Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 August 22

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August 22

Trading floor of the stock market

Every once in a while, the stock market becomes a "newsworthy story" (in the general news, not just the business or finance news, where it is always featured). When this happens, I have often seen (on the TV news, in print newspapers, or on the internet) photos of stockbrokers running around like chickens without heads. Here is an example: [1]. And, oftentimes, they are performing some types of hand signals (such as here: [2]). So, my question is: what on earth are these people doing exactly? I am going to guess that they are somehow selling or trading stocks. (But I honestly have no idea.) If that is the case (that they are engaging in selling or trading stocks), isn't all that stuff done on computers nowadays? Whatever they are doing seems pretty "low tech" and must be inefficient, I'd imagine. Any insights? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:45, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

See Open outcry. Widneymanor (talk) 08:23, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I will go and read that, now. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:48, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Your instincts on the rise of electronic trading is correct. The number of floor traders has been dwindling for years on the NYSE. The CME Group (which formed from the merger of the former Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade) has already eliminated its trading pit. With the advent of high-frequency trading, floor traders will go the way of the dodo, probably over the next decade. Neutrality^talk 04:09, 25 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I find it hard to believe that they are not the way of the dodo, already. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:49, 26 August 2015 (UTC)

did de Gaulle say this?

did Charles de Gaulle (or any notable Westerner) say the quote in this meme ("Stalin hasn't become a thing of the past, he has melted into the future")? Could he have? What was the original wording? Asmrulz (talk) 13:23, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

(1a) Hi, when you put quotation marks around a phrase and put it into google, it searches for those exact words in that exact order. Doing that for your phrase as written here doesn't give any results. This suggests that no one said it in English. (1b) One way to find Charles de Gaulle's writings in French is via the French Wikisource. But searching those for Staline brings up no results either. (2) is unanswerable. (3) If you wish to search further in French, suggest you try the nouns as keywords: Staline, passé and futur or avenir. "Melt" could be translated by too many possibilities, plus you'd have to try too many forms of the verbs. 184.147.128.46 (talk) 20:54, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

the English phrase was my translation of the Cyrillic caption solely for the purpose of this Q. I'd be surprised if you got any hits. Asmrulz (talk) 00:03, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah, thanks for explaining. I didn`t click your link because I didn`t recognize the site. To try and avoid meme-related hits, could you try a search on the Cyrillic phrase in books only, or on a site with sources texts only (use site:http://URLhere as one of your google search terms) such as archive.org or gutenberg.org? Or of course Wikisource for whichever language your meme is in. 184.147.128.46 (talk) 01:23, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

There are several hits, one of them in a Russian book from 2000, where it is attributed to "a Western analyst", and another in literary magazine from 1996 which attributes it to one Pierre Courtade (quoted, according to the footnote, from "De la Nature de l'URSS" by one Edgar Morin, ed. Fayard) Asmrulz (talk) 10:12, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

Ta-da!!! "Staline n'a pas disparu dans le passé, mais s'enfonce dans notre avenir." ("Stalin didn't disappear into the past, but buried himself in our future") Aren't you and I little Sherlock Holmeses (or Jules Maigrets in this case) Asmrulz (talk) 10:22, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

That's fantastic. How satisfying when it works out like that! 184.147.128.46 (talk) 11:51, 23 August 2015 (UTC)

User User:Ser Amantio di Nicolao mass-editing wrongly. Question about the nature of Wikipedia.

Problem fixed by user. Next time you notice disruption, please ask the user directly or report it to WP:ANI
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
User User:Ser Amantio di Nicolao is wrongly editing tons of articles at the moment. Who has the power to stop him and how is that done, please? He systematically adds the category "French sportswoman" or "American sportswoman" (etc) to as many articles as he can, obviously not at all taking into account whether or not the subject is a sportswoman or not. I even found that he also adds some non-American people in the process, for example tenniswoman Elena Dementieva is now an "American sportswoman". Obviously the problem is some kind of mass-editing that seems automatized, that someone can perform with no knowledge of the article or subject, just for the fun of editing as many Wikipedia articles as possible. Is Wikipedia just a hobby for a few permanent contributors? Isn't Wikipedia supposed to be a reliable encyclopedia? Thanks. Akseli9 (talk) 17:14, 22 August 2015 (UTC) I actually am aware of the problem and am working to fix it. Should have it taken care of completely within the next couple of hours. --Ser Amantio di NicolaoChe dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 17:27, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Traditional Spanish music

This, particularly from 0:13 reminds me of some kind of traditional Spanish music roughly similar to flamenco, but not it, possibly some regional Spanish variety. What kind of traditional music closely resembles that? AFAIK there was a car commercial video with similar traditional Spanish motives. Brandmeister^talk 20:31, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

We have an article on the guitarist, Ewan Dobson, which says he is a fingerstyle guitarist (which article lists flamenco as a fairly major theme). I'm not musically inclined enough to pick through the details of the article to assess precisely what you'd call the style in the YouTube clip. 99.235.223.170 (talk) 22:01, 22 August 2015 (UTC)