Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2012 October 15

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October 15

Characters who can't stand being loved

I recall a professor mentioning a Shakespeare character who couldn't stand being loved, but I can't recall which. Also, can anyone think of any other characters who had similar issues? Thanks. 129.3.150.196 (talk) 00:08, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Well, there was King Lear, who got a bit narked off with his youngest daughter Cordelia because she wouldn't express her love for him in the same fulsome terms as his other two daughters. Not sure if that's the kind of thing you had in mind. --Viennese Waltz 09:01, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

This is from the opening of Richard III (Shakespeare):

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

The Moor in Titus Andronicus expresses something similar I believe. μηδείς (talk) 18:30, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Don't Beatrice and Benedict have something similar going on before they hook up? AlexTiefling (talk) 21:19, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Effects of listening to the same thing over and over

I've been listening to this video for about the past 5 minutes, and I'm starting to feel a bit dizzy...

Are there any documented cases or research regarding listening to annoying sounds over and over again or annoying statements over and over again, and how it would affect one's psyche?

Thanks. --JethroB 01:55, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Binaural beats (as well as Monaural beats, if the proper frequencies can be isolated and made audible through a single channel) can introduce altered states of consciousness via brainwave entrainment under the right conditions, though in most cases I believe it would take longer than five minutes to take effect. You would also probably need to be otherwise unengaged (not surfing the internet, not reading or concentrating on anything in particular with much intensity, etc.), so I'm not sure that explain this case. Evanh2008 ^{(talk|contribs)} 02:07, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Interesting discussion reminded me of this but it seems that was more visual, then I remembered both the "Suicide causing Song" and the Long Range Acoustic Device, just a comment on how little the average person is aware of these effects.Marketdiamond (talk) 03:31, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I remember at the Detroit Auto Show one of the displays had a jingle that repeated continuously. By the end of the show, the employees who worked there looked like the walking dead. StuRat (talk) 05:07, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

That may just be average Detroiters--or those exposed to Detroit for an extended period. Marketdiamond (talk) 08:11, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I was gonna say that spending all day talking about cars would turn anyone into a zombie. Except petrol heads, of course. To each his own.-- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 10:45, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Well, boring old econobox cars, perhaps. But supercars are always fun. Then there's the pretty models. And, even if they aren't your cup of tea, there's lots of extras, like a dancing fountain display, the new version of WII to try out, etc. StuRat (talk) 16:03, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

A paper by Warren notes that "Verbal satiation" was described by psychologist Titchener in 1915, wherein prolonged repetition of any common word causes it to lose meaning. It has been a common area of research since the 1960's, See also recent self-help book which says that when you hear a word like "milk" you associate it with liquid food, but if you say it aloud rapidly for 20 seconds, it becomes a meaningless auditory sensation. The book suggests that one might lessen the hurtful impact of some demeaning term used against the person. Also there is distortion and spontaneous changes when the same thing is heard repeatedly, such as "say" becoming "ace" or "ticktock, ticktock" becoming "toctic. " In Warren's study, repetition of a word for 3 minutes caused the perception to shift to words which were nothing like the actual word. Other books I've read (no handy link) have noted this same loss of linkage between auditory input or vocal output and lexical meaning, like the fatiguing of a neural pathway. I recall the era when carmakers put in a chip which endlessly repeated "The door is ajar" as long as the car sat with the door open, and how it started to fatigue the mind after a number of reps. There have been cases of a bad door switch which caused this phrase to be repeated continuously while the car was being driven. Such repetition seemed like a good candidate for a brainwashing method. (The only recourse was to reply, "No, the door is a door. A jar is where the jam is found.") Car manufacturers seem to have switched to chimes to nag drivers. (Added:) We have an article on this called Semantic satiation, but it is a bit lame. Edison (talk) 15:37, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I don't remember that, but it probably explains why there's a large lighted sign saying "YOUR DOOR IS AJAR" in the Major Tom (Coming Home) music video... AnonMoos (talk) 16:04, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

The abiding memory of my one and only visit to one of the Disney empire's theme parks, was the endless repetition of a song called "It's a Small World", which nearly drove me bonkers. Why they do that, I have no idea. Alansplodge (talk) 17:44, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

James Kerasiotes

Could you please tell me why the name James F. Carlin does not appear in your report. Mr. Carlin facilitated the original appointment to the Mass Turnpike, via members of his previous administration as Secrectary of Transportation? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by76.119.25.121 (talk) 04:52, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

