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April 4

Insurgencies that benefitted from having sanctuaries across the border in different countries?

Which insurgencies benefitted from having sanctuaries across the border in different countries? I could think of:

Are there any additional examples of this? If so, exactly which ones? Futurist110 (talk) 03:38, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

  • Reportedly, ethnic insurgent groups in Assam and Manipur use camps in northern Myanmar as their bases for cross-border raids.[1]  --Lambiam 08:41, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting.
Very interesting!
The Palestinians (PLO, etc) conspicuously failed to benefit from any such effect. Raids from Gaza in the 1950s led to a series of increasingly brutal military confrontations between Israel and Egypt, which prepared the way for the Suez war of 1956. Raids from Jordan in the late 1960s prepared the way for the Black September confrontation in which the PLO was expelled from Jordan. Raids from Lebanon in the 1970s prepared the way for the Lebanese Civil War, and ultimately for the PLO's expulsion from Lebanon. It was more convenient for the PLO etc to launch attacks from neighboring countries than from geographically remote ones, but in other situations, some guerilla groups have achieved a whole system of secure bases in the friendly foreign country reinforcing often-shifting military outposts in area controlled by the hostile regime, which benefit from the "fish in the friendly sea" effect (or whatever it's called), so that the guerilla group can go beyond isolated raids to somewhat systematically attacking the forces of the hostile regime militarily. The PLO never attained this. AnonMoos (talk) 10:29, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
There were certainly Palestinian insurgencies against Israel with the First and Second Intifadas, but were there ever actually any Palestinian insurgencies within Israel's borders before 1967? Futurist110 (talk) 06:04, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The "Intifadas" were neither one thing nor the other. They weren't peaceful enough to qualify as a non-violent protest movement (the Palestinians seem to be utterly incapable of maintaining non-violence in any numbers for any significant length of time), and they weren't violent enough to qualify as real guerilla warfare. The first intifada was a PR maneuver which also allowed the Arabs to vent their feelings, and had some success in swaying international public opinion in their favor. The second intifada was riots accompanied by suicide bombers (when Arafat made a carefully-calculated cynical decision to "ride" the wave of terrorism, instead of making any real attempt to control it), and succeeded in inflaming anti-Israel opinion in certain parts of the globe, but did extremely little to mobilize effective international support for Palestinians (certainly not in the United States). AnonMoos (talk) 08:05, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]


Interesting.
  • The Polisario Front is being hosted in Algeria, and while there's been a cease-fire since 1991, maintains a military force there. Xuxl (talk) 13:32, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, excellent example! Futurist110 (talk) 06:04, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Korean guerrillas in China vs. Japan? DOR (HK) (talk) 15:14, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Generation Beta

When is the early limit for someone to be born in Generation Beta?? I guess a few years from now. (This is defined as starting when Generation Alpha ends.) Georgia guy (talk) 14:34, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

  • We can not be specific - generations typically last about 15 years, which would put the transition between “Alpha” and “Beta” some time in the next few years (mid 2020s).
However, what defines a generation is cultural as well as demographic... for example, the “silent generation” ran short due to the outbreak of WWII... while the “Boomer” generation ran long - almost 20 years. Covid may end up being a cultural dividing line, and if so... we could be seeing the first Betas being born now. Only time will tell. Blueboar (talk) 15:03, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
An early decanted Beta is probably a Beta-Minus, like Linda, the mother of "Mr. Savage".  --Lambiam 23:40, 4 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"In 2024, by McCrindle’s definition, the last of Generation Alpha will be born, making way for Generation Beta, whose birth years will span from 2025 to 2039". From Oh No, They’ve Come Up With Another Generation Label (Mark McCrindle is the Australian researcher credited with coining the "Generation Alpha" label). The same article warns "The history of generational labeling is littered with names that gained some traction, but not enough" and that "generations talk can often devolve into stereotyping, as generational labels necessarily lump together people with a wide variety of experiences". Alansplodge (talk) 12:53, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
15 years seems like a really short time for a generation. It's certainly too short for the more general sense of [average] time from being born to having children (which is more like 20 to 30 years. I'm not sure it's even accurate for the "named demographic cohort" sense of the word, which looks more like 18 years on average, going by the ranges in the various wiki articles. Although looking in more detail, it appears that the first few named generation (Lost, Greatest, Silent, and Baby Boomers were all longer, with X, Y, Z and Alpha all being 15. (Which makes me think that the later ones are just being arbitarily defined and probably don't represent any real social division). Iapetus (talk) 19:12, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
There are distinctive cultural divisions for all of them. Gen X was the first generation to be raised playing home video games as kids, for example, and spent a large part of their childhood raised in the Reagan/Thatcher years. They saw the widespread growth of alternative rock music and hip hop. Gen Y is largely defined as the first generation of digital natives and the generation for which their childhood was largely defined by the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath. Generation Z is the generation too young to remember 9/11 (as they are the generation whose young adulthood is happening now), while Generation Alpha is largely defined by being raised in the age of Covid-19. --Jayron32 15:36, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 5

