::: <small>It's preying on my mind now that some hemulens are obsessive collectors rather than sportsmen, and also that at one point there is a hemulen aunt, so there are female ones alright. This is all completely outside the scope of your question, sorry ... except it makes me more inclined to think that moomin might be a species. [[Special:Contributions/213.122.18.192|213.122.18.192]] ([[User talk:213.122.18.192|talk]]) 12:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)</small>
::: <small>It's preying on my mind now that some hemulens are obsessive collectors rather than sportsmen, and also that at one point there is a hemulen aunt, so there are female ones alright. This is all completely outside the scope of your question, sorry ... except it makes me more inclined to think that moomin might be a species. [[Special:Contributions/213.122.18.192|213.122.18.192]] ([[User talk:213.122.18.192|talk]]) 12:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)</small>
::::<small>Is it 'hemulen' in the English translations? That's a bit weird. In Swedish the species would be 'hemul', and 'the Hemul' is ''Hemulen''. --[[User:Soman|Soman]] ([[User talk:Soman|talk]]) 23:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)</ref>
::::<small>Is it 'hemulen' in the English translations? That's a bit weird. In Swedish the species would be 'hemul', and 'the Hemul' is ''Hemulen''. --[[User:Soman|Soman]] ([[User talk:Soman|talk]]) 23:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)</ref>
They certainly aren't 5cm tall. [[Special:Contributions/82.43.88.151|82.43.88.151]] ([[User talk:82.43.88.151|talk]]) 23:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
== Metric system in Nazi Germany ==
== Metric system in Nazi Germany ==
Revision as of 23:51, 30 July 2010
Welcome to the humanities section of the Wikipedia reference desk.
The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, a point which historians agree marks the beginning of the Third Reich. ... Hitler used the Enabling Act to merge the office of Chancellor with that of President to create a new office, Führer; although the offices were merged, Hitler continued to be addressed as "Führer und Reichskanzler" indicating that the Head of State and Head of Government were still separate positions albeit held by the same man. This separation was made more evident when in April 1945 Hitler gave instruction that upon his death the office of Führer would dissolve and there would be a new President and Chancellor. On 30 April 1945, Hitler committed suicide and was briefly succeeded as Chancellor by Joseph Goebbels, as dictated in Hitler's Last Will and Testament.
If Nazi Germany was called the 3rd Reich, why didn't it has a Kaiser, a king or an emperor? How could there be beef if there wasn't a cow? If Hitler did not have a son or daughter, who's going to inherit the Reich? How could a dictatorship call itself an empire without setting up a king at first? Did anyone protest? -- Toytoy (talk) 00:51, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The term "reich" doesn't appear to have an English equivalent. It was used during the Weimar Republic as well, so it apparently isn't specific to a monarchy. It's not used anymore because it's associated with the Nazi era. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 01:53, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Reich's closest English translation is probably "realm"; kingdom in German is "Konigsreich" and empire is "Kaiserreich". France is often called "Frankreich". See File:HRR 14Jh.jpg, which is in German. France is called "Kgr. Frankreich" in that map, Kgr being short for "Konigsreich". Germany itself here (in this case, being the Germany of the Holy Roman Empire, or the First Reich) is called "Deutschen Reich" or "German realm". It is a term which does not imply any particular form of government, but does imply a sort of national unity. Reich is related to, but distinct from "Volk", which is another concept which has no direct English translation. "Volk" refers to the German people, while the "Reich" refers to the German nation-state. --Jayron3205:20, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I always take "Volk" to be equivalent to "the folks", and it seems reasonable to assume they have a common root, as they both mean "the people". "Realm" is probably a good though understated equivalent to "Reich". "Realm" and "regimen" and "region" all seem to be connected to "regis" and "regere", Latin for "ruler" and "to rule". "Real" seems to be a cousin also. Fitingly, "Reich" seems to have a "rich" family of related words. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 05:29, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Rex/Rial/Real/Reich/Raja/Region/Realm etc. all descend from the same root which means roughly "King", but that doesn't mean they still mean the same thing. Meanings can diverge greatly as they take on new cultural contexts. --Jayron3207:08, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Modern English is odd in not using this word by itself; it was common in Old English as "ric", and Sweden's laws are issued by the Riksdag. Dropping out of English was probably the result of the Norman Conquest; with virtually no exceptions, all Old English words for high society topics such as war and government were replaced by French words, since most of those who (1) still spoke English and (2) had reason to discuss the high society topics were connected to the French-speaking élites. As far as I can remmeber, the only way that this word survives in any form in English is "bishopric", which is ironic, because the Old English word was "biscopstole". Nyttend (talk) 03:10, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Towards the end of the novel (Part Five Jean Valjean – Book 3 – Chapter 8 [Page 1122 in my book]): Jean Valjean is in the sewers and Thenardier approaches him. It is very clear that Thenardier does not recognize the man he thinks is a "murderer" (Jean Valjean) or the "corpse" (Marius).
However, later on (Part Five Jean Valjean – Book 9 – Chapter 4 [Page 1236 in my book]): Thenardier goes to Marius in an attempt to blackmail Marius for not exposing Jean Valjean as a "murderer" of the unnamed "corpse".
OK, I understand why Thenardier is wrong about the facts, and why he would approach Marius if he knew about Jean Valjean, but I am not following how Thenardier later realizes that the man was Jean Valjean.
Normally yes, but when in the sewer it says "Jean Valjean perceived immediately that Thenardier did not recognize him." In another part it mentions the darkness, blood and mud. After that JVj makes sure he stays out of the light and kept turned so that Thenardier could not get a good look.--Wonderley (talk) 16:27, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Other countries with an electoral college?
I have been wondering for some time what other countries outside from the United States have any sort of an electoral college (as in the people vote for an elector who votes for a presidential candidate). Here in where I live (the Philippines), it's not like that, the people directly vote for the president, but I would still like to know. Narutolovehinata5tccsdnew04:38, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Similar systems existed in France during many of its republics. In the modern (fifth) French Republic, the Senate of France is elected indirectly via an electoral college like system (there are 150,000 or so electors). This tradition in France goes back to the Constitution of the Year VIII, which established the Consulate phase of the First Republic. People directly elected a slate of "notable people" who would then amongst themselves elect the government. There were several tiers of elections, IIRC. --Jayron3205:11, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If you consider the British Prime Minister to be the equivalent of the "President" it works kind of like that in the U.K. However, the U.S. is kind of a unique situation, in that this approach to electing the President was part of the "great compromise" that paved the way to acceptance of the Constitution by both the large and the small states. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 05:12, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, but I was asking for other countries which elect their president indirectly by people voting for an elector. Another I can think of is Hong Kong, although I'm not sure if it is indirect or not. Narutolovehinata5tccsdnew05:36, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, most countries that have a split executive (seperate Head of Government and Head of State) operate on some form of the Westminster System. The PM is not exactly the equivalent of the President. In the U.S. system, the President has a merged "Head of Government and Head of State" role; the U.S. is sort of unique in this regard. In most countries, the roles are divided between a President or Monarch, who acts as the Head of State, and a Prime Minister/Premier who acts as the Head of Government. In countries which use a varient of the Westminster System, the PM (Head of Government) is elected by the Legislature, and not directly by the people. In these cases, however, its better to think of the Prime Minister as something more like the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but with a LOT more powers. In most countries that have a split executive, the Presidency is a largely ceremonial role (like the Queen of England), and is directly elected. See Presidential system, Semi-presidential system and parliamentary system for more. --Jayron3207:03, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
But we're discussing present-day circumstances, not those of 300 years ago: by "Queen of England" (a title not in fact in existence since the aforementioned Queen Anne became Queen of Great Britain in 1707), Jayron 32 doubtless meant the present Monarch, Elizabeth II. You may have actually been referring to this, Kpalion, but your meaning was unclear. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 13:17, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In a slightly different context, the British Labour Party has an electoral college for the election of its leader (process currently under way) - the college is divided into thirds, a) elected Members of Parliament and the European Parliament, b) individual members of the party, c) individual members of affiliated organisations such as trade unions and socialist societies. As a party member and a member of an associated trade union, I'll get two votes, but in the weakest categories. -- Arwel Parry(talk)11:37, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's a bullshit claim anyways. Henry VII of England only had illegetimate claims to the throne (he legitimized his line by marrying a legitimate heir, but his own claim was only illegitimate). Furthermore, the monarch is the monarch because Parliament allows it to be so. Parliament has full control over the throne and the succession, insofar as Parliament accepts Elizabeth I as Queen, she is it. There is no further requirment on the situation. --Jayron3206:50, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Though I do understand the connection to Henry II, and not the house of Wessex. Historically, remember, that the English monarchy is considered to have started at the Conquest (remember that monarchs are numbered from the Conquest, which is why Edward the Confessor is not Edward I). Furthermore, the connection to Henry II is because of the rather pragmatic agreement between Stephen and the Empress Matilda to put an end to The Anarchy which established the formal succession for the first time. Prior to Henry II, there was no formal system of primogeniture in England, which resulted in some messes. --Jayron3206:55, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Henry VII did have a legitimate claim to the throne - he won it on the battlefield. Just because we don't consider that a legitimate way of becoming monarch these days doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that it was accepted in those days. Applying modern laws to other times usually gets meaningless results. --Tango (talk) 20:24, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Was it really considered legitimate back then, though? The concept of usurper did exist. The point of primogeniture and similar rules for throne succession has always been precisely to ban people arbitrarily trying to take power by force. If one independent sovereign vanquished another on the battlefield, it may have been legitimate for him to take the other one's kingdom; but Henry VII was not an independent sovereign; as far as I remember, he was a rebel, technically. --91.148.159.4 (talk) 21:19, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's similar to the idea of right of conquest. You overthrow and imprison the king, and you're a usurper, but you overthrow and kill the king, and you're now the king. Anyway, you need to remember the context of the Wars of the Roses; Lancaster and York had been fighting on-and-off for generations, and according to Henry's article, he was the leading Lancastarian claimant. Nyttend (talk) 03:04, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's the point I already made, I don't think the right of conquest applies to rebels, it just applies to one sovereign defeating another. If it applied to a rebel killing the rightful sovereign to whom he owes his allegiance, rebellion wouldn't be a crime. As for Henry, sure he was the leading Lancastrian claimant, but his claim was judged to be very unconvincing, as others have already said. From which we may conclude that there were no convincing Lancastrian claimants alive at all at that point (although I don't know if that's really the case or if the convincing ones were just ignored for practical reasons).--91.148.159.4 (talk) 16:16, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
recipe challenge
what are 8-10 appropriate meal ideas for an inept, broke, vegan, diabetic bodybuilder gourmet in a hurry?
in order, the criteria are:
inept: this person is clumsy and not a great cook, very careful preparation is beyond him
broke: this person is living on savings and needs to spend about $2-$3 per meal
vegan: this person does not eat animal products, including meat, fish, dairy and egg products, etc
diabetic: this person can have only a limited amount of carbohydrates in one sitting (say, 30g) and almost no sugar
bodybuilder: this person needs to have about 20g of protein per meal, a bit more (30g) would be even better
gourmet: forget suggesting that this guy just slurp down a can of red beans, he has real gourmet tastes and requires meals that are genuinely satisfying and a joy to eat. The minimum standard should be something you could actually serve in a diner. He doesn't like the taste of soy products, extra points if you can avoid these.
in a hurry: the meals should average (see below) 15 minutes in preparation.
Now, this might seem like an impossible set of criteria, but please note that all of the parameters (cost, time to prepare, etc) are averages, so that you can suggest, for example, 4 (different) meals that have an ingredient in common which will take 40 minutes to prepare for all four, and then are finished with 5 minutes of work. Space and storage is no big worry, and neither is "passive" preparation time, so if you you require some beans to be soaked for 24 hours, that will count as the two minutes it takes to put them in a bowl and pour water on them. You can amortize dried goods over a six-month period, in sufficient bulk it would add almost nothing to the per-meal cost, and you can assume any kitchen implements you need. The vegan requirement actually makes the meals cheaper, as animal products are relatively expensive. You can have him order any specialty products in any bulk you want, subject to shelf life. It is important, however to have 8-10 distinct meals with their own character that are each good and fulfilling. It's a challenge, good luck! 85.181.48.191 (talk) 10:41, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
1 suggestion - standard bachelor pseudo-stir-fry:
Buy a variety of spices
Buy a medium-high temperature cooking oil (like canola)
Buy a variety of grains and vegetables (sweet potatoes and yams are a good choice for starches, but rice and bulgar wheat work for alternates, tomatoes are a godsend)
Buy tofu, nutmeat, beans, or etc. in quantities sufficient to your needs, or supplement with cheap protein powder
preparation involves choosing vegetables and spices for a particular meal, slicing and dicing, then 10 minutes or so on the stovetop. you can slice-dice a few days in advance and store the makings if you want to speed up the process. meals generally look like a mess, but if you use good vegetables and spice carefully you can get chef-quality taste (use delicate spices - you want to enhance the natural flavor of the vegetables, not obliterate them - and don't be afraid of a bit of salt, which really brings out certain kinds of aromatic flavors). You can get a lot of variety this way with differnt choices, with a minimum of learning curve.
If youw ant something more 'recipe'-like or more high-toned, check out Moosewood Cookbook and google for online recipes from it. You won't get high-protein meals from that, so you'll have to change proportions or add supplements, but Moosewood is a great place to start for gourmet vegitarian cooking. --Ludwigs212:33, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I have two suggestions. First, pease pudding or mushy peas. Soak for 24 hours: cook in oven for 6 hours. Serve with salsa, either shop-bought or home made (shouldn't take long), and a dollop of hummus or tahina. For the gourmet touch, use either black peas or grey peas, both of which are used in Northern England or the Black Country. Secondly, I remember making a dish called succotash, with sweetcorn and red beans. I'd also suggest adding wholemeal bread to any meal as this completes the protein. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TammyMoet (talk • contribs) 12:36, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thick chunky vegetable soup. Chop the vegetables up, add herbs and pepper, boil for 10 or 15 minutes. You could add some cornflower to thicken it, I'm not sure how much protein that would have, plus drizzle a small amount of cold oil on it. The maximum of 30g of carbohydrate per meal is the limiting factor - I expect a rice or pasta dish would exceed that. Would he get enough calories with 120g of carbs and 120g of protein per day? Edit: For 30g of carbs and 30g of protein, according to Wikipedia he would only get 233 kilocalories per meal from them, when the calorie requirements for a man are usually given as 2500 kilocalories. He may get some estra calories from fat.
Today on 25 July 2010 I have been learnt that u have shown the origion of Bhatt brahmins (rai) on your website wikipedia as the title (rai bhat) in Uttar Pradesh is highly objectionable and based on incorrect informations.
Sir the "Bhatt" means in Sanskrit language is "the man who is expert in all studies and a warrior" and the "rai" is the short form of "rais" and its the vadic title not conffered by muslim or british rulers of India .
Its supposed that by the different views of historians that aryans came from central asia and entered into the northern India .some historians says that Sindhu Ghati culture came first and after that vadic culture but its true that aryans entered into India in different eras .so in early times there was two classes in aryans.the brahmins and shudras later on these two classes developed into four varnas. The Bhatt brahmins (rai)bourned from the pious fire pit of Vasistha Rishi in the Varuna Yagya which was carried out by Varuna Deva who was the diety of water .the rishes were bourned from this fire pit .thier origion from Lord Bhrama and the Goddess Saraswati is thier goddess of knowledge. The rishies borned from pious fire pit.
