Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2008 January 30

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January 30

Florida primary

I've heard from many sources that both the Republicans and Democrats have stripped the state of all of its delegates. Is that correct? And if so, why is a primary still being held there? Are there other forms of representation? --The Dark Side (talk) 01:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The Democrats have done so, as "punishment" for moving the date of the primary, many sources have thus been calling the election a "beauty contest". I don't believe the Republicans have done the same, if so, that would make Rudy Giuliani's strategy really flawed. --LarryMac | Talk 01:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit conflict] In fact, the Republicans have stripped the state of half of its delegates as a punishment for holding the primary too early in the process. The Republicans will still seat half of the Florida delegates. The Democrats have vowed not to seat any Florida delegates when they hold their nominating convention. The primary is still being held because states have the authority to set dates for primaries and other elections, and the national parties do not have the authority to stop the primaries. They do, however, have the authority to decide the rules for admission to the nominating convention. By defying the national parties, Florida politicians forfeited their (full) access to the nominating conventions. Nonetheless, because Florida is a swing state with a large number of electoral votes, the outcome of its primary will influence the parties' choice. Marco polo (talk) 01:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

JC-1 H2 Literature texts

I just started taking JC-1 H2 Literature this year. I have to study five texts, two under "Reading Literature" (which H1 students also take) and three under "Literature and Identity".

One of my "Reading Literature" texts is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Is it a difficult book to study? Do you have any advice?

In secondary school, I did "Macbeth". It was fun and easy. Now I have to study "Othello" for "Reading Literature" and "King Lear" for "Literature and Identity". How are the two texts similar and diferent to "Macbeth"? Are they more difficult? Any advice for someone who has already studied "Macbeth"?

How about "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath? I understand it is a book of poems. I am better with prose than poems but I know the literary devices for poems and scored A1 for Literature in secondary school. Same questions - is it difficult and do you have any advice?

My last "Literature and Identity" text is "Fistful of Colours". I will not ask for advice about that book because it is by a local author and Wikipedia has no article about the book.

By the way, thanks for helping me with my Economics. You guys rock! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.21.155.8 (talk) 03:11, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Anyone have the slightest clue what JC-1 H2 means? Malcolm Starkey (talk) 08:10, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

My guess: JC-1 = Junior college, Year 1; H2 = category Higher 2.  --Lambiam 08:53, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Pride and Prejudice is a fairly easy book to study and funny too. Study the two other plays the way you did the Macbeth.. I didn't find Ariel difficult,you have good skills it seems to tackle it. Enjoy,there's some great reads there. hotclaws 10:35, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm surprised that anyone could consider Macbeth either 'fun' or 'easy', let alone both... AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:01, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Macbeth is easy when compared to other Shakespeare plays. It's short, the plot is straightforward, the themes are clear, and there's very little comedy. Gdr 13:48, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I thought Macbeth was great fun when we did it at school - plenty of blood and guts and witches. DuncanHill (talk) 13:55, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I just hope the curse doesn't apply to Refdesk discussions... AndrewWTaylor (talk) 15:57, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I've just remembered a production I saw once that provoked some unintended audience laughter when some characters knelt down (probably showing allegiance to Malcolm) and the swords that were hanging from their belts touched the floor of the stage and visibly bent. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 15:59, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

165.21, just as there is no Royal Road to Geometry, there is no Easy Route to Literature: it's a personal voyage of self-discovery. After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single person in possession of intelligence, must be in want of a book! I could, of course, refer you to the Wikipedia pages on Pride and Prejudice, Othello and King Lear for some general guidance, but there is really no substitute for reading these works yourself and reaching your own conclusions. In a way I envy you, particularly in coming to Jane Austen for the first time. I read Pride and Prejudice when I was about ten years old and simply loved it; loved the characters and loved the way Austen created dramatic and romantic tension. You have a great discovery ahead!

As for the Shakespeare, you will find both Othello and King Lear more demanding than Macbeth, though all might be said to take their departure from aspects of the leading characters' personalities: if Macbeth is about ambition, Othello is about the interplay between jealousy and malice. In King Lear the tragedy emerges from the conceit, pride and misjudgment of the eponymous hero, a man who was 'old before he was wise.'

