Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 July 11

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

July 11

WWI casualties question

Why were Anglo-French casualty levels on the Western Front in World War I much higher than Italian casualty levels on the Italian Front in the same war were? 68.4.99.100 (talk) 03:52, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Well, Italian front (World War I) says it was conducted "at high altitudes and with very cold winters", which would have led to less intense fighting. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:07, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

And there were no major battles on the Italian front on the scale of the Somme Offensive and the Battle of Verdun, both of which resulted in huge casualty counts. Xuxl (talk) 11:10, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

The largest Italian losses were at the Battle of Caporetto, where 13,000 were killed and 30,000 wounded over three weeks. The British Army lost 20,000 killed and 40,000 wounded on the First day on the Somme alone. Besides the actions mentioned above, there were also huge Anglo-French casualty figures in the Battle of the Frontiers (1914, 360,000), the Nivelle offensive (1917, 350,000), the Battle of Passchendaele (1917, c. 350,000), the German spring offensive (1918, 863,000) and the Hundred Days Offensive (1918, 1,070,000) as well as numerous others where the casualties "only" ran into the tens of thousands. Alansplodge (talk) 12:19, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

What period is this coin from?

File:Front 1.jpg + File:Back 1.jpg -- Karsan Chanda (talk) 06:47, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Since you took and uploaded the pictures, Karsan Chanda, it might help us to answer if you tell us where and in what context it was found. I suggest this information should in any case be added to the files on Wikimedia commons. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.130.14 (talk) 18:10, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

I can set bounds. The coin is as green as the Statue of Liberty, so is likely to not be younger than 300 years. Also, it is quite round, which evidently wasn't possible in Roman Times. Round coins like this would have to come from, at least the second century AD. So After AD 100 but before AD 1700. Pablothepenguin (talk) 19:11, 12 July 2022 (UTC)

If we're ruling out groups of centuries, then it almost certainly uses a style of the Arabic alphabet which is very different from the style of Arabic lettering used on the early caliphal coins (Umayyads and Abbasids), so I doubt it could be from before 900 A.D. I can't read the lettering, since the coin is rather worn, and my experience with the Arabic alphabet is not with that script style... AnonMoos (talk) 04:57, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

numista.com was helpful last time, but it involved a lot of trawling through possibilities and squinting at squiggles. Actually isn't this the same type of coin again? It has the "jhar flower" symbol (on what we're calling the "back"), which indicates a coin of Kishangarh State.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:39, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Requesting info regd en wp articles

Greetings,

I am looking for en WP article names about 'public utility products or services', specifically launched and supported by any public university.

Frankly I also can search but I busy in some other encyclopedic tasks so requesting for help here.

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 07:39, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Does this qualify? The once very successful Pascal programming language was developed at and supported by the ETH Zürich, and further implementations were developed at Queen's University Belfast, the University of Glasgow, the University of Southampton, the University of Manchester and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, all public universities.  --Lambiam 08:24, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Many thanks, Yes, I am very much looking for similar examples.

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 08:44, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Mosaic (web browser)? That was the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, again. You'll get a lot of software answers, I think, and maybe some archives. I wonder what examples might not be related to software or data.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:29, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine? Alansplodge (talk) 12:40, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Several universities provide synchrotron radiation facilities, which are kind of public if researchers in general count as the public.  Card Zero  (talk) 18:35, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a useful public resource although Stanford University is a private university. It's not entirely clear to me whether you need to product or service to be public, the university, or both. --Amble (talk) 23:32, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Does the Oxford English Dictionary count? Also, many universities run (or are affiliated with) hospitals, which are certainly useful public services; see List of university hospitals. Shells-shells (talk) 06:19, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Quite a lot of public universities have museums and libraries that are open to the public, such as the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. --Amble (talk) 23:35, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Many thanks to all for various inputs Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 10:00, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Chinese settlements

Are there examples of ethnic Chinese villages or towns outside of China in the same way of some German or Italian settlements in South America? I mean homogeneous ethnic settlements outside a urban neighbourhood. I'm not referring to the usual concept of Chinatown. Thank you! 195.62.160.60 (talk) 11:00, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Singapore is ethnically three-fourths Chinese, and has had a majority Chinese population since the 19th Century, before which it was a pretty insignificant settlement. Xuxl (talk) 11:14, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Similarly, Kuala Lumpur has 79% of its population reporting themselves as ethnic Chinese. We have an article, Overseas Chinese. At the risk of over-generalising, most Chinese communities appear to be in urban areas rather than establishing agricultural communities. Alansplodge (talk) 12:24, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Locke, California is an interesting example: [1]. The link describes laws that historically prevented Chinese immigrants from owning land and forming towns. There's also La Chinesca, according to which Mexicali was at one time a mainly ethnically Chinese town. --Amble (talk) 17:39, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

The exclusion of Chinatown areas will cause a problem. Many Chinatown areas are not the result of Chinese people moving to a large city. Historically, Chinese people moved to an area outside of the city, creating their own town, city, village, camp, or whatever others might have called it. Then, as the nearby city expanded, it overtook the Chinese area, creating a Chinatown. If it is old enough, and the city has grown substantially, the Chinese are often pushed out. You can find this process in most cities in Australia. The city formed. A Chinese population was established near the city. The city expanded, absorbing the Chinatown. Then, developers took over and the Chinatown was lost. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 18:54, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

That's not how Chinatown, San Francisco was formed. AnonMoos (talk) 23:57, 11 July 2022 (UTC)

Nor the current Chinatown, London or its Limehouse precursor. But to be fair, the IP commenter isn't claiming this development pattern for all 'Chinatowns.' {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.130.14 (talk) 01:56, 12 July 2022 (UTC)