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Since he resigned I didn't hear from him. Does anybody know where **he is? (sorry personal opinion)... Thanks all! I read on his article that he is a speaker now travelling through the Middle East, etc. But does he live in Pakistan? Could he be judged?-- Maru-Spanish ( talk) 00:28, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Becuase all what civilization needs is:
1. Urban society: Living together in communities.
2. Religion: Beliefs that provide answers to “unanswerable” questions.
3. Literacy: The ability to read and write
4. Government: Having a set of rules, leaders or organization to society
5. Specialization: Using unique skills to benefit all.
6. Social classes: Groups of people with common characteristics.
7. Tool-making: The ability to problem-solve.
8. Concept of time: Understanding of patterns like the seasons, sunrise and sunset or tides can be used to your benefit.
9. Leisure: Recognizing the value of the arts and entertainment.
10. Education/criticism: Striving to improve as an individual or as a culture.
Sub-saharan only had religion, urban society, government, specialization, social classes, tool making, leisure and education.
The only thing it did not have was a "highly developed writing system" so does it still count as a civilization?--arab 01:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by TerrorSonghai ( talk • contribs)
In my Economics class my professor either told me that if save increases then consumption decreases or that is save increases then consumption also increases. I have both written in my notes but I know one of them is wrong. This would be an easy-self explanatory question if I know what save means. Does it mean savings as in having more money on hand or physically saving more money and spending less?-- penubag ( talk) 03:57, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
In a simple model,
consumption and
investment both consume
capital;
savings preserve capital for future use. Savings is a potential investment (if the money is saved in a bank it might be lent out) or a potential consumption (if it is put under the mattress for retirement) if it is more likely to be consumed in future.
The marginal propensity to consume is the share of an increase in income that is consumed. If income rises by $100, and $65 is spent on consumption (the remainder being saved or invested), the propensity to consume is 0.65. DOR (HK) ( talk) 05:28, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Why are they called bear and bull? SYSS Mouse ( talk) 04:07, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I know that the US government has a scheme for deciding the president & vice president in the event of a tie in the Electoral College. But what if there was a tie at the state level, and the people of the state were evenly split on who to award their electoral college votes to? Does any state have provisions for this event? More generally, can someone tell me of 'any' tie provision for a government election involving more than a hundred thousand voters?
This question is important to me because a rational agent votes according to the chance of his or her vote swaying the election. If states don't have provisions for tied elections, that suggests that no one actually takes the idea of a very close election seriously, and that we only vote for social reasons. -- Tigerthink ( talk) 05:13, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
As to the "more general" question, if the election for any seat in the Canadian House of Commons is a tie, there's no winner. The government calls a byelection the same as they would if someone had been elected and then died. See section 318 of the Canada Elections Act, which is online under canada.justice.gc.ca (sorry, I can't post a direct link). --Anonymous, 06:22 UTC, March 3, 2009.
I seem to remember this as a graphic novel. Google searching not fruitful. Anybody have any ideas? (NOT Red Dawn, pls--I distinctly remember the eastern seaboard clearly "red"-ed out). Thanks!-- 75.157.250.4 ( talk) 05:46, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
(Thread moved from the Language Desk. --Anonymous, 06:25 UTC, March 3, 2009.)
There is a library, in Europe, I think, that is housed in the home of its former owner, who is now dead. It is run as a public service IIRC. The books are arranged into four sections, not by the dewey system, but by an obscure schema that the owner came up with that locates books next to other books that the owner thought would be interesting or useful. I have forgotten the name of the library - can anyone help me with it? Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.100.62 ( talk) 20:27, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
Thank you - that is really interesting, and the right line of thought, but the one I am looking for is one house, and it has a website which explains it that I can't find. I appreciate the suggestions, I know I am being infuriatingly vague! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.115.95.28 ( talk) 01:33, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I think you might mean the Bodmer Library (in Switzerland), but got its features somehow mixed up with those of the Cotton Library as mentioned above. -- AndreasPraefcke ( talk) 21:34, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Why are there references to "X crossing Y"? Is that something in the Orthodox Church, or is it also Catholic? Also, it's worth noting that X is rarely a priest in those Dostoevsky novels... 203.188.92.71 ( talk) 09:58, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
which one is the best university for engineering education(m tech/phd)??