1) BHRIGU RISHI
2) ANGIRA RISHI
3) KAVI RISHI
Thier sons as under
Sons of Bhrigu Rishi 1.Chavan Rishi 2.Vajra Shirsha Rishi 3.Slushi Rishi 4.Aurva Rishi 5.Shukara Rishi 6.Varenya Rishi 7.Savan Rishi
Sons of Angira Rishi 1.Brahaspati Rishi 2.Utattha Rishi 3.Payasya Rishi 4.Shanti Rishi 5.Ghora Rishi 6.Virupa Rishi 7.Samvarta Rishi
The whole generations of thies rishies are called varuna but the bhatt brahmins (rai) called Varuna Bhatt brahmins also.the whole brahmins varna divided into three categories and the Bhatt brahmins (rai) supposed their origion from Kavi Rishi and there are only 49 praveras of them which are counted their gotras also because there are 49 marutas who were the brother of lord Indra bourned from the womb of mother Diti wife of rishi Kashyapa who are the fore fathers of bhatt brahmins (rai).its uncorrect that 750 gotras of Bhatt brahmins (rai).Bhatt brahmins(rai) are acharya in all over India being the supreme breed of aryan brahmins.
The categories of brahmins varna are-
1Acharya 2)Upadhaya 3)Buddhist
Presently the references of thies brahmins are available in the Srimad Bhagvat, Gita, Ramcharit Manas,Balmik Ramayan ,Vishnupuran ,Brahamavaivarta Purana,Mahabharat (Chapter 85 Anushashan Parva) ,Vedas also . ,shivaji and his times by j n sarkar,indai,a soldier's view by brig.(retd)A.C .prem ,the sikh history(1469-1988) by Dr.Gopal Singh,Discovery of india by Pt .J .L Nehru,manusmriti (A Commentary) by S.S.Shastri,A New History of India by Dr. Ishwari prasad,Prachin Bharat ka itihas by Dr R.K.Mukharji,Buddha Sanskriti by Rahul Sankratyayan,Studies in ancient india by Prof.Protansumaiti,Lohe ke Dhani by Bala dubey,Jat itihas by LT.Ramswaroop jun,Manas-puyush-ramcharitmanas by Shri Anjana nandan sharanji,kavivansh by kavi raja Pt.vidhyadhar bhatt,Bharatmahan by Acharya Chatursen,adhunik bharat ka itihas by kundra and bawa, india that was wonder partI AND II by A L Basham and shri S.A.A.Rizivi,Bhartia arya bhasha aur hindi by Dr.Sunil Kumar Chaturjya,aitaraiya brahman by Pt. Ganga Prasad Upadhayay,Jati vyavashtha by Dr.narmadeshwar page no.73,panchratna vivah paddhaiti ,Letter no. 154/EC/Lokshikayat/Dt 6-12-2004 by DM Agra (UP),bhartiyadarshan by Dr. Radhakrishnan,Service digest of 2 mech inf (Ist Royal jat),The Jats :their role in mughal empire by Dr. G.C.Dwivedi page no.197.These Bhatt Brahmins (Rai) estbilished many powerful dyansties in India.they developed feudal lordship in india but it was diffirent from the feudal lordship of europe.they united the india politically ,physically and culturally.the whole credit goes to them and at the time of peshwa dynasty in the IIIrd battle of panipat thier aim was lost to hoist the flag of hindupatpadshahi .the whole chemistry is disclosed below in this topic.these feudal lords of hindusdtan lost thier past glory but have the faith in thier hearts. they are great orthodox bhatt brahmins in india who save the country from the attack of muslim orthodoxship and contributed to uprooted the Christianity and british rule but the government of free india forget them .
1.Shunga Dynasty 2.Satawahan Dynasty 3.Gupta Dynasty 4.Rai Dynasty 5.Vakataka Dynasty 6.Peshwa Dynasty.
Presently the Bhatt brahmins(rai)who came in northen India under the aegis of Peshwa Sadashivrao Bhau and Vishwash Rao.Sadha Shiv Rao was cousin brother of Peshwa Balaji Baji Rao and Vishvash Rao was only son.these brahmins were the class one jagirdars of then India and commanders of Maratha army which was sent by then Peshwa Maharaj to face the attack of Ahmadshah Abdali this army was along with a procession of pilgrims who also came to take bath in Kurukshetra on 14-january-1761.this procession came to Agra on 5-June-1760AD and Maharaja Bharatpur Surajmal and Sadashiv Rao Bhau taken an oath on the bank of river Yamuna to becoming a friend and to joined the hands againts the aggressor .Maharaj Suraj Mal was in the attack of delhi but he fled before the battle of Panipat that is called third battale of Panipat.Maharaja Indore Malhar Rao Holkar taken the bribe from Ahmadshah Abdali not to take part in the battle .the kith and kins of Peshwa Balaji Bajirao and loyal commanders cut down in the battle the remaining brahmins run back to take shelter to save from the genaral slaughter after loosing the war they reached to the bharatpur where they were hosted by king and queen Kishori of Bhartpur .these Bhatt brahmins (rai)were worshiped by king and queen and given the shelter and protection to reach thier destinations .however few of them could reach up to the Gwalior and lot of people were become the pray of looters these brahmins who came to save the northern India became the subject of conspiracy.they put down thier royal dresses and weapons .again they involed in the first freedom struggle in 1857 ad while the lord Dalhosie implemented the policy of lapse .Peshwa Maharaj was pensioned at Bithore and he was crushed and his palace was destroyed by artillery by general Outram and under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhiji they denied to serve the govt service and any type of cooperation .these are the remaining kith and kins of peshawa dynasty who scattered in these areas and the indoria jats who are the jadhavs of indore have the 12 villages in tehsil kiraoli(agra) once the subordinates and survents of these great brahmins .they occupied this area after clearning the kirar rajputs from this area who srongly objected of maratha army while they were on withdrawl from the battle of panipat.the families of the bhatt brahmins (rai)and jadhavs established two villages 1)mudiapura,2)abhuapura .the kiraoli is known in the name of defeated kirar rajput "the kirarvali kiraoli".LATE PT GANGA RAM BHATT was thier leader who belongs to peshawa clan.it has been searched out that peshawa sadashiv rao bhau established a one feet height statue of lord hanumanji at hanuman tila of town shamli(mujaffarngar). the intention was to built a temple after the victory of panipat battle but it could not be happen unfortunately.
The Bhatt brahmins community have the five divisions
1) Varuna Bhatt Brahmins 2) Brahma Bhatt Brahmins 3) Bhatt Brahmins 4) Vadawa Bhatt Brahmins 5) Maharaj Bhatt Brahmins
Bhatt brahmins (rai) take the dakshina from thier clients on the birth of child,marriage ,katha ,bhagwat and on the occassion of pious puja.they are only authorised to preach the relegious surmons and the guru of the whole hindu society and subject to honour and worship.the great personalities borned a few names
They use the surname Sharma and bhatt in the areas of western UP ,Bhartpur,MP,Harayana,Delhi, being brahmins. —preceding unsigned comment added by Jhande Lal Bhatt (talk • contribs) 12:59, 25 July 2010 (UTC)
(Edit Conflict) (1) Please do not type in ALL CAPITALS - it is seen as shouting and is considered rude, and as a practical matter it is much more difficult to read.
(2) If you think something in an article is wrong, you should ask about it on the talk (Discussion) page of the article - that is what it is for. These Reference Desks are intended for asking general questions of fact.
(3) Although what you have written is hard to understand, you seem to be saying that someone has told you that Wikipedia says something you think is wrong, but you have not read it yourself. If this is correct, please read the material in question yourself to make sure your informant has not misunderstood or distorted what has been written. If you have read the article in question, I apologise for misunderstanding you, but your English is non-standard and difficult to follow.
(4) Wikipedia articles are supposed to be based only on material that has already appeared elsewhere in reliable publications that can cited as sources. What you have written above may all be correct, but Wikipedia could not include any of it unless you tell us exactly where it has been published so that it can be checked. When you re-post the material on the appropriate Discussion page, please be sure to include all your sources.
(5) The way you write English very hard for this native English speaker to understand. Would it be possible for you to have someone with more knowledge of English rewrite it?
(6) I have removed a few single spaces you put before the beginnings of lines, because these cause the text to display in unhelpful ways on Wikipedia. To indent a line by one or more spaces, you should instead use one or more colons (i.e. : for 1 space indent, :: for two spaces indent, etc).
Hello Jhande Lal Bhatt, thanks for your comments on the articles Rai Bhat and Brahm Bhat. It is great that you have done so much research on the caste and are able to correct the articles. I will copy your comment to the talk pages of both articles (as 87 suggested). Also, I invite you to simply go directly to the articles and edit them yourself, not forgetting to include the references you mention. I think references to the Vedas, Gita, Ramcharitmanas, etc should be fine as long as you give the specific chapters, but to be sure you can always read the instructions at Help:Contents/Links#Citation. Best, WikiJedits (talk) 14:11, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Learning to hate (school) learning
Many years ago, I heard or read somewhere (I do not remember where) that students enter the first grade of primary school with a great enthusiasm for learning, and that somehow that enthusiasm has been almost completely annihilated (from many students) by the time they have reached the age of about twelve years. Of course, everyone in society (parents, teachers, merchandisers, entertainers, religious leaders, and others) can play a part (to good effect, to bad effect, or to no effect), but what is it about the school system that discourages what should be a lifelong love of learning?—Wavelength (talk) 16:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why does it have to be something about the school system? Could it not be something about the average student (like puberty)? Dbfirs23:53, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If there is something about students which plays a negative part, one hopes that the school system would play a positive part which is effective enough to compensate for it abundantly.—Wavelength (talk) 19:54, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
...and its companion volume, How Children Learn. Bear in mind the difference between learning and the socialization and other administrative aspects of a school system. This is an issue in the option of home schooling, which in some countries is illegal. -- Deborahjay (talk) 18:37, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you both, 81.131.68.238 and Deborahjay, for your answers. It seems to me that I might have seen one or both of those articles before, although my first knowledge of the phenomenon predates my use of the Internet by many years.
More anecdotal, but as someone who never lost that love of learning, it seemed that the vast number of friends who didn't like learning found frustration over homework cutting into their free time. Whereas I spent more free time with my nose in a book than many kids. (I'll confess that I, too, suffered from this attitude toward homework, though not to the extent many did.) Since learning, before first grade, doesn't come with homework, I'd say that's a prime reason. (Not the amount we see today, either - this was in the 1970s, when from what I've seen, there was less.)Somebody or his brother (talk) 21:35, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Lawyers and politicians. Who else would you possibly expect? Lawyers get a hell of a lot of money to sit around and talk about the wording of all the policies. Politicians make a hell of a lot of money to sit around and talk about adding kickbacks for them and their friends to all of the policies. By the time any policy is passed, it usually has a time-period before it kicks in - something along the lines of 5 years (after the following election). So, they have time to claim they did something before the election, but time to renounce the policy after the election and start all over by handing over a hell of lot of money to lawyers again. -- kainaw™19:12, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't have enough background knowledge to analyze this problem, but I can tell it needs clarification: from Obama's policies as opposed to what? John McCain's policies? A hypothetical moderate with the same leadership abilities? A hypothetical Democrat who followed the letter of their party's platform? The elimination of the office of the presidency? The complete collapse of the US government?
Furthermore, it's hard to say what groups are legitimate answers to the question. Millions of people are affected by policy decisions, and it's quite easy to construct subsets of them who are as sympathetic or unsympathetic as you like. What I want to know is what affect Obama's policies will have on people whose age is a perfect number times a square number. You know, folks like me.
Anyways, even with the necessary clarification, the problem depends entirely on the answers to fundamentally political questions, which are, as I understand it, outside the domain of the reference desk. Some people will claim that John McCain's hot-headedness would have risked starting WWIII. In this case, apparently it's Carlos Slim for the 53.5 billion dollars he'd not have, being dead otherwise. Others will have other ideas. Paul (Stansifer)20:30, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If I may draw a parallel: If I met an article page on Mohamet, would I object on the same grounds that you the OP use here? He is a fact of history, therefore, he should be there. I reject Hitler and what he stands for but I expect a true historical article page on him, and if missing I would want to write it myself. If I saw bias on that page I would object in the talk page. In fact the article page needs rephrasing in parts. MacOfJesus (talk) 21:41, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Both of you are focusing on aspects unrelated to my question. I understand Jewish views of Jesus -- I'm asking here about Christian views of Jesus. Why would Christians focus at all on INRI if the honorific is intrinsically awkward because the "King" is not accepted by his subjects. This has nothing to do with bias other than, perhaps and apparently, some odd Christian bias that their god was the king of some nation that denies it. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)23:54, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Because Christianity was, and to some extent still is, a break-off sect of Judaism. Christianity believes that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, that he is the King (but in a non-worldly sense, i.e. his kingdom is not of this world). Since he said he was a king, and he was a Jew speaking to Jews, Pilate wrote that he was King of the Jews: Christianity generally considers him King of Heaven and Earth, which is broader, but Pilate had written what he had written. Therefore, when depicting the cross, showing a sign with INRI is a sort of shorthand that labels the image, as well as calling to mind various aspects of the story and theology. In brief: Christianity generally considers Jesus the King of Everybody. King of the Jews is a phrase and title that got bandied around during his trial by the people accusing him. 86.164.66.83 (talk) 00:15, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It is also worth mentioning that Jesus was not a Christian. He was Jewish. The followers of Judaism that followed Jesus eventually split off, with all the other people that followed Jesus, and became Christian. Therefore those contemporaries that followed Christ, the people we think of as Christians, really wouldn't have identified as Christians in the way that I identify as Christian. Falconusptc02:46, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps I am misremembering my Catholic-school education, but wasn't there an Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would also be recognized as King of the Jews? So it's just another way of saying that prophecy was fulfilled. (And of course, a way of denigrating the Jews for not even recognizing their own Messiah.) Adam Bishop (talk) 03:00, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
How can the New Testament, written by Christians, be used as evidence that Jesus fulfills prophecies if their initial premise is that they believe he was the Messiah? That's cyclic. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)03:30, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Was not this objection raised by the Pharisees to Pilate at the time, and did not Pilate answer the objection? Afterall, there was nothing presented to him that merited the death penalty, so they could not have it both ways. I refer you to; The Gospel according to Pilate or also known as The Acts of Pilate, in Wikipedia as: Acts of Pilate.
I can if you wish go through the prophetic words about Him from the books of The Prophets and draw the necessary parallel citations, but I think I would be wasting my words.
The name Messiah means "anointed (one)" in Hebrew; the name Christ means "anointed (one)" in Greek, and distinguishes Jesus Christ from other men named Jesus.
