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January 18

Staff name

What do you call the person who buys ordinary stuff for the office, e.g., tea, coffee, pen, pencil, and so on. I was thinking of the word runner... Also, could you give me something to read where it specifies an organization's staff (titles) hierarchy or so.

123.108.244.156 (talk) 17:07, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It's going to depend on the company. In my company it's called the purchasing department. You could check Purchasing management, Procurement and Accounts payable. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:21, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

For a lot of small or medium sized companies, that task is performed by the office manager or equivalent. Incidental items for office use is part of a companies indirect spend budget. uhhlive (talk) 19:46, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You could call them an admin assistant or procurement assistant. --Viennese Waltz 20:45, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

For your second question, it's going to change from one company to the next. And just seeing a title doesn't mean that you're going to know what they actually do or how they would fit into an organization's hierarchy. For instance, Customer Support Engineer Analyst. Does that mean that with 'engineer' in the title that they actually build anything? Not in this case. So, do they analyse what the engineers build? Nope again. Would this position be above, below, or at the same level in the hierarchy as a Customer Support Engineer? Again, you can't answer that because the title is too vague to know from an outsider's perspective. †dismas†|^(talk) 21:00, 18 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Factotum 196.213.35.146 (talk) 06:47, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Dogsbody. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:33, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In London, the dogsbody was officially called the "office messenger" and was often a retired soldier. Alansplodge (talk) 10:59, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Did he pay for it out of his own pocket? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:13, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Tea, coffee, milk, sugar, pens and pencils are commonly paid for out of petty cash. Akld guy (talk) 19:07, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Not necessarily. In a larger company, office supplies may be bought in bulk by the purchasing department, and food and drink supplying may be outsourced. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:25, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Gofer? Bus stop (talk) 19:45, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

January 19

Random vehicle registration plates

In my country, vehicle registration plates are issued sequentially in ascending order, and I imagine this applies pretty much everywhere. But has any jurisdiction ever issued them in random order? For example, after CRX-385 comes VGQ-109, then BVW-687, then TES-984 .... -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:38, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In Britain there is a 7-character plate. 1 and 2 are two letters identifying the issuing office. 3 and 4 are the last two digits of the year (if registered between 1 March and 31 August). Registrations in the next six months have this number augmented by 50. 5, 6, and 7 are three letters allocated randomly. 81.139.249.156 (talk) 08:43, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

How about we provide a reference? [[1]] is Wikipedia's article about this topic, which explains the British system in detail with plenty of citations. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 11:45, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I linked that article in my question. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:35, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I always assumed that plates were pretty much issued in order. When I registered both my cars in South Carolina, at the same time, on the same day, I expected to have plates that were similar. One car got "598-4FU" and the other got "227-3JA". They weren't similar at all, but they were taken as the top two plates off the stack of new plates at the DMV. So, since then, I figured that plates aren't necessarily in order. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 12:51, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There's likely a distinction here between "issued" and "manufactured". Think of it this way, the plates could be made by a series of machines. One machine is doing ABC followed by three numbers, the next is doing DEF and three numbers, and so on. As each plate is stamped, it rolls down a conveyor into a box for delivery to the DMV. The box is filled by multiple machines and the order isn't necessarily in any strict order. Then when you were issued the plate, the worker at the DMV just grabbed the first two plates off the stack and you got them. So, they were issued in order but never manufactured, or rather boxed, in order.

That said, whenever I've received new plates, I always had them mailed to me. I've never received them from the DMV in person. Also, when I was a kid, my parents has sequential plates. UG 4417 and UG 4418. So, (pun intended) your mileage may vary. †dismas†|^(talk) 22:42, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I understand about plates getting out of sequence at the DMV and you get whatever you're given. But I'm talking about production and issue of plates in random order as an explicit government policy. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:56, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This is an illustration of a license plate assembly line. Or this. Or this. Bus stop (talk) 16:56, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That tells me a human is needed to change a die for each new plate, and that's just for one different letter or number. Having 6 or more characters changed each time would be a nightmare. So, I guess the answer to my question is No, at least not using current technology. Thanks, all. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:19, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Well that specific issue would only seem to apply if number plates are centrally manufactured using that manufacturing system. This may be common but I don't think it's universal. While I can't find any sources specifically discussing the production of new plates in Malaysia, my impression is it's not the case in Malaysia. See these sources [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Vehicle registration plates of Malaysia.