Austro-Hungarian troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina question

Were the Austro-Hungarian troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina Austrian or Hungarian? Futurist110 (talk) 06:02, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article Schutzkorps... -- AnonMoos (talk) 07:50, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
However that was a sort of paramilitary militia. Regular troops of the Austro-Hungarian Army mostly formed the Common Army, which were in units of mixed ethnicity from all over the empire: "in 1906, out of every 1000 enlisted men, there were 267 Germans, 223 Hungarians, 135 Czechs, 85 Poles, 81 Ukrainians, 67 Croats and Serbs, 64 Romanians, 38 Slovaks, 26 Slovenes, and 14 Italians" according to our article. The two official languages of Austrian and Hungarian were not understood by the majority of conscripts, so a basic vocabulary based on the Czech language was used, called Army Slavic, but recruits had the constitutional right to be trained in their native language. In addition, the smaller Imperial-Royal Landwehr was comprised of German-speaking Austrians and the Royal Hungarian Honvéd was Hungarian-speaking; these were mainly reserve and home-defence forces, rather like the US National Guard, but included some regular troops as well; they were unlikely to be deployed outside of their home provinces in peace time. See also Habsburg Languages at War. Alansplodge (talk) 12:19, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure quite how literally we should take that quote about "out of every 1000 enlisted men, there were..." I think it could well be a form of words to avoid saying "the army contained 267,000 Germans, 223,000 Hungarians, etc..." It reads a lot smoother without all those thousands, but it also adds the implication that you could pick any thousand men from the army and expect to find them split in those proportions. Our article on the Common Army suggests otherwise. Admittedly talking about languages rather than ethnicity, it says that each regiment had a regimental language determined by what was spoken by most of its members - that would always have been German if the Rothenberg quote were literally true, so clearly it wasn't. The article gives the example of the 100th Infantry in Krakau, made up of 27% Germans, 33% Czechs and 37% Poles (and consequently with three regimental languages!). Also, coming back to the original question, there were apparently specific Bosnian-Herzegovinian regiments in the Austro-Hungarian army, who might have been the troops the OP asked about. Chuntuk (talk) 10:30, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Chuntuk, I see we do have an article called Bosnian-Herzegovinian Infantry. However, according to this article, "From 1891 onwards, Bosnian-Herzegovinian units were relocated to different garrisons of the monarchy: first to Vienna and Budapest and later also to Graz, Wiener Neustadt, Trieste and Bruck/Leitha", in other words, anywhere BUT Bosnia and Herzegovina. Alansplodge (talk) 18:58, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
A bit more research finds a more reliable quote:
Managing this multilingual rank and file that spoke at least 13 different languages was addressed in two ways. Firstly, German was decreed by the Emperor to be the language of command. Different sources give between 60 and 80 words – in practice, a limited vocabulary through which officers commanded those in their charge. Secondly, each regiment would have one (or sometimes more) regimental languages, which their officers, supposing they were not themselves speakers of those languages, would be expected to learn. For example, by 1901, there were 94 units in the Common Army using only German, 133 using two languages, 28 with three or even four. In the Hungarian half of the monarchy there were 27 regiments which had various national languages as regimental language other than Hungarian. There were two regiments speaking Slovak, three Romanian, six German and Hungarian, one German and Slovak, three German and Romanian, five Hungarian and Slovak, six Hungarian and Romanian and even one Hungarian, Romanian and Ruthene (Ukraininan).
Military Newspapers and the Habsburg Officers‟ Ideology after 1868 (p. 8)

Another name for "has-a" and "is-a" relationships

In object-oriented computer programming, there is a distinction between a has-a relationship and an is-a relationship between classes (basically types) of objects. The relationships are kind of like they sound. A class is said to have a has-a relationship with another if particular instances of the class contain instances from another (the instances "have" instances of another). A class is said to have an is-a relationship if that class is a type of the other class.