SAMEE —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Sameerdubey.sbp (
talk •
contribs)
10:23, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
if youd like to become a billionaire handsdown stanford. Millionaire, handsdown Harvard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.181.149.76 ( talk) 11:21, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I have a group of 10-15 people that need to make a group decision out of as many options (each person can out forward one option). We have discussed it, but it is hard to come to agreement because each participant tends to pull to its own side, which is understandable because they would want their option to be accepted. As it is now, it is obvious that most vocal side will win, through pressure it exerts on everybody else. I am looking for democratic decision making process here everyone's option will be considered and only most popular option will win, not the option that has best "campaign". I figured I could call a vote but I am unsure how to go about it. Should there be several rounds with elimination of least popular option? Basically, I am looking for established group decision making method, if such thing exists. Does it?
After first decision is made, there will be another one or several more, where previous options might be present, depending on if participant chooses to resubmit it. I know of DKP systems in MMORPGs, I guess I am looking for something like that. Fair way to make most people happy or at least understand that decision was made on sound unbiased foundations.
Am I making any sense?-- Melmann (talk) 10:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
"Know your heart, it is your North Star." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.98.141 ( talk) 13:11, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I played an interesting and thought-provoking strategy game on a work-related training course recently and I wonder if anyone recognizes it and can tell me who devised it. Basically, each individual represents a corporate department, with the group as a whole standing for the whole company. Each individual is asked to decide which of two strategies, A or B, to pursue, and to write A or B on a piece of paper which no-one else is allowed to see. The strategies themselves are not part of the game; the point is that there are financial consequences, both for the individual departments and the company as a whole, based on how many departments go for strategy A and how many for strategy B. For example (I may not have got the figures right, but the principle is clear): if every department chooses A, then every department gains $3000 but the company as a whole loses $1000. If fewer departments choose A than choose B, then each department that chose A gains $5000, each department that chose B loses $1000, and the company as a whole loses $10,000. If every department chooses B, then each department gains $1000 and the company as a whole gains $10,000. (I hope this is making sense.)
The game goes through several rounds, with the scores for the whole company being totted up at the end of each round. At the end of some rounds, the company has a meeting in which it can decide collectively which strategy/ies to pursue. What we found was that individual self-interest trumped the good of the company. At one of the 'meetings', we collectively decided that we should all go for B in order to maximise the gain for the company, but in the end one or two people still went for A, thereby gaining for themselves but making the company as a whole lose out. I'm not saying it's necessarily representative of what could or would happen in the real world, but it was still fun to play. Has anyone else come across this game? -- Richardrj talk email 14:20, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
The Harvard Negotiation Project was using a version of this in 1983, and I was under the impression it was devised by Roger Fisher or (more likely) one of his staffers. However, I don't recall if they specifically claimed that it was an internally devised game. John M Baker ( talk) 00:37, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
looks like our article does not show whether Valentine's Day is non-working somewhere. is there any country where february 14 is officially a rest day? 85.132.54.5 ( talk) 14:25, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Where can I find a website that interprets this quote: "It is certain that Paleolithic man never wanted to decorate the cave walls: in the darkness of the cave, with the glow of the lamps, he celebrated a rite of evocation"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 14:37, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
How the main ideas or principles of Athenian democracy are reflected in Athenian political institutions and prcatice? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 15:06, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I did but it didn't say anything about Athenian political institutions and practice. Please, help me. unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 17:06, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.54.65 ( talk)
Removed to mathematics desk. BrainyBabe ( talk) 17:49, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I think it was Napoleon or Mao or someone who said that the way to raise a good army was to start with the soldiers' mothers' mothers. That applies to education as much as to nutrition. The mother of Stalin, for example, was a serf, but surprisingly (or so our article on Ketevan Geladze says) had had access to schooling, and could read and write Georgian (though not Russian); I contend that he would not have come top in his class at school without the explicit example or osmotic effect of having a literate home life. Can we come up with a list of the world's achievers (scientists, politicians, academics, writers, etc.) who were raised by illiterate parents? I need to clarify this: I exclude anti-intellectuals such as Pol Pot, and those who have achieved prominence as the leaders of oppressed and illiterate groups (e.g. Rigoberta Menchu, Malcom X). Let us limit our enquiries to the last hundred years or so, from the time when mandatory education began to be established (geographically variable, I realise). An interesting related question is second language learners, but let's leave that out for now. If either parent could and did read and write in any language (not just laboriously scrawl a signature, but read newspapers, hold down or at least aspire to a desk job, etc.), then that counts as a good example for the child. Who suceeded despite having no such example? BrainyBabe ( talk) 17:47, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
If someone has a PhD and travels abroad (for a conference or something similar), how can he use his title? Shouldn't he have his title formally recognized before he can use it?-- 217.12.16.53 ( talk) 19:43, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Doesn't Germany limit the "Doctor" title to those who received a Ph.D. from a German university, or was that past practice? Edison ( talk) 05:02, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
Seeing the odd question above, 'how can I invest in a "race"', I have an odd question of my own: Would it be possible (legal) to invest in a person, or a person's output? Has this been done?
