Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities

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March 17

Axioms

Hi, I read the article about axioms but I don't understand the examples...since I only see the symbol of an empty set followed by other symbols I have never seen before. can someone give me a couple of 'non-mathematical' (lingüistic and philosophical) examples that mean the same thing as the examples in the article? I mean, translate them somehow? because I have no clue what those mathematical sentences mean. :|.--Cosmic girl 01:11, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Discrete mathematics is a logical disipline which deals with real world quantities rather than abstract ones, if that helps. It's not big on axioms, though. --Halcatalyst 01:25, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

That said, all logic and mathematics (for example, Euclid), used to be expressed in words rather than symbols. You could say that the major premise in Aristotelian logic is an axiom. To cite the well-worn example,

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, Socrates is a mortal.

IMHO, though very useful in sorting things out, this sort of logic, and all logic really, doesn't create new knowledge, only realizations. I guess you could call me analogical. Just don't call me anal. --Halcatalyst 01:35, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, an example of an axiom in ordinary words would be "If A is exactly the same thing as B, then B is exactly the same thing as A". As you see, it's something so simple that it can be considered self-evident. Once you have a couple of these (a system of axioms) you can start combining them and eventually turn up with conclusions that aren't that self-evident at all. That's basically how math works. --BluePlatypus 02:09, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

The original idea of an axiom was that it would be something self-evidently true. When Euclid wrote his great treatise on geometry, he used axioms like "Two things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other"; "if equals are added to equals, the sums are equal"; and "any line can be extended indefinitely in a straight line" (although he also used one axiom that was not so self-evident -- the parallel postulate -- evidently because without it he could not prove things he wanted to prove).

However, mathematicians later came to believe that while axioms should be as simple as possible, there is no need for them to be self-evidently true; what matters is whether, if you assume a particular set of axioms, you can derive a consistent system of mathematics containing interesting, non-obvious results. For example, it turns out that by assuming alternative axioms contrary to the parallel postulate, you get either of two interesting systems of non-Euclidean geometry. So in math, an axiom now is simply something you choose to assume as true for the purpose of proving other things. If it happens to relate to something in the real world, that's nice, but it's not necessary.

Outside of math, though, people are likely to expect anything called an "axiom" to be self-evidently true.

--Anonymous, 04:00 UTC, March 17, 2006.

Nice, thanx!, do you think that Axioms are tautologies? I mean...they can only justify themselves within logic, but never provide a basis for logic besides and beyond it's inner consistence? (meaning a WHY is it this way instead of something else)...is it this way?.--Cosmic girl 17:35, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Not really. A tautology is more like a statement that can be boiled down to "If X, then X". You can get somewhere with "justifying" axioms because you can examine the consequences if you adopt or don't adopt certain axioms (there's lots of fascinating stuff in mathematics like this, for instance the parallel postulate mentioned above or the axiom of choice). Different geometries with different basic sets of axioms all "exist" in some sense and apply in different circumstances. --Bth 19:52, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I C, thnx! :).--Cosmic girl 22:09, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

By the way, it turns out that the parallel postulate is basically a way of saying that the geometric figures are being drawn in a flat plane. Those were the sort of figures that Euclid wanted to consider. One type of non-Euclidean geometry is spherical geometry, which concerns figures drawn on the surface of a sphere. Instead of three straight lines, for example, a triangle is formed from (arcs of) three great circles, for example. If Euclid considered such figures, he would have considered them as part of 3-dimensional space and relating to things outside the sphere. But in spherical geometry you can study the surface of a sphere as a self-contained 2-dimensional object. Some theorems of Euclidean geometry still apply (the ones you could prove without using the parallel postulate), while others do not. --Anonymous, 00:45 UTC, March 18, 2006.

Osama bin laden and the 9-11 attacks

By taking American lives during, early in the 2000-2004 term, a time when George Bush was still bogged down by clinton's mind boggling security failures and shortsights, that he was trying to promote a democrat to the office by making Bush look weak? Ironic isn't it that even with democrats going all out playing the national security card, it worked to the opposite goal, and the American people will probably never again be foolish enough to surrendor the country to a democratic anything, and Bin Laden's goal of a democratic presidency will have failed, permanetly forcing his party of choice, the democrats, out of all 3 branches of government?--Demos ocracy 02:01, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Is this a rhetorical question? If not, the answer is "No, not really.". --Canley 02:22, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Notwithstanding my general agreement with Canley's response and my general dislike of the use of the Reference Desk to advance arguments through questions, I would note that it is not settled that bin Laden would prefer a Democratic administration and surely not settled that his pronouncements in mid-2004 aided the Kerry campaign (see, e.g., Bush's recent concession that bin Laden's late October speech likely helped the Bush campaign).

Or maybe bin Laden really wants the Republicans to win and thought that by attacking the U.S., he would get people to think just like you and vote for the GOP! My guess is bin Laden doesn't really care who is the president of the U.S. as long as he's an "infidel." -- Mwalcoff 02:59, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I remember back in the 1960s some New Left activists were hoping the Republicans (or whatever they considered right-wingers) would win so the world could see how terrible things were and then the Revolution would occur. I always thought that was an insane way to approach politics. Why not just Revolution Now? Or do it the regular way (democratically). Otherwise, sit down and shut up. --Halcatalyst 03:17, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

But I guess OBL doesn't have either option. So he's found a middle way: Pardon me if I object. I'm anti-authoritarian, so how could I like people who kill you if you don't agree with them? Or even if you do, randomly? --Halcatalyst 03:23, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Or maybe he doesn't even want people to vote for the GOP, but is rather just trolling wikipedia in an attempt to make Republicans look bad? --BluePlatypus 04:27, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Tout est possible. I don't pretend to understand how such minds work. But this would be an odd place to do it; do you suppose he's getting his jollies because we're having this conversation? --Halcatalyst 05:10, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

In the news today, the US was in a small minority voting against improvements to the United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council on the grounds, according to Ambassador John Bolton, that the move doesn't go far enough. He insists that the problem be solved completely or not at all. To me, this is the same kind of political rigidity as is exemplied by the New Left, and countless other ideologies I could name of all political stripes. --Halcatalyst 05:27, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

I think there's something to both theories:

1) Allowing the group opposite to your own to take power temporarily can, eventually, discredit them and put your group back in power. A good example would be communism. After the experiment in the Soviet Union and China, most people inside and outside those countries have been convinced that offering no economic incentive to work is ultimately bad for a country. Had those experiments never been done, we would still have a world full of revolutionaries wanting to try communism. A current example might be Muslim fundamentalism. Living in a country where all the laws are "made by God" might sound like a paradise until they see it in practice. In Afghanistan, women being beaten in the streets for what some unelected thug thinks is inappropriate clothing, and art, literature, music, and even kites being destroyed by religious nutjobs quickly convinced much of the population that this was not quite the paradise they had in mind.

2) Refusing to accept a compromise position and insisting on getting your full demands sometimes works, and sometimes fails. Accepting the compromise and then pressing for more later, also sometimes works and sometimes fails. StuRat 14:44, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

But for this to work, it would have to assume that Bin Laden knew that Bush would have won the 2000 election, which, as we recall, was not at all clear even after the election had finished. The 9-11 attacks took years of preparation, and the idea that the outcome of the national elections ten months before played any part in their execution seems very unlikely. --Fastfission 16:33, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, to influence an election they should attack right before the election, as was done to influence the election in Spain. If they allow too much time, it allows for a counter-attack, like the Afghanistan invasion, which makes the current government look good. StuRat 18:06, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

While i have to agree that political agendas don't belong on wikipedia, I am inclined to offer what's hopefully an unbiased opinion. If you look at the current situation, and say that someone is getting what they want, it would be OBL and Al Qaieda, and not the US. Consider the effects of 9/11. Americans were spurred into international actions that compromised the country's image. Americans made sweeping changes to national policy costing billions of dollars a year in direct expenses, and possibly trillions of dollars over all. While it's impossible to say what the american democrats would have done, since hindsight is indeed 20/20, it would appear that the actions of the republicans in response to 9/11 have lead to an overall loss to America, and that translates into a gain for terrorist agendas. The argument presented as the topic of this thread is nothing more than partisan bickering, something that only serves to further divide Americans (on top of being poorly worded and logically fallacious). What Americans would do if they were clearly concerned with moving the entire country forward, would be to think critically about national and international actions, and demand accountability from elected officials, both democrat and republican. Until that sort of thing becomes more commonplace, both political sides will be able to push selfish agendas and noone (but them, arguably) will win. --Jmeden2000 06:32, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the Democrats would have still overthrown the Taliban in Afghanistan, but not invaded Iraq. Then again, any Republican President other than Bush would likely have also invaded Afghanistan, and not Iraq. Bush had personal motives for wanting to get Saddam, as he tried to have Bush's father killed. StuRat 14:43, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't quite buy that, for one thing it implies that he might care for a person other than himself, ie his father, two implies that he has a long term memory that reaches all the way back to when his father was the president--152.163.100.72 02:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Politics

What is the difference between a premier (as in Gorbachev or Putin) and a prime minister (as in Blair)?

It's explained in the Premier article. Putin is the President though, and is referred to as such. --BluePlatypus 02:34, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Question about Georges Briard

Is there any way to view a deleted page? I am CERTAIN that I read an article about Georges Briard a few days ago on Wikipedia and now it is gone. He was a designer of china about 50 years ago. All I can figure is that the article was deleted. Is there a way to view it? 72.79.9.197 02:36, 17 March 2006 (UTC)Anon

There was no article under that name, no. However, if you know the name of an article, you can ask about it at wp:dr. Be prepared to assert the importance and usefulness of the article in some dispassionate and verifiable way. Geogre 02:40, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

The link worked, but I don't see anywhere to ask/post the question. Help! 72.79.9.197 02:45, 17 March 2006 (UTC)Anon

I looked in the deletion log and didn't see anything for either Georges Briard or George Briard. Are you sure this is the same spelling? Remember that capitalization and diacritics can change where an article is. If the article wasn't deleted, it won't be useful to go to deletion review. Makemi 02:48, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

It is Georges Briard (with the "s" - just type it into a search engine and you'll get 1000's of hits). The Wikipedia article on him was very good in how it explained his real name and how he changed it to this when he went into design work etc. Emmigrated from France etc. A thorough little article (maybe 1500 words). Anyway would it help to know that now that it is Thursday, it may have been as many as 10 days ago that I read the article?? 72.79.9.197 02:53, 17 March 2006 (UTC)Anon

I don't think the deletion log is archived that frequently, so it would still be logged even if it was deleted 10 days ago. I see that he's an glass artist, could the information been under another article, such as one about his company (if he had one), studio, or artistic movement? Perhaps if you browse the categories Category:Glass and Category:Glass art. Makemi 03:05, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm, I am certain the article was about him b/c when I entered the name, I had a choice of selecting an article about him or about a dog breed called "Briard." Georges Briard is perhaps still even alive according to http://www.sgcd.org/child_2004.html 72.79.9.197 03:14, 17 March 2006 (UTC)Anon

No sign of it. Maybe it was a site like Wikipedia. If your browser has a history feature, you could use it to see what pages you were visiting a few days ago. Notinasnaid 13:06, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Literary Critcism

I am doing an essay about the Great Gatsby in my high school english class. The paper was going along fine until I started to look for sources of literary criticism. Most relevant links from google scholar are under protection by JSTOR. Can anyone help point me in the direction as to where I might be able to find sources of literary criticism of the Great Gatsby on the web? -Ridge Racer 04:12, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

You're going to have to use paper resources, if you want anything worth reading. There are sites that have literary criticism, some of it even moderately intelligent, but you would be well advised not to use them. Your teacher is going to prefer print criticism, and, to tell the truth, so are you. The barrier to publication with the web is low. That's good, in that it means a world of plenty, but it also means that there is a world of plenty of junk. Good with bad sit side by side. Unless you feel capable of discerning the expert from the blowhard, the professor from the fellow high school student, the unprotected literary criticism is going to be fairly worthless to you. Hie thee to the library. It's going to be better for you and your grades, and there will be no temptation to accidentally committ plagiarism. Geogre 10:31, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

By the way, if you want to read actual scholarly journals and books online and you're willing to pay a small subscription fee, investigate Questia.com. It's a very serious site and entirely academic (i.e. not one of these cheat sites). I assume you already know about the cheater sites, so we needn't mention those -- they're unfit for a bibliography. Public domain sources will be few to non-existent due to when the novel came out. You're stuck with print or a Questia online version of a print source. Geogre 10:36, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Also, a number of libraries do have onsite access to JSTOR, so if you found some articles which look good to you on there, just take a note of the bibliographic info and then hie thee to the library. Makemi 20:16, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for all of the suggestions, but I managed to grab some books that were on reserve in the school library for over the weekend. I gotta tell my teacher not to reccommend going online for the reasons listed above (which I learned the hard way). Thanks. -Ridge Racer 19:49, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Lanai

The only information under "lanai" is about one of the Hawaiian islands. Would it also be appropriate to have a short reference to lanai as "a type of patio"?

Thanks. 04:18, 17 March 2006 (UTC)66.171.48.138

Yes. A search here (box appears in every page) shows :

• An airport
• An island
• A city, each related ;
• A thrush (kinda extinct bird)
• A house style here, also shown in Disney's tiki room ... Be bold, else someone shall create the disamb page and all before you. --DLL 17:20, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Done. I had a few minutes while here at work :-) See Lanai (disambiguation). Dismas|^(talk) 21:11, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Relationship between Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates.

Thank you for taking the time to review my question.

I have read the biography of Bill Gates, and the biography of Steve Jobs on Wikipedia. I have also read the History of Microsoft Windows. I have seen very few references to the stealing/copying of the first Operating System used by Windows. I remember it saying that Windows strangley resembled the OS released by apple, but there is a great talk about Microsoft stealing whole concept of the OS from apple. I also remember seeing that Apple had in fact saught legal action in this area, but I still have not found any definate answer as to whether Microsoft stole it all from Apple. Is this true? Did Microsoft steal its techknowlogy from Apple, thus propelling itself passed Apple in the coorperate world? Or are a ton of people seeing a coincidence and just acting on what they know, rather then what happened? It seemed to me that Bill Gates built the windows system around MS-Dos, which he had in fact purchased legally, just his OS that he compiled onto the hardware was just similar to Apples "Apple III" OS. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Nathan Sorensen (email removed)

Actually, they both stole it (the visual part) from Xerox, who largely invented the modern GUI for their Xerox Alto computer. But it all depends what you mean by "steal". Do Apple and Microsoft imitate each other's look, innovations, and features? Yes, constantly, and in both directions. Do they steal programs and code? Nobody seems to have said so. Do they steal other forms of intellectual property? This is open to debate, and there have been law suits on whether the idea of a "look and feel" can be protected, or whether good ideas can just be used to improve everyone's products. Notinasnaid 10:39, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

The reason that Windows looks a bit like Macintosh is because Apple CEO John Sculley made an agreement with Microsoft allowing them to use Macintosh's GUI elements in the first version of their OS. A loophole, however, allowed Microsoft to continue using these elements in any future versions of Windows. :( Hmm... Wikipedia says this about it:

Microsoft threatened to discontinue Microsoft Office for the Macintosh if Apple did not license parts of the Macintosh graphical user interface to Microsoft for use in the Windows operating system. Sculley agreed under the pressure, a decision which later affected the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit.

