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April 28

Second try: alligorical meaning of pony music videos

Copied from archives. 2601:647:4D00:2C40:982F:103F:C8B3:D678 (talk) 10:09, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Would someone please explain the allegorical meaning of [1]? Please compare and contrast with [2].

I have further questions regarding [3] and [4].

2601:647:4D00:2C40:CCD0:7BD9:21A8:D1CE (talk) 07:54, 28 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What makes you think there is an allegorical meaning to these videos? Apparently, someone has fun adding My Little Pony animations to the sound tracks of well-known pop songs, such as, for the first two, a cover of "Holding Out for a Hero" by Jennifer Saunders, taken from the soundtrack of Shrek 2.^[5] --Lambiam 13:17, 28 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Because there is no such thing as an alicorn unless it's to evoke the idea of an allegory. My question stands. 2601:647:4D00:2C40:982F:103F:C8B3:D678 (talk) 10:09, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

But it has nothing to do with these videos. Why did the creator of the MLP universe choose to add a line of winged unicorn ponies to the menagerie? My best guess is that Hasbro expected they would sell and help to increase their profit. What is the allegorical meaning of money? --Lambiam 10:54, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, it seems to be solely intended as entertainment for children. As to why we are entertained by talking or singing animals, see The mind behind anthropomorphic thinking: attribution of mental states to other species for some research. Alansplodge (talk) 11:12, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I mostly agree although we should consider there are two aspects here. From what I can tell, those videos are simply mashups of scenes from some My Little Pony cartoons with some other music added. The My Little Pony cartoons were obviously intended primarily as a money generating exercise. I'm sure their creators were also generally interested in creating something entertaining that they could be proud of, bound by the rules and requirements of the studio funding them. Their original target was children, especially young girls but the recent cartoons also found wider success. I'm sure some of the cartoons had some allegories but as cartoons primarily targeted at children, it probably wasn't generally that sophisticated, even after the wider success was recognised. The wider success bit naturally leads to the second issue. There's a very good chance as with a lot of mashups, the people creating them just made them because they thought they would be fun mashups and they either didn't know or didn't care or just hoped they would be fine despite creating what are likely copyright violations, again as with a lot of mashups. They probably weren't intending to create any allegories, indeed probably the thought never entered their mind. I don't know if these videos were even really targeting children, there's a good chance they were made by (and targeting) the wider My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom often called bronies. Even targeting can be misleading, I'm not sure whether both creators necessarily targeted anyone, it's possibly they mostly created it for themselves and posted it since others may like it. Nil Einne (talk) 14:59, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The idea of allegories remains associated with unicorns but there is no rule that placing anew an unicorn will generate a new allegory (to generate a new allegory, knowing that the current discussion has taken place, let us replace one of the unicorns or more in the videos with anything else - but only if it is something of a look-a-like - then we call to the public for comment = output - this is how it works). --Askedonty (talk) 14:51, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Unicorns and winged horses appear in many mythologies so there are overlapping and multiple symbolic meanings. Some of the aspects that such a creature might represent, from purity (unicorn) to death (horse) to the sun (flying horse) are discussed in sources such as Imaginary Animals: The Monstrous, the Wondrous and the Human, or The_Continuum_Encyclopedia_of_Symbols. Other wiki articles include White horses in mythology, Horse in Chinese mythology,Pegasus, Solar deity, Hippocampus (mythology), Horse (zodiac), and Unicorn Trend. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 14:57, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Jacintha Buddicom's Labour Lord

Do we know who the Labour peer was who had a thirty-year relationship with Jacintha Buddicom? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 18:17, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe her memoir Eric & Us, or the 2006 postscript by her cousin mentioned in the Wikipedia article name the peer. Perhaps you could check there.--Jayron 32 11:47, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

