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January 15

What is this character?

Inequality (mathematics) has several characters that my computer renders as little boxes. For example:

• a <⃥͏ a (irreflexivity) — after the first italic a
• if a < b, then b <⃥͏ a (asymmetry) — after the second italic b

What are they? In both cases that I copied, the box is seemingly the same character as the lesser-than sign, since I can't highlight one without the other. I figured I could get the answer from Google (there are enough Unicode charts online), but I get just four results for the combined lesser-than-and-box: the inequality article, two Reddit pages, and something in Thai. When I put the combined lesser-than-and-box into the URL, I'm shown MediaWiki:Badtitletext, which makes sense for a title containing a standalone < character, but not for one where the < elements are part of a special character. Nyttend (talk) 20:29, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

A less-than with two combining codes:

index  chr codepoint utf8    cat  name
 0      <  U+003c    3c      Sm   LESS-THAN SIGN
 1       ⃥  U+20e5    e283a5  Mn   COMBINING REVERSE SOLIDUS OVERLAY
 2       ͏  U+034f    cd8f    Mn   COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER

-- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 22:56, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

In other words, it's a "not less than" sign. Unicode's single character for that is hex 226E or ≮, although it uses a slash rather than a backslash ("reverse solidus") to overstrike the < sign. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 02:47, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Latex also uses $\,\nless \,.$ The use of a forward slash, as in $\,a\!\not {\!{\text{R}}}~b\,,$ to mean $\neg (a~{\text{R}}~b),$ is standard. I can't think of a reason for using the backslashed symbol $\,<\!\!\!\!\!\setminus ~$ instead and have replaced <\ by ≮.  --Lambiam 09:27, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

January 16

Miraheze Stuff

What should I do if my wiki is approved on Miraheze? Gnu779 (talk) 12:21, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

That should depend on the scope and goals of the wiki you have requested, which we don't know. Do you already have a small team of dedicated volunteers who will supply a non-trivial amount of relevant content? An empty wiki is not conducive to attracting new contributors.  --Lambiam 23:56, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Does it have to do with Yangon Bus Service?  --Lambiam 00:12, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

No, my friend in interested in YBS. It's not me. He told me from a distant place that he wants a wiki. And I have another wiki personally on my kernel. Gnu779 (talk) 12:55, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Temp Files on C: Drive

I have a Dell Inspiron 3910 running Windows 11. It has a C: drive with what is shown as either 216 GB or 232,783,867,904 bytes. (So those are 216 binary gigabytes, of 2**30 bytes each.) Anyway, This PC usually shows that it has between 20 GB and 45 GB free. If the free storage becomes less than 10%, it displays a red bar in This PC. One parameter that I am familiar with that changes is the size of pagefile.sys, which starts as 12 GB and often increases as it runs up to 24 GB or even 28 GB. I sometimes see the free storage on the C: drive drop to as low as 16 GB, which doesn't bother me, even if it bothers This PC. I don't need unlimited free storage on my C: drive; I need enough free storage on my C: drive. What happened yesterday is that it began displaying that about 5.5 GB was free, much less than I have seen before. I hadn't done anything that should have filled up the C: drive, such as importing video clips from my phone. (I know that video clips are large because they are three-dimensional because time is the third dimension.) I found a few folders on my C: drive that were at least 1 GB and I wasn't using, and I moved them to the E: drive, which is a great monster of a 4TB solid-state device. I thought that might free up a few gigabytes, and it didn't change anything. At about this point Windows Update told me that operating system updates were ready to install, and so I needed to schedule a time for a system restart. After the restart, my C: drive shows as having 44.9 GB free. That is, approximately 39 GB was reclaimed during the restart. I know that approximately 10 GB of that was pagefile.sys. Where did it get more than 25GB of free disk storage from? Is there a way that I can free up this disk storage other than by a restart? I know that some of this was temporary files created by Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge and a few other standard programs. Is there a utility that I can use that frees up temporary storage without restarting Windows? Robert McClenon (talk) 18:10, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

@Robert McClenon I don't know of any program that finds temp files, but a good guideline I have in general is to use something like WinDirStat or WizTree (preferably the latter), as both show a graphical display of the biggest files on your drive, and may help in this case. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 21:44, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, User:TheTechie. I had already been using Disk Space Analyzer Max, which showed me the directories that were using a lot of space, and that didn't help much. What I saw was that Google Chrome had a large amount of data, for instance, but I didn't know what Google Chrome data was useful to it and what was temporary. As I said, I tried moving a few directories, each of which was about 1 GB, from C: to tertiary storage, and that didn't help. I thought it would make about 3 GB free, but maybe it took Windows a while to catch on. Obviously the restart found and freed up a lot of storage. So I am asking whether there is some way other than restarting the system to get it to find and free up the storage. Maybe I am looking for something that either does not exist or is buried somewhere, like treasure. Robert McClenon (talk) 22:19, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

If it's Google Chrome that's the culprit, have you tried clearing your cache and browsing history? For me, caching and history have led to many GiBs being used in Chrome in the past. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 23:07, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Whoops forgot ping @Robert McClenon TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 03:01, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, User:TheTechie - That is useful advice. If I see that Google Chrome is using a lot of SSD space, I will purge its cache and browsing history. I assume that advice also applies to any other web browser. More generally, I infer that if any application is using a lot of temporary space, it can be nuked if there is an option in the application to nuke the temp storage, and, if not, it can always be restarted. Apparently a lot of applications clean up their own litter boxes when they start up. In this respect they are unlike cats. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:25, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Install WizTree (free), boom, gives you an overview of everything stored on your storage volumes. Also lets you manage said stuff.

Anything called "cache" or "temp" can be safely nuked. A cache is just copies of things stored for speeding things up and can always be regenerated. In fact I suggest just making your browser shut off disk caching, which is largely unneeded these days unless you're on a slow connection, and eats away at the lifetime of SSDs, which it sounds like your primary drive is. Web search "<name of browser> disable disk caching"

So I am asking whether there is some way other than restarting the system to get it to find and free up the storage. It's hard to give a useful general answer to this without knowing what is taking up said storage to begin with. Remember we're not there with you looking at your computer screen; we can't see what's on your drives. The most generic answer is "sure there is as long as the things taking up space aren't locked Windows system files, which require a restart in order to modify/delete them." Software can always be configured to run periodically to go through deleting stuff "in the background".

For one you mentioned pagefile.sys—the Windows page file, which you probably have Windows "managing" the size of on its own (the default). Windows likes to be generous with its size and reserve more than you probably need, which then sits there taking up space. If you have no plans to use hibernation, on a typical modern PC you can usually get away with just disabling it altogether, though you might want to leave a bit of margin and set it to half your RAM size. For this Web search: "Windows change page file size". --Slowking Man (talk) 04:12, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, User:Slowking Man. I have a disk analyzer, but will also try the one you recommend, and see which one gives me more what I want. When you say that you infer that my primary drive is an SSD, I think that you mean that my secondary storage is an [[SSD], because my primary storage is my 12 GB of RAM, and my secondary storage on the C: is a 216 GB SSD, which is what was getting full. Robert McClenon (talk) 17:25, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah. In computer-ese "storage", unqualified, is usually referring to persistent storage, stuff that keeps what's there without needing continual power, which excludes "RAM". And 12 GB is definitely a healthy amount; unless you're doing intensive things like 3D graphics design or playing graphics-intense 3D video games, you can get away with just disabling the page file entirely if you want. Slowking Man (talk) 01:30, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, I was about to ask how they use their computer with just 12 GB RAM. For web browsing/emails, that's more than enough. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 02:09, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

install a specific version of OSX

Hi. I am trying to replicate the steps described here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/71241711/is-there-a-way-to-access-your-own-airtag-data-via-api

The instructions specify: "You need macOS 14.3.1 or earlier for this to work. Items.data is encrypted in 14.4 and later."

I currently do not have any Apple hardware, so I plan to purchase a "mac mini, m1, 2020" machine. After I receive the machine, I plan to factory reset it for security.

After a factory reset, is it possible to install a specific version, such as 14.3.1 onto the machine?

(My understanding that if I just use the regular "system update" path, it would it me directly to the latest OSX, which is currently 15.2.) Epideurus (talk) 21:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I would presume so. Thing is though, if you give the system Internet access it'll probably keep "trying" to update you to the latest OS X version. Are you sure pursuing this line of action is the best way to go about accomplishing what you want? If you're already willing to spend money on the problem, why not just buy some different tracking device not from Apple that lets you talk to it however you want? What's the ultimate goal you're trying to accomplish here? --Slowking Man (talk) 04:22, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Hi. Thank you for the help.

I haven't spent a dollar on this project yet, so I'm very flexible. I'm also pretty open-minded and will choose any brand or solution that fits my needs. I'm basically looking for a tracker to put in my bag so that I don't lose it.

I checked out the existing tracker networks and there's basically only two major ones: Apple AirTag and Google Find My Device. The former network is much larger than the latter, at least in 2025[1][2]. The size of Apple's network (number of Apple smartphones in the wild) enables my bag to be tracked accurately, without me having to ever carry an Apple smartphone.

I'm usually not a fan of closed and propriety systems, but in this case it could take years before Google's (slightly more) open system catch up in network size unfortunately. Epideurus (talk) 17:48, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Along with @Slowking Man:, I'm still very confused why you're dead set on OSX 13 and AirTags. If this is only for your personal use why does it matter how big the tracker network is? TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 18:34, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Solution A: If I put an airtag on my bag, then I can know where it is at all times, with 2 minute updates 24/7. (Regardless of where I physically am, or what phone I'm using.) This is because there are Apple devices blanketing the NA city that I live in, and they are willing to report the location of my bag to the Apple servers, without any payment or involvement from me.

Solution B: If I buy a similar device from another manufacturer, let's say Google or Samsung, then their location service would report my bag as being in my house, but with minimal location updates in the future. This is because there aren't any Google or Samsung devices in my city willing to report the location of my bag to the Google/Samsung servers for free. To improve the accuracy of the location updates, I would have to maintain a Google/Samsung device near my bag, which kinda defeats the whole point.

I hope I'm explaining it correctly. Epideurus (talk) 00:48, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

There are plenty of options, such as Tile, Marco Polo Tracking... You could throw in a cheapo device like a Raspberry Pi with a cellular module and battery. If you want to splurge, you can get something with a GPS and satellite comms connection that will work basically anywhere on Earth.

Alternately if you think the Airtag is a good fit for your purpose why not just just get a cheap used iDevice™, if all you want is the Apple Find thing? I will point out that two things here are at odds: wanting to do things on-the-cheap, vs wanting constant real-time location updates. If you can relax one or the other that makes it a lot easier. Perhaps you don't really need 120-second interval location updates? --Slowking Man (talk) 01:24, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't know Epideurus's specific reasons, but one I could understand would be a desire not to reward Apple for its walled-garden business model. That's why I've passed on Apple TV in spite of some reportedly good content. (That may be a little behind the times; I think it may now be possible to get some of those shows without Apple hardware, but I'm foggy on the details.) --Trovatore (talk) 19:56, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

That said, in my observations, fast tracking is not really anything that's really the case much with Find My anymore as sometimes my device's locations will be reported as their location from 2-5 days ago with Find My refusing to update. (Note: I'm still on iOS 18.2 so it might be fixed in 18.2.1.) Even when it used to be fast, it would only ping when you opened Find My, and would not auto-update for 5-7 mins. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 05:51, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

duplicate tab in Firefox

In Firefox (on MacOS) I sometimes accidentally hit a combination of keys that makes a new tab, same as the current tab, appear at the right. Naturally I have not been able to reproduce this behavior intentionally, nor find it in a list of Firefox keyboard shortcuts. Am I dreaming? —Tamfang (talk) 21:54, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Right click tab, select "Duplicate Tab"? TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 22:50, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

ctrl and drag on the tab will duplicate it; I've done that by accident; I can't see a non-mouse way of doing it. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 22:51, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

And it is not [shift-alt-D] which apparently means delete page to Wikipedia! Graeme Bartlett (talk) 23:46, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Alt-↵ Enter with the address bar highlighted will open its contents in a new tab, which is often functionally a tab duplication. So maybe you wrangled a Ctrl-L, Alt-↵ Enter? (Sorry, not exactly sure what these map to on MacOS.) Emberfiend (talk) 09:08, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Command-L, Option-Enter. It works, and it's not implausible that I could do that by accident. —Tamfang (talk) 03:58, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

In windows that is ctrl-L, alt-Enter. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 04:09, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Like Emberfiend said? —Tamfang (talk) 06:15, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

January 17

Opera

Any tips or tricks recommended? Serial (speculates here) 18:42, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Avoid? -- Seriously, what do want to know? --Wrongfilter (talk) 18:53, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Isn't Opera run by a Chinese company now? TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 19:32, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Chinese Opera?  --Lambiam 23:36, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

No, they are owned by Kunlun Tech Co., Ltd. Which should already raise privacy bells. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 23:39, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Meh. So, worse comes to the worse, the Central Committee get to see my browsing history. In a few days, your government gets owned by Putin. Swings and roundabouts, komrade. Serial (speculates here) 23:48, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

You can't say I didn't warn you. You didn't have to bring US politics into this. This is the computing reference desk, not politics. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 23:53, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Then feel free to answer the questions without editorializing, if you can; your time will be spent far more productively, I assure you. Serial (speculates here) 11:41, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Twenty Year Society of Wikipedia editors

How accurate a reflection is Category:Members of the Twenty Year Society of Wikipedia editors of the number of editors still active who have been here for 20 years or more?

Is there a better way to measure editors who either:

1. Made edits at least 20 years apart
2. First edited over 20 years ago and are still (for some value, say: edited in the last three months) active?

---

Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 11:37, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

I believe you have to do some database querying to get the report you want. See WP:Quarry: if you have some SQL chops you can do it yourself, otherwise people there might be helpful. You might be interested in mw:Manual:Database schema. (If the query is too "intensive" and times out you'll have to run it on Labs or else download the database and query it locally.) --Slowking Man (talk) 23:53, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

January 20

ttps//

I have received a spam that has links to ttps://is.gd . What is ttps: ? It isn't the same as https: .

I see that is.gd is an address-shortener.

I read, analyze, and report a fair amount of email spam, and I don't think that I have seen a link with ttps. What is it? Robert McClenon (talk) 02:44, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I would assume probably a typo. Alpha3031 (t • c) 03:22, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, User:Alpha3031. If so, that is stupid, and we know that spammers are stupid. Robert McClenon (talk) 03:59, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

That may be the case for most spammers, but I wouldn't rely on it.  --Lambiam 13:37, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

No. Some of them are smart enough and devious enough to fool intelligent people. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:32, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

is.gd is usually a shortened link generated by Apple Shortcuts. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 23:58, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Also, ttps is probably a dumb typo by the scammer. TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 00:00, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

+1 Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 17:13, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

January 25

Inverting parts of images

I'm currently working on a project which involves OCR using Tesseract. Apparantly it requires black text on a white background for the best result but my images don't always fit that criteria. So I've used Otsu's method for thresholding to convert it to black and white. My problem is that some images have both areas with black text on white backgrounds, and white text on black backgrounds. I have to somehow invert the black background parts of those images without inverting the parts with white backgrounds. But I can't think of a way to do this. Any ideas?

To clarify, it's not just entire images with a black background -- that would be easy to fix. What's happening is that the images have parts with both black backgrounds and parts with white backgrounds. ―Panamitsu (talk) 08:01, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

IrfanView will do this for you, Just select the relevant area of the image before inverting. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 14:31, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Would this require manually selecting the areas? Because I can't do that -- I've got tens of thousands of images to go through. ―Panamitsu (talk) 21:24, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

I dropped a mixed image into an online demo page of a WebAssembly build of Tesseract, and both black on white and white on black were recognized perfectly, except for the insertion of one spurious blank line.  --Lambiam 15:05, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah I have also done one test like this and it seemed fine although some words were wrong. I'll probably just ignore this inversion thing for now. ―Panamitsu (talk) 21:27, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

January 27

Good Online University for Programming

Dear All

I’m from Switzerland and I live in a remote area. I’d love to learn programming and to get an officially recognized degree (one which is valid in Europe and the USA). I have a stressful day job, so I can’t travel to universities in Zürich, I just lack the time and I can’t study without making money, so my question is this: are there good online universities which allow you to study programming remotely?

Thank you for your replies! With kind regards 85.4.176.77 (talk) 12:26, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

In the United States, you will not find much in the way of a degree for "computer programming." Yes, there are always oddities. But, the common degrees are computer science and computer information systems. In general, computer science is more focused on computers (hardware, operating systems, optimization, networks, etc...) and computer information systems is more focused on things you do with computers (databases, web pages, AI modeling, etc...). There are other related degrees. A computer engineering degree will be even more focused on the hardware. But, overall, they all include programming. My personal experience is that you don't go to college to learn to program. You learn to program and then go to college to learn about computers. Students who showed up and didn't know how to program were immediately put under the extreme stress of learning something that everyone else appeared to know without much in the way of help. I saw many of those students drop out or switch to mathematics. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 18:15, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 28

What is "compute"?

