May 2018 (UTC) If you're not lying, then you already have the answer to the question and don't need to ask it again. Ian.thomson (talk) 21:14, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

May 26

Single/double consonants in English

Why is the correct spelling “sheriff” rather than “sherrif” or “sherriff?” Why is a law enforcement officer a “marshal” instead of a “marshall?” Is there now or has there ever been a difference in pronunciation? Edison (talk) 01:09, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

You're expecting consistency from English? Really now.

More seriously, you may find Sheriff#Etymology and Marshal#Etymology helpful. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 01:26, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Funnily enough, here in Australia we have a company that sells car batteries, called Marshall Batteries - https://www.marshallbatteries.com.au/ - double "l". A quick look at that website will show you that they use a cartoonish image of a wild west marshal as their logo, and a slogan of "Holler for a Marshall". (Holler is a word rarely used in Australia.) It's clearly referencing the American word, but with what they saw as a more logical(?) spelling. HiLo48 (talk) 01:41, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Marshall (thusly spelt) may simply have been the name of the company's founder, as in this case. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 02:29, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Might have been, but that doesn't explain the marketing approach with the spelling "error". HiLo48 (talk) 02:33, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Correct spelling and corporate marketing are not always happy bedfellows - look at the respectable purveyor of children's shoes to our Royal Family: Start-rite. Alansplodge (talk) 07:27, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

America has these too: ShopRite [17], Rite-Aid, Chick Fil-A (a restaurant), Ruff Ryders Entertainment (Rough Riders) and the Queensboro Bridge (Queen's Borough). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 22:42, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

I could understand this practice if, say, “rr” was pronounced with a rolled “r.” But double or single consonants seem to have the same pronunciation in English, at least in the US. Does any active editor know why English consonants are single or double when the pronunciations would seem to be the same? Edison (talk) 03:35, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Because it's English. Languages like Spanish and German have more consistency between pronunciation and orthography. English just doesn't roll that way. This is in part because English is a mixup of so many influences; see here for a brief discussion. Shock Brigade Harvester Boris (talk) 03:57, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Double consonants in English tell the speaker to use the short vowel rather than the long vowel for the preceding vowel. Consider the minimal pairs like "razed" and "razzed" or "biter" and "bitter". --Jayron32 10:58, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Very good principle for letter combinations where that practice is followed. But here in sheriff it would imply the “e” before the r getting the long sound, like “shay-riff.” It would imply “mar-shale.” Edison (talk) 15:50, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

The word shīr used to have a long vowel ([iː], like ee), which became a diphtong in modern English shire.

Also, while English spelling is an unholy mess, German is far from being perfect, either. Mostly for historical reasons, we have silent es and hs, ei pronounced as though it was written ai, and that mess of a trigraph that is sch. Rgds ✦ hugarheimur 16:43, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Can't help remembering that Bob Dylan early in his career performed under the name Elston Gunnn, with three n's in Gunnn. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 23:17, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

I often tell non-English speakers that in English, there are rules of grammar . . . then there are exceptions to the rules . . . THEN there are exceptions to the exceptions, not to mention aspects that make no logical sense at all! So glad English is my first language! I would hate to have to learn it! 68.235.185.231 (talk) 18:58, 29 May 2018 (UTC)68.235.185.231 (talk) 18:59, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Blakiston Rectory haunting

Hi, I don't believe in ghosts but I'm quite interested in folklore and was looking at the Blakiston, South Australia page and it mentions an alleged haunting of the rectory. 'A number of past tenants of the Rectory have reported sighting a ghostly figure in the Rector's study. The alleged apparition is of an old man, sitting and quietly reading.' This has no source and a Google search didn't come up with anything. Is there any other info out there? Ringaringa13 (talk) 20:18, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Hmm. The claim has no citation and was added by a user who hasn't contributed in several years. I haven't found anything at all to support the claim, including here. If nothing does turn up, the lines should probably be removed. Matt Deres (talk) 02:31, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

May 27

two charities working together

Did the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army work together in helping the sinking of the RMS Titanic survivors?2604:2000:7113:9D00:E4D9:AC7A:35DB:5EC2 (talk) 00:28, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

According to the ARC website: Helping the survivors was a coordinated effort involving several organizations on both sides of the Atlantic...[18] (they don't mention which organizations, besides ARC). According to the following source, relief services were shared among Women's Relief Committee (WRC), the American Red Cross, and The Salvation Army: [19] The following might also be of interest:

• Cimino, Eric. "Disaster Relief for Survivors of the Titanic, New York City, 1912". Academia.edu.