You will appreciate the poems in Aerial a little better if you discover something about the life of Sylvia Plath. In reading Lady Lazarus be mindful of the Bible story-I am Lazarus, come from the dead (to quote another poet altogether!) Clio the Muse (talk) 00:14, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Lambiam is correct. JC-1 = Junior college year 1, H2 = category Higher 2. By the way, your junior college article is all rubbish. No offence.

AndrewWTaylor, Macbeth is very interesting. The story, characters and themes are easy to understand but still thought provoking. My other secondary school text, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, was also thought provoking but much harder.

Thanks for all the advice, HotClaws and Clio the Muse. So Pride and Prejudice is easy, interesting and funny? Looks like I will enjoy my two years of studying JC H2 Literature and (hopefully) get an A in the A Levels. From your advice, I understand that Othello and King Lear will be similar to Macbeth but more demanding. I heard that Macbeth, Othello and King Lear are all typical Shakespeare tragedies where a good man has a tragic flaw which causes his downfall, but the tragic flaw is different in each play. Is that accurate? Lastly, is the language in Othello and King Lear similar to that in Macbeth? It took me a few months to get used to the "anon"s, "withal"s, etc. when I studied Macbeth. Some of my classmates did not take Literature in secondary school, or studied texts that were not by Shakespeare. If the language is similar I will have a head start over them as they will have to spend a few months getting used to the language.

Hello again, 165.21. There is really not an awful lot to add to what I have already written in the above, other than to confirm your assumption that the three tragedies in question are predicated on a crucial flaw in the character of the leading player. You will find little difference in the forms of language, and modes of expression, used in each of the three plays, though the dramatic structure in Othello and King Lear is more complex than that in Macbeth. There is, of course, no substitute for reading these plays yourself or, better still, seeing a performance. It might help you along your way, though, if you dipped into a study guide. Laurie Macguire's Studying Shakespeare: a Guide to the Plays is quite good. Clio the Muse (talk) 23:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Guess I will have a head start then. I will try to get a copy of "Studying Shakespeare". They told us in advance which texts we will study but we will only buy them and start studying them in late February.

Assassination or murder?

How famous/important does a person have to be before its assassination rather than murder?--TreeSmiler (talk) 01:26, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

While famous people are more likely to be assassinated, notoriety alone does not make it an assassination. If a world-famous politician were killed by his wife over a personal matter, it would not be considered an assassination. Conversely, if an obscure civil servant were killed for resisting the mafia, it could justifiably be called an assassination. So, to answer your question, the person needn't be famous, but he must be important enough to justify the risk of killing him. We're used to famous people being assassinated because their deaths are more notable. Lantzy ^talk 02:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Take Gianni Versace and Anna Politkovskaya. Versace was wealthy and world-famous, but his killing was not politically motivated, and therefore he is said to have been murdered, not assassinated. Politkovskaya, on the other hand, was not particularly famous, but the motive (or presumed motive) was political, so she is said to have been assassinated. It may be a little more complicated than that: some politically-motivated killings are not considered assassinations if the victims are neither noteworthy nor "powerful", officially or by influence. For example, the Mississippi civil rights worker murders are rarely deemed assassinations, although they were politically motivated. So in summary: you don't have to be famous to be assassinated, but it helps. And if you are famous, your murder isn't necessarily an assassination. Lantzy ^talk 02:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

My take on this is that the specific thing that makes a murder become an assassination is the motive of the killer. If the murderer is killing the victim because of what public position in society the victim has, then it is an an assassination. If it is due to other reasons, it is murder. For instance, a politician may be killed by someone because he was found in the killer's bed with the killer's wife - but that would be a crime of passion, not an assassination. On the other hand, if a man who's wife has had an affair with a politician is hired to kill that politician by a Mafia crime boss, then it would be regarded as an assassination, most likely. The importance of the position that the person has in society is not too critical of a factor - even a very minor village clerk may be a target of an assassination. It's not the importance of the victim that is crucial, but the motive of the killer. -- Saukkomies 17:04, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

In French, or perhaps only Quebec French, and then perhaps only in newspapers, "assassiné" is the usual term for anyone who has been murdered, even a random person. Adam Bishop (talk) 08:19, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