New York school districts

How are New York school district boundaries ascertained? Does each one comprise one or more towns or cities (so crossing a town/city border often puts you in a different district), or are districts separate from municipalities (so district boundaries and municipal boundaries are totally different), or something else? A basic Ctrl+F search of List of school districts in New York finds about seven hundred districts, while List of towns in New York says there are about a thousand towns and cities, so I'm guessing that it's not true that every city and town operates its own district. Education in New York (state) has just a tiny section about primary/secondary education, and most of it talks about financing, demographics, and enrolment/employment statistics, with no information about who runs districts. I'm most familiar with Ohio (where districts are totally unrelated to anything else, so they have crazy borders), Pennsylvania (where districts are collections of municipalities), and Virginia (where each county or city runs its own district), so if you can compare New York to one of those, it would help me understand better. Nyttend (talk) 19:39, 28 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not 100% certain exactly how it works in New York, but in most states, school districts are a kind of special purpose district, which are quasi-municipal bodies which are functionally independent from the municipalities and/or counties they overlay. New York appears to have a multi-level hierarchical system (except for New York City... In New York State, almost everything is "except for New York City", which generally operates under its own rules) See Boards of Cooperative Educational Services. Picking through random school districts in New York, it looks districts can vary a lot from place to place; in some places they may be part of a municipal unit, in some places they may be coterminous with one, and in some places they may cover multiple municipal units. --Jayron 32 11:41, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 29

Historic Photographer

Hello, I am looking for information on a photographer called T.C Clark who operated in New Orleans. Here is a link to the photo's he took in his studio at T. C. CLARK'S ATELIER, NO. 101 CANAL STREET, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA. https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/search/mods_subject_topic_ms%3A%22Clark%2C%5C%20T.C.%2C%5C%20photographer%22?islandora_solr_search_navigation=0&f%5B0%5D=mods_subject_topic_ms%3A%22T.%5C%20C.%5C%20Clark%27s%5C%20Atelier%5C%20%5C%28Studio%5C%20%5C%3A%5C%20New%5C%20Orleans%2C%5C%20La.%5C%29%22&f%5B1%5D=mods_name_namePart_ms%3A%22T.%5C%20C.%5C%20Clark%27s%5C%20Atelier%2C%5C%20No.%5C%20101%5C%20Canal%5C%20Street%2C%5C%20New%5C%20Orleans%2C%5C%20Louisiana.%22. Does anyone know when he died. I am trying to figure out if it was pre 1951. Thank you! Gandalf the Groovy (talk) 14:00, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

https://books.google.at/books?id=UNipzykMBEIC&pg=PA165 has a pretty extensive bio on him, notably he used different names in different periods. --Soman (talk) 17:21, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)John H Clark moved into 101 Canal Street sometime between 1858 and 1861 [6] (page 103). He was still there in 1894 (L Soards (1894) New Orleans City Directory). John H Clarke lived from 1831-1914 [7], [8]. 146.199.206.103 (talk) 17:46, 29 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

April 30

Persian / Zoroastrian superstitions

Do Persian / Zoroastrian have one of the following customs?

not cooking two eggs
not eating 2 eggs
not drinking two glasses (of something)
not walking between 2 trees

David (talk) 09:45, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Where did you learn that they might? --Jayron 32 10:55, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I found all of the above in the Babylonian Talmud, which was greatly influenced by Persian and Zoroastrian customs, with the reason that Ashmadai would harm anyone who did so, and Ashmadai himself was a demon taken from the Zoroastrians, so it makes sense to me that they also forbid at least some of the above. David (talk) 11:18, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I can't find anything using my usual Google Fu skills, the only connection I can think of is something to do with the Zoroastrian beliefs in dualism, which may have lead to some beliefs or practices around the number "2". Eggs are also a part of the Zoroastrian creation myth according to Zoroastrianism#Cosmology: Creation of the universe, so that may have something with it. If we have any Parsis patrolling the RDs, they may be able to give some insight. --Jayron 32 11:46, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for these findings! Hope that indeed there is some Persian\ Parsis here that can approve\ disapprove the above. David (talk)