—2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 03:11, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

I doubt that either the American Red Cross or the Salvation Army helped sink the survivors of the Titanic. They may, however, have helped the survivors of the sinking.PiCo (talk) 08:07, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

That first remark was uncalled for. But the second remark is more to the point.2604:2000:7113:9D00:E489:B375:36EB:1AC5 (talk) 12:12, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

To clarify things for Pico (who has only been on Wikipedia for 13 years), you could have put quote marks around the link and/or changed it to just Titanic survivors. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:46, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Well the simplest solution would have been to move "survivors" in front of the article title and adding an 'of'. Putting a comma after helping and after the title would also have been clearer. Considering the question had already been answered by the time, this doesn't seem to be a big deal either way. Nil Einne (talk) 06:39, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Even simpler: disregard semantic nitpicking and respond to the obvious intent of the OP's query; after all, this purportedly is a "reference desk", not a Central Scrutinizer forum. —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 13:37, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

May 28

Human Arm-Bones as Measuring Sticks

The ancient measures were based upon the various naturally-occurring lengths of the human body:

• extending the arms sideways we get the fathom, which is then subdivided into two yards, due to the bilateral symmetry of the human body;
• then, bending the arm(s) at the elbow(s) we notice that each of these two yards can be further divided into two cubits, each of them containing two spans of three palms each.

So dividing the fathom into eight spans or twenty-four palms seems relatively obvious: but into six so-called feet, not so much.

• One likely explanation for the origin of the foot could be a purely mathematical one, based on the fact that, since the fathom of twenty-four palms is divided into groups of three palms called spans, all (other) multiples of four palms remain `unused`, so to say, which is `sad`, since twelve divides not just by three, but also by four;
• so, since the length of the sole of the human foot is the same as the span, and since humans usually leave a small space (of, say, one palm) between the toes of one foot and the heel of the other foot when walking, one might just call such a distance of 3 + 1 = 4 palms a foot.

But this fails to explain its wide-spread popularity. Then, bending the arms at the elbows, I also noticed that

• apart from aligning the hand's fingertips at the middle of the chest, close to the sternum, this movement also positions the wrist at the same place as the shoulder,
• meaning that the distance from the shoulder to the elbow is the same as the one from the elbow to the wrist, and the length of the latter is obviously one cubit minus two palms (since the length of the human hand is twice its width), yielding a total of four palms, or, in other words, one foot.

Now,

• since man is known to have used, throughout human history, (animal) bones as tools for various purposes,
• and since measuring length by `folding` either the entire arm (by hiding the forearm, so as to `highlight` the distance from shoulder to elbow), or only the forearm (by hiding the palm, so as to `highlight` the distance from elbow to wrist), is rather impractical,

I couldn't help but wonder, at this point, whether a more natural explanation for both the existence and the popularity of this anthropic unit could be the use of the three major bones of the human arm, namely the humerus, the ulna, and the radius bone, in the act of measuring lengths and distances.
— 86.125.209.239 (talk) 03:04, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

The use of feet for many measurements seems like it might be related to the use of paces, which to this day remains a practical if not extraordinarily accurate unit of measurement for those without special preparation for a task. Wnt (talk) 23:07, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

