Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2007 January 9

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January 9

Cross Referencing Czech & Czechoslovak Entries

I'm trying to improve the Czech entries, many of which are submitted by Czechs and need grammar changes. Also - there's a paucity of detailed and cited data I'd like to bring up to scratch.

The problem is - trying to find entries in English. They seem to be put solely under Czech-language titles.

E.g. 'Czech secret police', 'State Security', 'StB'. If searched for in English I get zip.

I think - for purposes of cross-referencing and verifying citations in other languages - there ought to be a facilty to permit this. Otherwise readers are at the mercy of translators' vagaries, a real problem for less well-know languages like Czech.

--TresRoque 09:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Can you give an example? Is this something that could be sorted out by using Wikipedia:Redirect? Vespine 22:08, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

ordinance

what is ordinace i'm asking relating to laws —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.76.252.98 (talk) 09:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC).

In my country (England) it would be used in reference to rules or decrees passed by a non-sovereign executive authority. For example, Parliament passes laws, but a city council issues ordinances. Clio the Muse 10:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

This is laid out on our Ordinance page. Marco polo 15:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're more familiar with the term "by-law", it's pretty much synonymous with the term "ordinance". Loomis 16:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Evert Collier

Dear Wikipedia

I am researching the artist Evert Collier (as spelled in Wikipedia) as part of a PhD in Dutch vanitas painting. I see that you have his burial as St James's Piccadilly in London in September 1708. I have been unable to verify this in any other source and wonder if you can tell me where you got that information from. St James's themselves don't seem to have a ready reference to it so I am tracking down burial records. But it would help me enormously if you knew where your info came from and could let me know.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Best wishes

Debra Pring82.43.45.248 10:34, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

According to that page's edit history, the information was added on 26 October 2006 by Afasmit. Try leaving a message on that editor's Talk page indicating your question here. -- Deborahjay 11:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I asked Afasmit, who responded here, with this website. For his dilligence in tracking down sources, I awarded him a barnstar. You should also. Hipocrite - «Talk» 22:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

The declaration of the thirteen united states of america

Hi, I have a reprint of the "Unanimous Declarion of the thirteen united States Of America" Printed by Mutual Life Insuance Company in Boston Massachusetts and i was wondering how i would go about finding how much it is worth. Thank you for you time """""

You could list it on eBay and see what offers you get. However, I don't expect that it is worth much. The Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company was founded in 1891, so it can't be any older than that and is probably more recent. It was very likely a mass printing distributed as a freebie to policyholders. Marco polo 16:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I have an electronic copy of the declaration ([1]), but if I print it out and sell it to you, how much would you be willing to pay for it? The original, signed declaration is enormously valuable, but in my opinion any 20th-century reprints won't be worth more than a few dimes. --Bowlhover 03:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Sonderkommando

I would please like to thank any one who answered my previous question and ask for info on the Sonderkommando.

Have you looked at Sonderkommando? Let us know if there is any info you need that is not provided by the article. Marco polo 18:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

You will get slightly fuller account here [2], a piece by Jacqueline Shields. Also, I would recommend browsing through the index of Martin Gilbert's book, The Holocaust. Clio the Muse 19:23, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Christmas on Sundays?

What happens to Christian families when Christmas falls on a Sunday? Because

1. Sundays are set aside for rest and
2. Christmas day, many, many families prepare large feasts.

Just wondering... ~user:orngjce223 how am I typing? 19:50, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

First of all, Christian denominations generally do not have the same prohibitions on worklike activities on Sunday that Orthodox Jews observe on Shabbat. For a very observant Christian, Sunday is a day when church attendance is obligatory, though not for the whole day (except maybe in some extreme denominations). However, an observant Christian would also attend church on Christmas Day. So it is not a problem to prepare a large feast and family gathering on Christmas. Christmas is observed much the same way on Sunday as it would be on any other day. Marco polo 19:56, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. ~user:orngjce223 and you could always tell me... how am I typing? 20:46, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