This is also the case in Spanish. Lantzy ^talk 05:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Public Hangings in the United Kingdom and France

I have read the respective articles on capital punishment in the United Kingdom and France, but the two articles are not particularly clear on when public hangings were abolished. Could anyone tell me when such activities were abolished, and why? Splintercellguy (talk) 01:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Michael Barrett was the last person publically hanged in the UK, in 1868. The Capital Punishment (Amendment) Act of that year banned public execution following the recommendations of a Royal Commission. FiggyBee (talk) 05:43, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

France preferred the guillotine to hanging; the last public execution was that of Eugen Weidmann in 1939 (pictures). According to [1], "around 30-40,000 rowdy, drunken, screaming and singing would-be spectators spent the night partying in the surrounding streets... After the execution was over and the guillotine had been dismantled, this bloodthirsty crowd invaded the area. Reports of women dipping handkerchiefs in the bloody water on the sidewalk were, in fact, true. It is not known if the crowd's undignified behavior, the illegal photography and filming, the flashy press coverage or the new executioner's apparent incompetence prompted it, but the government put an end to public executions by the following month." Gdr 11:27, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Tony Blair would draw quite a crowd!--Johnluckie (talk) 07:57, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Coat pulled over the head

What are the origins of having a coat pulled over the head for banishment and/or disgrace? I saw it in the Archibald Armstrong court jester article. Is it related (in the opposite way) to the sports gesture of pulling a shirt over the head? Julia Rossi (talk) 02:18, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about ultimate origins, but the practice was common in primary-school classrooms in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. The teacher would tell the naughty child to stand in the corner with his coat over his head. Probably this was the idea of some teacher earlier in the 20th century—perhaps as an alternative to corporal punishment—and the idea spread. Marco polo (talk) 17:04, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Go on, and pull his coat over his ears: There are too many such.--Give them their right." Sir Thomas More II.ii
• "...out a doors with the knave, turn the coat over his ears." The London Prodigal I.iii
• "Will, sir? Then do your office, Master Usher, Make him put off his jerkin; you may pluck His coat over his ears, much more his jerkin." The Gentleman Usher II.i
• "Why I was exiled from court having my jesting coat plucked off, few men are ignorant of,..." Archy's Dream

—eric 19:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

These days you often see it on TV reports, if the person doesn't want to be filmed they will pull their coat over their head in order to stop themselves from being identified. They do this because it's the only option available to them at the time. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

If it's a coat or jacket, it also seems to restrain their arms which would add to the humiliation, maybe. Thanks people. Julia Rossi (talk) 00:30, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Al Gore

What's the latest date that Al Gore could enter the presidential race...

...as a democratic candidate?

...as an independent candidate? The Transhumanist 02:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Technically, he needn't enter at all. Strom Thurmond held a successful write-in campaign. Even thought it wasn't on the scale of a presidential race, Gore could have a shot that way. Paragon12321 (talk) 02:44, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It would depend on the state; each state has separate rules for qualification for ballot access. As stated above, he could also run as a write-in, but even write-ins have to register as candidates by one date or another. Of course, you also have the question as to when is the last feasible date at which he could enter. I think that date has past, considering that Super Duper Tuesday is next week. Al Gore is solidly in the Democratic camp and wouldn't run against Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 03:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

To be the Democratic candidate, he would have to be nominated by the Democratic National Convention. So the latest he could throw his hat in is during the convention - August 25 to 28. FiggyBee (talk) 07:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The possibility seems remote, but... Xn4 09:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Garlic? FiggyBee (talk) 11:39, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Amtrak v Miller

Sometime between 1971-1975 Kansas Attorney General Vern Miller raided and Amtrak passenger train in Newton, Kansas and confiscated all liquor on board because Amtrak had flagrantly sold liquor by the drink to its passengers in violation of Kansas law. I believe that the case was first tried in a local court, Amtrak immediately asked a Federal court for an injunction to prevent further such raids and lost the bid and ultimately the case was fast-tracked to the U.S. Supreme Court which declared it al certiore, upholding the origional conviction. My question is simply, what date did Miller's raid take place?

