Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2015 June 11

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June 11

Phạm Đình Nguyên, citizien of PhinDeli Town Buford, Wyoming

Could you tell me something about this rich man? Why had he bought this City for 900.000 in Ebay and why is he living alone there? And did he become an owner of a greencard, as he bought the whole City including the Post, the area code and the Gas station - or was he already born in the USA ?--185.51.85.16 (talk) 02:26, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

You can read all the details in the article's various sources that are cited at the end of the article. This one, for example, explains that it was bought at an auction held in the town (not on eBay) after the aging previous owner decided to move closer to relatives. Mr. Nguyen is a Vietnamese national; he lives in Vietnam. He isn't living in the 10-acre town he bought. The town's current sole resident is a caretaker hired to run the gas station/coffee shop/convenience store. That business is the reason Mr. Nguyen purchased the town: to serve as a U.S. outlet for the startup Vietnamese coffee brand "PhinDeli".--William Thweatt ^TalkContribs 04:31, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Does it mean this vietnamese has no greencard and is not the mayor of this town? is there even a mayor ? --185.51.85.16 (talk) 08:16, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Extremely small towns often have no real "city" government, maybe just a symbolic or ceremonial government, with the county government being the "real" government. Like the town in Minnesota that had a 5-year-old mayor recently. The article claims the town has 1 resident. Have you checked their website to see what they have to say about it? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:39, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

No, there is no mayor: it's unincorporated, which means that it has no government. Very different from places like Monowi, Nebraska, an incorporated place with one resident. There, the death of the male resident left "his wife as the only remaining resident. In this capacity, she acts as Mayor, granting herself a liquor license and paying taxes to herself. She is required to produce a municipal road plan every year in order to secure state funding for the village's four street lights." Nyttend (talk) 02:02, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Reminds me of a story idea I had: the Last Man On Earth urgently needs information from a computer, which can only give it to an Authorized Person. The computer is sympathetic, and with its advice the LMOE goes through rather complex procedures to elect himself to an office from which he can appoint himself to the necessary office . . . —Tamfang (talk) 09:24, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Sunol, California, had a dog mayor; and i think some place in Alaska had a cat? —Tamfang (talk) 09:24, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

We naturally have an article, not merely on the town (Talkeetna, Alaska), but on the cat himself (Stubbs (cat)). Tevildo (talk) 09:40, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

That would be the Honorable Stubbs to the hoi polloi. Clarityfiend (talk) 13:37, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

Fortunately for you, Mr Fiend, I am considered poorly educated - nay, barely literate - by decent people everywhere, since I have never learned Greek (apart from its alphabet, obviously). Were this not the case, my sense of social responsibility would require me to inform you that "the hoi polloi" means "the the [sic] common people". -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 19:22, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Are any of the modern Egyptians descended from the ancients?

Just wondering. 02:57, 11 June 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bluestarcanada (talk • contribs)

Certainly. If you think about it, the only way to avoid it would be if the ancient Egyptians were totally exterminated at some point, since some interbreeding with any new ethnic group is inevitable. That rarely happens. StuRat (talk) 03:47, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Exactly. Population history of Egypt and DNA history of Egypt cover this subject, though not as well as they should. There's also this DNA study. It says that in the wake of the Muslim conquest of Egypt "[t]here was no wholesale population replacement. This is not especially surprising because there is no evidence that the earliest Arabic-speakers, who came as teachers of Islam, intended to replace the indigenous populations biologically" and "…current inhabitants of the Nile valley should be understood as being in the main, although not wholly, descendants of the pre-neolithic regional inhabitants, although this apparently varies by geography" (both on page 227). In other words, modern Egyptians are mostly descended from ancient Egyptians, although some of their DNA comes from people, like the Arabs, that have moved into Egypt since ancient times.

Incidentally, modern Egyptians are sometimes considered Arabs because they speak Arabic and have a lot of their culture in common with other parts of the Arab world. But many of them think of themselves as Egyptians and not Arabs; see Egyptians#Identity. A. Parrot (talk) 04:16, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

See also this recent discussion. Alansplodge (talk) 10:38, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

World Life Expectancy

What was the life expectancy of the world in 1850, 1900, 1950 and 2000?

