Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 September 27

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.

September 27

Number of civil servants

I'm looking for a source on the number of civil servants in various countries, particularly smaller ones and especially Singapore. Any ideas? Thanks. DOR (HK) (talk) 04:07, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

That's a good question. I don't have a good answer, but I do have a cautionary note. Be very careful, when looking at any numbers you do find, that you're comparing apples to apples. The definition of 'civil servant' may vary quite a bit from place to place. Everyone agrees that elected officials and tax collectors, are civil servants. But do teachers at publicly-funded schools count? University professors and staff? How about doctors and nurses, in countries with public health care? (Do all doctors count, or just the ones working for 'public health' programs?) Police? Firefighters? Construction workers employed by private companies that have been contracted by the government? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:35, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Just a cautionary note. Whilst agreeing with the above response, here in the UK elected officials are NOT Civil Servants; they are elected officials whose terms of office are limited to a specific period - and nothing more. Civil Servants are exactly as per that definition - employees directly in the pay of the national Government - on a permanent and established basis, barring dismissal, resignation, and redundancy procedures. Others, such as teachers, soldiers, lighthouse keepers, or doctors and dentists in the National Health Service, or local government employees are more correctly described as Public Servants, whose pay and pension arrangements may emulate those of the Civil Service, but they are, nevertheless, Public Servants and NOT Civil Servants. Hope that helps. 92.30.89.62 (talk) 18:04, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

While in Australia, what the UK calls civil servants, we call public servants, and what the UK calls public servants, we call teachers, soldiers etc. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 20:42, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

We rarely use the term "public servant" here in the UK, but we do have a Civil Service. with better pension arrangements than teachers, soldiers, nurses etc. Dbfirs 23:19, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

The old NALGO public sector trade union newsletter was called Public Service, but many of its readers (or binners) regarded that as a bit of a joke even by the 1970s. Ghmyrtle (talk) 16:25, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

I refuse to be drawn into an argument here but the last comment is demonstrably wrong. As one who worked on teachers' and nurses' pensions for over 35 years I can assure him/her that their pension arrangements matched those of my civil service pension in every respect. 92.30.52.58 (talk) 09:04, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Not in every respect (though I'm slightly confused by the four different Civil Service Pension Schemes). Don't you get a pension based on sixtieths in the Civil Service? Teachers' and nurses' pension is based on eightieths, with a compulsory "lump sum", giving a significantly worse deal in the current economic climate. The subject of pensions is off-topic, so I apologise for introducing it. Dbfirs 18:32, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

No. My 36 years in the Civil Service qualified me for 36/80ths (taxable) of my best annual salary out of my last 3 years of service - slightly less than half pay - subject to inflation proofing at the previous year's September rate of RPI - plus 3 times that amount as a one-off tax-free lump sum. I accept that towards the end of my career HMG introduced an option to convert to a 1/60ths system for all members of the PCSPS (with reduced lump sum arrangements) but I, like many others, including doctors, dentists, teachers, nurses, firemen etc., etc., and my wife, who was a midwife and latterly a local goverment social worker (Public Servant) who enjoys exactly the same pension scheme and options as I do/did, chose to stick with our 80ths scheme, and who now find that our newly (non) elected coalition government are attempting to (illegally) change the T's and C's of that contractual arrangement so as to shift the goalposts from RPI to CPI (a traditionally lower calculation of annual inflation). If you have any further challenges, please let me know. 92.30.150.226 (talk) 23:37, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