Buy this I mean, say, I give a person a million dollars to buy 10% of his output for the rest of his life. (I assume I couldn't legally by 10% of the person himself -- that would probably count as slavery). This would be similar to a loan, except that I own 10% of his output whatever it is -- whether it pays back 10 times or not at all.
Would that be possible? — Sam 63.138.152.238 ( talk) 19:54, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Such an investment would simply be called a 'loan', with repayments being priced as percentage of earnings. In our law at least, contractual breaches attract expectation damages, so in principle, you can claim for what you expected to receive under the contract, not just the money you put in.
In certain cases, equity may intervene to prevent enforcement of the contract, but that would depend on how unfair the contract is taking ino account all the circumstances, including the relative bargaining positions of the parties at the time. -- PalaceGuard008 ( Talk) 21:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
In the article on the Montana House of Representatives it says "In the event that the parties have a tie in number of members, the speaker and other officers are elected from the party who holds the governor's seat."
What is the basis of this? Is there or a constitutional provision giving the governor a casting vote in the House? Or is it just a custom? Sam 23:13, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by SamUK ( talk • contribs)
How these early philosophers began to elaborate a naturalistic model of the universe by using the concepts of one vs. many and being vs. becoming? This is not a homework question and if the Wikipedia doesn't have any article on the question, please, refer to me to any website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.54.65 ( talk) 23:54, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Humanities desk | ||
---|---|---|
< March 2 | << Feb | March | Apr >> | March 4 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities 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. |
Since he resigned I didn't hear from him. Does anybody know where **he is? (sorry personal opinion)... Thanks all! I read on his article that he is a speaker now travelling through the Middle East, etc. But does he live in Pakistan? Could he be judged?-- Maru-Spanish ( talk) 00:28, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Becuase all what civilization needs is:
1. Urban society: Living together in communities.
2. Religion: Beliefs that provide answers to “unanswerable” questions.
3. Literacy: The ability to read and write
4. Government: Having a set of rules, leaders or organization to society
5. Specialization: Using unique skills to benefit all.
6. Social classes: Groups of people with common characteristics.
7. Tool-making: The ability to problem-solve.
8. Concept of time: Understanding of patterns like the seasons, sunrise and sunset or tides can be used to your benefit.
9. Leisure: Recognizing the value of the arts and entertainment.
10. Education/criticism: Striving to improve as an individual or as a culture.
Sub-saharan only had religion, urban society, government, specialization, social classes, tool making, leisure and education.
The only thing it did not have was a "highly developed writing system" so does it still count as a civilization?--arab 01:44, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by TerrorSonghai ( talk • contribs)
In my Economics class my professor either told me that if save increases then consumption decreases or that is save increases then consumption also increases. I have both written in my notes but I know one of them is wrong. This would be an easy-self explanatory question if I know what save means. Does it mean savings as in having more money on hand or physically saving more money and spending less?-- penubag ( talk) 03:57, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
In a simple model,
consumption and
investment both consume
capital;
savings preserve capital for future use. Savings is a potential investment (if the money is saved in a bank it might be lent out) or a potential consumption (if it is put under the mattress for retirement) if it is more likely to be consumed in future.
The marginal propensity to consume is the share of an increase in income that is consumed. If income rises by $100, and $65 is spent on consumption (the remainder being saved or invested), the propensity to consume is 0.65. DOR (HK) ( talk) 05:28, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Why are they called bear and bull? SYSS Mouse ( talk) 04:07, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I know that the US government has a scheme for deciding the president & vice president in the event of a tie in the Electoral College. But what if there was a tie at the state level, and the people of the state were evenly split on who to award their electoral college votes to? Does any state have provisions for this event? More generally, can someone tell me of 'any' tie provision for a government election involving more than a hundred thousand voters?
