Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 January 17

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.

January 17

10 Thesis/Articles about Challenges and Opportunities toward Islamic Banking in Afghanistan (or another country)

Dears, Am working on my thesis but got stuck on literature reviews section, would stand verymuch thankful to provide me info on challenges and opportunities toward islamic banking in Afghanistan (or anyother country), at least 10 research or reviews,

I would again request to provide the info at the earliest before 20th, Jan-2016

Best Regards, Hanif Monib — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hanif Monib (talk • contribs) 09:00, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Please sign your contributions on discussion pages with four tildes. If you are writing an academic thesis, you need to learn the tools of the trade. In this case, Google Scholar is a valuable tool: [1] [2]. There may be more specialised data bases for your topic area - ask your advisor. Good luck with your thesis. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 09:34, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Those ideas are more relevant than mine, but just in case, here they are. You could also ask a librarian or someone else in your field about where to look. I've seen a lot of experts of various types commenting on Quora (http://www.quora.com) and Stack Exchange (http://stackexchange.com), but you have to sign up first and find the right area of the site to post your question. When asking for help, you could also write up what you've tried already, so people can give you better answers. Whatever you do, of course, estimate how long it will take so you can be careful to make the best use of the time you have left. I wish you the best towards getting unstuck and finishing your thesis! --Geekdiva (talk) 04:04, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

writing

With the internet and sites like reddit and wikipedia, plus all the forums and blogs, is humanity generating more written text per day than ever before? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.37.237.16 (talk) 18:01, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Probably more publicly accessible writings, yes. Before the internet, people wrote in diaries and journals and letters to each other, but most of that never became public. StuRat (talk) 18:26, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, THIS GRAPH suggests that the number of books published is sky-rocketing (incidentally - the average number of copies of each book sold is around 250!). In the era before the Internet, people also wrote personal letters - so we'd need to estimate the number of letters written versus the number of texts, tweets, emails, facebook posts, Wikipedia edits and so forth. Several people described as 'well connected' and 'the most prodigious' letter writers are Bertrand Russell (30,000 letters over his 100 year life) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (10,000 letters over a 70 year life). That sounds like a lot - but less than one letter per day over their adult lives...and those were the people who were notoriously prodigious.

The average person back then probably wrote a whole lot less than those two guys. I'd bet that the average person today writes more than Bertrand Russell. I guess you'd describe me as a prodigious writer - my Wikipedia edit count alone has Russell and Leibniz left in the dust (30,000 edits in 10 years, 8 months), and around 20 emails per day...so probably another 70,000 in the last 10 years) - I'm not big on tweets or texts however - but I've written three times more "things" in 10 years than those other guys managed in a lifetime.

Multiply that observation by the vastly larger population size over the past hundred or so years - factor in improved literacy rates. Add the observation that most people 'back in the day' were born, lived and died in one small town - and probably could reach everyone they cared about by just going over and talking to them. With our 'global society' and a vastly more mobile population - and despite having phones and skype and such like, I suspect we do a lot more written communication than we ever did before.

Interestingly, the number of letters delivered by the USPS peaked in 1999...and has now dipped to about 60% of that peak. But it's hard to tell how many of those were "written" by "humans" rather than auto-generated form letters and postal spam. I'm guessing the drop is more to do with Internet payment systems than anything else.

On the basis of those kinds of back-of-envelope numbers and observations, I'd bet good money that we're easily writing more than ever before in history.

SteveBaker (talk) 21:04, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Monarch names on ID cards and passports

On ID cards or passports, do the last name of monarchs usually coincide with the name of their royal house? Is, for example, Harald V of Norway referred to as Harald Glücksburg on his ID card or passport?--93.174.25.12 (talk) 18:54, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

http://royal.gov.uk says "As a British passport is issued in the name of Her Majesty, it is unnecessary for The Queen to possess one. All other members of the Royal Family, including The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales, have passports." - so I guess there's your answer for the British monarch. SteveBaker (talk) 18:59, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

I'd love to see her trying that excuse at Immigration at Newark Airport! —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 05:41, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

The queen (and everyone else, for that matter) would be well advised to stay away from Newark. SteveBaker's point reminds me of something Joan Rivers once said. She was wondering what the queen carries in that little handbag she's often seen with. It's hard to believe the queen would need to carry cash. Probably what she has is a card that says, "I am the queen!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:59, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

She does carry £5, apparently. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 13:25, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

This has some prince and princess passport photos [3], admittedly old. One shows: "His Royal Highness, Charles Philip Arthur George, The Prince of Wales". Dragons flight (talk) 11:47, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

When necessary, the last name of their highest title (or that of their father if they are not titled) is usually used. For example, both Prince William and Prince Harry formerly used Wales as a last name on Military documentation and on their military ID tags on uniforms. You can see "Harry Wales" clearly visible here (though his official name is Prince Henry Charles Albert David of Wales). Likewise, you can see W. Wales on Prince William's uniform here, I believe that picture is taken before he was granted a title in his own right; I don't know that he's served in any active duty role since his marriage. If he were to carry a last name now, I suspect it would be Cambridge. --Jayron32 03:37, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Although not legally their surname, many royals apparently use "Mountbatten-Windsor" as a surname: see Mountbatten-Windsor#Users of the surname. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 11:04, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

Every single member of Spanish royalty has his DNI, Felipe VI is the number 15. Point of fact, the first DNI, number 1, pertained to Francisco Franco [4]--193.240.28.74 (talk) 19:34, 22 January 2016 (UTC)