Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2012 April 25

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April 25

Secretary-General of the United Nations

What is his daily schedule? What is it that he usually does each day as a part of his job? —Bzweebl— ^talk 04:30, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

His schedule for the current day only is shown here (it doesn't look like there is a way to view past or future schedules). Much of his time is spent travelling, see here. You can click the links on that page to see a detailed rundown of what he did on each trip. --Viennese Waltz 07:42, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Cool! —Bzweebl— ^talk 02:29, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Did a mischievous golfer destroyed the Benin Air Force?

I just found much source on the internet and some books, but I would like to see if there are some more specific sources about this event.--58.251.146.129 (talk) 10:22, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

It's made up. See our article on Benin Armed Forces for current resources. --Dweller (talk) 13:01, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. I just felt strange about that there is no official reports on this accident, but now I see. Plus, does anyone know the origin of this joke?--58.251.146.129 (talk) 05:18, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Japanese prime ministers

What are the reasons why Japanese prime ministers get unpopular so quickly? Since Junichiro Koizumi, there has not been one Japanese prime minister who lasted more than one-and-a-half years in office. Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda followed, then resigned for different reasons. Then came Taro Aso, Japan's only Catholic Prime Minister, whose long-time ruling party the LDP was defeated by Yukio Hatoyama's DPJ, but he too resigned after just eight months because he said he broke some promises involving a American military base. He was replaced by Naoto Kan who oversaw Japan's rebuilding after the 2011 earthquake, but eventually he became unpopular and resigned. The current prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, seems to be quite unpopular will probably be on his way out soon. But anyway, why have they become so unpopular lately? I can think of many governments that had financial problems but didn't burn through many leaders in such a short amount of time, but why Japan? Of course, there was the removal from office of Italian, Spanish and Greek Prime Ministers recently, but their Prime Ministers don't seem to be unpopular (yet), and those events have only occurred within the last year or so, this has been going on in Japan for six years. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 10:24, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Does Politics of Japan help answer your question? --Jayron32 12:39, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

There have been controversies over the privatisation of Japan Post (which is a massively controversial issue), over nuclear power following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, over the war in Afghanistan[1]; the Japanese economy hasn't been in a good condition for 20 years, with an end to the job-to-life culture and layoffs at even the most established companies, plus deflation, the recent recession (Japanese economy#Current economic issues) and a sense that Japan is no longer a world leader with the rise of China and India. But a lot of it is down to circumstances and the lack of charismatic leaders with popular appeal - a long sequence of grey men in grey suits with no particular idea of how to sort Japan's problems. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:42, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Beyond the other answers, you're hardly the first person to notice this, so a quick search for 'japan prime minister short' (or something similar) will find plenty of discussions, e.g. [2] [3] [4] [5] and indirectly [6] Nil Einne (talk) 17:20, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Definition of theft

I have a question regarding a potential situation that came to mind. I'm not seeking legal advice, I'm simply curious.

If I ordered something online, say an iPod classic 30GB, but they sent me a 60GB model by accident, is it legally theft if I keep it if they don't ask for it back? If the situation was slightly different, and they DID ask for it back, would it be theft if I refused? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.202.154.192 (talk) 14:00, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

When an error is made, it is generally expected that the error be corrected. There are many examples of this, say a person receiving $10,000 on a check that should have only been paid $100 (say, if the bank misreads $100.00 as $10000), and in those cases, the person is legally obligated to return the money. You can do find lots of examples from google where that has been the case, i found two examples in about 10 seconds: [7] and [8] That doesn't mean that a person wouldn't "get away" with keeping the more expensive product, but the company in question would be within its legal rights to ask for, and receive, it back. Not getting caught is not the same thing as not breaking the law. --Jayron32 14:18, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

