Miscellaneous desk
< November 30	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 2 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous 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.

December 1

Smallest city population?

As someone from a country where for a place to be called a city it has to have a sizeable population, I've been intrigued by the American concept that a city is any place deemed to be a city. Ever since I discovered its article here, I've kept an eye on the city of Soldier, Kansas, population 136. Are there any "cities" with smaller populations? HiLo48 (talk) 05:43, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bill, Wyoming is pretty small. I don't know if the residents consider it a "city" or not. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:49, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The significant thing about Soldier, Kansas, population 136, is that our article explicitly describes it as a city. HiLo48 (talk) 10:10, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The word "city" appears over 20 times in that article, without once defining why it's considered a "City". The rule of thumb used to be a population of 2,500 or more. However, I know of cities in the midwest that are officially "Incorporated towns" rather than cities. And consider Coal City, Illinois, with a population over 5,000, yet described in our article as a "village". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:51, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you want to get wacky in the other direction, look at how the state of Virginia treats Arlington, Virginia. It's an unincorporated area, despite having the population density and settlement patterns of a large urban area. --Jayron32 17:36, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Maza, North Dakota, had a population of 5 at the 2000 census. It was dissolved in 2002. See City#United_States for differences between U.S. states. Ssscienccce (talk) 18:05, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The UK's smallest City, St Davids has a population of 1,797. 92.30.222.155 (talk) 22:37, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

When I think of a small city, I always think of Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Its permanent residential population was 10 at the 2010 census. It also ties in with the notion that each U.S. state defines a city differently. Lake Buena Vista and its neighboring city Bay Lake were created as part of the Disney Company's lobbying efforts in the 1960s to gain municipal powers of what would become Walt Disney World. Zzyzx11 (talk) 05:35, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Words like city,town, borough, etc. vary wildly from place to place. A better term to look into may be Municipal corporation, which deals explicitly with localities that have defined boundaries and local self government. What such localities are called is too varied to make much of a difference universally speaking, much like the difference between road,street, drive, avenue, etc is largely arbitrary. Localities that lack any local self government are called Unincorporated areas. --Jayron32 14:15, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For Jayron's definition,Rochefourchat with one inhabitant must be a strong contender. For Britain, we have an article on the largest civil parishes in England but no list of the smallest ones. Itsmejudith (talk) 14:40, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Not really. That's a commune, which in France is the equivalent to what is a civil township in the U.S. That is, there is limited, if any, municipal government in many communes, rather a commune is an administrative division. Some communes do have some local self government, depending on their population, but it's basically a census division rather than a municipal corporation. There are many such administrative divisions in the U.S. that have literally zero population. See, for example, Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant, New Hampshire --Jayron32 19:20, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Jayron, sorry, that's simply mistaken. A French commune has an elected mayor (as Rochefourchat does) and a great many powers. All French communes have "some form" of self government. A commune with 200 residents would have offices open most days of the week, would be responsible for urban planning (zoning), giving permission for new building, encouraging local economic development, repairs to minor roads, road safety, economic development, street cleaning, rubbish collection, school buildings, school meals…. Much, much more than an English parish council, which would normally be ten times the size. Itsmejudith (talk) 22:42, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, thank you for the correction. I was mistakenly under the impression that only larger communes had self government. Does that mean that our population 1 commune is his own mayor? Does he sign his own building permits? An interesting question --Jayron32 12:06, 3 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

about the habbit of masterbation

we do not give medical, psychological, or spiritual advice, seek a professional

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

i am 19, i had the wrong habbit of masterbation for the past 3 years.

for the first 2 years,i did 5-6 times per month.from the last year, i do 2 times per month.i don't want to masterbate any more, but i can't refrain myself from it. I have a good intellect.Is there any danger over my intellect if i masterbate 2 times per month.

i am healthy and a highly sexual man,wanna be a great physicist like einstein. devise some suggestions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drmanish singh (talk • contribs) 11:08, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Having sex with a partner is the obvious alternative. Getting married usually (but not always) accomplishes this. See Masturbation#Health_and_psychological_effects. StuRat (talk) 11:15, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Intelligent people know that the most important thing you can do is to love yourself. You just carry straight on doing what you're doing and you will be fine! --TammyMoet (talk) 13:20, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whut abowt thu habbit uv badd spelen? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:43, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Bad taste Bugs, ridiculing people who do not have English as a first language. How good is your hindi? Richard Avery (talk) 08:32, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's getting personal there. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:02, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How about this bit of advice, from Lenny Bruce: If you want to quit, you can't taper off (as with cigarettes). You've got to quit cold-jerky. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:04, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Personal responsibility/responsibility

I have found no secular evidence that anything has any responsibility for itself, whatever it is. For a living thing to be responsible for itself, it would have to predetermine its genetic inheritance and subsequent nurturing environment from the moment of its conception.

Unfortunately for me there are legal and mental health issues here. The law states "A man of sound mind is responsible for his actions". I have found no dispassionate rationale for this claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.148.78.175 (talk) 18:23, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Free will is the relevant article. Tevildo (talk) 19:00, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Another way to put it is that adults stand by their decisions, while weasels try to blame someone else. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 22:03, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See also: Freeman on the Land, a bit of silliness that has landed a lot of people (who attempt to follow it) in jail. Don't be fooled into thinking a philosophical argument, or wishful thinking, or conspiracy theory, will get you out of legal trouble. 86.164.26.129 (talk) 15:32, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dual Citizenship

I did ask a question a few days ago but now I don't remember where to look for the answer. Please advice, thanks.

Margie — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dual citizenship (talk • contribs) 22:49, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Do you remember (approximately) where you asked it? The last question on this subject to the Reference Desk was in April - WP:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2013 April 10#did immigrants to the united states ever have to renounce their previous citizenship? is the link. Tevildo (talk) 23:13, 1 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Or if you remember which editor ID you used when you posed the question, it should be easy to find. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:20, 2 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]