The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
Latest comment: 14 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Initiated via block evasion.
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Althought his oath to Hitler, was he remained loyal to Kaiser Wilhelm II in exile until his death?
The Kaiser released all military personnel from their oath of allegiance on 28 November 1918. (Herwig, The German Naval Officer Corps, p. 264). —Simon Harley (Talk). 08:38, 3 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
It's a question with no significance. What could Rommel, loyal or not (probably not), possibly have done for Willy while he was in exile? Drop off a bundt cake? Clarityfiend (talk) 11:56, 3 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 14 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
The booklet "La Anarquia explicada a los niños" ("Anarchism explained to the children") was published in 1931 by Max Bembo (a pseudonym of José Ruíz Rodríguez, aka Emmanuel José Antonio). Archive dot org has a copy of an undated later edition here, with a cover picture which is not attributed. There's a sticker in the corner saying "1959", but idk whether that's the date of the printing, or the edition, or the picture.
The book was published in 1931, and the cover of the re-issue is undoubtedly a faithful reproduction of the original cover, so the image, which looks to me like linocut but was perhaps a line drawing in a style suggestive of woodcut or linocut, was almost certainly created in 1931 or perhaps late 1930. It is signed "R. Pujol P.", which possibly (or even probably) stands for "Ramón Pugol Pinxit". This could be the artist Ramón Pugol (1907–1981), but this is a rather common Catalan name, and I see no other work attributed to this Pujol in a similar style. ‑‑Lambiam21:12, 3 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
It seems to be a split responsibility. The current Administrative Arrangements Order, dated 13 May 2025, lists "Biosecurity, in relation to animals and plants" as the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and "Biosecurity, in relation to human health" as the responsibility of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. How that actually works at the coalface, I do not know. -- Jack of Oz[pleasantries]22:01, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
I'd guess (following a breadcrumb trail from former agencies and departments) it would be the Department of Home Affairs. It would be handy though if someone who's actually crossed the Australian border has any documentation they picked up at the time. Daveosaurus (talk) 23:11, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
A quick Google suggests that the Depatment of Agriculture sets the standards [3], but the Border Force does the enforcement [4]. Anecdotally, Border Security: Australia's Front Line is shown on British daytime TV and I recall seeing Border Force officers confiscating packages of strange SE Asian medicine from tearful travellers. Alansplodge (talk) 13:17, 6 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Alansplodge, your last comment reminds me of an interaction with biosecurity a couple of years ago — I had been in the US and bought some spices not available here (still in unopened McCormick packaging from Wal-Mart), and I declared it. The officers were a bit bored (I was the only person in the queue), so when I told the officers that I wasn't sure of its status, they began chatting; at one point they said basically "it's obviously not alive, and we can tell that it's a normal commercial product, so it's fine, but we have so many people who bring bags of unidentified powdered substances". Nyttend (talk) 02:26, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 10 days ago10 comments6 people in discussion
(blacklisted link: www.change.org/p/nominate-sam-altman-as-a-living-saint ) Is there really such a thing as living sainthood? I thought saints had to be deceased before canonization. Living saint just redirects to saint. Thanks, ~2025-38367-99 (talk) 06:10, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The image in the petition gives a hint which of the two applies. But if the product of delusion, it is even funnier. ‑‑Lambiam09:26, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
If it can be established that there is an ancient cult of veneration of the blessed Samuel, vicarious financial martyr through his sacrificial loss of Other People's Money, for which the nomination linked to provides some evidence, albeit only contemporary, the Pope might consider equivalent canonization. ‑‑Lambiam09:19, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
But, as our Saint article notes, canonisation provides an official recognition of sainthood. Saints live among us; they're just not yet recognised by the Church, and most will never be. (The article did say "...in Heaven" further down, but I just removed this because it relied on a citation from Pope Francis which also says there are saints on earth.) Marnanel (talk) 15:20, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The website referred to by the OP can be read as bitter sarcasm. The proposal for a living sainthood is an ironic emphasis on the societal benefits (vs a potential dystopia) of Sam Altman´s involvement in AI. To "AI or not to AI" is a complex and controversial topic. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 09:41, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