OP, is this not bordering on Christophobia? You are arguing from a universal premise, that I have pointed-out has exeptions, in fact so many that your argument does "not hold water". One I have to mention: Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of The Cross, (Feastday today). MacOfJesus (talk) 20:33, 31 July 2010 (UTC). MacOfJesus (talk) 10:11, 10 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Weighing job title
Is there a particular title for someone who weighs objects for a living? By objects I mean some type of commodity (food, money, etc.). --Ghostexorcist (talk) 20:05, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
See article page: weighbridge and weighbridge operator. "Weighbridge operator" is an article page waiting to happen. The words: "Weighbridge operator" come up so many times in other article pages that an article page on him/her would be justified. Also the controller that operates on a quayside, that balances a boat for weight distribution, to prevent listing, even in the case of a storm. Sorry, don't know his name! MacOfJesus (talk) 21:50, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Also see article page Stevedore, but I still cannot find the person responsible for weight distrabution on a ship before departure. He/she is the one who truly earns their wage by weight. I have left a question on the talk page of the article buoyancy. MacOfJesus (talk) 00:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
At the article/talk page Buoyancy I received this reply: "The rotational stability of a vessel is briefly mentioned in the Stability section. There is a wikilink to Metacentric height, which discusses the issue in far more detail and provides some good references for further reading. --RexxS (talk) 01:14, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
I have been hoping to write a book set during the declining years of the Roman Empire, but I am aware that I perhaps don't know quite enough of the details of life at the time to write an entire novel on it. Could someone direct me to a website where I can learn what I would need to know for this?
You could start at our article Roman Empire, then follow the links and maybe get hold of some of the books cited. I fear that historical knowledge gained only from "some website", might not be enough background knowledge to please any potential publishers. --Saddhiyama (talk) 20:21, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
do you want to write a good book, or is a crap one okay? If you need to write a good one, I suggest picking up the phone and actually callig, during office hours, the history departmen of a big university and, being very polite and making clear that you are just calling for the possibility of talking for a minute with the appropriate professor, ask if they can recommend quality historical fiction set during the time you are interested in, or whether they might have someone in mind who is more interested in the subject and who might know. You might need to play a bit of phone tag, just remember to be polite and to the point tell them who you are and exactly what you are looking for - ideally we are talking about a few minute call. you can try doing some of this by email, but I really recommend the first approach. Once you have the list of recommended historical fiction (incidentally you could try the same question of literary departments) just get those books from amazon, read them an analyze them for why they are so good that they leave someone recommending them years after the fact. buy a standard history of the fall of the Roman Empire and Read it with great imagination, keeping in mind the great works you've been reading in historical fiction and the effects you see, why you feel it "works", and try to repeat the effect with your own story and your own writing. be careful not to repeat phrases literary from the recommended historical fiction you read, even though you respect them an are tryito repeat the effect. (this is a common beginner's mistake, repeating verbatim, and so being "derivative" - same goes for plot; find your own). when you've wrtten the book, hold it to the same scrutiny ad thr recommended books: where does yours fall short? where is it more linear, flatter, less surprising, less clear, less interesting. this last one is important, pay special attention to tricks used to keep the reader turning pages. hint: don't be direct about it ("he had no idea what was coming"). put your manuscript aside after all your editing and read it with fresh eyes a month later. does it hav the same effect as your recommended book? If not, rewrite it and repeat all of the above until you love the book when reading it with fresh eyes. at this point write a kind, former, direct letter to professors of history and literature askin them to kindly review your manuscript and write a few brief comments for you I they would. icoude a self addressed stamped envelope for them to use. if our letter to them is nice, they will give you their thoughts. listen to them and do what they suggest. do another round after the changes, with the same and new professors, but this time include writers. if your manuscript is any good, the establishes writers will recommend your work to an agent, who will get back to you about publishing your work. once a publisher is interested, you will also benefit from their professional editorial services and should end up with a fine book. all of the above has bweb assuming this is what you are writing. if you are interested in writing a crap book, my recommendation is just to watch Gladiator, use your imagination as to why Rome fell afterward, and just make everything up, the only thing you need is actual senators' names from the period and cliches like the barbarians at the borders and so on. use you imagination and write anything you want, a love story intricacy is especially easy as it doesn't require facts, so for feuds and so on. just write Gladiator again, but with Rome falling. don't forget detailed descriptions of well-built pectoral muscles and the like. good luck. 92.230.233.128 (talk) 21:14, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Does your question imply that you are already aware of the historical events but not so aware of the lifestyles of those days? There were a lot of complicated things happening during that time, including the Eastern Roman Empire. Unless your novel has no reference to these, then you would need to study those also. There is a huge amount you could read - from things written by Romans themselves, to non-fiction historical textbooks, to fiction set in Roman times. If I were you I would start reading the more entertaining things first: The Golden Ass and the Satyricon for example, although I don't know what period of Roman history they relate to. There are many textbooks - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon fits your period exactly but I suspect it may be outdated and a too-long read. Fiction includes I Claudius by Robert Graves. Graves lists some of the reading he did to prepare to write that here Tacitean_studies#20th_century. 92.29.115.109 (talk) 21:37, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
92.230's flippant remarks do contain a good suggestion - call the history department of a nearby university (or better, the classics department), and someone there is likely to help you. They'll probably pass you off to a grad student who would be happy to help, perhaps for a small fee (those wacky grad students, always trying to pad their CVs). We also have a specific article, decline of the Roman Empire, which might be helpful for a reading list (don't use Gibbon, at least not exclusively). Adam Bishop (talk) 22:45, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The OP would probably be better off asking the same question at a public library, since have the books to hand and may even be willing to prepare a bibliography if he was seriously interested. The Further Reading sections of the various Wikipedia articles already make quite a long list of things to read. 92.29.117.139 (talk) 22:50, 25 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It is the culture and the lifestyles I was interested in, I want to understand more of the way my characters will act and talk, what they do each day, where they live, where they work and so on, rather than the background of historical events which I have already found. I don't suppose there is an entire website out there dedicated entirely to providing such information, by any chance? And I do already know how to write a book, getting inspiration, not copying, reading back through over and over, and so on, this is just the first I will have attempted where I want an accurate idea of a culture I have no personal experience of. 80.47.204.116 (talk) 09:29, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I found Peter Hall's Cities in Civilization a very interesting academic look at everyday life in a wide variety of cities and time periods. It has well-referenced information on life in Rome in the period from 50 BC to 100 AD, which may be a bit early for your purposes but would still be worth a look. Warofdreamstalk11:32, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I recommend reading Ammianus Marcellinus. His history covers about twenty years in the second half of the fourth century. It is a fascinating primary source, and easy to get in a good translation (I have the one in Penguin Classics). He has chapters on life in the empire, and long rants on the things that horrify him (displaying cooked food in shop windows before noon! daring to boil water!) as well as an eloquent defense of Julian the Apostate. It's interesting to have the perspective of a non-Christian on this period in Roman history as well. Antandrus (talk)13:59, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If your setting will be Britannia (I'm just guessing) decide how, when and where the personal effects of the collapsing structure will be most strongly experienced, get your major themes on paper-- "Being 'Roman'", "Keeping up appearances as the world goes to hell", "an appropriate lifestyle", "Christianity and social class" etc-- and start seeing the world around through your main character's eyes. What are the limits of the character's horizon? What are people simply taking for granted? What's happening that they don't notice? Start with a short story in which one thing gets resolved or doesn't and see how that goes. Why not construct a back story around one of the Roman hoards, the desperate circumstances in which it got buried? What was not buried? --Wetman (talk) 22:09, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Martin Henig (an established historian of Roman art) has done exactly that in his The Heirs of King Verica: Culture & Politics in Roman Britain (ISBN 9780752419602), in which he fictionalises the characters named on objects in the Hoxne Hoard. BabelStone (talk) 08:51, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One of the better novels of this exact time period is Raptor (novel) by Gary Jennings. It covers the fall of the Western empire and the rise of Theodoric the Great. Like all Jennings books, there's LOTS of really weird sexual stuff going on, but if you can get past that, the rest of the book is pretty good. And the time period is exactly when the OP is looking for. --Jayron3204:56, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
To start selling them or to start buying them? If you want to buy some, and you can't find any readily available premade ones, I suspect there are lots of places that make customized pins - I'd search online (but verify that the company is reputable before you order one). If you want to make them and sell them, well you'll probably want a business plan (if you want to make a serious investment), machines that make pins of some sort, a design, etc. Falconusptc03:52, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I wasn't going to make and sell them. Actually, I wanted to purchase at least one. Are there any companies selling premade Deepwater Horizon memorial ribbon pins?24.90.204.234 (talk) 07:01, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Jewish identity
Does anyone know of a book or paper that speaks at length on how adversity helps Jews hold fast to their religious identity/faith? To put my question into context, the Kaifeng Jews never faced bigotry in Chinese society, so they began to assimilate very quickly. In order to advance their family's social status, many Jews gave up learning Hebrew so that they could study the Confucian Classics and pass the imperial exams. This happened on such a wide scale that by 1800 CE, the last Rabbi died leaving no one with knowledge in Hebrew. This is the exact polar opposite of what I am talking about. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 06:13, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Actually the Jews of Kaifeng did not "assimilate very quickly". For a period of about 300 years, when they were totally cut off from any other Jewish community in the world, they continued to observe Jewish practice to the best of their knowledge and ability, and even the many missionaries who tried to convert them during this period were very very unsuccessful. I can speak authoritatively on this subject since I have very recently completed my manuscript of a book entitled "Jewish Religious Observance by the Jews of Kaifeng China" (and am currently looking for a publisher). Simonschaim (talk) 07:57, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I was recently asked on my talk page to better define my question. By their religious identity/faith I meant exactly that: someone who still clings to their faith and thinks as themselves as Jewish. And as for adversity, the setting doesn't really matter because Jews in both Christian and Muslim territories were faced with the choice of conversion or death (and sometimes expulsion depending on the circumstance). A more extreme example of this are the Ashkenazi and Karaite Jews during the First Crusade. These Jews would rather die than convert to Christianity. A less extreme example is when the Jews of Yemen were being threatened by their Muslim rulers during the time of Maimonides. These Jews were told to persevere by Maimonides in his Epistle to Yemen. This is the type of community I would expect a scholar to write about in a paper on Jews clinging to their faith. This is, of course, all dependent on whether someone has actually written a book chapter or research paper on the subject.
Concerning the Kaifeng Jews, scholars believe they were cut off from other Jewish communities by the year 1500. By 1600, they already began to adopt Confucian rituals into their practice. These was even more so evident by 1700. If you have anymore comments about the Kaifeng Jews, please leave it on my talk page. I only used them as an example. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 19:09, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Two phenomena are relevant:
Martyrdom in Judaism, the extreme extent of Kiddush Hashem ("sanctification of the [Holy] Name" rather than its profanation) is maintaining one's Judaic faith and resistance to forced conversion in the face of a death sentence.
The OR answer, to paraphrase Tony Blair, is education, education, education. Traditionally, Jews have been prepared to suffer all kinds of privations in order to ensure the next generation is well educated. Rejection of the religion by those well-steeped in its knowledge has been and is comparatively rare. It also strikes me (more OR) that the all-encompassing aspect of the religion - it also has strong elements of ethnicity and culture - make it hard to really part from, hence the phenomenon of "Chicken soup Jews". --Dweller (talk) 16:02, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to me like something that would be useful from a natural selection standpoint. If you feel bad whenever some other person in your social group has lot of resources or a good mate, you will likely try to acquire the same, which will increase your chance at procreation. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 02:26, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
because your focus is on others, and what they have, instead of on the things you do have. Thankfulness is a good remedy. Also, depending on what you are jealous of, you may only be looking at the positives of something, and not the negatives. (i.e.: People with tons of money have problems that come with that which poorer people don't.)Somebody or his brother (talk) 21:39, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Is there a clear distinction here between jealousy and envy? I'm not convinced that the responses are making the proper distinction (or for that matter, whether the OP means the one excluding the other). To put it simply: "jealousy" is my distress that someone wants what I have (e.g. my spouse, my job) and perhaps fear losing (and that perhaps I don't deserve, therefore can't hold, etc.); "envy" is when I covet something someone else has that I lack. -- Deborahjay (talk) 18:13, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The OP was extremely vague, so the responders are doing the best they can. The two terms are often used interchangeably. And neither jealousy nor envy is very good or useful, in general. Only as incentives to work on getting one yourself. Like a car, for example. Your neighbor gets a new car. Do you steal it? No, you work at getting enough money to buy one for yourself. If it's a spouse, though, if your spouse is intending to run off with someone else, your being jealous up front will do nothing but hasten such an event. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 19:03, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Note 25 he says "Bp.'s Mun., Ely, G 2." which according to here means The muniments of ... the Bishop as 'Bp.'s Mun.' The arrangement of the Episcopal manuscripts is described in A. Gibbons, Ely Episcopal Records. The capitular manuscripts are housed in one room but are not permanently arranged in shelves or cupboards: the numbering used here is that found on the documents when they were examined in 1949-50., so I guess I cannot access these
Note 26 he says "Bp.'s Mun., Ely, B 6." ibid.
Note 28 he says "Rep. of Nat. Soc. 1846–7 (priv. printed)". I believe from here this translates to "Result of the Returns to the General Inquiry made by the National Society, 1846-7 (1849)". When I google book search that term I get modern works such as The Census and social structure:....