Interesting... —OneofThem 17:22, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

David Bowie Lyrics - Ashes to Ashes

On the 1979 Number One hit 'Ashes to Ashes' there is barely audible chanting by Bowie behind the second verse and Middle Eight. What are these background vocals on David Bowie Ashes to Ashes saying?

Paul, Hammersmith please email to [ E-mail address removed for your inbox' sanity ] --86.137.88.214 11:04, 17 March 2006 (UTC)You stupid spam-monkey.

Everyone in the world is going to e-mail you (twice over it would appear),

kablam dan

He chants the main lyric. "I never did good things/ I never did bad things/ I never did any thing/ Out of the blue, oh no." On Scary Monsters he does that in other places, as well, where the second singer is echoing (sometimes in Japanese) the main lyric. Geogre 22:38, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Reference to Dali in song by Bowie?

I've heard that there is a reference to a painting by Salvador Dali in the song Life on Mars? by David Bowie. Is this true, if yes, which painting?

Beacharn 19:56, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Hm. not sure - the lyrics could refer to any of a dozen paintings by Dali... you're not thinking of Diamond Dogs, which mentions a girl wearing a Dali brooch, are you? Grutness...wha? 05:47, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

perisan,chinese and american unicorns culture differences?

I found alot about american unicorns but can't find any on perisan and chinese, can you please explain what i'm doing wrong. I'm sure all cultures have some kind of unicorns, i remember reading that somewhere but can't find any information. please help thank you. [removed e-mail]

I assume you're referring to the article Unicorn which mainly deals with European unicorns, but the section Unicorn#Unicorns in antiquity gives a little bit more of a multicultural view. There is also the article Qilin, about a mythical beast which could also be called a unicorn. The problem is that mythical animals tend to have a wide variety of names, and are not all necessarily linked historically or conceptually. Basically, just because a mythical beast in China has a horn, it won't necessarily be called a unicorn in English sources. see also Karkadann, ElasmotheriumMakemi 20:30, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Confucius say: "The truly wise man never plays leapfrog with the unicorn." StuRat 00:56, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

March 18

discussion board

What's the difference between an online reference desk and a discussion borard board? Does it matter, here? --Halcatalyst 00:21, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Is this a rhetorical question, Hal (if I may call you Hal)? —Keenan Pepper 01:09, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

• You may call me Hal but not Hallie (makes me want my momma.)  ;-) Yes, it's a serious question. If it were a rhetorical question, I'd have paused for about a second and a half and then given you my answer. --Halcatalyst 05:59, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Depends - can he call you Betty? Grutness...wha? 05:49, 18 March 2006 (UTC) (with apologies to Paul Simon)

Ah, in that case, you have just made it more of a message board by asking that question. My personal, unstudied and not-so-experienced-with-the-reference-desk-opinion is that the purpose of the reference desk is for people who actually have something to say say something. And hopefully, what they will say is either: here's where to start looking for the answer; or: do your homework; or: this is the answer, and here's where I found it. Makemi 06:05, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Well said, Makemi. Also, the Reference Desk is more structured than a message board because it's divided into askers and answerers (at least for any given question), and because randomly changing subjects is frowned upon. And no, you can't call me Betty. (?) —Keenan Pepper 06:14, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

They are referring to the Paul Simon song "You Can Call Me Al" off the album Graceland, the text of which is here, note the similarity between the names Hal and Al. Makemi 06:20, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

As Keenan noted, the Reference Desk is for asking questions. A message board is for messages. That message may be a question. It may be a statement, like "TV sucks when there is basketball on half the channels." It could be for exposition, like "A freddled gruntbuggly spat on me and then lurdled off after a rather frudled bee." Such postings are not very welcome on the Reference desk because they are not questions. Also, few teenagers post homework questions in the message boards. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:47, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I was really referring to my 2001 filk (parody) of "You can call be Al", which, for those desperately bored, can be found here (damn difficult song to sing or parody, that one. Weird polyrhythms...). Grutness...wha? 01:33, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

• Here's my view. The reference desk is for asking questions. Anybody can ask, including those who answer them. When that happens, it can legitimately be called a discussion board, and it legitimately is a discussion board as well as a reference desk. Also, there can be some horsing around among the regular "answerers." This is normal, something you see in the workplace, for example, maybe even among reference librarians. If it becomes nothing but kidding around, then it becomes more and more like your garden variety discussion board, of which there are as many around the Internet as you'd ever care to discover.
• So, the question is, really, what do we want here? Well, I'm satisfied with what we've got. But I think we should be conscious (and maybe appreciative) of what we've got. By the way, there was a good reason I didn't pose this question on the reference desk discussion page: because very few contributors here participate there.
• Thanks for your responses. I hope people keep responding for the seven days before the topic disappears into that great ghost town, the Archives. --Halcatalyst 04:56, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
• For those of you who want a fancy name, this here's a meta discussion. --Halcatalyst 05:02, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Weird cartoon

Could someone explain this cartoon to me? I get most of the PBF ones but this one just baffles me. —Keenan Pepper 06:10, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure of the whole context, but the joke seems to be that the girl is blind. Note that her eyes don't seem to have pupils. Makemi 06:14, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Why is her reflection in the mirror weird, then? —Keenan Pepper 06:24, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I think it's trying to point out how poorly done her makeup is (the goal of most peoples' makeup is not to have huge circles of blush and eyeshadow, although there is a certain aesthetic which values that). Makemi 06:29, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

I think that the girl is a vampire. Vampires do not cast shadows or have reflections. In the mirror all we can see is her clothing and her make-up. Pontificake 08:30, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't seem that strange to me.. The girl's mother complains about her daughter's use of make-up. The girl complains that the other girls get to use it, thinking that she's opposed to the use of make-up in general. But it turns out that she's just against it because the daughter is so bad at it, thus a humorous situation arises. The humor is heightened by the realization that the daugher is apparently a vampire (and has no reflection in the mirror), so she literally can't see what she's doing. (explaining why she was so bad at it. --BluePlatypus 14:37, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah. Vampire. Gotcha. —Keenan Pepper 17:01, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

yeah, the girl is obviously a vampire. you can tell by their stereotypical pointed clothing or by the mom's pointed canines in the upclose pic.-drtyhobo

• Ze aczent iz also ze tell tale, sterotypical eastern european accent, as in romania, more specifically transalvania, dracula, and so forth--152.163.100.72 02:06, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the stereotypical Dracula accent is a Hungarian one, mostly thanks to Béla Lugosi. Although Bram Stoker's Drac was supposedly a Szekler, but OTOH had a Romanian-sounding name. (Inspired either by the Drakulya family or the "Draculea" nickname of Vlad Tsepesh) --BluePlatypus 15:35, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

'critiques on surrealism' paragraph

hello, i am writing a dissertation on surreal film and was wondering whether you can give me the exact source of your 'critiques of Surrealism' paragraph. (feminists have in the past critiqued the surrealist movement for being a fundamentally male movement and a male fellowship.....)

i would really appreaciate if you could let me know as soon as possible what book or website this was taken from. thank you. i would need the original source and not the wikipedia reference.

If it's not sourced in the article (by means of a reference or something), then I'm afraid we can't help you. While we ask editors to cite their sources, not everyone does it all the time. You can try to leave a message on the article's talk page, or else search for the phrase in question on Google. Good luck! — QuantumEleven | (talk) 12:57, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

You can also look through the history of the article to find who wrote that section, then ask them directly. -LambaJan 21:20, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Chinese and Japanese Kamasutra

There is that Indian Kamasutra. Apart from that, even the chinese and the japanese have similar books originating from their country. Can you name what is Chinese kamasutra called and what is Japanese kamasutra called?

The Japanese "Kamasutra" is called Shijuhatte: Shijuhatte Sexual Positions ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:14, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

priory of sion

Is priory of sion a real organisation operating since past protecting secrets about the holy grail and other secrets?

It's a fictional organization operating to make Dan Brown lots of money. Of course, some people believe they exist. Those people are called "conspiracy theorists". --BluePlatypus 18:28, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Is "conspiracy theorist" a synonym for "whacko"? --Nelson Ricardo 18:47, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

That's just what "they" want you to think. :) --BluePlatypus 21:29, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

It's obvious you guys are a conspiracy. --Halcatalyst 23:24, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

One may, incidentally, consult our article and the attendant links. It seems fairly clear that Jimbo is actually the Grand Master. Joe 23:00, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

philosophy

is it better to be a hhappy pig or an unhappy human? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.235.209.13 (talk • contribs)

Depends on your philosophy. --Slumgum | yap | stalk | 21:10, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

It's a false dichotomy: I know plenty of happy pigs who walk on two feet. Geogre 21:28, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

The Ides of March

Last Wednesday, March 15, it occurred to me to wonder why this date (fatal to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare's play) was called the ides and whether the 15th of every month was so designated. I Googled and found out that only the months of March, May, July and October have the 15th so designated. All other months in the ancient Roman calendar have the ides on the 13th day. Can someone eplain this anomoly further? Thank you. ElizaK

The months with 31 days have the ides on the 15th. The months with 30 days have the ides on the 13th. --Kainaw ^(talk) 21:47, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

It's not that simple. The Ides were on the 15th in March, May, July, and October, which are all 31-day months. I think I remember reading that this was a holdover from the earlier form of the calendar, but I forget the details. --Anonymous, 01:50 UTC, March 19, 2006.

What is not that simple!? It cannot be any simpler. Roman months were either 31 or 30 days. I clearly explained what day the ides fell on for each month length. --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:51, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I get it. First, I was writing in a hurry and meant to say "which are not the only 31-day months" or something like that. Point is, in the Julian calendar there were 7 months with 31 days, same as today, but the Ides were on the 15th only in the 4 months I named. Second, I was assuming we were talking about the Julian calendar because I think that's the one people usually mean when they speak of the Roman calendar, and also because the question explicitly referred to Julius Caesar. But Kainaw was actually talking about the "earlier form" of the calendar that I spoke of, which in fact is covered in the Wikipedia article, and the statement is correct for that. --Anon, 05:57 UTC, March 19.

The Wikipedia article also gives the dates of the Kalends and Nones for each month, in which one may also be interested. Joe 23:04, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

population

what city/borough/village has the lowest population in the US?

There are a few with zero, such as S.N.P.J., Pennsylvania, which has only part-time residents. -- Mwalcoff 00:18, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

For those with populations, Parker, Pennsylvania (pop. 799) calls itself "The Smallest City in the United States". However, Ismay, Montana only has 26 people. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:35, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

An odd thing about the US is the way distinctions are made between "city" and "town." Parker is saying it's the smallest city, whatever that means. As far as I know, it means incorporated as a city and not as a town. Probably that depends on the laws of a particular state. All I know is that I live in a city of 3500 souls and my brother lives in a rapidly-growing town of 180,000. I'm sure such distinctions are also artifacts of historical development. He lives near Phoenix, Arizona. --Halcatalyst 04:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

"There are 948 cities in Iowa of which more than 870 belong to the League of Cities. Population sizes range from quite small (Beaconsfield, pop. 11) to quite large (Des Moines, pop. 198,652)." "Cities in Iowa." However, there are no localities formally called towns that I know of. --Halcatalyst 04:45, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

It does depend on the state. In Ohio, any municipality with 5,000 or more people at the latest decennial census is a city, and any municipality with fewer people is a village. I know of one city that went from village to city to village and back to city over three censuses. (They never bothered to change the stationery when the population dropped below 5,000.) -- Mwalcoff 05:30, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

March 19

Toshitaka Nomi

Hello I'm New here. I was answered by Nutinasnaid, to which I say yes; I have been unable to contact the ABO-World web-site@the mentioned location which is why in the first place I am contacting you instead.. I am very interested in advancing my knowledge of the material complided by Toshitaka Nomi and his Blood Type Human Studies Institue. Can you shed any light I why I cannot contact the ABO-World web-site? Thank You for your help John C. Revi

It appears to work fine for me (although I can't read Japanese). Perhaps explain the problem in more detail?--inks^T 02:36, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The page I saw was in English: http://www.human-abo.org/english/message.html. I seem to recall there was no aforementioned location - you never told us the web site - so we may all be talking at cross purposes. John, can you confirm you have tried to e-mail, to telephone, to fax, and to write a letter, and all of these have been successful? Or are you saying you cannot even visit this we page? Please be clear and tell us what web page you mean, and how you have tried to contact. Notinasnaid 10:33, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

death punishment

i want to have some opinions and arguments against Death punishment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.55.55.32 (talk • contribs)

You have to make your own opinion. Slumgum | yap | stalk | 02:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Or, if you just want to copy other people's opinions, try reading up on capital punishment (no, it's not the penalty for using all uppercase letters, although perhaps it should be.). StuRat 02:38, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

You cannot merely consider arguments against the death penalty - you must also consider the death penalty itself to keep the question in balance and thus not arrive at an unbalanced conclusion. I suspect the greatest argument against lawful execution is that the sentencing and executing authorities can, and have, at times been demonstrably wrong, and have killed (executed) innocent people in the process. But conversely, those unfortunates who have been wrongly convicted, sentenced, and executed, hopefully in the earnest belief that they were in fact guilty as charged, and sentenced and executed according to law, can never offend again, if in fact they ever did. I recall a TV discussion involving a late British Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham aka Quintin Hogg) on this very subject in which he declared that it was far better to let 99 guilty murderers walk free than to erroneously hang (execute) one innocent man. But I also recall hearing a counter-argument that suggested it might be better in a civilised but endangered society to hang (execute) all one hundred, including the one innocent man, so as to make the community a safer place. The justification ran along the lines that the 99 guilty men would never offend again; and the one innocent man would meet his maker sooner rather than later, and would be rewarded in heaven/paradise/eternity for having sacrificed his life in contribution to the betterment of the society on earth he left behind.