Notably our article mentions borderless vehicle registration, which would seem difficult if the office also has to issue the plates. I mean it's possible that each office keep a stack of plates for all 16 states and territories but this still seems very complicated. My understanding is the registration numbers (which include letters) are issued by the JPJ offices, these plates themselves are normally produced by the vehicle supplier or sometimes buyer, or someone contracted by them. My impression is that the plates tend to be issued before the car is sold, I'm not sure if the supplier is listed as the owner or the registration is only part completely or I'm simply wrong. (One reason many jurisdictions use centralised production of standard plates is to make it more difficult to produce fake plates & also ensure consistency which as the sources attest is an issue in Malaysia. That said, you could imagine a place with a good rule of law system where the production is not centralised but well regulated.)

Plates there were and I think still generally have their letters either printed on, or premolded letters stuck on. Using most modern computer printing systems, I don't believe there will be that much difference between printing consecutive plates or completely different ones. For premolded letters, it would likely be significantly easier to produce consecutive plates. (For a human, you could simple remember what you are producing and then get a whole bunch of the right letters and numbers.)

But if I'm right and the production system is largely decentralised, I'm not sure whether this is really the big issue. (How many are normally produced at a time? 100?). Especially since Malaysia is still a fairly low wage economy when you considered the exploitative use of migrant labour. A bigger problem is in the pre-computerised world ensuring uniqueness is a lot more complicated. I guess the simplest is filing the registration details alphanumerically and so when you file the details for the newly issued registration, you'll come across it if that number has already been issued. But this is a lot more complicated than simply issuing consecutive numbers, and also what do you do with multiple independent offices issuing registrations? The alternative is not worrying about duplicates being issued, but given the purpose of number plates that doesn't generally work. (You could issue very long number plates so the chance it would happen by chance is very low, but that would mean remembering it becomes difficult.) Plus you'll probably still want to file the registration details alphanumerically, otherwise how are you going to find it if needed? In modern times, if you're willing to rely on your computer system, you can trivial issue unique numbers, but that would mean changing your existing system.

Nil Einne (talk) 05:31, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As I said above, "the answer to my question is No, at least not using current technology". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 07:46, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

But that's highly questionable. As I said in my reply, it seems definitely possible in a system like Malaysia's if you add and are willing to rely on computerised database and the a system to generate random numbers something ~~definitely~~surely possible with current tech. The primary issue in modern times is not technological, but simply that's there's no reason to change from any system that works into something else. Or to put it a different way the closest to a correct answer is "not reasonable using technology in the 1970 and that or earlier was when most systems are designed; so even if it's possible using technology now, no one is likely to do it".

(As the sources note, there is a plan to change the Malaysian system but this seems to be more about the greater ease to prevent fraud by centralising production rather than the cost savings thereof. Also even with centralised production, as I noted with computer printed plates it's not likely there will be much difference between consecutive vs random although these may pose some security concerns compared to pressed metal.) The borderless registration suggests a computerised database is already used in Malaysia. The nature of Malaysian bureaucracy makes me think there's probably still a fair amount of inefficient paperwork (although there are reasons why you'd want a paperwork backend even in an efficient bureaucracy), but that's not a technology requirement. And in any case, it's likely you could make a system using current technology which would make the paperwork-load acceptable.

The real problem is if you ever need to back to your paperwork because your computer system fails, but that's not a purely technological problem per se, and it's questionable if it's ever solvable. (At most, improved technology may give us increased confidence the system will not fail catastrophically.) Plus increasingly systems are designed around not having such a fail-safe, or using the failsafe only for real emergencies in the real short term so it's questionable if it's really a barrier.

Incidentally if you really want to use pressed metal I still question whether it's purely a technological barrier per se. I'm fairly sure you could come up with modern entirely computerised production which would not be that expensive once in place to produce random plates although it would still be a fair investment for questionable reasons. Whether it's ever not going be more significantly efficient to press consecutive plates vs random I'm not sure. (Perhaps some sort of dot-matrix used to press metal? Although I still wonder if the movement of the other dots when you wouldn't normally have to would increase wear and tear. I mean you could talk about wacky ideas like nanites or some other randomness albeit why you'd want plates in such a world I'm not sure. If you can't find a system, then the problem isn't technological but physical.)