As a cynical observation: If literate speakers of the English language can´t differentiate between a neutral declarative statement and satyrical hyperbole, we should do something to support NI (natural intelligence)... --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 17:54, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks all. Yes I was particularly asking about the RCC or at least Christianity, since the petition proposes requesting the Pope to confer sainthood, iirc. Among non-Christian magesteria, I know that at least in the Church of Emacs, Saint IGNUcius is definitely still with us. For Altman, I hope that the dilemma is not resolved by the recent jump in DRAM prices resulting in Altman's martyrdom. But if that happens, then at least he would be able to become a saint in the, um, canonical manner. ~2025-38367-99 (talk) 01:36, 7 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 12 days ago4 comments3 people in discussion
The current article for the Bell X-2 research airplane states that test pilot Mel Apt was the first person to exceed Mach 3, doing so on September 27th 1956 moments before dying when the plane crashed. However, the article also states that, 20 days earlier, fellow test pilot Iven Kincheloe reached an altitude of 126,500 ft and a maximum speed of 2000 mph. That said, though, other sources I have read say Kincheloe's top speed was 1500 mph, but the FAI accepts the 2000 mph figure, as does the US Air Force Museum. If Kincheloe did indeed reach 2000 mph, given the speed of sound at 126,000 feet, is it possible that he, not Apt, ought to be credited as the first person to reach Mach 3? ~2025-38533-33 (talk) 19:30, 4 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Search engine enquiries which yielded impressive looking calculations inform me that at this altitude Mach 1 is approximately 704 mph (thus Mach 3 = 2,112 mph), but also (of course) that the speed of sound in air is dependent on its temperature and density, both of which can vary. I presume that these factors may have been measured at the time, and that the researchers might have mentioned if Kincheloe had indeed attained Mach 3; however the above suggests that given average conditions, Kincheloe fell at least 5.6% short.
Fair enough. That said, I've seen conflicting statements of exactly what Mach 1 at 126,000 ft is, with some placing it, as you do, at 704 mph but others placing it as low as 660 mph. I'll have to do more research into this, but until I do I'll refrain from changing anything in the article.
The earliest cite in the OED Online is for 1919, when the Manchester Guardian used "World War No. 2" as a heading. (Obviously they were speculating about the future.) The next cite is from Time (magazine) in 1939, a week after the invasion of Poland: "Some of the diplomatic juggling which last week ended in World War II was old-fashioned international jockeying for power." --~2025-38436-32 (talk) 07:08, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Well found. This seems important enough that I uploaded and transcribed the article.
The Supreme Court is established by Article Three of the United States Constitution. As far as I can see it does not require any qualifications at all for who may sit on the court, not even age or citizenship, much less status as a lawyer. I do not know whether Congress has established any such qualifications by statute. I imagine that would be within their authority; this does not seem to be explicit in the article, but they do establish, for example, the number of justices. --Trovatore (talk) 06:58, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
VIP-hood is not a formal status; the level of deference with which the SCOTUS justices are treated is up to any hosting organization or similar. The US is somewhat peculiar in that many citizens can name all SCOTUS members. In most countries, the appointment of members of the highest national judicial court is not a news item. An overwhelming majority of people would not be able to name even a single member of this court and would also not recognize their names, and the members will not expect, in general, any special treatment beyond standard courtesy. ‑‑Lambiam12:37, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Changes in the ANAP Ideology According to the Manifesto Project Database
Latest comment: 12 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
According to data from the Manifesto Project Database, the ANAP's election manifesto in the 1999 Turkish general election suddenly shifted sharply to the left compared to 1995 — to the point that it became more left-wing than established social-democratic parties such as the CHP and the DSP. Statistically, it jumped from being the second-most right-wing party to the most left-wing one.
