Humanities desk
< January 25	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 27 >

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

January 26

UK export items

what is the largest export item of united kingdom ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.43.229.246 (talk) 05:20, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Define "largest". Greatest total quantity? Greatest total dollar value? Greatest size of individual item? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:50, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Um, we don't measure our exports in dollars, Bugs... AndyTheGrump (talk) 05:56, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

D'oh! OK, in pounds or euros or whatever. Total monetary value. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:38, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

According to this document from the ONS (page 49, at the end), the UK's largest export item by value is the tautological "Mechanical Machinery", followed by "Electrical Machinery" and "Medical and Pharmaceutical products". Tevildo (talk) 09:27, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am surprised it's not financial services. OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:41, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Financial services aren't goods. I believe that is worth over £20 billion in direct tax to the government. Dmcq (talk) 17:03, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The source linked above gives total exports of goods for 2012 as £242,127 million and total export of services as £193,393 million (p.35). Alansplodge (talk) 11:16, 28 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"Mechanical machinery" is not necessarily tautological, Tevildo dear. There's also the (non-mechanical) "machinery of government" (one sometimes wishes the practitioners of which would be exported, permanently). -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 18:35, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

True in that direction, of course (a machine can be non-mechanical), but surely anything mechanical must be a machine? Discussions may continue at our discretion. The boring bit is that "Mechanical Machinery" is defined as "SITC (R4) classes 71 to 74 except class 716", so the "mechanical" isn't redundant in this application - they still could have come up with a different name for it, though. Tevildo (talk) 22:16, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I would not use the term machine to describe a simple lever, a claw-typecan opener, or a hammer, but they are certainly mechanical. Most definitions of machines specify them having several parts. -- Q Chris (talk) 10:39, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to look at simple machine. A lever has a fulcrum, but an inclined plane or a wedge is monopartial ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:48, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Trade Unionism in Banking in India

Hi, I am looking for information about "Trade Unionism in Banking in India". Can any one help me to get the information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.220.34.238 (talk) 05:27, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Category:Finance sector trade unions of India for our list of articles on the various relevant unions. We don't have (at the moment) an article on this subject. Tevildo (talk) 09:38, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Stapling posters to trees

Are there any laws prohibiting people from stapling posters to trees in the United States, particularly the state of Georgia?--The Emperor's New Spy (talk) 23:33, 26 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The only thing I could find is in Arkansas; and only relates to "...any living tree, shrub, or other plant located upon the rights-of-way of any public road, highway, or street in this state".§ 5-67-103 (a : 1) Note: searching local ordinances for the entire US would be a daunting task. ~:71.20.250.51 (talk) 00:30, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bill posting.
Sleigh (talk) 00:33, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Presumably this relates to the question on the science desk about staples possibly harming trees. Countless cities and towns in America have ordinances regulating signs. Prohibitions against posting signs on trees, utility poles, etc., probably have as much to do with "clutter" as anything - as well as those objects next to roads [i.e. "located upon the rights-of-way of..."] are often owned by someone besides the homeowner. Your typical town will have regulations about how to post "for sale" signs, electioneering signs ("vote for Joe Schmo"), yard sale signs, etc. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:04, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In the UK, that would be the sort of matter that would be dealt with by the lowest tier of local government by means of a regulation known here as a bye law. I know that this terminology is not used in the US, but do municipalities there have the same power to enforce their own regulations? Alansplodge (talk) 11:28, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The term "by-laws" is often used in America in social organizations (non-government) where they will have a document called their "constitution and by-laws". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:58, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We have that usage too. Alansplodge (talk) 16:15, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In the U.S., they do have such power. It is called a municipal ordinance. Sadly, Wikipedia doesn't have much to say on the matter. --Jayron32 12:51, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]