Mike D. 1/29/2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Treernch (talk • contribs) 02:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Amtrak isn't really called Amtrak, and so the actual name of the court case was "National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Miller", 414 U.S. 948 (1973). By searching on the numerical part I found that the US Supreme Court ruling is available online here, but only if you register. However, in Google News they have something called a News Archive Search, which generally produces results that you have to pay for — but the synopses are free. If you search in there for "Vern Miller" and "Amtrak", you will see a number of non-free articles referring to the story. The date is given in the first synopsis: July 18, 1972. If you scroll down to the Holland Evening Sentinel link and click on that, the page shows you the first few words of the article, which also confirm that date.

Thanks, that was fun.

Incidentally, just to confuse things, this was not the only Amtrak court case involving a Vern Miller that turns up in that last search. The other Vern Miller was an Amtrak police officer. --Anonymous, 04:20 UTC, January 30, 2008.

Pronunciation: Ayn Rand

While I appreciate as much as anyone the use of an academic tool just because one can, I wonder how many users of WP can actually read the IP pronunciations? (That was an aside.) Is there someone who can give me a rhyme for the correct pronunciation of this author's given (or, in this case, "taken") name. Does her surname share a pronunciation with the South African unit of currency, or does the "a" have another sound? Thank you. Bielle (talk) 03:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The IPA at her article says that "Ayn" rhymes with "fine", "line", "pine", and "wine", and Rand, like the monetary unit, rhymes with "band", "land", and "sand". --Anon, 03:37 UTC, January 30, 2008.

Thank you, Anon. ៛ Bielle (talk) 03:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Though rand, the monetary unit, is an Afrikaans word, and doesn't actually rhyme with the English "band", "land", and "sand" if pronounced properly. Its a closer rhyme to "Brandt" or "runt". Rockpocket 08:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah, good point. I was talking about the pronunciation used in English. --Anonymous, 16:47 UTC, Jan. 30.

Personally I think the IPA stuff is a bit opaque. I've found that I often can't use Wikipedia's own IPA resource to decode IPA; I wish there was a simpler, "how to read IPA" page created on here if we are going to obsessively tag things in IPA. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Is Help:Pronunciation too difficult? If so, maybe you could make suggestions on the talk page how to make it easier to understand. —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 07:27, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

As for rhymes, there is of course the classic "A Simple Desultory Phillipic" from the Simon & Garfunkel album "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme":

"I been Ayn Randed

Nearly branded a Communist

'cause I'm left-handed . . ."

(Note the internal rhyme: Rand/brand - thus identifying the pronunciation of the last name. It was this song, also, from which I learned the (much less obvious) pronunciation of the first name - yes, to rhyme with "line".) --KTK (talk) 05:04, 5 June 2009 (UTC)

Use of IPA in education?

Just inspired by the last thread, I wonder how much IPA is used in basic education (I'm thinking primary and secondary schools) in various countries? I know that in many non-English speaking countries at least, IPA is used to teach English and other foreign languages, and a basic study of the IPA system is part of the foreign language curriculum in secondary school. However, I don't think I ever encountered it as part of the curriculum during my schooling here in Australia - one has to sort of pick it up from dictionaries etc. I wonder if the situation is similar in the UK or the US? What about non-English speaking European countries? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 06:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Certainly not in the U.S. There, it's only used in university-level phonetics courses. (Not even in phonology courses!) —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 06:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The same is true of Canada. IPA is a very specialized course at the university level, and if it were not for its appearance in dictionaries, most of us would never have seen it at all. (All this may explain why, in more than 5 decades, I have never tried to use a dictionary for pronunciation, but only for meaning, emphasis and syllabification.) ៛ Bielle (talk) 06:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

There is no IPA at all in the Netherlands until university level, while we do have English, French and German as obligatory foreign languages at high school. User:Krator (t c) 08:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps not anymore, with the rapid decline of Dutch education. But I was taught IPA in a Dutch school, during my English classes, when I was 14 (in 1984). 194.171.56.13 (talk) 09:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

That's very interesting. It seems that where English is spoken as a native language, and in European countries where other European languages are taught as close-to-native languages, the IPA is much less relied upon. I wonder if there is a correlation in the other direction - that not using IPA makes teaching more effective? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:02, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