Note 32 he says "Archives of Nat. Soc." which means what? The National Society for promoting religious education? If so, they are not digitised
I am trying to find out more about the education (from as early as possible) in Stretham, Cambridgeshire. VCH is a good starting point (see above), but does not give enough general information. VCH references are obscure (to me anyway) in any case. What is going through my head is something like "early (? 15 century) through to the mid 19 century education of the poor in Stretham was led by the church or guilds and feoffees (i.e. charities) as it was in all of England. There were attempts to centralise such education via national societies". I do not have any references or clues if any of that stuff is real. Help me find information on education in Stretham, Cambridgeshire please --Senra (talk) 17:53, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
... is in this photo? It's unclear whether a plectrum is used, but I'd suppose so. I'd think the multistringed outer portion resembles a zither of some sort, but the neck would seem to allow fingering (chording?) with the left hand. -- Deborahjay (talk) 18:31, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I recently saw one of several available online videos of Senator Al Franken drawing a freehand map of the United States. He begins by drawing a mostly straight line which forms the northern borders of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota, then finishes drawing Minnesota, where he's from. As a kid, I was also extremely interested in geography, and by the time I was 10 or 11, could draw a similar map (although not so well, and not in 120 seconds). Anyway.... I found Mr. Franken's drawing interesting because the first state he finishes drawing is Minnesota. When I draw a map of the United States, I start with Utah, where I grew up. This has made me wonder if other people from other states begin their maps with their own state. Just curious and would love to read everyone's input. Thanks! Kingsfold(Quack quack!)19:46, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
When drawing a map of the countries of Europe, I usually start with my native Norway. (Sort of like drawing Alaska first when drawing the US, but maybe not quite.) Jørgen (talk) 20:00, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(Pure anecdotal evidence alert) I have to admit, I haven't drawn the outline of a country or continent in I don't know how many years. I did notice that I'd usually start somewhere at the "top" (or north, like Norway and Minnesota, but unlike Utah which doesn't even participate in the outline!!!). I generally start drawing things (maps or other) somewhere at or near the top, often with a distinctive feature (Norway) or somewhere in the middle of the top (Minnesota). I don't draw very often or well though. ---Sluzzelintalk20:43, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, sorry, I should have watched the clip before answering. Franken doesn't just draw the outline, but all the state borders too! I don't think I've ever done that for any political entity. ---Sluzzelintalk21:43, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Right-handers probably prefer to start at the left-hand side, because then they can more easily see what they have already drawn. Left-handers probably prefer to start at the right-hand side, so that they can more easily see what they have already drawn. (Where do ambidextrous people prefer to start?) Everyone probably distorts the last drawn features the most, because of too much or too little space having been allowed for them.—Wavelength (talk) 22:03, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting side-note. I remember seeing a study where Canadians from different places were asked to draw a map of Canada, and a lot of people greatly overestimated the size of their home province, especially people from the small Atlantic provinces. I'd bet that a lot of people from geographically small states like Massachusetts or New Jersey would do the same. —Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 02:21, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've drawn political maps of Canada and more general maps of North America and the world for my daughter. My map of Canada starts on the west coast, the southern bit of BC. I then draw it mostly clockwise, finishing with the handy horizontal line separating us from the wildlands to the south. Unless I was specifically trying to convey something about the arctic archipelago or the Atlantic provinces, they'd be very rough and (in the case of the arctic) quite generalized. I live in Ontario, though I don't think I draw its borders at any particular time. When I'm drawing North America, I start basically in Baja and go clockwise. I couldn't draw a US political map without some help, though I have no problem identifying all the states on an unmarked map. For a world map (very rough), I do North America first, then do SA, starting at the joint of Panama and going clockwise. For Eurasia, I start in Scandinavia and go counter-clockwise. Matt Deres (talk) 13:48, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What happens if in a jury of twelve (like in most trials in America), 11 are for imposing the death penalty on the defendant while 1 is for life without parole. --190.178.176.120 (talk) 22:35, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The sentencing rules vary from state to state. We have articles on sentencing and sentencing guidelines which I have not looked at yet. A quick survey of google suggests that if the jury can't decide on a sentence within a reasonable time, the judge will recommend a sentence and then they will vote on it. Presumably that kind of negotiation would go on until a decision is reached. The defendant has already been found guilty, so he can't get away without a sentence unless the judge overturns it on the spot, as sometimes happens. I think in some states the judge determines the sentence and the jury simply determines what the guy is guilty of (i.e. murder, manslaughter, etc.) ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 23:14, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
How about a reference, here on the Reference Desk, instead of guessing? Here is a comment on deathpenaltyinfo.org stating that all US states that allow the jury to decide on a death sentence require a unanimous death sentence vote. (In the United States, death penalty trials are held in two stages: First, a trial to determine guilt or innocence; and then a sentencing trial. Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia are key cases.) To go further to answer exactly what happens, if the jury jury in the sentencing portion of the trial remains deadlocked at 11 to 1, it's called a hung jury and there is considered to be a mistrial for the sentencing portion of a trial, and the whole sentencing trial has to begin anew with a different jury. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:21, 26 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Considering that there would be something like 33 states, plus the federal government with their own version of death penalty laws, it would seem more likely that it varies then that it would be uniform. Googlemeister (talk) 13:30, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I get the impression from google that there may be certain standards imposed by federal courts where capital cases are concerned. But as you suggest, every state has its own laws about whether the death penalty is even an option, and each individual state defines its sentencing rules in general. For example, some states have the "three strikes and you're out" rule and some do not, so the sentencing options would differ from state to state on non-capital felonies, at the very least. I'm sure it must be mind-boggling to some non-Americans that we have 50 sets of rules about so many things, but that's "states' rights", constitutionally protected as long as those individual states' rules don't violate the constitution or interfere with things the feds are allowed to regulate, such as interstate commerce. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 13:51, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"Are you absolutely sure it's done the same way in every state" — I am speaking in generalities, and of course every state has its own laws about the conviction of a criminal; but when it comes to death penalty cases, the two US Supreme Court cases I cited above set out the standards that are required in order for a death penalty verdict to be constitutional; and that includes separate guilt and sentencing phases; and a judge can't assign a sentence of death; it has to be a jury; and as I cited earlier, all states currently require a unanimous jury verdict for a death penalty sentence. "A mistrial of the sentencing, not of the conviction, right" — yes; google "sentencing phase" mistrial for many examples. Some states do allow a judge to enter a (non-death-penalty) sentence if there is a mistrial in the sentencing phase. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:34, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The fundamental answer to the original poster's question does not: There is a mistrial in the sentencing portion of the trial. How this is handled afterwards varies, yes. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:38, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No, Bugs. There are no federal regulations. There are Supreme Court rulings. And there is no variation, all states must abide by "separate guilt and sentencing phases; and a judge can't assign a sentence of death". 75.41.110.200 (talk) 04:36, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I removed the unreferenced claim from Childbirth that "Historically, in Europe age was once counted from baptism." It seems that baptism certificates can be a useful source for determining birth date when there is no birth certificate, but I get the impression that both dates are recorded, and age is still reckoned from birth. Is that right, or have some cultures reckoned from baptism instead? If so, we should probably update childbirth, ageing, birthday, and infant baptism (or consolidate age reckoning coverage). -- Beland (talk) 05:56, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've never heard of such a way of defining age before. It is true that Christians often refer to baptism as being "reborn" or "born again", but I've never heard of them taking that metaphor so far as to restart their measuring of age. --Tango (talk) 14:25, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Unless you believe in various forms of baptismal regeneration, you're not going to equate baptism and being born again or reborn. I've never heard either term being used of baptism — those who adhere to some form of baptismal regeneration, such as Catholics and those in the Churches of Christ, believe baptism to be necessary for salvation, but they don't hold that it is responsible for one's salvation. I'd guess that the dating factor is responsible, since before the advent of groups such as Baptists, everyone in Christendom was baptised as an infant. Nyttend (talk) 02:50, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not only baptised as an infant, but usually baptised within the first month. Infant mortality was high and baptism was performed as soon as practical. And remember that church baptism records were the only legal register of birth. 75.41.110.200 (talk) 04:31, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Heidegger and Monty Python
Heidegger was the only philosopher who was alive enough to have the opportunity of registering that he was mentioned by Monty Python in both Bruce's Philosopers Song, and in the philosohpers football match. Does anyone know if he knew anything about it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.166.173.115 (talk) 08:19, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
". . . the only philosopher who was alive enough . . . ." Does this mean that philosphers exist in various states of semi-vitality? Has this got something to do with Schrödinger's cat. Or did you mean ". . . alive long enough . . . ? 87.81.230.195 (talk) 18:10, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Heidegger was 80 or so when MPFC started in 1969, he died some 5 or 6 years later, and according to Bruces' Philosophers Song, the song itself was never featured in the TV show, but appeared in stage productions, and thus likely originated sometime close to or after Heidegger's death in 1976. So I suspect not. --Ludwigs201:38, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If long tube socks were fashionable with sneakers in the 1970s, are short below-the-ankles socks fashionable with them now? It would be interesting to see the history of hosiery over the centuries, which seems to encompass more than just socks. Who decides these things, anyway? 8) -- Beland (talk) 11:45, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Inuit death rituals
What did the Inuit traditionally do with their dead, especially those in the very far north? I mean, burial would be tough because there is permafrost. There was probably not a ton of extra wood or other fuel lying around so they probably did not burn their dead. Burial at sea might be an option in the summer, but it would probably be very difficult and dangerous to do in the winter. So what did they do? Googlemeister (talk) 13:25, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Alternatives to North Anna for Grant in '64, & Chickahominy in '63
I'm working on a book with the Battle of Chancellorsville as a Union win, with a shorter ACW (by about 18 months) and many things easier than OTL later. As you don't do hypotheticals, I've narrowed my question to our timeline, as what happens after alt-Chancellorsville is similar to the Overland Campaign. I'm figuring Lee & Longstreet (who arrives after the Union has taken Spotsylvania & they're unable to dislodge them) try a last ditch effort, with a much more badly bruised Army of Northern Virginia, to destroy part of the Union Army at something like our Battle of North Anna.
Two (Sorry, it became three :-)) questions:
1. Looking at historyanimated.com, it looks like the North Anna is how the Union would need to go for a straight shot at Richmond, but would manuevering west, around the Chickahominy, have been viable, or is that too far out of the way? How exactly did Hooer plan to go toward Richmond?
2. Our article says the Chickahominy River overflowed with floods in 1862 and '64, but is there a way to find out how much it had flooded in May of 1863? It's probably a seasonal thing, but I don't know. (I do know there were heavy rains in the Fredericksburg area in early May.)
Actually, I found some cool maps at americancivilwar.com, maybe I'll just wing it on the first one - given the disparity in '63, I suppose I don't have to be too specific - it's only to give background and introduce some soldiers on both sides who might have died, sort of like The Winds of War.Somebody or his brother (talk) 17:59, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Judicial acts in "His/Her Majesty Name"
In countries with the King or Queen as Head of State, such as England, Canada, Thailand, etc., the acts of the courts are required to be performed "in the name of His/Her Majesty" because of what reason?
For example:
A warrant of arrest (in Canada): "This is, therefore, to command you, in Her Majesty's Name, forwith to arrest the said..."
Section 197 of the Constitution of Thailand, 2007: "The trial and adjudication of cases are the power of the courts, which must be proceeded by justice in accordance with the Constitution and the law and in the name of the King."
Are the acts of the courts in the countries with other kind of Head of State, such as, President, Emir, Sultan, etc., required to be performed in the name of the people, the soveriegnty or the Head of State?
The monarch is the "font of justice" - the source from which justice comes. Traditionally, the monarch has absolute power and anyone else has power only because they have been granted it by the monarch. --Tango (talk) 15:42, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
At least in the UK, the Queen is sort of two separate things. She is a symbolic personification of the country ("The Crown", "Her Majesty"), and she is a person. That's why, for example, she has two birthdays: one is the official birthday of the monarch, the other is the birthday of Elizabeth. As such, when things are said to be done in Her Majesty's name, at Her Majesty's pleasure, in the Name of the Crown, etc, they are being done in the name of the abstract symbolic personification of the country, not in the name of Betty :) 86.164.66.83 (talk) 17:25, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In medieval England, the Sovereign would personally dispense justice - there is a Biblical precedent for this in the Judgement of Solomon. The royal court would make laws, issue charters and be the final stop in the legal process. The House of Lords was the highest court in the land until a few months ago. Judges still represent the Sovereign when in court. Until very recently, when the Queen visited a town, court sittings were suspended because it was obviously impossible to have the Queen and her represntative acting as the Queen in the same place. I wouldn't be surprised if a more pragmatic approach is taken these days. Alansplodge (talk) 20:14, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What about constitutional law?
In monarchies where the power of the government is limited by a written constitution (like Canada), what happens when a law is deemed unconstitutional? Does the court rule in the name of the queen that her own law violates her own constitution? Or does the constitution belong to the people (as the contract between the crown and its subjects)? 142.104.139.204 (talk) 20:18, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Presumably, an individual has to challenge the constitutional status of a particular law; the case would then be "A. N. Other versus Regina" - the court would then decide in favour of the plaintiff or the defendant (being the Crown). I'm not an expert or a Canadian though. Alansplodge (talk) 16:13, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In Thailand, the Constitutional Court does decide, in His Majesty' Name, as to whether a law (or a project of law - a bill, for instance) is inconsistent with the Constitution. All Thai laws are signed by the King and countersigned by the Prime Minister (or other person as may be required). — 203.131.212.36 (talk) 15:27, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to say more about Thailand that a case as to the constitutionality of law or bill in Thailand is noncontentious. Such case is instituted by an ex parte request submitted to the Constitutional Court ("CC") by any empowered institution, such as a required number of Senators, an Ombudsman, an Administrative Court, etc. And the CC will decide in favour or against the request. In its trial, the CC may summon any person taking charge and control of the law or bill to give statement, such as an explanation as to whether the request submitted is well grounded. The CC can decide the case in the name of the King, because it does not rule against the King or anybody.
For example: In 2003, a number of Senators submitted a request to the CC for its decision as to whether section 12 of the Individual Name Act, BE 2505 (1962) is constitutional. The said section prescribed that a femme couverte must adopt the family name of her husband as her own family name. The CC summoned the Minister of Interior in charge of the Act to give representation, and then resolved, by 13:2, that the section was unconstitutional. Therefore, the said section 12 ceased to be in force from that time onwards.
What are the main dishes for "far" vegetarian, quasi-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, macrobiotics, vegan, and raw food diets? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.116.38 (talk) 14:57, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There are no "main dishes". There are all kinds of different dishes that vegetarians eat, just as there are all kinds of different dishes that omnivores eat. --Tango (talk) 15:43, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's probably fair to say tofu substitutes for meat/fish/et al., though I've only had it once where it was prepared with what I'd call flavor (!). As I understand "degrees" some consider fish as within vegetarian limits, some not; same for eggs. PЄTЄRS J VЄСRUМВА ►TALK15:58, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
At the risk of digressing, there are far more "substitutes" than tofu. I've been vegetarian almost all my life and tofu is about as boring as it gets. Protein foods also include a huge variety of nuts and beans. See also meat analogue and its links. We also have a variety of articles about vegetarianism etc.--Shantavira|feed me16:22, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I frequently eat vegetarian food (since my mother is vegetarian) and we never have tofu. It's horribly stuff. We eat a lot of quorn, though. We get most of our protein from cereals and pulses (various kinds of both), though, which is fairly typical of vegetarian diets around the world. --Tango (talk) 17:18, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know of anyone who eats a significant amount of Tofu, I never eat it.
Curries with paneer, beans and peppers, bean chillies, pasta with grilled vegetables, root vegetable stews now and again. A reasonable amount of salad. Quite a lot of soups. Clearly the curries option covers a pretty wide range of things and I'd say I have a couple of curries a week, of various kinds.
For some ideas on how to expand your vegetarian options, I suggest reading about Indian cuisine. Indian food is fairly often vegetarian, but tofu only pops up rarely. --M@rēino15:15, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Modern Asian Secret Societies?