In researching LLMs, I keep coming across the term "compute" as a measure of... something. I was hoping to find out what it was in a wikipedia article, but the term does not seem to have an article, or even a subsection anywhere I can find. So... what is compute, exactly? I know that performance for an LLM AI "scales with compute", I've seem line graphs, I can infer that it has to do with computing power in some way, but I'm unclear as to the specifics.. Fieari (talk) 06:47, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

@Fieari You haven't supplied any context. Can you quote the complete sentence in which the word occurs? Wikipedia is not a dictionary so it's not surprising that there is no article. Have you looked at wikt:compute? Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:22, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Sorry, the term is just used so often throughout every piece of LLM literature I thought it was obvious. Here's one example: [3] This uses the word "compute" a lot, and in a way that is novel to me. Fieari (talk) 10:57, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

The linked article uses the FLOP as a unit of compute, where I assume 1 FLOP is 1 FLOPS- second, just like 1 joule is 1 watt-second. (N  --Lambiam 19:05, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

In this context, is the computing being done at training time, or at test time? Fieari (talk) 23:06, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Wiktionary defines the noun as "computational processing power".  --Lambiam 09:25, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

It comes up in Large_language_model#Scaling_laws and also en masse in Neural_scaling_law#Inference_scaling. It doesn't seem to be used in the sense of a "power" but rather as "effort". To me it looks like a term that could do with a quantitative definition. --Wrongfilter (talk) 09:28, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

I think you're probably using effort in the same way as computational power. It would be hard to define in an exact way because of the different systems used in bits per value, what the routing is like - various things that don't vary much on a conventional computer. Even actual electrical power used is reduced with better technologies on conventional computers. NadVolum (talk) 10:25, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

For decades, compute time and compute resources were the focus of optimization. It usually because a trade-off. You sacrifice time to use less resources or sacrifice resources to use less time. So, overall, there was no real improvement in compute time+resources. That moved on to the concept of compute power. If you decrease resources and increase time, you didn't change the overall power. If you decrease time and increase resources, you didn't change the overall power. Now, compute by itself is referring to the general concept of power, which is time and resources combined. You are looking at LLM models. Given any model, I can make it run faster by using more resources. I can make it use less resources, but it will take more time. Ignoring that tradeoff, we look at time and resources combined as simply compute (power). 12.116.29.106 (talk) 13:32, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Just to clarify what I meant: To me as a physicist, power is energy (or work) done per unit time. "Compute" then seems to be analogous to power times time, which I chose to paraphrase as "effort" ("energy" is not appropriate). Your power seems to be my effort, your resource my power (not that I have any...). Is that correct? --Wrongfilter (talk) 13:52, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes you're right. NadVolum (talk) 17:00, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Likely easy in C or BASIC

How do I mostly automate the repetitive manual work (painstaking even with find-and-replace-all & permutation list+number list making sites maybe with regex too) of making easily programmed big lists in an exact machine-readable format often demanded by geeky softwares+webpages (i.e. printf "-180≤RndxPrecisionInt≤180 , "; printf "-1≤RndMaxPrecisionInt≤1 , "; do sin^-1 on last#; round last# to y decimal places; printf "0 , "; goto line 1 if loop counter isn't z yet; Halt). It's a pain to copy the stuff in box lines of a regular webpage then try to figure out how to use regex to make it the exact format (often comma-separated variable) & the stuff in the lines is only random if Earth was a rectangle instead of round (specifically one of the "squashed Mercator" projections called plate carree). I haven't found one single random geographic coordinates listmaker that doesn't have equal probability above 89 as 0-1 North). Or when say putting a point on each pole+a row of points on each non-|90| integer latitude with the nearest whole number of points to 360cos(lat) per row that can still be exactly expressed as a 2 or 3 significant figure number of longitude °'s between points would be close enough it's still a pain to make the equator part of the list within seconds then spend hundreds of times longer using a permutation/combination listmaking site to make the other rows one-by-one. If I then want say half the spacing I'd then need to paste about 720 rows to the 359 I already did. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:33, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

The "generic but unhelpful answer" is going to be "write a small program to process the input and generate your desired output". This is a common sort of text processing problem. Can you provide some example input and the desired output you want the program to produce, when given said input? For posting it here use <syntaxhighlight>...</syntaxhighlight> (see Help:Wikitext § Format), example:

Input:

-1 23 90 170

Desired output:

-1, 0, Equator, 80

--Slowking Man (talk) 02:30, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

January 15

The moment everything changed

[4] Can anyone tell at a glance what this picture is trying to show? It may have something to do with climate change. I'm unable to read the comment thread without making an account on X and logging in, which I don't want to do. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:5FED (talk) 09:56, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

According to comments on the tweet it's showing the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, formerly know as the K-T boundary, which is associated with the extinction event that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:35, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

You can read an explanation here on Threads or here on Bluesky, also without an account.  --Lambiam 16:23, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Dependent personality disorder

What version of the DSM and ICD was the first to include this personality disorder? Bit dissapointed that the article didn't already had this answer Trade (talk) 13:37, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Regarding DSM that would be DSM III :S0272735813001311, "presence in the DSM for the last 32 years" (a 2013 article). More on the DSM and its evolution in https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272735898000026. This https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK606086/ discusses Clusters as in DSM 5, one ref I've lost possibly one of those three states dpd was almost about to be excluded as too divergent from other disorders from Cluster C. --Askedonty (talk) 00:39, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Male lion hunting

Do African male lions without a pride get food mainly by hunting or mainly by confiscating dead prey from other carnivores like hyenas?Rich (talk) 23:42, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Our Lion#Hunting and diet article has the details. Male lions do hunt, but "carrion is thought to provide a large part of lion diet". Alansplodge (talk) 12:18, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Are you sure? I still don't see that sentence at all. I did read the article before asking.Rich (talk) 01:53, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Last paragraph of the section. Tip: use [ctrl]+f to search for key words or phrases in a page. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 05:00, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

thanks Rich (talk) 01:35, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I have read of instances where a young adult male lion expelled from his parental pride (which is normal) but not yet accepted into another, teams up with one or two other young males (sometimes his sibling/s) to hunt. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 12:41, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

January 16

A list of all species

Is there a database of binomial names where I can see all species with a particular specific epithet? For example, I type in "nigra" and it gives me Populus nigra, Sambucus nigra, Comatricha nigra, Actia nigra, etc. Surtsicna (talk) 22:07, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I suggest you try WikiSpecies.-Gadfium (talk) 22:55, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Well, that should certainly do the trick. Thank you! Surtsicna (talk) 22:57, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

If there is another website where I could order the species alphabetically by generic name, I would appreciate a link :) Surtsicna (talk) 22:59, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

You can use POWO for plants. gracilis is the most common epithet for plants, with 599 accepted species (and 2,146 names listed). User:Jts1882 put together this program for me that arranges POWO data taxonomically and even checks if a Wikipedia article exists. Abductive (reasoning) 07:06, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

January 17

Turquoise and copper

Do turquoise and other green stones tend to show up near copper deposits? Gongula Spring (talk) 00:35, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

If you check out the Turquoise article, you can see that the answer is yes. But the deposits may not be worth mining. Copper is not super rare and is found in living organisms, and sediments in small amounts. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:45, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

January 18

moves infinitely fast in the limit

In a previous topic, @trovatore writes:"rephrasing "the limit of the speed is infinite" as "moves infinitely fast in the limit." But what does "moving fast" mean? What I have found is:"full of rapid action and sudden changes In his latest movie." I prefer the original one because speed or velocity is linked with a constant time interval, so you have just to compare the distance between each consecutive interval to use the good adjective: "fast" or "slow." Achile is moving fast relative to a tortoise but slow relative to a rocket (see zeno paradox Achiles and the tortoise). And what is strange here, not to say absurd (Reductio ad absurdum), is to associate a limit to something that has no limit by definition (infinity), the same for moving or speed. Malypaet (talk) 14:09, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

This seems to me something you and Trovatore should discuss on your, or his, Talk page. You are apparently debating the multiple common meanings of words in an effort to extract variant understandings of topics in physics/mathematics, where the meanings they are assigned are firmly defined, and in which the mathematics should predominate over everyday speech. Though I myself have studied Physics to undergraduate level (and am a native English speaker), I generally find your paraphrasings within this topic unclear. Just my 2¢. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 17:41, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

While I struggle to follow what Malypaet is trying to say exactly, to be fair, the rephrasing in question was not Malypaet's (or mine), but the original authors'. Quote:

To develop a flavor for how the “wedges” of initial conditions are found, notice that, in the limit, m3 has to move infinitely fast from m1, m2 to m4, m5; this happens only when m3 starts arbitrarily close to m1 and m2 while m4, m5 already are close together.

— http://www.ams.org/notices/199505/saari-2.pdf

Xia's construction proving Painleve's conjecture.

I suspect that some readers were tempted to understand this as claiming that there is a limit time at which m3 is moving infinitely fast, but if you read it carefully you can see that it is not claiming this. It would be awkward to reword the passage in terms of the limit of the speed of m3, which is presumably why the authors didn't. --Trovatore (talk) 21:11, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

The 5 bodies are point masses. What does "arbitrarily close to" mean between points that are infinitely small? Since we are in Newtonian motion, I assume the initial distances, initial velocities, and masses, along with values ​​and their unit scale, are given. I specify that the motion of m3 is an oscillation on the z-axis between the two binaries. Malypaet (talk) 22:51, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah, actually I haven't quite figured out what they mean by "arbitrarily close to" in this passage. If I get around to it I might try to work it out and let you know. --Trovatore (talk) 23:22, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Nothing can move "infinitely fast". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:16, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

That's why it says "in the limit". This means that it may never be actually reached.  --Lambiam 23:27, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Just the other day, I said to an observer, "I'm about to go infinitely fast, circumnavigate the universe, and return to this same spot." Less than a second later, I said, "Want to see it again?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:34, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

It's like Wile E. Coyote with gravity, you only fall when you look down. To go infinitely fast, at each consecutive constant time interval dt, you must move a distance dx_n > dx_n-1 of the previous interval dt. So to go infinitely fast, you need an infinite number of intervals dt with a greater distance for each. But none of time and distance are bounded at the infinity (not finite, no limit). You and your observer will be dead while you're still so far from reaching your infinite speed. Do you still want to waste your time trying to go infinitely fast? Again and again, ... memory overflow writes my computer. Malypaet (talk) 14:38, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

"Never" means no finite time, right? Malypaet (talk) 22:06, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

As t->(1/0) v->(1/0) but dv/dt->0. Greglocock (talk) 23:09, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

With the article Off to Infinity in Finite Time, the gravitational force, thus the accelerations , f/m=a=dv/dt, between arbitrarily close masses gets arbitrary larger not smaller (as you are indicating). I believe its increase is why there is a finite-time singularity according to the authors. But it does makes sense there should also be a decrease in their accelerations in the limits, such that their energy is constant. In this case, since their KE is still without an upper limit then their PE must be too. However, there are no known n-body systems with infinite mass. :-) Modocc (talk) 23:28, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

There is a point in space between the far binary and the near binary where the acceleration of m3 is zero. At this point, the gravitational forces cancel each other out, and after their resultant reverses on the z axis, causing a deceleration. Malypaet (talk) 09:48, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps you meant to say the reversal causes an acceleration? With respect to the system's center-of-mass frame, I believe its velocity decelerates then accelerates with the reversal, going faster in the direction of the binary that it's heading toward. Modocc (talk) 14:41, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

With respect to near-zero accelerations it's also important to note that their point masses don't appear to become unbonded [unbound (with open orbits)] since they are aiming for a finite-time singularity: "Of importance to our tale is the highly oscillatory nature of a noncollision motion that was established for the argument of [S3]. It turns out that particles must approach other distant particles infinitely often and arbitrarily closely. The intuition is that a particle flying off to infinity by itself has nearly zero acceleration, so the velocity remains essentially constant. As a constant velocity precludes any possibility of reaching infinity in finite time, the acceleration needs to be boosted, and this requires a close visit by another particle." Modocc (talk) 02:33, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, but what about oscillating and "approach other distant particles infinitely often," and about inertia when m3 changes direction to return to the other binary? Malypaet (talk) 09:39, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Your question(s) are about their closed orbits, but they are vague. It's unclear what you are asking. Note: I tweaked my comment to make it clearer that I was referring to their orbits. Modocc (talk) 13:10, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

"infinity often" means an infinite number of time intervals in conflict with a finite time, right?

A point mass does indeed have an inertial force that will oppose its return in the opposite direction, right?

Is it vague? Malypaet (talk) 14:48, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. The commuting m3 mass's transit times need to become progressively faster and approach zero within a finite time interval and your second point appears correct. Modocc (talk) 15:53, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

We could bounce back infinitely on this subject: "Approach zero within a finite time interval." But, at what limit close to zero do we stop the stopwatch to measure this finite time?

Ok, thanks to all for this journey into Kafka's world. I prefer to return to my world, a house lost in a small valley with my Noah's Ark, where everyone savors the present moment as if it were to last an eternity.

Malypaet (talk) 22:00, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The limits are infinity and the finite time interval. Similar to the fact .999...=1. Say the finite interval is exactly one hour and the event starts at 11pm. It is completed at midnight. Time continues past midnight for Cinderella of course, but the model blows up at that point, or is likely undefined at the singularity at best, which is why mathematicians attempt to remove them. Modocc (talk) 23:19, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

For example: let the first transit time take 9/10 of an hour. The second transit time 9/100 of an hour. Etc. The nth transit time is 9 divided by 10 to the nth power of an hour. These infinite successive transit times add up to a one hour event since .999...=1 and the total transited distance during that hour is infinite. Note that with this example the transit times are progressively faster and approach zero within one hour: a finite time interval. Modocc (talk) 04:54, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

In physics experiments or in computer science, infinity does not exist. One adds a dimension of precision: ".999=1 with a precision of .001".

A distance traveled that is infinite is an absurdity because one never reaches infinity, which has no end.

Reductio ad absurdum. Malypaet (talk) 18:48, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Malypaet, your general claims about infinity are either meaningless or incorrect. In particular the completed infinite is a well-recognized part of mathematics, and it is not excluded that it may also be part of physics, though no proven example is currently known. --Trovatore (talk) 19:15, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Apparently, I am an intuitionist applying potential infinity. ♾-♾=? Malypaet (talk) 22:23, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

BTW, I'm not planning on digging any deeper into the nuts and bolts of this article's toy model. :-) Modocc (talk) 16:27, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Observatory

From what I've read, this building in the background is some unspecified observatory rather than lighthouse. The photo is no later than 1991, around 1986. Do we know what observatory exactly? Assuming it's the same building, also this. Brandmeister^talk 09:56, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't see how anyone can tell given the lack of context, and I don't think they are the same building. They are very small so probably belong to a school or college. Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:20, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that both pictures were taken at Calar Alto Observatory. The second one is the 2.2m telescope [5], the first one probably the 1.23m telescope [6]. --Wrongfilter (talk) 12:36, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. Brandmeister^talk 08:48, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Bodies reflecting light are to stars, what (...?) are to black holes.

Black holes can, in some sense, be described as antistars, insofar the latter emit light, whereas the former absorb it. Various celestial bodies, such as planets and satellites, or comets and meteors, reflect starlight, thereby becoming secondary light sources. What (theoretical) astronomical objects relate to black holes, in a manner analogous to the one to which the latter relate to stars ? — 86.125.205.116 (talk) 13:15, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

An anti-black hole would be a white hole, which cannot absorb but only emit light. While never observed, they are possible in the sense of being a solution to the Einstein field equations. Also, stars not only emit but also do absorb and reflect light. If you shine with a flashlight at the Sun, it will become brighter. It will take some 8 minutes for the light from the flashlight to reach the Sun and another 8 minutes for the reflected light to travel back to Earth. If you don't notice the effect, it is only because it is too minuscule to be perceptible (even to the best instruments).

Ignoring all this, I can think of two possible schematic approaches.

1.         star (emits but does not absorb light)            :   planet (both emits and absorbs light)

=    black hole (does not emit but absorbs light   :   X (neither emits nor absorbs light)

X could be a region of totally empty space.

2.         star (emits light)                 :   planet (emits and absorbs light)

=    black hole (absorbs light)  :   X (absorbs and emits light)

The solution to this approach can be X = planet, so in this schematic approach planets are Majorana bodies.  --Lambiam 00:08, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Humans emitting photons, because they are not in thermodynamic equilibrium with their surroundings

Metal emitting shorter-wavelength photons, because it is hotter than the humans

You also absorb light. Go stand outdoors during a sunny day: that's you, absorbing a star's light. You emit "light" too, just at longer wavelengths down in the infrared. (This is how many snakes hunt, by looking for this infrared prey gives off.) And so do planets and asteroids etc; they also reflect light which can "outweigh" the amount they emit as black-body radiation. Anything hotter than the cosmic microwave background, the "temperature of the universe", emits photons. Stars do this in shorter wavelengths (thus "glowing" in the range that our faceholes can pick up) than you or me because they're hot. Like a piece of hot metal glows, because it's hot. See black-body spectrum.

For that matter cosmologists have come to believe black holes do emit photons; they're just really really long-wavelength ones, well outside the visible spectrum. There's nothing "magic" about black holes. They just are incredibly dense and thus have correspondingly strong effects on their surrounding spacetime—but the same can be said of planets and stars, just at a lesser degree. Stars even noticeably "bend" light! (Maybe the sought-for answer is the elusive dark sucker?) --Slowking Man (talk) 05:52, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 20

Did Jagadish Chandra Bose discovered Turgor pressure?

I am trying to find history of Turgor pressure. Did Jagadish Chandra Bose discovered Turgor pressure? HarryOrange (talk) 04:46, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I find the term used here in a textbook of plant physiology from 1903, which predates Bose's investigations.  --Lambiam 11:23, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 22

Does the average man refractory period during sex different from masturbation?

A man, after cumming during solo masturbation (with or without porn use) those 3 things happen:
1-The dick will become soft and the man will need X minutes to be able to maybe become hard again.
2-The guy will start to think "thats was good but I will do something else with my life" and will not be able to feel the desire to continue something that was extremely pleasurable 0.5 seconds ago, and after Y minutes he will be able to have the desire to do it again.
3-If he wait Y minutes he will have the desire to do it again as I said, but he doesnt even have the desire to wait those Y minutes to make the desire come back.
This happen with me during masturbation, but during sex, step 2 (and so step 3) doenst happen, and I can go back to do it immidiatelly, less 0.1 second after cummming. But of course my dick will be soft during the next X minutes and I will have to use my hand and tongue or whateaver during that time. This apply even if the girl was just giving me oral and nothing more.
My question is, does the average guy refractory period during sex works different from masturbation like me (doenst have step 2 and also 3) or it works exactly like masturbation (have step 2 and 3) and I not like the average guy (if thats the case "THANKS GOD" I dont work the other way)?2804:1B3:9702:35F6:6D57:AC7C:50EF:36FA (talk) 03:25, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

• The refractory period is entirely physiological and any psychological events are entirely psychological. Abductive (reasoning) 06:10, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

January 26

Other language Latin names

Do countries that speak Arabic, Khmer, and Chinese use the Latin names with the Latin alphabet when talking about biology? Do they insert these into their language despite the different alphabet? 2601:644:907E:A70:5020:3050:C038:F1A3 (talk) 18:44, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

It is more appropriate to call these names binomial or scientific names because that makes it clear that these are internationally agreed and accepted names that are not restricted to any particular language. Another clue can be obtained by checking articles on some species in other wikipedias. Here are the equivalents to Human in Chinese, Khmer, Farsi and Arabic. All have scientific names (for various taxonomic levels) sprinkled in the text, indicating that it is quite common not to transcribe (or transliterate?) those names (I cannot exclude, however, that they give the Latin script in addition to a transcription). --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:15, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

As above and as the article indicates they are pretty universal. That someone might call them "Latin" names shows they are as "foreign" to English speakers as to speakers of other languages. And they are respectful of other countries' scientific endeavours in that names are based on first discovery of the species. So there's e.g. Zhuchengtyrannus named after Zhucheng, a place in China. --2A04:4A43:909F:F990:55A5:C8A2:87C3:73CF (talk) 00:27, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

January 15

Least common multiple

What do you call a subset of the factors of x where all 3 are true?