In that case, I apologise and withdraw the (unnecessary) comment I made above. There are differences in early retirement rules (including the "85-rule" in some funded Local Government pensions schemes until recently), and Civil Servants have traditionally contributed a much lower percentage from their own pay (1.5% compared with 6%, though both have recently increased), with the employer contributing correspondingly more. I am fully in agreement with your objection to the present and previous governments' attempts to manipulate figures, and the coalition's illegal change in contractual arrangements. Whilst searching for comparisons, I came across this document which has some figures on public-sector employment in various countries (pages 8 & 9), and might be of interest to the OP. Dbfirs 20:16, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Interesting off-topic discussion, but I'm still looking for numbers. IMHO, civil servants are those who are employed on civil service terms: pensions, tenure, pay scales, etc. Privatizing a hospital takes the staff out of the civil service, but hiring contract workers during a civil service hiring freeze is just cheating. DOR (HK) (talk) 05:10, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Maybe it's cheating, but it happens a lot, all over the world, and will completely distort the figures you're after. I would be interested to know the purpose of your enquiry. HiLo48 (talk) 05:14, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Working for a local government in the US, like a county, should count as "civil service", but these days it is unlikely you will get a pension. Just saying. Pfly (talk) 06:52, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Well for a start, from a simple search for 'Singapore civil service size' [1] (see the discussion for Singapore figures). From that article, I guess UNPAN has such figures but I was unable to find any from a search and looking thorough their website. You could try asking. In general, I'm pretty sure I've size comparisons aren't uncommon, usually in terms of percentage of population, e.g. nearly 1/3 of people in Sweden work for the public sector. I admit I couldn't find any with much info from searching though. I did find [2] Nil Einne (talk) 13:13, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

This site [3] has a spreadsheet (section 9) showing employment in the public sector as a percentage of the total workforce for OECD countries, but you will need to adapt it to obtain raw figures. Dbfirs 18:29, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Using my DVD player in another country

I can connect my DVD player to my TV using either analogue RF cables, a SCART cable, or a HDMI cable. I know that if using the RF cables the signal is encoded in the UK's flavour of PAL which may not be completely compatible with other flavours of PAL used in other EU countries (I might lose sound and/or colour). Will I encounter similar incompatibilities if I use the SCART or HDMI cables to connect the player to a foreign TV? Astronaut (talk) 07:14, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

PAL, SECAM and NTSC are analogue coding systems and are not, in general, mutually compatible. As far as I know, you will have no problems world-wide with the digital standards of HDMI connections, or with SCART (Euroconnector) in the areas where this is common. I need to add the caveat that I don't have worldwide experience of these, so perhaps our experts from around the world can confirm compatibility without any glitches? Differing DVD region codes is a separate issue about which I know little, but our article DVD region code might help. You should have no problem with the DVDs that you already own, but ones purchased abroad might not be playable on your own DVD player. Dbfirs 08:35, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

AFAIK, most PAL TVs have no problem accepting a NTSC signal from component, composite or s-video (which is a kind of component). However I've heard that NTSC TVs often don't work with PAL signals. When it comes to HDMI, I think most TVs sold in PAL regions similar have no problem with 1080i60 (and other p60 or i60 signals) but again I'm not so sure if all US TVs can handle 1080i50 (or other i50 or p50 signals) Nil Einne (talk) 14:32, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

One thing that might not be compatible are any new DVDs you buy in the other country, unless you have a Multi Region player. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:37, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Dbfirs already mentioned that Nil Einne (talk) 03:59, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

... but the link was a useful addition. Dbfirs 18:12, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

... but it's also the same link you already linked to (note it's not a redirect but a link with a different name), so only really useful if the OP didn't read the link enough to realise it discusses multi-region players (somewhat irrelevant given the below). Nil Einne (talk) 12:25, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

... oops! I'd forgotten what I linked to! Sorry. Dbfirs 19:36, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

You might have noticed I implied I was talking about taking my UK DVD player to another country in the EU. The region coding and the possibilities of NTSC coding are irrelevant in this case. Are there technical signal incompatibilities getting my UK DVD player to output to a non-UK (but still EU) TV, things like distortion in the aspect ratio, loss of colour or sound, when playing via SCART or HDMI connections? Astronaut (talk) 03:13, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure HDMI will be fine. I think SCART will be fine too, but less sure 12:31, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

I agree that SCART will be fine, too, since it is a European standard. Aspect ratio can be a problem within any country, but most modern TVs and DVD players give plenty of choices to achieve an "acceptable" match. TVs without SCART are rare in Europe (though I still have one). Dbfirs 19:36, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Japanese speakers or translators?