You may be amused by the article "n guilty men", a study of how the "it is better to let n murderers free than kill one innocent man" theory has changed over time... Shimgray | talk | 21:26, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

If you say you want to have an opinion against the death penalty then it seems you already have one. :) DirkvdM 15:55, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

political question

What would happen if the United states pulled out from the middle east?

would there be an increase in terrorist activity or would the politcal situtaion change?--06:51, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm sure that the simple act of removing an American presence from the middle east would count as "changing the political situation". Also, what is it exactly that the US is "pulling out"? Money? Troops? McDonalds?--inks^T 09:25, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

My crystal ball says these will happen

• Civil war in Iraq
• A fundamentalist power will take over Iraq,
• Iran will be nuclear-armed
• Russia moving in to fill up some of the power vacuum
• re-emergence of Al-Qaeda, more terrorists will be recruited, trained and deployed around the globe
• Saudia government in danger of being overthrown. Other secular or western-support regimes are also in danger of being overthrown.
• US diplomacy is at its lowest, because it has failed in its obligation as an occupying force.
• Clash of civilisations.
• Worst of all, oil prices will go up, 69.234.54.17 10:19, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Seems to me like most of those will happen even if the U.S. doesn't pull out.--Fastfission 21:41, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Make that have happened when they 'pulled in' (well, several, anyway). DirkvdM 16:01, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Terrorism is in 95% of the cases aimed against foreign occupation. Same here. But the civil war will continue for some time, so local terrorism (if you wish to call it that) will also go on, but terrorism against the US will become les likely. DirkvdM 16:01, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Ships 1750

i need information on ships in 1750. conditions onboard, punishment onboard etc. i aso need information of how they changed between 1750-1900. please help.

• Are you referring to conditions onboard "Middle Passage" slave ships? If so, here is some quick information:

• Low water rations, which lead to severe dehydration in slaves (symptons include hallucinations, anorexia, low metabolic rates, and extreme difficulty swallowing)

  "Dr. Joseph Cliffe, a physician in the Brazilian trade, claimed that when he was on shipboard, 'the want of water' was so great among the slaves that they were not brought on deck because 'if they were to see water alongside," thirst would drive "a great number of them to jump overboard without considering that it was salt water.' When questioned about the amount of water given the slaves, Cliffe stated that in one case water only in the amount of a 'teacup-full' was given every three days."

-Stanley L. Engerman and Joseph E. Inikori, The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992), 322.

• Low food rations, which lead to severe malnutrition.

• Slaves were huddled together in the dark lower decks of the ship. Diseases like dysentary, yellow fever, smallpox, and typhoid ran rampant in these cramped holds. Men were kept shackled at all times. Brutal punishment would come to any slave who challenged the masters' authority.

• As a result of these horrid conditions, mortality rates during the Middle Passage from the mid-17th century up until the early 19th were always high for slaves and crew alike (who presumably caught the diseases carried by slaves and were only given rations with a slightly higher margin in quantity). Estimates range from 13 and 33 percent for any given journey. During the 19th century, increased "efficency" came as a result of better designed ships which could carry more fresh water. Engerman and Inikori again write:

  "Finally, there is the question of the declining middle passage mortality of slaves, from the first decades of the eighteenth century to the first part of the nineteenth century, from close to 25 percent to around 5 to 10 percent. This decline must have been the result, not just of the construction of specialized ships intended. for the trade, as has been suggested, but of the construction of specialized ships designed to carry more water than their predecessors and very likely to catch more water from rainfall as well."

-Stanley L. Engerman and Joseph E. Inikori, The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992), 330-331.

Additional links:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html

http://www.melfisher.org/henriettamarie/middlepassage.htm

Also see the film Amistad for graphic depictions of the conditions onboard slave ships.

Compliments of User:Jrousso

Detailed answer, but not to the user's question. He asked about changes between 1750 and 1900, which certainly excludes slave ships. I assume he meant conditions for sailors, probably not conditions for passengers. He also did not specify whether he meant naval vessels or civilian. A lot of things changed between 1750 and 1900. Some of the things included increased size of ships, change from sail to steam with consequent reduction in size of crew needed for a ship of particular size, abolition of frequent corporal punishment and press gangs for sailors in most navies, shorter voyages because of steam with less isolation from the rest of the world because of telegraph access at various ports, elimination of scurvy, increased dietary variety and quality for several reasons, including refrigeration... Perhaps the inquirer might narrow the question a bit if he wants more? alteripse 12:11, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I ignore people who shout, so I didn't read your question. DirkvdM 16:02, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Professor Victor Gold

Can anyone please tell me which organisation brought Victor Gold, then aged 16 (who was later Professor of Chemistry at King's College London University) over to England from Austria in 1938. Thank you.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Victor Gold was educated at the Vienna ‘Realgymnasium’ until the age of 15 when, following the Anschluss, he was sent to the UK by his family.[1] ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:12, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you. But did his family sent him to England privately or through some ORGANISATION such as the Kindertransport?

Village Pump

While Wikipedia has a community forum called Village Pump, I can't seem to find the article for Village Pump. Am I just not finding it, or does the article ironically not exist (yet)? Cheers --TG

Moved your question to the right date, as it should be. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:52, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The Village Pump is located here. Technically, articles are only located in the main namespace, so it's not an article, more of a discussion page (actually, it's six discussion pages....) Oskar 14:01, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

If you are looking for a discussion of the village pump (an article on it rather than the space itself), you shouldn't find one. The reason is one of the guidelines: no self-reference. Wikipedia articles are supposed to avoid referring to Wikipedia itself. There is an article called Wikipedia, and it's relatively uncontroversial, but other self-reference violators (Criticisms of Wikipedia and History of Wikipedia) get more heat. Other than those, there should be no articles on ourselves, or at least very few. Geogre 16:10, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

It's acceptable to have articles on Wikimedia (or parts thereof), when those parts are notable. That isn't a violation of Wikipedia:avoid self-reference. Superm401 - Talk 22:40, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps the questioner is referring to village pumps in general, rather than Wikipedia's Village Pump. In which case, village pump (with no capital letters) would be the place to look. Grutness...wha? 07:04, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

correction. I would have thought that was the place to look, but that seems to redirect to WP:VP. We do have the article pump, though, which seems to be largely about rurlar water pumps. Grutness...wha? 07:05, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Historical Speech on Education. "All education is to the glory of God!"

During my school days a teacher once showed me a speech or article a minister wrote. It was once a public exam question. In the article, the minister talked of education and its privatisation and the resulting question of the use, beneficiaries and goal of education. The last sentence of the work was approximately "... All education is to the glory of God!" The minister in question was Irish or Scottish and the work was published in the 1920s. Please bear in mind that my recollection is approximate and I am not sure of anything (perpetually), except the last sentence of the speech. Thank you in advance!

The Jesuits speak of Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam "to the greater glory of God" quoting St. Ignatius Loyola. Maybe this can help. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

explanation of cryptic crossword clue

Hi, I'm a novice cryptic crossword fan, and I came across the following clue in the Guardian Weekly. It was no. 4 down and the compiler was Janus: "Nothing cat-man can do for this marsupial". The answer was OPOSSUM. Can anyone explain how this is obtained? The Mad Echidna 17:00, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Here's my theory. The leading O can be taken as a zero, therefore "nothing." T. S. Eliot wrote Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, so Possum would be the "cat-man." The "can do for" part is assigning equivalence, thus "nothing" + "cat-man" = O + POSSUM = OPOSSUM. And of course, an opossum is a marsupial. --LarryMac 17:26, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

If I saw a clue like that I would just roll up and play dead. StuRat 17:57, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Heh. I love doing cryptics, but my wife has convinced me not to read her the clues and answers; she says they make her head explode. --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 18:00, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

For the record, I never would have gotten that if I'd been the one doing the puzzle. Having both the answer and the clue to work from made it a little easier to work out. --LarryMac 18:15, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Would I be Janus, I would roll upside down in my sepulchre (still keeping one face up and one face down) with this clue. I ain't got any better, however. --DLL 21:50, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

Just as an aside: I think one would be quite likely to get this clue, without understanding the really obscure part (the cat man reference). You know it's 7 letters, to start with. Almost all cryptics split into a literal and cryptic part; the most likely literal part is either "nothing" or "marsupial". Well, nothing could be things like zero, null, nill, nihil, but I can't think of a seven letter nothing. So let's try marsupial: a seven letter marsupial. I could think of wallaby, kangaroo...no good. I was hoping for a simple alphabetical list, but List_of_Australian_marsupials is arranged taxonomically. Still, the word opossum leaps out and is seven letters so worth looking at. At this point, I'd see the "o" could mean nothing and decide that was good enough and fill it in. (Footnote: I see wallaby actually does have 7 letters. If I'd have noticed, I would have played with it for a while, but decided I couldn't fit it in).Notinasnaid 09:55, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

As another aside, the Guardian also had a clue a couple of weeks ago: "Primal Australian creature". The answer was "marsupial", because it is an anagram of "primal Aus". Some of the logic behind these cryptic clues is far, far more convoluted than the above. --Shantavira 13:46, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Plans for post-war Europe

Does Wikipedia have a page for Nazi Germany's plans for post-war Europe? Have searched, have not found. The Generalplan Ost page is pretty sparse. Thanks! Jørgen 20:04, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The Nazi's didn't want there to be a post-war, as far as I can tell. After Europe, it was on to the world, and that kind of makes things take a while...Superm401 - Talk 22:41, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

That'd probably depend on the outcome of the war, Hitler being a megalomaniac, the more, the better. That doesn't mean he didn't have certain plans and priorities. He wanted to unify all 'Germanic' people under his rule. People like the Norwegians would be allowed to keep their own languages and cultures, but German would be their first language. The others wouldn't be treated that way. Following the doctrine of Lebensraum, the East (in particular Russia) would be used to give the Germanic peoples room to spread out and colonize. The indiginous and slavic peoples would be reduced to slaves or serfs, and afforded little education. (I believe Hitler said something to the extent of "All they need is enough German to read a road-sign, and the knowledge that the Germans are their masters", I think it was in Sereny's excellent "Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth") The capital of all this would be "Welthauptstadt Germania", which Speer actually made plans for. --BluePlatypus 18:11, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your answers. I've read Fatherland, which gives a striking description of the new capital. As far as I understand, there is no page for this topic on Wikipedia, and from what I've (failed to) discover on the Web, there is not enough info around to create one. After all, though these people liked thinking great, they were wildly insane, and plans may not have been entirely consistent... Jørgen 18:48, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Also compare the Nazi plans for post-war Europe with the Allies' plans, which weren't made until the Yalta Conference, once victory was just a matter of time, and the Potsdam Conference, after the war had ended. The Nazis also were waiting until it became apparent that their victory was guaranteed, before finalizing their plans, but that time never came. StuRat 19:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

This does not directly address your question, but any good discussion of this issue ought to consider Philip K. Dick's novel The Man in the High Castle which is set in a world where Nazi Germany & Japan won WWII. Dick's visualization won him a Hugo award.-- llywrch 02:50, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

claudia muzio

My mother informed me years ago she named me after Claudia Muzio. I recently acquired three photographs of Claudia Muzio in costume, 8x10 addressed to my aunt and my godfather, both of whom were opera impressarios, and my mother was an opera coach for many years with the SF Opera Company. I was born in 1932 and my mother claimed she missed opening night at the new opera house.

I'm asking if these photographs are of significant important to any society and/or monetary value. They are originals and are dated 1933.

I'm no expert in opera collectibles, but a quick eBay search turned up one picture of Muzio [2] which was selling for US$4.25 with two bids. Not wildly popular by any means, but there are at least some people interested in it. I suggest you take ask at the local opera house (if there is one) who deals in opera collectibles and talk to them. --George 03:32, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Study on Experts

I saw in the news a few weeks ago someone had done a long-term study of how accurate were the forecasts of experts, asking a number of them questions and tracking over a number of years whether their predictions came to pass. Does anyone have a citation to this study?

If you can provide a link to a related news article (and more importantly, the name of the corresponding author), I could probably track it down quite easily. It's always bothered me how news stories on published research rarely provide a reference to the publication. --inks^T 21:30, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not aware of any study that crosses all fields, but am aware of a study where stockbroker's picks were compared with a monkey's stock picks, and the monky did better. In general, an expert's predictions could be quite accurate or highly inaccurate, depending on how specific the question is. If a meteorologist is asked to predict if there will be any hurricanes next year anywhere, I would expect accurate results, if asked to predict exactly where each hurricane will make landfall, a year in advance, I would expect pathetic accuracy. StuRat 14:58, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

StuRat makes a good point. There are also lots of articles that look at this idea in various contexts. I've seen a few about economists' projections of interest rates. Beyond a short period of time the predictions were more wrong than right, and the predictions couldn't even tell more than 50% of the time even the direction of changes, much less specific numbers. Of course everyone knows predictions of this type are very difficult, so it's just meant to be illustrative. - Taxman ^Talk 17:44, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I think you're looking for Expert Political Judgment: How Good is It? How Can We Know? by Philip Tetlock. Here's the publisher's site. From the aforementioned site: "Tetlock first discusses arguments about whether the world is too complex for people to find the tools to understand political phenomena, let alone predict the future. He evaluates predictions from experts in different fields, comparing them to predictions by well-informed laity or those based on simple extrapolation from current trends." —Seqsea (talk) 05:28, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

March 20

Parliamentary sovereignty in Australia.

Hi, I am a first time user of this space, so I am not sure I am in the right place.

My question is: Can it be said that Parliamentary sovereignty exists in Australia? Is Parliament the ultimate law making body?

Thankyou. Northcoastbaby.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy. ≈ jossi ≈ t • @ 04:06, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

For the student, what you will have to find out for yourself is if actions of the lower house must be ratified by the English House of Lords or by the Queen of England. In Canada, which shares the Commonwealth root, the right to unilaterally make its own legislation was approved for the House of Commons in the early 80s. Prior to that, everything had to be sent up to the House of Lords--meaning that things like the national budget had had to be approved by the mother country. In Australia's case it may be different. Also, can the Australian parliament negotiate its own treaties, internally & externally? Or can they only be resolved by the head of state (which in Canada, at least, is the Queen). Make sure you clearly understand who is the head of Government and who is the head of State and you will get an A. --24.80.70.174 22:06, 20 March 2006 (UTC)JK

That may be a little misleading. Actions of the Australian lower house (the House of Representatives) do not have to be "ratified" by anybody. The Australian Parliament as a whole makes laws. The three elements of the parliament are: the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Queen of Australia. The House and the Senate agree on changes to the law, and the Governor-General representing the Queen of Australia gives Royal Assent. Australian law has nothing whatever to do with either the House of Lords or the Queen of "England" (and not even with the Queen of the United Kingdom). JackofOz 06:09, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

See also Statute of Westminster 1931, Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 and Australia Act 1986. --Canley 01:58, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Lifehouse's song "You and Me"

I was watching an episode of Cold Case with my mom. At the end of the episode, "You and Me" by Lifehouse was played. My mom says that at the end of every episode, a song that was released and/or made during the time that the mystery took place is played. The mystery for that episode took place some time during the 1990s! I recently searched various Lifehouse Websites and I couldn't get any information about when the song was made. The Wikipedia says that the song was produced in 2002. When was it made?