This really surprised me, because in my impression the ANAP has always been a center-right party. So the question is: Did the ANAP actually undergo a major ideological shift during this period, or is there a problem with the Manifesto Project Database’s coding/methodology, or is something else going on? Ataled (talk) 11:53, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
I've not looked at the Manifesto Project Database, but I suppose that any appearance of a shift to the left was an optical illusion designed to deceive the electorate. If so, it did not help. The government at the time was an ANAP-led coalition whose other members were the Democratic Left Party and the Democrat Turkey Party. ANAP lost 46 of its 132 parliamentary seats in the 1999 Turkish general election, a stunning defeat. To remain in the government after this defeat, they had to join again a coalition, now led by the Democratic Left Party but also containing the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (think Grey Wolves), which they did without qualms. ‑‑Lambiam13:00, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 9 days ago11 comments7 people in discussion
What is the root of the names of Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart? Brave Heart is used as her de facto family name in the article... but I don't assume that she was born into a family with this family name & has received the given names Maria, Yellow, and Horse?! --KnightMove (talk) 14:19, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Of course, but that does not help directly - even the less as those persons were far from having family names. Was she named Yellow Horse at first, Brave Heart later, or the other way round? Or otherwise? Who gave her the "White" name Maria then? --KnightMove (talk) 21:29, 5 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
I do not think I will bother her with this and just accept that it is unknown. As she, a bit inconsistently, treats either "Brave Heart" or "Yellow Horse Brave Heart" as her de facto family name, I will just accept that these are two Lakota names she has received at any stages in her life. --KnightMove (talk) 22:01, 6 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
What is the full name for the academic degree "Pd. B."? It's not clear to me what degree that would be, issued before a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science. Lovelano (talk) 04:51, 6 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 9 days ago7 comments5 people in discussion
Our article San Ferry Ann is illustrated with an alleged poster for the film. The poster is sourced to IMDB. The poster is obviously an over-painting of the poster for Father Came Too. Is it a genuine poster or something someone made up one day and which ended up on the internet? Thank you, DuncanHill (talk) 01:10, 7 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
There's an explanation here on a collector's site; "A terrible mishmash of a poster where apparently the Australian poster artist had no original U.K. material of San Ferry Ann ( 1965 ) at hand to copy from". Abductive (reasoning)10:49, 7 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 5 days ago6 comments5 people in discussion
There's a song by Pino Daniele called "Je so' pazzo" (covered by Neri per Caso) in which the singer is speaking as Masaniello. It implies that he painted his face black (I don't use the word "blackface" because that comes with a different cultural context).
Lyrics:
Je so' pazz, je so' pazz Ma chi dice che Masaniell Poi nero non sia più bell? Non sono menomat Sono pure diplomat E la faccia nera l'ho dipinta per essere notat
But I can't find anything that says even that this happened, much less why. I tried asking Google Masaniello si dipinse la faccia di nero?, and the AI summary says yes, but when you go into the deep dive it says no. Did Daniele just invent this, or is it part of some folk account? --Trovatore (talk) 05:05, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
I do not speak Italian but I have read that idiomatically, a black face in Italian may refer to a gloomy or disappointed or angry facial expression. Is that a possible explanation? Cullen328 (talk) 08:49, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Masianello is described as bruno di carnagione,[8] and the terracotta statue of Masaniello by Raffaele Vaccarella has indeed been given a rather dark complexion. Perhaps this plays a role. ‑‑Lambiam16:15, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 4 days ago8 comments7 people in discussion
In the short story 'The Crown Derby Plate' by Marjorie Bowen, first published in 1933, Miss Pym is visiting a remote house on the edge of Fenland. The occupant is of an odd, unkept, and dirty appearance, and the house itself appears not be lived in. When Miss Pym asks "Where do you live, Miss Lefain?", she receives the reply "Mostly in the garden", and to this "Miss Pym thought of those horrible health huts that some people indulge in". What were those horrible health huts? Unfortunately Google is obsessed with 1950s California proto-hippies. Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 19:39, 8 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Almost all early uses (pre-1940) found are for simple health clinics, not for dwellings. An early use that may perhaps refer to a dwelling, in which case it does little to explain the notion, but might also refer to a health clinic, is in Appendix Volume III to a report by the Indian Famine Commission. The appendix bears the title Evidence of Witnesses from the Bombay Presidency taken before the India Famine Commission, 1898. The following is from page 226, reporting on good care taken of a poor woman whose hut had been flooded and who had to be evacuated with her child to "a place of safety":[9]
A few days later I came across them again in a health hut.