You seem to be assuming that the fathom, yard, span and foot were ab initio arranged in an organized system where each unit was a multiple of another unit. This seems quite improbable. Most likely, the fathom, based on the length of a man's outstretched arms, arose in some contexts where it was a convenient size, while the foot, based on the length of a human foot as seems pretty clear from the name, arose in other contexts. Later as it became more important to standardize measurements, the units were redefined in terms of each other. I've never heard of a culture that uses the remains of their deceased relatives as everyday tools. The use of (living) body parts as measuring devices has the obvious advantage that they are always available. CodeTalker (talk) 00:30, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

If a span is the hand length (also the finger span) the width is the hand (unit) 4 inches (1/3 foot). A span should really be 8 inches instead of 9 and 2 hands instead of 2.25 so it seems to me that spans were based on yards. Yards are used more than fathoms now so if yards were important at the beginning of time a foot would simply be 1/3rd yard. This might be why feet and spans are so long (to have a 1/3rd and 1/4th yard unit to go with the 1/2 yard cubit). A forearm should be 10 inches if a cubit is 18 and would be another convenient body part to measure with but that too suffers the fate of the 8 inch unit into obscurity, 10 inches not going into 12, 18, 36 or even 72. The thumb is about 2 inches which doesn't have a name as far as I know, the half thumb became the inch, which most body units can be divided into without fractions (however the finger, a unit of one quarter palm, is 3/4ths inches). Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 02:27, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Usage of time zone in French Canada

In many contexts, it's important to tell the time zone of a specific date, e.g. to precisely mark a legal or commercial expiration date. However, in most European countries this is unusual, as the entire country lies within a single time zone anyway - in contrast to Canada or the USA. However, what's the situation in French Canada? As far as I can see, it's entirely located in the Eastern Time Zone? So, two questions:

1. Do French Canadians usually tell the time zone with a specific date?
2. If so, do they insist on the French abbreviation of the time zone (HNE/HAE) instead of the English one (EST/EDT, respectively)? --KnightMove (talk) 07:17, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

All of Quebec is in one time zone, but there are non-Quebecois French Canadians in the other time zones as well. At the national level, HNE/HAE is used, and the other time zones are Heure normale/avancée du Pacifique, des Rocheuses, du Centre, de l'Atlantique, and de Terre Neuve, with the associated acronyms. I'm not sure if French Quebecois actually say HNE/HAE in everyday conversation though (personally I never really need to mention the time zone in English in Ontario either). Adam Bishop (talk) 11:10, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

It's used regularly on Radio-Canada's French radio broadcasts, where many programs are heard in both Quebec and the Maritimes (i.e. in different time zones). E.g.: "au début du trait prolongé, il sera exactement midi, heure normale de l'est" --Xuxl (talk) 12:55, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

I knew in theory that there were French Canadians all over the country, but I did not expect WHAAOE to the extent of e.g. Franco-Yukonnais (more than a thousand people, apparently). The situation is somewhat complicated by some French Canadians not speaking French, and some French-speakers-in-Canada not being French Canadian, according to our article. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 15:36, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Deaths in war

Can I get someone to help double check the top entries at List of wars by death toll. I was trying to use this information for an off-wiki project related to Memorial Day, but after looking at the list I wasn't sure that the figures were reliable. There are several ancient wars that seem surprisingly large and at least one recent estimate that seems somewhat low.

The top wars by geometric mean number of deaths as currently appearing on that list are:

1. Three Kingdoms War: 36,000,000–40,000,000 deaths
2. World War II: 15,843,000–85,000,000
3. Mongol conquests: 30,000,000–40,000,000
4. Qing conquest of the Ming: 25,000,000+
5. Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire: 24,300,000+
6. Taiping Rebellion: 20,000,000–100,000,000
7. Second Sino-Japanese War: 20,000,000–25,000,000
8. An Lushan Rebellion: 13,000,000–36,000,000
9. Germanic Wars: 15,450,000+
10. World War I: 8,545,800-21,000,000
11. Conquests of Timur: 8,000,000–20,000,000

Dragons flight (talk) 16:16, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Although not directly responding to your reliability concerns, these numbers would presumably include secondary effects of war ("collateral damage" as well as famine, etc.); cf: Three Kingdoms § Population. —2606:A000:1126:4CA:0:98F2:CFF6:1782 (talk) 18:40, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