I am eminently confident that the Wikipedia entry is correct in noting that the song was produced in '02 and released as a single in '05. Perhaps this website, which purports to enumerate the musical selections for each episode, may be of assistance to you in ascertaining whether, in fact, concomitant to the end of each episode is music contemporary to the resolved crime (although I should note that the site doesn't seem to list the song). Joe 04:14, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

In my experience watching that show, the songs used during the "flashback" portions are contemporary to the timeframe. At the end, however, they are usually showing something happening "currently" so the song could be from any time period. Last night, they played Depeche Mode's Precious during one scene in the middle of the show, but it was during a "present-day" scene, even though they were investigating a 1980 cold case. --LarryMac 14:42, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

lost city

I am trying to find the name of a city that no longer exists that I saw pictures of recently. I believe the city was somewhere in asia and had apartments seemingly stacked very high on eachother loosely like shoeboxes. I'd like to know more about the city but can't find information about it anywhere. I'm pretty sure the name started with a C and was something like Carrageena (?) Thank you for any information you can provide, Charlotte

Have you checked at Lost city? Are you thinking of the Forbidden City, by chance? The Jade Knight 04:00, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Is it Angkor Wat, Cambodia? --Vsion 04:37, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Carthage? In Spanish, the name "Carthage" became Cartagena, which is still there. -- Mwalcoff 05:26, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Çatalhöyük (also spelled Catal Huyuk and other various ways) was one of the world's first cities. It was in whats now Turkey and had stacked apartments. See this site for an artists image of the buildings. You can also search Google image for "Catal Huyuk" and find others.--Bkwillwm 05:42, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

rights

what right are you given by law in a civil case that protects you personal information
Tell in which countrySuraj vas 09:51, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

jugalbandhi

I need definition of the work jugalbandhi. email removed

It's not in the OED. Do you know what language it is? The Jade Knight 07:25, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

According to the article about Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna, it's a kind of jam session between two musicians in Indian music. --Canley 07:31, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I am sure its in Hindi ciz i am an Indian.Suraj vas 09:49, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Current economic sanctions

is there a list of the current economic trade sanctions currently enforced by the UN and US?--orphan frequently 06:16, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

US trade sanctions

Here are a current list of US trade disputes under section 301. This is by no means a comprehensive list of US sanctions, let alone UN ones, but it's a start. --Rwiedower 18:49, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

history of production.

Hello Could someone help me with the proper words for the modes of production, manually production, manufacturing and mere facturing.

Thanks Christian Blom

Don't know the answer, but thanks for expanding my vocabulary with the word "facture". JackofOz 12:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I see no need to be rude, which that could easily be construed as. - Taxman ^Talk 17:39, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, I am curious as to what the asker meant by that word, aren't you ? StuRat 18:50, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Being accused of rudeness does not sit well with me at all, Taxman. I'll happily apologise if I was unintentionally rude, but I'm struggling to see how what I wrote could be construed that way. If my thanks were obviously meant to deny the existence of the word facture, then you would have a case for accusing me of sarcasm. But such an intention was not there, and cannot reasonably be read into it. For the record, I had never heard of facture before, so I checked it out and discovered it's well established. Thanking the questioner was my natural and very courteous way of expressing my delight in learning a new word. JackofOz 14:24, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Well it would be a little rude if like me you erroneously thought that it wasn't a word. Then you would just be mocking the asker. I didn't infer from your answer that you had actually gone and looked it up, and I didn't. It seems that's twice in a couple days I've been sharper than I intended, so I'll try to improve that. Sorry. - Taxman ^Talk 20:34, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

No hard feelings. JackofOz 01:54, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Following the links in Manufacturing and Production should give you more than enough to get started. Respond to this again if you have specific questions after reading the relevant articles. - Taxman ^Talk 17:39, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Noun: facture fakchu(r) The manner of making an artistic work. For those who would like to know. This sounds like a French word to this Canadian. Actually this question might find a better response on the Languages page, eh?

(random trivia) It means "receipt" in French. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 07:46, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

history world war1 and2

I have a closed head injury and have proublems understanding some readings so looking for it in terms i nay understand. What were the causes effects of world war 1 and 2. Please list these seperate from each other. and any usefule sites that i may check out would be great as well. Thank you for yor help

This is a very big subject. Millions of pages have been written on these subjects.Also, historians have spend years arguing about these points, though some things are agreed by most people. So, to keep it simple, I recommend starting with just one of these questions: causes of World War I. Please read World War I#Causes (scroll down to section 2, Causes, if you need to), and if there is anything in there that you don't understand, please let us know. Once you are happy with that we can move on. Notinasnaid 13:24, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

If you're having trouble reading this Wikipedia, you may also want to try the Simple English Wikipedia. They have a decent, albeit simplistic, overview of the beginning of the war at simple:World War I. Superm401 - Talk 15:00, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Nahum Gilboa, Isreal artist.

I am seeking information on how to find his oil paintings, their sales price, if he is still alive and painting, and is their a Web site for him? Any of the information would be appreciated.

I found an art gallery that seems to show his work. They offer a biography, but it doesn't make clear his current status. I suggest you ask the gallery. Superm401 - Talk 15:04, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Most sites list his birth date (1917) but no death date, so I suspect he's still alive. Grutness...wha? 06:39, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

mediocrity

Does our public educational system promote mediocrity?

Yes, it encourages people to ask questions on online reference desks, which is a mediocre research technique at best. Please do your own homework (see notice at top of this page). Superm401 - Talk 14:55, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

• I guess you're saying all of us here who answer questions are mediocrities. Or that people shouldn't consult encylopedias for answers. --Halcatalyst 18:00, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

And be specific (ie, which country) and sign your post. Any more rules he's broken? DirkvdM 16:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

He (assuming it's a he) didn't sign his post. :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 16:54, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

• To the questioner. Your question is seeking an opinionated answer. We don't provide those here on Wikipedia. At least, that's not our function. --Halcatalyst 18:00, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Also at what level of education? If you are in search of a specific topic to write about, consider the spelling bee. This is a tortuous 'educational' device designed to weed out mediocrity, while simultaneously breaking down any notion of cooperation within the group. Plenty to consider there.

National Policies

What is a National Policy?

It is the policy of a nation. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:27, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

It can also be a policy that applies nation-wide, eg. in an organisation that has offices or activities in many parts of the nation. JackofOz 04:37, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Accounting

is it impossible to satisfy the needs of different users with a single set of published financial statements?

Yes. And no. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 15:27, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like a third year business question. Financial statements could be a good start, also the GATT page.

Yes. Everyone will require different figures to suit their own particular needs and tastes. And as everyone knows, there's no accounting for tastes. Grutness...wha? 06:42, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

It depends of countries ; the mandatory report to the tax administration is often enough for other users. When it comes to floating or mergers, the details required by the stock market authorities are far more heavy : the same goes when you want to trade in foreign countries. Please narrow your homework ? question ... --DLL 18:00, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

South Dakota abortion ban

I have a question about the recent ban of abortions in South Dakota, which was clearly a direct attack on Roe v. Wade. My question is, since it is so abundantly clear that it is unconstitutional under Roe, does this case even have a chance of getting to the Supreme Court? I mean, wont it be struck down in a much lower federal court, and then simply be denied appeal? Don't you need some minute detail that the Supreme Court have to "test" whether it's covered under Roe, and then they might strike it down? IA obviously NAL, but this is how I have understood it.

Also, isn't there a majority on the court to uphold Roe, that is isn't Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer and Stevens all for it? Oskar 16:30, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Previous Supreme Court decisions have overturned before, as with Plessey v. Ferguson (1896). In other words, what is "constitutional" is continually a matter of dispute. During his confirmation hearings, John Roberts declared the right to an abortion was "settled law." This is not at all the same thing as saying the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was constitutional. --Halcatalyst 17:46, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I do understand this point, that Roe v. Wade might get overturned, that's not what I mean. What I mean is that, for lower courts, don't they have to follow the precedents that the Supreme Court sets, and if they do, this law will almost certainly be struck down. And if it is, how can they get an appeal when the law is so blatantly in violation of a supreme court precedent? Oskar 17:54, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Only catching bits of the S.D. law on the news, it appears that it requires a minor's parents to be notified before a minor has an abortion. If that is correct, it is not a "direct attack" on Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade stated that an abortion is a matter of privacy and that the public didn't have to be notified (such as a "women seeking abortion" section of the newspaper). It is not uncommon to take issues that are allowed for adults and restrict them for minors. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:15, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that's correct. I believe the law bans abortion, with an exception for the life of the mother, but without exceptions for incest and rape. StuRat 18:44, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

You are correct. Utah's new law is the one I was describing above. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:05, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

If another court struck down the law, South Dakota or Utah could appeal to the Supreme Court or petition for a writ of certiorai (different ways of getting the case to the Court; which one would be correct depends on some technicalities). The attorney seeking Supreme Court review would be representing that the arguments "are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law . . . ." (Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure). That test would be met if the brief said, "This Court's decision in Roe v. Wade should be overturned." (I support reproductive rights, but I don't think that position would be frivolous.) Depending on the specifics of the case, the appeal might instead take a less sweeping approach, calling only for a modification of Roe. The Supreme Court could hear the case if it wanted to. JamesMLane t c 22:17, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, this was precisely what I was wondering. Oskar 22:43, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't know what its called...

I know that every us citzen can legally marry one couple in their life time but whats the term called?

"marry a couple"?

Actually, the initial assumption is flawed. Civil marriages must be officiated by an agent of the state (most commonly a judge or an ordained minister). While I'm unable to find the specific definition of the appropriate agent (it probably varies by state anyway, as that's not a matter of federal legislation), an agent has no upper bound on the number of marriages he or she can perform. In short, a given US citizen can legally marry either (a) no one or (b) any number of couples. — Lomn Talk 18:29, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

one couple?

Your syntax would lean against this, but are you referring to the concept of monogamy as opposed to polygamy? --Rwiedower 18:41, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Not just monogamy. The question added "in their life time". So, even with a divorce, you cannot remarry. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

That would be a life sentence without parole....<g> - Nunh-huh 23:45, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

That still qualifies as monogamy, doesn't it? The prohibition on remarrying following a divorce is based on the view that marriage is divinely ordained and cannot be dissolved by human intervention. Divorce does not change this. JackofOz 04:28, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I was trying to clarify the question. Reading it yet again, I see that it has nothing at all to do with monogamy. Monogamy means that you have one sexual partner. The question states that you may legally marry once in a lifetime. It says nothing about sexual partners. This is closely related to the Catholic belief that you may marry once and only once (but you can have sex with as many people as you like as long as you go to confession). OK - stop bashing religions. You know they are very sensitive. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:01, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I'll chime in once more: my answer above is based on a reading (and an urban legend I've heard) that a person is legally empowered to perform one marriage (as opposed to being the subject of one marriage). — Lomn Talk 17:17, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Searched the net for "valid marriage" : it seems like you may get married thus : "The Society of Friends or Quakers is excepted from the requirement (of a license to marry) in some of the states, and in other the parties may have recourse to the publication of banns instead of securing a licenses". [3]". I do not see a case where you would need some average citizen instead of a civil officer. --DLL 17:54, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Etheum?

Frm a "Life of Saint Judith":

"They have overthrown Cananeum the king, Jebusee, Pheresee, Eneum, Etheum and Amoreum, and all the mighty men in Esebon"

I can gather Cananeus = Canaan, Jebusee = Jebusites, Amoreum = Amorites, but what about "Pheresite, Enite and Ethite", and "Esebon"? Any idea? dab (ᛏ) 17:59, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

No idea about the other ones, but google gives Esebon = Cheif city of the Ammonites Oskar 18:10, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

That's the people of Ammon, not the mollusc :P Oskar 18:12, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

AKA Heshbon, I believe. --BluePlatypus 22:44, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Ohh, ohh, and maybe Pheresees are the Pharisees. This is fun, it's like biblical Clue :D Oskar 18:14, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Could Etheum refer to Ethiopia ? StuRat 18:34, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Go to the everlasting source, (this one curioulsy kept by catholics), not church commentaries. Judith 5:20 where Ahior tells to Holophernes : "So they overthrew the king of the Chanaanites, and of the Jebusites, and of the Pherezites, and of the Hethites, and of the Hevites, and of the Amorrhites, and all the mighty ones in Hesebon, and they possessed their lands, and their cities." [4]

It looks like Exodus 3:7 : "And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, not pharisees, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey." [5]. Then what do we miss ? --DLL 22:25, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

More likely the Hittites, "Hettheum" in the Vulgate. "Pheresee" is probably Perizzites given the context, "Ferezeum" in Latin. As for "Eneum" it's a typo, should most likely be "Eveum", the Hevites. All these guys are mentioned together in Exodus 23:23,

For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.

--BluePlatypus 22:44, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, dang, DLL beat me to it. Oh well, but I guess two references beats one. --BluePlatypus 22:47, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

thank you all! so we have Hittites, Perizzites and Hevites, with Esebon the only article we might be missing. and Esebon = Heshbon; case solved. dab (ᛏ) 22:37, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Government Language Programs

Assuming they do not already speak the language, how do employees of government agencies (such as the State Department)learn the necessary languages? I realize that most of these employees are probably hired already speaking the foreign language required for the position, but what about a current employee who is transferred and most speak a new language? Any special programs, etc? Thanks, Ryan

When it is your job to learn a language and you are sent to classes all day and you are not allowed to converse in any language other than the language you are learning, it isn't hard. When in Beijing, I surprised myself by pressing elevator buttons with numbers in Chinese characters without counting up to floor 17. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:55, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

See the Foreign Service Institute homepage. -- Mwalcoff 01:11, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Timeframe of Draughts and Checkers

Hello,

In the New England Colonies of 1600s and early 1700s would our game of Checkers still have been called Draughts? Or Checkers?

