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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2010 January 14

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January 14 edit

Haiti earthquake and Dominican Republic edit

What sort of damage has there been in the Dominican Republic from the Haiti earthquake? Woogee (talk) 06:02, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Catastrophic? So much so, at least, that very little (reliable) information is yet flowing out of the country. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 09:09, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I think the question was about Dominican Republic, not about Haiti. Or am I getting it wrong? Anyway, CNN does not mention any damage in DR, at least not in this article. --Dr Dima (talk) 09:36, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The earthquake did affect DR, although much, much less than Haiti. see [1]- [2] is an article about a girl in Santo Domingo who was injured in the quake. Dominican media focuses a lot on the situation in Haiti, for obvious resons. Aid efforts are being organized, both by Dominican gov't and civil society. Some of the coverage concerns the fate of Dominicans in the Haiti, with articles like these [3]. --Soman (talk) 10:00, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
There is also an excellent overview of the Quake that discusses its impact on the Dominican side of the island at Slate. UltraExactZZ Said ~ Did 16:31, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Take a look at this population exposure shake map. Almost all of the shakinng with any potential for real structual damage has been in Haiti, with a very small area of potential damage right at the Haiti-Dominican Republic border. ~AH1(TCU) 02:15, 17 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which of these books is longer? edit

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving or The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood?

Amazon tells me that, in one version at least, Owen Meany is 640 pages and The Blind Assassin is 656. Our articles agree with Amazon on Owen Meany but have Assassin at 536 - it depends, of course, on page and font size. Anyone know how to get at least a roughly accurate word count (without, for example, going to the effort of writing to the publishers?) --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 13:24, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I do know that I can buy a copy of each book (check, got them on my shelves at home already), count the words on one page and multiply. I'll do that when I get home. And I've managed to persuade my book club that we can tackle yet another doorstop of a book, without having to wheedle that "it is slightly shorter" - which was the only reason I was asking this question anyway. --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 15:09, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Amazon has a great feature listed under "Text stats", but unfortunately only for some books. Here are the stats for Owen Meany: [4] (236,422 words). Blind Assassin doesn't have them listed. --Sean 15:27, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
That is a great feature - and I love some of the other bits they have, like Statistically Improbable Phrases. Thanks. --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 18:01, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This may not be relevant to the question, because the OP is looking for word count, but I would point out the complexity (and simplicity) contributes to how long a book 'feels'. If you are looking to read one of two based on length, this is somethign that needs to be considered.Aaronite (talk) 19:35, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Publius Cornelius Rufinus edit

I noticed in the List of Roman dictators that in 333 BC Publius Cornelius Rufinus was a dictator. Is this the same person that is listed at "Between 291 and 285?" Did he do multiple terms then? What date(s) did Cornelius Rufinus serve as dictator then? What date(s) did Marcus Aemilius Barbula serve as dictator? --Doug Coldwell talk 14:21, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently, the two dictators named P. Cornelius Rufinus were father and son. The precise dates of M. Aemilius Barbula are not known; this book states that almost nothing is known about him. Warofdreams talk 19:46, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks so much. You solved my dilemma and my de orange.--Doug Coldwell talk 20:30, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There were in fact 51 ancient Roman dictators as in the List of Roman dictators with only a single term until Sulla, who was the last dictator of the Roman Republic with a single term.

List of Roman dictators with just a single term edit

--Doug Coldwell talk 20:40, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Principle of law in Nigeria edit

What is the Realist school of thought in Nigeria? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sani muhammad (talk • contribs) 16:06, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Andrew Cunanan's pic edit