Is there a term for this distinction that is more general than the computer science terms? For example, trees have leaves (but leaves are not types of trees). On the other hand, a birch tree is a type of tree (but trees don't literally contain birches). The first example is a has-a relationship, whereas the second example is an is-a relationship.

I assume this is something that must have been be discussed in philosophy, similar to how Hume discussed the distinction between is and ought, but I can't seem to find it.

Thanks!

AlfonseStompanato (talk) 18:58, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Don't have precise answer for you, but perhaps have a look at Categorization and Classification (general theory). older ≠ wiser 19:28, 5 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
In type theory, a type S is a subtype of type T  if each value of type S is also (or behaves just like) a value of type T. This is similar to the is-a relation. Container types, of which there are quite a variety, have composite values, and the types of such values may be called component types. For example, given the definition in C of a record type struct person {string name; date birthdate;};, the type date of the second field is a component type. This is similar to has-a. The nature of these two relationships is so different (a human is-a mammal and has-a body) that it would somewhat surprise me if philosophers have managed to turn the distinction into a problem.  --Lambiam 09:04, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps something in the field of Metalanguage could help sort this out? --Jayron32 11:48, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 6

Greek style of wearing the toga

What is the style mentioned here? “Scipio Africanus was criticized by many in the Senate for his love of luxury and his Greek style of wearing the toga” from article Scipio (cognomen). I can’t seem to find a picture of the difference between Roman and Greek style of wearing toga.69.209.14.47 (talk) 04:08, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In many depictions of Greek men wearing the Greek toga or himation, like this sculpture of Demosthenes and this depiction on a Greek vase, the right shoulder is left bare. Scipio Africanus being a Graecophile, and Roman togas being both impractical (heavy, hard to get dressed in) and uncomfortable in hot weather, he wore a himation.[2] He was not criticized merely for his non-Roman choice of dress, but also for this exemplifying a Greek lifestyle, abhorred by many Romans as unbecoming for a true Roman.  --Lambiam 08:24, 6 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 7

Tasmanian electoral divisions

Does anyone know the years when Tasmanian electoral divisions had these names and boundaries? Lyons was given its name in 1984 and Denison got renamed in 2018, so it has to have been between those years, but if Tasmania redistributes its electorates in line with federal redistribution, I assume the boundaries would have changed repeatedly in those 34 years. Nyttend backup (talk) 15:23, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This site is the Tasmanian Electoral Commission. Someone listed on their contact page may be able to help you with your research. --Jayron32 15:31, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, Jayron32’s link points people to the Australian Electoral Commission site for the 2016-18 redistribution [3] which itself links at the bottom to the redistribution before that, which was in 2008 [4]. It’s hard to tell from your map, but I think Denison is wholly west of the river in the 2008 map [5] and includes a piece to the east in your map, so the answer may be 2008-2018. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 16:42, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for a useful response, 70.67.193.176. Nyttend backup (talk) 16:45, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

How is the first name "Menzie" pronounced "Mingus"?

Just thinking about someone I vaguely knew once, years ago. He didn't know either, but everyone always wrote his name as "Mingus" unless he spelled it for them.