Thanks, Mona

[email removed]

Probably draughts...my quick google search came up with these sites http://www.acfcheckers.com/origin.html and http://www.indepthinfo.com/checkers/history.shtml. If you are a writer, the first site has a number of historical facts listed. --24.80.70.174 21:32, 20 March 2006 (UTC) JK

Draughts, absolutely. That remained the term to 1730, at least. (Now, find out about quoits.) Geogre 02:55, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

In the OED Supplement, the earliest cite for "checkers" referring to the game is from 1712. This is in the "Letter-book" of Samuel Sewall, who according to Wikipedia had lived in New England since 1661. It seems entirely plausible to me that the term could have been used there in the late 1600s and not recorded in print until 1712. Of course this doesn't mean that people didn't also say "draughts". --Anonymous, 05:22 UTC, March 21, 2006.

Words are generally in use before they appear in print, of course, but I find "draughts" the term until the 1730's in England. I suppose it's possible that "checker" was a regionalism or an Americanism, in which case the questioner could conceivably use "checkers." I just can't see that as being the most common term. Geogre 18:05, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Draughts is still the name used in the UK. Even when the box is clearly labelled checkers, http://www.gamesonboard.co.uk/s/all+draughts/203 PhilipPage 23:46, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Constitutional amendments

Can you give me some information on the first 4 amendments of the constitution, what are the legal radifications? The legal/historical circumstances which led to the creation of these amendments? Thanks so much.

Are you thinking of a particular constitution, or just the first four amendments to any constitution? Mark^{your words} 23:09, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Excuse me, information on the United States Constitution's Amendments.

See United States Bill of Rights. --Metropolitan90 23:42, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

See First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, Third Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. If those articles left something out, or don't answer your questions, feel free to ask about those specific problems here! - Nunh-huh 23:43, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

President James Buchanan

Do you have, or where can I go to find out what school(s) James Buchanan attended prior to coll 23:27, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

Our article on James Buchanan says "He moved to Mercersburg with his parents in 1799, was privately tutored and then attended the village academy and was graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania." The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, William A. Degregorio, p. 212, says, "Buchanan learned the fundamentals at common schools and studied Latin and Greek at Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, in preparation for admission as a junior to Dickinson College in Carlisle in 1807." But for his father's influence, he would have been expelled from Dickinson in his junior (first) year as a disciplinary problem... - Nunh-huh 23:40, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

entry on Alberto vargas

Hello,

This is the first time that I added information to an entry (Alberto Vargas - my uncle). I dont see the addition under Alberto Vargas. It was 3 paragraphs long with some references to his work. Is it lost in virtual space? Do I have to redo it?

Thanks for your help, Yolanda

I've removed your e-mail address so it doesn't get spammed. I don't see any changes to that article since February 19. Perhaps you hit the "show preview" button instead of the "save page" button? So yes, it seems it's lost.

Sometimes your browser may load an old version of a page from cache rather than reloading a changed page, in which case you can see the actual new page by "reloading" it (the specific command depends on the browser) or just by waiting a while and coming back later. But that doesn't seem to be the problem in this case. - Nunh-huh 00:52, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

The last change was on Feb 19th, 2006. I suspect you hit the "Preview page" button instead of the "Save page" button. If so, try again. StuRat 01:08, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Or maybe 'Show changes' was pressed instead - it is a slightly ambiguously-named button.
Slumgum | yap | stalk | 15:23, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

March 21

Clarkson

Fine, I search for Clarkson [not seardh, just return] and the maopr British person in natislavery stuff does not come up - and you have an article on him. Why??????? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dumarest (talk • contribs)

Not sure what words were intended by "maopr" and "natislavery". --Slumgum | yap | stalk | 00:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I am a dyslexic typer, so allow me to translate:

     maopr       = major
     natislavery = anti-slavery
     seardh      = search

StuRat 00:48, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, searches don't search by "importance", they search by spelling, so it's no surprise that you don't get results in order of "importance" - besides which, we'd never agree on what that order might be. Presumably you are using "Go" and getting our "Clarkson" disambiguation page; Thomas Clarkson wasn't on it, but he will be now. - Nunh-huh 00:58, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I think the real question is: "Why is it when I get to the Clarkson disambiguation page, I can't figure out how to click the 'edit this page' button so I can add Thomas Clarkson?" I checked it - clicked the 'edit this page' button and added Thomas Clarkson. I didn't see any problem. --Kainaw ^(talk) 01:01, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Reason for Congress Recess

Could you please explain why U.S. Congress is in recess from October through December 2006? Is this repeated yearly? What do the Congress members do for those months?

Thank you!

Here's a hint. Elections are in November. -- Mwalcoff 00:39, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

They are also supposed to go home to remain in touch with their constituents by meeting with them and asking them questions. Of course, some find it difficult to do this while hanging out with underaged hookers in Bangkok. StuRat 00:42, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Simple solution - bring the underaged hookers to the U.S. so they can visit both at the same time. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:52, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah-ha, the real reason for Bush's pro-migrant-worker stance is revealed! (BTW, does StuRat have a specific Congressperson or persons in mind, or is he just casting general aspersions?) --Bth 10:56, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Just general aspersions. I suppose I shouldn't accuse them of going to foreign countries to have sex with underage hookers, when plenty probably do that right here at home. "Buy American !" :-) StuRat 12:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Elections being every two years, will there still be an October to December recess in 2007?

Yes, because underage hookers can be found in Bangkok every year. StuRat 01:12, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, because the seats are staggered. Only half the house is up for reelection in 2007, the other half in 2008, so everyone gets the campaigning/fundraising time. Plus, it can take months to get your hands into a lobbyist's pockets. Geogre 02:58, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, no. No congressional elections occur in odd-numbered years. You seem to be thinking of the Senate, where approximately 1/3 of the members come up for election every 2-year cycle to make up their 6-year terms. — Lomn Talk 17:19, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

In 2005, there was no Oct.-Dec. recess. The only long recess was in August. -- Mwalcoff 00:29, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Underdogs

This might count as psychology or sociology or cussedness of human nature... I've often wndered why the following happens - any ideas? When people watch a sports event featuring no teams that they are fans of, they tend to automatically start rooting for the underdog. Say (to use an example from English football) a Man Utd fan is watching a match between Chelsea and Rotherham - they're far more likely to start cheering on Rotherham. I suppose part of it may be that they're throwing their support behind a team perceived as less of a threat to their own team, but I doubt that that would be a strong enough motivation in many cases. Any suggestions as to what causes this underdog support? Grutness...wha? 07:59, 21 March 2006 (UTC) (who spent some of yesterday cheering on a Papua New Guinean swimmer in TV coverage of the Commonwealth Games)

Perhaps because if they put themselves in the losing team's shoes, they would like somebody to be rooting for them. Do unto others etc .... (btw, a lovely word for a champion of the underdog is infracaninophile). JackofOz 09:27, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Did you just make that word up on the spot, Jack...? :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 10:41, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Not at all, but I'm flattered you imagine this might be the case. I would love to be that creative, but I must rest content with the fame I derive from my other gifts. Credit goes to Christopher Morley, who coined it in the preface to "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" (1930). I notice there are 17,500 Google hits for this word, but I first became aware of it in "Mrs Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words", a book no serious verbophile should ever be without. Its author is Josefa Heifetz Byrne (daughter of Jascha Heifetz). Infracaninophile has now given rise to infracaninophily (the act or practice of supporting underdogs), infracaninophobe (one who is afraid of underdogs), and ultracaninophile (one who favours those who are in power). JackofOz 13:21, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, mwalcoff and Geogre (sic) for your real help.

USA PATRIOT Act renewal

I need to update several Patriot Act articles (in particular Title II. However, I'm finding it tough to find the amendment on THOMAS. Can anyone point me to the right spot? If so, I can update the article. - Ta bu shi da yu 08:47, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Edward Jacob FSA

Dear Sirs, I have added an article on Edward Jacob FSA. You state that this is original research. It is not. I have added several sources such as the Dictionary of National Biography, yet the article still has not appeared. Please adivse. Kenneth W Jacob

( saving Mr Jacob's inbox from being utterly swamped by spam )

Looks like a good article ! I hope you didn't copy it from anywhere, though, as that would be a copyright violation. Some comments:

1) You may need to pick "reload" or "refresh" on your browser so you can view the new version, versus the cached version.

2) Your references aren't in the Wikipedia format. See Winston Churchill#Notes and references for the proper format.

3) Once satisfied, you can remove the {{OriginalResearch}} text from the top of the article so that template will disappear.

4) I don't think the "FSA" belongs in the title of the article. We generally only use the person's name as the title. One way to rename the article is to create a new article named just Edward Jacob, copy everything over, then change Edward Jacob FSA to:

#Redirect [[Edward Jacob]]

5) Your article seems to lack an introduction. It should give a brief overview of the reason for his fame, and contain the title of the article (his name) in bold text.

6) I notice his father had the same name. This would be a problem if his father ever gets a Wikipedia entry, too. If you don't think that is ever likely to happen, then we don't need to distinguish between their names, however.

7) It may take several weeks until the Wikipedia index is updated so your article will be found when you hit the "Search" button. Until then, you must type the exact name of the article or redirect, then hit the "Go" button, to find the article.

StuRat 11:52, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

For #4, don't do it as StuRat describes, but use the "move" function (button just to the right of "history"), as it preserves the edit history. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 13:15, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

The edit history is still preserved with my method, it's just under the old article name, where those changes actually took place. You can also add a comment when creating the new article: "See Edward Jacob FSA for old edit history." StuRat 13:51, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

True - but it's desirable to keep the entire edit history in one place, splitting it up makes no sense as the two edit histories would still be talking about the same article. See Wikipedia:How to rename (move) a page.

Anyway, in this particular case, the point is moot since I decided to Be Bold and do it myself :) — QuantumEleven | (talk) 18:01, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Research of informations

(Removed post -> Don't post on multiple Reference Desks, see the Miscellaneous Desk for question. StuRat 10:47, 21 March 2006 (UTC))

• Note: Duplicate of Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Research_of_informations Notinasnaid 10:43, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Mrs Dale's Diary

I have had no luck searching on the Internet, so hopefully one of you can help me here! I wanted to edit the Mrs Dale's Diary article to give the name of the TV professor the daughter Gwen became engaged to in the final episode, from 1969. All I can gather is that the actor's name is "John Justin," and I have no clue (and apparently nobody else does either) as to what the character's name was. Hopefully a former listener from the UK can help this Wikipedian! Mike H. That's hot 11:24, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

arthouse film?

would you classify "american beauty" as an art-house film? state reasons.

i have read the article on art film, but still have no real understanding or grasp on the classification..

if it could be cleared up, would be appreciated. gelo 12:05, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I think rather than getting us to directly answer your homework it would be better if we try and help you understand the article. Can you start with which bits are least clear to you? Let's focus on the first paragraph, but realise that this isn't a rigid category; it's subjective and answering it you'll need to show you understand the way people use the term. Notinasnaid 12:09, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

When doing homework like this, you should "compare" and "contrast". If you want to argue that it is an arthouse film, find similar films that are well-known arthouse films and compare it to them. If you want to argue that it is not an arthouse film, find similar films that are well-known non-arthouse films and compare it to them. The term arthouse is not discrete. "Pulp Fiction" was an arthouse film that went mainstream after a few weeks of release. So was "The English Patient". Many in the film industry tend to label any independent film or Mirimax film as "arthouse". That has nothing to do with content - just the production. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:57, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

sorry. but this ISNT homework.. im genuinely wanting to know. you probably thought that because of "state reasons". but no, this ISNT homework, honestly. gelo 06:22, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, even if it isn't homework, as Kainaw and Notinasnaid said, classifying a film as "arthouse" is largely a matter of opinion. There are some for which it's obvious - for instance, Armageddon is most blatantly not arthouse. But for many films close to the dividing line between arthouse and non-arthouse it's largely a matter of opinion. American Beauty has some arthouse elements in it, but according to some definitions, arthouse films cannot be as popular as American Beauty was. In the end, you have to make up your own mind about it. Also, remember that whether a film is classified as "arthouse" or not doesn't make an iota of difference in the end, it's just a label. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 07:29, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

The problem is that the term "arthouse" derives from the 1960's, when a type of theater in the US opened up that would show films that ordinarily weren't shown. They showed "art films" as opposed to popular films. These independent, isolated movie houses, almost always located near universities and in large cities, developed a set of distributors. The theaters themselves never cooperated to create the "arthouse film," but the genre came from the distributors who would serve art houses with films. The films could be popular, but they had to be unpopular at first -- otherwise the arthouses wouldn't show them because they didn't want to try to compete with the corporate theaters. Arthouses served a niche, and they lived and died by being very faithful and exclusive to it. American Beauty had a major distributor and a large advertising budget, and therefore it can't be an arthouse film. That said, people have begun to use the term "arthouse film" for films that are like the films that used to show only in arthouses. American Beauty satisfies that by having an avant-garde director, disturbing subject matter, naturalism, and light plotting. Geogre 11:32, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

1812 overture

In the late sixties, a british popgroup wrote a song called "Night of fear" (I think). The first line og text is: "Silent night has turned to night of fear". The point is that Tsjaikowskis 1812 overture was part of the melody - What was the name of that popgroup?

Is this it ->[6] ? StuRat 12:53, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

understanding / Cortazar's work 'House Taken Over'

House Taken Over by Julio Cortazar is about the political strife in Argentina but many things still confuse me, such as the knitting which seems so important to the story. There are other symbolisms which I do not understand.

I haven't read that one, but knitting has obvious connotations of creation, motherhood and integration, for a start. The mothers of the disappeared are a vocal group in Argentinian society, so he might perhaps have had an eye on that. Mark^{your words} 22:42, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Help with Fine Art...

i have 2 burning questions that i would like on helping information about if at all possible, or peoples opinions...

1) Discuss the implications of the way that public galleries arrange and display modern art.

2) Is there still an avant-garde?

Any information at all that people an help me out with would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again! --212.219.28.91 14:24, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

This sounds very much like homework questions. They are intentionally very broad; part of the skill of writing the essay is that you should try to figure out a manageable strategy for answering. For the first, clearly you are going to have to find out about how public galleries arrange and display modern art; does your city *have* an art gallery featuring modern art which you can peruse?

For a start on your second question, have a look at Avant-garde. --Robert Merkel 14:39, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Loretta Lynn & June Carter Cash

Is Loretta any relation to June Carter Cash???

Well, everybody is ultimately related to everybody else, but I know of no documented relationship between these two. Loretta Lynn is the sister of Crystal Gayle, if that's any help. JackofOz 16:13, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

No relationship that I'm aware of, though they're both members of country music royalty. AllanHainey 14:18, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Phallocrypt or necklace?

