Humanities desk
< March 13	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 15 >

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.

March 14

Does Dhritarashtra in Mahabharata relate to Dhṛtarāṣṭra in Buddhist mythology, or they just share a name?

--58.251.146.130 (talk) 04:40, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know directly, but it would not be surprising, as Buddhism grew out of Hinduism. In much the same way that Christianity was founded on the teachings of a Jewish figure, Jesus Christ, and as a result incorporates elements of Judaism in its teachings and scriptures, Buddhism was founded on the teachings of a Hindu figure, Siddhartha Gautama, and also incorporates older elements of Hindu teachings in places (compare, for example concepts such as Dharma and Nirvana appear in both Hinduism and Buddhism, and there is a lot of crossover in mythological figures between the faiths. Which is not to say that the Mahabharata king Dhritarashtra is the same person as the Heavenly King Dhṛtarāṣṭra, I don't know enough to say that it is or is not; except to say that it would make sense if they were the same figure. --Jayron32 04:57, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Monier Monier-Williams lists eight people from the Hindu and Buddhist scriptures with this name, and states that some lexicographers identify one with another. But in the end, nobody really knows.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 12:58, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Strange: No interwiki link to "Vollzugslockerung"

Vollzugslockerung (literally: loosening the conditions of the prison term) means all "favors" which a prisoner can earn, if he/she behaves in a way which might indicate that (s)he is really making an effort to change his/her life and behaviour. These privileges - e.g. working and being trained at a factory outside of the prison, being allowed to spent an unsupervised weekend out of prison with his/her family, attending a family event etc. - are defined and executed regionally. They are supposed to help the prisoner - while serving his/her term - to reintegrate into society after (s)he is released.

Question: Is there an American or British expression for this term? What do I have to search for? GEEZER^{nil nisi bene} 09:59, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

D'OOOOH! Found it: Open prison. Case closed. GEEZER^{nil nisi bene} 10:10, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In the UK, we also have Home Detention Curfew or "electronic tagging" and Release on Temporary Licence but there doesn't seem to be an umbrella term that unites the three. See the rather wonderfully named firsttimeinprison.co.uk - isn't the internet a splendid thing? Alansplodge (talk) 15:22, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

And also of course "day release" and "probation" but I have no idea how either of those relate to any of the other concepts mentioned. I think there's a third that I've forgotten. Also "conjugal visits" which are controversial sometimes. Or did I imagine that? --Demiurge1000 (talk) 23:18, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  Parole? Hotclaws (talk) 03:39, 16 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Banana producer logo

I remember seeing a banana sticker logo featuring a girl with a wreath or a flower on the head (not Chiquita), but can't find the producer's name (perhaps from Ecuador, but not sure). The girl looked downwards and was depicted at chest level or so. Brandmeister^talk 16:58, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to remember such a logo. She had a flower with maybe 5 petals in her hair, as I recall. Not sure if it was on bananas though. StuRat (talk) 00:59, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Pepita? , Lola Bananas Ecuador? , Princesse Créole Martinique? ... this Flickr photostream seems to have just about every banana logo ever made. —71.20.250.51 (talk) 04:40, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is this bible code accidential or from God?

Similar question already asked and answered above. This is not a forum for speculation. AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:55, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Quote from what I need "One cited example is that by taking every 50th letter of the Book of Genesis starting with the first taw, the Hebrew word "torah" is spelled out. The same happens in the Book of Exodus — Preceding unsigned comment added by 07scott (talk • contribs) 17:39, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Texas sharpshooter fallacy, especially the second example of the "Examples" section. --Bowlhover (talk) 17:41, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hi! There's a third possibility! For example, acrostics are not accidental, and they don't come from God. They're just written that way. (On purpose). Someone could have written it that way on purpose. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 20:16, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The question makes too many assumptions about what defines an accident and what defines God's will, and therefore any attempts to answer it merely reflect one's own definition for each rather than the actual question. Ian.thomson (talk) 20:40, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I know this is closed, but I just intentionally added some 13s to Hire More Heroes Act of 2013 (H.R. 3474; 113th Congress), and they accidentally formed a perfect pyramid. So it stands to reason that God's will, our will and the ghostly hand of fate are three parts of the same damn thing. InedibleHulk (talk) 09:12, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Can you show the text hilighting every 50th letter in bold?

Where is torah spelt out in the hebrew bible code in (Leviticus), (Numbers), and (Deuteronomy).

https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/Bible_code — Preceding unsigned comment added by 07scott (talk • contribs) 18:15, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No we can't. AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:18, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

colse facetious answers to trolling question

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Do you mean, to pick every 50th letter of the Bible? It seems to be a task for the computing RD. OsmanRF34 (talk) 23:21, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've always been intrigued by the idea of a sneaky, tricky, puzzler god. HiLo48 (talk) 23:34, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Greeks had one: Hermes. AndyTheGrump (talk) 23:44, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Loki was always in the center of trickery, although a bit eccentric. StuRat (talk) 00:49, 15 March 2014 (UTC) [reply]

WP:DENY μηδείς (talk) 03:30, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Senator for two states?

Inspired by rumors of Scott Brown running in New Hampshire: has anyone ever served as a US senator for more than one state over their career? --Lazar Taxon (talk) 22:36, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

James Shields is the only one to have served as Senator for three states. ---Sluzzelin talk 23:09, 14 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Are there any counterparts to Members of the Australian Parliament who have represented more than one state or territory? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 01:14, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There are some more close calls, for example: Sam Houston represented Tennessee as a Congressman, and served as Governor of Tennessee, then later served as both Senator from and Governor of Texas. Bill Weld was Governor of Massachusetts, and had an abortive campaign for Governor of New York later. Daniel Webster represented both New Hampshire and Massachusetts in Congress, and later served as a Senator from Massachusetts. --Jayron32 02:20, 15 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]