Nil Einne (talk) 07:18, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Looking into this a bit more trying to find under places which don't use pressed metal plates, I ironically out found the UK appears to be another. This isn't well discussed in our article, although it does mention mention most are flat plastic but some use pressed metal. Flat plastic probably means printed, although this isn't explicitly stated. One thing our articles does discuss in some details is who produces them. It sounds like the system in the UK is similar to that in Malaysia. The numbers are issued and then it's up to the car supplier or whoever to have them made.

This is one company which sells production equipment [7]. While the mode of operation isn't well described, I don't see anything to suggest it will make any real difference whether you're producing consecutive or random plates. You can see other machines in operation here [8] [9] [10] [11] [12], ditto. Maybe I didn't explain this well but even for pressed metal plates, while it's significantly easier to produce consecutive plates even with most entirely computerised systems that you can imagine (as it is for adhesive premolded letters), if you're not mass producing them but only producing e.g. 100 a day it's not likely to be such a big deal [13]. And it remains unclear to me if it's particularly common to produce more than 100 consecutive plates a day in the UK or Malaysia even for major suppliers of cars.

In the particular case of the UK, various sources including [14] which claim they're illegal for cars since 2001 suggest to me that pressed number plates are rarely coming from car suppliers anyway. Most of them seem to be using the printed variety. So it's fairly like most suppliers are using equipment where there's actually little advantage to producing consecutive plates. </p

Note that while mass production has advantages, the earlier system described for plates means these need to then be transported around and supplied by the government department responsible. The system used in Malaysia and the UK where it seems numbers are issued and the supplier then produces the plate eliminates this. (Of course as much as anything it gets back to my main point. Places are doing what they choose for whatever reasons at the time this started and you'll need good reasons or government corruption to change the current system regardless of whether it's possible, or could even be more cost effective in the long run.)

P.S. To be clear, the legality is hotly disputed [15] & there are sellers claiming road legal but the fact this is so much of an issue would seem to imply car suppliers are probably not dealing with it. P.P.S. Also I didn't really make this clear, but there are obvious advantages to the system used in Malaysia, or the UK that will be lost with a random system that go beyond the ease of issuing the numbers. These advantages are a lot less when most numbers will just be checked on a computer database anyway; still they add to the question, why would you want to change just because you can? P.P.P.S. I noticed this question before a lot of the earlier discussion but purposely avoided it since I thought the problem of avoiding duplicates when issuing random numbers without a centralised computerised database was obvious, although not something easy to source and you were just wondering if anyone did it anyway. And I also know you often don't find my responses that helpful. But my dislike for questionable information means I couldn't help myself once it was suggested that the production difficulties for mass produced pressed plates are the primary issue. When at best, this would only apply in places that use such a system.

Nil Einne (talk) 10:40, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The "whoever" mentioned in Nil Einne's comment may be a dealer, as was explained here:

Confirming Nil Einne's observation, here in Britain I have seen dealers providing number plates while the customer waits by sticking numbers and letters on blank plates drawn from stock. The standard (which I believe is EU wide) is black on white for the front and black on yellow for the rear. - 82.13.208.70 15:21, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Nil Einne, please hear this. I acknowledge and respect the effort you put into your replies here. But, as I have said to you previously, both here and privately, I simply cannot bring myself to read the huge blocks of text you habitually post. Hence, whatever you have written above after my previous post has been lost to me. It's an assault, an insult, and a waste of your time, because it goes straight to my TL:DR basket. Maybe I'm easily daunted; but I suspect not.
Please seek professional help in learning how to come to your point quickly, and to express that point in a way that doesn't require 20 words where 1 would suffice. Thank you. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:27, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Rainfall in Israel

“Israel should have been a water basket case,” says Siegel, listing its problems: 60% of the land is desert and the rest is arid. Rainfall has fallen to half its 1948 average, apparently thanks to climate change, and as global warming progresses, Israel and the whole Levant are expected to become even drier – and from 1948, Israel’s population has grown 10-fold.

https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/how-israel-can-help-a-thirsty-world-1.5392651