Read about the koteka and lonkalonka on WIKIPEDIA. The description of the lonkalonka as a phallocrypt hung from male genitalia seems very peculiar, as I have seen an image of one with a twisted thong made of human hair. But to me it seems more like a necklace or ornament for the upper arm, as the thong is too short to get around the waist, and how it could be hung from the genitalia and called a phallocrypt, is beyond me. I have never seen pictures of aborigines wearing these lonka lonkas, so how do you know this is a phallocrypt? Someone who can explain how they are fixed to the body or lead me to an image so I am no more in doubt... Are there pictures anywhere of the ornaments of jade and hardstone hung from the genitalia in South America, in other words, is this a fact? Nothing surprise me about garments, but seeing is believing... The koteka, on the other hand , has got an historian/entropologist to suggest that they could have been worn by people here in Scandinavia during the bronze age due to the many rock carvings of males with axes and phallos. And why not..? Thank you. Steinar Ådland

• I see what you refer to in the Koteka article. (It might have been better to put this comment on the discussion page there, by the way.) The information you refer to was added by an anonymous editor who apparently could himself use some editing . . . "lonkalonka" refers to the type of carved and decorated shell, not the type of item the shell is made into. I have seen a picture of one of these with a 23" "strap" attached, so I'm not ready to give the anonymous editor the lie just yet. I'm moving a copy of this discussion to the relevant talk page in the hope that your question will be better addressed there. Crypticfirefly 04:09, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Therston Guast?

where can find one?--152.163.100.72 18:37, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I find no matches for that name in Google, are you sure it's spelled correctly ? StuRat 20:29, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Josefsburg, Galacia

I am trying to determine if the town of Josefsburg in the former state of Galacia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire still exists and what it might be called now. It was located about 40 miles southwest of Lemberg, (now L'viv) near the Dneister River. This area is now part of southwest Ukraine. A nearby town previously called Brigidau is now apparently called Laniwka. Was Josefsburg perhaps destoyed in WW2.

--Vic Thomas 18:41, 21 March 2006 (UTC)VicT.

This site mentions three Josefbergs in Galicia. I havent got a detailed map to hand to check where they are in relation to Lviv. Presumably Josefsberg was a village in one of the three raions - Drohobych, Strochabiez or Stryi. Jameswilson 00:39, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

If you go to maps.altasua.net and zoom in real, real close to Letnia (the closest town of any significance), you can see a teeny village called Korosnytsia (Коросниця). This was an alternate name for Josefsburg, according to this old map. If you do a Google search on Korosnytsia, you'll find other people who have been looking for the same village. According to this page, the village has 144 people. -- Mwalcoff 01:07, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Band that combines traditional music of three Abrahamic religions

Thanks very much in advanced for any help! I'm searching for a (possibly new age) band that makes music which combines the traditional music of the three major Abrahamic religions, i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Gregorian chants and the like... Mostly instrumental with some vocal hymns. All I can remember is that I followed a link from somewhere onto their website, and that the website had a brownish/reddish background colour, I also listened to some clips provided on their website, I remember a Gregorian hymn, and also a female vocal from the Islamic musical tradition. Lastly, I think their band was formed around 2002-2003ish, sorry that I don't remember much. I've tried to look them up on Google, Yahoo, and Amazon, but unfortunately to no avail. Any help/leads would be much appreciated! --Shibo77 19:16, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

-- This might not be what you were initially looking for, but is very much along the lines of what you are describing: The Foundation for Universal Sacred Music. They comission several pieces of music each year from composers who - regardless of religion or region - write sacred music. Good luck on your initial search. Don420 14:33, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Are you aware of this Wikipedia talk:Censorship ?

For myself, I would like to say that the method is not innocent. The subject is truly important : there is one talk page and twoscore people discussing auto censorship for one million (counting non active users). Will you give your advice ? --DLL 20:02, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Major to Minor

I know the C major scale's relative key is A minor. To get from one to the other (respectively) you must go down 1 1/2 steps. Is this a hard-fast rule? Like F major is is D minor, E flat major is C minor? schyler 21:48, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's exactly the way it works. But I wouldn't call the interval "1 1/2 steps" - it's actually 3 semi-tones. JackofOz 23:32, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd call it a minor third. —Keenan Pepper 03:23, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd call it 300 cents. Or 316 cents. Or something like that. But just because I enjoy being pretentious anonymously. Seriously. --George 05:42, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Was Margaret Beckett Official Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party?

The template Template:LabourPartyPresidents (for Labour Party leaders) lists Margaret Beckett between John Smith and Tony Blair. But the Tony Blair page succession boxes list Tony Blair as the successor to John Smith both as Labour Party leader and as Official Leader of the Opposition. There has been discussion of this on the talk page for Margaret Beckett, and I have asked about this on the talk page for Tony Blair, but have not recieved any answers yet. Does anyone here know? I suspect she was acting leader of the Labour Party, but that you can't be acting leader of the Official Opposition (there either is a leader or there isn't one). Carcharoth 22:29, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

She was acting leader of the Labour party and therefore leader of the opposition. What's the problem? Mark^{your words} 22:38, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

She should not be listed as Leader of the Labour party. She was deputy leader when John Smith died, and therefore acting leader. Why is thistemplate so named anyway!? There is no such position as president of the Labour Party in the UK. The title is Leader - see the NEC page http://www.labour.org.uk/nec Jooler 22:47, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

Quite right, between May and July 1994.PhilipPage 23:59, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

She doesnt count as leader - just a caretaker until the next leader was chosen. And agreed, there is no such title as Labour Party President. Jameswilson 00:47, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

The correct terms appear to be "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party" and "Leader of the Labour Party". The posts have been split between two people since 1970. For further details see here. Carcharoth 12:19, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Carcharoth's assumption that "you can't be acting leader of the Official Opposition" is incorrect. She would have been correctly described as "Acting Leader of the Labour Party" and "Acting Leader of the Opposition". When the Leader of the Opposition goes on holidays, or is sick, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition becomes Acting Leader until the Leader returns to duty. When the Leader dies, the Deputy becomes Acting Leader pending the election of the new Leader. If the Deputy is elected to the top job, they would cease being Acting Leader and become Leader. JackofOz 01:41, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree in the case of Leader of the Labour Party, where there are doubtless clear rules covering who is leader and acting leader at any one time. Though somone has pointed out here that the Labour Party rules at the time drew (and probably still do draw) a distinction between temporarily unavailable (holiday, short sickness) and being permanently unavailable (death, resignation). This is standard practice to avoid a power vacuum. In the case of John Smith dying, Margaret Beckett became leader. The wheels were then set in motion to have an election. The case for Official leader of the Opposition is more complex. This is a salaried job and official title. I will need to follow up the relevant legislation, as stated below, but see the comments on what happened in WW2 here. Carcharoth 12:00, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

An acting leader is a kind of leader. If you really want to know whether she was officially Leader of the Opposition, then you should consult the relevant legislation: it seems to be governed by the 1937 Ministers of the Crown Act (possibly since replaced) and various parliamentary standing orders. Mark^{your words} 11:08, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. I do have one further question... If Margaret Beckett was officially leader, then did she stop being deputy leader, and if so, who took over that role in the interim period between John Smith's death and Tony Blair's election and subsequent appointment of John Prescott as his deputy (or was it a joint ticket)? Carcharoth 12:19, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

From a reply I wrote on Talk:Tony Blair last night:

It's a difficult issue and brings to mind the constitutional disagreement in the US over whether a Deputy President became the President on the death of the incumbent, or became the Acting President, or remained the Deputy President but with Presidential powers. Formally, the Labour Party rules at the time of John Smith's death said this (rule 5 (4)): "When the party leader, for whatever reason, becomes permanently unavailable, the deputy party leader shall automatically become party leader until a new party leader is elected". So Margaret Beckett was actually Leader of the Labour Party, and in fact during this period material was indeed issued which identified her as such. David | Talk 22:33, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

One more comment, taken from this source is: "On two occasions the death of the Leader of the Labour Party has led to a Deputy Leader becoming Leader pending the election of a successor. The Leader from 18th January 1963 to 14th February 1963 was George Alfred Brown (b. 2nd September 1914, d. 2nd June 1985). The Leader from 12th May 1994 to 21st July 1994 was Margaret Mary Beckett (b. 15th January 1943). Mrs Beckett was the first woman to be the Leader of the Labour Party." This makes it perfectly clear that Margaret Beckett was Leader, if only briefly and in a caretaker role. She did stand in the ensuing election, but from memory was never thought to be a serious contender. That quote also shows that George Alfred Brown needs to be added to the list of Labour Party Leaders. What I don't understand is why Jooler said, quite categorically, that Margaret Beckett shouldn't be listed as leader. This is just wrong! Carcharoth 13:44, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

The George Brown you want is George Brown, Baron George-Brown. PS the author of that source is really very good and someone should give him a job paying lots and lots more! David | Talk 14:15, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I did find that George Brown, Baron George-Brown page when making the changes, and I thought it was quite funny that a George Brown has already been leader of the Labour Party! :-) Carcharoth 14:20, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah. I've just read this and this. I see what you mean now! ;-) Congrats on such an impressive website, and thanks again for the advice. Any advice on where to get confirmation of the loose ends of this discussion would be much appreciated. Carcharoth 15:17, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

And a final response, mainly to JackofOz's comment that I was incorrect to assume that you can't be acting Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, is a quote from the PDF document here PDF link and here Google HTML link: "The Speaker’s decision on the identity of the Leader of the Opposition is final (Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (c27) s2 (2))" - though this seems to be with reference to who draw the salary. I would guess that if Margaret Beckett didn't draw the salary, she was nominally the Leader of the Opposition (ie. informally recognised as such), but not officially unless the Speaker recognised her as such. For what it is worth, the list at the bottom of that document does not include the interim Labour leaders (Brown in 1963 and Beckett in 1994) as Leaders of the Opposition. My guess is that the post was vacant until the new leader was elected, with maybe the interim leaders nominally filling the role for a few months for the purpose of parliamentary procedures, but not drawing a salary. That is just a guess though. Wouldn't know where to begin confirming that.

Based on the above discussion, I've tidied up the Labour Leader and Official Leader of the Opposition entries I can find in Wikipedia, but may have missed some. Where is the best place to archive this discussion, I wonder? It seems to cover several pages! Apologies for turning a reference desk question into a discussion! :-) Carcharoth 14:20, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Seems I was wrong (shock! horror!). I was assuming the Australian experience mirrors what happens in the UK, but apparently not entirely. But there is an analogy with our Prime Ministers. Following the deaths of John Curtin and Harold Holt, Frank Forde and John McEwen respectively were appointed Prime Minister, not merely acting PM. The appointments were not meant to be indefinite, but only for as long as it took the party concerned to get over the shock and organise itself to elect a new permanent leader. Because of this caretaker role, they are sometimes referred to as "acting Prime Minister", or their names are even sometimes left off lists of Australian Prime Ministers, both quite incorrect. JackofOz 01:47, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Immigration

Could you please tell me the U.S.A's current immigration laws.

I can't, but someone at The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services probably can. --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:27, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

See Title 8, Chapter 6 of the US Code. -- Mwalcoff 01:12, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

March 22

Parliamentary Sovereignty in Oz.

Hi, Thanks for your previous comments. I guess that I am also asking about the role of the High Court of Australia in the whole law making process. The High Court is able to over turn laws made by the legislature of they are unconstitutional... does this mean that you cannot say that parliament is the ultimate law making body in Australia?

The High Court cannot make laws, only the Parliament can do that. The High Court can overturn laws, which I suppose means the previous law (if any) is reinstated, but I'm not enough of a lawyer to say just what happens when a law is overturned. The High Court cannot act on its own volition. It must wait to be asked to consider the constitutionality of laws. In my view, that means the parliament is the ultimate law making body in Australia. JackofOz 05:31, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Canadian Prisons

Hi. I'm writing a research report on my hypothesis on the future of Canadian prisons. I was wondering if you would know where I can find information on who decides when to build one? I am somewhat pressed for time, and have been through so much information at this point that my kids are about ready to pull my hair out for me! I would appreciate the help, even though this information is probably only going to rank in the intro / context, it is still important to me. Thanks. 207.216.159.184 05:12, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I would imagine the Department of Correction, or whatever it's called there, would submit a request for a new prison to the legislature. Depending on the law there, it would then either be decided upon by the legislature or put up to the voters as a referendum. Maybe somebody else can give you more specifics. StuRat 05:45, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

College project, I need help from women

I was told this was a good place to come for help. I'm taking a course in Islamic studies, and I'm doing a project which requires the assitance of women. I've already used all of my friends who are willing to take part in this.

The project has to do with how Muslim women dress. If you're a woman who thinks she may be interested in helping me, please take a look at my website.

http://www.geocities.com/rachelborange

Men, please don't respond or email me unless you know a woman who's interested. It would just be a waste of time. Thanks to everyone interested. Rachel Orange 08:25, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

add text

hello how can I add text because I have a lot of information about a men named ewald marggraff I was one of his best friends for 14 years he died and we belive he has been murdered so I have a lot to tell about him

There already is an article about him, Ewald Marggraff, so you can edit that. But please remember that wikipedia articles must be written from a neutral point of view and should not present original research or theories. David Sneek 10:40, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

If someone has the time, that article needs some severe editing. Mark^{your words} 11:14, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I noticed. I'll see if I can get some work done on it. --JoanneB 11:17, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

in the begining......

does anyone know why God created light twice in genesis? cos( correct if wrong) on the 3rd day he created the sun,moon and stars, the source of light before electricity and natural source of today, but on the first day he already said let there be light? can anyone think of what the bible could be referring to? --Crazypinkster 12:15, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

It seems that the creation myth in the Bible started out as between 2 and 5 stories, which were then brought together when the Bible was constructed. Two of them are called the J- document and P-document (what, no articles on these ?). This has led to some discrepancies in the order in which things are supposed to have been created. Also, the people at the time may not have understood that the light in the sky during the day is diffracted sunlight (this is the only source of light on an overcast day). So, to them, it made perfect sense that the Sun would be created on one day and this "sky light" would be created later. StuRat 13:11, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Here is the theory that there were 4 stories from which the first 5 books of the Bible were written:

A form and redaction critical approach to the Pentateuch that argues four distinct authors constructed the work; J = the Yahwist, E = the Elohimist, D = Deuteronomist, P = Priestly.