Is this some British thing like how "Leicestershire" is pronounced "Lester" or "Featherstonhaugh" is pronounced "Fanshaw"? --Iloveparrots (talk) 20:32, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Menzies#Pronunciation has an explanation, though unfortunately unsourced. Something similar is found here: [6]. Fut.Perf. ☼ 20:42, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, but not exactly as in Charles. It's actually /ˈmɪŋɪs/ ⓘ MING-iss. And frequently abbreviated to "Ming" as in Ming Campbell. Martinevans123 (talk) 22:43, 7 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • Leicestershire is not pronounced "Lester", Leicester is. Fgf10 (talk) 00:33, 8 April 2021 (UTC) [reply]
Robert Menzies was a prime minister of Australia. It was always pronounced as written, but one of his nicknames was "Ming". -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 01:13, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The proper pronunciation might be more commonly observed in its native Scotland; but in England, the former newsagents' shop chain, John Menzies, was almost invariably (in London at least) pronounced phonetically. Alansplodge (talk) 08:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Having lived in Scotland in the 70s and 80s, I can confirm that Scots people then generally pronounced it as "Ming'əs" or "Ming'is" (which, by the way, does not include a hard 'g' in its sound), though many English visitors afforded them amusement with their "Men'zeez". Though myself a mere Sassenach, I was even then concerned with languages and also worked in an allied trade, so was careful to accord with the native practice.
Yes, John Menzies#Pronunciation explains a little, but unfortunately is unsourced. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:37, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Classic Martinevans123 :D I think 0-1, Alansplodge  :) ——Serial 12:07, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"I didn't get where I am today by spelling Menzies with a yogh!" Martinevans123 (talk) 12:35, 8 April 2021 (UTC) [reply]
There is no shortage of weird pronunciations in English, and not just abbreviations like "Lester" for "Leicester", "Wooster" for "Worcester", and "folks'll" for "forecastle". How did "Ralph" become pronounced "Rafe"? How did "Maurice" become pronounced "Morris"? How did "Belvoir" become pronounced "Beaver"? And so on. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 08:30, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Because the "z" in Menzies is not a "zed" it is a Yogh. British isle typesetters in the early days of printing imported their presses from the continent, where the typefaces didn't have all of the characters used in English. Written English at the time had letters not present in continental language like yogh, thorn, eth, ash, etc. Printers simply swapped out the letters for ones they had available, which is why we get the Menzies spelled the way it is, and also why "ye olde shoppe", the "y" is pronounced "th". --Jayron32 11:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Jayron. That's an excellent summary. Martinevans123 (talk) 11:34, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Another common-ish name with a yogh is Dalziel, pronounced "dee-ELL", as in another politician, the late Tam Dalziel, and the TV series Dalziel and Pascoe. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:54, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
What may be more interesting is that the spelling of Menzies with a pseudo yogh (a "z" with a lower tail) can still sometimes be seen. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:35, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
In the United States, a name "Ming" would be more likely to call to mind the character Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon, or the Chinese Ming dynasty, and not Scottish surnames... AnonMoos (talk) 15:41, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
He could be quite ruthless, you know. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:26, 8 April 2021 (UTC) [reply]
Good point, see Ming the Merciless strikes back and Ming the merciless: Menzies Campbell hits out at senior Lib Dems. Alansplodge (talk) 18:19, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 8

how do i be the very best

like no one ever was? --129.126.97.170 (talk) 00:55, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

spend less time trolling Wikipedia, for starters. --Floquenbeam (talk) 01:00, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

That's easy. Just give someone a lifetime of promises and a world of dreams, whilst speaking a language of love like you know what it means. Pleasure helping you. --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 14:11, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Don't want to be a nitpicker, but any song sung by Bonnie Tyler or Tina Turner is extremely unlikely to include the word "whilst" in its lyrics (as sung by them)... -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:41, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You could use the occasional upper case letter and some punctuation? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 16:23, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
If you wanna be the best, and you wanna beat the rest, Dedication's what you need. DuncanHill (talk) 16:48, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"Good, better, best
Never let it rest
Till the good is better
And the better is best."
←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:44, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Abraham Adolf Kaiser to Jesse Owens