There used to be the ITA in the U.K. (and sporadically elsewhere)... AnonMoos (talk) 11:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm a Belgian, and I very briefly encountered it in English classes during my high school years ('99-'05). Not sure if that was because our teacher was married to a linguist, or because it's in the curriculum somewhere. Random Nonsense (talk) 14:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

In my experience in Finland a decade or two ago, most schoolbooks on foreign languages used a mix of IPA symbols for the sounds that are not natural in Finnish, and standard Finnish orthography for the sounds that do occur in Finnish. Since English pronunciation is quite alien for a Finnish speaker, a typical pronunciation guide for an English word might contain on average about half of each type of symbol. Given this early introduction, learning more of IPA later on hasn't been too difficult. 84.239.133.86 (talk) 22:00, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I fondly remember IPA from my schooldays. Oh, you were talking about something else... ObiterDicta ( pleadings • errata • appeals ) 00:33, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

A lot of English learners encounter a simplified version of the IPA while learning English, because the pronunciation has to be provided. It is usually the same type of phonemicisation that is found in dictionaries. There is, of course, no standard of simplified phonetic transcription for dictionaries, although they don't vary too much. I taught myself how to read the pronunciations in my dictionary in primary school, but I was (and still am) a nerd. Steewi (talk) 06:11, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

It was on the curriculum in the second year of my gymnasium (students aged 16-17). It was mainly used for illustrating differences between Icelandic dialects/accents and to illustrate the differences between Old Icelandic and Modern Icelandic. If memory serves we had a slightly localized version with thorn instead of theta. We also saw some IPA in French classes around that time. Haukur (talk) 10:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Giving your staff shares as part of salary arrangement

I always imagined that if I ever ran a business it would be nice if I gave my staff a theoretical percentage stake in the business that would be commensorate with their salaries. So for example if the business does $100 000 turnover each month, and someone's salary was about $5000, they would get 5%. In months when the business makes less than $100 000, that person's salary is protected and they still get $5000, but in months where the business makes more than $100 000, that person would get 5%, therefore getting paid more.
I imagined that this would be a genuine way to give staff an incentive to make the business grow.
However these shares are retracted as soon as employment terminates, cannot be 'bought' or 'sold', and have nothing to do with decision making.
Is there a name for this kind of arrangement, and do you know of any cases where this has been implemented? And if you like you can give your opinion.
Rfwoolf (talk) 09:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It's called profit sharing. FiggyBee (talk) 11:44, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The John Lewis Partnership may be of interest. DuncanHill (talk) 22:04, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Greats of Martial Arts

1.There bests of all time martial artists ,has worked on chinese martial arts( like kung-fu) and experienced . and have excellent philosophocal sight on it and also the principles like meditation and morality. actually contributed that style to evolution.

2.Besides ,has organized and codified the techniques and construction of style. The best books? (Active in teaching and improved that style's knowledge.)Flakture (talk) 11:54, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

What is your question? Are you asking who is considered great in the field of martial arts, studied many Chinese disciplines, studied meditation, and wrote a book on his own technique? See Bruce Lee. -- kainaw™ 19:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I suspect the OP is looking for a grnad unified theory of martial arts, or at least of Chinese/East Asian martial arts. I don't know of one myself, although some of the newer martial arts claim to be something like that. Steewi (talk) 06:13, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

City of Vice

I've been watching, and enjoying, City of Vice on Channel Four. It depicts London as a fairly grim place and I was wondering how accurate this is and what ordinary life was like in the city in the early eighteenth century? 217.42.105.140 (talk) 11:56, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Read the crime stats and you wonder if much HAS changed!--Johnluckie (talk) 14:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Much has changed. The over-riding trend over the past few centuries has been the increasingly universal respect for the Rule of Law, and drastically reduced rates of crime (despite the fact that more previously-legal acts are criminalised per year, than previously-criminal acts are legalised). Conversely, fear of crime has increased almost exponentially, especially after the advent of mass media - all this really proves is that human beings are empty-minded morons who cannot be trusted to intelligently interpret the data given to them. Ninebucks (talk) 18:05, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I assume you must have come here from Mars, Ninebucks, in which case welcome to my world. Or are you, perhaps, the one person on this planet who is not an empty-headed moron? Clio the Muse (talk) 00:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