The claim in bold seems too extraordinary to believe. Is there anywhere in the world that has undergone such dramatic change in climate in that period? Muzzleflash (talk) 13:50, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Responding on the unanswered question ("too extraordinary to believe" -> is it true?) Data for rainfall in Israel is here. I'm not skilled enough to interrogate if the premise is accurate. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 14:34, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I've made a graph of the data from that website here, extending the full date range of the website data, and with y-axis starting at zero, so no cherry picking and no sensationalist graphs. The fall is not 50%, but the downward trend is certainly visible (my PC estimated it at -0.5mm/yr). That being said, it's not impossible that some places (perhaps even larger cities) have indeed seen a 50% fall. And naturally, being that Israel is fairly close to the equator, the effects of global warming there will have been relatively low. At the moment, locations closer to the poles are having much bigger problems. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.142.70.141 (talk) 02:02, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your graph. This "And naturally, being that Israel is fairly close to the equator, the effects of global warming there will have been relatively low. " -- ^{[citation needed]}, and frankly I don't think it's true. At best, it's a worrisome oversimplification. For example, many impacts of global warming have been shown in tropical forests, and many more are predicted by experts. See e.g. here [16] for a Nature paper or here [17] for a Science paper detailing some of the effects. SemanticMantis (talk) 13:44, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I meant in terms of temperature deviations and such -- unlike Alaska, Israel will probably have not yet seen a 4.4°C warming, for example; sorry for not clarifying that. Of course, it takes far less than that to wreak havoc to ecosystems. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.142.65.22 (talk) 15:10, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

See also these research papers Here (Fig. 3), and here (summary), and here, which says "The large-scale oscillations and the global temperature explain 83 % of the variance on the inter-decadal time-scale, half of it explained by the global temperature alone." In short, the claim does not seem unreasonable based on my quick skim of the evidence.

As for where else in the world has undergone dramatic shifts, this paper [18] has lots to say about that. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:16, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. September 1 Arctic sea ice volume. Last 8 years average half of last 38 years average (technically 1979-2016 vs 2010-17) Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:25, 19 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Israel is arid. That means that agricultural irrigation relies on pumped water, not direct rainfall. So control of the aquifers is crucial. The six-day war of 1967 gave Israel four times the land area, but more importantly, twice the water supply. Control of these aquifers is a keystone of Israeli politics and conflict with the Palestinians.[19] [20] [21] Andy Dingley (talk) 00:02, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Its likely a political Alarmism attempt, in hope that a government ramps up support for the water biz, which is already big in Israel and its neighbor states. But in fact the whole continental area has been desert and arid land for as long as human history exists and its even exceptionally well known. Remember Jesus walk into the desert or Moses walk tru it? --Kharon (talk) 17:58, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The whole of human history bit is way overstated. Lebanon was famed for its forests, many river courses in the area are now covered in sand. The desertification of North Africa and the Middle East has been attributed to the rise of animal husbandry, and overgrazing by goats, which destroyed the plant cover which held in place soil that retained water. This topic has been discussed here several times, I suggest searching the archives for it, as I don't have time right now to find the links. μηδείς (talk) 17:48, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

To add to this, Asian elephants used to roam current-day Syria and Iraq in the 1st millenium BCE. This is a little hard to imagine in the current climate. 93.136.126.95 (talk) 19:23, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

January 20

Parcel

1) Which company possess the highest rating on parcel systems?

2) What is the fragile system delivery called?

3) I was reviewing FedEx and Royal Mail, can't find the information I am looking for stated above and the following i.e., do they cover lost and damaged product? If so, by what means. If not, which company does...

119.30.47.127 (talk) 15:03, 20 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Please define your terms by links to articles or websites, show us what you have looked at already using url's. We are very unlikely to google you when you can google yourself. μηδείς (talk) 02:23, 21 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ignore Medeis, he's like that with everyone and he doesn't speak for all of us – certainly not for me. Here are some web pages that you may find useful in comparing parcel systems: [22] [23] [24]. A quick google search didn't turn up anything specific in relation to your last query, but I am sure insurance of some kind is available from all couriers. But the best way to avoid damaging fragile items is to pack them securely – see here for advice on this. Feel free to come back with additional questions. --Viennese Waltz 10:24, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ca-caw! μηδείς (talk) 16:13, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you [all] valuable Wikipedian[s] for your assistance; as always. I'm grateful as always. 119.30.47.189 (talk) 14:51, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you check out the specific T&C for any insurance or compensation offered, you'll probably find it doesn't cover cases when the content aren't considered sufficiently packed anyway. (That said, there are plenty of cases where packaging is sufficient or at least you're given the benefit of the doubt, but the contents are damaged.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:00, 22 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

January 23

Longest titled article

Not really sure where to ask this question, so hope here is ok. Given the title of today's featured article, which is quite long, I started wondering which article has the longest title. Can anyone help? This is Paul (talk) 15:36, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

For technical reasons, all Wikipedia article titles are limited to not more than 255 characters, so that provides a hard upper bound. The longest titles listed at Wikipedia:Wikipedia records#Titles are both song titles.