I happen to be in the possession of a Zoroastrian cookbook, and looking through the nine egg based dishes one of them uses 16 eggs to serve 8 people, so make of that what you will. (None used only 2 eggs as they are meant for a larger serving). Zoozaz1 talk 20:59, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting! Going this way I googled a little bit and found some more parsis recepies, and all of them had even number of eggs so I tend to believe that they have the opposite superstiotion: they must eat even number of eggs, but your "nine egg based dishes" contradicts this. Could you ellaborate on this a little bit? (from what you wrote it seems like this the "nine egg dish" is actually 16 eggs, so I am a little bit confused...) David (talk) 07:15, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think you misunderstood that phrase: nine is the number of dishes, not the number of eggs. --116.86.4.41 (talk) 11:32, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Lol, that makes more sense :).

However, is that true that all of their dishes are made of even number of eggs? David (talk) 13:57, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

One of the dishes in the cookbook calls for 13 eggs in total (5 for the covering and 8 for the filling), the rest of them all have an even number of eggs. Zoozaz1 talk 16:01, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Not walking between two trees might be a bit tricky in a forest. Alansplodge (talk) 22:34, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Key information to make an assessment would the total number of eggs divided by the number of diners the recipe is for. That said, this [9] suggests there is no superstition, and this [10] confirms it (... a mother eats one cooked egg for each child she has.) In the spirit of that last link, Happy Easter for tomorrow to our Orthodox readers. 95.148.229.88 (talk) 15:44, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

To conclude what you've said, it turns out that unfortunately this statemnt is not true. Thank you for your help!David (talk) 16:43, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Paul du Chaillu publishing his book 'Explorations and adventures in Equatorial Africa' with Richard Owen.

I have read that Paul du Chaillu spent some time giving talks and lectures in America during the 1850s about his travels in Africa, but didn't find much success, but he was apparently invited to London by Richard Owen who took an interest in his work and helped him publish his stories. This book was 'Explorations and adventures in Equatorial Africa' (1861). What I'm specifically interested in is whether or not Richard Owen helped him publish, and why he did this. I've read the odd article that mentions it, but I'd love to know more details about the initial publication of the book and the initial relationship between the two men from a reliable source.31.124.106.253 (talk) 13:56, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

african nok statue

Good afternoon,

This is the first question I've direct to Wikipedia.

My question deals with the page- Nok culture There is a photo of a nok sculpture with the caption outlined below-

Female Statue 48 cm tall Age: 900 to 1,500 years

My question is as follows- do you happen to know the museum to which the statue belongs? We did a number of searches, but we weren't successful. Do you possibly know of some other way whereas my question can be answered?

Thank you for your time. Raven160 (talk) 20:48, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Good question. The image on Wikimedia Commons is copied from a Japanese entry but doesn't give any hint as to its origin as far as I can see. The Nok sculptures discovered by Bernard Fagg in the 1940s are preserved in the Jos Museum in Nigeria, but the sites have been extensively looted and sculptures sold on the international art market. [11] Alansplodge (talk) 22:12, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And the Japanese upload seems to have copied it from fr:Fichier:IMG 3942 1.jpg. Unfortunately, the transwikiing process does not properly preserves history (thereby going against the CC BY-SA licence), making further investigation difficult. --Lambiam 13:35, 1 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Vietnam War: South Vietnamese and United States victory

What if South Vietnam and the United States won the Vietnam War? Unlike the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World Wars I & II and the Korean War, the Americans lost Vietnam. And did that war end sadly? Here is my theory.