1. LCM(subset)=x
2. no member >√x
3. can't be done with less members

(obviously only some x would have even 1 subset passing all 3)

Is there also a name for a version where no member ≥√x or a version with tiebreaks (maybe smallest largest member then smallest 2nd largest member and so on?) or a version with both extra strictures? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 22:56, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

It seems unlikely that anyone has before come up with this specific set of conditions, let alone coined a term for it.  --Lambiam 22:24, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I was looking at factor lists of numbers with many factors & thinking most of these are superfluous to define a least common multiple & wondering how many you could remove without the LCM becoming less than the number (obviously there are other applications where you need all factors) but if you don't set a max size it's too easy you could always get it down to 2 with lcm(1,x) sometimes also others like lcm(prime, bigger prime) or lcm(2,x/2 if odd) so if you must use factors ≤√x it'll at least be over 2 members so more interesting. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:32, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Consider a set $S$ of numbers whose lcm equals a given number $n$. Let $a$ and $b$ be two different elements of that set that are not coprime. This means that they have nontrivial factors $p^{\alpha }$ and $p^{\beta }$ in which $p$ is a prime number and $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are at least $1.$ Assume wlog that $\alpha \leq \beta .$ Then the lcm of set $S'$ oobtained by replacing $a$ by $a'=a/p^{\alpha }$ is the same as that of $S.$ This means that we can keep things simpler by only considering sets with pairwise coprime elements. Then the lcm function can be replaced by the product operator $\textstyle \prod ,$ where $\textstyle \prod \{a_{1},a_{2},...a_{k}\}=a_{1}a_{2}\cdots a_{k}.$

Given the factorization $n=p_{1}^{m_{1}}p_{2}^{m_{2}}...p_{k}^{m_{k}},$ one possible choice for $S$ is the set $F=\{p_{1}^{m_{1}},p_{2}^{m_{2}},...,p_{k}^{m_{k}}\}.$ Given a partition ${\mathcal {P}}$ of $F,$ define $\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!({\mathcal {P}})$ by

$\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!({\mathcal {P}})=\{\textstyle \prod X\,|\,X\in {\mathcal {P}}\}.$

Then $\textstyle \prod (\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!({\mathcal {P}}))=n,$ so for each partition ${\mathcal {P}},$ the set $\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!({\mathcal {P}})$ is also a candidate for $S.$ Conversely, each set $S$ of mutually coprime numbers such that $\textstyle \prod S=n$ can be written as $\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!({\mathcal {P}})$ for some partition ${\mathcal {P}}$ of $F.$ The original $F$ itself equals $\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!(\{\{p_{1}^{m_{1}}\},\{p_{2}^{m_{2}}\},...,\{p_{k}^{m_{k}}\}\}).$

Instead of partitioning $F$ and then applying $\textstyle \prod ^{\ast }\!(\cdot )$ to the partition, we can obtain the same candidates for $S$ by starting with $S_{0}=F$ and obtaining $S_{n{+}1}$ from $S_{n}$ — provided that $S_{n}$ is not a singleton set — by choosing two elements from $S_{n}$ and replacing these two by a single element, namely their product. If we wish to keep the values low, a reasonable greedy heuristic is to pick each time the smallest two elements.

Applying this to Plato's favourite number, we get:

$5040=2^{4}3^{2}5^{1}7^{1},$ so $S_{0}=\{2^{4},3^{2},5^{1},7^{1}\}=\{16,9,5,7\}.$

$S_{0}=\{5,7,9,16\}$; the smallest two elements are $5$ and $7,$ so $S_{1}=\{5{\times }7,9,16\}=\{35,9,16\}.$

$S_{1}=\{9,16,35\}$; the smallest two elements are $9$ and $16,$ so $S_{2}=\{9{\times }16,35\}=\{144,35\}.$

$S_{2}=\{35,144\}$; the smallest two elements are $35$ and $144,$ so $S_{3}=\{35{\times }144\}=\{5040\}.$

If the largest element must not exceed the square root of $n,$ the set $S$ has to contain at least three elements, so with $k$ being the number of distinct prime factors, there is no point in going farther than $S_{k-3}.$  --Lambiam 23:11, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

January 17

Probability questions

First Question: You walk into a room filled with random people. You want to find another person in that room who has the same birthday as you. For example, June 15. How many people would need to be in the room? How do you go about solving this question?

Second Question: Same as above. However, you want to find another person in that room who has the same birth date as you. For example, June 15, 1985. How many people would need to be in the room? How do you go about solving this question?

Thanks, 32.209.69.24 (talk) 08:08, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

These are both different from the well-known birthday problem.

For the first, let's ignore the possibility of people born on February 29 in a leap year, so there are only 365 possible birthdays. Let us also assume that all 365 birthdays are equally likely, so for any fixed day D of the year, such as January 17, the probability $p$ that a randomly selected person's birthday falls on that very same day is equal to ${\tfrac {1}{365}}.$ The probability that this person's birthday falls on a different day is then equal to the complement $1{-}p={\tfrac {364}{365}}.$

It is easier now to consider the complementary question: What is the probability $q_{N}$ that none among $N$ randomly selected persons has a given birthday D. The answer to the original question is then given by its complement, $1-q_{N}.$

If $N=0,$ there is no one whose birthday could be D, so $q_{0}=1.$ If $N=1,$ with just one other (randomly selected) person present, $q_{1}$ is just the probability that this person's birthday is D, so $q_{1}=1{-}p.$ Now suppose we already know $q_{n}$ for some value of $n.$ Then we can determine $q_{n{+}1}$ by considering that the joint probability of two independent events co-occurring is equal to the product of their individual probabilities. Therefore $q_{n{+}1}=q_{n}\times q_{1}.$ We can conclude that in general

$q_{n}=q_{1}^{n}=(1{-}p)^{n}=({\tfrac {364}{365}})^{n}.$

The probability of the same birthday as yours among a random selection of $N$ people is therefore $1-({\tfrac {364}{365}})^{N}.$

Now note that as $n$ gets larger and larger, the value of $q_{n}$ gets smaller and smaller, but it never reaches zero exactly. Even if $N=365,$ we find that $1-({\tfrac {364}{365}})^{365}=0.632625...~.$ To get to 99%, $N$ should be at least $1679$; $1-({\tfrac {364}{365}})^{1678}=0.98998...$ falls still short, but $1-({\tfrac {364}{365}})^{1679}=0.99001...$ reaches the target.

The approach assumes that the possible birthdays are uniformly distributed over the population, which is not the case in reality. However, to account for this, you only need to know the real value of $p$ for day D and not for any other day.

To find a somewhat realistic answer to the second question is harder. In reality, the people in a room will not be a random sample from the total population. People below the age of 3 and over the age of 97 will be underrepresented, so if your own birthdate is January 17, 1925, the likelihood of today finding someone present to jointly celebrate your 100th birthday with is much smaller than that of finding a co-celebrant for your 35th birthday if your birthdate is January 17, 1990. The notion of "random selection" is not clearly applicable. You need to know at least the distribution of birthyears among the population from which the people in the room are selected, accounting both for the actual population pyramid and for age-based selection bias. When you have determined $p_{\text{Y}},$ the probability that a person randomly selection from those present in the room has the same birthyear Y as you, instead of $p=1/365$ you can use $p=p_{\text{Y}}/365$ and proceed as above.  --Lambiam 11:44, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

Wow. Very thorough, detailed, and comprehensive. You certainly have a gift for math. Thanks! Let me read this over and process it all. I'll need a day or two. Thanks so much. 32.209.69.24 (talk) 08:39, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

January 18

Is it possible to tweak Kunerth's algorithm so that it returns a different possible solution ?

The Kunerth's algorithm is a non generic modular square root algorithm that compute modular square roots without factoring the modulus…

Let’s say I’ve a valid input for which the algorithm can return a solution, is it possible to tweak it so that it returns a different possible solution ? So far I only found how to modify it to return the modular inverse… — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:E0A:401:A7C0:9D9:50BB:6262:E787 (talk) 06:39, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

This question has also been asked (and answered) at User talk:Endo999 § A question about Kunerth’s algorithm….

Being unfamiliar with Kunerth's algorithm I tried to understand it from our article, but the presentation is so confusing (also in the Example section) that I kept getting lost.  --Lambiam 09:21, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Personally, I used this implementation to understand it. As the article do contains errors, my question is merely how to modify the implementation in order to get a different valid ouput for the same input 2A01:E0A:401:A7C0:9D9:50BB:6262:E787 (talk) 14:15, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Regarding the answer I received on the other page, it seems to me the author doesn’t fully understand the algorithm. 2A01:E0A:401:A7C0:416E:83F1:C73F:88BD (talk) 12:46, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Looking for a function like y=1/x with adjustable corner curve

I'm trying to figure out how to make a function that passes through (1,1) like $y=1/x$ (I'm interested only in x>0), but lets me adjust the sharpness of that "corner" at (1,1), thereby increasing or decreasing the tail thickness of the curve while still passing through (1,1), with the tails remaining between 0<y<1 and 0<x<1, and the slope at (1,1) remaining -1.

My application for this is to create metaballs that can maintain a reasonably small radius while having a blobby connection to other metaballs at long distances. I've been experimenting with Desmos to come up with such a function but haven't hit on anything yet. ~Anachronist (talk) 09:11, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

The usual equation for a hyperbola symmetric about the y axis passing through (a, 0) would be ⁠x²/a²⁠-⁠y²/b²⁠=1 so if you want to rotate it by π/4 I guess it would be ⁠(x cos ⁠π/4⁠ + y sin ⁠π/4⁠)²/2⁠-⁠(y²cos ⁠π/4⁠ - x sin ⁠π/4⁠)/b²⁠=1 or something like that? Alpha3031 (t • c) 14:28, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. Yes I tried something like that but while I could fix the knee of the curve in one place, I couldn't keep the asymptotes 90° apart at the same time and adjust the sharpness of the knee. ~Anachronist (talk) 17:32, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh, right, if you want right hyperbolas only then you'd need to hold the eccentricity constant as well at √2 which means they're all the same shape and you're just rescaling it by a factor. The easiest equation for that is probably ⁠xy/A⁠ = 1 (or equivalently, y = A/x) which has a vertex at (√A, √A). Translating (√A, √A) to (1, 1) would make the equation y = ⁠A/x+√A-1⁠-√A+1, A ∈ (0, 1]. Alpha3031 (t • c) 01:48, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, that holds the knee at (1,1) but it also moves the asymptotes so that the positive side of the function no longer approaches the axis, but instead approaches a constant $1-{\sqrt {a}}$. I did finally come up with something (see below) but when applying it to metaballs, it didn't have the effect I had hoped for. ~Anachronist (talk) 23:21, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I would start from 1/x but use a varying exponent. 1/x is x^-1, i.e. with an exponent of minus one. Larger negative exponents will I think do as you describe. X ^ -2 or 1/x^2 will give a twice as steep/sharp slope at (1, 1) and go to zero more rapidly. You can try other values, including non-integer values, for the exponent. --2A04:4A43:909F:F990:5C10:A535:8952:E94D (talk) 15:53, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Well, that's the first thing I tried, but I need the slope at (1,1) to be -1 always. Forgot to mention that; I'll correct it above. Varying the exponent doesn't give me that, it moves the knee of the curve off (1,1). ~Anachronist (talk) 17:27, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

If your threshold is set to $1,$ the precise function values for $x<1$ are immaterial, as long as they are at least as large as the threshold. So only the shape of the tail for $x>1$ is relevant. To get long-distance connections, this tail should be fat.

The notion of "knee" is not very useful IMO. As $\alpha \downarrow 0,$ the fatness of the tail of $f(x)=x^{{-}\alpha }$ increases. The slope of the graph of $f(x)$ at $x=1$ equals $f'(1)=-\alpha ,$ so when $\alpha$ approaches $0$ the graph becomes increasingly horizontal in that neighbourhood, ultimately just below $y=1.$ A side effect of fat tails is that two blobs, approaching each other, will start sprouting "feelers" towards each other well before these turn into a connection, and more so with a shallow slope. I suppose this is undesirable. It is possible to keep a steeper slope like ${-}1$ while having a fat tail, but then a more intricate function definition will be needed.

Our article mentions the criterion function $\textstyle \sum _{i}{\mbox{metaball}}_{i}(x,y,z).$ Consider two blobs A and B that are not far apart, but too far to have a connection. Now, if a third blob moves toward the area in the middle between A and B, its contribution to the criterion function may cause it to locally exceed the threshold. This is especially likely when you have fat tails. If this is unwanted, a better criterion may be

$\max _{i\neq j}~({\mbox{metaball}}_{i}(x,y,z)+{\mbox{metaball}}_{j}(x,y,z))\geq {\mbox{threshold}}.$

Can you reveal at which distance (between their centres) two blobs should become connected? Then we can (perhaps) give a better response. Even better, a series of sketches of blobs coming increasingly closer and becoming distended before mating. Also, can you control the criterion function or only the threshold and individual metaball functions?

 --Lambiam 17:51, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Because I'm writing the code myself (this is an OpenSCAD project), I have control over everything, so I can make any criterion function with any number of inputs. I already completed the marching cube isosurface algorithm and it's working well. Here's an example of metaballs I made, and an example of a manifold thick gyroid surface, which I used to test my isosurface module.

The notion of the "knee" is necessary to establish a threshold higher than 1 that still maintains a reasonable ball radius without clipping it to some minimum value, while at the same time having a fat tail at x>1 that allows two balls to combine at long distances without the ball radius growing too much. The function $f(x)=x^{-a}$ causes the diameter of the ball to shrink too far when isolated from other balls, and grow too fast when in proximity to other balls. That's why I'm looking for a function that would be, at the extreme, nearly vertical at x<1 and nearly horizontal at x>1 (both legs connected by a small-radius knee), with each leg approaching the axis at the same rate.

Picture two balls, say with an approximate radius of 10 (give or take), 70 units apart, and connected by a long tendril, like two wads of bubblegum stretched far apart after being stuck together. That's kind of what I'm going for. ~Anachronist (talk) 23:38, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

The x-scale and y-scale have no a priori established relationship. All ascending exponential curves $(y=a\exp(\lambda x)$ with positive $a$ and $\lambda )$ are similar. You can define the "knee" of a curve as the point where the angle of the slope equals $45^{\circ },$ but where this is depends on the ratio of the x- and y-scale, which is why I doubt the usefulness of the concept without an established relationship between these scales. You can kind of create a relationship by equating the threshold value (measured on the y-scale) with the radius of a typical solitary ball (measured on the x-scale). Then a slope of ${-}1$ means that a 1% increase of the ${\text{metaball}}$ function means a 1% increase in the radius of the ball.

How wide do you envisage the diameter of the tube at its thinnest? What should we see when these balls are 50 or 100 units apart? And what would you use as the threshold?  --Lambiam 01:51, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't have any preconceived notions of the width of the tube at its thinnest, and I expect the balls to separate and join like regular metaballs, just at bigger distances. The answers depend on my experimentation now that I have finally found a function that does what I want:

$f(x)=\left(a\left(\max \left(x,d\right)-d\right)\right)^{-{\frac {1}{a}}},{\text{ where }}d=1-{\frac {1}{a}}$

(on Desmos here). The vertical asymptote is always at $x=d$ and stays in the range $0<x<1$, the horizontal asymptote is always $y=0$, the function always passes through (1,1) and the slope at (1,1) is always -1. Increasing $a$ sharpens the corner and thickens the tail. I didn't expect the vertical asymptote would need to move but it should work well for constraining the minimum radius of the metaball. ~Anachronist (talk) 02:45, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

...and, in practice, it turns out not much different than the usual metaball functions. Oh well. ~Anachronist (talk) 03:04, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

When I wrote "at its thinnest", I meant for the case of two balls with a radius of 10 units having their centres 70 units apart. Is it more like 5 units or more like half a unit?  --Lambiam 10:50, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

It doesn't matter to me as long as the connection is thinner than the ball on each end, and the connection exists. ~Anachronist (talk) 23:14, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 23

Given an integer for which a square root against a large semiprime modulus exists, is the number of possible square roots always 4 ?

Simple question : take a large semiprime $n$. Take an integer $i$ such as √i%n has an existing solution. Is the number of possible solutions always 4 in such a case ? (or 2 if the modular inverse are excluded) 2A01:E0A:401:A7C0:E4AA:FB65:CDCC:FA58 (talk) 11:09, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, because 1 always has four square roots modulo an (odd) semiprime. Tito Omburo (talk) 12:11, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 28

Fermat polygonal number theorem for centered polygonal numbers and generalized polygonal numbers

Fermat polygonal number theorem is that every positive integer is a sum of <=n n-gonal numbers (n such numbers seems to not be always needed, e.g. only needed 4 for n=6, so what is the smallest m such that every positive integer is a sum of <=m n-gonal numbers? I only know that m<=n), but what about centered n-gonal numbers and generalized n-gonal numbers (e.g. OEIS: A001318 for n=5), what is smallest number m such that every positive integer is a sum of <=m such numbers? Also, what about n-dimensional simplex numbers and n-dimensional cross-polytope numbers (generalization of Pollock's conjectures to higher dimension)? (For n-dimensional hypercube, there is already Waring problem) 220.132.216.52 (talk) 12:09, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 14

Ministerial confirmation hearings

Is there any parliamentary democracy in which all a prime minister's choices for minister are questioned by members of parliament before they take office and need to be accepted by them in order to take office? Mcljlm (talk) 18:36, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

No individual grilling sessions, but in Israel the Knesset has to approve the prime minister's choices.  Card Zero  (talk) 07:33, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Is an occupied regime a country?