Thing is in Japanese wikipedia there are lots of these -> Wikipedia:Database reports/Living people on EN wiki who are dead on other wikis that show people dead, however they aren't referenced as such and the people that are fixing these things currently on the English Wiki can't find web references either. A lot of news sites that would be reliable sources in Japanese, apparently don't publicly archive their articles, particularly their obituaries. Could someone who can read and type Japanese please forward it to the Japanese wiki so we can get some refs to fix this hole? I know I am really reluctant to do anything unless there is a good source (not blogs and such). Also they seem to have several foreign people listed as dead who aren't. Williamb (talk) 09:49, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan would be a better place to request this, since you aren't asking a question, but requesting something. Smartse (talk) 15:07, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

A lot of people on that list are long dead people who simply do not have a date of birth or death listed. (Mauger, Count of Troina, I'm pretty sure, is not alive...) Adam Bishop (talk) 18:42, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Listing rules

on what basis can a company be rejected from listing in the stock market?

Can a individual having revenues from the net list his company taking into consideration that he has no employees in his copmpany?

Can a .com company only earning revenues from the internet list itself in the capital market?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Glendsouza87 (talk • contribs) 12:17, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Different stock exchanges will have different conditions for listing. Large, widely-recognized (like the New York Stock Exchange) will generally have more stringent requirements (for company size and/or cashflow, minimum number of shareholders, track record, corporate governance, etc.) than smaller exchanges. For example, NYSE Euronext (the NYSE's parent company) also operates NYSE Amex, which is an exchange for smaller companies meeting much lower earnings and capitalization thresholds: [4]. Many exchanges require there to be a certain minimum number of public shareholders prior to listing; most exchanges also reserve the right to reject any application for listing on the basis of their own judgement, regardless of any numerical criteria. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:25, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Another criterion is the price of a share. The NYSE, the last I checked, won't list a stock whose price is below $1 per share, and will eventually drop a stock if the share price falls below that level. This rules out so-called penny stocks. Looie496 (talk) 22:52, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

The listing criteria are in the link I provided. The NYSE won't list a new stock below $4 per share, and will delist a stock whose 30-day average price falls below $1 for six months or more. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:31, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

intvu

How do you determine someone’s background /stability and if he is going to stick around for a year or more in a company after he is selected. how eager someone needs to show to grab that job interviewed for and is it necessary to show eagerness to be short listed or does it prove detrimental compared to the ones who are relaxed.? Please help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.95.140.188 (talk) 14:39, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Are you wanting to hire or wanting to get hired?--Aspro (talk) 17:45, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

If you're the interviewer, there is some hard data that's more important than the candidate's demeanor in the interview. Some things to look for include how long the candidate has spent at his previous jobs — if the candidate has had 6 jobs in the last 5 years, that's probably a good indication that the candidate is only going to stay with you for a short time. Another red flag is gaps in employment history. This does not speak of life stability, and may even point to the inability to hold a job for those periods of time (think periods of addiction or drug rehab). Another yellow or red flag is if the candidate is interviewing for a job that's clearly "below" the candidate's previous job or two. If the candidate formerly earned US$80,000 as a manager and now wants to earn US$40,000 as a worker, the candidate is presumably still out there interviewing like crazy to jump to another US$80,000 per year job as soon as possible. (It's not always terrible to hire an overqualified worker, but you can assume that worker is likely to be bored and frustrated.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:59, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

By the way, my comments above are US based. I see the original poster geolocates to India, where the above observations may be totally off; they are culturally based. My understanding, for example, is that most Indian information workers are much more likely than American workers to switch jobs frequently, so seeing "frequent job changes in the last few years" on a CV may be universal in India, for all I know, and hence useless as a data point for the interviewer. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:01, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

old photo for Automobile article

I remember there was a photo which showed alot mini cars in a square and it was used for the article "Automobile"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.31.17.206 (talk) 16:52, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Maybe like this?[5] Alansplodge (talk) 17:23, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

No, it was different. It was black and white and when i mean mini cars, I don't mean the british car mini. I mean small size cars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.149.157 (talk) 02:46, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