The Bilderberg Group and the Freemasonry are influential, western secret societies. Are there any powerful & influential asian secret society today? What are their group names? 192.75.118.47 (talk) 16:40, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Triads are organised crime groups rather than secret societies. There is some overlap between the two (in that secret societies are often accused of illegal activities, or at least the covering up of such activities by members), but I don't think many people would consider Triads to be secret societies. --Tango (talk) 17:14, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm looking for the names of the asian secret societies which has influences in politics and military like The Bilderberg Group and the Freemasonry. I'm not looking for triad organzied crime groups. 192.75.121.45 (talk) 17:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
You may be looking for something that no longer exists. In the past, the Green Gang and others had significant direct influence in Chinese politics and the armed forces, but those days are long gone. Today, the triads such as Sun Yee On, Wo Shing Wo and 14K are what is generally referred to as "secret societies," both in law and in common usage. DOR (HK) (talk) 02:19, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]
murder compensation common law
is there any way for a wife to claim compensation from her husband's murderer in a civil court .I want to know this with regard to common law countries like india or uk and can a political party leader be held responsible for the actions of his partymen eg if his party men go and kill people of a particular sect after he makes an inflammatory speech against that sect.has this ever happened in india.i know that leaders have done this in india but have they been booked under any provision ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.248.18 (talk) 18:14, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
i read about that . thanks a lot nananic .but isnt it the gov thats paying for it? i want to know whether you can make the murderer pay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.93.248.18 (talk) 19:22, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've just been looking at the CICA website [1] and they don't mention paying compensation to relatives of murder victims. --Tango (talk) 20:20, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The political leader wouldn't be responsible for the actions of anyone else, but they would be responsible for their own actions. Incitement to commit violence is a criminal offence in the UK (and similar offences exist elsewhere). --Tango (talk) 20:20, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There's a lot more going on in your question than the previous answers have acknowledged. As to your first sentence, yes, in civil court a surviving spouse or child (depending on statute) can bring wrongful death actions. Those actions weren't typically permitted at common law (actions died with the plaintiff) but are available by statute or otherwise available now in most U.S. states and I think in the U.K. too. That's suit against the perpetrator though. As for compensation from someone else, i.e. the government, i.e. the taxpayer, I guess the above responses sort of answer that, but that's not classic civil law. That's more of an administrative response. Shadowjams (talk) 08:55, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, there is statute in the UK that provides for the right to sue - I linked to the relevant Act just above your post. --Tango (talk) 13:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The article says in the 13th century in Venice "bills of exchange" were developed as a legal device to allow international trade. Since this would have been a very important document, what type of "paper" was this written on (so the writing would not have faded) and how was it protected from thieves or forgery? How long would a "bill of exchange" have been good for before it was no longer honored?--Christie the puppy lover (talk) 20:06, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
These bills of exchange wouldn't have been required to last for long periods of time, so I don't see why the writing fading would be an issue. They were probably written on ordinary paper. I would expect they used the same kind of seals as were used to authenticate letters. --Tango (talk) 20:30, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Would the "document" have been in the format of flat book style or rolled up like a scroll? If a scroll, would there have been a protective or decorative "ribbon" wrapped around the document? Can you elaborate on this of a "seal" to authenticate? What would the vellum probably been made of? What animal? --Christie the puppy lover (talk) 20:46, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Vellum usually came from cows or sheep, depending on the area (an interesting sub-field of codicology is determining where the animal actually came from). I'm not sure about the size, but earlier in the cheque article it says the Templars wrote in a code only they could decipher (that sounds pretty suspicious to me though). Chirographs could be used to authenticate medieval documents but I don't know if they did that with cheques. Adam Bishop (talk) 21:29, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If a "bill of exchange" was a scroll of vellum, would there have been a protective or decorative "ribbon" wrapped around the document to hold it together? If in a codex format, would there have been a "ribbon" to hold it together?--Christie the puppy lover (talk) 20:07, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know a definitive answer to the question about the ribbon, but since nobody else has given one: to me it sounds like asking "does a cheque have an envelope"? i.e. I expect the answer is "yes, when somebody wanted to put one on, for tidyness, or to make it look impressive, or to entrust it to a carrier, or ... ". --ColinFine (talk) 06:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Use of copyright law in an educational environment.
What is the current state of affairs regarding copyright laws in the classroom? If a lit teacher wanted to for example show small clips from for example "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" to their students to illustrate the recurring theme of man versus self and how it applys to todays popular media, Would he or she be able to play those clips? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.0.75.27 (talk) 20:32, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There is no general copyright exemption for educational uses (educational users have to respect copyright as well), however there are some small, specifically worded, exemptions in some cases. I'd suggest you look at our Copyright in the United States article (assuming you're in the U.S.) but mainly suggest you ask your school's administration for some guidance. Any reasonably sized district should have some policy in place regarding this sort of thing. Shadowjams (talk) 21:36, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would actually discourage you from trying to read the copyright articles on your own... you probably are not capable, without doing a LOT of additional reading, of making informed legal judgments on the question of what is or is not fair use in that context. (And neither are we—we can't give legal advice.) For a good overview of the general questions and some suggested guidelines, I would however recommend reading the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center's Copyright FAQ chapter on Academic and Educational Permissions, as well as maybe their chapters on Videotaping for the Classroom and Proposed Educational Guidelines on Fair Use. They give very good, practical advice based on previous case law (which is how all fair use judgments are determined, unfortunately, making it quite a vague piece of legislation). Their "proposed guidelines" recommend "up to 10% or three minutes, whichever is less, of a copyrighted motion media work (for example, an animation, video or film image)." This is not a hard-and-fast rule (there are none in fair use cases!), but is a deliberately conservative, fairly "safe" recommendation. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:42, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Is a license required for the operation of two-way radios such as this or these? I was looking into them as an alternate method of communication during storm spotting, rather than amateur radio and cell phone, but if it requires a license, it makes amateur radio a more appealing option. I notice our two-way radio article says that they need a license, but it seems unreferenced, and I have yet to hear of a simple two way radio needing a license except for certain frequencies (such as police/fire/emergency management & amateur radio frequencies)...if two-way radio use actually does needs a license, how might one be acquired for such a purpose as communication between two vehicles during storm spotting, and would it be easier or harder to obtain than an amateur radio license? (And before anyone suggests it, cell phones would be a relatively bad option due to spotty service in the rural areas of the Great Plains). Thanks in advance, Ks0stm(T•C•G)21:02, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
CB radio is a possibility...but I already explained in my original posting why mobile phones would be a rather sketchy option. In the end, though, unless my original questions are answered, I can't weigh all the options as I would like to. :-) Ks0stm(T•C•G)22:57, 27 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, how might one obtain a license for the GMRS one of those? I'm blind...I should have thought to check the article...=P I need sleep. Ks0stm(T•C•G)04:12, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
July 28
Type of artillery
Any idea what kind of gun is visible on the right edge of this picture? The scene is the Odd Fellows' Cemetery Mound near Cincinnati; my goal in taking the picture was the mound, and I only noticed the gun as I was preparing to upload the image this evening. Nyttend (talk) 03:15, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not based on particular personal knowledge, apart from judging it to be a 75/76mm weapon. I just compared it to the images in the WWII American artillery category. The angled gun shield with the cutouts appears to be distinctive to the M5. Acroterion(talk)03:57, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's not a veterans' section, because I remember that several gravestones on the edge of the mound (funny how often whites built their cemeteries around Indian mounds; see Mound Cemetery for a few examples) were simple headstones of couples and lacking the little US flag markers such as you see in this photo. Perhaps it's part of a memorial, however, since there's the flagpole with the US flag behind the gun and the big wooden sign to the right of it. Per its name, the cemetery itself was originally IOOF, and some of the cemetery's oldest gravestones (far older than World War II) are at the mound. Nyttend (talk) 17:29, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I've seen some veterans' memorials in unlikely spots, although I'd think that an old anti-tank gun would be more at home outside the local VFW or Amvets than the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Still, maybe the influence of the old Indian mound made somebody think that it was a fine place for obsolete commemorative artillery. Acroterion(talk)18:57, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Scientific techniques for dating of stone inscriptions
What are the scientific techniques used by experts for dating stone inscriptions? I am under the impression that Radiocarbon dating is not of much help for stone inscriptions. Are there any tools ( geological/ chemical/ radiographical/ etc.) for dating stone inscriptions when palaeographical and relative dating techniques fail? Are such techniques used to check whether a newly discovered inscription is fake or not? 180.149.48.245 (talk) 08:25, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not that I'm aware of. I think that most radiocarbon datings of this sort look for something biological that's obviously from the same strata or same area. If the stone is igneous there might be some other methods, for instance seeing the magnetic polarity of the stone... but that's a little different than radio carbon dating. You might have better mileage at the science desk. Shadowjams (talk) 08:51, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One technique that may be of use is to analyse the surface 'glaze' or 'patina'. The term patina itself usually refers to metal and wood artefacts, but a surface 'finish' can also form on stone (partly from bacteriological activity) over extended periods (and I'm sure there's another term for it, but I can't remember what it is - something to do with wind? Anyone?).
Examination of the inscription may reveal, by the amount of patina (if any) that has appeared in the grooves or whatever, whether the inscription is new or roughly how old it is in comparison to the uninscribed surrounding surface. However, such patinas can be faked (as well as inadvertently altered or removed by cleaning), and the science of their analysis seems not to be as well developed as one might like.
There have been attempts to prove or disprove the authenticity or all or the latter part of the "Yaakov bar Yoseph Achui de Yeshua" ("James son of Joseph, Brother of Jesus") inscription on the James Ossuary by analysing its real or faked or accidentally altered patina, but the results are much disputed. The patina of the Jehoash Inscription has also been analysed. 87.81.230.195 (talk) 09:54, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Are there any beliefs held by religious Jews (ie from the Torah and Talmud) that are "absurd", in the way that Thomas Aquinas meant when he wrote (of his own faith) Credo quia absurdum est (loosely, It is precisely because what I believe is absurd that I say I believe in it)? For example, I mean "absurd" in the sense that an item is supposed to be 100% human (Jesus) and 100% Godly (his father). It's easy to believe in that, but it is "absurd" in the sense that I mean. So, my question is whether there are any beliefs held by Jews that are likewise "absurd" or require believing in a contradiction? 92.229.14.166 (talk) 08:59, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't have the full context on your definition of absurd, but something like the anomaly in creation stories in Genesis, would that apply? Shadowjams (talk) 09:04, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not the OP, but I shouldn't think so. What would be absurd in this sense would be a belief that God literally created many humans as the first humans, male and female, at the exact same time, as well as believing that he literally created Adam as the first man from whom all humans are descended, and then later created Eve from Adam's rib. I don't know if there are many Jews that believe that: there aren't many Christians who do. That belief might be based on the Genesis, but (if I'm understanding the question right) it would be that specific, contradictory belief that would be absurd, not that writings exist that can be so interpretted. 86.164.66.83 (talk) 09:44, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Such a belief, Shadow + 86, is indeed maintained by many uninfored, ill-educated individuals of many faiths, Judaism included. But that would certainly not be a core belief of Judaism. See Natan Slifkin and his work The Challenge of Creation. Judaism prides itself on being reality and not subscribing to any belief which is contrary to such a premise. Christian beliefs such as transubstantiation and, as you mentioned, Jesus being 100% God and 100% man at the same time are completely foreign to Judaism. This is not to see that there are not controversies and disputes and many other similar issues that arise and require intense scrutiny, evaluation and assessment when facts about the world are realized (such as planet Earth orbiting the Sun -- the Talmudic scholars indeed mention that they maintained that they initially thought that the Sun half orbited the Earth and then returned "over" the sky to reach the eastern horizon for the next day), but in tune with Judaism's goal of being a reflection of reality, such intrinsic contradictions are highly undesireable and those who perpetuate them are rapidly neutralized if not by quantity then at least by a rational minority. Sometimes inane people must be left to preach as they will. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)09:57, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Well, there are lots of Jewish beliefs that at first glance are contradictions, but most have explanations, making your question hard to respond to. --Dweller (talk) 12:31, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Explanations exist in RS for any contradictions I can think of, Bus stop. If you choose to disagree with them, that's your POV, but it doesn't negate their existence. --Dweller (talk) 13:20, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
By RS you mean "reliable sources?" OK, some beliefs can have explanations. But I think many do not. I wasn't responding from a Wikipedia point of view. I guess I was responding from a "gut level" point of view. I don't perceive the posed question as calling for a specific answer, but rather at best a well-reasoned response. The halachot of kashrut I think would be a good example. Of course reliable sources exist in which explanations are offered. I don't think the "reasons" offered are the equivalent of rational explanations. Bus stop (talk) 13:22, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OP Here. I don't like the word contradiction, let's use "absurdity". I'm not interested in whether "absurdities" have an explanation: for example, there is a very good explanation for the "absurdity" that a certain living man (Christ) was at once a normal living man and at once God himself. I don't care if there's an explanation for it - I want to know what the absurdity itself is. So far in this thread no one really mentioned Jewish "absurdities" (or Christian "absurdities", for that matter). I don't want straw-man "absurdities" that nobodoy really believes. (That a priest/minister/rabbi etc will never mention in the same sentence).
I'm not intrested in "plot holes" that are not thought of, but rather "absurdities" that are actively encouraged to be believed in. 92.229.14.166 (talk) 13:32, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Every faith has beliefs that are not amenable to rational interpretation. Christianity, because of its particular historical path, has had a lot of philosophers trying to rationalize its irrationalities (that's fairly unique - I can't think of another faith, off hand, that has put as much effort into explaining its own inner irregularities as Christianity has). Judaism largely doesn't do it: either you're in the camp that believes its tenets or you're not, and there's not a lot of debate between the camps over ontological or epistemological concerns. --Ludwigs213:35, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
To build on that excellent answer, Judaism has always placed more weight on action than belief. But you may find Maimonides' 13 Principles of Faith an interesting read. Bear in mind it arrived pretty recently in Jewish history - less than 1,000 years ago - and against a historical background of pressure from Islam and Christianity. --Dweller (talk) 13:43, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The OP says that it is "easy to believe" that "Jesus" is "100% Godly" and "100% human." I don't find that "easy to believe" at all. Therefore I don't understand the question. Bus stop (talk) 13:40, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I guess no one should ever introduce you to the wave/particle duality of light, lest your head explode. Seriously: light is at once a hundred percent a wave, and if you test it as such (refracting off corners and shit, interfering it with itself) you'll see that it is 100% an electromagnetic continuous wave. It is at once 100% a particle, and if you test it for whether it behaves in a fully particulate way, for example, being blasted off in individual, discrete photons, you will find that it is. Being asked to accept that something is a hundred percent discrete and a hundred percent continuous is no more "absurd" than the statement about man and God. So, to phrase the question in a way you can understand: does Judaism include anything like the wave/particle duality, wherein one thing is simultaneously two, mutually exclusive, things? `92.229.14.166 (talk) 14:03, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Jesus died. But many people died. And many people died on a cross -- it had no significance prior to Jesus. Why do we care about Jesus? So Christianity maintains that he's God -- that God died. Now that's certainly significant -- but what exactly is that? How can God die? -- it's an intrinsic contradiction! So he has to be a man so that he can die but God so that it matters. What's more, Jesus is the son of God, but he's also God. Isn't the definition of God that he is infinite? So if the father is God and he's infinite, then what worthwhile portion does the son fulfill? And if the son is necessary, the father is clearly not infinite. And the entire thing vice versa. As explained above, such nonsensical contradictions are not present because Judaism maintains itself to be completely in touch with reality. And then there's transubstantiation. And there may be many more, but I'm not nearly a Christian scholar. But none of these types of cyclical dark paths exist in Judaism. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)17:04, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Why do you suppose they invented the concept of the "Trinity"? Also, a lot of false messiahs popped up and were rubbed out. This story turned out differently somehow. That doesn't prove Jesus is the Messiah. But there was apparently something special about Jesus. Either that, or he just had a good agent. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 02:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Heh, that's pretty clever. However, someday we'll have a better scientific understanding of light; the same is not true for Jesus. Adam Bishop (talk) 15:02, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Based on your definition that the religion instructs people to simultaneously believe that something is two different contradictory things, it's hard to come up with anything. As explained above, this may be because Judaism is more interested in people doing stuff the right way than believing stuff the right way. --Dweller (talk) 14:26, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In that case, are there any simultaneous "prescriptions and proscriptions"? Are you asked to do A and to do B as well, whereas the two are plainly contradictory? 92.229.14.166 (talk) 14:46, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Famously, Jews are commanded to keep the 613 Mitzvot. That's impossible. To give a few examples, you need to be a man and a woman, simultaneously a Cohen, Levite and Israelite etc. But I suspect that falls into what you described above as a "plot hole". Similarly, Henry VIII's canon lawyers had fun with seemingly contradictory laws about not sleeping with your brother's wife and the instruction to marry your dead brother's widow, but even a child could perceive the reconciliation between the two.