This question is important to me because a rational agent votes according to the chance of his or her vote swaying the election. If states don't have provisions for tied elections, that suggests that no one actually takes the idea of a very close election seriously, and that we only vote for social reasons. -- Tigerthink ( talk) 05:13, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
As to the "more general" question, if the election for any seat in the Canadian House of Commons is a tie, there's no winner. The government calls a byelection the same as they would if someone had been elected and then died. See section 318 of the Canada Elections Act, which is online under canada.justice.gc.ca (sorry, I can't post a direct link). --Anonymous, 06:22 UTC, March 3, 2009.
I seem to remember this as a graphic novel. Google searching not fruitful. Anybody have any ideas? (NOT Red Dawn, pls--I distinctly remember the eastern seaboard clearly "red"-ed out). Thanks!-- 75.157.250.4 ( talk) 05:46, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
(Thread moved from the Language Desk. --Anonymous, 06:25 UTC, March 3, 2009.)
There is a library, in Europe, I think, that is housed in the home of its former owner, who is now dead. It is run as a public service IIRC. The books are arranged into four sections, not by the dewey system, but by an obscure schema that the owner came up with that locates books next to other books that the owner thought would be interesting or useful. I have forgotten the name of the library - can anyone help me with it? Thank you! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.100.62 ( talk) 20:27, 2 March 2009 (UTC)
Thank you - that is really interesting, and the right line of thought, but the one I am looking for is one house, and it has a website which explains it that I can't find. I appreciate the suggestions, I know I am being infuriatingly vague! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.115.95.28 ( talk) 01:33, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I think you might mean the Bodmer Library (in Switzerland), but got its features somehow mixed up with those of the Cotton Library as mentioned above. -- AndreasPraefcke ( talk) 21:34, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
Why are there references to "X crossing Y"? Is that something in the Orthodox Church, or is it also Catholic? Also, it's worth noting that X is rarely a priest in those Dostoevsky novels... 203.188.92.71 ( talk) 09:58, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
which one is the best university for engineering education(m tech/phd)??
SAMEE —Preceding
unsigned comment added by
Sameerdubey.sbp (
talk •
contribs)
10:23, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
if youd like to become a billionaire handsdown stanford. Millionaire, handsdown Harvard. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.181.149.76 ( talk) 11:21, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I have a group of 10-15 people that need to make a group decision out of as many options (each person can out forward one option). We have discussed it, but it is hard to come to agreement because each participant tends to pull to its own side, which is understandable because they would want their option to be accepted. As it is now, it is obvious that most vocal side will win, through pressure it exerts on everybody else. I am looking for democratic decision making process here everyone's option will be considered and only most popular option will win, not the option that has best "campaign". I figured I could call a vote but I am unsure how to go about it. Should there be several rounds with elimination of least popular option? Basically, I am looking for established group decision making method, if such thing exists. Does it?
After first decision is made, there will be another one or several more, where previous options might be present, depending on if participant chooses to resubmit it. I know of DKP systems in MMORPGs, I guess I am looking for something like that. Fair way to make most people happy or at least understand that decision was made on sound unbiased foundations.
Am I making any sense?-- Melmann (talk) 10:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
"Know your heart, it is your North Star." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.98.141 ( talk) 13:11, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I played an interesting and thought-provoking strategy game on a work-related training course recently and I wonder if anyone recognizes it and can tell me who devised it. Basically, each individual represents a corporate department, with the group as a whole standing for the whole company. Each individual is asked to decide which of two strategies, A or B, to pursue, and to write A or B on a piece of paper which no-one else is allowed to see. The strategies themselves are not part of the game; the point is that there are financial consequences, both for the individual departments and the company as a whole, based on how many departments go for strategy A and how many for strategy B. For example (I may not have got the figures right, but the principle is clear): if every department chooses A, then every department gains $3000 but the company as a whole loses $1000. If fewer departments choose A than choose B, then each department that chose A gains $5000, each department that chose B loses $1000, and the company as a whole loses $10,000. If every department chooses B, then each department gains $1000 and the company as a whole gains $10,000. (I hope this is making sense.)