Since Bowen appears to have assumed her readers to be familiar with a notion of health huts as dwellings, it is curious that there are not many more uses. ‑‑Lambiam10:14, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Yes, I got the impression she meant some kind of health fad, like monkey glands and radium. Fresh air was something of a cure-all for a time. DuncanHill (talk) 17:15, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Me too; perhaps what we would call a gym, for whirling Indian clubs and the like. I think Charles Darwin used a hut in his garden at Downe, for drenching himself with freezing water and other tactics to cure his lassitude and excessive flatulence. Johnbod (talk) 17:45, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 8 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
King's Official Birthday#Australia notes that the King's Birthday has no fixed date in WA, being determined annually by a proclamation by the Governor. How far ahead of time is the proclamation typically made, and how easy is it to predict the date beforehand if you know the dates of school terms and the Perth Royal Show? I assume it's awkward for holidaymakers, calendar manufacturers, and the like, unless governments' date choices tend to be predictable; if they aren't, I can imagine allegations of corruption along the lines of Julian calendar#Motivation, second paragraph, but that seems very unlikely for a country like Australia. Nyttend (talk) 02:33, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The proclamation for the 2026 and 2027 occurrences of the "Celebration Day for the Anniversary of the Birthday of the Reigning Sovereign" was made in May 2024.[10]Hack (talk) 06:19, 9 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Courtenay Edward Wellesley was born in 1850, the son of Edward Wellesley, an army officer who died in the Crimea War. Major Wellesley was the second son of Richard Wellesley, the illegitimate son of the Marquis Wellesley, the elder brother of the first Duke of Wellington. There is a great deal of information on Courtney Wellesey's father and immediate relations in 'Letters of a Victorian army officer: Edward Wellesley 1840-1854' edited by Michael Carver, in fact Field Marshall Lord Carver, a grandson through Edward Courtenay Wellesley's second marriage to a lady called Nora Scovell.
Latest comment: 5 days ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Pan's Garden by Algernon Blackwood is dedicated "To M. S.-K. who made with me these little paths across Pan's tangled garden". I can't see anyone in our article on Blackwood with those initials. Do we know who it was? Thanks, DuncanHill (talk) 17:28, 10 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 1 day ago7 comments6 people in discussion
Is experiencing music generally considered an example of qualia?
I have no idea how others perceive anything from before Bach to after Rosalia, but whenever I am listening to complex compositions, I see (not at all clearly) some biomorph 3D geometric forms which are shape-shifting, subject to some symphonic / instrumental metamorphosis. Remotely similar to an animated Frank Gehry building floating in the sky, bubbling and pulsating.
Googling gives some prolix psychological papers, but I find no clear definitions to what entails auditory perception. Neither am I sure if my spatial perception actually exists or is just a bit of imaginative hallucination; I do extensive work in 3D modelling and have great interest in the visual arts, from painting to architecture to cinematography, so I am possibly just "transcribing" my cerebral emotive (?) response to a language I am familiar with.