This does get into an interesting moral or ethical area. It's kind of the flip side of "let the buyer beware". Moral absolutists (maybe "Abe Lincolnists") would probably say there's no moral difference between "stealing" a penny vs. "stealing" 10,000 dollars. However, practicality intervenes. If you're supposed to get 25 cents in change at your local McDonald's and they give you 35 cents instead, and you discover it when you get home, driving back to the store to give them 10 cents is a waste of gasoline, and you're liable to get incredulous looks. But if they gave you a 10 dollar bill instead of a 1, the clerk will probably be grateful, as they may well be docked for any shortage in the till. If the bank gives you 100 dollars and 10 cents, the cost of them doing the adjustment might exceed that 10 cents. However, if they give you 10,000 dollars instead of 100 dollars, and you tell them about it, you'll probably be a hero, get your mug on the nightly news, and maybe even get a reward for your honesty, such as a free toaster. In all cases, though, if someone asks for it back, you should return it without hesitation. In the OP's case, it's kind of borderline. Since they basically "gave" it to you, you could keep your mouth shut until or if they notice it. However, someone might get fired over a mistake like that. So the optimal course of action probably would be to contact them and ask them what they want you to do. Given the cost of shipping (which they should have to bear), they might just tell you to keep it. Communication is good. :) ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:29, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

My dad pointed out a mistake his bank had made in his favour (I'm not sure how large) and got a box of their branded pens as a thank-you gift - whenever you picked up a pen in his house for the next few years, it always had that bank's logo on it! Probably quite good advertising for the bank... --Tango (talk) 18:19, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

The short answer is, if they ask for it back you will have to return it. If they don't ask for it back, then really it's up to your conscience! It's possible you could get into trouble for not reporting it, but I've never heard of something like that happening unless you failed to give it back when asked. --Tango (talk) 18:19, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

To answer the question rather than talk about the moral issue, in most jurisdictions theft must be an act of commission, rather than omission, so they likely could not have you charged with theft and arrested. However, they could sue in civil court, and recover the item, or the value of the item, in that manner. As a practicality, this would only be done with valuable items. If you paid by credit card, however, they might very well just charge you for the more expensive item, without your permission to do so. StuRat (talk) 18:54, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Don't answer the original question. That would be legal advice. Broba (talk) 21:50, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Even forgetting that, no one answer is actually possible, because the laws vary from place to place. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:16, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

A practical concern, if you will: if you purchased this from Apple, you're going to have to connect to them somehow with your new toy (to register it, to activate iTunes, etc., they're much more "into" your stuff than many other tech firms). At that point, they're going to "know" what you've got and they could easily compare what you've got with what you paid for. Whether they'd bother doing that is an open question. Matt Deres (talk) 01:35, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

(the following is not legal advice - its advice to myself) If this happened to me, to keep a clear conscience, I would simply email them and advise them of the discrepency, ask if they want to correct it, offer my terms of making good (at no cost to me). I would also limit them to 10 working days to reply; after which time, if they havent I will advise them I will assume they do not want the thing back, and then get on with my life. Benyoch^{...Don't panic! Don't panic!...} (talk) 02:04, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

At this point I'm reminded of this one: A guy sends a note to the IRS, saying, "I under-reported my income, and I can't sleep at night. Enclosed find check for $500, and if I still can't sleep, I'll send you the balance." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:15, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Canada South Asian Chinese election politics vs USA African Americans and hispanics

Ever since the 2012 US Presidential election is coming up, television networks like AlJazeera have been talking about how African-Americans and Hispanics have bigger role in US politics because people have claim especially political analysts that these two largest non-white groups tend to vote Democrats more than vote Republicans because of their immigration and crime policy. Even there books dealing with Hispanics and African Americans having a voice in the election. So, I want to about how South Asians and Chinese. So far, I know that they are the largest non-white groups in Canada(South Asians first and Chinese second in population). How come these two groups are never mentioned in the media when it comes to Canadian general election and never get that tag that they vote Liberal or NDP more than they vote for Conservative? Is there any books about these two groups having voice in Canadian general elections? Is there a website where it shows tables, graphs and figures about South Asians and Chinese and their views on different issues like Quebec, immigration, economy and social issues during the Canadian general elections 2011? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.95.106.98 (talk) 15:27, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

I would suppose it's not that it isn't interesting, but the relative proportion is smaller than hispanics in the US, so they aren't as as able to 'swing' an election even if there was a noticeable voting bloc. Mingmingla (talk) 15:47, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Not exactly what you're looking for, but Jacques Parizeau blamed the outcome of the 1995 Quebec referendum on "the ethnic vote". Adam Bishop (talk) 17:31, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Also, isn't the Canadian immigration policy more favorable to immigrants ? If so, they would have less reason to vote for or against a party, based on that. Other issues would seem more important, like the economy. StuRat (talk) 18:57, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Most Hispanics look pretty white to me. HiLo48 (talk) 20:32, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