Note that that first song actually has a longer title than that, it's just truncated with the ellipsis because of the 255-character restriction. Similarly, the article named When the Pawn... is a truncated song title that would be 455 characters long if written out in full: When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 15:54, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. That last one's almost a song in itself. This is Paul (talk) 16:55, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

On the tangentially related long names of BLPs, there's Ilikena Lasarusa Talebulamainavaleniveivakabulaimainakulalakebalau --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 16:58, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sadly, both Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg are not even redirects, despite being the full names of those places (see Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and Lake Chaubunagungamaug) --Jayron 32 17:08, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There is a Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg link. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:57, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I'll be fooked. I don't know why yours works and mine doesn't. --Jayron 32 19:01, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There is also a Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch link. Your links seem to have a bunch of extra imbedded characters. I don't know what's up with that.

Oh, I see - it's all the hyphens between your syllables. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:03, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

What hyphens? --Jayron 32 19:08, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hover your cursor over your redlinks, and you'll see them. Actually as special characters. I don't see them in edit mode, only when hovering over them. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:20, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I think the problem is Jayron32 copied the name from the article or somewhere similar. I'm guessing the word has a bunch of Soft hyphens. As the article explains, in this context these are used to tell the browser (or other software) the best place to hyphenate long words if it needs to, to break up long lines. For this reason, in most normal contexts they do not show (if the word ends up being hyphenated then those which are used will be shown). Nil Einne (talk) 08:50, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, while some software will hyphenate wherever they think is best without soft hyphens, not all will do so. So to give an example of why this is useful compare

Extended content
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon

and

Extended content
Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon

You may find, possibly depending on your browser, that the first is simply a very long line. Nil Einne (talk) 10:50, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfair%C2%ADpwllgwyngyll%C2%ADgogery%C2%ADchwyrn%C2%ADdrobwll%C2%ADllan%C2%ADtysilio%C2%ADgogo%C2%ADgoch

While not the longest Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad is one of my all time favorite titles. MarnetteD|Talk

If it wasn't commonly known by its shorter title of Marat/Sade - The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade would rank right up there. MarnetteD|Talk 19:05, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm partial to Borat: Stereophonic Musical Listenings That Have Been Origin in Moving Film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". Great name. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:07, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The Police have a song titled "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around"; in 1981 there was a club remix version that charted titled "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around/Voice Inside My Head" which may be one of the longest titles ever for a charted track. --Jayron 32 19:08, 23 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, we do have Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaugg and Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg as redirects. (I think one of these was noted above, lazy to work out which one.) Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg was actually created first and ended up with some content, then Lake Chaubunagungamaug a few years later. Then someone started to add content to Lake Chaubunagungamaug a merger was proposed and quickly implement. Renames have been proposed before, but there appears to be some dispute over whether the longer name is really the official name.

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein is another of similar name length (also the primary article not the redirect). Our article Longest word in English suggests Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu could be the longest single word place name although the one mentioned there is actually the shorter Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (which is a redirect). Since the original discussion didn't restrict to a single word, we also have Dysart, Dudley, Harcourt, Guilford, Harburn, Bruton, Havelock, Eyre and Clyde although that's a redirect, our article it the shortened Dysart et al, Ontario.

For those in a major dictionary Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is suggested. If you're not restricting yourself to English we do have Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. Frankly though all these are still not very long. We do have Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon which is also a primary article, not a redirect.

BTW, Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff, Sr. suggests we should have [[Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum, Senior]] as a redirect if it was technically possible.