If a regime A of a country is mostly occupied by regime B, and regime B is later recognized as the representative of the country, while regime A, unable to reclaim control of the entire country, claims that it is itself a country and independent of regime B. the questio＂n arises: is regim＂e A a country? 36.230.3.161 (talk) 18:43, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Are you talking about a Government-in-exile? Blueboar (talk) 19:09, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

This is based on the definition of a country. Anyone in any place can claim to be a country. There is no legal paperwork required. There is no high court that you go to and make your claim to be a country. The first step is simply making the claim, "We are an independent country." Then, other countries have to recognize that claim. It is not 100%. There are claims where a group claims to be a country but nobody else recognizes it as a country, such as South Ossetia. There are others that have been recognized in the past, but not currently, such as Taiwan. There are some that are recognized by only a few countries, such as Abkhazia. From another point of view. There are organizations that claim they have the authority to declare what is and is not a country, such as the United Nations. But, others do not accept their authority on the matter. In the end, there is no way clearly define what is a country, which makes this question difficult to answer. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 20:46, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Taiwan [...] is a country, although I suppose the fact that this has multiple citations says something. (Mainly, it says that the CCP would like to edit it out.)  Card Zero  (talk) 06:46, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I assumed that everyone was referring to independent countries. I think this is exactly what the question is about. Our article says Taiwan is part of China. China is a country. So, Taiwan is part of a country and not a country by itself. But, the article says it is a country. So, it is independent. It isn't part of China. Which is true? Both? 68.187.174.155 (talk) 20:51, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

"Our article says Taiwan is part of China." Where does it say that? --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:40, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Instead of trying to draft an abstract, do you have a concrete example you're thinking of? --Golbez (talk) 20:57, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

One should always maintain a distinguish between countries and the regimes administering them. Syria was not the Assad regime – Assad is gone but Syria remains. Likewise, Russia is not the Putin regime. Identifying the two can only lead to confusion.

What makes a geographic region (or collection of regions) a country – more precisely, a sovereign state? There are countless territorial disputes, several of which are sovereignty disputes; for example, the regimes of North and South Korea claim each other's territory and deny each other's sovereignty over the territory the other effectively administers. Each has its own list of supporters of their claims. Likewise, the People's Republic of China and Republic of China claim each other's territory. By the definition of dispute, there is no agreement in such cases on the validity of such claims. The answer to the question whether the contested region in a sovereignty dispute is a country depends on which side of the dispute one chooses, which has more to do with geopolitical interests than with any objectively applicable criteria.  --Lambiam 10:16, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

At least in part, it depends on other countries agreeing that a particular area is actually a nation and that the government that claims to represnt it has some legitimacy; see our Diplomatic recognition article. For many nations, recognition would depend on whether the Charter of the United Nations had been adhered to. Alansplodge (talk) 12:24, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

One of the peculiarities of the Cold War is the emergence of competing governments in multiple countries, along a more or less similar pattern. We had West and East Germany, South and North Vietnam, South and North Korea and ROC and PRC. The only thing that separates the Chinese case from the onset is that there was no usage of the terms West China (for PRC) and East China (for ROC), since the ROC control was limited to a single province (and a few minor islands). Over time the ROC lost most of its diplomatic recognition, and the notion that the government in Taipei represented all of China (including claims on Mongolia etc) became anachronistic. Gradually over decades, in the West it became increasingly common to think of Taiwan as a separate country as it looked separate from mainland China on maps and whatnot. Somewhat later within Taiwan itself political movements wanted (in varying degrees) to abandon the ROC and declare the island as a sovereign state of its own grew. Taiwanese nationalism is essentially a sort of separatism from the ROC ruling Taiwan. In all of the Cold War divided countries, there have been processes were the political separation eventually becomes a cultural and social separation as well. At the onset everyone agrees that the separation is only a political-institutional technicality, but over time societies diverge. Even 35 years after the end of the GDR, East Germans still feel East German. In Korea and China there is linguistic divergence, as spelling reforms and orthography have developed differently under different political regimes. --Soman (talk) 10:41, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The difference with Taiwan vs. the other Cold War governments is that pre-ROC Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Whereas other governments split existing countries, Taiwan was arguably a separate entity already. Butterdiplomat (talk) 14:02, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

For the UK, the long-standing diplomatic position is that they recognise governments not countries, which has often avoided such complicated tangles. Johnbod (talk) 14:30, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

To further complicate the issue with Taiwan... When the United States had a trade ban with China, most of the cheap goods shipped into the United States had a "Made in Taiwan" sticker. That was OK because hte United States recognized Taiwan as being completely separate from China. It was a bit odd that Taiwan could produce as much as it did. The reality is that they simply made "Made in Taiwan" stickers and put them on Chinese goods before sending them to the United States. When the trade ban was lifted, there was no need to route all the goods through Taiwan. Now, everything has "Made in China" stickers on them and the United States no longer recognizes Taiwan as an independent country. From a simplistic point of view, it appears that the recognition of status was based on convenience rather than political standing. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 15:14, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

There is no evidence that this false labeling is happening. Butterdiplomat (talk) 15:16, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Photos in a novel

I'm reading a certain novel. In the middle of Chapter II (written in the first person), there are three pages containing photos of the hotel the author is writing about. Flicking through I find another photo towards the end of the book. I think: this must be a memoir, not a novel. I check, but every source says it's a novel.

I've never encountered anything like this before: photos in a novel. Sure, novels are often based on real places, real people etc, but they use words to tell the story. Photos are the stuff of non-fiction. Are there any precedents for this? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:59, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

If anyone's interested, the novel is Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:00, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

IIRC Loving Monsters by James Hamilton-Patterson has some photos in it. DuncanHill (talk) 21:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Bruges-la-Morte by Georges Rodenbach, 1892. DuncanHill (talk) 21:13, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

I can quickly go to the fiction stacks and pull a dozen books with photos in them. It is common that the photos are in the middle of the book because of the way the book pressing works. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 21:16, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Really? I would like to hear some examples of what you're referring to. Like Jack, I think the appearance of photos in (adult) fiction is rare. The novels of W. G. Sebald are one notable exception. --Viennese Waltz 21:31, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

This post in a blog "with an emphasis on W.G. Sebald and literature with embedded photographs" may be of interest. DuncanHill (talk) 23:44, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Fascinating. Thanks. So, this is actually a thing. Someone should add it to our List of Things that are Things. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:30, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The word "adult" did not come up until you just decided to use it there. I stated that there are many fiction paperback books with a middle section of graphics, which commonly include images of photographs. You replied that that is rare in adult fiction. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 00:42, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Photonovels, you mean?  Card Zero  (talk) 06:59, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

It was assumed that we are talking about adult fiction, yes. --Viennese Waltz 09:06, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I found Photography-Embedded Literature – Annual Lists, 2010-present, a "bibliography of works of fiction and poetry... containing embedded photographs". Alansplodge (talk) 12:28, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I have no idea how to paste a photo in here. What I am referring to is fiction paperback novels. They don't have to be fiction. Some are non-fiction. That is not the point. The book is a normal paperback, but in the middle of the book the pages are not normal paperback paper. They are a more glossy paper and printed in color with pictures. There is usually four to eight pages of pictures embedded into the middle of the otherwise normal paperback novel. It is very common in young adult novels where they don't want a fully graphic book (like children's books), but they still want some pictures. Out of all the novels where there is a graphic insert in the middle, some of the graphics on those pages are photographs. I've been trying to find an image on Google of books where the center of the book is shiny picture papges, but it keeps pushing me to "Make a photo album book" services. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 13:34, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

• Clarification: "novel" refers only to works of fiction. --142.112.149.206 (talk) 21:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Can you name one adult fiction (not YA or children's) novel which has a section of photographs in the middle? --Viennese Waltz 14:00, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

So having photos in the middle of a book is quite common in non-fiction (example: I have a bio of Winston Churchill that has photos of him during various stages of his life). Publishers do this to make printing easier (as the photos use a different paper, it is easier to bind them in the middle… and photos don’t reproduce as well on the paper used for text).

It is certainly rarer for there to be photos in works of fiction, simply because the characters and places described in the story are, well, fictional. But it obviously can be done (example: if the fictional story is set in a real place, a series of photos of that place might help the reader envision the events that the story describes). Blueboar (talk) 13:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

I just realized another area for confusion. I was personally considering a any image that looks like a photo to be a photo. But, others may be excluding fictional photographs and only considering actual photographs. If that is the case, the obvious example (still toung adult fiction) would be Carmen Sandiego books, which are commonly packed with photographs of cities, even if they do photoshop an image of the bad guy into them. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 18:57, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Tom Hanks's novel The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece tells a story of adapting a comic book into a movie, and includes several pages of that comic book and related ones. (To be clear, these are fictitious comic books, a fiction within a fiction). Where the comic book was printed in color, the book contains a block of pages on different paper as is common in non-fiction.

...and then of course there's William Boyd's novel Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928–1960, which is a spoof biography of an artist, including purported photos of the main character and reproductions of his artworks (actually created by Boyd himself). As our article about the book explains, some people in the art world were fooled. Turner Street (talk) 10:30, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

January 15

Refusing royal assent

Are there any circumstances where the British monarch would be within their rights to withhold royal assent without triggering a constitutional crisis. I'm imagining a scenario where a government with a supermajority passed legislation abolishing parliament/political parties, for example? I know it's unlikely but it's an interesting hypothetical.

If the monarch did refuse, what would happen? Would they eventually have to grant it, or would the issue be delegated to the Supreme Court or something like that? --Andrew 14:38, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Our Royal assent article says: In 1914, George V took legal advice on withholding Royal Assent from the Government of Ireland Bill; then highly contentious legislation that the Liberal government intended to push through Parliament by means of the Parliament Act 1911. He decided not to withhold assent without "convincing evidence that it would avert a national disaster, or at least have a tranquillising effect on the distracting conditions of the time". Alansplodge (talk) 15:05, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Not British, but there was the 1990 case of King Baudouin of Belgium, whose conscience and Catholic faith would not permit him to grant assent to a bill that would liberalise Belgium's abortion laws. A solution was found:

• (quote from article) In 1990, when a law submitted by Roger Lallemand and Lucienne Herman-Michielsens that liberalized Belgium's abortion laws was approved by Parliament, he refused to give royal assent to the bill. This was unprecedented; although Baudouin was de jure Belgium's chief executive, royal assent has long been a formality (as is the case in most constitutional and popular monarchies). However, due to his religious convictions—the Catholic Church opposes all forms of abortion—Baudouin asked the government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he could avoid signing the measure into law.[22] The government under Wilfried Martens complied with his request on 4 April 1990. According to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution, in the event the king is temporarily unable to reign, the government as a whole assumes the role of head of state. All government members signed the bill, and the next day (5 April 1990) the government called the bicameral legislature in a special session to approve a proposition that Baudouin was capable of reigning again.

There's no such provision in the UK Constitution as far as I'm aware, although Regents can be and have been appointed in cases of physical incapacity. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 15:21, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

A more likely scenario in your hypothesis is that the Opposition could bring the case to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom who have the power make rulings on constitutional matters; an enample was Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament in 2019. [7] 15:23, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

There is the ability to delegate powers to Counsellors of State. There are restrictions on what powers can be delegated in section 6(1) of the Regency Act 1937, but I don't see anything prohibiting the monarch from delegating the power to grant Royal Assent. He could then temporarily absent himself from the UK (perhaps on an impromptu trip to another Commonwealth Realm) so that the Counsellors of State could grant such Assent during his absence. Proteus (Talk) 15:40, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Fratelli Gianfranchi

Can anyone find any information about Fratelli Gianfranchi, sculptor(s) of the Statue of George Washington (Trenton, New Jersey)? I assume wikt:fratelli means brothers, but I could be wrong.

References

TSventon (talk) 15:31, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

"Fratelli Gianfranchi" would be translated as "Gianfranchi Brothers" with Gianfranchi being the surname. Looking at Google Books there seems to have existed a sculptor called Battista Gianfranchi from Carrara but I'm not finding much else. --82.58.35.213 (talk) 06:45, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The city of Carrara is famous for its marble which has been exploited since Roman times, and has a long tradition of producing sculptors who work with the local material. Most of these would not be considered notable as they largely produce works made on command. Xuxl (talk) 09:53, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you both, it is helpful to have confirmation that you couldn't find any more than I did. For what it's worth, I found Battista Gianfranchi and Giuseppe Gianfranchi separately in Google books. It is interesting that, of the references in the article, the sculptor is only named in an 1876 article and not in later sources. TSventon (talk) 13:55, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

In the light of the above, the mentions in the article of "the Italian sculptor Fratelli Gianfranchi" should perhaps be modified (maybe ". . . sculptors Fratelli Gianfranchi (Gianfranchi Brothers)"), but our actual sources are thin and this would border on WP:OR.

FWIW, the Brothers (or firm) do not have an entry in the Italian Wikipedia, but I would have expected there to be Italian-published material about them, perhaps findable in a library or museum in Carrara. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 18:43, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

I have added the translation for Fratelli Gianfranchi as a footnote. I agree that more information might be available in Carrara. TSventon (talk) 20:42, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

January 16

Can I seek Chapter 15 protection while a case is ongoing in my home country or after it finished ?

Simple question. I don’t have Us citizenship, but I owe a large debt amount in New York that can’t legally exist in my home country where I currently live (at least where the 50% interest represent usury even for a factoring contract).

My contract only states that disputes should be discussed within a specific Manhattan court, it doesn’t talk about which is the applicable law beside the fact that French law states that French consumer law applies if a contract is signed if the client live in France (and the contract indeed mention my French address). This was something my creditors were unaware of (along with the fact it needs to be redacted in French to have legal force in such a case), but at that time I was needing legal protection after my first felony, and I would had failed to prove partilly non guilty if I did not got the money on time. I can repay what I borrowed with all my other debts but not the ~$35000 in interest.

Can I use Chapter 15 to redirect in part my creditors to a bankruptcy proceeding in France or is it possible to file for Chapter 15 only once a proceeding is finished ? Can I use it as an individiual or is Chapter 15 only for businesses ? 2A01:E0A:401:A7C0:6CE2:1F60:AD30:6C2F (talk) 09:13, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

We don't answer questions like that here. You should engage a lawyer. --Viennese Waltz 09:23, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Chapter 15 bankruptcy does cover individuals and does include processes for people who are foreign citizens. The basics. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 11:24, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

January 17

Raymond Smullyan and Ayn Rand

Did Raymond Smullyan ever directly discuss or mention Ayn Rand or Objectivism? I think he might have indirectly referenced her philosophy in a a fictional symposium on truthfulness where a speaker says that he(or she) is not as "fanatical" about being as selfish as possible as an earlier speaker who said he himself was a selfish bastard.Rich (talk) 02:23, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

I guess not. Smullyan wrote so much that it is difficult to assert with certainty that he never did, but it has been pointed out by others that his Taoist philosophical stance is incompatible with Rand's Objectivism.^[8]  --Lambiam 12:23, 17 January 2025 (UTC)

January 18

"The Narrow Way" issued to prisoners in 1916

In his book 112 Days Hard Labour, about prison life in England in 1916, the Quaker Hubert Peet says:

On entry one is given a Bible, Prayer Book, and Hymn Book. In the ordinary way these would be supplemented by a curious little manual of devotion entitled “The Narrow Way,” but at the Scrubs Quakers were mercifully allowed in its place the Fellowship Hymn Book and the Friends’ Book of Discipline.

What was this book The Narrow Way?

I thought the question would be easy to answer if the book was standard issue, but I haven't found anything. (Yes, I'm aware that the title is a reference to Matthew 7:14.) Marnanel (talk) 03:46, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Letters of a Prisoner for Conscience Sake - Page 54 (Corder Catchpool · 1941, via Google books) says "The Narrow Way , you must know , is as much a prison institution as green flannel underclothing ( awfu ' kitly , as Wee Macgregor would say ) , beans and fat bacon , superannuated “ duster " -pocket - handkerchiefs , suet pudding ... and many other truly remarkable things !" so it does seem to have been standard issue. TSventon (talk) 04:22, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Google Books finds innumerable publishers' adverts for The Narrow Way, Being a Complete Manual of Devotion, with a Guide to Confirmation and Holy Communion, compiled by E.B. Here's one. Many of them, of widely varying date, claim that the print run is in its two hundred and forty-fifth thousand. Here it's claimed that it was first published c. 1869, and Oxford University Libraries have a copy of a new edition from as late as 1942. Apart from that, I agree, it's remarkably difficult to find anything about it. --Antiquary (talk) 12:13, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

You can buy one on eBay for £5.99. Alansplodge (talk) 15:30, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Well found! I have shelled out £5.99 in the cause of scholarship (or something). Marnanel (talk) 22:28, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Fun fact: a copy of The Narrow Way figures in A. A. Milne's novel The Red House Mystery. —Tamfang (talk) 22:26, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Federal death penalty

Is there a list of federal criminal cases where the federal government sought the death penalty but the jury sentenced the defendant to life in prison instead? I know Sayfullo Saipov's case is one, but I'm unsure of any others. wizzito | say hello! 01:41, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Official portraits of Donald Trump's first presidency

*grim*

*grin*

Commons category Official portraits of Donald Trump (First presidency) only contains variations of the portrait with Donald Trump smiling. But Photographs of the official portrait of Donald Trump only contains photos incorporating Trump's official portrait with a vigorous facial expression, which is otherwise not even included in Commons?! This seems inconsistent - what is the background and status of either photo? --KnightMove (talk) 10:51, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

The framed portraits hanging on the wall in these photos are an official portrait from December 15, 2016, of the then president-elect.^[9] The one with bared teeth is from October 6, 2017, when Trump was in office.^[10] For two more recent official mug shots, look here.  --Lambiam 12:31, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Ok, thank you. Do you know why the president-elect photo is not even uploaded in Commons? Shouldn't it be included in commons:Category:Official portraits of Donald Trump (First presidency)? --KnightMove (talk) 16:00, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The most plausible reason that it was not uploaded is that no one missed it. Among those aware of its existence and having the wherewithal to find it on the Web and to upload it to the Commons, no one may have realized it had not already been uploaded. Or they may not have felt a need; there is no shortage of images in the relevant articles.