According to Google Translate editions of de:Abraham Adolf Kaiser and de:Jesse Owens#Olympische Spiele 1936, Kaiser was a German Jew who wrote an anonymous letter to Jesse Owens urging him to make a very public protest against Hitler at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Has the text of this letter survived? Both articles rely on this PDF, which is apparently the text of a lecture by prominent historian de:Julius H. Schoeps, so I'm confident of the reliability of this account; however, neither article has the text of this letter, I'm not finding it with Google, and I don't know where I'd find German archival-type sources from the period. Nyttend backup (talk) 18:43, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In 2019 Alexander Friedmann published a 17 page essay titled Der Duisburger Grundstücksmakler Adolf Abraham Kaiser, der US-Leichtathlet Jesse Owens und die Judenverfolgung im „Dritten Reich“ (The Duisburgian real estate agent Adolf Abraham Kaiser, the US athlete Jesse Owens and the persecution of the Jews in the Third Reich). The essay was published in Geschichte im Westen (History in the West) and might be available in the future through their website (they don't publish the three most recent issues online). The essay might provide some information about the letter and its provenance. I didn't find any contact details to reach out to Mr Friedmann directly, maybe the POC for the magazine Geschichte im Westen could help. A different approach could be to research the records of either the Sondergericht Düsseldorf (special court Düsseldorf) that prosecuted Mr Kaiser or the Gestapo. The records of the Sondergericht Düsseldorf are available through the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia. The records of the Gestapo are available through the State Archives of North Rhine-Westphalia as well. However further investigation is required to verify if the records hold any information about Mr Kaiser or - ideally - the letter in question. Regards, Christoph Braun (talk) 22:07, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Doris Wenban, artist

Can we find anything about Doris Wenban (b. 1914), the creator of the work auctioned here? An aparent study for it appears on this list (archive URL) She seems to have left no other trace on searchable websites. Presumably fl. in the UK. Maybe genealogical databases have something? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:53, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No info about the artist, but a much better image of the work can be viewed by clicking on the first thumbnail here.  --Lambiam 22:34, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oops, sorry, same link as in the OQ.  --Lambiam 22:35, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Cueva de las Manos source request

Can someone kindly access this source and let me know what it says about Cueva de las Manos? The source is: Tang, Jin Bo. (2015). "The Hand in Art:“Hands” in the Artwork of Patagonia". Journal of Hand Surgery. 40 (4): 806–808. doi:10.1016/j.jhsa.2015.01.022. ISSN 0363-5023. Thank you! Tyrone Madera (talk) 21:44, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

After revealing that the logo of the Fortieth Congress of the Argentinian Hand Surgery Society, held 16–18 October 2014 in Buenos Aires, was laid out on a background depicting paintings from "La Cueva de las Manos", aka "the Cave of Hands", the author writes, This series of caves dating back to 8,000 years BC is located in Patagonia, south of the Perito Moreno in Santa Cruz province. The site is off the long and mysterious Argentinian Route 40 and is not easily accessible, with bumpy roads in some parts. However, all along Route 40, antiques, hands, and unique wildlife become themes for art. The remainder of the brief article is devoted to signalling depictions of images of cave paintings found on store logos and souvenirs found along the route.  --Lambiam 22:20, 8 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Lambiam, Thank you! Tyrone Madera (talk) 01:30, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 9

Historical maps of border forts in various areas

On page 121 in this book, you will see a map of the border forts in France, Belgium, and Germany on the eve of World War I:

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_World/XkwgAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=forts

What I am wondering is this, though--do you know of any other, similar maps of border forts for any other regions, either during the early 20th century or at some other historical point(s) in time? I don't mean extremely long wall-like fortifications such as the Maginot Line, but rather more traditional border forts (fortifications) similar to those on page 121 in the book above. Futurist110 (talk) 01:34, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See Limes_Germanicus#Roman_forts_along_the_limes for some nice maps of fortifications around the same region in a very different time period. --Amble (talk) 17:54, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Wow! Very interesting! Thank you! Futurist110 (talk) 20:36, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
See also Lines of Torres Vedras (1809-1810).
We also have an article on the pre-WWI Western Russian fortresses, but no specific map that I can find. Alansplodge (talk) 21:10, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Note that the Maginot Line was not a continuous barrier, but a line of underground forts called Gros Ouvrages ("Large Works"), such as Ouvrage Schoenenbourg, interspersed with smaller forts, artillery casemates and bunkers. Alansplodge (talk) 21:17, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Amble The 14th century Gough Map shows many of the castles of the Welsh borders pretty well. The term "border fort" is obviously not quite right, but in many ways the Edwardian castles were intended to fulfil the sort of function you describe. It also shows the Castles_and_Town_Walls_of_King_Edward_in_Gwynedd, which one could argue may have been intended to create a perimeter for safely conquered Wales around Snowdonia. --Dweller (talk) Old fashioned is the new thing! 08:41, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Are Eliyahu Meridor and Ya'akov Meridor related?

