Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 April 16

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April 16

Word

Hi, what is a word for someone who says he is something, but his actions say others? Like a revolutionary in words but not actions, that sort of thing. Thanks

Hypocrite is the word you want, I expect. _Fortuna ^{Imperatrix Mundi} 12:52, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Also deluded, which is a term commonly applied to false prophets (and their followers). -Modocc (talk) 14:49, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

• Hypocrite if they don't follow the rules they expect others to (or more generally, if they pretend to be more virtuous than they really are).
• Possibly blusterer, bragger/braggart, blowhard for someone who makes great claims about their achievements that they can't back up.
• Liar or fantasist if they are out-right making them up.
• If more than one word is allowed, armchair general/quarterback/revolutionary/etc for someone who expounds on what people ought to do in a situation despite having no experience themselves. Talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk for someone who expresses support for a cause actually without doing anything significant to advance it. Iapetus (talk) 15:30, 20 April 2016 (UTC)

English agricultural collapse

One reason for the closure of the Old Iron Works, Mells was "the collapse of English agriculture in the 1870s". The source for this statement refers to "the catastrophic collapse in English agriculture in the 1870s". What happened? Nothing in agriculture in England, and I don't know where else to look. Nyttend (talk) 13:42, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

http://www.ehs.org.uk/dotAsset/10ebf43b-ad22-4b6e-afc6-24f5f3d24e22.pdf 81.132.106.10 (talk) 14:18, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia Has An Article On Everything!: see Great Depression of British Agriculture - "...is usually dated from 1873 to 1896. The depression was caused by the dramatic fall in grain prices following the opening up of the American prairies to cultivation in the 1870s and the advent of cheap transportation with the rise of steamboats". Alansplodge (talk) 17:12, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

I have added a brief note to our "Agriculture in England" article - gosh, that needs a lot more work if anybody's bored. Alansplodge (talk) 15:03, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Dating a globe

My sister-in-law and I were passing our time on a car trip by trying to figure out when a specific globe was produced by the countries that were labeled on it. There was no copyright/printing/manufacture date that she could find. We were able to come up with a date somewhere between 1962 and 1965. This was a few days ago and I've forgotten specifically which countries that helped us narrow it down to those three years. Were there any events in that time that would help us narrow it down even further? I don't have the globe in front of me anymore.

If you're wondering, the globe had been her father's and we had just taken it out of his parent's home while cleaning personal items out before selling the house. Dismas|^(talk) 13:49, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

What's the label on the future country of Zaïre? In 1964, it changed from "Republic of the Congo" to "Democratic Republic of the Congo", although of course it may be labelled simply "Congo-Léopoldville", which would apply before and after 1964. What's the label on the next country farther south? It changed from Northern Rhodesia to Zambia in 1964. Also, Tanganyika and Zanzibar consolidated into Tanzania in 1964. Malaysia was formed in 1963. Nyttend (talk) 14:00, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Southern Cameroons merged with the former French Republic of Cameroon in 1961. Ruanda-Urundi was split between Rwanda and Burundi in 1962. Nyasaland became Malawi in 1964. Congo actually became the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1965. Guyana replaced British Guiana in 1966. 81.132.106.10 (talk) 14:33, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Like I said, I don't have it in front of me but I do remember seeing Nyasaland. This stuck out to me as I'd never heard of it before. Dismas|^(talk) 17:14, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

How Old Is Your Globe? shows seven changes in 1962 and four in 1964, but none in 1963. (It appears to get Malaysia wrong.) —Tamfang (talk) 18:36, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Malaysia was set up 16 Sept 1963 - perhaps a bit late to be included on globes manufactured that year. 81.132.106.10 (talk) 19:15, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

That list's only entry for Malaysia is in 1957. —Tamfang (talk) 01:48, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Then that list is, unfortunately, wrong! Malaya became independent in 1957. It united with Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo to become Malaysia in 1963. 81.132.106.10 (talk) 11:25, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Singapore was expelled from Malaysia on 9 August 1965. So if Singapore is on the globe and the globe is from no later than 1965, that would date it to 1965. Loraof (talk) 19:36, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Singapore wasn't expelled from the Malaysian Federation. She thought she could do better on her own. The other states were sorry to see her go. 86.166.222.195 (talk) 23:31, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

No, see Singapore in Malaysia#Expulsion. It's generally accepted that the leadership of Singapore (particularly Lee Kuan Yew) did not want to leave although there was negotiation before hand (and of course afterwards). It's sometimes suggested (or normally accepted, not totally sure) that the leadership of Malaysia didn't really want Singapore out of Malaysia either but thought that Singapore wouldn't be able to survive on their own, so would be forced to come back to Malaysia under their (the Malaysian leadership's) conditions. From Singapore POV whatever they wanted, after expulsion, they obviously tried to make the best of it. Despite these complexities, expulsion is the word most commonly used as the seperation ultimately happened at the behest of the Malaysian government including with a vote in the Malaysian parliament rather than something Singapore had publicly requested which was then approved by the Malaysian government (including parliament). See [1] [2] Nil Einne (talk) 04:37, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, all! Especially Tamfang. With that link, my sis-in-law was able to verify that it was 1964 when it was produced. Dismas|^(talk) 01:45, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on how globes were designed and manufactured in 1960s, but it seems to a bit risky to conclude such a definite production year based solely on what countries were and weren't present as I would guess the time between the globe being designed and produced could be over a year, particularly if it wasn't someone who prided themselves on accuracy and decided the stuff that happened in 1964/1965 weren't that important. Nil Einne (talk) 04:42, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