Your examples are irrelevant. It's like asking how cops can be employed to maintain highway speeds and also instructed to violate this very law that they are bidden to protect. There's no contradiction involved, and there's similarly no contradiction involved when Judaism maintains a hierarchy of regulatory protocols such that A is obligatory and B is prohibited and a clash between A and B yields a necessary kneeling of one before the other. Moreover, your strawman comment about each individual being obligated in 613 commandments -- it's just not a proposition, so there's no need to refute it. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)16:50, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The answers above don't seem to address the actual OP question. Here's an idea that is closer (though perhaps not all there): One of the central narratives in Judaism is God's promise to Abraham and the patriarchs that he will be faithful to them and bless them and make their descendants numerous and prosperous. This narrative is central to the Torah, but is presented simultaneously with the narrative of the Hebrew nation as a "remnant" of survivors. Several times in the Hebrew Scriptures (and many times in history since then), the Jews are almost completely wiped out. Often in the Bible these events are said to be caused by God. So the Jews are God's favored blessed nation who will prosper with God's help, and at the same time they are constantly being decimated by foreign powers. These two narratives would seem to be in conflict, but the tension between them is one that Jews embrace rather than flee from. Staecker (talk) 12:19, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There were a few different covenants, and some did indeed require Israel's faithfulness. Not all of them did. In particular God's promises to Abraham were unconditional: Gen 12. Staecker (talk) 21:01, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OK- now you're talking about Christian theology. I was answering a question about Judaism and Jewish theology and world-view. In Judaism, the "natural Jews" are the only Jews and they have not "disqualified themselves" from God's covenants. Staecker (talk) 01:02, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
OR, but, I think the most likely route would have been by sea, which would take far less time than having to cross the Alps and then the mountainous regions in the Balkans. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK)13:24, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There were a few routes. You could go by sea, say from Bari or Messina or some other port, and avoid most other countries, although there might be a stopover in some of the Greek islands like Crete or Rhodes, and maybe also Cyprus. This, of course, was much easier when all the islands along the way were crusader or Venetian possessions (in the thirteenth century and later). I think the sea route only took a few weeks in the best weather (or a few months in the worst). It was only a day from Cyprus to the mainland, anyway. But travelling by sea was proverbially dangerous; there were pirates, storms, shipwrecks, and Egypt usually had a capable navy. The land route took much longer, naturally. You could cross the Adriatic from Bari in Italy to Antivari or Dyrrhachium, then along the Via Egnatia to Constantinople, which, depending on the time period, would usually take you through strictly Byzantine territory, but was sometimes Hungarian or Serbian or Bulgarian, and for awhile that area was also ruled by crusaders or Venetians. The route from Constantinople to Jerusalem would go through Byzantine Anatolia until the late eleventh century, but after that Anatolia was controlled by the Seljuk Turks and later the Ottomans. Southeastern Anatolia also had an Armenian kingdom along the route in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and during that time the rest of the Mediterranean coast, Antioch to Jerusalem, was mostly part of various crusader states. Before the twelfth century, it was ruled by the Abbasid Caliphate or the Seljuk Turks (sometimes as clients of the Abbasids, sometimes not), and Jerusalem itself passed between the Abbasids/Seljuks and the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. The Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties in Egypt usually controlled Jerusalem from the thirteenth century onwards, and Christian pilgrims were usually allowed to go there, but not always. During the worst periods of warfare between the Ayyubids, Mamluks, crusaders, and Mongols, travelling there was extremely dangerous and sometimes did not happen at all. In the fourteenth century the whole coast was controlled by Mamluk Egypt and it was much safer, and as far as I know the Mamluks (and the Ottomans, in the sixteenth century and after) were generally tolerant of pilgrims. Anyway, travelling that route might take all year, certainly many months at least. One other route would involve no sea travel at all, by walking north from Rome around the Adriatic, then southeast through Hungary/Serbia/Bulgaria/Byzantine territory to Constantinople, and the rest is the same as above. That would add another month or two to the trip. You can check the routes of various medieval travellers who went to Jerusalem. Early pilgrims like Egeria, the author of the Itinerarium Burdigalense, and the German pilgrims of 1064/1065, although they didn't start from Rome, went in that general direction. Various contingents of the First Crusade went on these various routes (as did other crusades, the Seventh for example). Marco Polo also went by sea to Acre (although I don't think he ever went to Jerusalem). The Muslim Ibn Jubayr went by sea from Spain, although Mecca of course was his goal. I would recommend "Early Travels in Palestine", a nineteenth-century collection of pilgrimage accounts by Thomas Wright, as well as the more recent "Jerusalem Pilgrimage: 1099-1185" by John Wilkinson et al., and "Four Paths to Jerusalem" by Hunt Janin for more info. Adam Bishop (talk) 13:28, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A tighter definition of period may well help, as Adam suggests. Arguably, the "Middle Ages" stretch for about 1000 years. While technology has obviously changed faster of late, it is an interesting parallel for you to think about how someone would do that journey today (2010) and how they would have done it in the year 1010. Between c.500 and c.1500 (to take one definition that I don't like, but let's just make it easy with round numbers), the technology changed much less, but the relative safety or insecurity of different routes would have varied enormously.
Other points worthy of asking - what religion/ethnicity is your traveller? how wealthy? what sex? what is the purpose of their trip? All will play a part in the answer. --Dweller (talk) 14:05, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There's an interesting map from the German wikipedia article on the First Crusade [4]. Three of the five armies crossed the Adriatic Sea to enter the Byzantine Empire at Epirus. Other than that, all armies took land routes. Sleigh (talk) 05:17, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, embarking an entire army (and its warhorses, pack animals and other supplies) on ships is an altogether different question from a single traveller. Nonetheless, the land route would have had certain pros, as well as certain cons, as discussed above. Besides which, if I remember my First Crusade texts (which I probably don't) there was a strong element of trying to impress the Emperor/cajole him into supporting the project, which having the armies at his gate would certainly support. --Dweller (talk) 15:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Vellum
In the medieval period, was vellum usually manufactured by tanners, who more commonly made leather goods, or was it more a specialty process and had its own tradesmen specifically to make it? I suppose it might vary from place to place, but just as a general rule in 13th C England. Googlemeister (talk) 13:51, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This isn't my specialty (and I should really ask the people I know who do specialize in this), but it does depend on when and where. Monasteries originally produced their own, since they owned so much land and had plenty of cows and sheep to use, and monks were the only ones writing anything anyway. It was a specialized process but the monks did it themselves. If you're talking about thirteenth-century London, then there probably was a special guild for that sort of thing, and eventually even monasteries bought parchment from elsewhere. I'm not sure where specialized bookmakers got their material though. Adam Bishop (talk) 15:16, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, our article isn't very good yet, you'll find the answer in a few places there. It refers to the attack on the Israelites by the Amalekites, described in Exodus. It's deemed both cowardly (they attacked the weakest first) and as a theological challenge against God, coming, as it did, immediately after the crossing of the Red Sea, when Pharaoh's armies were destroyed. Oh, and incidentally, (hoping to be helpful, not merely pedantic) the singular of mitzvot is mitzva (or mitzvah - take your pick when it comes to transliteration styles). --Dweller (talk) 15:47, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The historical nugget seems to be that in the immediate pre-monarchy period, the Amalekites lived to the south of Judea, and in various ways were in direct competition with the Israelites and/or generally allied to the enemies of the Israelites... AnonMoos (talk) 17:00, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
However, the historical reality of Amalekite-Israelite antagonism which led to the story seems to be that in the immediate pre-monarchy period, the Amalekites lived to the south of Judea, and in various ways were in direct competition with the Israelites and/or generally allied to the enemies of the Israelites. AnonMoos (talk) 05:43, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
AnonMoos, that explanation is true of many other tribes - Philistines, Edomites, Ammonites, Grizzites, Jebusites to name but a few, none of whom are subject to the same astonishing laws as the Amalekites. --Dweller (talk) 18:29, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It can't be known for sure, but there are a number of possible factors which might explain the difference -- such as that the Ammonites and Edomites were far enough away for most Israelites to be able to ignore them when there wasn't an actual war on; the Jebusites only had one city, and were apparently decisively defeated with a single attack when the time came, etc. The Philistines were certainly strong enemies of the Israelites, but they had a kind of different way of life than the Israelites, with more focus on maritime and coastal trade and less focus on dispersed hill-country agriculture. It may be significant that the tribe of Simeon, which originally seemed to be the leading Israelite tribe, but later on lost its political autonomy and almost seemed to vanish, had its tribal territory directly facing the Amalekites... AnonMoos (talk) 19:08, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The first mention of the concept of "the destruction of Amalek" is at the end of B'shalach (Ex 17:14), immediately after Amalek attacks the Israelites on their way out of Egypt -- by proximity, it's thus evident that our contention with Amalek stems from a time prior to the settlement of Canaan. The forefather of the nation of Amalek, Amalek himself, was the grandson of Esau, and the metaphysical destruction of Esau through Amalek can be thought of as the fight between good and evil for all time. So one can take the position that their existence and their "mission" is divinely ordained. From another perspective, R' Hershel Schacter (YU) has been quoted as saying that there is an opinion that Amalek refers not to a specific nation but to the arch enemy of Israel. In turn, the Nazis and radical Islam can be said to be Amalek, even though the latter originated from Ishmael, Mr. Amalek himself's grandfather's uncle. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)23:13, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, could you expand on, or provide a link for, "the metaphysical destruction of Esau through Amalek can be thought of as the fight between good and evil for all time"? I don't quite follow. Esau never came across as anything close to evil in my reading of Genesis, just rather hard-done-by and amazingly forgiving of Jacob. I always felt bad for him. Is there some tradition, or additional text, in which Esau is evil? 86.164.66.83 (talk) 15:14, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's an interesting question. The only other place I've seen this happen is related to terrorist attacks, but that is because there is a specific U.S. law which allows this to happen. As this Congressional Research Service report explains: "Ordinarily, foreign States, including their agencies and instrumentalities, may not be sued in U.S. courts unless they waive their sovereign immunity or an exception under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) (28 U.S.C. §§ 1602 et seq.) applies. The FSIA provides a list of circumstances where U.S. federal courts will not recognize foreign sovereign immunity. In these circumstances, U.S. courts may exercise jurisdiction over a dispute and treat a foreign state as if it were a private entity. It does not establish liability or a cause of action; it merely removes foreign sovereign immunity as a defense to the courts’ jurisdiction." However our article on FSIA makes pretty clear that this is not the first time that states have been sued as a result of artwork seized during the Nazi era — see Republic of Austria v. Altmann. Looking at FSIA's exceptions directly, my guess is that this falls under "property taken in violation of international law," but I am no lawyer. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:40, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That exception only applies if the property is involved in commercial activity by the foreign state within the US, so it doesn't seem to apply. I don't see any exception that looks like it applies to me. Even if the court does claim jurisdiction, I don't see how it can enforce any rulings anyway. --Tango (talk) 19:59, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The CRS article discusses enforcement options, which are indeed very weak. (As probably they should be—forcing other countries to recognize laws in ones domestic jurisdictions is problematic in terms of sovereignty, and trying to enforce rulings like this through diplomatic means seems like a division of powers problem... the judicial branch generally does not make foreign policy.) Anyway, it would seem that whatever Austria v. Altmann used would be sufficient, exception-wise. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:24, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's different, though. The ECHR only has nation states as defendants and those are nation states that have signed up for it. And I don't think its rulings are enforceable, either. --Tango (talk) 21:39, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I never said it wasn't different from the specific US case, but it's covered by the formulation of the OP's original question: it is possible to sue a country. I don't know if there is some obligatory mechanism that would punish a state that doesn't respect the ECHR's rulings, but in practice they generally are respected, at least by EU members, as far as I know (Bulgaria hasn't been able to get away with it, at any rate, and we would have if we could). By the way, there's a broadly similar (yet, in another sense, reverse) case at this very moment: the country's ex-monarch Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha is suing Bulgaria for refusing to hand over to him some property that used to belong to the Crown but was confiscated (or, from the state's viewpoint, retained) by the new republican (and communist) government after WW2. Indeed, I wonder why the Herzog heirs chose to sue Hungary at a US court instead of the ECHR, Hungary being a EU member.--91.148.159.4 (talk) 15:15, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, I remember that ad campaign! Good question. Although I have no direct knowledge of this, according to the article itself, Coleco declared bankruptcy 3 years later, and the offer was to small children; so I'm going to suggest the answer is "they paid none of the scholarships". Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:31, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Josephus reference to James brother of Jesus
In the first paragraph of the article Josephus on Jesus it states - "The second passage mentions James as the brother of Jesus (who was called Christ), possibly James the Just. Most scholars consider this passage genuine." and cites - Louis H. Feldman, "Josephus" Anchor Bible Dictionary, Vol. 3, pp. 990. I hoped to find this book on Google Books in order to verify exactly what Feldman has to say, and how he came to a conclusion that merits the assertion in this article. Unfortunately Volume 3 does not appear to be online (and I don't think the volumes that are online have a preview facility anyway). So I cannot make this verification. I would like confirmation that the cited page supports the assertion made in this article. So would it be possible for someone to track down this book and insert the relevant quote either into the body of the article, into the references section or into the relevant talk page? I have found a few references to the same source on the websites of various Christian apologists which quote variations of the phrase "almost universally acknowledged.", but I would like to know the context of this phrase and how this 'near universal acknowledgement' was determined. 87.194.131.188 (talk) 22:31, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid I can't help you with the book, but I can say that, contrary to these claims of "almost universally acknowledged" authenticity, my past reading around this subject suggests that a substantial proportion of scholars in the relevant fields think the passage is probably at least partially a later insertion, most likely by a Christian copyist who genuinely thought that an ambiguous reference must be to 'the' James or Jesus, and added a marginal or interlinear explanatory gloss that was later taken to be Josephus's original words - such accidental incorporations are not uncommon from the era when all writings had to be hand copied. James and Jesus were of course very common names in 1st-century Palestine. If I can recall specific references for this viewpoint in the near future, I'll come back to add them, but it's midnight and my brain is approaching shut-down mode :-) . 87.81.230.195 (talk) 23:01, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There are actually two separate passages in Josephus; everybody agrees that one has been subsequently elaborated by Christians; however 87.194.131.188 was referring to the other passage, which is a brief unelaborated passing mention embedded in a narrative, and therefore doesn't raise any particular suspicions on textual grounds. AnonMoos (talk) 05:40, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
"A Novel"
When did novels start printing "A Novel" on the cover, and is this a requirement either by law or merely a heavily practiced "clarification" in the industry? Novel (the article) hints the practice began around 1760, but I seem to recall suddenly seeing the words "A Novel" appear on more and more hardcovers back in the 1990s, and novels before that don't all seem to say "A Novel" on the covers; I wasn't really paying attention though, I may in fact have just started noticing the phrase back then. – Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies23:04, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Not all novels have "a novel" written on the cover, so it can't be a legal requirement. I expect publishers include it if the title is something that makes it unclear whether it is a work of fiction or non-fiction. You sell your product better if people that want that kind of product can find it. --Tango (talk) 00:30, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's my understanding that lots of novels began as novelettes, in the form of weekly installments in a local/widely distributed newspaper -- Great Expectations is a good example of this type of serial publication. Perhaps the term "a novel" developed as a way of differentiating small, discrete works of literature from those apparently small, apparently discrete works of serialized (long) stories. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)03:03, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This may be a regional thing. I'm in the UK, read a lot of novels, and haven't noticed this on more than an occasional cover. Where do you live? --Dweller (talk) 11:28, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not the OP, but I see it frequently here in S. Ontario. FWIW, I think Tango is correct; I don't read much fiction, but my recollection is that it's mostly on stuff either with a title that could be confused with non-fiction or with a title that's very short and therefore ambiguous. "Tango: A Novel" lets you know that the book is a work of fiction and not, say, a documentary about the dance (or the unauthorized biography of a WP editor!). Matt Deres (talk) 14:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the responses. I'm in the US. Maybe I've just been seeing more novels with "A Novel" printed on it recently—I've been looking up a few cover images online and I'm not seeing "A Novel" on every single hardcover either. Looks like a clarification thing then. – Kerαunoςcopia◁galaxies16:29, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
