Humanities desk
< September 6	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	Current desk >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 7[edit]

Criminal Justice Reform[edit]

What are the 2020 presidential candidates' platforms regarding criminal justice reform? Or, where can I find this information? 2600:1700:CBD0:C50:D066:FE87:479D:1637 (talk) 01:14, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

On their campaign websites? Futurist110 (talk) 02:38, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Presidential election in which country? Fgf10 (talk) 07:16, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Nobody has done more for criminal justice reform than President Trump, and if elected he will continue to restore the greatness of the criminal justice system that Democrats have hijacked and dismantled. For more lack of detail, see www.donaldjtrump.com. For the boring and weak ideas that nobody wants to see anyway of Sleepy Joe who is a puppet controlled by the terrorist anarchists roaming the streets of the Democrat-controlled zones of chaos and destruction, see joebiden.com/justice/. --Lambiam 07:21, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As a disinterested and doubtless under-informed spectator peering from a distant continent, it nonetheless appears to my occluded perception that Lambiam's answer above may perhaps include a less than complete neutrality of viewpoint. Possibly I may have failed to detect any intentional irony that may have been intended, but if so I fear that others, with perhaps less than my own six decades of native English usage, may also have done so. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.2.158 (talk) 10:39, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The first half of my response mainly consists of text snippets, mildly paraphrased to fit into grammatical sentences while retaining the semantic content, but otherwise taken almost verbatim from the website and from the main source of information regarding policy positions, being the tweets and public statements of the candidate. You are welcome to help answering the question by finding more specific or concrete policy statements. The second part has been formulated in the same vein so as to avoid an abrupt change of style. --Lambiam 14:21, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

In any case, the choice of words deployed by user:Lambian seem unsuitable for the reference desk. The RD should neither be the furniture for partisan propaganda nor should it be the pulpit for ad hominem attacks. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 15:07, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It would appear that the third responder above mistakenly took phrases from the GOP website about the Democratic candidate, rather than posting factual information about the policy positions of the Democratic candidate. This can be a common mistake among those depending on echo chambers for their opinions. DOR (HK) (talk) 15:37, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I should hope that everyone can understand that the formulation was tongue-in-cheek, and with respect to the characterization of candidate Joseph R. Biden not so much taking phrases from the GOP website, but using directly the language coming from the horse's mouth, such as an SNL skit might also use – but perhaps some people have never heard the other candidate speak. The first response above referred the questioner to the campaign websites of the candidates. For the Democratic candidate that is a fair (although somewhat lazy) response, but I provided a link to the relevant section of the website of the Democratic campaign, which is clear and succinct; there would be no point in attempting to summarize it here. Not so for the other website. The first respondent added a question mark to their response, possibly meant rhetorically; well, the answer to that question, "On their campaign websites?", taken on its face value, is "no, not for both campaigns". What I wrote are the most concrete policy statements I could find, although I did not read every last sentence on the site. Isn't "For more lack of detail, see ..." a clear giveaway? --Lambiam 18:23, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is. And it's also a great advertisement for always reading through to the end of a post, rather than knee-jerkily reacting after the first few words. But maybe some quotation marks wouldn't have gone astray. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:42, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As Charlie Brown says (every Christmas), "Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it?" :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:40, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See also Poe's law. --Jayron 32 14:55, 9 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes it's done on purpose, to see who bites. Long before the internet, Society for Indecency to Naked Animals was an example of such a thing. More recently, I suspect QAnon might be likewise. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:23, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Intentionally trying to upset people is called trolling. --Jayron 32 12:08, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The SINA thing was long before the internet, and could be called "hoaxing". QAnon is engaged in hoaxing, and I'm sure its perps would gladly plead guilty to the charge of "trolling". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:51, 10 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Parsees under apartheidt[edit]

How were Parsees classified under apartheid in South Africa? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 04:12, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Indian. See Apartheid#Legislation 41.165.67.114 (talk) 07:20, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Which doesn't mention Parsees. Where they treated as Indian or Persian, and for that matter, how were Persians treated? DuncanHill (talk) 12:23, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not my specialist subject, but our Parsees article says that they emigrated from Persia to the Indian subcontinent in the 10th century, which is going to make them Indian by almost any definition. On the subject of actual Persians, there doesn't seem to be a large Iranian community in South Africa but there are Lebanese people in South Africa, which "during the apartheid era were classified as white". Alansplodge (talk) 14:10, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See List of countries by Zoroastrian population. 2A00:23C6:2403:E900:9844:6164:682A:D268 (talk) 18:32, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

help finding Ng'wanamalundi[edit]

Hi does anybody have access to a copy of Ngoma ya Ng'wanamalundi (Swahili Edition) Mbogo, E ISBN 10: 9966839089 ISBN 13: 9789966839084

Working on topic at swwiki. Electronic copy would be appreciated, or at least the ToC / intro as a first step. Kipala (talk) 06:31, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are 4 print editions (no electronic formats): "Formats and Editions of Ngoma ya ng'wanamalundi". www.worldcat.org.

You can find the nearest library with a copy here (good luck): "Ngoma ya ng'wanamalundi". www.worldcat.org. or here: "Ngoma ya ng'wanamalundi". Google Books (in Swahili).

ISBN 9966839089 --107.15.157.44 (talk) 18:03, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

William Snook - 1883 article[edit]

This is a long shot: this eBay listing is for an 1883 magazine or book article, about William Snook. What is the source? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 18:44, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Judging from the rightmost page there, it's The Sporting Mirror magazine. There are also other volumes on eBay, like this. Brandmeister^talk 19:19, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Doh! I looked at that image, and completely missed the top line. Thank you. I can see "number XXXI (31) volume VI (6)", but the date is unreadable. It's August, and could be 1883 (Vol II ran from July to Dec 1881). Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:05, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed here and added to the article as "further reading". Now to track down a copy! Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:14, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

– Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:14, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Tombstone inscription[edit]

Why does here the tombstone read "His wife" when seemingly her husband Hummel is still alive? Looks weird also because it would be otherwise unclear whom "his" refers to. Is this a thing on real graves? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 19:13, 7 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

First, its a movie, so who knows what liberties they took with actual practice. That said, in a U.S. military cemetary, both husband and wife are buried in same plot. In this case, the husband served in the military and will get the front of the tombstone, and his wife will get the back of the tombstone with the husband's name on the front. When the husband dies his info will be added to the tombstone. Thus, it reads "his wife" where "his" means the person who is still alive but will be buried with her. RudolfRed (talk) 00:57, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that makes sense. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 07:23, 8 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This appears to be customary at Arlington National Cemetery. For two examples, see here for the couple Francis J. Witt, Jr., and his wife (pre-deceased) Mary Lou, and here for Frederick Charles Frost and his wife Nita Conner. Note that in both cases the wife's name is the first line, followed by "his wife", which makes sense but is not the order seen in the opening shots of The Rock.