Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2011 December 21

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December 21

Who was the first child born into a European family in an American Colony?

I have read there is controversy over the first child born in America. Who was the first child born into a European family in an American Colony? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hjt1126 (talk • contribs) 04:40, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

See First white child#North America. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 04:52, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Which covers the subject well if you mean American as in U.S. If you meant born in the New World, the article has a large blank space for South America and the Caribbean. This would be a good article for one of those improved by the reference deskers tag if we can pull out some sources and expand it. Rmhermen (talk) 16:07, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Letter Zyu

I carried an article from the Russian Wikipedia. Want it removed, although I have sources. Please help in the refinement. Bad know English, so all the right issue. Thank you in advance. Странник27 (talk) 12:56, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

See #Zju-27.2C_Zu-27_or_Sic-27 above, article nominated for deletion in en and ru WP. --84.58.203.106 (talk) 15:53, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Done. Rmhermen (talk) 15:55, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

In the Russian wikipedia it is not removed. If you leave it there, this is the reason to restore it here? Странник27 (talk) 16:26, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The reason the English article is being removed is because it is incomprehensible. I tried to read it, and it took me some time to understand what it was even about (and even then I am still not too sure). What you need is a Russian-speaking Anglophone to translate the Russian article for you - which is probably what you mean by 'please help in the refinement'. There are some here. Hopefully someone will come along. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 17:56, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I need help in translation Странник27 (talk) 10:00, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

It would probably be a better idea to post this on the language desk, then, along with a link to the Russian article. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 16:46, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Looking for info on painter Lauritz Holst

Does anyone know the biography of the painter Lauritz Holst and examples of prices for his works? I would be very grateful for all information. Thank you. --88.206.150.90 (talk) 13:40, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Biography of Lauritz Holst (Danish). --84.58.203.106 (talk) 16:09, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

And there's a list of recent auction results for his paintings at findartinfo.com. --Antiquary (talk) 19:43, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

North Korea

After the unfortunate death of the great leader of the North Korean people Kim Jong-il, is there any possibility of weakening of military power or dilution of Juche ideology? --Detrrd (talk) 15:23, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes. After change, there is always a possibility of more change. -- kainaw™ 15:25, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

A possibility? Yes... Is it likely? We don't really know. Only time will tell. Blueboar (talk) 15:37, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

POV or troll, or really bad north korea propaganda machine. All of which are equally childish. Shadowjams (talk) 16:03, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Who is that comment addressed to? Neither the comment nor the response seems POV or trollish to me. --99.237.252.228 (talk) 07:56, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Juche ideology already seems to have been somewhat diluted by Songun ideology over the past 15 years, but it did few people any good... AnonMoos (talk) 16:41, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

religious beliefs concerning man made perfumes

i worked many years ago with a man named Dan. due to Dan's religious beliefs, he was not allowed to use any items that had unnatural or man made perfumes. this included deodorants, mouthwashes and toothpastes. it also included clothes detergent and dryer sheets. the soaps he used were man made and not sold commercially. do you know the religion, or belief, that prohibits the use of man made perfumes in daily cleanliness activities? -steve — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sparty08 (talk • contribs) 17:02, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I deleted your double posting. I cannot answer the OP's question, but I would like to attempt to clarify that the OP probably meant his friend used natural soaps, not sold commercially, rather than man-made ones, as the OP specifically states that man-made ones were against the religion. Unless I am wrong. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 17:51, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Talmudic regulations ban use of anything that may be considered "anointing", such as deodorant and perfume, but not all the time. It is only banned during certain times, such as Yom Kippur. Outside of religion, I know many people who wish they were teenagers in the 60's that claim they have religious reasons to avoid being clean. Luckily, most of them are huddling up in the "occupy" gatherings now so I don't have to catch their odors as I walk down the street. -- kainaw™ 18:04, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

What kind of office would tolerate someone who eschews personal hygiene? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:32, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

One in Europe ? :-) StuRat (talk) 02:27, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

References, anyone? BrainyBabe (talk) 16:28, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Sex offender's "the talk" with neighbours

http://xkcd.com/796/

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1635#comic

I've seen "the talk" parodied many times in many different forms of media, but I have never actually seen the original version. I'm assuming (please correct me if I'm wrong) that like the Miranda warning each state has their own guidelines and each officer has their own idiosyncratic way of administering it. Can someone shred more light on exactly how "the talk" works? Specifically I'm wondering about things like:

1. Sex offenders have (usually) 10 days to inform the authorities when they move to a new residence, but who decides the date and time to perform "the talk"?
2. How many neighbors are covered? Is it something like "every household within 100 yards"?
3. Does the sex offender have to announce their crimes? As in, is it "I'm a sex offender convicted under 18 Pa.C.S. § 3124.1." or just "I'm a sex offender."?
4. Has "the talk" been superseded by the online sex offender registries?99.245.35.136 (talk) 18:50, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

I doubt "the talk" happens very often, if at all, in real life. The law is there to discourage sex offenders from living anywhere. Pais (talk) 11:22, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Megan's Law and Sex offender registry might be of help here. I'm sure this is regulated very differently at each state and country. 88.8.69.150 (talk) 14:06, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I don't believe the offender is expected to approach his neighbors and verbally tell them of his history. I believe he informs the relevant authorities of his plans to move somewhere, and they do mail-outs or a letterbox drop to the surrounding streets (and, likely, any nearby venues for children, such as schools or childcare centres). There are times when one must self-declare one's criminal history, such as when seeking certain types of employment. I don't believe this is the case with neighbors, however. 58.111.186.225 (talk) 17:47, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Regardless of its accuracy, the personal approach to neighbors is popularized with the character "The Jesus" in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski. (We don't yet appear to have provided the OP with a good referenced answer.) -- 203.82.91.131 (talk) 02:29, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