It's unfortunate that not many entries have direct citations. If you follow the link to Mongol conquests and thence to Destruction under the Mongol Empire, there's a section on demographic changes which suggests that 30-40 million may not be out of line at all. The bars on a war like WW2 give you an idea of how difficult it would be to get anything like proper numbers: 15-85 million is nearly an order of magnitude difference and record-keeping was immeasurably more well-developed than during, say, the Spanish conquest. Other than following the links to the main articles for yourself, I'm not sure what to suggest. Matt Deres (talk) 18:11, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

I'm also a bit concerned about e.g. the "Germanic wars" - the events span over 700 years. If we accept that as one conflict, shouldn't we also accept anything from e.g. the Seven Years' War to WW2 as "the modern World Wars"? --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:47, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

I suppose it depends on what you want to use the figures for. The Hundred Years' War is on there and, in some contexts, that makes perfect sense. In other contexts, WW2 should really be split into multiple sections (broadly, Asian and European). Matt Deres (talk) 18:53, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Well take for example the WW2 number. I think the 16M number is only counting direct casualties (or maybe only combatant deaths), whereas most authorities look at a larger universe of direct and indirect casualties. So there is obviously an apples vs. oranges question about which kind of numbers should even appear in a list like this. I'd prefer the numbers at least be vaguely comparable through time. Aside from that it is sometimes hard to even check the cited sources. For example, the 3 Kingdoms war cites two books that I don't have easy access to. I've tried to find other sources online but so far everything I've come across looks like they are getting their numbers from us. Our Three Kingdoms article does show a large population decline but also has an odd note: "While it is clear that warfare undoubtedly took many lives during this period, the census figures do not support the idea that tens of millions were wiped out solely from warfare. Other factors such as mass famines and diseases, due to the collapse of sustaining governance and migrations out of China must be taken into account." Dragons flight (talk) 19:01, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

Before the late 19th century it was the norm in wars for more people to die from disease than from actual combat. A famous example being Napoleon's Grande Armee. I don't have a citation off the top of my head but anything discussing the history of warfare should back this up. Which of course, as you noted, makes it important in any discussion of casualties from war to specify what you're including. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 03:36, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Dragons_flight -- you can look at the book "Atrocitology: Humanity's 100 Deadliest Achievements" by Matthew H. White (ISBN 978-0-85786-122-1). He gives 34 million for the Three Kingdoms Period (189-280 A.D.), but explains that it's a demographic gap number -- the difference between the population counted in the 140 A.D. census and the 280 A.D. census. It's quite impossible to say how many of those were killed by fighting, or even involved in the fighting in any way. AnonMoos (talk) 07:41, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Shrug. Well I've actually moved on from my original Memorial Day plan. I'm probably not going to devote more time to this. Though if anyone still wants to double check the other numbers, it might still be worth while. Dragons flight (talk) 11:12, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Nathaniel Bright Emerson

Trying to find primary or secondary sources relating to Nathaniel Bright Emerson and his involvement with annexation of Hawaii. Trying to corroborate claim he testified for annexation of Hawaii to the US at Washington, DC. Name sometimes listed as N. B. Emerson or Nathaniel B. Emerson. —KAVEBEAR (talk) 16:36, 28 May 2018 (UTC)

May 29

(British) Royal Patronage in the Republic of Ireland

Being a follower of Rugby Union, I'm aware of the RDS Arena in Dublin, which led me to read up on the Royal Dublin Society. From this I learnt of the extensive List of Irish organisations with royal patronage, many of which, like the Royal Dublin Society, are extant and continue to operate with a "Royal . . ." name.

Naïvely, I as an Englishman would have expected names alluding to and and associations with British royalty to have been dropped, if not following the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, then surely after the declaration of the Irish Republic and withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1948. I can understand such retention in the cases of pan-national organisations like the Royal National Lifeboat Institution whose operations cover both Ireland and the UK, but not for those relating purely to the Republic. Perhaps some of our Irish Editors can enlighten me?