JEPD theory came from the form criticism of the 18th century which began to look at units of Biblical texts in terms of their oral forms before they were recorded in written format. Redaction criticism then began to examine how authors might link these story forms into a single text that supports the argument the author wishes to make.

In the Pentateuch two major names are used for God, YHWH (or Yahweh or Jehovah) and Elohim. Some sections of the Pentateuch exclusively use the name Elohim for God (Gen 1) while others exclusively use YHWH (Gen 2). YHWH tends to be spoken of more in anthropomorphic terms (he walks in the garden and creates with clay, Gen 2), while Elohim is described in more majestic, distant terms (he creates by his voice, Gen 1). This lead some to propose that two different authors, one preferring to use YHWH for God’s name, and another who preferred Elohom, recorded various stories in the Pentateuch and that later editors assembled these stories into the Pentateuch we have today.

Formally, the four author theory is as follows:

The Yahwist - a 10th or 11th century B.C. wrote what is now called the J Document. The Elohist – a 7th century author added new material to the stories older YHWH stories. The Elohim stories present a more elevated and advanced God. The stories are called the E Document. The Deuteronomist – 2 Kings 20 tells the story of Israel’s King Josiah recovering the Law and founding that it commanded that worship should only take place in Jerusalem. JEDP theory proposes that in fact Josiah had the Deuteronomist create these laws and add them to the Pentateuch in order to justify his desire to limit worship to Jerusalem. These additional laws form the D Document. The Priestly Group – the temple was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians. While Israel was in exile and after they returned, the Priestly group added additional laws to the Pentateuch. This is known as the P Document.

StuRat 13:24, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Crazypinkster, StuRat has given you one possible answer (the documentary hypothesis explains the possible historical origins of the Bible). If, like myself, you don't assign any divine truth to the Bible, StuRat's further extrapolations are a reasonable guess. If you, however, believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, you may place a different interpretation on things. One possible approach is to accept Genesis as a poetic account of creation; the question then arises, I suppose, is there any special metaphorical significance to the part you describe. For that, you're best off consulting your priest as to what it means. AFAIK there isn't any expert theologians who answer questions here on the RD (if there are any in the woodwork, please come out of it...). If you're asking from the perspective of Biblical inerrancy, again, ask your priest. I'd personally like to hear the answer myself... ---Robert Merkel 13:29, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

From a poetic perspective, light has to exist before there is a lit star. You have to have the concept and entity before you have any given iteration. God created light, and then he set up the sun and moon which would have the aspect of light to them. Poetically, the authors knew primary vs. secondary qualities, and they especially knew of a difference between an essence and an existence. In fact, in that regard the Hebrews were way ahead of almost everyone. Geogre 13:56, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

And do poets say you can have light without any source ? Scientists most certainly don't. StuRat 17:07, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes. Light would exist without a source as a concept, and to any idealist would exist as an essence without existence. Geogre 20:51, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Manifestos

May anybody tell me the "manifestos" of the following:

• Christianism as a whole, Catholicism, Protestantism
• Buddhism
• Islam (Qu'ran?)
• Jewism

Thanks in advance.

See Religious text. --jh51681 15:52, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

These religions don't have 'manifestos' as such. They do have foundational documents. For Christians (all kinds) that would be The Bible. There are also a number of different Creeds, which are statements of belief. DJ Clayworth 18:06, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

While I'd agree that the Qu'ran is the foundational text for Islam, I wouldn't say that the Bible is that in the same sense for Jews and Christians. Rather, the sacred scripture grew out of their communal experience. The closest thing I can think of as a "manifesto" in Judaism is the beginning of the Decalogue: "Then God delivered all these commandments: I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me...." (Exodus 20:1 ff.). For Christianity, Jesus' declaration of his mission, quoting Isaiah, will do: "He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.'" "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing," he continued (Luke 4:16-21). Pretty manifestational in both instances. --Halcatalyst 02:16, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Zambia

Can you plese tell me who wrote the article on Zambia and when/ THanks . I need it for my APA sytle reference page.

Use Special:Cite to look up citation styles for Wikipedia articles. --jh51681 15:56, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

More than 100 edits for this page ; a good average. The "cite" link simply says "Author: Wikipedia contributors". This means that it is a collective work, as almost every WP article. --DLL 21:13, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Paul

I have an old text here, talking of an epistle of Saint Paul, reporting Paul to say something like "you see that those who fight and compete for worldly fame [meaning athletes or gladiators] abstain from the lust of the flesh". I was so far unable to identify the epistle referred to here. I was searching for terms like "lust", but nothing came up. Does Paulus say anything of the kind, anywhere? dab (ᛏ) 16:27, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

This is probably not what you are looking for: "No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules." (2 Timothy 2:4-6) (biblegateway.com) Thuresson 17:52, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

hm, at least it mentions athletic competition. KJV has

No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

I searched KJV, but I didn't think of searching for "warreth" or "strive". I think this may well be what I'm looking for, turned to his own purposes by my author. Thanks, dab (ᛏ) 13:38, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Most famous pope

Which of all the popes would be considered the most famous.

That depends on your definition of "famous"; in the sense of "which pope is currently known and recognized by most people", my bet is on John Paul II simply because he was around for so long that almost everyone currently alive instantly thinks of him when thinking "Pope" -- Ferkelparade π 17:25, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

In the sense of "which pope has been known and recognized by most people all-time", my bet would be on Saint Peter. --Metropolitan90 05:57, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The only qualification I would make to that statement is that there is utter disagreement as to whether Peter is properly counted among the popes at all. Even the Vatican is equivocal about it. See a long debate about this issue. JackofOz 09:25, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Theme song

I was wondering if anyone knows who sings the theme song to Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and also the name of it.

Answer:

The band O.A.R. (Of a Revolution) sings the song, and the title of it is Unbelieveable. (Not 100% positive on the title, but I found more than one referance to it) :)

President visiting Congress

On the West Wing they said that before the President can give the State of the Union address the Congress must first issue him an invitation to attend. Is this true, and if it is does it derive its heritage from the right of the House of Commons to exempt the monarch from its sessions?

I don't believe the former is true (I expect it's a distinction of "does" rather than "must"), nor is the president required to give the State of the Union address in person -- there was a 100+ year gap (virtually the entire 19th century) in which it was not so delivered. However, this likely falls under the various rules set forth by the House and/or Senate for their own operations, and I've not found those.

As for the roots of such an invitation being from the House of Commons: perhaps indirectly. However, since it would be found only in the internal rules, and not in the Constitution proper (which makes no reference to the issue at all), it would seem to be a minor cause at most. Also, the VP is free to attend any and all Senate sessions in his role as Senate President, so the physical separation of Executive and Legislative isn't really a big deal. — Lomn Talk 20:45, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Still, as a matter of courtesy, I'm sure the Congress would appreciate it if the President doesn't walk in uninvited, just as the President wouldn't expect Congressmen to just walk in to the White House uninvited. I suppose that if the President had the right to walk into Congress and talk whenever he wanted, he could deliver a Presidential filibuster, and just keep talking until Congress goes into recess, say to prevent them from overriding a Presidential veto. StuRat 00:22, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

An island named "Gab-uh-boo-too"

I'm looking for the correct spelling of the name of an pacific island which is roughly pronounced "gababootoo". I seem to recall it was involved in the Pacific War during World War II, but I'm not sure of the pronounciation or the spelling. Does such an island actually exist? -Alecmconroy 17:57, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I guessed that the most likely spelling was Gababutu and tried a Google search on that. There were two hits. One was irrelevant, but the other was to an item at a "movie nitpickers" web site, referring to the 1965 WW2 movie In Harm's Way. The fact that there were no other hits suggests to me that the place is a fictional one, made up for the movie (or for the novel it was based on, Harm's Way by James Bassett). Alternatively, it could be that it's a real place but the spelling is seriously wrong. (I tried a bunch of other spelling permutations, assuming that the A's and the consonsants were right. The only one that produced any Google hits was Gabbabootoo, but all the hits turn out to be finding copies of the same old message which appears to be using it as an example of a fictional distant place. But if it was a real place with a seriously wrong spelling, this sort of technique wouldn't help.) --Anonymous, 20:30 UTC, March 22, 2006.

Most Pacific languages (certainly all Polynesian ones) only allow a small number of possible consonant-consonant combibations of letters, so the double b spelling is unlikely. Gababutu sounds and looks believable, but the G and B rule out almost every Polynesian language. So if it were a real place and your spelling is close, then it would more likely be in Melanesia or Nicronesia. This would make somewhere from the Solomons through to the Marshalls the most likely locations. Mind you, Anon is almost certainly right about it being fictional. Grutness...wha? 06:44, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Nepenthes Coccinea

Can anyone give me complete directions on the care, feeding, deadheading, etc of this plant. thank you...68.194.131.37 23:22, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Good place to start for advice on the care of any carnivorous plant is Peter D'Amato's The Savage Garden (Berkeley: 10 Speed Press, 1998) ISBN 0898159156 Further questions can be asked & answered on the Carnivorous Mailing list. -- llywrch 02:35, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

morality?

why do so many people feel the need to rebel against Christain moral values? Isn't it true enough that these are universal to most people, and that any decent society should have a good idea of right and wrong?--Mytrjf 23:37, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Is this a chat room or an encyclopaedia? Maid Marion 08:28, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

No, most people don't believe in Christian morality as defined in the Bible, particularly these parts:

• If you feel that God commands it, it's OK to murder your children.

• Women are to be subservient to men.

• Slavery is OK.

• If you feel that God commands it, you may commit genocide against your enemies.

Then again, many people also don't believe there is anything wrong with fornication or adultery. Then there are all sorts of new rules, not found anywhere in the Bible, which some church officials seem to have made up and declared to be "the will of God":

• No abortion.

• No birth control.

• No genetic engineering/cloning.

• No science in general.

StuRat 00:05, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I don't think we need the indignation of StuRat's comments to point out that some Christian values are not universal. Monogamy, for one. And premarital chastity. And of course, even within Christianity, there are a lot of disagreements over what moral values should be. The Southern Baptists have a drastically different view of morality from the Unitarian Universalist Association. -- Mwalcoff 00:35, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

To be fair, many people don't consider the Unitarian Universalists to be Christian. --Serie 01:02, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

StuRat is clearly upset over this issue—one of the controversial aspects of Christianity (like all religions with ancient religious texts open for interpretation) is that various passages are open for interpretation—for example, the commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth" (which is Biblical), which some interpret to mean that contraception is bad (and other such things). The Jade Knight 01:27, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Those first four things that StuRat listed aren't found anywhere in the Bible. Also, who said that science and religion must differ? They don't! They complement each other! Anyway, people rebel against Christian morality for the sake of rebelling. They want to feel special by opposing something. —OneofThem^(talk)_(contribs) 20:11, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I recommend you read The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis, particularly the appendix, Illustrations of the Tao, for his interpretation of this. By and large, many values seem to permeate most (but never all) major cultures of the world. Some Sociologists argue otherwise, but usually contrary examples are minor or small fringes of society—rarely a substantial proportion of the world. However, these values, then, are not "Christian" values, properly, but universal values—things like not murdering or stealing, the importance of honouring one's parents, etc. The Jade Knight 01:24, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Why do people rebel against any moral code? Because they can.

How are people introduced to a moral code? Thru their parents, teachers, religious leaders & other adults -- all of whom are human & likely to act hypocritically or otherwise set a bad example. A minister rails against premarital sex -- then it's discovered he's gotten a teenaged girl pregnant; a businessman boasts that hard work is good for everyone -- only to omit the fact he took over the business his father built up. And then there's the case where a kid decides to express her/his own individuality by attacking everything her/his parents believe in.

So why do you ask? Do you honestly want to know why they reject a moral code, or are you seeking approval to look down on them? People rebel for all sorts of reasons, & the only way you can know what they are is by asking them. Their reasons might just surprise you.

I can't speak about other religions, but one of the foundations of Christianity is the concept of forgiveness. Consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son: a kid demands that his father give him his inheritence, & he pisses it all away on fast living, good-looking women & fun times -- & hits rock bottom. Realizing that he has screwed up his life, he goes home to his father who receives him with great joy -- forgiving all of his misdeeds. The kid needed to express his individuality, & his father understood because he knew his son & did not look for a way to dismiss him as being somehow unclean.

I would hope that a good Christian would care about other people & try to help them find a way to live their lives according to a healthy moral code -- even if it wasn't a letter-perfect expression of what was written in the Bible. However I'm not a good Christian, so I can't tell you this is how you should live. Only you & God know that answer. -- llywrch 03:30, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

How about the fact the so many Christians are about hatred and judgement? Many are also hypocrites. And the fact the W is a "Christian" is hardly a ringing endorsement of the faith. --Nelson Ricardo 06:33, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

It can also be argued that certain people rebel against 'Christian' moral values because not only do they not agree with them (see StuRat's comments above), but they resent having morality imposed on them, as it were. You can consider it in a similar vein to listening to heavy metal music as a way of saying "I won't have my CD collection dictated to me". Flippant example, I know, but I wanted to illustrate the point. Additionally, from what Nelson said, certain people, while they may agree with the basic tenets of Christianity (love your neighbour, respect your parents, do not lie, kill or steal...) they feel that past or presents high-profile adherents (whether self-proclaimed or otherwise) of Christianity have tainted the religion through their actions, and they do not want to be associated with these individuals. So, they may follow a basically 'Christian' morality, but you will never see them in Church or wearing a cross (and you probably won't consider them Christians).

