Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 March 6

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March 6

Mercury retrograde

Where did the idea that the retrograde motion of Mercury causes heavy rainfall originate? Did it start because the periods of its retrograde motion usually coincide with the normal periods of heavy spring and autumn rains typical of the European climate (note the date ranges in this article)? 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:C119:5F8:1314:9E22 (talk) 01:18, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Astrologers in the 19th century? Here's a reference from Archive.org that might help: Notes on Recent Events Tamanoeconomico (talk) 01:53, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

I knew that much -- my question was where they got this idea from, and in particular whether it was because the time of the year for Mercury's retrograde motion is the same time of the year when the low-pressure systems come in from over the Baltic and North Seas (which would make it a classic example of Correlation does not imply causation)? BTW, I did notice in this reference that the retrograde motion of Mercury was observed from late October to early November, which would support this (late fall being a time of heavy rain through most of Europe). 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:C119:5F8:1314:9E22 (talk) 03:26, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Mercury does not really have retrograde motion; what you're talking about is apparent retrograde motion. Since the orbits of Mercury and the Earth are not in resonance and are close enough (for this purpose) to circular, it can happen at any time of the year. (A table in the article says it happens for about 21 days at a time, once every 116 days.) So the answer to the question is no. --76.69.46.228 (talk) 07:23, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Albaina

I am not sure whether this is the right place to ask, but I found no other help desk nor any active WikiProject dealing with Belize or geography specifically. If you know a better place to ask, please give me a hint.

My question is:

I stumbled across the article Albaina about a place in Belize. It gives no coordinate, but a description where it is situated ("village south of Belmopan on the Hummingbird Highway"). I cannot find any village with this name on any map and I cannot find any information on Google about this place that is independent from our article.

The article was created in 2004 by User:Belizian, a person from Belize who was active from 2004 until 2007 and has made useful contributions in this period. So no reason to think it's a hoax article.

In 2014 User:Kaldari requested deletion because they found no evidence for its existence too. User:Miscellaneous user removed the request with the argument "It exists, check hotel listings". I think User:Miscellaneous user either found results for the Spanish village with the same name (es:Albaina) or found generic bot-generated "hotel listings" without any actual content. At least in 2019, I cannot find any Google results that show evidence there is a place with this name in Belize.

Perhaps it is a very small place (just a few houses), that administratively belongs to another place. Or the author confused the existing place Armenia, Belize with "Albania" and misspelled it (although that's a bit far-fetched...).

Does anybody else find evidence for its existence? --::Slomox:: >< 14:17, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Regardless of whether it exists, there are no reliable sources about it and certainly not enough to create an article from. It should be deleted. Kaldari (talk) 18:44, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

This site mentions it in a list of villages in Cayo District [1]. "Cayo District is a district in the west of the nation of Belize. The District capital is the town of San Ignacio Cayo. Also in the Cayo District are the Belizean national capital of Belmopan, the town of Benque Viejo del Carmen, the villages of San Antonio Cayo Valley of Peace, St. Margret's, Teakettle, Roaring Creek, Albaina, and Spanish Lookout. Cayo District also contains the Pre-Columbian Maya ruins of Xunantunich, Cahal Pech, and Caracol." Oddly, that article does not mention the village of Armenia, which clearly appears on maps.2A00:23C5:2208:4600:54F0:5013:3462:4F62 (talk) 19:27, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

@2A00:23C5:2208:4600:54F0:5013:3462:4F62: I think the text on that webpage is based on an old version of the article Cayo District. I cannot find the exact version (Teakettle is missing in the ones I found), but the text is almost identical in version 3135611 of 'Cayo District'. It's not independent from Wikipedia.

And looking into the history of that article I found Special:Diff/163919161. User:Delrhab also thought that "Albaina" is an error and that "Armenia" should be the correct name. --::Slomox:: >< 09:27, 7 March 2019 (UTC)

Its now been deleted as a result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Albaina. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:27, 14 March 2019 (UTC)