South Vietnamese and United States victory

Introduction of U.S. coalition's forces in Vietnam
Communist forces withdrawal from South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
Separation of Vietnam
No boat people and refugee crises
No Cambodian genocide and no Third Indochina War

Territorial changes - Separation of North and South Vietnam into the Republic of Vietnam. 86.160.39.35 (talk) 21:58, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to engage in speculation on the Reference Desks (you were supposed to read that bit before posting). However, a quick look through List of alternate history fiction failed to find anyone who has written a book with that scenario, so the coast is clear if you wanted to put pen to paper. Alansplodge (talk) 22:30, 30 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]

May 2

Uprighting a vessel

Since the Seacor Power capsized in the Gulf of Mexico, how would the vessel be uprighted?2603:7000:8100:BD38:B1D2:A177:5B7E:4979 (talk) 23:34, 2 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See parbuckle salvage. Alansplodge (talk) 00:18, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A parbuckle is an external hoisting device, using cables attached to the vessel. There are several patents for using inflatable bags to salvage sunken vessels. It seems to me that they could also be used to right a capsized vessel, but I do not know if they have been used in practice for that purpose. --Lambiam 10:13, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, a parbuckle lifts by using cables to exert a rolling action on the load to be lifted. Alansplodge (talk) 15:48, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It is helpful to have a powerful sister. The current plan is to use the Seacor Eagle, a sister liftboat to the Seacor Power, in the salvage operation.^{Blacklisted link; to follow it, add "https:" in front of "//gcaptain.com/seacor-power-response-to-transition-to-salvage/"} --Lambiam 10:26, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

May 3

The Pencil of Nature

The article Pencil of Nature shows a reprint of an early print of the statutes of king Richard II. Do we know more about that book? --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 08:06, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In The Pencil of Nature it is described as "Taken from a black-letter volume in the Author's library, containing the statutes of Richard the Second, written in Norman French". DuncanHill (talk) 08:08, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The book from which Talbot cut out a page in order to reproduce it was a 15th-century exemplar of the Statuta Angliae: Nova statuta, an early printed volume of these statutes, from the print shop of William de Machlinia, of which several copies have been preserved intact.^{[12][13][14][15]}

Thank you both. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 20:12, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Academic journal article authors

Are the authors of journal articles listed in any particular order? It's not alphabetic so I wonder if the order has some other significance such as "main" author first and lesser contributors last? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 12:25, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to address your question. --Jayron 32 13:34, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Discussed at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Science/2012 September 6#research paper authors and collaboration and Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Science/2014 April 3#First author, second author, principal_investigator.... 95.148.229.85 (talk) 15:51, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

equivalence to Classical period music in other parts of the world

Did other parts of the world, like Africa, Middle East, Southern Asia and East Asia had their own Classical Music period and their own Mozart, Beethoven, Salieri, Liszt and others well-known composers? Donmust90 (talk) 15:59, 3 May 2021 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 15:59, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Every culture has its own music traditions. Many of those places are rather broad in scope (Africa, after all, is a very large continent with very many diverse cultures). A good starting place to read about the music of various cultures and places is in Wikipedia articles titled "Music of <whatever>", where you replace the <whatever> with the place you are interested in. For example, Wikipedia has articles on Music of Africa, Music of the Middle East, Music of Asia, etc. and then each of those will give you an overview and lead you to progressively more detailed articles on the music of more specific places. --Jayron 32 16:07, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

One specificity of western music is that composers' names are known and their lives are well documented (at least since the 1500s or so). This is not the case in most other musical traditions, so even if there were brilliant composers, their names and details of their lives have generally been lost. Second, there is a difference between what is known in the west as "classical music" in general and its Classical period, which includes the composers the OP names. Within the realm of classical music, there is also a Renaissance period, a Baroque period, a Romantic period, a Modernist period, etc. all the way to contemporary classical music. All of these periods and styles also have their major composers. Finally, Salieri's name may have become known thanks to his appearance in the movie Amadeus (and the play on which it is based), but he is not considered to be on the same level as the three other major figures named by the OP; he was largely forgotten until the 1980s. Xuxl (talk) 12:50, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Only Mozart and Salieri represent the Classical period in the restricted sense; Beethoven and Liszt are, respectively, an early and a late representative of the Romantic period in music. --Lambiam 19:51, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Native American Culture"