Just something to think about - the world is often not as clear-cut as one might like it to be. — QuantumEleven | (talk) 08:43, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

As an atheist, I do not consider myself as 'rebelling' against christian values because I have never been a member of the christian church, and to rebel, one must first belong. I also object to christians appropriating the idea of being nice to people and claiming it as their exclusive teachings. Atheists are nice to people because they are nice people, and to be honest, I believe that most christians are nice to people because they are nice people and not because their god has told them to be nice. David | Talk 10:28, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm not so sure about that. Much as parents sometimes tell naughty kids "Santa won't bring you any presents unless you behave", I believe religions are established to scare immoral citizens into behaving, out of fear that "God won't let you into heaven unless you behave". (The other main reason for religion, of course, is a way to give the leaders power over the masses.) To me, being nice only when you think you are being "watched" doesn't really count for much. StuRat 11:10, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

This whole question of "being nice" as an expression of one's religious values is the greatest furphy of all time. Was Jesus being "nice" when he upended the money lenders' tables and got stuck into them with a whip? Was Peter being "nice" when he cut off Malchus's ear in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18, 10-11)? Was Abraham being "nice" when he was prepared to cut his son's throat with a knife? Was the slaughter of thousands in the crusades, or jihad, "nice"? "Nice" is a middle class value that we've all been gulled into believing is terribly important when we're talking face to face, but please feel free to gossip and criticise people as soon as their back is turned. That double standard is commonly practised by members of all religions, and of none. JackofOz 12:46, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Location of Swords in 17th century British Estate

I'm trying to find out where dueling swords (such as a rapier), when not attached to a person, would have been kept in a typical 17th century English manor. Was there any tendency to keep them in certain places, in that regard? The Jade Knight 01:17, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Modern estates would likely have them displayed on the wall, but that's not likely back when the swords were still in use. I suspect dueling swords, in particular, would be kept in a case, to keep them dry, so they wouldn't rust. It might be a rather ornate case, with a felt lining, as opening the case and removing the swords would be part of the rather formal dueling ritual. A lock would also be likely, as the owner wouldn't want an angry servant getting at his weapons. StuRat 01:32, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion. It makes sense to me, at least. I wonder what the historical fact is, however. The Jade Knight 09:02, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Oriah Moutain Dreamer

What is the legal name of Oriah Mountain Dreamer, the author of the poem, "The Invitation" ?

On her home page, there is no suggestion that's not her real (legal) name. Why would you think it isn't? --Halcatalyst 02:02, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

need assistance

I am doing a persuassive essay on the mdical use of marijuana. I have found plenty of things to back up its use but I am looking for at least one organization that works to fight its use (they are aganist the use). I also might want more information on why people are aganist it such as the side effects. If you dont have anything on this site maybe you can point me in the right directon. my e-mail is amandafloros (at) msn.com

thanks for your help! this is a great site I found a lot of information to back my essay up on this site and I have recommended it to others in my classes.

As to your second query (and quarry), Mike Pence, I think, has been one House member frequently to express objections to the use of medical marijuana. His most remarkable moment on the floor of the House apropos of med marijuana was his explanation that Americans shouldn't speak of med marijuana because--this is no joke--a group of girls in his district, upon finding that one of their number was seriously ill, gave her pot to smoke, thinking it a palliative; in the absence of emergency care, profound trauma befell the girl. The debate on a 1998 anti-medical marijuana resolution in the House of Representatives might offer some info as to arguments against medical marijuana (see also the Wikipedia article Medical cannabis and this Wiktionary article). Joe 06:17, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The arguments I most often hear are:

1) It's a gateway drug, leading to more serious drugs. There is a "cause and effect" problem here, however. It may well be that those with a tendency to use drugs will end up using serious drugs, but will first try milder drugs, like alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana; whether they are legal or not.

2) The "slippery slope" argument. This says that legalizing mild drugs will lead to legalizing serious drugs. This is a rather specious argument, however. Did the repeal of Prohibition lead to the legalization of other drugs ?

3) It can distract people from performing critical tasks. This is true, but so can alcohol and countless over-the-counter medications with the "don't drive or operate heavy machinery" warning, which is routinely ignored. Also note that "driving under the influence" laws could be used as they are, or modified where necessary, to include marijuana intoxication.

This is already happening. In Victoria, drivers can be randomly pulled over and subjected to tests not only for blood alcohol levels but also for being under the influence of a range of prohibited drugs including marijuana. These tests can also obviously apply following accidents. JackofOz 02:17, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

These are arguments against the general legalization of marijuana, but can also be used against medical marijuana.

StuRat 09:14, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Photo of Joe Carr

My name is Joe Carr and a photo of me is being displayed on a page about me and I do not wish that photo to be there. I have told the person who put it there that I do not want it there and he said it would be removed. Please remove it. I give permission on my website to use other pictures but not that one. Thanks, Joe

Hi Joe. Image:JoeCarr.jpg appears in the article Joe Carr, and it looks like the uploader thought you had given permission on your webpage for its use. Your fastest route is to show that you are who you claim to be and post a request at Wikipedia:Request_for_immediate_removal_of_copyright_violation. I've removed it from the article for the time being. moink 06:47, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

By the way, what is your objection to that photo ? StuRat 09:26, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

I've uploaded a new version of the same photo. Under US fair use laws, it appears to be validly included in articles about him, as no free alternatives are known to exist. -- Zanimum 15:40, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Who does the picture belong to? or is it in the public domain? Are there places where a person can prohibit a photo of himself from being published (if he did not own the photo)? Not where I live. That's why some people cover their faces when they're being hauled off by the law and newspaper photographers are covering the event. --Halcatalyst 01:57, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

the commonwealth

If Australia becomes a republic will we still be able to compete in the Commonwealth Games? If not why, and if so why?

Yes, assuming the Republic of Australia remains a member of the Commonwealth (and I can see no reason why it wouldn't). Elizabeth II is head of state of only a minority of the members of the Commonwealth. David | Talk 10:04, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The majority (or at least a very large number) of Commonwealth countries are republics. A few which spring to mind are India, Pakistan, Singapore, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Cameroun, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi, and Gambia (there are quite a few more in Africa, but the list was long enough). Grutness...wha? 00:51, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Commonwealth Games Countries

Why do Scotland and England compete individually in the Commonwealth Games when countries with states like Australia and Canada do not compete similarly, also if Scotland and England are not Commonwealth of Nations member countries as is the United Kingdom then how do they compete legally in the Commonwealth Games? Dale

--Dalecarr 10:16, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The divisions within the UK are more autonomous than the states in Australia. For example, Scotland has its own parliament. England and Scotland were also separate nations for centuries. StuRat 10:54, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Those examples don't really illustrate the difference, StuRat. All the Australian states have their own parliaments (as do all the Canadian provinces), and prior to 1901 they were all separate British colonies. Scotland was indeed once a separate kingdom, and Wales was a separate principality, and Northern Ireland was a part of the separate country of Ireland. At some point Wales was attached to England, to form the political entity "England and Wales", which I understand still exists. Nevertheless England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey all have separate teams in the Commonwealth Games. But at the Olympics they're all just one country, the United Kingdom. It's all very mysterious. JackofOz 12:22, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

For the Olympic Games, the teams that compete have to be those sent by national Olympic committees and as there is only the British Olympic Committee, there is no way that the Olympics would admit England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland separately. There is a long-running issue in Football (soccer) where there has never been a British or UK team and all international participation is by England, Scotland, Wales and NI separately: proposals for a British team have generally foundered because of a fear that it would be a precedent for insisting that the UK sides amalgamate for everything. I suspect the real reason for separate participation at the Commonwealth Games is that it helps the diversity of the winners to break the UK down to lower levels. Remember, the Crown Dependencies also compete separately at the Commonwealth Games. David | Talk 12:55, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Scotland and Wales are also somewhat fearful of (even symbolic) further English control, and forcing them to compete as part of the UK would likely meet with some resistance. The Jade Knight 17:23, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

What are these clothes

What are these people wearing? I've never seen them before. Susie Platterton

http://community.webshots.com/photo/548283256/2564430850078515824wUfXZb http://community.webshots.com/photo/548283256/2576632380078515824VIWhFt http://community.webshots.com/photo/548313534/2593464720086967025hIwAkL http://community.webshots.com/photo/548313534/2241418020086967025qKcBeW

Looks like black spandex zentais (featuring a facial mesh), fluorescent green ties, fluorescent pink gloves, white horned-rim plastic glasses, fluorescent necklaces, and either white headbands with pink flowers or while bowler hats. StuRat 17:18, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

These are stage performers. They perform on a black state lit with blacklights so the gloves, ties, and such glow brightly. Then, they dance around and the audience is impressed by the glowing clothing that appears to move by itself. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:12, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Plutarch's Moralia

In our article on the Moralia by Plutarch, we list 7 of 78 titles. It would be nice to have the full list. Does anyone have it, or find it online? dab (ᛏ) 15:43, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

ok, I just found it, in amazon's "look inside" [7]; help in transcribing is welcome. dab (ᛏ) 15:44, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

What help do you need exactly? Maid Marion 15:56, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Oh, I've just seen the Moralia article - you mean you just want the Latin titles listed and translated into English? If so, happy to do it for you, just shout. Maid Marion 16:18, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

human family?

how many humans are there in this? theorically of course?--64.12.116.72 17:44, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

In "this"? What do you mean by "this"? This room? Just me. This house? Two humans. This city? A few thousand. This state? About 4 million. This country? About 300 million. In the world? Over 6 billion. Theoretically though, just one. I'm the human. Everyone else is a figment of my imagination. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:10, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

According to solipsism, there's only one person, you. Thuresson 19:21, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

But there are three personalities inside of me...what does solipsism say about that? No matter, I prefer solecisms in any case. :) Joe 20:48, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

42 - Adrian Pingstone 21:38, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, but we are all ontologically alone, so the other 41 may as well not exist. JackofOz 22:08, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

We have an interesting article on Humans. I didn't know that besides our sub-species (Homo sapiens sapiens) there was also another branch of homo sapiens, Homo sapiens idaltu. I don't see any reference to it on our pages, but I recall hearing or reading something recently about the discovery of a third branch somewhere in Oceania. Can anybody confirm this? Back to the question, it used to be argued that the Neanderthals were a human species, but apparently that argument was put to rest and they are Homo neanderthalensis. So the answer appears to be that there are two, or maybe three, subspecies in the human family. --Halcatalyst 01:49, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Re the Oceania question, are you thinking of Homo floresiensis? JackofOz 02:09, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Deals ...

Hey all hope you can help me with this. I was reading last week about the Americans buying Manhattan from the Dutch for beads. It got me thinking about other great deals that have taken place. Can anyone else think of any famous/unique/funny deals that have taken place in the last few hundred years? Thank you! Aidan

The Louisiana Purchase and Alaska purchase come to mind. The Jade Knight 17:48, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

The recent deal in which NBC acquired Al Michaels from ABC in exchange for, inter al., the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, though not on the scale of the land deals referenced above, is rather amusing.Joe 18:11, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

See also [this recent deal; it is not uncommon in certain parts of the world for ice hockey and soccer players to be traded for food (this regularly happened, IIRC, in Canada in the early days of professional hockey), but this story is particularly funny in that, after considering that his club viewed him as worth but 33 pounds of meat, the player traded decided to retire, leaving the club to which he was to go out those ever-important 33 lbs. of meat. Joe 18:11, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

You can eat hockey players? --BluePlatypus 18:24, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Why not? Rugby players are edible. User:Zoe|^(talk) 02:11, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Note that many uneven deals are agreed to under duress. For example, the French sold the Louisiana purchase because they sorely needed the cash for the Napoleanic wars and were, in any case, unable to defend that area from the Americans or, even worse, their enemies, the British (in Canada). StuRat 18:58, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Aiden, your history is rather mixed up. There were no "Americans" back then. It was the Dutch who bought Manhattan from the Natives. --Nelson Ricardo 20:07, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

It's actually worse than that. Nearly every history textbook published since 1880 reports that the Dutch settlers bought Manhattan from the Canarsie Delawares for beads. In fact it was 60 guilders in trade goods, but it's not clear that it was beads [8][9], and it's not clear that Manhattan was the Delawares' to sell.[10] - Nunh-huh 01:45, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

North Carolina public records

Template:PD-NCGov quotes a North Carolina statute which may or may not put public records in the public domain. Any informed opinions about this? The statute says that public records "are the property of the people" and are made available free of charge, which certainly sounds like public domain. This template was recently redirected to "no license". -- Curps 18:46, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like public domain to me. StuRat 18:51, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Agree with Stu. Joe 20:11, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Diagree. "Free of charge" does not mean "no copyright", which is what "public domain" means, in a copyright context. "Property of the people" could be interpreted as "public domain", but that's just one interpretation. You'd need a judge to tell you if that would be a correct one. (Any government property could be said to be "property of the people", which still doesn't give you license to do what you want with it) --BluePlatypus 23:02, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Troll Question?

I am a troll question, please give me a serious answer-Imat 19:29, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

42 - Adrian Pingstone 21:38, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

No, sorry, wrong answer. The correct answer is 23. Ferkelparade π 22:28, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

If I answer the question correctly, do I get to cross the bridge? --Kainaw ^(talk) 23:31, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Only if you pay a t[r]oll. --Halcatalyst 01:31, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

British people in India

I'm trying to get an idea of why there seems to be no significant minority of British Indians. Did all people of British ethnicity leave after Indian independence? I suspect that the answer is hidden somewhere in our many fine, detailed articles on the history of India, but my attention span is weak. The closest article I could find was Anglo-Indian, but it does not answer my questions. Actually, my best question is not really about the history itself, which I'm sure I could find through a web search, but about Wikipedia. Do we have an article or articles to which British people in India and British Indians could redirect? Thank you. Pissant 21:20, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, seems most did migrate. This article quotes a figure of 200,000 Anglo-Indians. Not a small number, but certainly enough to disappear among one billion. --BluePlatypus 22:54, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

They are two separate groups.

1. Anglo-Indians were the descendants of mixed marriages which were common in the early days but then mostly stopped happening. They often worked on the railways. Many still live in India, some went to Western Australia and other English-speaking countries.
2. British people living in India on the other hand were always a tiny minority. Less than 0.1% of the population. On independence only a minority "stayed on" - a higher proportion in Pakistan than in India. Jameswilson 23:54, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Those of us who live in the eastern states of Australia sometimes wonder whether Western Australia is an English-speaking place. On balance, it probably scrapes in. (Cheers to my sandgroper friends :) JackofOz 00:46, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

March 24

Water Problems

I live in a fourplex and my landlord has recently started landscaping the property. When I asked the contractor where are they going to get the water for the sprinklers, I was told that is was going to be hooked up to my unit. I contacted my landlord to question why do I have to pay for irrigation to a property I am only a tenant at? The responce I got was it is going to be hooked up to my water and the reason why I have to pay for it was because I live here. I do not know how legal this is, but I do know this much... I do not feel I should pay for watering a property I do not own.

Agreed. You would have a good legal case, unless there is some clause in your lease which says he can do that. However, you might find that the amount is so inconsequential as to not be worth fighting over, if it's only a few dollars a month. Depending on your water rates and the humidity and watering schedule, it could be quite a bit or hardly anything. StuRat 00:12, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

You should consult a lawyer who does landlord-tenant law. In the mean time, keep records of everything. Keep your water bills and communicate with your landlord in writing, retaining a copy of each letter to present in court, if it comes to that. Brian G. Crawford, the so-called "Nancy Grace of AfD" 01:41, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

A Good Reference Desk Question?

What is an example of a good reference desk question? What are the general suggestions for a good reference desk question? Vertigociel 02:50, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

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