Nil Einne (talk) 10:35, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In contrast, For sale: baby shoes, never worn is an article title that contains the entire text of the topic piece. Imagine a Wikipedia where the article for the bible was "In the beginning..." and so on for 783,000-odd more words... Matt Deres (talk) 17:28, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

How is it that we don't have an article for Johann Gambolputty... de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle- dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz- ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer- spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein- nurnburger-bratwustle-gernspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut- gumberaber-shonedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm? :-) Yikes looks like there is one on the German WikiP. MarnetteD|Talk 18:31, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

See: Wikipedia records: Article with longest title, the winner is/was The Sad But True Story of Ray Mingus, the Lumberjack of Bulk Rock City, and His Never Slacking Stribe in Exploiting the So Far Undiscovered Areas of the Intention to Bodily Intercourse from the Opposite Species of His Kind... (now a redirect) — It would have been When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right -but- Wikimedia couldn't handle it.

The longest actual article title (not a redirect) is (drum roll, please)...

Suzukake no Ki no Michi de "Kimi no Hohoemi o Yume ni Miru" to Itte Shimattara Bokutachi no Kankei wa Dō Kawatte Shimau no ka, Bokunari ni Nannichi ka Kangaeta Ue de no Yaya Kihazukashii Ketsuron no Yō na Mono (yes, English language WP). —107.15.152.93 (talk) 21:52, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

January 24

are freedom checks a scam?

I saw a ad for something called a freedom check, are they for real or a scam? 67.236.103.49 (talk · contribs)

First, tell us what they are. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:14, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you mean slavery reparations scams then yes, those are scams. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:42, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect he is referring to a get-rich-fast scheme where some sleazy guy in a suit sells you his investment/income advice, down from US$199 per year (and a bargain at that!) to now only US$47 per year! Yes, it has all the signs of a scam. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 00:54, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sheldon Leonard used to play a character like that on the Jack Benny Program. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:36, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The "freedom checks" advice making the rounds on the internet very recently are just ordinary investments in master limited partnerships. So, the company in most of these cases does actually exist, but it's no more magical of a get-rich-quick scheme than investing in the stock market, which we all know always works out for investors. Someguy1221 (talk) 01:43, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You have to follow the advice of Calvin Coolidge, as characterized by Will Rogers: "Buy only good stock. Wait till the price goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up... don't buy it!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:45, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

So like LeBron James joked about CC Sabathia or Chien-Ming Wang (I forget who), pitching is easy, just throw strikes! Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 02:07, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on where they throw the strikes. It's more like, "Don't give him anything good to hit, but don't walk him!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:02, 24 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

January 25

Houses at street level in the USA

Half way down this article is a photo of a house showing a set of stairs leading up from the fairly flat street level, to the front door. Is this a common design feature of homes of that era in the USA and if so what was the functional reason for it? Was it to allow coal deliveries to the little white door without having to dig out much of a coal cellar? --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 12:35, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It does look like a door to access a storage area, either for coal or wood, or whatever. A door like this would usually be located in the back of a house, but in this case, there would be no way to reach the back of the house with a delivery vehicle, such as a coal van, as there is no side or back alley visible. --Xuxl (talk) 14:33, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the cellar might be partially above and partially below ground level. There may not be access to the cellar from the interior of the house. You are referring to the photo with the caption under it reading "One of the few remaining houses in Centralia, its neighbours long gone", right? Bus stop (talk) 15:02, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)For houses in the U.S. there are two common foundations: concrete slab foundations, where the ground is leveled and where a flat concrete slab is poured and the house built upon it, and basement-type foundations, where a cavity is dug into the earth, and the house rests on pilings (columns or pilars) above the open space. In the second type of construction, the front door is not often on street level; there are usually stairs up to the front door; this is because crawl space vents or basement windows need to be somewhat above the surface themselves to allow proper ventilation; houses built on basements or crawl spaces invariably have at least one or two steps up to the front door, whereas houses on concrete slabs have the doors at ground level. Compare this or this house, built on concrete slabs; the door is at most a half step up from the ground, and that's mostly just because the slab is level and the earth around it is not. There's no crawl space vents or basement windows because there's no lower level. this is what it looks like under a house with a crawl space; a basement is just one of these which is big enough to stand up in. That space needs ventilation, which means the floor above it has to be above ground level by some nontrivial amount, as in here or here or the image you see above. In the northern US, crawl space/basement construction is more common because air has an insulating effect; it is cheaper to heat the living space of such a house than it is when the house is resting on a giant concrete slab, which acts as a heat sink, and causes the floors to remain perpetually cold in the winter. Slab construction is more common in warmer regions of the US, or in regions where a high water table makes basements impractical. --Jayron 32 15:32, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent answer! Matt Deres (talk) 17:25, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Your answer for basements covers crawlspace houses but isn't clear (to me at least) that you are covering both basements and crawlspaces at the same time. In the South, it is very common for houses without basements to be placed on a raised frame (as though it has a basement). There is just enough room for a crawlspace below the bottom floor. The goal is to increase airflow below the house to cool it down. It is a very common design for shotgun houses (long/narrow houses). 209.149.113.5 (talk) 17:30, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