I've seen the term "Native American Culture" used as a collective term. While I believe that all Native American cultures (as a plural) share the effects of being colonized (though the experiences vary widely), I have also seen it collectively apply to the Culture of the Peoples in 1500. Is there anything identifiable as representing a joint culture among the Iroquois and the Navajo (to pick two of the larger groups on different corners of the Contiguous United States) that would specifically apply to them as opposed to the Peoples of North Asia supplanted in the Russian push west, the Australian First Nations or Southern Africa?

Note, I've even seen it applied to all of the New World peoples, placing (for example, the Iroquois and the Inca) into the same "Cultural Group", anything stretch even close to that far?

(By comparison, in 1500, most of Europe shared the general concept of Jesus, even if the Kievan Rus and the Dutch (to pick two corners) disagreed on a good number of particulars)Naraht (talk) 21:50, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Within North America, there would have been a shared cultural exchange akin to what existed in Eurasia. We can see this because of the way that language families are distributed across North America; we can find mixes of Algonquian languages, Iroquoian languages, Athabaskan languages, etc. all over North America, indicating a lot of mobility and mixing of various cultural groups. You can also tell from trade goods that there was widespread contact (even if not direct), for example there have been found samples of Alibates flint from near Amarillo, Texas in as far-flung places as Florida and Minnesota, indicating far-reaching and well organized trade networks. There is, however, a rather hard divide in the Desert southwest of the modern U.S., there very little cultural mixture between the North American groups and Mesoamerica, which would include groups like the Aztec, the Maya, the Toltec, etc. These groups shared linguistic and cultural (especially religious) practices that show little spread outside the region. Likewise, the Andean civilizations and the Amazonian peoples probably also representing distinct broad cultural groups with little contact with the other groups. --Jayron 32 12:39, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's going to depend on your definition of "cultural group". If you mean, did the populations have any contact, possibly through multiple third parties, then, yes, they were part of the same cultural group. However, if you're going to lump everyone from the Inca to the Inuit into one group, almost all of Eurasia would be in another group. Breaking down areas into smaller cultural groups is also possible, but much easier to do in places like Europe and Asia where there are extensive written records, allowing you to get more detailed and subtle understanding. In the Americas, there were relatively fewer cultures with writing and a lot of what was written was deliberately destroyed, making the process much more difficult. On top of this, huge populations were also completely wiped out along with much of their cultural heritage. The archaeology can show us lots of information, but it's a very incomplete picture. Then, on top of that, there's the long entrenched problem of treating the indigenous peoples of the Americas as savages, children, or worse, which has left even well-meaning researchers with a lot of cultural baggage and preconceived notions. Matt Deres (talk) 14:35, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

May 4

What ship evacuated Roy Campbell from Spain?

Our article on Roy Campbell says "On 9 August 1936, the Campbells boarded HMS Maine, which was evacuating British subjects to Marseilles". This is referenced to Joseph Pearce: Unafraid of Virginia Woolf (ISI Books, Wilmington, Delaware: 2004), p. 247. Now I do not believe there was ever an HMS Maine. There was an RFA Maine which served as a hospital ship in the Mediterranean Fleet. Was she the ship that carried the Campbells? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 19:50, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

British Government Maritime Evacuations in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 cites the hospital ship HMS Maine (on page 13)~~, and here's a photo of the "non-existent" blighter~~. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:06, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that photo is for RFA Maine. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:08, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, this site says it was RFA Maine (1902). Clarityfiend (talk) 22:19, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Maine in Spain sailed mainly from ... ~~the plain?~~ Valencia on 5 August and Barcelona on 21 August 1936. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:14, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Or the arrow plain. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:51, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is Thames Publishing the same as Thames & Hudson?