They don't. The Irish flag is green-white-orange, and the Italian flag is green-white-red. They are both of the same style of flag, called a vertical Tricolour. That article has a history of that kind of flag design; it dates from the French Revolution. The specific history of the Irish and Italian flags can be found at Flag of Ireland and Flag of Italy. --Jayron3204:49, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This reminds me of an office I used to work in - we were having some sort of multi-cultural celebration and lots of flags were up, with the names of the relevant country with each one. Everything went well until somebody noticed that the Irish flag was now the Hungarian flag..... --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK)17:25, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Most European flags look the same because Europeans suck at flag design. Most of them are just vertical stripes, horizontal stripes, or a cross. Sometimes they put a logo on them, but most of their logos are just a shield, so even some of the ones with logos on them are hard to tell apart. 24.68.50.170 (talk) 18:57, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No, that is not true. Flag designs are essentially testimonies of the historical period in which they were created, fashion is always subjective and varies over time. Notably the latest inventions in Europe (like Bosnia and Kosovo flags) are staunchly different from the older more classical style. --Soman (talk) 19:09, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
So I guess it's the time periods that sucked at flag design, not the countries. Either way, if your flag is the same as the next country over but with one stripe a different colour or the flag turned sideways, then someone failed at creativity. It was also not a very inclusive choice for people with colourblindness. 24.68.50.170 (talk) 19:21, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, if you ever get a chance to design the flag of your country, stay away from using green, which is a pretty reliable indicator of a second-rate nation. A few countries have managed to be decent places even though there's green on their flag, but don't assume that your country could overcome the handicap. 71.72.155.232 (talk) 02:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would guess that that relationship is spurious. Countries that have green on their flags tend to not do well because green is one of the Pan-African colours and is sacred is Islam; in turn, African and Islamic countries are poorer for, let's say, historical reasons. 142.104.55.7 (talk) 03:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Green functioned quite well for say Saudi Arabia. Libya is by African standards a very wealthy country, I think second only to South Africa. Red-white-and-blue didn't really ensure wealth and progress for Liberia, on the other hand. --Soman (talk) 15:57, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't like Monaco's flag, it's a bit too boring, although Belize is worse. I agree with you about British Columbia's flag. The good Canadian provincial flags are Quebec, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and all three territories. I should also point out that several U.S. state flags look more like corporate logos for the state rather than proper flags. 24.68.50.170 (talk) 04:37, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Vexillologists hate all "seal-on-a-bedsheet" flags, and a considerable number of U.S. state flags fall under that category... AnonMoos (talk) 22:03, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That comment led me to review the flags of the U.S. states, and I see what the Vexillologists mean. Then I was curious about the thin blue strip in the flag of Tennessee, and went to the article to find out what it signified. The article quotes Colonel Reeves, the flag's designer: "The final blue bar relieves the sameness of the crimson field and prevents the flag from showing too much crimson when hanging limp." I love Wikipedia! ---Sluzzelintalk22:12, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What, you mean to say that you can't tell the Flag of Slovakia and the Flag of Slovenia apart?? The French vertical tricolor was an example for many countries in central and southern Europe, the Danish Dannebrog was an example for most Scandinavian flags, and the horizontal tricolor of the Netherlands influenced the German flag and (through the Russian horizontal tricolor) the flags of many Slavic countries. However, the flags of Switzerland, Greece, Czech(oslovakia) and the United Kingdom do definitely depart from basic horizontal or vertical bicolors/tricolors or Nordic crossses... AnonMoos (talk) 19:18, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Tricolors are often a reflection of 19th-century nationalists' and republicans' (anti-monarchists') identification with the French First Republic and the earlier Dutch Republic. Many crosses originated with Crusader flags. The flag reference books compiled by Whitney Smith (Flags through the Ages and Around the World, 1975) and Alfred Znamierowski (The World Encyclopedia of Flags, 1999, 2006) both have individual pages devoted to themes such as the star, the cross or the tricolor, and how they spread to different flag designs. ¶ As for any similarity between European flags, I think there's just as much (if not more) similarity among Latin American flags and among African flags (partly reflecting Pan-American or Pan-African histories and hopes). It's definitely true of Arabian and North African flags, inspired by Arab nationalism, i.e. the hope that the Arabs would one day form a single powerful nation with a single flag (cf. the United Arab Republic). —— Shakescene (talk) 19:38, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Book of Ezra Chapter 10: 15 says, "Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this matter; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them.” Were the first two guys Kohanim? --Ghostexorcist (talk) 04:58, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This is WP:OR, but I don't think so. The text is usually quite careful to give people their honour when they are Cohanim and Leviim - see Shabbethai in the same verse and Ezra himself in the verse that follows (although it often skips Ezra, for obvious reasons). Rashi is no help - I've currently no access to any other commentators, but I wouldn't really expect them to help either. --Dweller (talk) 11:26, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'm writing a review for a book that theorizes the Kaifeng Jews are descended from a group of disgruntled "priests, nobles and levites" who disagreed withe Ezra's divorce proclamation and headed east. My review already punches holes in several of the author's other theories, I just want to make sure I am covering all of the bases. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 23:46, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder how either side could be substantiated when the biblical comment is made so flippantly and no significance to who they were is really mentioned. DRosenbach(Talk | Contribs)02:47, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In short, the inscriptions left by the Jews mentions Ezra last in a long line of prophets and that they still knelt during prayer as late as the 17th century. As I mentioned above, the author theorizes the group who disagreed with Ezra left for the east. Since kneeling was prohibited by Jewish sages sometime after the fall of the Second Temple, the author reasons the group who parted with Ezra brought this practice with them to the east. This is total conjecture on the author's part. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 03:55, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The date of Pope John Paul XXIII apology prayer for the Jewish people.
I have been searching the Internet with Google for several days trying to find the date on which Pope John Paul XXIII issued an apology prayer for the Jewish people.
Here is the prayer that I copied from a reference somewhere. It is late and I cannot remember or research the URL of the source at this moment. I am hoping someone is familar enough with the prayer that the URL is not needed. If it is needed I will do the research for it tomorrow and edit this question. I am sure the prayer itself is in the public domain and not copyrighted to anyone.
"The mark of Cain is stamped upon our foreheads. Across the centuries, our brother Abel has lain in blood which we drew, and shed tears we caused by forgetting Thy love. Forgive us, Lord, for the curse we falsely attributed to their name as Jews. Forgive us for crucifying Thee a second time in their flesh. For we knew not what we did."
I need to know the exact date this prayer was released to the public.
While you're waiting for a forthcoming reply to your particular query (with which I'm unfamiliar), you might pursue readings related to Part Four of Nostra Aetate that came out of the Second Vatican Council, that's highly pertinent to Pope John XXIII's approach to defusing (as opposed to diffusing :-) historical antisemitism in the Catholic Church. -- Deborahjay (talk) 08:40, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There is a church in Paris, on Rue Saint Honoré called Église Saint-Roch. When walking inside, there is the Tetragrammaton behind the main altar. It is surrounded by stained glass which seems to have the Star of David in each one. When walking further behind, there are two Menorahs, and between them there is the ark of the covenant (with Catholic symbols engraved in it). Anyone else noticed this? I'm sure it could all be coincidence, as I've seen all of these things separately in other Churches, however this just seems like its too much. I tried asking the priest, but he either didn't understand me, or was reluctant to answer me. Is there a good explanation? Could they be Marranos? -Solid Reign (talk) 08:34, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Tetragrammaton was a common church decoration in the 16th-19th centuries (see a lot of photos at commons:Category:Tetragrammaton, and a six-pointed star of two triangles can be called the "star of creation" or "Creator's star" in a Christian context. Not sure about an apparent heavy concentration of Jewish symbols in a church, though... AnonMoos (talk) 09:21, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Some of these older churches had people "sponsor" artwork. Is it possible that one or more of the sponsors was Jewish and simply included a few aspects of Judaism in the artwork he requested? Googlemeister (talk) 12:53, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Ark of the Covenant is considered lost by most people of the Abrahamic religions.
I think that the simplest explanation is that the use of Jewish imagery is just an acknowledgement of Christianity's Jewish heritage. Paul (Stansifer)13:19, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hm.. I doubt it. It was always my understanding that Christianity wasn't proud of its Jewish heritage until Pope John Paul II called Jews the elder brothers of Christians. Or at least until the formation of Israel. I could be wrong though. -212.194.13.84 (talk) 07:32, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Where did you get the idea that Christianity wasn't proud of its Jewish heritage until the formation of Israel? It seems a strange connection in my own experience, but obviously your experience includes something that makes this look likely. 86.164.66.83 (talk) 15:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I always understood Jewish/Christian relations to be pretty bad until recently. A lot of things happened in that time, the holocaust had just ended and had recently become public knowledge, Christian Zionism gained popularity, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were found right around its formation. Since the Dead Sea Scrolls mention a lot of the same things that Jesus did (and many were from before he lived), it helped the Church embrace its Jewish heritage. So it wasn't just the formation of Israel that affected the relationship. After that, things started to change, with the Second Vatican Council, and John Paul II. It's just my impression, though. Nothing too researched. -Solid Reign (talk) 20:21, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That makes sense. I always got the sense that, while Jewish/Christian relations were pretty bad, that didn't actually prevent Christian churches from celebrating their Jewish heritage. That the prevailing view would hold that Jews after Jesus showed up were, in some way, culpable or abandoned, whereas Jews before Jesus showed up were part of God's chosen people, living out his plan. So a church would happily include references to and imagery from Judaism as represented in the Bible, while simultaneously saying and doing horrible things to and about current Jews. 86.164.66.83 (talk) 21:22, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Portable Seminary
There is a book called the Portable Seminary that in essence claims to be seminary in one book - is this the only book of its kind, or are there others like this. If there have been other book that claim to be all of seminary in one book; what are their titles? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.174.137.73 (talk) 09:01, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If you look at the reviews on Amazon, they stress that the book claims to be an overview of seminary stuff, not the equivalent of going to seminary. In particular, it's hard to imagine anyone suggesting that you can have a good understanding of the subject of Christian theology without reading at least one other book. (But even people who have a sola scriptura attitude recognize the necessity of hearing from authority figures; it's just that they think the Bible is the final authority.) Paul (Stansifer)18:46, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I am trying to find information about a Soviet officer who was supose to press "The Button" of a ICBM launcer when his computer, wrongfully, told him the US launched a first strike against the USSR. He dint do it and ended up saving alot of lives. I read it on wikipedia a long time ago. But I cant find it anymore. Anyone care to help me out?--SelfQ (talk) 15:39, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I couldn't find a noticeboard to ask about images, so I thought I'd try here.
The photo to the right has "1934/III-2/2" typed on it. What does this mean? In particular, does it mean the photo was taken or published in 1934? The uploader is claiming they took the photo for the Greek Wikipedia, so if "1934" is a year then I would strongly doubt it. -kotra (talk) 17:49, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
TinEye found two copies of this image elsewhere on the web. This site claims the sculpture is on display at the Cyprus Archaeological Museum in Nicosia, so I am guessing that it's a museum photograph and they put that tag there while taking the photo, for their cataloging purposes. It's pretty clear the editor did not take that picture himself. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:30, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A date at the beginning of a museum's cataloguing designation usually indicates the date the item was accessioned, so in this case it wouldn't necessarily indicate the date the photo was taken. Deor (talk) 20:56, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, both! If the conclusion is that the photo was taken as part of a museum's cataloguing, I think we can assume the uploader did not take it for the Greek Wikipedia as he or she claimed. Thanks for your help! -kotra (talk) 21:09, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What type of plant?
What type of plant is this of the leaves of the handbag?
These appear to be simple, stylized leaves executed in raw-edge machine applique. Have you considered asking the Flickr user who posted the photo, by means of a comment? -- Deborahjay (talk) 20:54, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In comparison to humans appearing in the pictures, they generally seem a bit taller (1.8-2.1 meters?). However, the most frequently recurring human character (lilla my) is presumed to be short, perhaps also in comparison with other humans. --Soman (talk) 20:58, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
...and I think they are an entire species, there's at least four in the family, but I think the books feature distant relatives on visits etc. now and then. --Soman (talk) 20:59, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I don't see My as a human. I think she belongs to a species (or is it a family?) called mys, and likewise Toft is a toft, Whomper is a whomper, and so on. In some places - Tales From Moominvalley does this a bit - Tove Jansson uses the words like species names, as in "a small whomper", and so on. Then again, Snufkin is apparently the child of The Mymble* and The Joxter, so I don't know what species or even family name that rather loose clan go by. There are endless Hemulens. Many of these creatures look almost exactly like humans; others (hemulens and snorks) are hard to tell apart from moomins; others look distinctly like small rodents (creeps, for instance). Some of the creatures clearly stand for personality types - fillyjonks (I'm sure it sometimes appears in the plural) are fussy, paranoid ladies, hemulens are loud, boring sportsmen with no self-awareness. (If they are species, some of the fillyjonks must be male and some of the hemulens female, which certainly isn't how they come across. Perhaps they bud. Who knows.) The Moomins seem more like a family, since I don't recall any other creatures called moomins appearing in the books; they have ancestors, one of whom (if Too-Ticky is reliable) is The Dweller Under The Sink, and is small, silent, and hairy, and simply called "a troll". Other creatures (the silk-monkey) are also small, foolish and live in the wild, like animals, although they still talk a bit. Moomins are sometimes referred to in the books as "small animals". They often appear somewhat small when seen next to plants and wildlife, [5] but perhaps plants grow large in Moominland. I think it is all deliberately ambiguous and moomins have no definite size due to the lack of any objects to compare them to which are definitely from our universe. (I've always been curious where the factories are which make their stoves and handbags and mouth-organs and so forth. Do these objects grow in shops, like the Village Stores which appears in Comet in Moominland? Or is there a dark side to Moominland, a grimy city somewhere, full of miserable working-class animals?) *note: there are two Mymbles, completely morphologically different. 213.122.24.57 (talk) 01:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
No, there never evolved a fan base in the way of Tolkien, who would codify an entirely alternate universe regarding the Moomins. Btw, Snorkfröken has a brother which doesn't have an article in English wikipedia, but in some others (like Swedish). According to Swedish wikipedia (unreferenced though) snorks as distinct but closely related to moomins, the sole substantive difference is that snorks change skin colour when upset. --Soman (talk) 23:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's preying on my mind now that some hemulens are obsessive collectors rather than sportsmen, and also that at one point there is a hemulen aunt, so there are female ones alright. This is all completely outside the scope of your question, sorry ... except it makes me more inclined to think that moomin might be a species. 213.122.18.192 (talk) 12:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Is it 'hemulen' in the English translations? That's a bit weird. In Swedish the species would be 'hemul', and 'the Hemul' is Hemulen. --Soman (talk) 23:43, 30 July 2010 (UTC)</ref>[reply]
138.110, I enjoyed your joke, but usually we use the <small> and </small> tags around jokes to make it clear we're not really continuing the thread. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:44, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If the Metric System had been invented by Jews, he might have considered moving away from it. Hitler gave us the Volkswagen and also, indirectly, the Interstate Highway System. Even an insane hog finds a nugget once in awhile. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 02:11, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
A friend told me about a supposed incidence in 1930s Germany where a all trains and busses in revenue strapped Germany were stopped and passengers without tickets were shot. Can anyone verify this? I haven't been able to find any information regarding it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.136.22.5 (talk) 21:38, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What is the population of the average electoral district in Australia? I assume they are determined roughly based on having equal populations, the same way each electoral division in the USA has roughly the same population. Is this true, and if so, what's the population?