Because of the "other minds problem", we cannot know whether anyone other than ourselves has a subjective, conscious experience – whatever that may mean. The philosophers who write about qualia rarely (or perhaps never) mention the experiencing of, specifically, music, as a quale. But timbre is often described as "colour", which in its visual sense is the poster child of the qualia posse, and few people will disagree with the statement that experiencing music can be a subjective conscious experience, one that is very different for music by one's favorite artist or composer than for some other compositions, which one may even strongly dislike. As such it fits the definition.
Your synesthetic experience, which I think is fairly rare in this specific form, is unrelated to the initial question. (It may be related to what the The Synesthesia Tree labels as "timbre–shape".) It seems to me that it wouldn't qualify as an emotive response. For most people, auditory perception has no visual aspect, and any spatial aspect is restricted to where the sound is coming from, relative to the subject. ‑‑Lambiam01:20, 11 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
There are people whose perception of music includes visions of colours, in a fairly consistent way – see Chromesthesia. At least two active music reviewers on YouTube mention this, and it adds to their appreciation and understanding of the relationships of keys and harmonies in a piece. The French composer Olivier Messiaen used his synesthesic mental colour perceptions as part of his composing technique and mentioned the colours in his written scores, and the Russian Alexander Scriabin constructed a colour-light accompaniment to his symphony Prometheus.
Your experience seems along the same lines, and I suspect is not particularly uncommon, but simply something that people do not often talk about. I myself (to be anecdotal) do not have marked synesthesia, but certain types of music evoke mental images to me, typically of natural landscapes, and especially when I am drowsy. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2025-31359-08 (talk) 06:53, 11 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
@Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM: I'm fairly sure that synaesthesia applies in this case to composers like Messiaen, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, who associated musical keys with specific colours; eg B flat major = purple. Sadly, they all had different conceptions of which keys matched which hue. Do you visualise consistent geometric forms, e.g. according to the key such as E flat major vs C sharp minor, type of music eg violin concerto vs piano concerto, or late romantic symphony vs lute sonata? Can you hold them in mind, or do they inavariably morph into some other shape? MinorProphet (talk) 14:50, 16 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 3 days ago3 comments3 people in discussion
There's a company XYZ traded on NASDAQ whose stock went down the toilet over the past couple of years. It's now a penny stock if I'm using the term correctly. Its main product is basically crap and nobody buys it, competitors' stuff is better and cheaper, and now the product itself might be dangerous enough (design defect) to warrant a recall that the company probably can't afford. On the other hand, the company is making noise about some new dubious deals in the works. Anyway I tend to think that all things considered, the company is worth less than zero and is headed for bankruptcy. It does have some nice retail channel deals that might be useful if the product was more attractive. Current revenues maybe a few million US$ a year, down from maybe 10x that a few years ago, but I haven't checked the numbers so these are just guesses.
That said, there are lots of other, more competent companies operating in the sector, that are privately held. I know sometimes a crappy publicly traded company will get acquired by a privately held one as kind of a backdoor IPO. The private company "merges" with the public one and boom, it's on the exchange without going through the whole SEC process.
Any idea of the value of a NASDAQ listing as a company asset for such purposes? I'm not seriously looking for investment advice (I'm too broke), but am just trying to size up the picture. Thanks. ~2025-39770-07 (talk) 00:02, 11 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 1 day ago7 comments5 people in discussion
In the US, it seems to be common that privacy policies, disclaimers, terms & condition and similar documents contain sections written entirely in uppercase (or occasionally, the whole document is written in uppercase). Why is this the case? It makes it rather difficult to read and I don't see how it would make a legal difference to use normal capitalisation.