You should put this on Talk:Massachusetts Turnpike or add it to the Massachusetts Turnpike article yourself, preferably with a source. BTW, who is James Kerasiotes ? Is that you ? StuRat (talk) 05:03, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

James Kerasiotes is undoubtedly James Kerasiotes. Looie496 (talk) 05:52, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

OK, then my comments apply to that article and talk page, as well. StuRat (talk) 06:09, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Chinese economy

When will China's economy surpass America's? --168.7.237.77 (talk) 05:31, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

It may not happen. They will run into some rather serious walls, like a demographics bomb due to the One Child Policy, rioting farmers who had their land stolen, environmental problems, and, ironically, they could have a communist revolution from those who resent the wealth being so unevenly and unfairly distributed to those who know influential Party members. StuRat (talk) 05:38, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Then what country will be the first to beat the US? India? Brazil? --168.7.234.107 (talk) 05:54, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Could be China, India, Brazil, or perhaps the EU will be considered a single nation at one point. StuRat (talk) 06:08, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Until it actually happens, it is certainly true that it may not happen (the entire country may be wiped off the map by an asteroid tomorrow). It would take something pretty big to prevent it, though. The demographic bomb you speak of won't act fast enough - we're talking 5-10 years, not a generation. Environmental problems aren't going to do much on that timescale either. Some kind of revolution that decimates the economy is certainly a possibility, but there aren't really any signs of that happening in the near future. In short, we can be pretty sure China's economy will overtake America's - the difference in population is so much that it has been essentially inevitable for a long time. The only question is when and, once you've agreed on a metric, there isn't even much of a question there. One or two percentage points difference in either the US or Chinese growth is only going to change the estimate by a couple of years or so. --Tango (talk) 20:48, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

This chart from The Economist estimates that the Chinese Gross Domestic Product will surpass that of the United States (as measured at market-exchange rates) in 2018, if that's what you mean. There are, of course, lots of other measures of "an economy" – several of which are detailed there. Gabbe (talk) 06:52, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

As for other countries than China surpassing the US, looking at "List of countries by past and future GDP (nominal)", it seems that there are estimates saying that the second country to surpass the US in this sense will be India. According to estimates, India might have a greater GDP than the US sometime in the 2030s. But projections so far ahead should be taken with a grain of salt. Gabbe (talk) 07:04, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

IMF's projections puts it at 2017.A8875(talk) 07:12, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Think some say that China has already surpassed the USA. Using purchasing power parity, and depending on how you measure rural production and living standards, iirc. There's close to zero doubt that it will surpass by increasingly many measures. The Economist lists some already achieved, and should be just about all, pretty soon.John Z (talk) 07:26, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Based on nominal GDP (which is the one that I and Goldman Sachs use), about 2027. Source:http://theloadstar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Goldman-Sachs-Global-Economics-Paper-208.pdf Futurist110 (talk) 20:42, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

Characters at the top of this here picture

וחוח, or something?

The picture at right is an illustration of the 21st article of the Augsburg Confession, which relates to belief in the doctrine of sainthood. As you can see, there appear to be four designs at the top of the picture, amidst the clouds. As far as I can tell, the characters are an attempt to reconstruct the Tetragrammaton by someone unversed in the Hebrew alphabet. Since I can't tell quite how that relates to the doctrine in question, though, and since that first letter looks nothing like any yod I've ever seen, I feel compelled to doubt my first instinct. Does anyone have a better idea? Evanh2008 ^{(talk|contribs)} 07:23, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Educated guess here emphasis on "guess", it appears like some kind of hebrew or derivation, very similar to the Chai (symbol) just repeated. Marketdiamond (talk) 08:04, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

So instead of one yod that doesn't look like a yod, you see two yods (yodim?) that don't look like yod? It says pipi in Greek (πιπι). —Tamfang (talk) 08:06, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

In Hellenistic or Roman Empire times, when some Greek-speakers without knowledge of Hebrew sometimes tried to make use of Jewish names for mystical or occult purposes, YHWH written right-to-left in the Hebrew alphabet was occasionally misunderstood as PIPI written left-to-right in the Greek alphabet. However, I really don't think this would apply to Renaissance pious illustrations, and the artist would not have drawn the characters with wavy outlines if he had intended to show the Greek alphabet... AnonMoos (talk) 14:26, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

William Gesenius's Hebrew punctuation (i.e., Yahweh)