Is Thames Publishing the same as Thames & Hudson? See for instance these publications:

Payne, Anthony; Foreman, Lewis; Bishop, John (1976). The Music of Frank Bridge. London: Thames Publishing. ISBN 978-0-905210-02-5.
Payne, Anthony (1984). Frank Bridge: Radical and Conservative. London: Thames Publishing. ISBN 978-0-905210-25-4.

- Aza24 (talk) 23:37, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

No, no connexion. Thames was, at one time at least, part of Purnell and Sons. DuncanHill (talk) 23:48, 4 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you DuncanHil! Would you say a redirect to Purnell and Sons makes sense, or should I just stick with the red link? Aza24 (talk) 00:37, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'd stick with the red link, for now - I don't have what we would call a reliable source to add Thames to the Purnells page, and without it being mentioned there it would be confusing to readers to have the redirect. It would have ended up as part of Maxwell's BPCC. There's no real need to link the publisher in a citation, especially when you have an ISBN. DuncanHill (talk) 00:51, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The "Thames Publishing" that focussed on music was founded in 1970 by journalist John Bishop,^[16] The current Thames Publishing^[17] is unrelated. There has also been an earlier unrelated "The Thames Publishing Co.",^[18][19] and I have the impression this is the one that used Purnell and Sons (not a publisher but a printer) for printing their titles. As Bishop's widow set up her own publishing company not long after her husband's death,^[20] it is possible that the original company, run as a one-person affair, was discontinued. --Lambiam 09:25, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Thames Publishing Co was owned by Purnell's, rather than using them as a printer. See the letter from the literary agents A. P. Watt & Son here. I hadn't realised the music publisher was separate. DuncanHill (talk) 09:35, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

May 5

Why New Zealand is not a federal state for no reason like Australia?

Please Explain and get your answer, please! I hope you may understand what's going on with my question.

New Zealand I think this a federal country, not a unitary country, unlike Australia. I hope New Zealand will be a federal status country by the near future amen...

Hello, I want to talk again about why new Zealand is a unitary state not a federal state like Australia? please explain the underlying cause! Cyberllamamusic (talk) 10:26, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

NZ is not called a federal state because it is not a federal state, see Federalism for a definition of federalism. If you find reliable sources that NZ is federal, it should be added, but there are no such sources. --T*U (talk) 10:54, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, @Cyberllamamusic:, forgot to ping. --T*U (talk) 10:55, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The reason, by the way, is that Australia is a federation of semi-autonomous states with limited sovereignty known as the States of Australia. These states have their own local government, which has powers that are reserved for them and not available to the national government. That's what a "federal country" means. New Zealand is a unitary state because, well, there is no similar entity in New Zealand as the states of Australia. There is a limited form of Local government in New Zealand, but there is no equivalent in New Zealand as the States of Australia; it is a unitary state because the national New Zealand government does not constitutionally share its sovereignty with any subdivisions of itself the way that Australia does. --Jayron 32 11:13, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

It's historical; modern Australia originated as six separate self-governing colonies within the British Empire; the immense distances between them preventing closer cooperation when you could only travel between them by horse, camel or sailing ship. Communications were much easier in the late 19th century, and after a series of negotiations and referendums, the Federation of Australia was agreed in 1899 and was approved by the United Kingdom Parliament in 1900. This created the Commonwealth of Australia in which the original colonies became states which retained much of their self-governing powers. In contrast, New Zealand's smaller size allowed it to be governed as a single colony from the outset of colonisation, and New Zealand achieved dominion status as a unitary state in 1907. Alansplodge (talk) 12:04, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why Australia calls the state "Semi-Autonomous", not fully "Autonomous"? it's a freaking hoax statement that Australia use the word semi before autonomous. Cyberllamamusic (talk) 11:55, 5 May 2021 (UTC) Is there anything federalism movement in new zealand?[reply]

The Acceptance of new zealand being a unitary government is a questionable idea.