There is one small point that might be worth underlining here: Christmas, in point of fact, is based on no scriptural authority, but emerged as a Christian holiday in the late Roman Empire, celebrated at a time of already existing pagan festivals. This lack of Biblical sanction was later to become an important issue after the Reformation, and the celebration of Christmas was finally banned in the mid-seventeenth century by the Commonwealth of England. Although it was reinstated with the return of the monarchy in 1660, the stricter puritan sects continued to shun the feast. It was still an issue with some as late as the nineteenth century, as those familiar with Edmund Gosse's account of his childhood in Father and Son, will be aware. Who knows; perhaps even today there are some strict Protestants who do not celebrate Christmas, on Sunday or any other day of the week? Clio the Muse 00:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

There is actually a trend among some American Protestant megachurches to cancel Sunday services if Christmas falls on a Sunday. At least, that's what a fair number of megachurches did in 2005 (There was a New York Times article on the topic at the time).--Pharos 00:31, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It's important to note, of course, that many Protestant churches traditionally hold a Christmas Eve service, with no service on Christmas Day. -sthomson06 (Talk) 16:27, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

That is amazing from the viewpoint of liturgical churches, such as Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Episcopal. Edison 05:46, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Note that the Puritans considered Christmas a secular holiday, and banned it in the Massachusetts Bay colony. User:Zoe|(talk) 18:21, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Historically, Thanksgiving was the Massachusetts winter celebration and Christmas was carefully ignored. Edison 14:18, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Influence of the media world

There were reports of a young lad hang himself in the US just because he was rejected by a girl in Myspace.com. And a few days back many deaths were reported of young children after having watched saddam's execution.

Which side of the story is being given more importance? Whether the reaction to the knowledge or the influence of the media world??? Was freedom empowered in Iraq or is freedom abused???20:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)~~

Thank you for your question, Kjvenus (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). You will find that questions such as the one above, which call for speculation and the opinions of individuals, will not be answered on the reference desk. I suggest you find a debating forum on the internet if you wish to engage in such activities. Allow me to reccomend the forvm, at [3]. Hipocrite - «Talk» 20:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yugoslav money value

I just bought a Yugoslav bill on eBay dated 1993 and worth 500,000,000,000 dinara [4]. As it was the highest valued bill of the time there (like the US $100 bill), I'm guessing that it had a good value then. If it was late 1993, what would this bill be worth then? What about the collector's value now? Thanks!! Reywas92^Talk_Sigs 21:23, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

A 1993 500,000,000,000 Yugoslav dinar note would have been worth 500 dinar on January 1, 1994 when the currency was devalued at a rate of one billion old dinars to one "new dinar". Three and a half weeks later, on January 24, 1994, the "new dinar" was yet again devalued at a rate of (if I get this right) ten trillion to one, which made your bill worth something like one five-thousandth of the new New Dinar, which was on that date tied to the German Mark. (This may be wrong - I'm out of my league with the math. At any rate it was rendered worthless.)

Basically it ended up being worth less than the paper it was made from. As a collector's item it's not worth that much either, since (as you can imagine) the 100% per day inflation meant you needed a wheelbarrow full of notes to buy a loaf of bread. Yikes. --Charlene 22:53, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, but it was rendered worthless later, after being revalued twice. I'm asking what it was worth when it came out, not after even more inflation. Thanks. Reywas92^Talk_Sigs 22:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

That's the problem with hyperinflation - the purchasing power of the currency changed so quickly that we can't tell simply by the year of the bill. If the bill was issued in January it would have been worth about 70 German marks, if my numbers are right. If it was issued in June of the same year, it would have been worth a fraction of a mark. And that's before the devaluations I mentioned. So it's impossible to tell.

Okay. Thanks very much! Reywas92^Talk_Sigs 11:35, 10 January 2007 (UTC)