As far as can reasonably be known, are Eliyahu Meridor and Ya'akov Meridor known to be related paternally, or is it a coincidence that they have the same last name? 147.161.12.65 (talk) 09:53, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Since they differed in age by a mere nine months and three weeks, they are unlikely to be offspring of the same mother, which also makes it somewhat unlikely they share a father. More to the point, the birthname of Ya'akov was Yaakov VINIARSKY, and he was born in born in Lipno in Congress Poland. The birthname of Eliyahu was Elijhu WIERZBOLOWSKI, and he was born in Saint Petersburg (just before its name was changed to Petrograd), some 1000 km northeast of Lipno. So any close blood relationship is extremely unlikely. There is probably a story behind their common adoption of the surname Meridor, perhaps chosen as a nom de guerre related to both being Irgun terrorists. According to the Hebrew Wikipedia, the name comes from the novel Samson by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, himself an Irgun commander, and means, reportedly, "quarrel generation", a compound formed from מריבה (meribah) + דור (dor). Others translate the name as "generation of revolt".[7]  --Lambiam 14:30, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Are sanctions actually effective?

I mean economic sanctions for political reasons, like the Western sanctions against Iran, North Korea, recently the Myanmar army. == 219.74.217.15 (talk · contribs)

Googling your heading yields widely varying results (this ref desk is not intended as a forum for opinion). 2603:6081:1C00:1187:589A:24D7:BCFA:E214 (talk) 16:44, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Define "effective". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:44, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I am not asking for opinion or moral views. I am asking about the past results of sanctions. Whether the sanctions achieve their goals, like slowing North Korea nuclear weapon testing, or end up only hurting ordinary people in the sanctioned countries. == 219.74.217.15 (talk · contribs)

First, start signing your posts. Then, explore Google as 2603 advises. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:53, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Economic sanctions that target a state with an autocratic regime will largely impact the general populace, who cannot elect to replace the regime by a more democratic one. Those in power can, most likely, hold on to their privileges, even if the sanctions have a significant impact on the country's economy; it just means they need to extract even more from the already suffering common people, so the impact on them personally is rather limited. For this simple reason, they have historically not been very effective. If regime change is the goal, they may even be counterproductive.[8] See also the sections Economic sanctions § Effectiveness of economic sanctions and Economic sanctions § Criticism. The problem being recognized, a new approach that is being tried is "surgical precision", that is, targeting responsible individuals and companies individually.[9] Whether this will have more effect is perhaps too early to tell (some have their doubts[10]), but at least it inflicts less "collateral damage" on ordinary citizens.  --Lambiam 14:52, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
See also Sanctions against Iraq#Effectiveness: "There is a general consensus that the sanctions achieved the express goals of limiting Iraqi arms". The trouble was that the US and their allies didn't believe it. Alansplodge (talk) 15:00, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Napoleonic-era French gunboat in Birmingham

Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham (1885), p192 says:

Sir Rowland Hill, speaking of his childhood's days, said he could recollect once during the war with Napoleon that a French gunboat was dragged across the country, and shown in Birmingham at a small charge. He had never then seen any vessel bigger than a coal barge, but this was a real ship, with real anchor and real ship guns.

Do we know any more about this incident, or the ship involved? Presumably, it was also exhibited elsewhere - but where? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:01, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I found the full text of the book here, and it is strongly implied that the ship was captured at the Battle of Trafalgar, and accompanies a bit of doggerel verse on the same. Wikipedia's article lists a number of captured French warships, perhaps that will lead you somewhere? --Jayron32 14:37, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm... our article has HMS Swiftsure (1787) as the only captured French ship to return to Britain after Trafalgar - the French had previously captured it from Britain in 1801. A bit of a challenge to drag anywhere overland at over 1,600 tons, and Birmingham is about as far away from the sea as you can get in England (80+ miles from the Mersey). However, I have exhausted my Googling tricks without result except Rowland Hill's account. Alansplodge (talk) 20:58, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I have posted a note for the learned sages at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Ships#Napoleonic-era_French_gunboat_in_Birmingham. If they don't know, there is no hope. Alansplodge (talk) 14:48, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:59, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Much closer to Gloucester, or even Stourport, but point well made. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:59, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for correcting my ignorance of Midlands geography. I see that the point furthest from the sea in England is actually Coton in the Elms, some 30 miles further north. Alansplodge (talk) 21:23, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
As a general comment, Napoleonic-era gunboats were often very small vessels - as Gunboat#Pre-steam era notes, they often were armed with only a single cannon. Drawings I've seen suggest than many were about the size of a modern family caravan, or maybe even smaller, so it seems entirely feasible that one could be moved overland to Birmingham. As the ships were made of wood planking, they could easily also be partly disassembled then re-assembled. Nick-D (talk) 23:49, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
But Hill's account makes it clear that it was much larger than a coal barge and had more than one gun, so perhaps a brig, cutter or schooner. I'm not sure that we should take his use of the term "gunboat" as a technical definition. Alansplodge (talk) 13:40, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Brazilian census records online