Strictly speaking, it does not belong in Category:Official portraits of Donald Trump (first presidency), as Trump was not yet president. However, Category:Official portraits of Donald Trump (second presidency) features nothing but lugubrious portraits of the president-reelect.  --Lambiam 22:56, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 20

Trattato delle attinie, ed osservazioni sopra alcune di esse viventi nei contorni di Venezia, accompagnate da 21 tavole litografiche del Conte Nicolò Contarin

I am trying to find the illustration’s description from the original source: Trattato delle attinie, ed osservazioni sopra alcune di esse viventi nei contorni di Venezia, accompagnate da 21 tavole litografiche del Conte Nicolò Contarin including species name and description for these sea anemones: https://www.arsvalue.com/it/lotti/541811/contarini-nicolo-bertolucci-1780-1849-trattato-delle-attinie-ed-osservazio . I requested it on the resource request page but was not able to find where in the source these illustrations are or where their descriptions are. It doesn’t help that I can’t read Italian. KAVEBEAR (talk) 00:11, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Apparently you need to locate an occurrence of "(TAV VII)" or "(TAV XII)" in the text. --Askedonty (talk) 12:04, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

(edit conflict) References to the illustration are in the form "tavolo VII" or "tav. VII". So, for example, page 99 refers to fig. 1 e 2. The text refers to the development of the actinae being studied without precise identification, specifically to their sprouting new tentacles, not being (contra Spix) a prolongation of the skin of the base, but from parts of the body. The same page has a reference to fig. 3.  --Lambiam 12:17, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Sorry where are you seeing this page 99 you are referring to? KAVEBEAR (talk) 20:47, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Oops, I forgot to link. It is here (and also here).  --Lambiam 22:42, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Pu Yi

Although member of the Chinese Communist Party, the last Emperor was an anti-communist and counter-revolutionnair until his death? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.207.179.151 (talk) 17:26, 20 January 2025 (UTC)Block evasion. Dekimasuよ! 18:58, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I imagine that during the Cultural Revolution, it was wise to keep one's opinions to one's self. Alansplodge (talk) 17:31, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Jiang Qing did apparently not get the memo.  --Lambiam 22:32, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Situational strength can give psychological pressure on the individual and affect his or her behaviours. Stanleykswong (talk) 09:38, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

January 21

text of executive order

Hi. On 2025-01-20, POTUS signed an executive order titled "Ending Birthright Citizenship for Children of Illegal Immigrants"[11]. This event has been reported by virtually every major news outlet in the world.

It is now 2025-01-20 9PM Washington time, and I have been trying to find the exact text, or even portions of its text, for a while now, to no avail.

1. Is the full text of this executive order available to the general public?

This Library of Congress site[12] claims that: "All Executive Orders and Proclamations issued after March 1936 are required by law to be published in the Federal Register."

2. Assuming that the above claim is true, is there any requirement or guideline on how quickly an EO is published after it has been signed by POTUS? Epideurus (talk) 02:22, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Nevermind. The full text was posted[13] some time around 2025-01-20 8:45PM Washington time. None of the news agencies reporting before that got the title right, so I'm guessing that the title of the EO was only released when its full text was released. Epideurus (talk) 02:49, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

As I read the order literally, it implies that persons to which birthright citizenship is denied by force of Section 2 (a) of the order can also not be naturalized at a later date (or, if they can, no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing the acquired citizenship).  --Lambiam 10:46, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Deadline for ratification of amendments to the US constitution

Hello, and thank you for this opportunity to ask the experts. There's been talk recently about the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the US constitution after former president Biden stated the he considered the amendment to be ratified and part of the US constitution, as it had been ratified by 38 states, reaching the bar of three quarters of the states the Article 5 of the US constitution sets.

The National Archives disagreed and pointed to a deadline (later extended) for ratification set by Congress; since the required number of states had not been reached by the final deadline and since the deadline had not been extended further, it said, the amendment could not be considered ratified.

This appears to be plainly at odds with the text of Article Five of the United States Constitution, which contains no mention of Congress being able to impose a deadline, or in fact any other requirement, for the ratification process. The best argument I've seen in non-scholarly sources is, in essence, that "the 5th Amendment is silent on this", but that strikes me as unconvincing. The 5th prescribes a process, and there is no reason (that is readily apparent to me) to presume that this process may be changed by Congress in either direction. Just like Congress may not declare that ratification by one half of the states (rather than three quarters) is sufficient, it may not impose that additional steps must be taken or additional hurdles passed: say, it may not require that four fifths of the states must ratify and that three quarters is not enough. The Constitution prescribes what conditions are necessary for an Amendment to become part of the Constitution — but it also dictates that when these conditions are met, this does happen.

As such I find the National Archives' position to be inconsistent with the Constitution and the 5th, and Congress's attempt to impose an additional requirement in the form of a deadline strikes me as out of line with the Constitution, rendering said additional requirement null and void.

That said, and this is where my question comes in, I am not a legal expert. I haven't studied law, nor do I work in or with law in any way; I am merely curious. And although appeals to authority are fallacious as far as logical reasoning is concerned, I don't doubt that the National Archives (as well as, presumably, Congressional staff) have considered this matter and concluded that yes, a) the imposition of a deadline by Congress, above and beyond the process prescribed by the 5th, is constitutional; b) meeting of said deadline is then an additional condition for ratification; and c) since this deadline has not been met here, the ERA is not part of the Constitution.

And my question is: why? On what legal basis? Surely Congress cannot create additional requirements out of whole cloth; there must be some form of authorization in it. What's more, since we are talking about a process prescribed by the Constitution itself, said authority must itself be grounded in the Constitution, rather than taking the form of e.g. a simple law (Congress cannot arbitrarily empower itself to change the rules and processes laid down by the Constitution).

I would be very grateful if someone with a background in law (professional or otherwise) could explain this to me. Thank you very much! 2003:D5:AF0E:DE00:95C4:DF2F:3B13:850E (talk) 07:42, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

I ain't no lawyer, but as I recall, the deadline was stated within the amendment proposal itself. That was the case with a few other amendments also, but they were ratified within the time limit, so there was no issue. It's possible someone will take this issue to court, and ultimately the Supreme Court would have to decide if that type of clause is valid. On the flip side, there is the most recent amendment, which prohibits Congress from giving itself a raise without an intervening election of Representatives. That one was in the wind for like 200 years, lacking a deadline. When it was finally ratified, it stood. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:31, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated! I didn't know the deadline was in the proposal itself. I'm not sure I'm convinced that this should make a difference, since for as long as the proposed Amendment is no part of the Constitution, it really is not part of the Constitution and should not be able to inform or affect other provisions of the Constitution. That said I of course agree that it would take the Supreme Court to decide the issue for good. Thanks again! 2003:D5:AF0E:DE00:C4C7:395C:56A3:A782 (talk) 16:59, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

The SCOTUS may be quite busy with executive orders for a while. Quite possible, that the President has to appoint another 6 or 12 judges to cope with all that work load. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 18:44, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

The courts in general views these things as political questions. Abductive (reasoning) 21:59, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

The deadline for the ERA was mentioned in a resolving clause before the text of the amendment itself. In other cases, such as the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the deadline was contained in the amendment itself. Whether this makes any practical difference is a question for the courts. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 13:51, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't understand why it is the National Archives rather than a legal/constitutional authority such as the Supreme Court that gets to decide whether a proposed amendment has become ratified or not, ie. become law or not. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:09, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

There is the Executive, in this case the National Archives, doing what the Chief Executive ordered them to do. And there is Congress, which set the rules. This sounds like a political question. Abductive (reasoning) 21:59, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

By a statute that took effect in 1984, the task of certifying ratifications of amendments to the US Constitution has been given to the Archivist of the United States, which is why the interpretation of the National Archives (that is, the Archivist) matters. One might argue that this statute is unconstitutional, as the Constitution does not include a provision requiring certification for ratification to take effect, unlike for other federal processes that depend on the outcomes from the several states. AFAIK the constitutionality of the statute, or any of its predecessors (like this one) has never been challenged in court.  --Lambiam 10:15, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I see. Thank you, Lambiam. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 11:20, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

But of course there must always be some form of official certification. That would be the case for any law passed to a state governor or the president for signing, just as it must be for a constitutional change. Otherwise, anyone could claim that a proposed constitutional amendment has been ratified by a sufficient number of states and must now become part of the law of the USA. Surely the system depends on not just anyone claiming this, but a properly constituted authority with the legal power/responsibility to make such a certification. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 06:35, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Note that there was no certification procedure for the original ratification of the United States Constitution; actually, the amendment provision of the Articles of Confederation, which required unanimous approval of the states, was bypassed. I don't think there was already one in place for the Bill of Rights either – when Congress met on on January 18, 1792, the President simply informed them that he had "a copy of an exemplified copy of an Act of the Legislature of Vermont, ratifying" the amendements,^[14] which implied a sufficient number of instruments of ratification had been received. The procedure for the ratification of the electoral votes in presidential elections was only specified in the Twelfth Amendment; the 1796 United States presidential election managed to do without. I agree, though, that there ought to be an official procedure for the ratification of constitutional amendments, but is the ability of Congress to inspect . The question is, is Congress passing (by simple majorities) a bill that such and such procedure shall be it, which is then signed into law by the President, enough to make it official and binding?

The US Constitution does not define who is "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. At the moment this is a hot issue. If Congress passes a bill, next signed into law, declaring that the definition is made by executive order, is the issue thereby settled?  --Lambiam 16:35, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not settled until the Supreme Court says it is. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:03, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Here's the text:

"Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to CH. J. Res. 208] equal rights for men and women.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled {two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress:" DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 01:05, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

January 22

Sir John Simon's soul

"Simon has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered into his soul" is a quotation attributed to David Lloyd George. I have been unable to come up with a definitive source, and neither Roy Jenkins (in The Chancellors), nor Duncan Brack (in The Dictionary of Liberal Quotations) have been able to either. Can the RefDeskers do better? Thank you. I felt sure I'd asked this here before, but I cannot find any trace of it in the archives. DuncanHill (talk) 18:49, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I looked into this question a while ago. The earliest evidence I could find came from a diary entry by Sir George Riddell for 14th December 1912:

The other day F. E. Smith told me a good story of a member who, when speaking in the House of Commons, remarked, "Mr. So-and-So has sat for so long on the fence that the iron has entered into his soul".

It's here. Shame that no-one's named. --Antiquary (talk) 20:38, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Both parties were named by Konni Zilliacus in 1935. Google Books also claims to have it in a version naming Lloyd George and Simon in a 1931 number of the New Statesman, but I find their dating of "Snippet view" periodicals unreliable. --Antiquary (talk) 21:03, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I found a 1922 case of "Who was it who said of a Free Church leader: "he has sat on the fence so long that the iron has entered into his soul"?". DuncanHill (talk) 01:33, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Ha! The Spring 1905 number of Forest Leaves magazine (here at vol. II, no. 2, p. 16) gives us this: "Winston Churchill said that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 'had sat so long on the fence that the iron had entered into his soul.'" A rare example, then, of Churchillian Drift in reverse. --Antiquary (talk) 08:11, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

One more Google search tells us that Churchill said this at a meeting of the Bow and Bromley Conservative Association in, apparently, April 1905. --Antiquary (talk) 10:04, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Oh well done! I'd always rather associated it with Manchuria. Lloyd George does have a certain gravitational pull for put-downs. I can't quite see him actually nicking one of Churchill's, and I think he would not want to associate himself, even indirectly, with such a negative comment about CB. I'm reminded by Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit that it is an echo of Psalm 105:18 in the Prayer Book. If I were Lawrence Frances Flick I would be VERY careful about the choice of type-face for my bookmarks DuncanHill (talk) 10:58, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I found the Forest Leaves version (with a couple more from the column) in The Mail (Dublin) 4 January 1905. Interestingly, there was an article in lots of local papers in January 1905 which mention the iron entering Lloyd George's soul as a result of how power is abused in the hands of an ascendant Church. DuncanHill (talk) 11:16, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Interesting. Got a link to the Mail version? --Antiquary (talk) 11:31, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

(ec) The Belfast Telegraph - Thursday 23 May 1907 says that Mr Churchill made the dig at CB "at Bow, February 19, 1902". Dublin Mail 4 Jan 1905 Column called "Mixed Metaphors" DuncanHill (talk) 11:35, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The "iron entered his/my/our soul(s)" trope seems very common at the time, usually of course in a more positive sense. DuncanHill (talk) 11:35, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

And here is a report of Churchill addressing the Annual Meeting of the Bow and Bromley Conservative Association from the Derby Daily Telegraph Thursday 20 February 1902 Mr. Winston Churchill and the War. DuncanHill (talk) 11:39, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The report appears in many local papers. The report in the Westminster Gazette says CB has NOT (my emphasis) sat so long on the fence that the iron has entered his soul. DuncanHill (talk)

If you have access to a copy it might be worth taking a look at the eight-volume Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897-1963, edited by Robert Rhodes James. --Antiquary (talk) 14:14, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Not in Volume I, where it should be. DuncanHill (talk) 18:11, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The anecdote is told in a Lloyd George–John Simon version on page 472 of The New Statesman and Nation issue of October 17, 1931:

Sir John Simon's acidity of temperament and capacity for being a little in several camps but beloved by none led his late chief to remark—or so I'm told—that "Sir John has sat so long on the fence, that the iron has entered into his soul."             Critic.^[15]

Here one can verify, in spite of the snippetness of the permitted views, that this indeed the issue of this date. So it is indeed true that Lloyd George "is said" (or, more precisely, "has been said") to have commented this – although using a slightly different word order and punctuation than the quotation in our article. It is, of course, by no means sure that he actually has done so.  --Lambiam 14:55, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Here it is on Archive.org. It is Volume II Number 34, despite what Google claims. DuncanHill (talk) 18:04, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

On the other hand, the Churchill/Campbell-Bannerman version was still being quoted as "famous" as late as 1950, so the two variants co-existed for many years. --Antiquary (talk) 17:13, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 23

Marco Guidetti

Who was Marco Guidetti in relation to De Tomaso Pantera? This Turbo wrapper says "Marco Guidetti Pentera de Tomaso", but my search didn't yield any meaningful results for him, including books. My guess he could be this one, but not sure. Brandmeister^talk 10:45, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The creator(s) of these Turbo wrappers misspelled "Pantera", so they were not overly careful. Perhaps they misinterpreted the name of the author of the photograph as being the name of the car model.  --Lambiam 15:26, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

One possibility is that the particular vehicle shown was owned by a Marco Guidetti, possibly the movie designer and art director of that name who worked on Mad Max and other films: IMDb link (unreliable source) here. Relatedly, he may instead have been involved in designing the model's styling. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 15:57, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

A Marco Guidetti is credited to authoring and photographing Valentino Rossi : campione and a Marco Guidetti also authored JAGUAR . So it appears likely it is the name of the photographer as suggested by Lambiam when the gum was recently reintroduced, although this doesn't rule out the alternative possibilities that they are the car's owner or its designer as suggested by The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195. Modocc (talk) 16:59, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

We also haven't yet ruled out the author/photographer/car designer(?) and the film designer being the same person, although the car originated around 1970 and film guy's career seems to have started around 2003. Of course, 'Marco Guidetti' cannot be that uncommon a name in Italy. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 19:42, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Probable photo, and eulogy of author/photographer Marco Guidetti: The photographer who was.. --Askedonty (talk) 10:40, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, still something anyway. Brandmeister^talk 11:08, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Australian Antarctic Territory population

What was the population of the Australian Antarctic Territory in the 2021 Australian census? I assumed this would easily be discoverable with a Google search, but I couldn't find this information from the ABS. Since the census counts people where they are on census night (and not where they live permanently), since Davis Station is inhabited year-round, and since the AAT is considered an external territory of Australia, the AAT should have been covered by the census (comparable to Christmas Island, the Cocos, etc) and should have had a non-zero population on census night. Nyttend (talk) 19:46, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The external territories are listed here: [16]. Quoting our article "Australia is an original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. Under section 4, all territorial claims are held in abeyance." Which would appear to explain why it's not listed. Modocc (talk) 20:35, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

"Expeditioners to Australian bases in the Australian Antarctic Territory (and other locations) are included in the Census. Their 'place of enumeration' is an Offshore Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1) in Tasmania." [17] -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:45, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Hm, that's interesting. I wonder what it is? I went to https://maps.abs.gov.au (which gives you information on an SA1-level) and ran a search for "Antarctic", and there were two called "Antarctic Circle" and "New Antarctica", but they're in southeastern Brisbane and near the Sydney CBD :-\ Nyttend (talk) 03:38, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

New Antarctica is a 2-story terraced suburban home at 19 Lodge Street, Forest Lodge, New South Wales [18]. When I was there the word "terraced" was not used (although that might be a WA idiosyncracy). It would possibly have been described as a "duplex", although I could never get my head around the word. Antarctic Circle is on an industrial estate on Logan Road, Underhill, Brisbane. 2A02:C7C:F33B:4100:971:8BD8:F20F:648C (talk) 18:52, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Explain meme?

[19] I understand what the person is trying to imply about Elon Musk, but I don't understand what the second picture is getting at. Is that Prince Harry and is that relevant? I'm pretty clueless so be patient. Thanks. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:512B (talk) 23:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Chris Hemsworth. The second image is a reverse angle showing the listener's response, and the meme is all about a good example of a facial expression expressing doubt. Originally the response by the listener was "is he though?". See [20]. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 00:12, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Ah thanks, I'm not sure I wanted to know that the Mighty Thor looks like that now. 2601:644:8581:75B0:0:0:0:512B (talk) 08:14, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Maybe it's a bit cultural. I taught at the high school Chris Hemsworth attended, and picked that look instantly. HiLo48 (talk) 09:57, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Looks like now? It's from a movie that came out in 2017... Matt Deres (talk) 20:15, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

As to the resemblance between Charlie Chaplin and another moustached man, see the 1940 movie The Great Dictator (for example, see this image). --142.112.149.206 (talk) 03:29, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Curiously, those two men were born only 4 days apart, in April 1889. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:44, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

For added context, it's a scene from Thor: Ragnarok. TvTropes link: [21]. --Slowking Man (talk) 02:44, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

January 24

In which place, first-cousin-once-removed marriage is not allowed?