I will disagree that new zealand is a unitary state but by the I will hope that new zealand will be transformed into the federal state in the near future amen ya rabbal alamin...

I'm not sure I understand what your objection is. Australia doesn't call its states semi-autonomous, it's a term I used to describe how they are treated by the Constitution of Australia, which reserves certain powers to the states that are not available to the government. They don't operate with all of the powers of independent countries, which is why they are not fully autonomous, but there are some governmental functions that the national government of Australia does not do, and these constitutional powers are reserved for the states to do on their own. That constitutional relationship, as defined by the foundational documents of Australia is what makes it a federation. That is, the very document that defines how Australia operates makes it a federation of states. It just does. It's not a hoax, it really is a federation. The Constitution of New Zealand is different. It does not define any constitutional role for any lower subdivisions of New Zealand. That's why it isn't a federation. Part of the reason for this is historical (New Zealand was briefly a colony administered by the British Empire as part of Australia, equivalent to the other separate colonies that grew into the States of Australia) and part of this just because there has been no political necessity to federalize New Zealand. It had no tradition of separate entities that operated separately, like Australia did. Australia was settled by the British Empire as distinct colonies, (the Colony of New South Wales, the Colony of Queensland, the Colony of Victoria) and when Australia was given Dominion status by Britain in 1901 it was done so as the Federation of Australia, where the several separate colonies were put together into one country. New Zealand was only ever one colony, the Colony of New Zealand. There was no bringing together of separate things to make New Zealand, so when it was granted its Dominion status in 1907, it was only ever one "thing". --Jayron 32 12:25, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why LIthuania is semi presidential republic not parliamentary republic?

Please explain the oddities why Lithuania is semi-presidential, unlike Estonia and Latvia which is both parliamentary. Lithuania is supposedly a parliamentary republic so the baltic tigers have synchronous them. I hope that prime minister Lithuania will be more powerful than the president. I think it is wrong to be a semi-presidential republic for Lithuania, but even know that Estonia and Latvia are both parliamentary not semi-presidential. The only problem is why baltic trio countries the 2 are parliamentary but the 1 is only the semi-presidential please explain to us! make us know about the baltic tigers regarding the government systems. Cyberllamamusic (talk) 10:27, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Cyberllamamusic: The explanation is quite simple: The constitutions of the three countries are not identical, and reliable sources describe them differently. WIkipedia follows what the reliable sources say. --T*U (talk) 11:04, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

After independence, there were two proposals for a new constitution in Lithuania, one parliamentary and one presidential (Lithuania had previously had a strongly presidential system during the last period of independence, between the World Wars). A referendum on 23 May 1992 had insufficient turnout to decide the issue and a compromise constitution with elements of both was approved in a second referendum on 25 October. See Prospects for Constitutionalism in Post-Communist Countries (p. 170). Alansplodge (talk) 11:45, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Kaïmakam of Aqaba

Who was the Kaïmakam of Aqaba in 1918? There's a photo of him here. Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 11:36, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The Kaymakam were the administrators of the Kaza of the Empire, which were fairly minor subdivisions of the Empire; it would be the equivalent in the U.S. of a civil township or in the UK of a civil parish. While Wikipedia has a lot of articles on a lot of minor topics, I can't find anything on the "kaza of Aqaba" or any list of its leadership. Sorry. --Jayron 32 11:46, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Although there a few mentions of him by his title on Google, his actual name seems to be lost to posterity. Alansplodge (talk) 12:52, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Why Qatar is still listed as developing country according to wikipedia for no reason?

I think Qatar is a 100% developed country because of how it richness oil and looks so impersonating Singapore. PPP percapita Qatar is about 100 thousand dollars so what's the matter being the status of developing or developed country status?

Please Explain!

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developed_country Cyberllamamusic (talk) 13:17, 5 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]