If it's not the case, then how do these divisions get determined?
Do you mean the local "Electoral districts" which are used to elect members of the State legislatures, or the "Electoral divisions" used to elect members of the Australian House of Representatives. There are no figures for this in the articles per se. If you wanted the local districts, they are located under titles like "Electoral districts of (blank)" where "(blank)" is the state name. --Jayron3202:54, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In Bengali Brahmins article Kayasta Bengali Brahmins are not there why?
In "Bengali Brahmins" article "Kayasta Bengali Brahmins" are not there why?
According to your article "Kayasta" article Kayastas are Brahmins and holding dual cast status Brahmin and Kshatriya.
So kindly mention all bengali kayasta peoples name and there surname in the "Bengali Brahmins" Article.
Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.227.130.233 (talk) 03:17, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It is not the scope of Wikipedia to list the names of every person who belongs to a particular arbitrary grouping of people. See WP:NOT for a description of the stuff we generally don't put in the articles here. --Jayron3203:31, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
do people in afganistan or Iraq have the right to kill American soldiers there?
Do people in afganistan or Iraq have the right to kill American soldiers there? I mean because we made war on their country. In general, if you go to war with a country and conquor them, do they have the right to kill you? or only during the war (until you conquor them). if it's only during the war, when does the war officially end, so that it's wrong to kill you after that - how do people know? for example, was the war officially over when Hussein was captured, since he was there emperer? 92.224.207.77 (talk) 10:35, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That is an interesting and hard to answer question. I would certainly grant any of the prisoners in Guantanamo and (formerly) Abu Ghraib the individual right to self-defense, including deadly force. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq is harder to judge. It's not a traditional war between states, in which there is a clear delineation between combatants and non-combatants. Arguably, the current war in Afghanistan is justified by the UN security council resolution. But even then, that puts legal obligations on the allied troops, few of which are strictly observed (or , to be fair, practical in the situation). Violations might again justify individual acts of self-defense. It does not, I think, justify indiscriminate bombings (by either side, again to be fair). Much of the moral ambiguity could be resolved if the West followed its own legal and moral principles, even if inconvenient. But that comes at a cost, both real and politically, that few politicians would be ready to bear. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 11:25, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
In both Iraq and Afghanistan, there are national governments that support the presence of the troops, so there is no automatic right under local law or international law to fight the troops because they aren't officially an invading or occupying force. You could refuse to recognise those national governments, claiming they are puppet governments of an occupying force, but that wouldn't hold up in court since they are courts of that national government. Really, it's an academic question since you only actually have rights that you are able to invoke. --Tango (talk) 12:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
If that were the case, there would still be an ongoing war and the coalition forces would be invaders. Attacking invading troops is usually legal (under local law, which is the law that would actually be enforced in courts rather than summarily by the troops). --Tango (talk) 13:40, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It most definitely IS relevant. The reason we went into Afghanistan was directly connected to 9/11/01. We didn't "make war on their country", we attacked the Taliban, who were involved in trying to protect the architects of 9/11, some of whom we've caught and some we haven't. As was the reason for invading Iraq (again), though it was on less firm reasoning. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 13:31, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
So the people of Afghanistan were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, thats news to me. I wonder if Halliburton were not going to gain millions would they even be in Afghanistan or Iraq. Mo ainm~Talk14:03, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
UTC)
: You both pose interesting questions: if a country conquers your country after your country killed five thousand cilians there, do you have the right to kill the soldiers in that country (also if you are a civilian, as many fighters in Afghanistan or Iraq were not regularized soldiers in uniforms). so does a civilian have the same right to kill your soldiers as soldiers would? also did Iraq have the right to produce weapons of mass destruction and scheme to eradicate New York and Washington? I think countries do have the right to produce weapons of mass destruction, if they want, but maybe they lose their right to attack conquering soldiers if they do...92.224.207.77 (talk) 14:20, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Iraq did not have the right to produce weapons of mass destruction, the UN resolutions were pretty clear on that. But Iraq scheming to eradicate NY and Washington - what makes you think they did that? If anything, it has been suggested that the Iraqis actually thought the US supported them. Unilynx (talk) 16:10, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
what about the other part of my question? if you do something the UN forbids, do you still have the right to kill soldiers that invade you? 92.224.207.77 (talk) 16:14, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I was unclear. I meant invoke without facing legal consequences. The insurgents (if caught) face criminal charges. --Tango (talk) 13:40, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Right after 9/11, Bush said we were going to go after the 9/11 conspirators, "and countries that harbor them". The immediate reaction from the Taliban was to complain that we were talking about them. (Apparently they had a guilty conscience.) As far as "the people of Afghanistan" causing 9/11, maybe not directly, but they are the ones who allowed the Taliban to rule their country, so they can't claim total innocence. When you make war on the U.S., you pay the consequences, be it invasion (as with Afghanistan and Iraq), or nuking (as with Japan), or both. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 14:33, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
And you were the ones who allowed Bush and Chaney rule yours. All you are short of doing now Bugs is beating your chest a shouting USA USA. Mo ainm~Talk14:38, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, and we eventually voted the Republicans out. Did the Afghanis vote the Taliban out? I don't think they even had that opportunity. They preferred to cower in fear. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were enemy actions, and when someone declares war on you, the idea that they have the "right" to kill your people when you take action against them is ludicrous. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 14:42, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Right, so it would be ludicrous for US soldiers to kill any Afghanis or Iraqis who take action against them. Good to know. Thanks Bugs! 86.164.66.83 (talk) 15:05, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Afghan government was harboring the people who caused 9/11, so whatever disaster that happened to them was due to their own folly. The USA has the right to defend itself. Someone asked me about 9/11, "What if we had done nothing?" We tried "doing nothing" when the terrorists blew up that Marine barracks in the 1980s. "Doing nothing" against them doesn't work. Action has to be taken. As for Iraq, our premise for invading was faulty. But not our premise for invading Afghanistan. The question of whether Afghanis have the "right" to shoot at us silly. Obviously, they have the power to do so. And whether lingering there is in our best interest remains to be seen. But they are not innocent little lambs. ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 15:35, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
thank you, I see most of what you're saying. you say "As for Iraq, our premise for invading was faulty. But not our premise for invading Afghanistan". So, does that mean that since the premise was faulty for Iraq, but not Afghanistan, it is silly to suggest that Afghans have the right to kill us. But Iraqis have the right to kill us, right, since we invaded on a wrong premise? Or do you not have the right to kill someone even if they invade your country with a wrong premise? 92.224.207.77 (talk) 16:18, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think the best way to answer the question is to call up your local (in case you live in the US) NRA office and pose the question, if a foreign army (for whatever reason, and with whatever rationale) invaded and seized control of the US, oversaw a re-draft of the US constitution and organized elections to legimize their presence, would it then be acceptable for US citizens to use armed resistance? And there you would get a reasonable answer to the question, from a US rightwing point of view. --Soman (talk) 15:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What is implied by "having the right" to kill a soldier or someone else? Is it a moral question, like "Will I be punished in the afterlife for it?" or a present day pragmatic question "Will the judge or jury or appeals court spare me from punishment because of a defense that I had the right under the writings of a prophet/international law/the Geneva Conventions/some constitution/common law/natural law to make war and kill the person?" Regarding the American Revolution, conservative William F. Buckley once said that George Washington and his co-conspirators had every moral right to rebel against their King, but that King had every legal and moral right to hang or shoot George Washington if he had captured him. There was a collaborationist government in France while the French Resistance killed German occupiers in WW2, and there was a Quisling government in Norway when resistors spied for the British. Having a validly elected government or an imposed puppet government has little effect on the moral right to oppose occupiers. An occupying force is not going to tolerate the killing of its soldiers because the insurgents/patriots/terrorists claim a moral right to kill occupiers. The Taliban government provided a sanctuary for the organizers of the 9/11 attacks, and refused to stop providing a base of operations. That seems a valid basis for the country which was attacked on 9/11 to use its military to remove the Taliban from governing Afghanistan. Refusal to stop the use of their country by terrorists on the part of the governing Taliban was effectively a declaration of war by Afghanistan, or at least a declaration of being a failed state which cannot /will not act responsibly toward other countries. That said, it is easier to invade and occupy Afghanistan than to make it a modern democracy with a strong central government. This is especially true when the occupying power is not willing to be ruthless in reprisals, punishment of hostages, and collective punishment in general, like the WW1 Germans were in the Rape of Belgium. Targetting houses where Al Queda personnel are with bombs from drones is a less ruthless form of this than the collective punishment of random people from an area which was popular in the 19th and 20th century. There are many folk tales from around the world about punching a sticky creature made of petroleum, but just getting more entrapped in it the more you fight, with separation, however unrewarding, being the only "victory." This might be like the proposal of George Aiken in 1966 that the US simply declare it had won in Vietnam and pull out. Professor Donald Snow explicitly called for "The Aiken Solution" in Afghanistan, on the grounds that no matter how long the occupying forces stay, no matter how big a "surge" is sent, there can never be a "victory" like the signing of a surrender document by the Japanese government on the battleship Missouri provided a victory in WW2. Edison (talk) 15:16, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That's a lot of cigars, but I have a vague recollection that he was known for chewing on them as much as smoking them. I could be wrong. But it's hard to imagine living to the ripe old age he did without getting any lung ailments, if he actually smoked that many cigars in one day. (I see that he apparently died from a series of strokes, which can be connected with tobacco - but he did live to be 90.) ←Baseball BugsWhat's up, Doc?carrots→ 14:38, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Tobacco usage is not a simple A->B form of causation with lung ailments. It's probabilistic — it increases risk factors in biologically complicated ways. Which is all to say that one cannot form conclusions about whether it does/does not do anything based on individual cases, but on groups, populations. It's perfectly plausible that Churchill could have smoked like a chimney and not had any problems; some individuals just don't manifest any. That doesn't establish anything about the safety of cigars, though. I only point this out because the simple causation model (which has understandable public health appeal) leads a lot of people to say, "well, I've heard of someone who doesn't fit into that, thus it must be wrong," but this is a very incorrect way of thinking about it. Better to emphasize the risk factor approach from the beginning, because it contains within it an understanding of how to go about getting correct information from the beginning.--Mr.98 (talk) 14:47, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
People often smoke cigars without actually inhaling the smoke, you just let it fill your mouth and then blow it out. That means your lungs are usually ok. There are still risks from the nicotine and from mouth and throat cancers, though. Cigar#Health effects discusses this a little. --Tango (talk) 14:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Alright, some more references Michael Paterson's "Winston Churchill: Personal Accounts of the Great Leader at War" (David & Charles, 2005) states that he "did not smoke more than eight or ten cigars a day" (p23), but one page earlier: "It has been estimated that he went through cigars at the rate of 4,000 a year and that his lifelong total was therefore a quarter of a million".
Encyclopedia of Smoking and Tobacco (Arlene B. Hirschfelder, Oryx Press, 1999, p66): "He smoked at least 10 cigars a day, roughly 3000 per year, amounting to over a quarter of a million over his lifetime"
Isaac Frederick Marcosson wrote that Churchill smoked nine cigars a day, adding that "he smokes only half of each cigar as he is constantly talking and having to relight it. The cigar butts are carefully collected into a tin box and are given to the head gardener for his pipe." (Marcosson, Before I Forget: A Pilgrimage to the Past, Dodd, Mead, 1959, p177).
I couldn't find out what these estimates are based on, or who was counting. Nor could I find anything about his smoking habits in 1944 significantly differing from other years. ---Sluzzelintalk21:45, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Christopher G. Moore, Canadian author, was born in 1946 according to the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) authorities database. Other sources, such as Wikipedia and Fantastic Fiction list him as 1952. Which is correct?208.74.208.242 (talk) 15:58, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Top Secret America says that there are 854,000 people with top secret clearence in the USA, out of a population of - whatever it is. The Stasi were I understand a high proportion of the population of East Germany. How do countries vary in the proportion of their population who work in security of some kind such as secret agents and the police? Thanks 92.24.178.254 (talk) 20:15, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Resistance to the Metric System
In the question a few steps above, there is some mention of American resistance to the Metric System. Other than inertia and familiarity, why is that? Metric has a generally consistent internal logic, what with base ten, rather than weird numbers like how many inches in feet and feet in miles. Aaronite (talk) 20:24, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
What makes you think there is more to it than just inertia and familiarity? Humans are generally quite resistant to change. They don't need a reason beyond that. --Tango (talk) 20:50, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
One difference between the United States and Europe is that in many cases political elites in European countries can push through changes such as adoption of the metric system or abolition of the death penalty whether the majority of the population is in favor or opposed (and in many countries a majority was opposed to such changes at the time they were first enacted). This may make Europe more enlightened than the United States, but it doesn't make it more democratic... AnonMoos (talk) 21:57, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
We've had this discussion before, but think of it this way: Esperanto is a much more logical language than English is. Should we dump English and all speak Esperanto? Most English speakers would object to that, because English, for all of its quirks, is intuitive to those who have lived with it their entire lives. Feet, inches, miles, etc. may seem strange to those who aren't used to it, but for those who have lived their entire lives with it, it's intuitive -- to an American, "Everyone knows how far a mile is." -- Mwalcoff (talk) 22:48, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Is the metric system actually used by everyone in Europe? In Canada, where the metric system has been used officially for almost 40 years, we still use non-metric measurements in normal speech. Adam Bishop (talk) 23:44, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The French vertical tricolor was an example for many countries in central and southern Europe, the Danish Dannebrog was an example for most Scandinavian flags, and the horizontal tricolor of the Netherlands influenced the German flag and (through the Russian horizontal tricolor) the flags of many Slavic countries. However, the flags of Switzerland, Greece, Czech(oslovakia) and the United Kingdom do definitely depart from basic horizontal or vertical bicolors/tricolors or Nordic crossses... AnonMoos (talk) 19:18, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
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