Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2018 August 22

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.

August 22

are educational institutions required to file suspicious activity reports under the Bank Secrecy Act?

If a university bursar accepts tuition payments in cash, would they file an SAR for payment of tuition in cash under 10,000 but above 5,000 in the US? 63.159.208.9 (talk) 07:31, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Is a university a financial institution? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:06, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

the diver who died in the thai cave rescue

In the recent Thai cave rescue, one diver died [1]. How did this happen? Is scuba diving particularly dangerous? It sounds like, by rights, he must have run out of air in his tank, except that this is surely impossible, with basic precautions. Is it most likely the water pressure that causes this? Or a pre-existing illness? IBE (talk) 10:33, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Lack of air [2]. It looks like he was above ground, not in the water. It's unclear why he wasn't wearing some form of oxygen supply. --Viennese Waltz 10:39, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

• That says, "Kunan became unconscious while making the return journey to 'chamber three', around 1.5km inside the cave. A diving buddy tried to revive him but was unsuccessful." In other words, he was underwater at the time, between chambers. --76.69.47.228 (talk) 17:19, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

We have an article on Cave diving. It is very dangerous; see [3] and [4] for example. --Xuxl (talk) 13:19, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Reports were that he overexerted himself in an earlier part of the dive, so he used up his oxygen supply too fast. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 20:36, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Is scuba diving particularly dangerous? A big yes on that. That's why you need training before attempting it. And diving in confined spaces is more dangerous still. It's easy to forget about your oxygen supply when you're under a lot of stress, as in a difficult dive. And as noted, getting stressed means you use up your oxygen more quickly! It's an environment we aren't designed for. This is why many experts were worried about the rescue plan. Fortunately it succeeded, apart from the aforementioned tragic death, which must be attributed to the divers' extreme skill and courage. --47.146.63.87 (talk) 06:42, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

On the first caving course I went on, the instructor solemnly told us that all cave divers have long hair so that you can't see where they've had their brains removed. Caving is dangerous, if pushed to extremes. Scuba diving is dangerous. Scuba diving in a cave is very dangerous. Alansplodge (talk) 08:11, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Thanks for the interesting replies, to all. @76.69.47.228:: why do you say he was underwater? The diagram in Viennese Waltz's article showed that there was air in the chamber. This also sounds more plausible than simply running out of air in someone's tank, which (one would think) merely requires checking the air levels, plus general competence as a scuba diver. IBE (talk) 15:05, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

IBE, see Thai PBS - Retired SEAL member dies in Tham Luang rescue operation: "He left the third chamber at 8.37pm. After delivering the air tanks to the T-junction and while returning to the third chamber, he became unconscious while under water. His diving mates performed a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on him but he remained unconscious. Saman was brought to the third chamber where he underwent another round of first-aid treatment but the attempt to save his life was not successful. He was pronounced dead at about 1 am on Friday". This is the reference used in our Tham Luang cave rescue article. Alansplodge (talk) 18:09, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Oh, same as the original article I linked, but somehow I just missed that ;(. So he was underwater, was he wearing scuba gear? Sounds like a dumb question, but VW says "It's unclear why he wasn't wearing some form of oxygen supply". So I'm not totally clear on that, for he could have been swimming unaided through a small underwater section of the cave (perhaps through machismo). I'll call that unlikely just for the moment. So then it sounds like he simply ran out of air in his tanks. Is this not rather strange? IBE (talk) 19:57, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Yes, as I understand it, he just had too little in his own tank [5].Yes, perhaps a bit strange, as he was so experienced. But in emergency situations like that volunteers will tend to push themselves more and take greater risks. Martinevans123 (talk) 21:21, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

However, bear in mind that all of these reports were published directly after the event. Presumably there will be an inquest - there is more than one cause of unconsciousness. Alansplodge (talk) 22:30, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

I don't know what the procedure is in Thailand, but I imagine most of the evidence at an inquest would come from the fellow diver who was with Kunan and who tried to revive him. I suspect he will have known what to look for and may well have checked Kunan's cylinder. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:18, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

That and the autopsy. Alansplodge (talk) 17:11, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

If there was or is one? Martinevans123 (talk) 17:28, 24 August 2018 (UTC)

Sovereign bolivar

I noticed that the obverses of the Sovereign Bolivar banknotes are oriented (flipped) vertically rather than horizontally. Is this the only modern currency with such flipping? Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 13:02, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

See Banknote#Vertical orientation for more examples. --Jayron32 13:20, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

If only the Venezuelan economy could be flipped so easily. One million percent inflation doesn't sound like much fun. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:26, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

There's an interesting way that Brazil handled a similar financial crisis 25 years ago by using a virtual currency to curb runaway inflation; it would be interesting to see it applied in Venezuela and Zimbabwe and other places with similar problems. See Plano Real and Unidade real de valor. --Jayron32 13:31, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

That's interesting. Perhaps the majority of Venezuelans will just flee across the border to Brazil instead? Not sure how close Venezuela is getting to Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic, but I'm surprised it's not been given an WP:ITN nomination yet. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:37, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

It has. HiLo48 (talk) 10:04, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Oh well, it lasted three days. Will the currency last much longer? Martinevans123 (talk) 10:25, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

The Venezuelan crisis has been ongoing for quite some time. ITN would require something new about it going on, not just "the crisis still continues". Something like Maduro resigning. Cambalachero (talk) 21:14, 27 August 2018 (UTC)

Descriptor?

I'm finding the collective term for color, shape, size, and genre. I was thinking of 'descriptor'. What do you think and is there's more precise term to describe the all four? PlanetStar 22:44, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

I'd go with "property". › Mortee _talk 22:46, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

Or possibly "classification". It might help if you explained the context - where are you going to be using whatever word you find? › Mortee _talk 01:11, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

PlanetStar, can you specify what you mean by genre in this context? It seems to me to sit oddly with the other three parameters.

If 'movement' were to be substituted for 'genre', a possible answer would be 'jizz', a term used by birdwatchers to describe the impression given by the overall combination of these factors, which may enable an experienced birdwatcher to identify the species of a glimpsed bird when no single defining characteristic has been clearly seen. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.212.99.189 (talk) 23:06, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

I'm talking film genre, music genre --PlanetStar 23:57, 22 August 2018 (UTC)

What shapes do films and music have? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:41, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

I notice that you write "I'm finding the collective term for color, shape, size, and genre." Do you mean you are "looking for" the collective term for color, shape, size, and genre? Why do you say that you are "finding" it? Or is this a use of "finding" that I am not aware of? Does "finding" mean "seeking"? I don't think there is a term covering "color, shape, size, and genre". Loosely, you could refer to all of these aspects of an entity as "values", (or "properties", as suggested above by User:Mortee). But you would have to make clear that your usage of "values" refers to "color, shape, size, and genre." Bus stop (talk) 12:38, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

Attribute. Gandalf61 (talk) 14:46, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

I'll go with that. PlanetStar 02:56, 27 August 2018 (UTC)