I think your first instinct was right. Specifically, it looks like they substituted in Greek lowercase letters, pi and tau. I can't explain the split vertical bar, though. StuRat (talk) 08:09, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I'd go with Evan's suggestion it's an attempt at the Tetragrammaton by someone unlearned. I've seen similar on Judaica items from the Far-East, where people simply draw what they see, not knowing the difference between significant and insignificant elements. I'd guess the split bar of the vav is due to uneven printing in the source material used. --Dweller (talk) 13:32, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Go to commons:Category:Tetragrammaton in Christian art and its subcategories, and you can see plenty of similar renderings...AnonMoos (talk) 14:18, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

In my view, the artist clearly knew the difference. The yod and the vav are drawn differently.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:03, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

However the yod seems to be drawn more like a zayin than a yod... AnonMoos (talk) 16:08, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

And the Heys are Chets. The artist didn't have a clue. --Dweller (talk) 18:34, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Some context might be in our article on Christian Kabbalah, the mystical interpretation of Hebrew characters in a Christian context, which came to prominence during the Renaissance. Not listed in the article is our man John Dee, who believed that encoded in the Hebrew alphabet was the sacred language of the angels; which once mastered, would reveal all the mysteries of the universe. Alansplodge (talk) 17:03, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm not really seeing much hard data here - because Yodh links to all sorts of very different scripts, is there a chance this is just some other script not mentioned by Wikipedia? Wnt (talk) 19:57, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

The only ones known to Europeans ca. 1650 would have been Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and certain quasi-occult derivatives of Hebrew, such as Transitus Fluvii, Celestial Alphabet, Enochian alphabet, and possibly the Theban alphabet. I really don't know why a Christian artist producing a solemn exposition of the highest truths of religion would have used any of them except Hebrew... AnonMoos (talk) 22:23, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

• 
• 
• 

There are several tetragrammata in the Hollar collection allegedly all from the same artist, Protestant, Catholic and neuter, German, Latin and English? --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 21:39, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Pro-choice activism

Hi, I don't want to debate political or ethical questions. Does anyone know a good printed manual/guide to pro-choice-activism? Thank you for your help. --Desir usrn (talk) 13:38, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Planned Parenthood might be a good place to start, at least in the US: http://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org. I didn't see a manual there, but they might be able to direct you to where you can get one. StuRat (talk) 16:08, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Or NARAL Pro-Choice America. Duoduoduo (talk) 23:28, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

International Joint Commission

How does one get on the International Joint Commission? Are the Americans appointed just like people are appointed to independent U.S. government agencies? I don't even have a clue on how the Canadians get appointed. If you have a reference, could you expand the article? 2001:18E8:2:1020:749C:5B76:1D8E:3D22 (talk) 15:59, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

The single reference given in the article indicates that the Canadian commissioners are appointed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the American commissioners are appointed by the President. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 20:01, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Information about World War II massacre

I visited the Imperial War Museum the other day and saw description within their holocaust exhibition of a massacre that occurred against Jews in one of the Baltic states, I think Lithuania. It was accompanied by a photo of a man 'proudly' holding a club with a large number of bodies strewn around him, and a crowd watching. The caption said something like 'Massacre perpetrated by the Clubber of Vilnius and assistants, ...' (although I'm not sure if the city was Vilnius). The photo, caption, and use of a grisly moniker made it seem like one man was largely responsible for the killings. I was wondering if anyone could give me the name of this event / person, or knows the photo. Thanks.--82.13.141.22 (talk) 17:19, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

"In Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city, Jews who had just been released from prison were clubbed to death by a local ‘patriot’ known as the ‘Death Dealer’, who after he had killed them, climbed on the bodies and played the Lithuanian national anthem on an accordion."WW2History.com - 22nd June 1941 - Einsatzgruppen killing squads start. There may have been other, similar events though. Alansplodge (talk) 17:55, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Is this the picture in question? If so, there is more detail of the event at HITLER'S FOREIGN EXECUTIONERS: EUROPE'S DIRTY SECRETwhich occurred at the Lietukis garage on 25 June 1941. Further detail at A: The Massacres in Kovno - Reports and Eyewitness Accounts ("Kovno" was the English language name for Kaunas at that time). Perhaps brief details of this event might be added to our article , which rather blandly mentions that Jews were "attacked". Alansplodge(talk) 18:05, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Yes this is what the display was referring to and I'm sure that's the right photo. I was beginning to think I'd got a major detail wrong as no amount of googling was finding it. Thanks very much. --82.13.141.22 (talk) 20:09, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