(To forestall suspicions, may I say that I have absolutely no political agenda in asking this question. I like Ireland, have visited the country twice before, will likely do so again next year (for the 77th World Science Fiction Convention) and am genuinely curious.) {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.26.63 (talk) 02:25, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Well it looks like there was at least one organization that dropped the "Royal" from its name: the Institute of Engineers of Ireland. As for the general question, I presume people just didn't think it was that big a deal. It's not like Ireland tried to erase its history of British rule, and renaming an organization, especially one that's been around a long time, is a big pain, since you have to change everything with the name on it. Some organizations might actually want to keep it, as it connotes that the organization is prestigious and has a long history. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 03:43, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Who lends money to private equity firms' subsidiaries?

When Borders (Asia Pacific) in Australia was placed into administration, the private equity firm which owned it (Pacific Equity Partners) made sure they walked away with the proceeds of the liquidation (by having placed "charges" on all the company's possessions), whilst leaving the creditors to suffer the losses. (To be fair, they offered the creditors 3c in the dollar).

Toys R' Us is another example of the games Private Equity firms play, in this case a leveraged buyout. Basically, a "heads you win, tails we lose" for the creditors who funded the buyout.

This being the standard modus operandi of Private Equity firms, I have an obvious question: Who, in their right mind, is providing the credit to these subsidiaries of the Private Equity firms? If I was approached asking to provide credit to a subsidiary of a private equity firm, I would RUN. Obvious reason being, if the subsidiary fails, the "parent" private equity firm will make sure IT walks away with the proceeds of the liquidation, whilst leaving the unsecured creditors high and dry. Banks are not dumb, I would think. So what gives? Who, for example, provided the credit for the leveraged buyout of Toys R' Us, even if the company was pledged as the supposed collateral? A stupid bank? Dumb bondholders? (My question is not limited to Toys R' Us, but to anyone who provides credit facilities to subsidiaries of private equity firms, without making the "preposterous" demand that the private equity firm itself guarantee the debt).

@John M Baker:, just pinging you because you're our corporate expert. Others free to answer too, of course. Eliyohub (talk) 13:53, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

It's a good thing you pinged me, because I don't follow this page regularly these days, and this is something I do happen to know a bit about. Broadly speaking, a company like Borders or Toys R Us has three main groups of creditors: Senior creditors, mezzanine creditors, and trade creditors. Senior creditors (banks and bondholders, mostly) are secured creditors, and relative rights to security interests are governed by inter-creditor agreements. So there is no mystery there. Trade creditors are the suppliers of inventory and other business creditors (sellers of office supplies, fixtures, plumbing services, etc.). They typically are unsecured and, therefore, junior to all secured creditors. They would love to be secured creditors, and occasionally they have enough market power to make that happen, but more typically they find that they have to accept unsecured status in order to remain in business. So there isn't really a mystery there either - a firm financed by private equity is not intrinsically riskier for a trade creditor than a comparable firm with similar credit.

That leaves mezzanine creditors (we have a brief article at mezzanine capital). These will be unsecured bonds and notes, and the holders of these, like trade creditors, are unsecured. Why would anyone buy these? These will have higher interest rates than the secured debt, and they may also come with equity kickers, such as warrants to purchase the company's common stock or a right to convert the debt into common stock. These equity kickers can become very valuable if the company performs well. So the reason why people are willing to buy mezzanine debt is that, over time and on average, the investment can perform very well, even though it can be fairly risky in a particular case. John M Baker (talk) 15:03, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Eliyohub -- I don't know the details, but from what I've read, the 2005 Toys-R-Us deal wasn't necessarily inherently "dumb" (like some of the packaged mortgage stuff in "The Big Short"), just timed very poorly with respect to the financial crisis which hit a few years later... AnonMoos (talk) 08:25, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Universities in Middle East offering History program

Which universities in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar offer History programs like so far I know that King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia do? Donmust90 (talk) 15:56, 29 May 2018 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 15:56, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Most non-technical universities do. Look at Category:Universities in Lebanon, etc. Rmhermen (talk) 22:49, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Supreme Court vote

I just saw a news article that says

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday for the second time this month put restrictions on police searches of vehicles, ruling that officers unlawfully searched a stolen motorcycle parked on private property in Virginia because they did not have a court-approved warrant. The 8-1 decision cast into doubt....