It doesn't matter how they look to you; in North America they are often treated as another race (or at least ethnic group). It doesn't matter whether or not there is even such a thing as race, it just is. Mingmingla (talk) 00:17, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

But how do you tell the difference? HiLo48 (talk) 08:16, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Well, as often or not, you can't. Mingmingla (talk) 22:12, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

I suggest you try reading our article on the topic, as well as Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, which is well-populated and well-referenced, and Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, which sadly isn't so much. But it should be reasonably apparent that, say, Franklin Chang-Diaz and Alex Rodriguez cannot readily be classed as 'just European'. As far as I (a Brit) can tell, the controlling factor for being Hispanic is identifying oneself with one's heritage in a Spanish-speaking culture (or possibly Lusophone - but probably not). AlexTiefling (talk) 08:22, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Traditionally, recent immigrant groups in Canada voted largely for the Liberal party. This was because the Liberal party was in power during the second half of the 1960s and 1970s under Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliott Trudeau when immigration policy changed to allow more non-European immigrants. Studies show (sorry, I don't have time to look them up) that these groups were grateful to that government and party for allowing them to become citizens. Similarly, they were largely opposed to Quebec separatism, out of a sense of loyalty to the federal government which issued immigration visas (hence Jacques Parizeau's infamous remarks, mentioned above). This seems to have changed in recent years; the Conservatives did not significantly change immigration policies when they were in power under Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, and the current Stephen Harper party and government has courted them openly, with some success. All parties now have members representing all major communities in Canada. It is the same in Quebec, where both camps in the sovereignty debates have supporters coming from various immigrant communities. There is thus no clear "Chinese" or "Indian" or "Arabic" or whatever vote in Canada anymore, and political scientists look to other factors to explain current electoral behaviour. --Xuxl (talk) 08:00, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

What is the longest book written that is NOT a novel?

Hello, I was trying to look for the longest books written (in English or not) that were not novels, but all I can find are lists for the longest novels ever written. So I was wondering if anyone can think of the longest written works that are not novels. Sorry if you think this is the wrong desk to ask this, I was thinking I could also ask this in the Language or even the Entertainment desks, but I concluded the type of books I would like to find were more akin to the humanities. Thanks in advance. --Kreachure (talk) 20:27, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Encyclopaedia Britannica? Or maybe there's a bigger encyclopaedia somewhere? HiLo48 (talk) 20:30, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Apparently the Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana is several times longer than the Britannica. Kreachure (talk) 21:08, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

(ec) By "book", do you exclude official reports such as the one into the 9/11 attacks or the report of the Warren Commission into JFK's assassination? -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 20:32, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Great suggestions, and good question. I guess they would count, as long as each is considered a distinct, clearly delimited, single written work of its own (especially so that an unambiguous word count may be possible). Kreachure (talk) 20:56, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Unabridged dictionaries are quite large. RudolfRed (talk) 20:55, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Our Mahabharata page says it is "the longest Sanskrit epic", at about 1.8 million words. But I'd bet there are longer "distinct, clearly delimited, single written works". Pfly (talk) 21:02, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, but the Mahabharata is dwarfed by some encyclopedias. Some large ones are listed at Wikipedia:Size comparisons#Comparison of encyclopedias. Siku Quanshu is listed at 800 million Chinese characters; the Yongle Encyclopedia at 370 million characters. Pfly (talk) 21:07, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

(ec) You're right, it turns out reference works like encyclopedias are some of the longest types of works out there. Now that we know this, I would like to know of works outside of reference works, like the Mahabharata. If anything because, unlike the Mahabharata, an encyclopedia is not something that is intended to be read from beginning to end as a whole. :) Kreachure (talk) 21:14, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Giacomo Casanova's autobiography is a single, although unfinished, work, and in its full form runs to twelve generous volumes. There are a number of examples of outsider art literature which are extremely long, too. But I'm sure even longer examples can be found... AlexTiefling (talk) 21:51, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