There's little difference between a basement and a crawlspace excepting head clearance; basements can (but do not always) have finished floors and walls; sometimes just bare frames, sometimes just pilings and dirt floors like what is called a crawlspace. Usually, if it's tall enough to stand in comfortably it is called a basement, and if not, a crawlspace. If you read the Wikipedia article titled basement, you would not have been confused by this "An underground crawl space (as the name implies) is a type of basement in which one cannot stand up" --Jayron 32 06:04, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

How common are (or were) heavy snow dumps in that area of Pennsylvania? If there's been 3 foot (1 metre) of snow, you may be grateful that your front door is above ground level. LongHairedFop (talk) 20:38, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A Founding Father saw 3 feet in one storm in Virginia and Pennsylvania saw 38.3 inches near Maryland in the Blizzard of 2016 and an especially heavy spot of New York City saw 34 inches in that storm so that seems possible. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:06, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Another benefit of putting the first floor above grade is the ability to put windows that make the basement bright enough to see with only free light in the daytime. I have heard that when a 19th century first floor is above grade it's because the streets weren't clean then with horse manure and maybe dust. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:59, 25 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Building a house with entries on ground level is an invitation to all animals and insects in the area. --Kharon (talk) 01:04, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In the inner city where buildings don't have front yards, it stops people in the street from peeking through the ground floor windows. Also, building and ventilating a sub-basement is more practical when the basement is allowed to jut above road level. 93.142.116.5 (talk) 01:16, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Old houses very often have a significant portion of the basement protruding above ground level, to allow for windows and hence sunlight, as noted earlier. Houses which have all or most of the basement above ground have been called "basement houses". Some examples:[25] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:26, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In Chicago these are called "garden apartments". --Jayron 32 06:07, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Some really interesting answers here, thank you guys. --Dweller (talk) Become old fashioned! 09:38, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Affordable resource for researching newspaper archives

Hi all,

About ten years ago when I was a regular Wikipedia contributor I often used my employer's Factiva account to search for mentions of a subject in the newspapers (I know, naughty, but I'm pretty sure it didn't cost them anything). I'd like something similar for a blog I'm writing but Factiva costs several hundred dollars a month which is well beyond me. Are there any alternatives for newspaper research which are more affordable? Google News and other search engines just aren't up to it.

I had a Google but the results are dominated by Factiva and other big corporate data libraries which are beyond my budget. Library archives don't go up to the present day. Thanks for any recommendations. --83.218.138.8 (talk) 09:55, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You could have a look at WP:RX, it's more for specific requests than the kind of general search you're talking about but it might turn up something useful. --Viennese Waltz 10:00, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

WP:RX is good for finding a specific source, but general access to sources is under the purview of the Wikipedia Library. -- Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 11:23, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I note you're in London. The Newsroom at the British Library in St Pancras has a comprehensive microfilm series of all the newspapers. There are many online databases you can search plus printed newspapers. The service is free. 92.19.172.194 (talk) 15:40, 26 January 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 191: / Line 191: @@
 :You could have a look at [[WP:RX]], it's more for specific requests than the kind of general search you're talking about but it might turn up something useful. --[[User:Viennese Waltz|Viennese Waltz]] 10:00, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
 ::[[WP:RX]] is good for finding a specific source, but general access to sources is under the purview of the [[WP:LIBRARY|Wikipedia Library]]. -- [[User:Dodger67|Roger (Dodger67)]] ([[User talk:Dodger67|talk]]) 11:23, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
+:::I note you're in London.   The Newsroom at the British Library in St Pancras has a comprehensive microfilm series of all the newspapers.   There are many online databases you can search plus printed newspapers.   The service is free. [[Special:Contributions/92.19.172.194|92.19.172.194]] ([[User talk:92.19.172.194|talk]]) 15:40, 26 January 2018 (UTC)