This practice does not seem common in other countries, even those with similar legal systems. ~2025-40120-30 (talk) 01:13, 12 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
"Words, phrases, and entire sections of legal agreements are often capitalized to make them more conspicuous than the rest of the text around them. This tried-and-true practice has been around for ages and is still widely used today because it's a simple and effective way to make important content stand out." privacypolicies.com
A far cry from the TV ads (e.g. about analgesics, etc) that have equally important information at the bottom but in multiple sentences in very tiny print, which is displayed for about a second. How this satisfies some legal obligation to adequately warn consumers is beyond me. -- Jack of Oz[pleasantries]01:20, 13 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Deciphering the all-caps final section and rendering it in understandable language tends to result in:
We have never claimed, do not claim and will never claim that this product is suitable for any use, and cannot accept responsibility for the damage caused by its use,
I keep seeing these Big Pharma TV ads for drugs claiming to cure some non-fatal medical condition or other with a long list of no-doubt legally mandated disclaimers, including possible more serious consequences of usage, up to and including death (though that would "cure" one). Clarityfiend (talk) 22:58, 15 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
It all has to do with conspicuousness. Under UCC § 1-201(b)(10), a term is "conspicuous" if a reasonable person ought to have noticed it. "Conspicuous terms include the following: (A) a heading in capitals equal to or greater in size than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same or lesser size..." Certain clauses in contracts only count if they are conspicuous. For example, to disclaim the implied warranty of merchantability, UCC requires the disclaimer be conspicuous; hence, THIS PRODUCT IS SOLD AS IS.--jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇04:19, 14 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Since the movie is set in Chicago, including the scene in the trailer, that's not a "London bus" unless it was imported from there. Double-decker buses are used for sightseeing in Chicago today, but I don't know if that was true in 1930. --~2025-40985-10 (talk) 20:26, 17 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 3 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion
In Inferno, which saints appear in torment? (Looking for those considered saints by the Catholic Church in the 21st century.) I'm well aware of Pope St Celestine V likely being the one who made the great refusal, but I don't know if there are others, and Google searches are full of irrelevancies. Nyttend (talk) 01:39, 13 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Latest comment: 1 day ago5 comments4 people in discussion
Not seeking advice, but trying to understand some drama unfolding on the interweb.
Let's say a house burns down. Luckily no one is injured, but there is $500K of damage. The homeowner suspects a certain appliance of causing the fire. Claims adjuster or other investigator carefully inspects the debris and makes official report saying "cause of the fire can't be established with certainty, but our best estimate is that there's 20% chance that it was caused by short circuit resulting from a design defect in appliance X". Lawyers get involved.
Does that tend to result in the appliance manufacturer getting apportioned 20% of the liability? Or does the manufacturer say "our appliance is perfectly safe, even the mean mean investigator says we probably had nothing to do with it" and not get any responsibility at all?
What if (very simplified situation) there are 100 fires, differing in enough detail that they can be considered independent events, but each investigator report says about the same thing (20% chance that appliance X started the fire)? If the reports are right, expectation is that 20 of the 100 fires were started by the appliance, though we don't know which 20. Manufacturer might dispute the number 20, but if they say it's 0 they are almost surely talking nonsense.
I'm fairly sure there are no rules on the book (meaning legislative statutes) regulating this in detail in any jurisdiction. Answers can only be based on existing jurisprudence from similar cases that have been adjudicated in the past. This will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Also, I'm not familiar with fire investigation reports, but I'd be somewhat surprised if they assign numerical percentage values to causes that cannot be ruled out.
Suspending disbelief, it is entirely plausible that the appliance manufacturer will deny any alleged liability, also in a limited apportionment. Why should they? It only makes them more vulnerable in similar cases. They may instead blame faulty installation, or misuse. Only when unequivocally proved to be the cause, or substantially more evidence comes to light of their appliance being so dangerous as to create liability, can one expect them to react, which may involve a very costly recall.