If you google "Andrew Cunanan pictures", one of those are an offensive picture... he is showing some private parts, I want to know if it's him, or not. I don't want to post it on here, if someone could check, or want to check, could tell me if he's Cunanan?. I don't know because he's with glasses sometimes, and in the picture where he is showing his parts, he's totally different, without glasses. Well, thank you very much. --190.50.112.184 (talk) 18:29, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia's not censored. (See?) Post the link. TomorrowTime (talk) 19:14, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OK, here --190.50.112.184 (talk) 19:26, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, the face of the guy on the picture does look like the one on this mugshot. But the link on the page says: "Andrew Cunanan X-rated pic?", so not even the site owner seems to be sure (and s/he's apparently obsessed with this guy), and the source of the picture (http://www.rufusrufus.com/monster/) is currently down and obviously permanently so, since it's turned into a linkfarm, so there's no way to inquire there... TomorrowTime (talk) 19:49, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

15 African first lady in LA edit

15 African First lady went to LA in April 2009 but what part of LA. Is it Hollywood, Rosemead-El Monte, Diamond Bar or Burbank. The site just said LA.--209.129.85.4 (talk) 20:05, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The article says that they met in the Skirball Museum, which is part of the Skirball Cultural Center. The location of that can be found on their website here. Nanonic (talk) 20:16, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict):That picture is of the African First Ladies Health Summit, which has a website: [5]. The website has a link to a pdf of the program of the summit. Looking over the pdf, it is still hard to decifer the exact location of the summit, but there are "meeting locations" listed with names like Haas, Ahmanson, and Magnin. A search on those terms turns up all three as names of meeting rooms at the Skirball Cultural Center (wikipedia article at Skirball Cultural Center) which is located at 2701 North Sepulveda Blvd in LA, which makes it, according to Google Maps, [6] is located off of Mulholland Drive and the I-405 about halfway between Bel Air and Encino, right in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. So, it looks like the ladies visited the San Fernando Valley. --Jayron32 20:27, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I would amend Jayron32's last description in light of local topography: unless there have been massive landslides since my last visit, the Skirball Center is situated on the Sepulveda Pass through the Santa Monica mountains, a thoroughfare that carries some of Los Angeles' heaviest traffic. Visitors arriving by air for a limited stay are actually unlikely to go to the Valley, which is basically a collection of bedroom communities. -- Deborahjay (talk) 16:54, 18 January 2010 (UTC) Redacted; timestamp revised[reply]
Wait-The 405 isn't that bad. It is certainly better than the 5. What is the worst is the 101. I don't think travelers will have that tough time traveling. I've been on those sections of the 405 from the 10 to the 101 last time on it at Christmas vacation, the 405 was supereasy all the way no traffic.--69.228.132.51 (talk) 18:53, 18 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Speech act theory; Perlocutionary act edit

is a Perlocutionary act (or p. effect?) identical with the intended effect or with the actual effect of the utterance? A perlocutionary act (or perlocutionary effect) is a speech act, as viewed at the level of its psychological consequences in Perlocutionary act seems to mean actual effect. However, I seem to remember that someone important (Searle?) meant rather intended effect. What is the common use? --92.225.5.2 (talk) 21:47, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Battle of Arausio edit

Apparently Livy wrote on this battle in his Book LXVII. Since he lived 59 BC to AD 17, THEN where did he get this information since he was not at the battle himself?--Doug Coldwell talk 22:05, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Livy's work that you cite, which is Ab Urbe Condita (book), was some 142 books long and covered some 700+ years of Roman History. He got the information from the same sorts of places that most Historians get their info when writing about stuff they did not witness. Ab Urbe Condita Libri is a 2000 year old work, and we ourselves only have 35 or so of the original 142 books. So, the answer is likely that we have no idea where Livy got his sources from. He may have based his information on (now lost) source texts from other people that WERE at the battle. What we do know about Livy's work is that, where we do have apparently independent corroboration, it is quite accurate, so it looks like where he could he was as thorough as it could be. But basically, we're lucky to have ANY of Livy's work extant today, given its age, and with a work this old, having access to older works upon which it may have drawn from would be something of a miracle. --Jayron32 22:14, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the detailed answer. I see Livy's work is thorough and accurate, so apparently he did some heavy duty research from sources long since lost in time. There probably were several sources he consulted since his work does look accurate from what we can verify.--Doug Coldwell talk 22:42, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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