I think Ninebucks makes a fair point. People are very bad at judging risk and evaluating danger in the circumstances that most of us in the UK find ourselves in. It is very easy to develop an unreasonable fear and sense of danger from reading the papers and watching the news, when calm analysis of the available data would show a different picture. But most of us do not calmly analyse all the data available to us. I would include myself, and Ninebucks, in this generalisation. It takes effort to avoid falling into this trap, and you have to exert the effort every time you are presented with information, and seek out alternative information, or your view gets corrupted. So yes, human beings are empty-minded morons who cannot be trusted to intelligently interpret the data given to them; rules must be created for the interpretation of data before anything useful can be extracted. Skittle (talk) 18:18, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I see; then I am the Martian, one of those who create the rules. But never mind, Skittle; there is even a place in the universe for empty-headed morons, including all those who manage to split infinitives! Clio the Muse (talk) 19:37, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Oh, it is easy to casually split an infinitive in English; perhaps if we were writing Latin there would be more to wonder at :P You create rules, and following the rules can analyse the data. Without the rules, the analysis would be useless. So you are one of us after all! Skittle (talk) 02:48, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Looking at your question in the most general terms, 217.42, London was considerably grimmer in the eighteenth century than depicted in City of Vice. Crime was grim, punishment was grim and general living conditions were grim. Travellers coming from the countryside would have been able to smell the city well before they saw it, as sewage was collected and deposited in great heaps by the so-called 'night soil' men on the roadside or in the market gardens just outside the city. In the city itself the drains, or the 'kennels', as they were known, were often overflowing with sewage and the other detritus of urban life. Jonathan Swift wrote that the kennels were often blocked with "Sweepings from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts, and Blood, all drench'd in Mud, Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops."

Given this lack of hygiene disease was another of the hazards of city life. Mosquito-borne malaria was transmitted from the nearby marshes, and typhoid by drinking water. Dysentery was also a major problem. Smallpox was virulent, as was the Great pox, or syphilis, hardly surprising given the licentious morals show in City of Vice! As many as one in three babies died before the age of three, and half of the survivors did not live beyond their fifteenth birthday.

With no street lighting, and little in the way of public security, the city was especially dangerous at night. Cruel times bred cruel people, with bear-baiting and cock-fighting among the favoured spectator sports. But the favourite sport of all was the public hangings at Tyburn, which brought the whole city to a standstill in unofficial public holidays. So, in every sense, life was 'nasty, brutish and short'. Clio the Muse (talk) 00:22, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah, but are we (generally speaking) any less cruel now we live in a cleaner, healthier, brighter world? I don't think so. If we take cock-fighting as an example, just a few years ago I encountered a cock-fight in a village in northern England, and it hardly raised a brow. Still, this was the same village where someone was knee-capped, so I suppose it was par for the course. Gwinva (talk) 19:53, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

The Red Tsar

Does anyone know who coined Joseph Stalin's pseudonym of 'The Red Tsar'? It has been most famously used in the title of Simon Sebag Montefiore's biography of the man, 'Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar', published in 2003, but I'm certain that the phrase was first used well before then. Any ideas?

Thanks. 81.140.151.57 (talk) 13:00, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Before Stalin, and even before the Soviet Union, the "Red Tsar" was Yakov Sverdlov, according to Robert Wilton in The Last Days of the Romanovs. I can't find a good source here, but Sverdlov's Jewish parents were probably the reason Wilton emphasized his role in the government.—eric 18:46, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I would have thought that Stalin had a far greater right to this title than Sverdlov, whose power was of a limited and transitory nature. I cannot say for certain if the appellation was ever used before Montefiore alighted on it as a title for his book, though it is possible it may have derived from Nikolai Bukharin's description of Stalin as 'Genghis Khan with a telephone.' Clio the Muse (talk) 00:36, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

It is also highly linked to the similarities between Tsarist pre-1917 Russia and Stalins Russia SGGH ^speak! 11:25, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Red refers to Stalins political affiliation; Communism, as well as Stalins way of ruling the country, was vary "tsar-like". Yeltsinfan (talk) 00:54, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