In which place, first-cousin-once-removed marriage is not allowed? 220.132.216.52 (talk) 06:26, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Wikipedia's cousin marriage article will answer your question. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:37, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

January 25

Proclamation of the People's Republic of China

Can anyone show me the name of all people in the image please? Except Mao Zedong ThomasDracoLucitor (talk) 00:05, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

The first on the (radical) left could be Liu Shaoqi, beside him is Li Lisan, and Lin Boqu's article says he's the one standing behind Mao. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:06, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

And the guy to Mao's (reactionary) right just might be Sir Not-Quite-Appearing-in-this-Picture. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:18, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

The guy in back between Lin Boqu and the Great Steersman: Ye Jianying Lin Biao (from this YouTube video at the 51 second mark)? The guy to his right: Peng Dehuai? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:27, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Also somewhere in this picture, Wa Li, aka Wal Do. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:30, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

The bearded gent on the far right looks like Shen Junru. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:01, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

The obscured guy behind the paper Mao is holding may be Zhu De, looking at a photo shot from a different spot. Clarityfiend (talk) 09:12, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

The Founding Ceremony of the Nation may be of interest. DuncanHill (talk) 10:42, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

This page and this page have several photos of the same event taken from different angles, affording clearer views of some of the attendees.  --Lambiam 13:29, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Thrax in Rome?

According to our article Maximinus Thrax, he never entered Rome during his imperial reign. Had he ever been to Rome before his accession? Or did he never set foot in Rome itself during his life? —Amble (talk) 20:11, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Answering my own question: the Historia Augusta says that Maximinus went to Rome to present himself to Alexander Severus after the death of Elagabalus: [22]. —-Amble (talk) 23:35, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Though, as our article on Maximinus Thrax rightly says, the Historia Augusta is "notoriously unreliable". The translator of the Penguin Classics version left out the lives of Maximinus Thrax and of all other emperors after Elagabulus on the grounds that in that half of the Historia "fiction predominates". The 3rd century is an ill-documented period of Roman history and I doubt if you'll find an answer to your question in reliable sources. --Antiquary (talk) 09:19, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you, understood that the available sources are unreliable. Given that, I’m satisfied with an in-universe answer. —Amble (talk) 16:53, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Thrax was enlisted by Severus as imperial bodyguard ref So it was likely he saw Rome prior to his accession The AP (talk) 10:52, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

The site you've linked to tells me that that ebook is unavailable in my country. What's the author's source for the statement that MT was an imperial bodyguard to Severus? --Antiquary (talk) 11:59, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

It's probably Historia Augusta, but I would need to check. The AP (talk) 16:17, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, yes, his service under Septimius Severus seems to be while on campaign, and I don’t see it mentioned that Severus brought Thrax back to Rome. But he does put in an appearance at Rome later in the narrative, at least. It would be interesting if any of the barracks emperors are not described as having been in Rome at any point. Although the available sources are unreliable, it would say something about how they were viewed in relation to the city itself. --Amble (talk) 16:53, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

January 26

Liam, Elie Wiesel

According to https://hebrewnamer.com/names/liam/ "the name Liam was also the pseudonym of the famous Jewish author and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, when he first began writing". Is this mentioned elsewhere? Mcljlm (talk) 23:09, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I cannot find any source confirming this. Pseudonyms known to have been used by Wiesel are "Ben Shlomo", his first pseudonym,^[23] and "Elisha Carmeli".^[24]  --Lambiam 09:19, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 27

Contacting Jimmy Wales

wp:deny
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
What are all of the ways for one to contact Jimmy Wales? There's a specific e-mail address for him and I used it but so far I don't think that he has ever actually responded to my e-mail. 172.56.182.234 (talk) 02:11, 27 January 2025 (UTC) There's no guarantee whatsoever he'll reply, but one place to leave a public message is https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Unprotected ... -- AnonMoos (talk) 05:00, 27 January 2025 (UTC) Merci beaucoup! 172.56.182.234 (talk) 06:01, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Juntas in North Africa

How come almost every country along the band stretching from Guinea to Sudan is either a military dictatorship or was one very recently? Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 07:04, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

wp:deny
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Sub-Saharan Africa does not have a rich tradition of democracy. Where democracy is more entrenched, backsliding is harder (though not impossible--January 6 comes to mind, as do the attempts to overturn the 2020 election), but where it isn't entrenched, it's easy for new dictatorships to replace old ones, or for short-lived democracies to be replaced by new dictatorships. Like in Germany in 1933 or in Russia in 1917. 172.56.182.234 (talk) 07:10, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Why are they military dictatorships specifically, as opposed to other forms of dictatorship? Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 09:04, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Someone who's wrong on the internet, that area is known as the Sahel. We don't seem to have an article on it, but a web search for Sahel and politics and/or your more specific terms of choice will provide a lot of information. CMD (talk) 07:37, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

We do have an article on it, Coup Belt, which has a bit of information. 115.188.138.105 (talk) 09:36, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Do you know these men?

A picture of some middle-aged white men

Today's "Picture of the Day" shews US Secretary of State William P. Rogers signing the Paris Peace Accords, 27 January 1973, at the Hotel Majestic. But who else is in the picture? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 22:09, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

"William J. Porter, the new Deputy Undersecretary of State who had been the United States delegate to the semi-public talks until this month, flew to Paris with Mr Rogers and sat at the table with him. Heywood Isham, acting head of the United States delegation, Marshall Green, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and William H. Sullivan, Mr Green’s deputy, who has been leading technical talks with the North Vietnamese here, completed the American group at the table." [25] --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 04:30, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

(this was from a Google search for US Secretary of State William Rogers Signing the Paris Peace Accords.) --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 04:37, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 28

Clarence O. Sherrill

(I don't know if this belongs here or at WP:RSN) I just finished writing this article and his role as a lieutenant colonel is mentioned in many sources. His gravestone at Arlington National Cemetery lists his rank as brigadier general. I can't find anything about him being promoted to that, especially since he left the military in 1926 as a lieutenant colonel. Should I just stick with that title? I'm amazed if the most prominent US military cemetery didn't confirm this when he was buried. APK hi :-) (talk) 07:23, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Here he is named as "Lt. Colonel Clarence O. Sherrill" when he retired from the army in 1925. I can find that he was promoted to colonel,^[26] which rank he was holding as of 1934.^[27]  --Lambiam 09:01, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Arlington cemetery: Mistakes may affect 64,000 graves. Abductive (reasoning) 16:03, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

See also Colonel (United States)#Honorary colonels, which might explain why he was promoted after retirement. Alansplodge (talk) 17:42, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

It is also common for retiring officers to be promoted on their last day, to bump up their pensions. Abductive (reasoning) 17:47, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. APK hi :-) (talk) 17:51, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Orwell quotations

Of the Orwell Institute, The Orwell Foundation and The Orwell Society which would be the best to ask about the authenticity of Orwell quotes? Is there another organisation which might be better? Mcljlm (talk) 18:28, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

If it's a quotation fron "Animal House" or 1984 then Google searching would be far quicker. We also have https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell ... AnonMoos (talk) 20:59, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Animal Farm, perhaps? In my experience, Google searching for quote authentication has to be done intelligently. Misattribution of quotes has become the thing the internet and social media does best, so there's a lot of misattributed rubbish out there (and there's a select group of people who seem to get most of the undeserved credit: Oscar Wilde, Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Will Rogers ...). Most sites just parrot what other sites say, without any form of independent checking. Wikiquote can be trusted. So can Quote Investigator. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:25, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

JackofOz mentions the problematics of Google searching. Wikiquote and QI are more reliable but not as authoritative as an organisation concerned with specifically with Orwell. Two of those I mentioned are in England, the other in the USA. Should I mail all of them? Mcljlm (talk) 23:18, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

What is the origin of the name Curé and Ouro for Kure Atoll? Was there an island west of Kure?

There was two discussions in this area a couple years ago: Kure names )(the previous day this discussion Islands northwest of Midway). I noticed one of the names discussed on an old map, and added to that discussion, but the help desk suggested I ask a new question, so here it is. What is the origin of the name found on this map: 1855 map listing a Curé island west of Pearl and Hermes. It also has "it" as Ouro, which is Portuguese for Gold. The second part of the question, is it possible there was an island west of Kure, that corresponds to something like the Hancock Seamount (northwest of kure) but has since collapsed into the sea but several hundred years ago might of been there? I find it odd so many islands were found west of Kure Atoll, and there is a clear mechanism they could be submerged is Kure is the farthest north coral atoll, beyond this the corals would likely die and stop the island growing. Secondly, the sea level has risen in the last centuries. Were they simply a midentification Kure, midway, etc.? Thanks in advance. A75 (talk) 21:00, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Progum and Kent

Allegedly, PowerGum, a trademark of Turkish company Progum, bought the trademark rights for Turbo chewing gum from its original manufacturer, Kent (in 2013, per some sources). Progum's entry on Turbo doesn't confirm that, but shows PowerGum as a registered trademark symbol. Is there some online database or other official source confirming PowerGum / Progum's purchase of rights from Kent? For the record, such Turbo is produced under PowerGum mark with Progum stated as manufacturer, according to package that I have. Brandmeister^talk 22:04, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 14

Nuevo!

A lot of areas of the Spanish Empire in America had a name in the pattern of "New XXX" where XXX is usually a Spanish province or city. Some examples are: Nueva Andalucía, Nueva Castilla, Nueva España, Nueva Extremadura, Nuevas Filipinas, Nueva Granada, Nueva León, Nueva Navarra, Nuevo Santander, Nueva Toledo, Nueva Vizcaya. I'm not able to recognize any pattern or obvious motivation for them to select precisely these names. Why call some place New Extremadura and not, for example, New Catalonia? Where they chosen randomly? Is there any reason behind them? Thank you? 195.62.160.60 (talk) 10:10, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't know the answer, but Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor would probably have been the one who decided, or at least approved, some of these names. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 10:22, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not just the Spanish. An early name for the British part of Australia, and now one of its states, is New South Wales. Apparently Captain Cook thought it looked like South Wales. Then just across the ocean is New Zealand. That one came from the Dutch. HiLo48 (talk) 10:31, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

Not to forget New Amsterdam/New York and New Orleans. However, these things aren't consistent as the Spanish also copied names without the Nuevo/Nueva in front, like Córdoba and Valencia. Would be interesting to see if this was a time-dependent pattern. As to the choice of names, this could well have to do with the individuals involved. E.g. a lot of the Conquistadores came from Extremadura, including Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, and Castilia, Granada etc. aren't far from that area either. -- 79.91.113.116 (talk) 11:18, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

They decided to follow the rule, "Nuevo say neuvo again." Clarityfiend (talk) 21:04, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

The English were in a habit of omitting 'new' too. In the US there's Durham, Manchester, Washington. In Australia there's Newcastle. What's notable is all of these are distinctly English names, very old ones with meanings that make sense only to historians. It's highly unlikely they arose the same way in AUS and the US. ~~----

Indeed. In 1940, the Royal Navy was able to rename fifty old US destroyers after British and American towns that share a common name. Alansplodge (talk) 12:12, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The whole Australian mainland was previously known as New Holland. Anything less like Holland it would be impossible to find, but there you go. But at least this recognises that the Dutch were the first Europeans definitely known to have landed on Australia, in 1606. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:12, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

They probably weren't chosen randomly. Possible reasons include:

• Naming after the namer's homeland. Nueva Extremadura (Chile) was named by Pedro de Valdivia, who was from Extremadura
• Naming to honour a patron, e.g. New York was named after the Duke of York
• Naming after a resemblance (New South Wales, as stated above).

AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 11:15, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Nuevo say nuevo again. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:04, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

A variation - Within the town of Moe, Victoria, Australia, is what is effectively now the suburb of Newborough. It apparently gained that name because when it was established, Moe had just become a borough. HiLo48 (talk) 22:53, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Also the London Borough of Newham, a 1965 merger of East Ham and West Ham. It was originally intended to be pronounced "New-ham" but is now universally called "Newum". Alansplodge (talk) 12:04, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not obvious to me how "Newum" would be pronounced. It could be "Nee-wum". HiLo48 (talk) 23:04, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

/ˈnju(w)əm/ ColinFine (talk) 23:25, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Ni! Peng! —Tamfang (talk) 21:39, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

They could have called it Hams Ambo ('both' in Latin), like some other merged parishes; Hambo for short. —Tamfang (talk) 07:45, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Curious that there was a Nueva Castilla in the New World when there was already one in Old Spain. They could have called it Tercera Castilla. —Tamfang (talk) 21:42, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Or Nueva Nueva Castilla.  --Lambiam 00:24, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Or Más Nueva Castilla. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:45, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 18

Conlangs allowed here?

Is discussion about conlangs permitted here or is it solely for natural languages? If you reply here, please ping me. Thanks, TheTechie@enwiki (she/they | talk) 02:14, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Presumably you're referring to Constructed language. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 09:45, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

I believe they are. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:06, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

In the past, there's occasionally been a little discussion of Esperanto, and I don't remember anybody complaining (see here for example). Workshopping or promoting your own personal stuff might be perceived differently (depending on how you approach it). AnonMoos (talk) 13:27, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Was it here or on Wiktionary someone discussed a fable about a goat written, first in some conlang and second, in some Low German dialect between German and Dutch? 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 19:04, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Are you thinking of Schleicher's fable? I imagine that has been translated into many languages, constructed and otherwise. —Tamfang (talk) 21:41, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Not exactly. It appeared as if some amateur conlanger had constructed something similar, first written in the conlang, and then, for some reason, in that particular German-Dutch dialect. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 00:22, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Why wouldn't or shouldn't it be? --Theurgist (talk) 15:27, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Since Wikipedia is not a general discussion forum, the reference desks themselves are controversial. As long as this page is allowed to be active, conlangs per se are within its scope, but note any question that has little relevance to improving our articles will be frowned upon by at least some, especially if you post multiple such questions within a short period. Nardog (talk) 16:38, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

The Reference desk attempts to provide services similar to those of a library reference desk. It should be viewed as a supplement to the encyclopedia. Users who are seeking information on a topic post questions here, and the respondents try to find answers to these questions. If you have a question about conlangs for which you cannot find the answer in our articles on the topic, you are welcome to post the question here.

Next to being a service to our users, this can also help to signal lacunae in our coverage of encyclopedic topics.  --Lambiam 19:04, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Questions

1. Are there any newspapers in Serbia written in Serbian Latin alphabet?
2. Are there any words in English with onsets /kn/, /ps/, /ks/, /tf/, /tv/, /kv/, /pw/, /fθ/ or /ts/?
3. Are there any words in English where letter combinations ⟨iw⟩ and ⟨uw⟩ are pronounced as diphthongs, similarly to ⟨aw⟩ and ⟨ow⟩?
4. Are there any words in Spanish where ⟨ll⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩ occur in consonant clusters, as in made-up words socllo, mopña, sollto and liñteda?
5. Are there any words in Spanish where consonant clusters /tθ/, /kθ/, /pθ/, /tx/, /kx/ and /px/ occur, as in made-up words lotza, poczo, sopce, totja, hecge and mapjota?
6. Are there any words in Korean with three consonants in a row? --40bus (talk) 21:02, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

1 -- You can look at Romanization of Serbian. 2 -- Only in a few obviously incompletely-assimilated loanwords, such as "kvetch" or "tsetse fly". 3 -- "Uw" has never been an established English orthographic digraph, as far as I know (though it occurs in some incompletely-assimilated loanwords from Welsh). "Iw" may have been a marginal alternative to "Iu" centuries ago, but when the sounds written by "Iu" and "Eu" merged, there was no longer a real use for it. AnonMoos (talk) 21:44, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

5. I guess -tz- might be found in loanwords from Basque or Native South American languages, but it's possible it might rather be pronounced as /ts/... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 22:49, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

And historic names originating from other languages like Quetzalcoatl or Quetzaltenango. There are also words like lección but the pronounciation is represented as leɡˈθjon/ leɣ̞ˈθjõn rather than kθ. [28]. Ad 4. I don't think those exist either in regular Spanish words. -- 79.91.113.116 (talk) 11:14, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

• 1: Yes, even some of the highest-circulating ones: see the front pages for 20 January of Blic, Informer and Kurir (the latter also features a Cyrillic-script ad in-between). Although Serbian clearly favours Cyrillic for anything government-operated or Orthodoxy-related, in all other cases the two scripts are in free variation and it all depends on the author's or the publisher's preference.
• 6: Orthographically that's possible when a character has a complex final and the next one has a non-silent initial, as in 읽다 ilgda. But phonologically any such clusters are simplified, so the actual pronunciation in this case is /ikt͈a/. --Theurgist (talk) 00:38, 20 January 2025 (UTC)
• 2: I tend to pronounce xi and psi as /ksaɪ/ and /psaɪ/ for disambiguation, though I might simplify them to /saɪ/ if only one of them is being used as a variable. Also I'd say kvetch with /kv/, phthalate with /fθ/, and tsetse with /ts/ (though maybe not everyone would). Further I'd use the German pronunciations for the chess borrowings zugzwang and zwischenzug (so the latter gives even initial /tsv/ for me). See also en:wikt:Category:English terms with initial /t͡s/. Double sharp (talk) 08:23, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Double_sharp -- the standard traditional method for distinguishing the letters Xi and Psi in English, without attempting to produce word-initial consonant clusters, is to pronounce Xi with a [z] consonant, as in "Xylophone"... AnonMoos (talk) 14:57, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

@AnonMoos: I'm aware that it's standard (like "xylophone", "xylem", and "xenon"). Unfortunately I've heard xi with /s/ enough times (it's mentioned in Collins) that I don't trust anything but the clusters to disambiguate them by now. :) Double sharp (talk) 14:21, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

• 4: There are some words with prefix + ll- such as wikt:conllevar or wikt:enllavar. --Amble (talk) 16:44, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't really think they are consonant clusters, though. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 20:42, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

That depends on which definition of consonant cluster you go with. OP has given us a list of examples, some of which have similar syllable structure to enllavar and conllevar, so I think they should qualify for purposes of this question. --Amble (talk) 21:06, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Searching for "quechua" gives lliclla, aclla and chullpi. Searching for Aymara is left as an exercise for the reader. --Error (talk) 00:33, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Are there any words in Spanish where consonant clusters /tθ/, /kθ/, /pθ/, /tx/, /kx/ and /px/ occur, as in made-up words lotza, poczo, sopce, totja, hecge and mapjota?

