Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2016 May 21

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May 21

Four mosques in St. Cloud, Minnesota

This article [[1]] says that this city has four mosques. Is there a website that shows the names of the mosques in St. Cloud, Minnesota? Please and thanks. Donmust90 (talk) 02:12, 21 May 2016 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 02:12, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

That article says "In April, the former Good News Assembly of God church at 712-17th Ave. S was converted into a mosque and classrooms for the growing Muslim population in the city. The building is the former Garfield Elementary School. The site is St. Cloud's fourth mosque; others are located on Fifth Avenue South, Fourth Avenue South and Third Street North." Given those facts, it shouldn't be hard to find the others, via Google Maps or whatever. St. Cloud is not a particularly large city. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:29, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

The one on Fourth Avenue South is called the "Central Minnesota Islamic Center" according to this page. This page lists a number of other Islamic prayer facilities in Saint Cloud (in a grocery store, a computer repair shop, a butcher's and a dentist's office), but no other mosques as far as I can tell. Alansplodge (talk) 10:47, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Donmust90, the city has a web site with contact details here. You could call them and ask them. That seems like the simplest way to find out from my perspective. I didn't see anything on the site that listed religious buildings in the town. I might start with the Mayor's office. Dismas|^(talk) 14:50, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

I was able to find the mosque on 5th Avenue S. but I haven't found the one on 3rd St. North. Does anyone know the name or the address? Please and thanks. Donmust90 (talk) 02:58, 23 May 2016 (UTC)Donmust90Donmust90 (talk) 02:58, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

If you give one of them a call they can probably tell you which other mosques are available in the area. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 21:02, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Reason for Xiamen – Shenzhen – Seattle flight route

What's the reason for this[2] strange Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle flight route? Its great circle route looks like this[3] which is pretty inefficient considering since the first leg is almost like doubling-back. How come it's not Shenzhen-Xiamen-Seattle instead? Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 08:38, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

XiamenAir is based in Xiamen. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 09:28, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

So I'd expect a transfer in Xiamen … —Tamfang (talk) 06:03, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Made up numbers: The plane holds 300 people. 10 people mostly Westerners would want to go Xiamen-Seattle at $1000 which is a reasonable markup from a major Chinese city of similar distance for Xiamen's size and high enough from the airline's point of view. The rest are not wealthy (mostly Chinese) and couldn't afford reasonable profit. They could find 300 people who'll pay the market price of $800 to go Shenzhen-Seattle. They could find 300 people who'd pay the market price of $100 to go Xiamen-Shenzhen. If Shenzhen-Xiamen-Seattle then revenue is 800*290+1000*10=242000. If Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle then revenue is 10*1000+290*100+290*800=271000 or 12% more. This might cover the cost to fly backwards because Xiamen is not far from Shenzhen. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 14:35, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Your explanation seems incomplete as you only mentioned cost and a 3 airport route. Most commercial airline routes, including this one (look at the itinerary) are return on the same route (by which mean the airports, not the precise routing). Whether Shenzhen-Xiamen-Seattle or Xiamen-Shenzhen-Seattle theoretically people can be sold all 3 routes you mentioned, Xiamen-Shenzhen, Xiamen-Seattle and Shenzhen-Seattle. However timing will be different, so one option may be more convienent/more likely to be used than the other. (Notably, if Xiamen-Seattle is rare or non existant, people may be willing to use it despite it being non direct. But if Shenzen to Seattle is more common, people may be more reluctant to use a non direct route.) People may be annoyed if Xiamen-Seattle costs more than Shenzen-Seattle if the airline is going Shenzen-Xiamen-Seattle, however airlines have ways to discourage people from skipping out midway through a longer booked flight. And it's not like different costing those arise with your suggested pricing anyway. Depending on Chinese law and the interaction with the US, it's also possible that they can't sell tickets or probably more likely that they will not be able to get permission to operate one route but will be able to for the other. I suspect a key point is that mentioned by Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM, Xiamen is the base so if it's the same route the airline will generally start and finish in Xiamen. In other words, Shenzhen-Xiamen-Seattle as a single route is never likely. They could operate 2 different routes, but there could be a variety of reasons such as those mentioned to operate a single route. Nil Einne (talk) 21:56, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

The simple answer, for which I have no evidence, is that there is an agreement between the US and the PRC for a flight between Shenzhen and Seattle, but there isn't one for a flight between Xiamen and Seattle. DOR (HK) (talk) 08:46, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Hijacking PRC airliners to gain political asylum in Taiwan

Is there an article/book/web page where I can read more about incident like these[4][5]? Rather than seeking out individual incidents, I'm mostly interested in the overview of the situation and overall statistics, i.e. number of hijackings per year, success/failure rates, etc. Something similar to List of Cuba–United States aircraft hijackings would be perfect.

I checked Category:Airliner_accidents_and_incidents_caused_by_hijacking but most of these PRC-ROC incident aren't covered. Only 1990 Guangzhou Baiyun airport collisions is covered.Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 08:33, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Found List of aircraft hijackings, but still it only mentions the two prominent ones i.e. the first one, and the one where lots of people died. Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 08:40, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

This book on page 86 provides statistics for 1982-1990. More recent period is covered here, pages 38-39, although somewhat briefly. Brandmeister^talk 13:34, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

The general article for defections to Taiwan is Anti-Communist Martyrs, which is a bit brief. The Chinese language version has more details, focused on military aircraft and boats. Before 1989, the defections were mostly by military personnel using military planes. The Chinese language article on that is at zh:國軍與解放軍間的駕機叛逃事件, which seems comprehensive. In terms of defectors hijacking civilian aircraft, even Chinese Wikipedia does not seem to have a list, only individual articles: zh:中国民航296号航班劫机事件 for the 1983 hijacking to Korea, zh:中華航空334號班機劫機事件 for the 1986 hijacking to China, zh:中國國際航空905號班機劫機事件 for the 1998 hijacking to Taiwan, and zh:中國民航981號班機劫機事件 for the 1989 hijacking to Korea/Japan. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 08:56, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

don't get it...

Hey there, I have seen girls profile on ask.fm and other platforms. The girls are getting questions like "do you use tanga?" or something like "have you ever kicked a man in his balls?". I know and i am really sure, that the persons which ask this, are getting hot. Why does somebody gets sexually stimulated if a girls tell him that she is using tanga? I have always asked myself this. Is this fetish maybe something special called or a proof for some head problems or psychologically problems? --Ip80.123 (talk) 23:18, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Which Tanga are they talking about? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 00:00, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Maybe it's the Masochism Tanga. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:11, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Based on the OP's speculation, I would imagine it's Targin. A look in the history of Drugs and prostitution might prove informative. Tevildo (talk) 08:42, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

It takes two to tanga. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 10:47, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

dear User:JackofOz as much I figured out the girl don't get more details question which tanga. The questioner just jerk off immediately when the girl tells him that she use tangas (the guys are just 13 years or over 60s) and any further question seems to be unecessary. But this is really a good question, what kind of tanga the girl is using. The girl gets only more questions if she says NO, than she gets questions like "why not?" or "do you own even a tanga?" or something like this from the pervert guys. --Ip80.123 (talk) 14:27, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

In which case it probably only takes one to tanga. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 17:23, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Tanga (clothing), in that case. Tevildo (talk) 14:40, 22 May 2016 (UTC)