MLA citation style

Hi, I have two questions regarding the MLA style which is frequently used in the Humanities. 1. How do I notate foreign languages in citations? 2. How do I cite a specific page along with the whole page range of a journal article? Many thanks, --Eisfbnore ^talk 21:00, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

It's not necessary to notate foreign language titles in MLA citations. As for your second question... you shouldn't need to do that. What is the situation that requires that? Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 03:00, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Thank you for the swift response. I think you misread my first question though: I was wondering how to inform the reader that the source is in another language than English (like the |language= param in the cite templates). Re the 2nd question: I often want the citation to tell the reader that the information is located on a specific page in a journal article. However, I also want to cite the whole page range. For instance, in the Broder Knudtzon article, I want the reader to know that the text in the source which supports the text in our article is located on page 159, but also that the whole page range of the article goes from 155 to 166. --Eisfbnore ^talk 11:32, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

I don't happen to be near my MLA style manual at the moment, but to the best of my recollection neither situation is addressed. If the title of a book or article is not in English, the reader is expected to infer that the text of the work is also not in English (though I believe that romanizations of Chinese, Japanese, etc., titles can be provided in brackets following the titles). For information from a specific page in an article, the number of that page is all that's used. Deor (talk) 13:27, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks. I often cite articles in Norwegian biographical dictionaries, which almost always only have the biographee's name as the title. Hence, it is not possible to tell the language from the title. On a different note, if I want to cite the page range together with the specific page, shall I simply write "155–166 (p. 159)"? --Eisfbnore ^talk 13:36, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Do not the biographical dictionaries themselves, which should be named in the citations, have recognizably Norwegian titles, though? Deor (talk) 15:09, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Doh! Didn't think that far. Sorry for the stupid question & thanks for the response. --Eisfbnore ^talk 15:15, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Back to the second question: in MLA style, the inline citations cite a specific page, but the entry in the "works cited" section cites the entire article range. You don't mix them up. For example:

Boise proved that x = y (Boise 234).

...

Boise, Randy. "Why x = y." Wikipedia Studies. 12.3 (2011): 230-240.

Etc. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 21:09, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks. I had almost forgotten that the MLA style uses parenthetical referencing together with the "works cited" section. --Eisfbnore ^talk 21:19, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

That's one style treated in the MLA handbook; but unless they've recently dropped it, the main style treated therein is footnote style, which is what I thought you were referring to. Deor (talk) 22:44, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I was referring to the footnote style with citations directly in footnotes without the "Works Cited" section. Anyway I've converted the citation style in the Broder Knudtzon article to shortened footnote style with works cited; do you think it conforms with the MLA style manual? --Eisfbnore ^talk 23:09, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Your references to Vol. 5 of the biographical dictionary lead me to believe that the entries may be ordered by patronymic rather than forename, so I would invert "Johannsen, Lorentz", etc., if that's the way the articles are headed therein. Other than that, the critical thing is that a reader can easily find the information referenced, and your references serve that purpose well. Wikipedia allows any citation style that does so. Deor (talk) 00:16, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

That half trillion

of the ECB, is it money that they had as a reserve or money that they "printed" (I mean, electronically) right now? If the latter is the case, would that mean that any euro was devalued? 88.8.69.150 (talk) 23:14, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The ECB, like any other central bank, spends by creating / printing money. It spends in order to buy something. If it buys another currency, it will naturally tend to devalue the central bank's currency in terms of the other currency. The Swiss, for instance recently did this in order to keep the Swiss franc from appreciating & rendering their export industries uncompetitive. If the ECB purchases Euro-denominated securities, if it went on forever, and encouraged spending by the institution issuing the securities, it could cause inflation. But if done within reason, not necessarily. It may just support sensible, productive & necessary government spending, say. Europe is very, very far from inflation. Unfortunately, in return for the fiscal support of governments which is necessary under the Rube Goldberg Euro currency system, the ECB, Eurocrats & some Euro governments demand austerity policies which make everything worse, more unstable & all of the Eurozone states' debts less payable.John Z (talk) 04:38, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Also, don't forget, depending on which economist you ask, expansionary monetary policy isn't always inflationary and inflation doesn't always mean a devaluation in the exchange rate. 121.222.14.147 (talk) 05:40, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Deeming it to be a formatting error, I've added an "f" to your redlinked "inlationary", if that's OK? Feel free to revert if not. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.130 (talk) 15:34, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Money creation may be a useful article. Note that there are 2 main ways of money being created: either by the central banks printing money or by commercial banks lending more than they actually have (fractional-reserve banking). Since commercial bank lending has been greatly depressed by the financial crisis, there's a lot of room for the central banks to create money without it increasing the overall wider money supply in an inflationary way. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:53, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks so far for the answers. But there's a point still not clear to me. Imagine that the ECB had dollars, a scenario which is almost sure, and bought euros with those dollar for whatever reason. It would end up with a euro reserve that is not composed by euros created by the ECB itself. Does this position exist at all? Do they have an account in their bookkeeping for "euros bought back" and another for "euros created by us, digitally"? I do think that releasing these "bought back euros" into the market should have a different effect than those "euros created by us, digitally." 88.8.69.150 (talk) 13:55, 22 December 2011 (UTC)