Quetzal in northern Spain. Acción, producción, and most of the cognates of *ction. Erupción, corrupción and most of the cognates of *ption. --Error (talk) 00:41, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

January 20

What's the common phrasing in spoken English? Is it "Not Always do I buy", "Not only does he buy but he also sells", "Not necessarily do we know", and likewise?

147.235.223.10 (talk) 16:05, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

We don't necessarily know what's the common phrasing. At least I don't always buy into your proposed ordering of the words. scnr -- 79.91.113.116 (talk) 16:09, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The common wording for the first and third is "I don't always buy ..." and "We don't necessarily know ...". For the second, the wording you've suggested is possible, but "He not only buys but also sells" would perhaps be more frequently encountered. Deor (talk) 16:20, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Thx all. 147.235.223.10 (talk) 18:47, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

January 21

Why can you say that someone is "on meth" but not "on cigarettes"?

JJP_Master (she/they) 00:42, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

In large part because one usually doesn't speak of the effects of cigarette use as if it's socially peculiar or of note. I would say, for example, something like "I'm on nicotine patches" though, since that's a comparatively unusual regimen. Remsense ‥ 论 00:55, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

You could, but the implication would be decidedly odd. Like you're using cigarettes as part of a medical regime, 'I'm on cigarettes to manage my anger' or similar. — kwami (talk) 04:27, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

It's kind of a subset of the general expression that someone is "on drugs", which implies "illegal" drugs. If you're on prescription drugs, you would probably say you're "on medication". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:35, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Probably because cigarettes/tobacco don't have much effect on someone's behaviour. I've seen people described (or describing themselves) as being high "on caffeine", but only if they've drunk enough for it to noticeably affect them. Iapetus (talk) 17:22, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

because "meth" is a substance and "cigarette" is the carrier. Maungapohatu (talk) 06:07, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

but you wouldn't say 'I'm on tobacco' either. — kwami (talk) 07:12, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

That wasn't what your question was - or at least not what you wrote. Maungapohatu (talk) 23:30, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Maybe it's for the same reason that we don't say "beer users"? Smoking tobacco is seen as a (somewhat less than it was in recent years) socially acceptable activity and not really considered drug use. Iloveparrots (talk) 07:19, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Doesn't say who?  --Lambiam  --Lambiam 09:46, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

It's worth pointing out that you can say it, but it might make someone wonder what you are on. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:44, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

On leave (from being on meth)?  --Lambiam 09:40, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

A meth head to his madness? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:22, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I don’t know. Why do you get on a train but in a taxi? Why is potato a masculine noun in Russian, while ships are considered female in English? Why do some people prefer Pepsi when Coke is clearly superior? Dronebogus (talk) 08:23, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Lies! Lies! Pepsi is the ambrosia nectar of the gods, while Coke is the swill of the semi-demigods. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:16, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

One reason not mentioned is we have a non-pejorative way to refer to someone who is "on" nicotine. We call them a smoker, and say they smoke. Tobacco is such an addictive substance that anyone who smokes regularly can be assumed to be addicted. Someone who isn't addicted might make pains to make this clear, saying they only smoke socially or occasionally. For illegal drugs similar terms are much more pejorative: crack-head e.g.. So saying someone is on xxxx is more neutral. Maybe this will change if (when?) tobacco becomes as unacceptable as other drugs, and "smoker" becomes a pejorative slur. --217.23.224.20 (talk) 11:26, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 23

These quotes could be added to a "figure of speech" Wikipedia page in the future

What is the word for the figure of speech that the following quotes are examples of?

1. "(Galaxia) But that's impossible! (Beerus) Now you're catching on. I AM the impossible!" (Source: Death Battle)

2. "(One of the female Samurai Rangers, talking about robots) They're not WEARING armor. They ARE armor!" (Source: Power Rangers: Clash of the Red Rangers)

3. "(Optimus Primal) Obsidian, this is treason! Megatron wants to destroy Cybertron! (Obsidian) Megatron IS Cybertron." (Source: Beast Machines: Transformers)

4. "(Luke Skywalker) You killed my father! (Darth Vader) No, Luke, I AM your father." (Source: something Star Wars)

5. "(Rafael, talking about Unicron) He's not IN the Earth's core, Jack. He IS the Earth's core." (Source: Transformers: Prime S1 E25)

6. "(Galactus) So quick to beg for oblivion's embrace. (Unicron) I AM oblivion!" (Source: Death Battle)

7. "(Lex Luthor, in his own body) Still hiding behind this hideous mask, tin man? Let's show your true face in the light of day! (Doctor Doom, now in Lex's body) Don't you see? That mask IS my true face." (Source: Death Battle)

8. "There used to be a POINT to the war. Now, war WAS the point." (Source: Death Battle - Frieza vs Megatron)

9. "(Ratchet) Have you taken control of the Deception vessel? (Nemesis) I AM the vessel." (Source: Transformers: Prime S2 E11)

10. "I don't THINK I'm a god. I AM a god!" (Source: Mega Man ZX Advent)

11. "(Trunks) Do you really believe your own hype that much?! (Vegeta, at the top of his lungs) I ***AM*** THE HYPE!!!" (Source: Dragon Ball Z Abridged Episode 44)

12. "(Perfect Cell) I thought you were just somebody's hype man. (Hercule Satan) I AM the hype!" (Source: Dragon Ball Z Abridged Episode 57) Ss0jse (talk) 15:55, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm reminded of the famous statement about television, "The medium is the message".

Item 4 on your list (from The Empire Strikes Back) is not a figure of speech, as Vader actually is Luke's father. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:24, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

@Baseball Bugs, I understand what you're saying about Item 4, but would you happen to know which term is the answer to my question? Ss0jse (talk) 16:41, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

That term does not exist, and probably has not even entered the premices practice leading to a fully consensual determination. One reason for that might be that its object's original field of occurence, the very minor subgenre of 1960-70's supervilains horror comics not only is low in valuation still even among its more fashionable descendants as have been listed, furthermore still is until now lacking the multilinguistic scope of interest that is usually needed for leading to parallel development of a semantic rationale. Abroad that metafictiously deflected fourth wall breaker will be just the expression of a very specific americananism (or otherwise a too much "private" anglosphere notion if you'll admit Judge Dredd into the club). Noone among contemporaneous serious linguists will be willing to risk their own profiles and reputations in such conditions... --Askedonty (talk) 20:27, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

TVTropes has it as "I Am the Noun": [29]. --Amble (talk) 21:53, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

It could be called the plot device of L'État, c'est moi. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:53, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

This reminds me of I Am that I Am. --Error (talk) 00:49, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Which, in turn reminds me of this. —136.56.165.118 (talk) 17:50, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Popeye might be God. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:35, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

See also: "(Crowd) Give us this bread! (Jesus) I AM the bread." --Amble (talk) 17:41, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

January 25

Question - What Terms to Use

How do I determine whether I should use 'anybody' or 'anyone', and does it really matter? MyNameIsUnnamed (talk) 00:41, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

I googled "distinction between anyone and anybody", and several opinions emerged. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:56, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

They mostly seem parroting each other, in particular with the complementary claims that either

"anyone does not refer to any specific person, while anybody refers to a specific person in a group"

or

"anybody can suggest a random person from a group, while anyone might imply selecting a single person from a group".

Obviously, these cannot be both correct. I think that, inasmuch as they suggest a difference in contemporary usage, both are wrong.

I find this article (by a published linguist) helpful. To the only example of a difference in this article, shown with graphs, I can add another, more striking example: Questions, anybody? versus Questions, anyone?.  --Lambiam 12:51, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

"Anyone for tennis?" or "Tennis, anyone?" were kind of stereotypical 1920s phrases with that word-choice... AnonMoos (talk) 22:03, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

January 26

Churchill opinion on R battleships

In his great work, W.C. expresses quite negative opinions on these vessels. But this (appendix E of volume 3, you may find it at www.fadedpage.com) is of difficult understanding (may depend on the fact that I am italian)

"The manning problem is greatly increased by maintaining numerically large
  fleets in remote waters, owing to the greater number of men in transit.".

What is the meaning of "in transit"? My italian books translate as "imbarcati", i.e. "the crew is large" (literal back-translation). Webster did not help me.

"Greater" is used for "very great"? Otherwise, greater than what?

My understanding is "if these ships are in home waters, their crews may be moved easily on destroyers, frigates ... when are needed here and returned to the battleships if a big raider appears or coastal gunnery is required, but this is impossible if are in the Indian Ocean". Do you see any other meaning that is not a Lapalisse's one?

Thanks 176.206.33.66 (talk) 09:22, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

"In transit" is just a standard term, not just military, for traveling or being in the middle of traveling. If there are more ships in remote places, then more crewmen will have to go back and forth. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:38, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Also, "greater" means there are more men in transit than if there were fewer such ships. Clarityfiend (talk) 10:41, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks. Just to be sure beyond my poor english, you mean that the transit is due to the need of alternating the crews on the vessels in the far seas? @Clarityfiend: 176.206.33.66 (talk) 11:48, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I would disagree. It simply means there are more men out there on the ships, not that those men are going back and forth. Being on a ship is being "in transit". However! More men means more logistics required to feed them, arm them, and so forth. More logistics means adding more ships to transport food, ammunition, and other supplies, and those ships will have their own crews, so the logistics ships need to be covered by logistics as well to some extent. Those logistics ships do go back and forth, of course, as part of their jobs. Fieari (talk) 06:54, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

That seems to be the intended meaning; however in reality I believe that there was not much crew rotation; my grandfather spent four years of the war based in Alexandria without home leave, despite having a wife and children in England. Perhaps he was referring to the logistic chain required? Alansplodge (talk)

Sorta lost here. What's an "R battleship"? We seem to have R-class battleship; is that what's being referred to? What "great work" of Churchill, and Appendix E of Vol 3 of what? --Trovatore (talk) 19:15, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Trovatore - yes the R-Class battleships had never been properly modernised, since they were due to be replaced; although still powerful ships, they were considered something of a liability anywhere where they were likely to meet a more modern rival or hostile aircraft in any numbers. We gave one away to the Soviets. For your second question, see The Second World War (book series). Alansplodge (talk) 16:22, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

The Great Work of WC is "The Second World War", that gave him the Nobel Prize for literature. The passage is in the Appendix E of volume 3 of this work. The battleships are indeed the R-class ones. Excuse my poor english: what "Sorta lost here" means? Thanks

@Alansplodge:The crew rotation seemed also to me the literal meaning, but is not coherent with the general context in the book - not to say the risk of losses during the transfer. Your suggestion to the logistic chain sounds good. 176.206.33.66 (talk) 20:58, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Voleva dire che avevo perso un po' la fila. Letteralmente mi ero leggermente perso. --Trovatore (talk) 21:26, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

"Sorta lost here" is a colloquial phrase for "Sorry, I didn't understand what you wrote." Fieari (talk) 06:55, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Yeah. Trovatore just tried to explain it in Italian. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 13:05, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks to all. I see that this passage poses problems also to native-english.

I have read the article R-class battleships that contains

In late 1943, Revenge and Resolution were recalled to Britain, owing to their poor condition; the former carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill part of the way to the Tehran Conference in November and December while the latter underwent a refit.

This seemed me quite strange, because a ship going TO Britain cannot carry WC FROM Britain. Indeed, WC wrote that he reached The Cairo on the Renown (volume 5B, start of chapter 1), run Cairo-Teheran-Cairo-Marrakesh-Gibraltar in aircraft and from here reached Britain on the King George V (volume 5B, end of chapter 8). I have an italian translation where the 12 books are labeled 1A, 1B ... 6B - possibly in your edition the volume 5B is numbered 10 176.206.33.66 (talk) 22:50, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Maybe Churchill was not in Britain when he boarded Revenge on the way to Tehran? Hey, was Churchill really DPR? I think that has potential as a fan theory. --Trovatore (talk) 23:23, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Eden and Churchill arrived in Tehran by plane. This means that the battleship even though not in outstanding condition was still considered was safer and perhaps more comfortable than plane for the first part of the travel (in fact in december Churchill was declared "seriously ill" costing him some time). Though I think in fact the R-class article must have been suffering a confusion between the ship's class and names. --Askedonty (talk) 00:38, 29 January 2025 (UTC)

Tyger Drew-Honey's name in Russian?

Would Tyger Drew-Honey's name in Russian be Tigr Semyonovich Drew-Honey, except in Cyrillic letters? Tigr is the Russian language translation of Tiger (Tyger is an alternate spelling of Tiger). His father's name is Simon Honey, which is Semyon Honey in Russian. (Semyon is Simon in Russian. Ben Dover is his stage name, not his real name.) 172.56.182.234 (talk) 23:30, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I think it would just be a phonetic transcription, something like "Taiger Semyonovich Dryu-Khani". (Kh pronounced like a voiceless velar fricative.) 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 00:47, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

But Tyger is literally translated as Tigr, similar to how Shitavious Cook (the name of a real convicted criminal) is translated as Govnyuk Povor! 172.56.182.234 (talk) 01:00, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Tiger Woods is Tayger Vuds, Not Tigr Lesá... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 01:03, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Tigr Lesa sounds much cooler, honestly! 172.56.182.234 (talk) 06:02, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

What's your source for Shitavious Cook being translated as Govnyuk Povor? Apparently it's the name of a 15 year old black guy being convicted of murder, and even if some Russian guy told you that, it just sounds like a stupid racist joke with no basis in reality. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 01:23, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

I personally speak Russian lol. 172.56.182.234 (talk) 02:11, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Looking through the list of Honeys on English Wikipedia and searching for Russian Interwikis, I find Honey Irani as ru:Ирани, Хани in Russian. So here the Honey part translates/transliterates into Хани which I guess would become "Khani" on its way back into English? -- 79.91.113.116 (talk) 09:55, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Also, I don't think Russian adds patronymic surnames to foreign names, anyway. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 00:52, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Why not? 172.56.182.234 (talk) 01:00, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Unnecessarily complicated for names growing out of other cultures. I mean, you can propose this question as a creative thought experiment, but in practice, Russian doesn't operate like that. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 01:05, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

The patronymic is an integral part of a Russian's full name. It is not a part of anyone else's name unless they also have patronymics as part of their culture.

Adding a patronymic to a foreigner's name is sometimes done as a kind of joke, but afaik the only serious exceptions are foreign nobles who married into Russian royalty, and even then the patronymic they were given was often not based on their father's name anyway. For example, Empress Alexandra, the German-born wife of Tsar Nicholas II, was born "Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse and by Rhine". Her father was Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse. Yet the patronymic she was given was Fyodorovna, lit. daughter of Fyodor (Theodore).

I'm not even sure that non-royal foreigners who emigrate to Russia and become Russian citizens are given patronymics, unless they legally change their name to a more Russian-sounding one. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:37, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

It's not usual to translate people's names literally, as hilarity may result; see A long list of English translations of non-English footballers' and managers' full names. Alansplodge (talk) 16:37, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 28

Uppercase after a semicolon?

Hi, everybody :) non-native here.
The Watergate (disambiguation) page in the 30 November 2024 version contains this line:

• Watergate, a former area of Oxford known for its College of the Franciscans; See [[Haymo of Faversham]]

in the 'United Kingdom' section.

Is the uppercase 'See' correctly used, or rather should it be lowercase 'see'? --CiaPan (talk) 11:18, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

In a typical English sentence, in prose, the word after a semi-colon does not start a new sentence, and would not be capitalized. A disambiguation page, however, is not typically written in prose, but rather uses a list form, using short sentence fragments in a terse explanatory way which may follow different, somewhat more casual rules. That said... in this case, I do believe a lowercase "see" would be closer to correct. Other alternatives would be to make it parenthetical instead (like this, putting it inside parenthesis) or splitting it into a new sentence... but as I said, lists like this don't often use complete sentences. Fieari (talk) 11:38, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

The uppercase "See" was incorrect and I've changed it. I've also changed the semicolon to an en dash. --Viennese Waltz 12:37, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

@Fieari and Viennese Waltz: Thank you for the explanation and the fix. --CiaPan (talk) 17:24, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 15

Marvin the Martian's Planet?

What is the Planet Marvin the Martian lives in? 50.100.44.204 (talk) 19:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Marvin the Martian lives on Mars, as one would expect from the name. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 20:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

That may be WP:OR. He may be from Mars originally, but does he actually still live there, or has he purchased a condo somewhere else, say on Ganymede, where real estate is cheaper? Clarityfiend (talk) 21:35, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

If it's unreliable information, we need to edit his article extensively, since it states in several ways that he is from Mars, his home is Mars, he represents Mars diplomatically, and he has lived on Mars for some two millennia. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 12:26, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Read the article more carefully next time. It only says he hails from Mars and that he has tried to destroy the Earth for two millennia. It does not say his home is currently Mars or that he represents the planet diplomatically (which, even if "true", wouldn't necessary require him to live there. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:51, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Here's a gen-you-wine Mars Rover photo from a few years back.[30] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:51, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Words differencies

I am italian Wikipedia user and I like to know what is the differencies between this words:

When a film director show how the movie is built, two words is used for this: “behind the scenes” and “backstage”. What is the differencies? Thank you! 2.194.241.221 (talk) 20:23, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

"Backstage" generally (though not always) means the actual physical area behind the stage, whereas "behind the scenes" is a much broader term referring to anything that isn't known by the general public, even things like business deals to finance the production, casting reasons, etc. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:53, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Is Knuckles playable in Sonic 3?