The game goes through several rounds, with the scores for the whole company being totted up at the end of each round. At the end of some rounds, the company has a meeting in which it can decide collectively which strategy/ies to pursue. What we found was that individual self-interest trumped the good of the company. At one of the 'meetings', we collectively decided that we should all go for B in order to maximise the gain for the company, but in the end one or two people still went for A, thereby gaining for themselves but making the company as a whole lose out. I'm not saying it's necessarily representative of what could or would happen in the real world, but it was still fun to play. Has anyone else come across this game? -- Richardrj talk email 14:20, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
The Harvard Negotiation Project was using a version of this in 1983, and I was under the impression it was devised by Roger Fisher or (more likely) one of his staffers. However, I don't recall if they specifically claimed that it was an internally devised game. John M Baker ( talk) 00:37, 5 March 2009 (UTC)
looks like our article does not show whether Valentine's Day is non-working somewhere. is there any country where february 14 is officially a rest day? 85.132.54.5 ( talk) 14:25, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Where can I find a website that interprets this quote: "It is certain that Paleolithic man never wanted to decorate the cave walls: in the darkness of the cave, with the glow of the lamps, he celebrated a rite of evocation"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 14:37, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
How the main ideas or principles of Athenian democracy are reflected in Athenian political institutions and prcatice? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 15:06, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I did but it didn't say anything about Athenian political institutions and practice. Please, help me. unsigned comment added by 192.30.202.22 ( talk) 17:06, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.54.65 ( talk)
Removed to mathematics desk. BrainyBabe ( talk) 17:49, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
I think it was Napoleon or Mao or someone who said that the way to raise a good army was to start with the soldiers' mothers' mothers. That applies to education as much as to nutrition. The mother of Stalin, for example, was a serf, but surprisingly (or so our article on Ketevan Geladze says) had had access to schooling, and could read and write Georgian (though not Russian); I contend that he would not have come top in his class at school without the explicit example or osmotic effect of having a literate home life. Can we come up with a list of the world's achievers (scientists, politicians, academics, writers, etc.) who were raised by illiterate parents? I need to clarify this: I exclude anti-intellectuals such as Pol Pot, and those who have achieved prominence as the leaders of oppressed and illiterate groups (e.g. Rigoberta Menchu, Malcom X). Let us limit our enquiries to the last hundred years or so, from the time when mandatory education began to be established (geographically variable, I realise). An interesting related question is second language learners, but let's leave that out for now. If either parent could and did read and write in any language (not just laboriously scrawl a signature, but read newspapers, hold down or at least aspire to a desk job, etc.), then that counts as a good example for the child. Who suceeded despite having no such example? BrainyBabe ( talk) 17:47, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
If someone has a PhD and travels abroad (for a conference or something similar), how can he use his title? Shouldn't he have his title formally recognized before he can use it?-- 217.12.16.53 ( talk) 19:43, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Doesn't Germany limit the "Doctor" title to those who received a Ph.D. from a German university, or was that past practice? Edison ( talk) 05:02, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
Seeing the odd question above, 'how can I invest in a "race"', I have an odd question of my own: Would it be possible (legal) to invest in a person, or a person's output? Has this been done?
Buy this I mean, say, I give a person a million dollars to buy 10% of his output for the rest of his life. (I assume I couldn't legally by 10% of the person himself -- that would probably count as slavery). This would be similar to a loan, except that I own 10% of his output whatever it is -- whether it pays back 10 times or not at all.
Would that be possible? — Sam 63.138.152.238 ( talk) 19:54, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
Such an investment would simply be called a 'loan', with repayments being priced as percentage of earnings. In our law at least, contractual breaches attract expectation damages, so in principle, you can claim for what you expected to receive under the contract, not just the money you put in.
In certain cases, equity may intervene to prevent enforcement of the contract, but that would depend on how unfair the contract is taking ino account all the circumstances, including the relative bargaining positions of the parties at the time. -- PalaceGuard008 ( Talk) 21:27, 3 March 2009 (UTC)
In the article on the Montana House of Representatives it says "In the event that the parties have a tie in number of members, the speaker and other officers are elected from the party who holds the governor's seat."
What is the basis of this? Is there or a constitutional provision giving the governor a casting vote in the House? Or is it just a custom? Sam 23:13, 3 March 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by SamUK ( talk • contribs)
How these early philosophers began to elaborate a naturalistic model of the universe by using the concepts of one vs. many and being vs. becoming? This is not a homework question and if the Wikipedia doesn't have any article on the question, please, refer to me to any website. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.64.54.65 ( talk) 23:54, 3 March 2009 (UTC)