However, the article does not give the name of the case (which would have given me a name to search for on Wikipedia), nor does it answer my question, which is who made the one minority vote. Any references? Loraof (talk) 18:26, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

The short name is Collins v Virginia. The dissenter was Alito. http://reason.com/blog/2018/05/29/supreme-court-rules-8-1-against-warrantl --Trovatore (talk) 18:28, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Thanks! Loraof (talk) 20:42, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Scotusblog.com [20] is really good for coverage of the court. Dragons flight (talk) 20:46, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

See article: Collins v. Virginia. -- The Anome (talk) 09:02, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

A useful read. The above description made me think the police had reason to believe the motorcycle was stolen before they searched it. While I'm not sure this would have made a difference it wasn't the case here. The police suspected the motorcycle was involved in a high speed chase but did not appear to know it was stolen. Also from reading a source our article used [21], I've now corrected our article. It doesn't seem the search has been ruled unconstitutional/inadmissible. Only the specific exception related to vehicles has been ruled to not apply for constitutional reasons. The courts can still consider whether exigent circumstances were enough to allow the warrantless search. Nil Einne (talk) 10:54, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Hegesias of Cyrene

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

I am very interested into the life and teachings of Hegesias of Cyrene and was wondering, if you can give me some internet links and book tips regarding his life and teachings. The Wikipedia article is quite short and the links were not very helpful, so I would be very thankful for any other information and source you can give me.

Thank you for yours answers--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:509F:BF0A:1C6A:B882 (talk) 23:11, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

A little searching on the Web and in my own books persuades me that our article, Hegesias of Cyrene, together with its links, tells you just about all that's known of his life. As for his teachings, well, no works of his survive. --Antiquary (talk) 09:33, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

That is unfortunate. Have some works of his teachers survived or has everything been lost to the unforgiving sands of time?--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:95F9:124:F001:23C2 (talk) 11:27, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Diogenes Laertius tells us he was a pupil of Paraebates, but I think that's the sum total of our knowledge of him, and if Hegesias studied under anyone else then I'm not aware of it. Sorry to be so discouraging but I really don't believe the kind of answer you were hoping for is possible. --Antiquary (talk) 12:04, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Anyway, thank you very much for your help!--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:9D70:B236:49A:EE60 (talk) 13:42, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Ancient Germanic Clothing and Fashion

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

I am looking for a realistic and historically adequate visual representation of historically accurate Germanic clothing. I have seen many books on the subject, who only showed a romanticized, 19th century picture (Germanic men were shown with horned helmets and children with neo-gothic armor, despite that these types of clothing were highly anachronistic for the time).--188.60.207.197 (talk) 23:18, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

"Germanic" could cover quite a range of dates and places, from archaeological discoveries of Bronze Age clothing in Denmark, to the tribesmen that faced off against Roman legions, down to the early middle ages. For many of those times and places, there's little surviving relevant visual evidence... AnonMoos (talk) 01:06, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Tacitus says that they were almost naked, which is hard to believe in such cold enviroment.--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:95F9:124:F001:23C2 (talk) 11:25, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

May 30

Muslim Scholar from the Medieval period

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen

I am looking for a Muslim Scholar from the Medieval period, who travelled Europe during the medieval period. I did read his writings during my high school time, but I forgot his name. I do remember that he was appalled by the loose sexual morality he encountered in Europe, specifically about a knight who found his wife cheating him in his bed and challenged her lover to a duel (jousting, if I remember correctly).--2A02:120B:C3CC:FC50:9D70:B236:49A:EE60 (talk) 13:46, 30 May 2018 (UTC)