Is Knuckles the Echidna playable in his first appearance in Sonic the Hedgehog 3? 2605:B100:102:98EE:B178:9D5:9239:2287 (talk) 20:40, 15 January 2025 (UTC)

Apparently not. From Knuckles the Echidna it states "He was given a headlining role in the next game, Sonic & Knuckles, where he made his first appearance as a playable character." 196.50.199.218 (talk) 06:03, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

You can only play as Knuckles in Sonic 3 by using Sonic & Knuckles's "lock-on" feature to insert the Sonic 3 cartridge into the Sonic & Knuckles cartridge. -insert valid name here- (talk) 20:49, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 16

What if, resumido así nomás

This video in Youtube is a weird recap in Spanish of the first season of What If...? (TV series), mixed with memes and stuff from other places. There are a pair of music tracks that I know I have heard somewhere, but I'm not sure. One is the one used at the end of the episodes (see for example 1:55 on), and the other is during the final fight with Ultron (12:38 onwards). Cambalachero (talk) 03:34, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

To be clear (since your post is a statement, not a question), are you asking if anyone can identify the music tracks? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 12:29, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes Cambalachero (talk) 14:30, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

The song exerpt just after 1:55 is from 'It Takes Diff'rent Strokes', the theme song of the TV show Diff'rent Strokes. (Found simply by web searching the sung lyric. I've never seen the show – wrong continent and era for me.)

I don't recognise the exerpt at 12:38 (and there's no words), but others probably will. Sounds like the sort of folk rock I like, actually. Hope this helps. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 18:36, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

Shazam says that the second piece is "The Raising Fighting Spirit" by ACN Music. Matt Deres (talk) 15:41, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks, Matt. And teh interwebs tell me ACN Music is a Brazilian music producer and composer who specializes in electronic and orchestral music. Sounds like someone we could stand to have an article on, but the sources I saw mostly don't look 'Reliable' in Wikipedia's sense. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.30.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 94.8.29.20 (talk) 17:25, 18 January 2025 (UTC)

Which topics should I make videos about? Which would people like to see?

"We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas..." Matt Deres (talk)
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
I want to set aside some time to make some YouTube videos again (no guarantees though). What topics should I do more of? I am interested in the following topics, but of the following topics are other people most interested in? For the second and third choices, reply with some ideas. I need some good ideas to get myself started... Chinese railways & places (I am currently in China) Short film type videos Outdoor sports (cycling, climbing, swimming, etc.) Music My existing channel can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@FelixAn Please help me provide some relevant ideas. Thanks! Félix An (talk) 09:08, 16 January 2025 (UTC) In my experience, YouTube videos are interesting not because of their basic subject matter, but of how well, and entertainingly, and informatively, the video conveys it. In the last few years I have become a regular watcher of YT videos about, amongst other things, opal cutting, cattle-hoof trimming and saw-milling, not because I have any connection whatever with these activities, but because of how they are presented. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 12:34, 16 January 2025 (UTC) If you choose topics that allow you to present material that you yourself find interesting, it increases the chance that others will find your videos interesting. Is this the first time you have been in China for a longer period? If so, what struck you? If your current aim in making video's is to have fun while getting good at it, building the video around material that you find interesting should be a better approach than basing your choice of topics on a guess what other people are interested in. The latter feels to me like a recipe for failure. It is better to trust your own sensibilities. I'm sure that as you rewatch your earlier videos, you see things of which you think, "this or that would have come out better if I had ...". Successful channels became successful by building up a loyal fan base. That requires a certain consistency of a stream of output – consistent in treatment, consistent in quality, consistent in pace, ... – so that the followers can trust they won't be let down. Success does not come easy. If eventual success is also your aim, plan ahead to make a sequence of videos that in some way together form a coherent series, even though each can stand on their own. A final advice is to study the videos of channels you like to watch, not to copy their apprach, but to analyze what it is that makes you want to see more output of the channel. The videos you make should be such that you'd have appreciated watching them if someone else had made them.  --Lambiam 23:39, 16 January 2025 (UTC)

January 19

Leonard March from Strangers and Brothers

Leonard March is one of the side characters from Strangers and Brothers who appears in a few of the books from the series and he also appears in 3 episodes of the 1984 tv series and I've been wanting to know what happens to him in last appearance and where does he go to. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 17:59, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Winter sports

Why major winter sports tournaments, such as Winter Olympics and skiing World, European and national championships almost never take place in the end of year, and all take place in the start of year? So, if Winter Olympics take place in February and March, and previously in January, why they have never taken place in December? Is it related to the fact that December is warmer than both January and February, and many places such as ski resorts have highest snow depth in February and March? --40bus (talk) 21:12, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Ho, ho, ho! You wanna get a lump of coal from Santa? Clarityfiend (talk) 22:45, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

40bus I have no idea what Clarityfiend is trying to say, but the simple answer to your question is Yes. HiLo48 (talk) 22:54, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

40bus certainly seemed to have answered his own question. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:29, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Is it that hard to understand that the sports would be competing with some obscure holiday called "Christmas"? Clarityfiend (talk) 00:42, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne were (at least partly) in December. I can assure you that Melbourne does Christmas. HiLo48 (talk) 00:47, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

I didn't claim Christmas made it impossible to schedule events in December. I'm only saying that it is a deterrent. Clarityfiend (talk) 19:16, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The threat of lumps of coal may be a deterrent in Canberran summer, but many in the bitter cold global North might welcome the selfsame lumps as an addition to a shrinking supply of fuel.  --Lambiam 23:04, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Others in the global North are wondering why we need strategic natural gas reserves to last a severe winter, when there hasn't been a severe winter since 1963. Not even an average winter since 2013. PiusImpavidus (talk) 16:15, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Getting ready for the collapse of the North Atlantic Current? Might or might not be a big issue for you, depending on where you are: definitely one for North-West Europe.

Of course, other parts of the world might also experience similar issues. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 19:33, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

That could be an issue, sure, dropping winter temperatures by around 15°C (after going up 6°C) where I live. But that whole collapse will take a few decades and by then natural gas heating will be a thing of the past. It has already been abolished for new construction. Maybe we'll use heat pumps on nuclear power. It would make sense. PiusImpavidus (talk) 20:17, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Governments are slow to adapt to new or future problems: they are always trying to address the last crisis. And solutions requiring large infrastructure or engineering take a long time to plan, approve and build: often they're obsolete before they're even completed. Such is the nature of human society (as opposed to individual humans).

Note that Natural gas is not just used for domestic heating (and cooking) – in the UK, for example, it supplies a large proportion (often over 50% on some days) of the nation's total electric power generation (see here); worldwide it averages to around 23% (exceeded only by coal, which is even 'dirtier') – this will doubtless remain the case for decades, during which supply fluctuations necessitate having Strategic natural gas reserves. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 15:37, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Well, 2/3 of December is actually in the autumn (northern hemisphere). --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 13:06, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Astronomical autumn rather than meteorological autumn which ends on 30 November - see this BBC article. Alansplodge (talk) 21:17, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Ice sports are normally played indoors these days and we can make indoor ice throughout the year. It's cheaper in terms of energy the colder it is outside. When the coldest part of the year occurs varies by place, depending on things like latitude, distance to the sea, wind patterns changing over winter. I expect most northern hemisphere places to reach their lowest temperature in January.

More relevant are the snow sports, as they need snow outside. Maximum snowdepth is reached when melting begins. When this is varies regionally, but also by elevation. And it gets earlier in the changing climate. Although the skiing season gets shorter, the build-up of snow goes faster, as precipitation increases with warmer seas. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:03, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

January 21

Yokohama Chinatown

Detective Conan Episode 418 (14:31-14:56). Please, can you help me to find the type of sword of that Chinese antique shop's owner, and the name of the statue's face? You can see also these three files: 1, 2, 3. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.117.2.188 (talk) 08:56, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

The sword looks like a 大刀 (dàdāo).  --Lambiam 11:04, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. Can you find even for the statue? Maybe it could be a Tibetan dog lion statue. Moreover, for the sword, its handle has red, blue and green ribbons: what is those three colors meaning for a sword in China? 80.116.148.210 (talk) 11:27, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Please, can you answer my questions? 79.41.196.203 (talk) 16:33, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

It's very difficult to answer. Most explicit references will usually assert that the colors depend on the owner's choice in accordance to their own discipline and which set of symbolic rules they elaborated about it, unless in a military context in which case you may guess that the rules are basically the same. Other than that I only found this page which explains that "The Chinese rarely use multiple colors", so perhaps the owner of that sword (future owner perhaps) is not Chinese. --Askedonty (talk) 11:58, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you. Can you search also for the statue, so it's closed? 79.41.238.198 (talk) 12:14, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

I'm waiting for an answer. 87.8.237.2 (talk) 13:14, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 22

Looking for a variation of "Suspension of disbelief"

Suspension of disbelief is a theory how people might not see unrealistic elements of a work of fiction to get entertained. But I think even more relevant for films is another effect: The work of art keeps people so busy and excited that they do not have the time to think about inconsistencies and elements out of touch with reality. Example: In the canyon fight scene in Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick says: "We gotta get low. The terrain will confuse his targeting system." This would not be the case in reality against a 5th generation fighter targeting system, but 99% of the audience simply can't judge that, so it's not the point. But his own 40+ years old targeting system locks on the enemy instantly, which hardly makes sense in context and should provoke disbelief. However the audience is so excited and so busy awaiting the result of the fight - they don't have any time to think about it. Has this effect been named and discussed already? --KnightMove (talk) 15:54, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Aesthetic distance seems related. Matt Deres (talk) 18:57, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Or it's simply a plot hole. Xuxl (talk) 10:24, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Or maybe the writers figure the audience won't care. It's hard to imagine a bigger "plot hole" than the preposterous "matter transporter" in Star Trek, but it's an accepted part of the canon. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:49, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't think it has been discussed so but arguing the burden is on the viewer there is no burden left even translating the show into lessons if you conclude that in movies it has become about viewers expecting one more demontration of the pygmalion effect, solving itself in the instantaneous weapon lock, figuration of the effect's core self. --Askedonty (talk) 15:32, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

The Star Trek matter transporter is not that preposterous: scientists have already achieved Quantum teleportation of information, photons and atoms, and within the Star Trek canon it is established that the 'transporters' are not actually transmitting matter, but breaking down and analysing the 'transported' item at one end and reconstructing an exact copy at the other. This is not a 'plot hole', rather a deliberate plot device. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.8.29.20 (talk) 15:43, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

Right, it's a plot hole. But I am looking for a term (if it exists) for the technique to keep the audience excited and busy enough for they would not care about that plot hole. Another example: In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the first fight occurs in the shopping mall. John O'Connor runs down the escape route corridor, hunted by the T-1000. The T-800 breaks the fire door and comes to meet them. But why does he do this? It does not even make the slightest sense if he doesn't know they are running down here. And he cannot possibly know. But nobody is concerned about this plot hole, because it is so clear that now the first fight must occur, and the audience is excited to see it - they don't question the way it happens. --KnightMove (talk) 14:23, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

With performing arts it has been discussed, especially with respect to magic: sleight of hand depends on the use of manual dexterity, psychology, timing, misdirection, and choreography (Henry, Hay (1975). Cyclopedia of Magic, pp 495–498. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-21808-3.). Although with magic tricks one is not expected to completely suspend disbelief, but perhaps long enough to be entertained. Modocc (talk) 14:25, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

For me it was a plot device from my rather poor recollection of the Terminator plots. The AIs' battle came from the Earth's future, so they either might or should have some obscure god-like foresights of when and where to confront the O'Conners and themselves. Modocc (talk) 15:16, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

One might call it artistic licence. On IMDb these are called "goofs", specifically the category "factual errors" (next to "continuity" and "revealing mistakes"). An example given there for the film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is that the opening sequence (dated 17,000 BC) shows what appear to be African tribesmen hunting a tiger, although tigers have never been indigenous to Africa. If memory serves me, in this film — but perhaps it was in a different flick — one moment the heroes are in what is obviously Petra in Jordan, and next they turn a corner and are at the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt, a travel that without artistic licence would take some eight hours by car and a ferry ride across the Gulf of Aqaba to bypass Israel.  --Lambiam 14:14, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

January 27

Japanese translation

Detective Conan Episode 437 (04:43). Even if semi-covered by a picture, can you help me to translate the Japanese characters' which are visible on that book's two pages? Thank you.

I'm waiting for an answer. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.14.233.32 (talk) 15:55, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

January 28

Norbert de Varenne from Bel Ami

Norbert de Varenne is one of the side characters from the French novel Bel Ami and I've been wanting to find out what happens to him by the end of the story because some website say he succumbed to fate while other websites say he lives but I don't know which ones are true or fake. So can anyone please tell me what happens to Norbert de Varenne by the end of the book. Then I will know the truth. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 01:00, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

It,s been years since I've read the book, but I don't recall that anything is said about what happens to him later in life. Here's an article (in French) about the character. It does not mention what happens to him, which meshes with my recollection. The text of the novel is available on wikisource. He's still alive the last two times he is mentioned in the final chapter. Xuxl (talk) 09:42, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Thank you now I know the truth so he's still alive in the final chapter. Matthew John Drummond (talk) 16:39, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

January 20

Yokohama Chinatown

Detective Conan Episode 418 (14:31-14:56). Please, can you help me to find the name of the dress and the sword of that Chinese antique shop's owner, and that of the statue's face? You can see also these three files: 1, 2, 3. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.17.55.190 (talk) 10:16, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

Don't post your question on more than one desk. Entertainment was the right place for it. --Viennese Waltz 09:06, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Trump presidencies

Hello. Trump's current term is as the 47th president. The previous term, (45th), should be put together with the old respective dates in the template (2017-2021). Better not to merge the two terms together, it makes no sense, they are two different things: terms, dates and presidencies. Don't you agree? 93.150.82.178 (talk) 17:37, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

The reference desk is not the place to discuss this. Better venues may be Talk:Donald Trump or (since the issue transcends the specific person who now happens to be in office) Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Presidents of the United States. The problem may be due to a limitation of {{Infobox officeholder}}, the design of which does not accommodate the possibility that the incumbent is a repeat offender. For the only other repeat offender thus far, Grover Cleveland, the issue could not arise since his repeated incumbency did not overlap with the lifetime of {{Infobox officeholder}}.  --Lambiam 21:39, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

If I'm reading the documentation right, you should be able to do it with that template. Use the office field for the first term and the office2 field for the second term, with term_start and term_end being the dates for the first term, and term_start2 and term_end2 being the dates for the second term. Or maybe vice versa? --Trovatore (talk) 22:13, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

These infoboxes list offices (being) held in reverse chronological order, each with a heading identifying the office in a light bluish grey banner, like  13th Head honcho of Team America , below which there is an unbannered heading Assuming office, Assumed office or In office.

The convention for nonconsecutive terms of an office held is that they are combined under one light bluish grey banner, as seen e.g. for Jerry Brown,  34th & 39th Governor of California .

The convention for current office holders is the appearance of a second banner  Incumbent , immediately below the office banner but in the same style; see e.g. Gavin Newsom.

These two conventions don't combine well.  --Lambiam 08:32, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

January 21

Peugeot models only available Europe or North America

Which models of Peugeot, made from 1970 to 2010, could be available only in North America if Peugeot was participating in the North American market?--Donmust90-- Donmust90 (talk) 20:45, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't think they made any model specifically for the North American market. They modified some existing models to make them conform to North American rules. The range of available models was always much smaller than in Europe. Xuxl (talk) 11:50, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

You may be interested in Here’s how Peugeot tried and failed to remain relevant in America (YouTube clip). Alansplodge (talk) 11:57, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

January 23

Year in review

I just received the WP year in review summary. 100 million edits world wide seemed low to me, until I saw 4+ billion bytes figure. Still trying to wrap my mind around these statistics. Did WP publish any kind of "deep dive" into this statistical analysis: minor vs major edits, bots, logged in vs logged off, etc.? Thanks. Ditch ∝ 15:36, 23 January 2025 (UTC)

January 26

Christmas lights

At what point should a house take down their Christmas lights? I'm asking this because, as of today, I have a neighbor whose house still has Christmas lights on. TWOrantula^TM (enter the web) 00:54, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

As stated in the header of this page, the Reference desk cannot provide opinions, but only references and factual answers. Unless there's a weird local law prohibiting your neighbour from doing so, they can leave the lights up for as long as they please. --Theurgist (talk) 02:58, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I've got neighbors that have their lights up year-round, only turning them on when needed. Yard displays, such as nativity scenes, could be a different story, as local laws often have rules about signs and other such stuff in front yards. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:20, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

See Twelfth Night (holiday). Nanonic (talk) 08:39, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

I don't think the questioner is knowingly asking for an opinion (although their "should" is problematic). The simple answer is Twelfth Night. The Christmas creep phenomenon may also be of interest. Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:39, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Some traditions end the Christmas season with Candlemas (2 February).--User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 15:42, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Indeed, see Candlemas and Why You Should Leave Up Your Christmas Decorations Until February from English Heritage. Alansplodge (talk) 18:31, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Can you also ask your supplier if you can pay Medieval electricty rates? Martinevans123 (talk) 18:41, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

At what point can a house put up Christmas lights? (I see chocolate Easter bunnies in the supermarkets. Is this still, or already?)  --Lambiam 13:58, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Widespread commercial practices are by far the best guide to theological festivities. Christmas starts in early October, reaches a climax on Christmas Eve, takes a break on Christmas Day, then is immediately terminated to make way for Easter goods such as chocolate bunnies and hot cross buns, because, as everyone knows, Easter starts on 26 December and continues right through until March or April or whenever the big day is. What's this "twelve days of Christmas" rubbish? We've just had three months (!) of Christmas, and now Easter has already started, and people are still holding out for more Christmas joy. Bah, humbug! Let compulsory fasting commence immediately. It's that or face tariffs. Your prerogative. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:44, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

i keel over 130.74.91.89 (talk) 18:14, 28 January 2025 (UTC)

Inanimate structures will not gain that capability until a few years after Skynet takes over. The first model will be the X-1000 Trapamatic. Being less effective at luring humans inside its lethal interior, it will soon be discontinued. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:39, 27 January 2025 (UTC)

Have you checked that your neighbor is still alive? Martinevans123 (talk) 18:33, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

You must be fun at parties. Clarityfiend (talk) 19:35, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

Let's all hold hands and try to contact the living. But please bring your own candles. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:01, 26 January 2025 (UTC)

January 27

Contacting Jimmy Wales

wp:deny
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
What are all of the ways for one to contact Jimmy Wales? There's a specific e-mail address for him and I used it but so far I don't think that he has ever actually responded to my e-mail. 172.56.182.234 (talk) 01:12, 27 January 2025 (UTC) Asked and answered on the Humanities desk. Please do not cross post. Shantavira|feed me 09:23, 27 January 2025 (UTC)