What is معلاي

Can someone tell me what is the meaning above in arabic? and here is the video of it [this] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.119.126 (talk) 16:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC) Is this bad in Islam or is it part of the Arab culture? Why do they shake their butts only? Which country does this? This question may sound offensive but this is only for Arabs. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.14.119.126 (talk) 16:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Just a heads up: this is an Arabic/English site where you have to register to see the video, and it is labelled, for whatever reason, "for mature audiences only". ៛ Bielle (talk) 16:56, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

معلاي looks like it might be from the root معل which can mean sick. If this is the case, it might mean "my sickness", or "my weakness". I haven't seen the video, but I suspect they're showing Raqs Sharqi or belly dancing. Publicly doing this is considered improper and perhaps indecent under conservative Islam, but it has a (folk legendary?) history as a form of entertainment practised among women, rather than being performed for men's benefit. It is considered skillful to be able to dance it with only the hips, keeping the shoulders and head steady, even to balancing a sword placed across the top of the head. Steewi (talk) 06:26, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

When he asked this before I think we misidentified it as related to height/highness. According to Google it appears to be a name, I see lots of "Ahmad ibn Ma'alaai" (or however it may be transliterated) for example. But the results all see to be for this video or something like it. Adam Bishop (talk) 08:15, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Additional - reading the belly dancing article more carefully shows that it has a history of men performing it, not just women, although segregation has previously been the norm during performance. Steewi (talk) 23:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Just look at the video and you answer my question, please and thank you.

Highland Army

I would like to know the exact reasons why the Scottish government sent the Highlanders into south-west Scotland in 1678? Was it to end a rebellion? Why Highlanders? I know some of you are very good at Scottish history. Donald Paterson (talk) 17:29, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I find the sentence "After leaving Holland, Graham was appointed captain by Charles II and sent to south-west Scotland in 1678, with orders to suppress conventicles (outdoor Presbyterian meetings) that the king deemed seditious." in John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee, if that's of any use. I presume this is the event you're asking about. can't speculate on why highlanders, other than perhaps that they were no so likely to be Presbyterians. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

See also Covenanter and Royal Scots Fusiliers, fwiw. --Tagishsimon (talk) 17:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It's a complex issue, Donald, the roots of which can be traced back to the Restoration in Scotland, and even further back to the Bishops' Wars, a curtain-raiser to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Anyway, when Scotland was controlled by the Covenanters church government was completely overhauled, with Presbyterianism replacing Episcopacy. Though this was welcomed in the southern Lowlands, especially in the south-west of the country, large parts of the northern Lowlands and the Highlands continued to favour Episcopacy. Not only that but they were politically hostile to the southern government, generally referred to as the 'Whigs.'

After the Restoration in 1660 the government of Charles II decided to sweep the radical past aside, restoring Episcopacy, amongst other measures. Resistance to this was particularly strong in the counties of the south-west, the heartland of the Covenant. Years of trouble and semi-rebellion followed, with the government resorting to repression and conciliation by turns. Finally, in 1678, John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, Charles' chief minister in Scotland, and himself an old Covenanter, decided to subdue the obdurate southern shires by raising an army from among the very people they feared most-the clans of the north. This was the so-called Highland Host, not Army, which moved into the area at the beginning of the year, staying for a few weeks. During that time the local people were forced to maintain the Host at their own expense. Though few people were harmed most were robbed, as the Host finally left the area, weighed down with plunder.

It was a bad-tempered move by a bad-tempered government, which only served to make matters worse, increasing still further the distrust between Highlanders and Lowlanders. When a major rebellion finally broke out in the following year the Whigs published a Declaration, proclaiming that "all manners of outrages have been most arbitrarily exercised upon us through the tract of several years past; particularly in the year 1678 by sending among us an armed host of barbarous savages contrary to all law and humanity." Clio the Muse (talk) 01:06, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

source for Pindar's 7th Olympian Ode

Dear Wikipedia,

I see several references on your site with the following translation of Pindar's 7th Olympian (or Olympic) Ode from ancient Greek:

The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
move their marble feet.

yet I see no citation for this.