I see what you mean. Though considering we're not using it for navigation or any scientific purposes, I'm happy enough with the result. Dismas|^(talk) 12:34, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

I made the point the last time we had a date-a-map question: given that changes in reality take time to get onto maps, you can pretty reliably date a map to after a certain date if it shows a change of that date, but you cannot reliably date a map to before a certain date if it does not show a change of that date. How reliably (or unreliably) depends on the specific change. So if a map shows "USSR" instead of "Russia", you can pretty confidently date it to after the founding of the USSR because there was no way any map maker would have labeled it "USSR" before it was created. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:17, 18 April 2016 (UTC)

J Blackmun

The US Supreme Court's decision in Ohio v. Kentucky, 444 U.S. 335 (1980), had its majority opinion written by "Blackmun, J.". What's the "J" stand for? Harry Andrew Blackmun hadn't a "J" in his name, and it's seemingly not "Justice", or why would it be BRENNAN, STEWART, etc. instead of "BRENNAN, J., STEWART, J.", etc.? Nyttend (talk) 14:41, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

J. is for Justice. Burger is Chief Justice ("C.J.") and Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, and Stevens are Justices ("JJ."). John M Baker (talk) 15:13, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

To expand a bit on this.

"BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C. J., and BRENNAN, STEWART, MARSHALL, and STEVENS, JJ., joined. POWELL, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which WHITE and REHNQUIST, JJ.".

If this was read out aloud, it would be:

"Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Burger, and Justices Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, and Stevens joined. Justice Powell filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices White and Rehnquist joined."

It's just one of these odd bits of legalese you get so used to you don't notice, like saying "A v B" as "A and B" (but not in the States, of course.) I suspect the reason why "Justices" is abbreviated as JJ is something to do with Latin, as (plural)species is abbreviated to "spp" no, cancel that, just found out it's the abbreviation of species pluralis.

There are other judicial titles which are written after a name. Lord Denning was Master of the Rolls for so long that "Lord Denning MR" is the way he is ubiquitously referred to. (Indeed, it's a redirect to his article.) Closer to my jurisdiction, the higher-up members of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal have abbreviations written after their names: Apple DP is Deputy President Apple, Banana SM is Senior Member Banana, and so on. I'm sure someone else will have better examples.

(This is just pure anecdote, but in less formal discussion, it is quite common to say, for example, "Kirby J" or "Brennan CJ" just as written: heck, the lecturers at Law School did, we're just following their example!)

--Shirt58 (talk) 05:02, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Judicial titles in England and Wales has a comprehensive list of the English abbreviations - we don't appear to have similar articles for other jurisdictions, but I'm sure someone with access to appropriate reference material could create any that are needed... Tevildo (talk) 09:03, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

I'll just note that there are other abbreviations in English that pluralize by doubling the last letter. The ones that immediately come to mine are from the study of literature. In bibliographies you may see "pp." for "pages" and "ff." for "and the following pages". If a "manuscript" is abbreviated "MS", the plural is "MSS". At Abbreviation#Plural forms is a table listing more of these, with a note saying that the practice is copied from Latin. I'll add "JJ." to the list. --69.159.61.172 (talk) 18:39, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

There are also f (forte = loud), ff (fortissimo), fff ... ffffff (fortissississississimo), and similar for volume intensity in music. Similar for p (piano = soft). And in case you think these are made up, Tchaikovsky did use pppppp in his Pathétique Symphony, and György Ligeti went so far as to specify ffffffff and pppppppp. See Dynamics (music). Of course, these are not plurals as such, but the principle of multitude still applies. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:31, 17 April 2016 (UTC)

Roman temple of the Clemence

The article Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo has the line 'Roman temple of the Clemence'. I've searched for what this is in reference to and can not find any info on this term. There's a Saint Clement, clemence definition, origin, and use (mostly French). What does 'Roman temple of the Clemence' refer to? - 24.16.201.133 (talk) 16:46, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Clementia, the Roman goddess of forgiveness and mercy. -- Paulscrawl (talk) 17:01, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

See also the entry for Clemence, equating name with Clementia, in the Chaucer Name Dictionary. -- Paulscrawl (talk) 17:28, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

What sect of Islam Muhammad Iqbal had followed?

Looks like that he was a Shia Muslim, but I didn't find anything on his article. Could you please tell me what branch of Islam he had followed? Thanks in advance. 46.225.3.56 (talk) 22:20, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

In our article Works of Muhammad Iqbal, the third item in the Further reading section is

The title looks promising. Loraof (talk) 23:05, 16 April 2016 (UTC)