Is there any way to look at Brazilian census records–as in, at actual Brazilian census entries–online? FamilySearch.org allows you this option in regards to U.S. Census entries up to the 1940 U.S. Census. Futurist110 (talk) 20:47, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"After compiling statistical information, the original census returns in Brazil were often destroyed" [11] Alansplodge (talk) 23:28, 9 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Any exceptions to this rule? Futurist110 (talk) 00:34, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, read the link that I posted. Alansplodge (talk) 14:38, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 10

The USS Maine: Is there any particular reason that it specifically was sent to Havana Harbor in 1898 rather than another US battleship?

Is there any specific reason that the USS Maine specifically was sent to Havana Harbor in 1898 rather than another United States battleship? Futurist110 (talk) 00:34, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The article USS Maine (1889) says the tub was located in the Florida Keys before being deployed to Cuba, so maybe it was merely convenient. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 09:55, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Epicurean Objection

From The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2nd Edition:

"According to Epicurus, a man who says that all things come to pass by necessity cannot criticize one who denies it, for he admits that this too happens of necessity. This can be taken as the first in an intriguing (if elusive) run of philosophical arguments purporting to show that belief in determinism is self-invalidating. Since necessitation of a belief does not exclude one’s having good reasons for it, Epicurus’ argument remains unclear. A recent suggestion is that the true force of the argument is in the consequence of determinism that our beliefs are owed to our being caused to make some discoveries and not others."

What is Epicurus' actual argument here? That because, according to a determinist, everyone is pre-ordained to end up having the belief system they do, that makes discussion on the matter pointless, since neither side will be fundamentally capable of changing their view? Loafiewa (talk) 20:29, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Think it's just that, according to determinism, the determinist is fated to support determinism and the non-determinist is fated to support non-determinism. If either one changes their views, that was also fated, of course. It reminds me of the old joke, "I wonder why more people don't become solipsists like me..." -- AnonMoos (talk) 21:32, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Correct, the article for this view (that people have no choice in their actions or speech under determinism) is incompatibilism, in contrast to compatibilists, who hold that free will, in some form at least, is compatible with determinism. - Lindert (talk) 22:27, 10 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
By the same argument as Epicurus used, an adherent of determinism cannot criticize someone for stepping on their toes, since they could not help it – it was predetermined by Fate that they would do so. I criticize Epicurus for presenting such a fallacious argument. As it happens, I believe strongly in determinism, so I believe Epicurus had no choice but to come up with this argument; this fact was already recorded from the beginning of time in the immutable Book of All that Will come to Pass. So if I am a determinist, why do I criticize Epicurus? It is pointless to ask: I can't help myself – Fate has determined that I will criticize him, and I am powerless; I cannot not criticize him, but have no choice but to comply.  --Lambiam 14:07, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 11

Reviews of and references to The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain, Ron Ramdin

I'm drafting an article on this book, and would like to know if it was reviewed in academic journals / newspapers and how it was received (both in 1987 when first published, and when the recent revised edition came out). It would also be interesting to know how academics have referred to it / criticised it meanwhile, particularly any articles that might focus on it (not sure if there will be any). I don't have access to JStor etc., and do not have enough edits to have access via Wikipedia. Are you able to help me out in any way? Thanks. Crinoline (talk) 18:05, 11 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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