Nineguy (talk) 04:26, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

What do you mean by "the life expectancy of the world"? Human beings have life expectancies, planets don't; and they vary depending on a bunch of demographic and socio-ethnic factors. The LE of a 25-year-old US Marine is somewhat different from that of a 25-year-old Ethiopian peasant. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 06:12, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

I am not sure that Jack is familiar with the term 'average', but it's a fairly common word. Back to primary school, Jack! In any case, I can't answer the question. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 07:28, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

He asked this question on the Misc desk also. These questions (whether or not answerable) should be merged into one location. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:35, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Kage Tora, maybe your eyes are better than mine, but so far I'm failing to see any instance of the word 'average' before your somewhat dubious mention of it. :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 22:56, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Jack, although not explicitly stated in the original question, I think it was pretty obvious that 'average life expectancy of the human species on the planet Earth' was meant, and had nothing to do with planets. It's not my eyes that are better than yours, merely my command of the English language. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 11:11, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

If he had literally meant the globe, presumably the answer would be a few billion years. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:25, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

Plus it would remain roughly the same in the years mentioned in the OP's question. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 07:04, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

According to this page global average life expectacy was 30 in 1870, 34 in 1913, 48 in 1950, 60 in 1973, 67 in 2001. We're talking about life expectancy at birth I think but we're being a bit sloppy. Contact Basemetal here 11:11, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

That's a good point: while the average age at death for old people has grown somewhat over the last century and a half, life-expectancy growth has been more of a feature of decreasing infant mortality and maternal mortality. Life expectancy for fifty-year-old men and women hasn't grown as much, and the same for ten-year-old boys and barren girls. Nyttend (talk) 01:59, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

The OP has been editing List of countries by life expectancy, in which the point is clarified that the subject is average life expectancy. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:58, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

The Friend

Can somebody help me find out which volume of The Friend this snippet is from. It is from a google book combining three volumes Volumes 103-105, but I want to know the exact volume of the page/article in question. So I can create a proper citation.

• Luquiens, Huc-Mazelet (February, 1933). "Engraving at Lahainaluna". The Friend: 35–39. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Portugal in WW1

Why was Portugal involved in WW1? I'm playing a wargame called Commander: The Great War, and I've got Portuguese soldiers on the Western Front. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 11:43, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

A good place to start would be out article on Portugal during World War I. WegianWarrior (talk) 11:54, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

And then Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. Alansplodge (talk) 12:42, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Not to discourage you from looking at those articles but I would guess it had little to do in fact with the Anglo-Portuguese alliance, except maybe formally. I would rather guess the Portuguese were eyeing some of the German colonies in Africa. The same reason Japan entered the war against Germany because of the German colonies in the Pacific. In the event the Portugues got very little of them. Even Belgium got more of them. I guess the Portuguese were being naive. They were not going to repeat that mistake in WWII (note: despite the Anglo-Portuguese alliance) and by then there were no longer any German colonies. Contact Basemetal here 13:24, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

That's true, although in WWII the British initially asked the Portuguese to remain neutral, lest the Spanish enter the war on the Axis side, which would have resulted in the loss of Gibraltar. Alansplodge (talk) 13:55, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

How Do I Find Census Bureau Information

Hello Wikipedia,

I searched Wikipedia to find the latest information such as this US Census data written by the Associated Preess. Can you help me to find this current information?

updated 3/28/2005 12:04:18 AM ET

WASHINGTON — Black and Asian women with bachelor’s degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women, and white men with four-year degrees make more than anyone else.

A white woman with a bachelor’s degree typically earned nearly $37,800 in 2003, compared with nearly $43,700 for a college-educated Asian woman and $41,100 for a college-educated black woman, according to data being released Monday by the Census Bureau. Hispanic women took home slightly less at $37,600 a year. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.166.19.123 (talk) 20:44, 11 June 2015 (UTC)

Since the AP article you quoted from is from 2005, the statistics it quotes are hardly "current information". You might take a look at http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases.html for news releases from the Census Bureau from 2009 to the present. You may also want to look at http://www.census.gov/people/eeotabulation/, the page that describes the portion of the US Census from which the 2005 statistics were probably derived. General Ization ^Talk 02:20, 12 June 2015 (UTC)