Can you tell me what the source of this translation was or who the translator was at least?

I know of two other translation to English, that of Richmond Lattimore, (line 52, Odes of Pindar .) and William H. Race, but not this one is not familiar

It is referenced on your site in articles on:

1. Pygmalion (mythology)

1. Automaton

1. Antikythera mechanism

Thanks,

V. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Omittamusstudia (talk • contribs) 17:44, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

It takes a little time, but if you have a look at the history of those pages, you can find out who added it and maybe ask them on their talk page. For example, the quote was inserted in the Automaton article on June 10, 2006 by User:ChrisO. I didn't check the history of the other articles. David Šenek (talk) 20:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Finding the editor might not do much to answer the question, the lines probably made their way onto Wikipedia thru this (pg. 7) deceitful passage in Rosheim, M. E. (1994) Robot Evolution: The Development of Anthrobotics.—eric 00:49, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

A few other translations:

• For on their roads ran the semblances of beasts and creeping things... Ernest Myers, (1904) [2]

• and the roads bore works of art like living, moving creatures... Diane Svarlien, The Perseus Project (1990) [3]

• Shapes exact of beasts and reptiles all their city's ways did fill. Francis David Morice (1876) [4]

• So that the very ways by which ye pass / Bore sculpture, living things that walk or creep / Like as the life: whence very high and deep Indeed the glory of the artist was. Robert Browning (1915)

and Basil L. Gildersleeve's note on the passage.—eric 20:57, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Filling gaps in the CV

What are my alternatives for filling gaps in a CV? (due to whatever, it is not of your business, but it can not be on the CV).217.168.3.246 (talk) 23:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Say you were "on a retreat" -factual yet hazy enough to be anything. hotclaws 01:38, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

(after edit conflict) Lying on your CV is not a good plan. Sure, you might get away with it, but it's a type of fraud and if you're caught, can mean that you mightn't be offered/may be fired from the job, and depending on your location and the nature of the lie may be a criminal offence (e.g. deception offences in England and Wales.) So, what to do? A short gap (up to a few months, say) is unlikely to be much of a problem, but as the gaps get bigger, so does the potential for someone reading the CV to wonder what is being hidden. What I would do is to leave the gap but have a good answer for if/when someone asks about it. It is probably worth getting advice from someone who is familiar with your situation or who you feel able to discuss it with in more detail, such as a doctor/probation officer/(whoever, as appropriate for the reason for the gap in your CV,) as they will undoubtedly have been asked for advice by others before now. -- AJR | Talk 01:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Just leave the gap. If they ask about it, explain it. Odds are they won't read it that close to notice the gap. Write a cover letter emphasizing your strengths and talk about what you can offer. The more attention you call to the gap, the more they'll worry about it. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 02:53, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Many people take sabbaticals. Normally only one year, every 7 years. Often for a world-trip, writing a novel, investigating a specific subject, etc. You could state that you wrote a novel (and write one) in that time and are searching for an publisher (that gives you time). I would only strongly discourage from all common lies (inventing companies, degrees, fake credentials, etc)Mr.K. (talk) 04:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

A perfectly reasonable approach is not to list every job you've ever done, but just the ones that are relevant to what you're going for. That is, your CV is tailored for the job in question. This helps to keep it as short as possible while still giving a rounded picture of you. If you state explicitly that you're only presenting relevant parts of your background, and not bothering them with other stuff, then it's to be expected that there will be gaps here and there, about things they're not interested in. This might forestall any undesirable questions about what you were doing during the gaps in your record. No guarantees though. -- JackofOz (talk) 06:02, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

One company I wortked for went out of business. If I listed it on a CV, there would be no way to check how long I worked there or what my job title was, or what the boss thought of me. As a matter of fact, to avoid lawsuits, many large companies do not give out any evaluations of past employees, but just confirm dates of employment, job title, and perhaps pay. Just saying. This would not help if the defunct company was local and the prospective employer knew people who had worked there. It would work best if nothing spectacular was claimed, just that one had a routine job there for low pay, during the time in question. Edison (talk) 01:40, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Don't tell them you were with Vandelay Industries, eh.--Wetman (talk) 09:05, 1 February 2008 (UTC)