The History of the Second World War published by HMSO appears (by my count) to run to over 90 volumes. However, our article says; "The volumes were written to be read individually, rather than as a whole series." Alansplodge (talk) 00:30, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.231.248.126 (talk) 08:10, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Isn't every autobiography necessarily unfinished? —Tamfang (talk) 08:43, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

In a trivial sense, yes. But in Casanova's case, he left a bunch of notes about things he wanted to write about, but hadn't got around to (including, apparently, a few same-sex encounters that were potentially more spicy than the ones he did mention). AlexTiefling (talk) 08:47, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Here's a fairly random example of a 40-volume encyclopedia on one specific topic. "Reclaiming history: Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies produces 40-volume work on Muslim women scholars and prayer leaders" BrainyBabe (talk) 22:56, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Simon Winchester in his Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded ISBN 0-141-00517-3 claims Raden Ngabahi Rangga Warsita wrote a book called the Book of Kings (apparently one we don't have an article about), which ran to about six million words. Winchester says it was written in a version of Bahasa called Court Javanese. Zoonoses (talk) 18:32, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

Anonymous music critics

I'm researching Henry Cope (H. C.) Colles, who was the chief music critic of The Times from 1911 to his death in 1943, and also edited the 3rd and 4th editions of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, among many other activities. My primary source is the article on Colles in the 5th edition of Grove, written by his successor Eric Blom. Blom writes about Colles's time at The Times:

• ... and although his work was necessarily anonymous, readers learnt not only to recognise it, but also to admire it for its admirable qualities of comprehensive taste, sure and fair judgment, and, above all, perhaps, for an unfailing tact and humanity that tempered even his severest strictures.

The "necessarily anonymous" bit intrigues me. Why was it necessary to remain anonymous? I'm sure modern-day music critics, and journalists of all kinds, all have their bylines, and this is far from being a recent thing. I see that "An exception is the British weekly The Economist, which publishes nearly all material anonymously". Was this also the case at The Times? When did it change?

Also, how would the casual reader recognise the pen of Colles, unless they had already been exposed to his other (nonymous) writings. Maybe the readers of The Times in those days were all exceedingly erudite and moved in the most educated of circles, musicologically speaking, I don't know, but it all sounds a bit closed-shop high-brow to me. (Mind you, that's from back in the day when The Times was still a broadsheet. With tabloids - and Rupert Murdoch - one never really knows, does one. :)

Can anyone enlighten me about this? Thanks. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 23:31, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

Apparently, Times reviewers' work was anonymous into the 1970s. This obit of a fellow who became editor of the TLS in 1974, for instance, says that "as editor, Mr. Gross broke with longstanding tradition and began attaching bylines to reviews, which had been anonymous." Deor (talk) 00:38, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and Blom's words say no more than that readers recognized Colles's work (presumably in distinction to the work of other authors of Times music reviews), not that they knew the name of the man responsible for that work. Deor (talk) 00:50, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Ah, I see. But Blom seems to be going beyond mere recognition, and into admiration. How would readers express their admiration for, or even just refer to, that particularly admired writer whose name they didn't know? How would this sentence end: Oh, I'm looking forward to the review of last night's concert, and I really hope it's written by [....]. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 02:55, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

". . . that guy I like"? Deor (talk) 14:36, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

Or "...the good reviewer"? The Beano and the Dandy don't let their artists have bylines, and until relatively recently I didn't have any way to find out who drew what (the internet is great). But, as a child, I certainly recognised certain artists by their work, and sought out other strips by them, and was cheered when they drew another strip, and was displeased when someone else drew one of their regular strips, all without knowing their name. For example, I would happily note that a strip in the Dandy at the dentist's was drawn by the same person who regularly drew Calamity James in the Beano, and could tell people that without knowing who the artist was. 86.140.54.3 (talk) 18:39, 26 April 2012 (UTC)

That visual analogy works well. The styles of different cartoonists are very distinctive and are instantly apparent, before you've even got to focussing on what the cartoon's about. Writers have styles that are just as distinctive in their way as those of visual artists, but they can't generally display their style in just two or three words. Reading is a sequential activity, and you have to read some way into the text before you have any real sense of the style. Still, well before the end of the piece it would be apparent that it's by "that writer I like" or "some other writer". Thanks for the replies. -- ♬ Jack of Oz ♬ ^{[your turn]} 22:09, 26 April 2012 (UTC)