If you have a vague impression of when you saw the picture in the Automobile article, you can look through the history. Just click on the "View History" tab at the top of the Automobile page, then scroll down to the appropriate date. Click on the date and time to see the article as it was then. -- Having had a quick browse through myself, you may be talking about File:Automobiles.jpg "A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile", from ca. 2005 [6], which unfortunately has been deleted, with the note that a file of the same name exists on Wikimedia Commons. Unfortunately, the file Automobiles.jpg was deleted from Wikimedia Commons in April of this year because of permission issues. By the way, the Wikipedia:Help desk is usually the better place to go for questions about Wikipedia itself. -- 174.31.192.131 (talk) 04:07, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

9/11 Dust Storm

Please believe me when I explain that in posing this side issue question, I am not being aloof to the enormity or the horror of the human disaster that was perpetrated on the World Trade Centre on September 11th (9/11). I have just received by e-mail a series of previously unseen (by me) aerial photographs of the aftermath of the strikes on the twin towers, and apart from the unimagineable suffering caused that day, whether directly or indirectly, I was and am, amazed at the amount of smoke and dust created by the impacts of the aeroplanes on the buildings and surrounding area. My question? What subsequent damage was done to the air-conditioning systems of the adjacent buildings and perhaps to other air-intake systems such as, vehicle carburation systems and other similar devices, and were such damages claimable against insurance companies, should that consequential information be known? Thanks in anticipation. 92.30.89.62 (talk) 17:53, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

This report (http://www.comptroller.nyc.gov/bureaus/bud/reports/impact-9-11-year-later.pdf) shows the fiscal impacts of 9/11. If I get round to scanning and finding anything about the clean-up air-con unit wise i'll like but probably worth scanning yourself. ny156uk (talk) 19:19, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Was September 11 considered an act of war for insurance? Because a lot of American insurances do not cover acts of war in the standard policies. 69.134.144.157 (talk) 19:24, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to say "no" to 69's question. The insurance companies paid for the World Trade Center destruction. Also see page 8 of the end-of-2001 Warren Buffet letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, in which he writes, "In short, all of us in the [insurance] industry made a fundamental underwriting mistake by focusing on experience, rather than exposure, thereby assuming a huge terrorism risk for which we received no premium." They all have made sure since then to specifically address terrorism in their coverage — it's now always either explicitly included or excluded from policies. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:39, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

I predict considerable debate over exactly what terrorism is. HiLo48 (talk) 22:57, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Some insurance companies define "terrorism". Eg RAC WA Insurance defines it in their thus policy thus:
Terrorism means an act including but not limited to the use of force or violence and/or threat, of any person or group of persons done for or in connection with political, religious, ideological or similar purposes including the intention to influence any government and/or to put the public, or any section of the public in fear.
Mitch Ames (talk) 13:28, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

That is a pretty broad definition. They could use that to deny any arson claim at all. Googlemeister (talk) 18:27, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Long-range RFID

After reading the RFID thread above, I must ask: What's considered the best current RFID-like technology that can sense the "sticker" at a range of a meter or so rather than just a few inches? By "best", I think I mean "cheap and of barely acceptable quality". You see, I want to put such a sticker on my TV's remote control. Even if the detector isn't directional it'll improve my life. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:41, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

It depends by what you mean 'cheap', what is 'barely acceptable quality' and what sort of size you're asking. There are plenty of devices made for this purpose (along with wallets, keys, pets etc), e.g. [7] [8]. These are RF but probably are not technically RFID, aren't passive, aren't what I would call cheap but may be a good bet if you're willing to pay the price and the size is acceptable. I haven't looked but I'm guessing there are plenty of similar items, include some cheaper stuff from China in places like eBay, DealExtreme, KaiDomain, Lighttake, Focalprice, DinoDirect, Buyincoins... Nil Einne (talk) 00:45, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Actually from a quick look on eBay I might have been wrong. Also I forgot to include [9] which may be more expensive then some of the others but is an interesting and IMHO smart addition to the common concept. (Even with the expensive price, the FOFA actually sounds like the one most worthwhile to me since otherwise it'll likely be easy to end up with a case of 'lost the device which helps you find the lost device' situation. Not perfect of course, personally I would suggest 8 devices would have been better and they probably have enough space for that many buttons.) Nil Einne (talk) 00:57, 28 September 2010 (UTC)