It was a bit tricky - searching for "Clubber of Vilnius" brought up lots of details about night clubs in the town - it seems to be a major venue for British stag parties. Alansplodge (talk) 20:38, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Most library-dense cities

I have a personal theory that Washington, D.C. has more libraries per capita of any city in the world. Besides the Library of Congress (plus the NAL and NLM, if we're talking metro area), most federal departments and agencies have their own libraries, there's a large public library system, and many public and private universities and K-12 schools with libraries. Add in private companies, especially law firms, who maintain their own libraries and you can see where I got my theory. But similar situations could certainly exist in other national capitals. Any hard data out there? (I generally phrase this as "libraries per capita," but I'd also be interested in library counts per area). --BDD (talk) 20:30, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

If you count law firms, do you count private libraries? I have a about 1000 books at home - does that make my flat a library? --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:45, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

No, it's more a question of workforce. I should clarify and say professionally staffed libraries. --BDD (talk) 02:14, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

The only thing that, a priori, distinguishes Washington D.C. from any other major city of the US in terms of the number of libraries lies in the presence of the federal government. Most other major cities also have many government departments, many law firms, many universities and many schools. Counted that way, the extra few national libraries is probably not so significant.

If you are looking for largest numbers of libraries per capita by city, my guess would be large, library-dense college / university towns.Oxford, for example, with a population of 150,000 or so, has 40 libraries in the Bodleian system, 38 colleges with at least one library each, 10 or so municipal libraries, plus two dozens or so other schools and higher education institutions, which would have at least one library each. That's more than 100 libraries without counting private or corporate libraries. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 12:32, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm not so sure. Yes, DC has a few federal libraries — but only a few, assuming you are counting only those that the public has access to. It has some universities and public libraries, but it is not an especially large city in terms of population or geographic size (only ~68 square miles). I would wonder if someplace like Los Angeles, California, which contains many more people and a much larger geographic area (~467 square miles), wouldn't have a larger count just on the basis of public libraries alone (but not probably per capita), much less additional small colleges and universities. If one is talking about number of unique volumes, DC probably does handily along with a few other university towns (e.g. Cambridge, Mass.), but in terms of a raw number of libraries, I'm unsure. Just a raw count of public libraries within their city borders, DC has 26, LA has has 46. LA has maybe 11 universities within its city borders, DC has 24, though I don't know how open to the public most of those are (they are weird little graduate institutions for the most part). --Mr.98 (talk) 15:11, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

I'm not just interested in libraries that the public has access to, though. So when I say federal libraries, I don't just mean the LC, NLM, and NAL. The EPA has a library, the Department of Education does, the FTC does—I imagine most federal departments, agencies, and commissions do. Oxford and Cambridge (UK) must be up there, though, with all their colleges. How about London? --BDD (talk) 17:30, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

If we are excluding private libraries (law firms, large homes, etc), I think I can give a relatively precise estimate for Oxford.This brochure lists 55 university libraries (which includes two of the colelge libraries (All Souls and Nuffield), 11 other libraries (which includes municipal and most of the other non-OU higher educational institutions). To this we can add 36 college libraries (i.e. excluding the two already counted), which makes for 102. As to primary and secondary schools, we don't have a list of schools in Oxford itself, but there is a List of schools in Oxfordshire. Looking only at those schools which are labelled as being in Oxford (or as "Oxford [x] School"), there are 15 schools here. So the total is 117. This is a conservative estimate, as (1) the Bodleian brochure first cited counts libraries by location rather than institution, so all of the social science libraries are counted as one, and (2) we have only included those primary and secondary schools which are labelled as being in Oxford in some way. Based on 150,000 people, that makes for 1 library per 1282 people.

Having gotten that result, I think I can immediately beat myself. The City of London, the historical centre of London, has a population of only 7,000. Yet it has 5 municipal libraries, 6 primary and secondary schools, and 7 higher educational institutions. That makes for at least 18 "public" libraries. That's 1 library per 390 people or so. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 18:28, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Obviously, there should be a small city somewhere with just 1 library and the highest number of libraries/inhabitants. OsmanRF34(talk) 23:45, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

historic total US employment statistics

I can readily find out what the unemployment rate is. However, I don't care. I'd like to know haw many Americans were actually working in a given year, and how many working 5 years later. I can't find these statistics. Why not?? — Precedingunsigned comment added by 76.188.144.228 (talk) 20:50, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Actually, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has the very thing you are looking for. Here you can search for employment numbers by year, or look at total average hours worked or any other number of statistics. Its quite comprehensive.Livewireo (talk) 21:26, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