Almost every major accident or disaster has several contributing causes. A failing sensor had not been serviced in time, the backup unit was under repair and out of order, the emergency shut-off valve was improperly installed and got stuck, ..., you get the picture. It is possible that the origin-and-cause part of a fire investigation identifies, with certainty, several causes that conspired to cause the damage. It is then meaningless to assign chances; each certainly contributed, so each can be stated as a contributing cause with "100% chance". But, obviously, not all can lead to 100% liability. The situation will differ from case to case, and may need to be settled in court. ‑‑Lambiam12:42, 13 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
Thanks both. The company is based in Nevada, US, but sells stuff all over the US and to some extent worldwide, so potentially lots of cross-jurisdictional disputes. I'm just watching the drama from the outside so I'll see what happens. (Popcorn emoji here). ~2025-40343-80 (talk) 07:15, 14 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
He who thinks of Himachal [the Himalayan snows], though he should not behold him, is greater than he who performs all worship in Kashi [Benares]. And he who thinks on Himachal shall have pardon for all sins; and all things that die on Himachal, and all things that in dying think of his snows, are freed from sin. In a hundred ages of the Gods I could not tell thee of the glories of Himachal, where Siva lived and where the Ganges fails from the foot of Vishnu like the slender thread of a lotus flower.
The statue was reportedly originally placed there by members of the Società delle Guide Alpine di Courmayeur on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the proclamation in 1854 of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Hit by lightning in 1958, it broke loose and toppled down. It was retrieved and placed in the Museo Alpino di Courmayeur, from which it was moved in 2001 to the Notre Dame de Guérison sanctuary, where it (presumably) remains to this day. A wooden statue was put on the same summit of the Dent du Géant, sculpted by local artist Mario Stuffer, but in just a few days it too was struck by lightning. There are references to an aluminium version, according to some the original, according to others a much later temporary replacement. Another source refers to le precedenti in legio d'aluminio, the predecessors (plural!) in aluminium alloy.[13] According to the same source, a new bronze statue, a faithful reproduction (presumably of the original), replaced the damaged (aluminium) statue in 2010. The name of the original sculptor is not mentioned in any of multiple sources and may have been lost. ‑‑Lambiam16:28, 14 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
"Creampetal" appears to be a general description for a type of pottery with various patterns. I can't see a match for the word in question but there are other search options (colour, trim, style) to try if you have other images of the piece. Dalliance (talk) 19:57, 16 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
I'm wondering how big a deal it was to do that in, say, 1947, particularly from the UK to the eastern US. Would it be extravagant to make such a call (say 3 minutes long) for non-momentous personal or business reasons? How much would it cost? What would you have to do to set it up with international phone operators or whatever? Was cable telegraphy a lot cheaper? Was paper mail the ordinary way to communicate? I'm presuming sea mail took forever just like now, but air mail might be a few days. Thanks. ~2025-40867-45 (talk) 23:33, 16 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
The first transatlantic telephone call – by radio, not wire – took place January 7, 1927, between AT&T president Walter S. Gifford and Sir Evelyn P. Murray, head of the British General Post Office. [1]
In 1930, the New York-London call was reduced from $45 to $30 for the first three minutes. On the basis of personal income, that’s roughly from $845 to $564 [2] in 2024, although there are very wide variations in computing prices then and now.
Only at the end of the 20th century was it possible to dial directly across the ocean; prior to that , one called the international operator, and probably had to wait several minutes or even an hour to be called back with a connection to the other end. Cables (telegraphs), telexes, and telephone telegrams (call and dictate a message, which would be delivered in print to the other end, perhaps the same day) were much cheaper.
Postal (snail) mail might take a week, or a month, or longer, to cross the ocean. Domestic deliveries in the US might be possible on the same day, where there were two deliveries per day and more capacity than demand.DOR (ex-HK) (talk) 01:31, 17 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
When I was a child in the early 1960s my father would call to us in London from the US if he was away for several days. It was a big deal and the calls kept pretty brief - rather like later astronaut family calls. Don't know what the actual cost was. When he was home though he sometimes had long calls from corporate clients in the US. I think air mail letters only took a few days then - less than a week. Johnbod (talk) 02:42, 17 December 2025 (UTC)Reply