Thank you! I am familiar with the BLS website, but it is a nightmare to navigate and find what I'm looking for. This helps. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.188.144.228(talk) 13:04, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Some interesting information can be extracted from the IRS statistics. E.g., in 2009 tax year, 116 million individual tax returns showed some wage/salary income (out of the total of 149 mln returns filed for that year). Unfortunately, this cannot be directly mapped to the number of individuals who received forms W-2, because some of these 116 mln tax returns are joint tax returns with both spouses receiving wage income. Still, these stats may be interesting for things such as year-on-year changes, or the distribution of wage income by income level. -- Vmenkov (talk) 18:50, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Most of the BLS data are also available from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) website. However, you will need to be careful which data series is used. For example, monthly data from January 1939 to September 2012 are available in easy spreadsheet format for Total Nonfarm not seasonally adjusted (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/PAYNSA); and Total Private seasonally adjusted (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/USPRIV). DOR (HK) (talk) 03:02, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

meditating

I have been trying to get into meditating for the past few months but I don't think I am handling it well. I've looked online, but I am not sure which is a good site or not. Anybody have any tips or websites I could go to to help with it. Any help would be appreciated152.27.56.87 (talk) 22:49, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

This, [1], is a good, short introduction to Zen style meditation; a great deal more in depth in the bookFinding the Still Point. Another good book, I think, is posture of meditation, which focuses on posture and not any particular tradition—that is, it's applicable to basically any tradition. Better than books and websites would be finding a group of people who meditate together from whom who can get personal instruction and feedback. Pfly(talk) 01:11, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

There are many different kinds of meditation, but they are all easier if you can go along to a class for personal tuition. But if you can't get to a class I recommend this website.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:41, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. Aorund where I live there isn't that much I can see where I could go so thanks.````152.27.56.60 (talk) 19:50, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Eligibility for voting on the Scottish independence referendum

Among others eligible to vote on the Scottish independence referendum, 2014 are:

• British citizens resident in Scotland

and

• members of the House of Lords resident in Scotland

Are members of the House of Lords not British citizens? 69.62.243.48 (talk) 23:01, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

House of Lords#Qualifications says: "Furthermore, only citizens of the United Kingdom, Commonwealth citizens, and citizens of Ireland may sit in the House of Lords. The nationality restrictions were previously more stringent: under the Act of Settlement 1701, and prior to the British Nationality Act 1948, only natural-born subjects were qualified." PrimeHunter (talk) 23:07, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

It is a redundant item in that list, but presumably refers to the fact that members of the Lords do not have a vote in elections of members of the House of Commons. Therefore the referendum legislation will presumably make it clear they do qualify - just for certainty. Sussexonian (talk) 23:31, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

It is not a redundant item. Commonwealth citizens and citizens of Ireland are not per se British citizens. --PalaceGuard008(Talk) 12:18, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

I believe Sussexonian was referred to the list cited by the OP, not the one quoted by PrimeHunter. The indentations and the meaning both point that way. "Members of the House of Lords" is redundant in a list that already has "British citizens" (with identical restrictive phrases), but is a useful clarification because of the ineligibility of Lords members to vote in Commons elections, as Sussexonian correctly observes.AlexTiefling (talk) 12:23, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Not that I expect the number of Lords resident in Scotland will decide the vote, but if there was a "yes" vote would Scotland automatically be a Commonwealth country? In other words would voting "yes" be voting themselves out of a job? -- Q Chris (talk) 12:28, 16 October 2012 (UTC)

Oh, wait. My apologies, PalaceGuard008 - I now see the group whose inclusion is in question. I have no idea whether there are any Members of the House of Lords who are resident in Scotland but citizens of countries other than the UK. If there are any, I suspect the group to be very small indeed. I have no idea whether the proposed criteria are intended to include or exclude them. As the dissolution of the Union would not occur immediately upon a 'yes' vote, but take place over a period of time following, the questions of Commonwealth membership and of the eligibility of Scottish citizens to be Anglo-Welsh peers would be decided during the negotiations. There are still peerages extant from the Peerage of Scotland (pre-1707); however, none of them intrinsically grant the right to sit in the House of Lords these days. As it is the stated intention of the SNP that the present monarch should remain head of state, and Scotland remain a monarchy, would a Scottish Peerage be re-established? AlexTiefling (talk) 12:40, 16 October 2012 (UTC)